Blog Archives - Allison Symes - This World and Others

Suggestions for Questions to Ask when Creating Fictional Worlds

1/2/2015

Expressions
Show your characters’ expressions. I tend to get Eileen to grimace a lot (!) (though to be fair she does have cause) and am aware I need to vary her expressions. Also show your characters trying to hide what they really feel - after all we do it so why shouldn’t your creations? What happens when a character fails to hide how they feel or shows their emotions to the wrong person? What catastrophes could be unleashed?

Business
How do your characters conduct business? Have you got the Del Boy type? What are the rules? How are these circumvented (someone’s bound to try aren’t they?) and what are the punishments when folk are caught out? Is there a fantasy Inland Revenue?! (The mind boggles a bit here. Can you imagine? Instead of the £100 penalty fine per day if you’re late filing your return, the Fantasy Revenue could turn you into a toad, smash you into a pulp, cast imaginative curses if you put the wrong stamp on the envelope and so on!).

Leading Lives
Let your characters have their own lives. Whilst you invent them and control them, that control should not be to the extent they lose any sense of personality. You don’t want puppets. Leave them to Thunderbirds ….

Flora and Fauna
Think about flora and fauna. Even sci-fi/fantasy worlds have their ecosystems, predators and prey and so on. And especially in a fantasy world have a look at how magic affects them. For example does it make them more aggressive? Do they need magic to live at all? Could they survive on earth? Would earth be beneficial or harmful with no magic about?

Specialists
Does your world have specialists? Eileen is a specialist in her field, as was Rose. Does that lead to envy in others or are the specialists left to it as they face more risks than most?

Threats
What threatens your world? Has it done anything to deserve it?

Changing Lives
How do your characters’ lives change? Long term characters especially should have plenty of ups and downs. The ups shouldn’t be saccharine sweet. For the downs, there should be some hope they can get out of them. (If you want constant despair, watch your average party political broadcast!).

Relationships
Do your characters develop relationships? Think about all kinds of relationships as well as the obvious romantic/sexual ones. Is there part of their personality that makes forming relationships difficult? Do they find a particular type of character difficult and if so have you shown why?

Relationship Changes
How do your characters’ relationships change? Relationships don’t stay static. Relationships should be a major part of your plot, should complicate things and give your characters both hope and despair. Think about how your character demonstrates anger, frustration etc.

Feedback

31/1/2015

When entering competitions if you can get feedback (at a reasonable cost, beware some places do charge a lot) it can be helpful in terms of pointing out what your reader thinks. It’s not always what you as the writer think!!! That can help you improve your writing in itself. You can see for yourself whether your reader “got the point”. Also when you’ve produced a good story and the feedback reflects that, it’s a great ego boost!

Always look for constructive criticism. Remember you don’t have to agree with all of it (or indeed any) but if your feedback makes you think “ah I had wondered that” (and this has happened a few times to me) then act on that. It can be confirmation you should trust your instincts when writing and should help sharpen your skills.

Beware of groups (online or otherwise) where cliques seem to develop and be aware there are other writers who will seek to criticize destructively (whether from jealousy or insecurity is hard to say). When seeking and getting feedback you should be able to work out “well has this helped me? Can I use this to improve what I do?”. If the answer is no, ignore! And destructive criticism reflects the person making it, not you.

Character Traits and Development

31/1/2015

Just as we have a mixture of good traits, bad habits and irritating traits, so should your characters. Eileen is courageous, bends the rules and is as stubborn as they come. How good that is depends on (a) what circumstances she is in and (b) who is on the receiving end of this. The Queen does not approve at all. Eileen is a pain in the neck to her and to Jenny yet when you want someone with grit to tackle the latest magical threat, Eileen is the one to call.

How well do your characters adjust to circumstances and/or other characters as they change? Jenny becomes more adept at magic and more aware of what her mother’s up to and Eileen is aware this is not necessarily a good thing as what she used to get away with, she can’t now. How your characters react to and handle changes reveals a great deal about them...

Give your characters hell. Characters aren’t meant to have a quiet life in fiction! You wouldn’t read a quiet book, would you? Do you know your characters’ individual stress levels? There’s many a tale to be told showing where characters crack and the consequences of that cracking. What secrets do your characters have? Who else knows them? Who could find them out if they suspected anything was up? Corruption exists in any world, why not your fantasy one? How do your characters relax? Who do they relax with?!! Are there sports/hobbies your fantasy world encourages (and why) or disapproves of (and why)? And are there pets of any kind? If not, why not?

Characters should strike sparks off each other, else no story, but those sparks should be realistic and believable. Track records can be dropped into your story, a bit here, a bit there, which increases tension. I’ve done this with Brankaresh and Eileen. I’ve deliberately not had “one big argument scene” but hints here Eileen’s caught Brankaresh out with bad magical practice, hints there he resents her for it and so on. Don’t dump information, drip feed it. The former will slow your story up, the latter builds it. With L’Evallier I’ve hinted at his noble background, so his formal style of speech comes as no surprise. I’ve not gone into details about his posh schooling or anything like that. Think brush strokes rather than laying it all on with a trowel.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTIONS

28/1/2015

I find physical descriptions, particularly of places, hard to do so use my holiday snaps of various beautiful places in Scotland as an inspiration. And the great thing is I can leave out the midges!

Think about how your fictional world is run. If someone asked you a question about it, could you answer them? Do you know enough about the climate, the history, the reason your world is run the way it is?

Consider life from the point of view of the ruling classes and of the “peasants”. Can make good comedy/tragedy but you can take the same event and get two differing but equally valid views. It can foreshadow troubles to come because of the differing perspectives. Equally that can explain why there are historical differences between say in my world’s case the ruling royals and the Witch’s family.

I find physical descriptions of characters hard too. I tend to focus on a trait - in Eileen’s case, stubbornness - and find that a useful starting point. I also tend to hear voices, with images of what characters look like coming later. Does it matter? I don’t think so.

As long as you’ve got a distinctive view of what your character is and how they’re likely to behave in any given situation, the rest will follow. Some authors prepare full bios for their characters. I don’t but there are no rights and wrongs here. It’s a question of finding the right method in character generation, the one that works for you.

Ensure dialogue is distinctive for your characters too. L’Evallier never contracts his speech whereas the Queen generally won’t but when under pressure the odd abbreviation will slip out. As for Eileen, her speech is as direct as she is. I can see the point of swearing to show a character under stress, to show their background, to show some of their attitudes but don’t like too much of the stuff. I treat swearing like paprika or chilli - only use a little.

BUILDING FOUNDATIONS

26/1/2015

What relationships do your characters have? Do any fall foul of your world’s rules? What does your world do about it? Does your world interact with other worlds or avoid them? Are there reasons for their policy (ideally it shouldn’t just be prejudice. For example the Fairy Kingdom despites humanity for its warlike and polluting qualities. Difficult one to argue against, isn’t it? We can hardly claim not to be guilty of that).

Having good foundations for your world doesn’t just mean showing how it works and runs, important though that is, but good reasons behind their policies will make your world and stories that much more convincing. You don’t want anything to sound an odd note, anything that might interrrupt your reader’s enjoyment of your work and think “Nah! Would never work!”.

Could your world’s attitudes change (for worse or better)? Say your world is anti any kind of interaction with other species but changes it mind later as it realises it could trade (for example) with this other species for things it itself is short of, who would take on an ambassadorial role? What mistakes would your world make (potential for both comedy and tragic misunderstandings there)?

CHARACTERS

23/1/2015

What do your characters do to relax?
How do they show stress? Do you have any “stiff upper lip” types? If so, how do they show stress? The traditional way would be a nervous tic but can you show a unique way for your unique character to reflect their state of mind?

Bad habits?
What do your characters have? How did they develop these? Do they drive a loved one mad? Who are their loved ones? How did those relationships develop? You may well find you don’t need to put all or any of this into your story but as long as you know the answers you will be able to write about and for your characters with confidence, which will show in your stories.

Good habits? Quirks?
Do they agree with their world’s politics? Have they any ways of showing their views? What are the consequences?

Balance
Make sure you’ve got the right balance of characters in your work. Too many humorous characters or whatever tip your work. Humour always works best when shown up against something else in any case. Wodehouse’s Wooster wouldn’t be funny if he hadn’t various odious aunts to outwit. Also Wooster, whilst rightly acknowledging Jeeves as a genius, is not totally dimwitted. Ensure your characters aren’t either. Each of your creations must have something positive going for them or you won’t get reader sympathy.

Mind Changing
Do your characters change their minds? Do they hesitate? Do they find their original purpose isn’t what they thought and they need to adjust it or need to adjust what they do? Give your characters hell! It’s fun! And makes for better writing! What’s there not to like about that?

Character Relationships Your characters should have friends and enemies. Relationships complicate plot which is all to the good as far as you’re concerned. You want your characters not to have an easy time of it!

CREATING WORLDS ON RADIO

20/1/2015

I've written a couple of radio scripts and while they've not been accepted (yet, she says hopefully!), I enjoyed writing them and the challenge of ensuring a story suits radio. You can't use purple prose. Dialogue is really important in radio drama (but too much of it sends the listener to sleep so you want good use of sound effects, pauses etc as well). You want to be able to entice your listeners into your world so by the end of your script they've been well and truly immersed in it. A good radio drama can and does take its listeners anywhere. Here are some of the things I love about radio:-

As everyone says, the pictures are better because you have to use your own imagination to provide said pictures given the medium can’t!

You can be anything and go anywhere in any time in your radio script. Having a drama set in Alpha Centuri is a real possibility (and I’d be surprised only if it hasn’t been done already).

Listening makes you appreciate the words more in how they flow and increases sense of appropriate word being used for the right occasion. Anything that isn’t appropriate will jar and “break” your enjoyment of the drama.

There are openings for writers though I wish the BBC would expand the short story slot rather than reduce it. It can’t cost them that much to put on a short story and it varies programming. You can have too much news!

Anyone can write in with scripts, which is welcome.

I’ve heard some wonderful plays and dramas, set in all kinds of worlds. And Doctor Who is a regular on Radio 4 Extra both as audio books and scripts especially written for radio. Both types are great.

Balancing Characters

20/1/2015

Make sure you’ve got the right balance of characters in your work. Too many humorous characters or whatever tip your work. Humour always works best when shown up against something else in any case. Wodehouse’s Wooster wouldn’t be funny if he hadn’t various odious aunts to outwit. Also Wooster, whilst rightly acknowledging Jeeves as a genius, is not totally dimwitted. Ensure your characters aren’t either. Each of your creations must have something positive going for them or you won’t get reader sympathy.

Do your characters change their minds? Do they hesitate? Do they find their original purpose isn’t what they thought and they need to adjust it or need to adjust what they do? Give your characters hell! It’s fun! And makes for better writing! What’s there not to like about that? Your characters should have friends and enemies. Relationships complicate plot which is all to the good as far as you’re concerned. You want your characters not to have an easy time of it!

Good writing is an effortless read. I realized a long time ago if anyone makes something look easy that someone has worked bloody hard to achieve that. Prepare yourself for the long haul - your work will be better for a damned good edit.

Can you see your characters acting out what they’re going through? Do your characters learn from what they go through? Do you have a nice range of characters? In any society, you get all ages, all backgrounds. Give them emotional depth - and remember experiences can make folk bitter as well as courageous. Jenny, for example, as I write at the moment is at loggerheads with her mother and is likely to remain that way for some time until Eileen shows some contrition or Jenny decides to let her grudge go at Eileen for dropping her right in it.

Character versus plot? Plot versus character? It’s like trying to decide whether you need oxygen or not. You need both. Both need to be well thought out. Eileen’s awkwardness helps drive her plot as she makes life damned difficult for herself but she also needs a story to set up those difficulties for her to try and resolve. • •Look at motives. Not only can story ideas come from these, they can add emotional depth. Eileen’s chief motive is to stay on earth with her family and never to resume her old life. It colours her attitude, fuels her behaviour and sets up clashes with the Fairy Queen. Are the motives for your characters strong enough? Overwhelm your characters with problems - you get your story from how they cope.

THE BENEFITS OF GOOD WRITING CONFERENCES

19/1/2015

I've found a good writing conference is worth its weight in gold when (a) learning how to improve my writing so my created worlds seem more realistic and (b) reassuring me I'm not the only writer out there itching to write and trying to sell said writing to a publisher and/or agent. So how to work out which is a good conference?

Always check out the background of a writing conference long before going. They’ll either be well established with lots of credentials (Winchester is a good example) or admit they’re new but have a credible “guest” list of speakers, most of whom you will have heard of!

Other advantages of a good writing conference that I've discovered to be true are:-

Going to a suitable conference helps make you feel like a proper writer. This can work wonders for your self confidence. It’s very easy when working on your own to not feel like a writer, to ask yourself who are you kidding when the doubts set in, so making yourself go to one of these conferences can be a way of helping you overcome your doubts.

You learn a lot from the lectures!

You meet other writers and it is wonderful comparing notes and giving each other encouragement.

You can learn about the industry, vital if you want to join it.

Some conferences have writing competitions. Winning one or being shortlisted is a great thing to add to your writing CV.

WHAT I LIKE BEST ABOUT CREATING MY OWN WORLDS...

17/1/2015

I love being able to start a world from scratch. I can work out the system of government and from there the haves and have nots (in my case in terms of magical abilities and also whether people can improve their status and talents or does the system get in the way?). It's the nearest I get to playing God. I love getting engrossed in the creation of my worlds (so I temporarily at least get to leave the cares of this world behind me). I also tend to work out how my world is divided up in terms of regions. Given I want the regions to vary, so my world is not all the same, I can bring in some history by, in my case, declaring one region close to being entirely barren thanks to previous magical wars destroying the land as nothing can stand having too much magic go through it.

I love creating the people who make up my world too and working out who can do what magically and who can't. Then I can create the rebels within those groups - in my case Eileen kicking out against the traditional fairy godmother role and being an all action fairy heroine. No dragon is safe from her (is her proud boast but Fresdian, another fairy godmother who studies wildlife in depth does not see this as an accolade at all, more a confession). I love getting my characters talking and rowing.

WRITING SHORT STORIES AND NOVELS

12/1/2015

How long does a short story take you to write?
It depends on the short story! Some will just flow out, others I need to have several drafts to get right but I aim to get at least one story out a month to meet the deadlines for Writers’ News/Writing Magazine competitions. I usually try to get another story out too if I can either to Shortbread or one of the many festival and other writing competitions. If I wasn’t writing other things, I could get more work out but given I can only write part time I’m relatively happy with this. I would, of course, like to do more but without losing quality.

How long does a novel take you to write?
Ages is the simply answer! I do several drafts. I think two years is probably a good estimate. As with short stories, I could almost certainly speed this up by not writing so much other material (though I must admit I enjoy writing my blogs and putting in background and other material not in the novels themselves). I think it vitally important not to rush the drafts’ stages. What matters is getting the story right. When you get to the point you really can’t think of anything else to add or take out, then there’s the time to start submitting to the market and test the water.

STORIES -V- NOVELS PART 2

11/1/2015

What would you say was the best short story ever written?
For me this is The Accident Syndicate by P.G. Wodehouse because it is wonderfully funny and the prose is sublime. It is so well crafted. Also the “hero”, Ukridge, is my least favourite Wodehouse character (reminds me too much of someone I know!) yet here in this story the character has me gripped. It takes a special kind of author to get someone following the actions of a character that same someone dislikes. I’d also say I like Wodehouse’s golf stories and I can’t stand golf either (I agree with Mark Twain’s view here that “golf is a good walk wasted”).

What would you say was the best novel ever written?
In terms of breadth, vision, and for being the definition of an epic, I’d say The Lord of The Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein. It’s not without its faults. I dislike Tom Bombadil’s “songs” (they’re far too twee) but it is for me the classic good versus evil story. C.S. Lewis’s Narnia series is high up on my list too. For humorous novels, which I say deserve a category of their own, I think Uncle Fred in the Springtime by P.G. Wodehouse clinches it for me.

SHORT STORIES -V- NOVELS

11/1/2015

What is the best form of fiction - short story or novel?
Books could literally be written on this and it wouldn’t surprise me if they had been. I ask why choose! Both are wonderful forms. Both have classic examples. Both are entertaining, make you think, invent other worlds and stretch your mind. Both should have memorable characters and incidents.

The big advantage of the novel of course is you can have a lot more of those than you can in a short story. Yet the short story’s big advantage is that having to focus on fewer characters and incidents makes it a more intense tale. It all depends on whether you fancy a long or short literary “drink”!

For short stories, I generally prefer the word count to be under 5,000 (and ideally for me to be between 1000 and 2500, I like my short fiction to be literally short and sharp!). I also like a well crafted piece of flash fiction. I admit though the novel in many ways can be “easier” to do - you have the space in which to expand your ideas and cut backs can always be done later.

And I love writing and reading both!

KNOWING YOU'RE A WRITER

9/1/2015

When did you decide you were a writer, albeit not a published one?
When I realised I was producing short stories “to order” for various competitions on various subjects and generally was not finding this a problem. As I started to be shortlisted, this tended to confirm to my mind I could call myself a writer now being someone who was at the beginnings of a career. Every article I read tended to confirm I was doing the right things (which was encouraging). As I entered more competitions, I found myself getting better at meeting deadlines, something any professional writer needs to do. So I suppose overall it was a combination of doing the right things and not giving up and seeing publication as the ultimate goal but what I was doing on the way to meeting that goal is what any writer needs to do. Also I’ve always taken my writing seriously (it’s always been a wish of mine to try to earn some money from it) so for me when I’m at my desk I am working and not indulging in a hobby.

2014 was a strange year in some ways in that although I entered fewer writing competitions, I did well in more of those I did enter. So I think I'm learning to hone and target better. Plus there were my contributions to the Chandlers Ford Today website. All of these helped me feel I was a writer at last.

CHARACTER TRAITS

7/1/2015

When thinking about a character, what do you focus on - physical attributes or personality traits - to flesh that character out?

I focus on personality traits. In Eileen’s case I knew she’d be as awkward as they come, often to her own detriment, but she would also be brave, honourable and prepared to make considerable sacrifices for causes she considers worthy enough. So being prepared to give up what the Queen considered a privileged lifestyle for a much more humble life on Earth with a mere human male is something someone like Eileen would do without that many qualms. I have since fleshed Eileen out physically with chestnut hair, a good figure and great skin. But I do think the physical attributes are less important (though Eileen has been known to use her physical wiles to help her cause, especially when she was living in the Kingdom). Had I been stuck for physical attributes, one good idea often repeated in writing circles is to take photos from magazines and so on and “blend” different features from pictures you like to create your heroine. I’ve found it helpful to “see” my heroine in action, doing things, speaking (and getting a good idea of her voice did help give me her class and as a result ideas as to what she’d look like – she’d be unlikely to be a blonde bimbo) and from that other aspects of Eileen’s life, including her looks, fall into place.

Other Favourite Feisty Characters?
A very early favourite of mine has always been Jo from Little Women. I always liked the idea of her writing as her way of doing something positive with her talents. Hermoine Granger from the Harry Potter series shows courage and determination, traits I like in any character. I've never had much time for pretty and useless "heroines" who are only there for the hero to rescue. I like my ladies (of all ages) to be able to do something practical to help themselves even if that ideas fails. There's no way either Jo or Hermoine would waste time screaming for help. They'd be far too busy trying to get out of whatever scrape they'd got into. Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice is another good example.

MY FAVOURITE CHARACTERS

6/1/2015

Who is your favourite character in other authors’ works?
Sam Vimes in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series because the character goes from being a hopeless drunk to a brave, decent commander and married to the lovely, sensible, equally decent Lady Sybil (who is one of my favourite female characters). Also because Sam Vimes has such a clear sense of right and wrong and tries to be a decent copper despite politics trying to get in the way and he is doesn’t fear Vetinari.

Who is your favourite character in your works? Why?
Eileen. For being fearless, true to herself, prepared to make sacrifices for those she loves, for not being afraid to criticize her own side and when all gets too much to walk away from what she considers to be wrong. I also like her being an older heroine who still enjoys a great sex life and who refuses to be written off. She also has no problems with hypocrisy. As a result she is fun to write for. I can make her do almost anything knowing her qualities and if it means being hypocritical then so be it. Eileen as a character really doesn’t have a problem with it!

More General Advice when creating worlds... 4

4/1/2015

Books must survive. Not only it is it a sign of civilization to read and to have reading places, records must be kept. You can’t beat the book for that. DVDs go out of date etc, you have to choose new formats depending on how and when technology dates. You don’t need to worry about that with a book. And if you want your own book out there it's only fair you support other books whether it is from the library or buying them.

Expect rejections. Expect a lot of them too! If you’re given any specific comments consider them carefully. And just because one story has been turned down for one outlet, it doesn’t mean it’ll be rejected for all of them. Sometimes rejections can be for reasons outside of your control like the outlet you target has already had stories in on your theme. If, however, you keep getting rejections on the same piece, put that work away for a while, study it again later and see if you can spot weaknesses then. A time delay like this can suddenly open your eyes to faults. And of course you’ll be working on short stories all the time so you’ve always got something to send out or out there doing the rounds!

GENERAL ADVICE WHEN CREATING ANY WORLD... PART 2

2/1/2015

Read, read, read.

Write, write, write.

Edit, edit, edit.

Persist, persist, persist.

But target accurately. And study the publications you want to write for. There are no shortcuts. But this kind of research should be fun given you’re looking into areas where you want to write.

Keep your brain active by writing different things. It’ll exercise your writing muscles too. And it makes sure you are never short of something to work on. It can also buy you time. If you’re stuck on a novel, you can work on short stories and working on something else can help free the sticking point. I still don’t believe in writers’ block but I think it natural there’ll be days when the words flow beautifully and others when they don’t! We’re writers, not robots.

Outlining is well worth doing. It can save an enormous amount of time in that you work out the rough plot first and fill in the gaps as well as it stopping you going off on any kind of tangent given you have a kind of road map to help you write your story. I didn’t discover the joy of outlines immediately. Now I wouldn’t write a story without one.

MORE GENERAL ADVICE FOR CREATING ANY WORLD... 4

1/1/2015

Always spell check your work with a decent dictionary and don’t rely on the computer. I find the grammar check more useful but still like to check grammar for myself. All faults are my own etc etc! Be professional in your approach to agents and publishers. Your cover letter/synopsis must be word and grammar perfect.

Make your work as good as it can be before submitting it anywhere. But equally don’t use that as an excuse never to send work out. Ultimately submitting work is the way to get the feedback you need. If it’s really good someone somewhere will want that piece. You’re looking to make sure that nobody can read your work and automatically dismiss it. You want them to read it, love it, remember it and publish it!

Keep writing even if it is only short pieces, journal entries, blogging etc. See it as flexing your writing muscles ready for tackling longer works later on. When work is rejected, can you rework it and send it somewhere else? Can you turn a script into a short story or vice versa?

Books must survive. Not only it is it a sign of civilization to read and to have reading places, records must be kept. You can’t beat the book for that. DVDs go out of date etc, you have to choose new formats depending on how and when technology dates. You don’t need to worry about that with a book.

Expect rejections. Expect a lot of them too! If you’re given any specific comments consider them carefully. And just because one story has been turned down for one outlet, it doesn’t mean it’ll be rejected for all of them. Sometimes rejections can be for reasons outside of your control like the outlet you target has already had stories in on your theme. If, however, you keep getting rejections on the same piece, put that work away for a while, study it again later and see if you can spot weaknesses then. A time delay like this can suddenly open your eyes to faults. And of course you’ll be working on short stories all the time so you’ve always got something to send out or out there doing the rounds!