Asking yourself about the point of it all sounds a depressing thing to do, whether you refer to your writing or, worse, still, life in general.  But I believe it can be a useful exercise to do for your writing only if you are prepared to be totally honest.  I can't stress that last point enough.  The value in self-evaluation is in being prepared to face up to weaknesses or to accept that your great idea wasn't perhaps as great as you first thought and it needs adapting or replacing with something better.

Sometimes, of course, a great idea really is a great idea but it is possible to get the timing wrong.  The worse thing about this is nobody can tell you when the right time will be.  This is where a certain amount of luck is needed for all authors. 

You have to hope that, having written and edited your story well, having had good feedback on it etc, and you launch it into the big, bad world, it lands on the right desk.  Yes, you will have chosen the right publication to send it to, but your story has to satisfy the publication's requirements and that will include, to an extent, the personal tastes of the editor who first reads your tale.  Not all of that is guessable or researchable. 

You also will not know if the editor has just accepted a similar story on a similar theme and therefore cannot take yours (unless they tell you so and there is no guarantee they will)! The one good thing here is it can be a matter of putting the story away for a while and trying again later and it is always worth trying that, especially if you know there's been a change of editor!

There is absolutely  nothing wrong in just writing for your own pleasure and most of us started off that way.  I did.  But when you get to the point of wanting to move beyond that and seriously aim for publication, then self-evaluation comes into its own.  If you can answer tough questions you set yourself (and they should be tough ones), then you'll be more ready to answer tough questions later, no matter who asks them. Questions I have asked myself and would recommend you use include:-

1. What is my long term goal and why have I set this?
   
2. Will it matter if I do not meet my long term goal?
   
3. Am I prepared to be open to new ideas especially if my first initial idea doesn't take off?
   
4. Am I prepared to rewrite, rewrite and rewrite as often as necessary to get the idea right?
   
5. If I was a publisher, looking at the work honestly, would I accept it had it been submitted by someone else?  Say why (for both a positive answer to this and a negative one.  You need to see both sides of the fence).
   

I suppose the obvious question to ask after reading a title like this one is "why on earth would anyone want to do that?"! Further to my interview going up yesterday, and knowing I have talked about interviewing your own characters (it is a great way of really exploring what they are made of), I realised there is a case for asking yourself some awkward questions.  For example:-

1. Why am I writing this?  Particularly useful for  novel writing when you are feeling bogged down by it.  This can act as a reminder for why you were enthusiastic about the basic idea in the first place.  Hopefully the reminder will reignite the enthusiasm!
   
2. Am I writing this in the right way?  I have found sometimes flash fiction (short and sharp) works better for a story than a standard length short story (1500-2000 words).  It packs a punch. Sometimes I have found the longer version conveys more (it's got the room to do so!) and, depending on the "point" of the story, that can be the most appropriate vehicle for the tale.  A punchy impact isn't always the right way to go.  If you want a thoughtful piece, for example, the standard length short story would probably be better.
   
3. Can I do this better?  Whatever way you're telling the story, you will almost certainly improve it with a decent edit or two.  The trick is to look for that point when you honestly feel you can't do any more to the story and then send it out, whether it is for a competition, to a writing buddy or critique service or what have you.
   

One new direction for me recently has been in being interviewed by other writers.  Normally I ask the questions for Chandler's Ford Today but friend and fellow scribe, Jacci Gooding, put some excellent questions to me and i'm delighted to share her blog post here. 

What new directions are your characters facing?  Are they doing so willingly or have they been forced into accepting they've got to go in a direction they have not chosen?  What are the consequences?

Can they get back to where they wanted to be and, if so, how do they achieve this?  Equally, do they welcome a new direction as the chance to break from everything in their past and start afresh?

How your characters handle change, especially unlooked for change, can reveal a great deal about them so what information are you getting from the way your characters respond to this?

My Chandler's Ford Today post this week is about what the publication of From Light to Dark and Back Again means for me now as a writer.

I also share my steps to publication in this post.  Small steps have been crucial to my being where I am now, writing wise, though at the time each small step seemed insignificant in the overall scheme of things.  So the other thing I've learned is never to despise small steps!  They mount up over time. 

I've also learned the value of persistence, patience and can confirm that the old adage of never giving up is true.  I couldn't tell you how often I read that in author interviews when I was starting out and thinking something along the lines of "well, it's okay for them to think that, but will I ever get there?".  I thought that a lot when all that came through the door or in my inbox were rejections.  I also confidently expect to be rejected again for competitions and so on but am now better at accepting this is just part of every writer's life.  (In some ways it proves you are a writer!).

So in answer to my point above, if you don't give up, are prepared to rewrite and rewrite and rewrite (as often as necessary) and are open to new writing ideas, yes, you will get there.  What nobody can tell you is the time frame.  You have to accept you are in for the long haul.  The advantage of that is you get the time to develop your ideas, improve your skills at expressing said ideas and when publication does come, you will appreciate it more.

It is crucial to be open to writing ideas that might initially have not occurred to you.  I would still like to get my novel The Trouble with Mother out there and hope to revisit this but at the moment it is on the back burner.  I had never anticipated my first book would be short stories or that I would write non-fiction and love it.  But I explored those avenues and am now so glad I did.  I didn't just stick rigidly to my initial idea of the novel.

So be open and don't be afraid to try new writing ideas like this.  You may find, as I have, a love for these other forms of writing and extra strings to your bow are always a good thing!

And, whatever stage you are at with your own writing, good luck.  (Though hard work can help give good luck a handy shove in the back and certainly without that hard work, no amount of good luck can transform a piece of writing into one that is publishable).

I like to mix things up when it comes to writing short stories and flash fiction.  Sometimes I'll start with an opening line but at other times I'lll take that line and make it the "finishing post", so to speak.  Both ways have their advantages and challenges but then a big part of the fun of writing is rising to those challienges and meeting them head on!

I think it is good for the old creative and editing skills that you do mix things up like this.  There is much less risk of getting bored (always a killer sign of a duff story that! - or it is with me anyway.  I've only ever abandoned one story and it was on those grounds.  I was getting bored, couldn't see a way out of it and decided to cut my losses.  Sometimes that is exactly the right thing to do.  The real problem with this piece was I hadn't thought it out thoroughly enough before beginning to write it and I managed to write myself into a corner).

On my Fairytales with Bite site I've suggested some intriguing opening lines. But there's no reason why you couldn't mix these up and use some as starting lines, others as finishing.  You could, of course, do both per line and see what you come up with. 

I think the most important thing about writing is to have fun with it.  It will show through.

One of my dreams when I was growing up was to have a nice library of my own books (achieved!) and for some of those books to have my name on the outside cover.  Well, with the publication of From Light to Dark and Back Again, I've put a foot in the door with regard to fulfilling that goal!  Indeed I hope it will be book 1 in a series of flash fiction and short story collections from yours truly.

My next goals then are to bring out more story collections and I still hope to get my novel The Trouble With Mother out there at some point.

But, of course, characters can set goals too.  Frodo Baggins had one set for him effectively - he knew he had no choice but to go to the Mordor and Mount Doom - but most characters set their own goals.  They want to achieve this, something is getting in their way, they work out a solution to that, they're a step nearer to achieving their goal, something goes wrong, they work out etc etc. 

So what goals have your characters got?  What has driven them to set those goals?  Do their goals change over time?  What happens if they achieve them?  There's many a story to be written about characters where reaching their goal did not give them the satisfaction or results they initially thought doing this would achieve.

For every action there has to be a reaction and in fiction no cause can go without having the consequence played out too.  How your characters handle those causes and consequences will say a great deal about them (much more in fact than if you just described them).

How do your characters cope under pressure?  What support do they get from other characters, family and friends?  When called to go on a quest of some sort, do their family and friends support them or think they're nuts (adding further pressure to the character)?

What is the long term consequence(s) for your main character as a result of the story they've experienced?  They shouldn't be the same people as they were at the start.  No change = no conflict = no story.

One of the fun things when reading a book or story for the first time is working out which character is generally truthful and which is generally a liar.  Great twists can be had when it is revealed that what you thought isn't right and that the truthful character turns out to be an unreliable narrator and so on.

Characters will tell the truth as they see it. There should be good reasons for them to believe the way they do (even/especially when this puts them at odds with the rest of their world and other characters).

Lies can be revealed gradually as you read more of a character and realise, over the space of the story, that what they are saying/doing is at odds with what is truthful for that setting.  What made that character lie?  What are they hoping to gain from it?  If it is a question the character really doesn't think they are lying, how do they react when it is proven that they are?

Good story ideas there with lots of potential for conflict.

I would be very surprised if writers have not heard at least one of the following:-

1. How is your "little" story coming along?  The word little, in my experience, is used whether you write flash fiction, as I do, or full length novels!  Annoying to short story writer and novelist alike!
2. I'd write if I had more time, like you.  We make the time because we are committed to what we do.  You will find some time to do what you really love to do even if it is only 10/15 minutes a day.  Those small packets of time mount up over the course of a month, a year and so on.  I hear this all the time from those advocating us all to exercise more and it is true for that as well as for things like writing.
3. Short stories take less time than novels so you must bash out loads of short stories then.  Again in my experience the word bash is always used.  And, of course, novels take a lot longer but what is annoying here is the attempt to compare chalk with cheese.  Short stories and novels have different "needs" but but both must be crafted to meet those needs.  It is never a question of bashing any kind of writing out!
   

END RESULT IF YOU REALLY ANNOY A WRITER?
If you annoy a crime writer, you will end up dead in one of their stories.  No way will you be the hero/heroine.  There will be a lot of blood involved - yours.

If you annoy a fantasy/fairytale writer you will end up dead in one of their stories.  A dragon or other foul fiend is likely to be involved.  It certainly won't be pleasant.

If you annoy a horror writer, you will end up dead in one of their stories but you won't even get to rest in peace. With zombie fiction making a comeback, the horror writer is in a real position to make you suffer!

But then you wouldn't dream of doing this, would you?

I'd be surprised if the answer to the title question is "nothing".  I've never written a character who stayed exactly as I envisaged them in the first draft.  Things change.  For example, you think of improvements to the story which genuinely give it more depth and those amendments mean you have to change how you've portrayed said character.

While obviously you should know your character as well as you can, they should still be able to surprise you with what they say (especially under times of stress when behaviour can be known to change in people).  They should also be capable of surprising you with what they can do.  I've been surprised by people in my time turning out to be more sympathetic to "my cause" (so to speak) than I'd realised.

So let your characters surprise you, it is their story after all.

Tonight's title is one where I have to be careful with my typing!  Keeping a Dairy has a very different outlook!

I keep a writing diary and note down what I have written, sometimes what I am planning to write, and use it to note deadlines for competitions too.  I've found it helps me be more productive.  Some writers also keep a character diary.  I don't do this myself (as yet, anyway!), but can see the point of it.  You can reveal more of that character in a diary and include things you couldn't include in the main story (because it would have distracted from the real plot and so on).

A character diary, even if you never share it, could be a useful way for you to find out whether you know as much the character concerned as you thought.  Don't be surprised if you end  up being surprised!  I kind of did this in drafting my novels (and learning a lot about the craft as well as about the characters in the process).

I have a range of favourite books as so much depends on my mood when I read.  I love crime and historical ficiton as well as fantasy and there have been some marvellous books in all categories.  This led me on to wondering what a character might choose to read.  I think the governing trait of that character will dictate a lot of their tastes.  It would be unlikely, for example, to have a pacifist openly wanting and admiring books about war and so on.

So what would your characters read and why?  What kind of books would be found in your fictional setting?  Are books treasured by all or just read for pleasure by the wealthy?  What is the role of the storyteller in your world?  What is the role of the library? 

What are your fictional world's favourite books and wny?

I look for the following in a story, regardless of genre:-

1. Strong characterisation.  I've got to able to root for the characters, where appropriate.  All must have really good motives for acting the way they are.  Each character has to have depth and I particularly want the villain to test the hero out well. 
   
2. A good pace.  I like a fast, snappy read generally but the pace has got to be appropriate to the tale.
   
3. Wanting to read the story again.  Or being able to recall significant bits of it years later without having the tale to hand.
   
4. Memorable dialogue.  Again I like dialogue to be snappy (goes well with my preferred story pacing too!).  But again it has to be appropriate for the character and I need to be able to tell who is saying what to whom.  (I like the he said/she said taglines but I should be able to guess who is talking).
   
5. A good twist or punchy ending.  To wrap the story up well, you can't beat this kind of ending.
   

I'm not referring to myself with the above title, honestly (I'm under 5' tall and, at 50, this is unlikely to change in a positive direction!), but to fiction.

Now I am unashamedly biased here, given I write flash fiction, but much as I love the novel for its wider range of characters, subplots and depth, the short story form has merits the novel can't match.  (In fairness not intended to match either).  Sometimes less is more and I've come across some wonderful short stories and flash fiction pieces where I think not another word could have been added to that tale without spoiling it.  (With great novels, I often wonder about the lives of the characters after the story has finished so with that, there is the potential to add many more words to the tale!  It's the opposite reaction to the one I experience after reading a really good short story or flash piece).

This is where I find the 100 words flash fiction challenges really useful and I often come up with what I hope will be a "killer" last line and work backwards to get to that point.  If you ever want to learn to write "tight", try writing flash fiction as every word has to count.  My bugbears have been using the words "very" and "that" and flash fiction writing has forced me to slash these as it shows up that these are wasted words a lot of the time.  They don't contribute anything to the story.  The great thing here is learning to write tight like this can then be applied to whatever form of writing you do. 

Which of your characters works the hardest and why?  What are they aiming to achieve and what drives them to keep going when everything (and possibly everyone as well) is against them?

What kind of work is carried out by your characters?  Is the setting one where machines dominate or one where manual labour is still very necessary?  Who carries out the manual labour by the way and, if it is a particular people grouping, how did it come about that they were the ones to do this rather than anybody else?

I would assume the likelihood is that non-magical beings would be the ones picked on for manual labour duties.  If so, you would need to show why there are non-magical beings in your setting at all and why it is, with everyone else around them magical, how come it didn't seem to rub off on them?

Do any of your characters work hard deliberately to make themselves so tired they can't focus on other pressing, depressing, personal "stuff"?  Do they succed in "forgetting"?

What the magical world will not tell you (in the hope you either won't find out or, if you do, you won't be in a position to tell anyone) includes the following:-

1. That it is not a twee, fairytale type of place but a phenomenally dangerous one.  Nobody ever said fairies had to be nice.  And then there are the "official" baddies such as the witches, treacherous wizards and so on.  Nor do you want to get in the way of a dwarf with an axe who has had a bad day and wants to take it out on someone else.
   
2. You can't trust the food or drink in any magical world.  You literally don't know what has been done to it or, more importantly, what it will do to you.  You can be assured though it will  do something!
   
3. The talking animals may prove to be smarter than you are.  This is never good for morale.
   
4. The magical world is quite happy to destroy anything or anyone in its way.  It does not necessarily welcome visitors.  Partly there is always the fear that someone will try to steal power from it.  Partly because the inhabitants just don't care and if they see you as a threat, that will be the end of you, unless you can get out fast.
   
5. Ancient castles and stately homes contain a great deal more than portraits, jewellery etc.  They often contain main-eating giants for a start.  Best avoided.
   

A long cherished dream of mine has come true with the publication of my first book, From Light to Dark and Back Again (Chapeltown Books). But I am well aware this is the start of another part of my writer's journey (albeit one which I hope will be fun!) and there can be as much hard work in marketing the book as there is in writing it in the first place.

So what happens to your characters when some of their dreams come true?  Does this throw them, so they don't know what to do next, or do they build on whatever this is and develop further?  Do they move on and develop more ambitious dreams instead?

If the dreams came true because of the actions of another character, why did they oblige here?  What are they hoping to gain from the character they've helped?  Will there be pay back for the help given?  All thoughts for story ideas.

Is looking into the future something your characters can do and, if so, do you limit it?  My rebellious fairy godmother character, Eileen, can do so and has chosen to limit her use of it.  Her belief is that knowing too much about what is to come hampers what you do in the here and now.  Her boss, the Fairy Queen, has no such qualms and makes use of this as much as she can.  Eileen doesn't consider that to be that honourable and sees it almost as a form of cheating.

So what attitudes do your characters have to this?  Do they use any such skills for their own ends?  Do they get away with it?  If not, who stops them and what impact has that on the future that would have been had there not been any interference to stop the character achieving all they want this way?

Time travel is another way of effectively looking into the future and discovering what is to come.  Do your characters do this?  What effects does this have on them physically and mentally?  (It's my view there should always be a price for these things.  I don't see how there could not be somewhere).  Can any of your characters time travel or is it just saved for the ruling classes?

Today (6th February) has marked Her Majesty the Queen's 65th anniversary on the throne and she is the first British monarch to achieve that.  I've long thought 6th February must be a really strange day for her - after all she only inherited her position by losing her father, King George VI.  So am I that surprised she generally spends the day quietly?  Not at all...

Remembering the past is vital given hopefully at least some previous mistakes won't be repeated.  And there are things nobody should ever forget, the Holocaust being the obvious example.

So how do your characters remember their own past and that of the world in which they live?  What are the important commemorations and why?  Does everyone have to join in?  Are there things your characters simply do not want to recall and what do they do to try to suppress those memories? 

My favourite moments in any story, regardless of genre, are:-

1. Discovering at least one really strong character I can root for.
2. Discovering at least one really strong character I want to see fail!  Generally known as the villain (though sometimes it can be debatable just who the villain really is).  Occasionally an irritating hero/heroine can make me want them to fail!  Alan Rickman's wonderful portrayal of the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was one of those films where there was some regret the villain did fail (and not just because he was played by the much missed Mr Rickman!).
   
3. Either the story to end with a punch or with a good twist.  I want the story to make me react.  This also goes for stories meant to "just entertain" as there I want my reaction to be to laugh, cry or what have you, as appropriate, or just to have enjoyed pure escapism for a while.
   
4. Killer one-liners.  (Usually to make me laugh).  Absolutely adore these.
   
5. Good, strong pace.  (Doesn't necessarily have to be a fast pace funnily enough but must always be appropriate for the story).
   
6. Being able to remember the story in reasonable detail for a long period of time afterwards and always being glad to re-read it.
   
7. Being happy to recommend the story to someone else.
   

Following on from yesterday's posts about promising beginnings to stories, I really thought I should look at the other end of the scale!

For my flash fiction in particular, I like to end either with a "punch" so the story has impact or with a twist, which, as is the way of these things, sometimes you'd guess at, other times you wouldn't. 

I never mind being able to guess an ending incidentally because it is nice finding out whether you're right or not!  I adore guessing wrong or not seeing the twist - all kudos to the writer for achieving that - as it is nice to be surprised, look back at the story and realise the clues had been there and I'd have seen them if I'd been a bit more "on the ball" when reading the tale.  It is a real challenge to write those kind of surprises - though that's no reason not to try it!

I like my stories to end appropriately.  This isn't the same as happy.  One of my stories in my book, From Light to Dark and Back Again, ends sadly and was always meant to (but I hope makes for a good character study).

So how do your stories end?

For my story writing, I like to "hit the ground running" and take things from there.   Sometimes I will use dialogue (especially if it's a row between two characters or something like that which will intrigue a reader into wanting to find out what is going on and how things are likely to be resolved.  It's always fun to guess at that incidentally when reading someone else's work).

Other times I will start off with "explosive" narrative and set up a situation where a reader has to keep reading.  Or I will use an intriguing opening line to draw people in.  The crucial thing is whichever you do of these (and there's no reason why it can't be all of them, one technique will not fit all stories after all), is that you follow through with your idea and let it "play out" properly.

I usually have a working title but I don't correct this (should it need to be edited) until after I've got the story down.  Then I will have all I need to see if my initial thoughts for the title were correct or could be improved on.  But I do find getting of to a cracking start is absolutely crucial.

I like to think most of us have, every so often, truly wonderful days where either everything just goes right (in the way it usually doesn't!) or there is exceptional good news etc.  So how about your characters?  What would be a wonderful day for them and why? 

Sometimes it takes something  to make a day wonderful - time to indulge in your favourite hobby or what have you.  So what would your characters value here?  Does anyone try to ensure they don't get the something to help them to have wonderful days?  Do they succeed in their aims here?

Food and drink can play a part in someone having a wonderful day.  So what special meals do your characters like and why?  Are their treats easy to obtain?

Overall, does anyone try to spoil the wonderful day your characters have got lined up?

The topic of creating images sprang naturally to mind tonight as I'm now able to share the book cover for my debut flash fiction collection, From Light to Dark and Back Again (Chapeltown Books).

I love this cover for many reasons.  All of the stories in this collection make an impact (sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes dark) and there is a "ripple" effect from them.  The play of light on the water with dark and light intersecting with each other represents the stories well too. And, of course, I hope the stories will draw in future readers as my eyes are drawn in to that central image.

Most of the time, of course, writers are creating images with words.  It doesn't necessarily have to be a lot of words either (as flash fiction generally proves).  It is the selection of words that matters and one of my favourite moments in writing is when I know absolutely I have chosen the right word or phrase for the image I want to conjure up at that point in the story.  (And you do know when you've got it spot on.  Usually takes many an edit to get to that point though!).

Sometimes a picture can help inspire a writer to find the right words or, at least, give a rough idea of the effect you want to achieve (making it easier to find said right words). 

So what pictures are you hoping to conjure up in your stories?  Beta readers can be really helpful here in confirming that you've succeeded here - or not as the case may be.  Sometimes they can pick up on things you hadn't - I've had that happen a few times but those insights are always really useful (albeit disconcerting at times).