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? (I would also think not just about using language to convey this but non-verbal signs.  Also what non-verbal signs are only spotted by those closest to your specific character?).

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.

Do your characters have habits or traits they’re not conscious of but which others observe?  Details like that add to your stories.  Eileen has a reputation for eccentricity due to her name change, defection, and she wears separates, not traditional fairy costume, all of which I’ve drip fed into the books but it all backs up her eccentric trait.

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

Your characters’ main attributes should be evident through (a) what they say and (b) what they do.  Having said that great fun can be had with hypocritical characters or those who don’t think they are hypocrites but everyone else around them knows differently!  Eileen, for example, thinks hypocrisy is something that happens to other people!  Do you like your characters?  Can you see good points even in your villains?

How are the creative arts portrayed in your fictional world?  Are they the same creative arts as we have or does your world have its unique art forms?

Can anyone take part in creative arts or is it limited to the privileged few?  (Who are these few and how do they ensure they keep the arts as a closed shop?  Is that due to money alone?).

Does your fictional world "import", "borrow" or otherwise steal good creative ideas from other worlds?  My Fairy Kingdom regularly pinches ideas it likes from Earth despite despising humanity for its warlike and polluting "qualities" (hypocrisy is no crime here!).

Equally are the arts held in contempt because your fictional world thinks science, engineering etc to be far more important?  How does your world treat those who don't toe the official line (which is a good general question to answer also on how your world is governed and its politics)?

Brainstorming questions and answers to them can be a great way of helping you flesh out your fictional world before you start writing about it in earnest.

What is most important to you - character or plot?

Both!  I don’t think you can separate these.  It’s like asking whether you need water or oxygen.  A strong character will not only drive a plot, he/she/it can create one (awkward characters create problems for themselves as well as for others) but that person needs to have something to aim for or escape.  A story where there’s no conflict, where there’s nothing to be resolved is no story at all. 

A strong character in a weak plot will stand out but only to show up the plot’s weakness.  A good plot with weak characters will be disappointing.  You need your cast to be able to act the part.  But get the characters and plot right, strong, memorable, and the story should zip along and be a wonderful read.  When reading other authors’ works, I recall their strong characters and their plots.

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.

Who is your favourite character in your works? Why?

Eileen as she is brave, hardworking, knows the value of true love without being soppy about it (she’s one of the least soppy female characters I can think of), is prepared to make sacrifices for her loved ones and fights evil.  She’s not afraid to stand up to the powerful Fairy Queen, her cousin. 

Eileen is not fazed by wealth or power nor does she seek either for herself particularly - she just wants enough of both to get by and to ensure people don’t go out of their way to give her grief on the very good grounds they’ll get it back with considerable interest.

Some of the reasons I love fiction writing are:-

1. You set the rules for your fictional world so this gives enormous freedom to explore ideas.  The world and its characters, no matter how bizarre by Earth standards, still have to make sense and there should be good reasons for them being/acting the way they are/do but other than that, away you go!

2.  You can explore different aspects of character via different "stars" of your work. 

3.  You can develop your characters over time and many books.  Sam Vimes in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is a great example of how this works when brilliantly done.  There must be enough scope in your character for that person to want to change bad things, improve good things about them and so on.  Interviewing your characters so you explore their hidden depths can be really helpful here.  It can help you discover just what you do know about them before you write about them.

4.  Creating characters and worlds can help give you blog post ideas too!

5.  You can take what you know of life, people etc and bring those into your stories.  What you don't know can usually be researched. 

Part of my birthday celebrations included a day trip to delightful Dorset.  Great to have good weather for said trip too.  And it's always a pleasure to be out in the countryside.

This led me to think about how easy travel is in fiction.  In my Fairy Kingdom certain species like fairies can fly directly by wing power, others like the witches use broomsticks, others use transporter trees (you step inside the trunk, set co-ordinates and away you go - the tree doesn't move when looking at it from the outside but you do). 

There is also the direct transport spell but that carries the risk you may not rematerialize in the same way and order you disappeared in and many less powerful magical species are understandably wary of using this despite the significant increase in speed this method has when compared with transporter trees.

So how does transport work in your fictional world?  Is transport available for anyone or is it graded?  Do people/beings/magical creatures have holidays or day trips or are the collective noses kept to the grindstone?

It's official, I'm now 50!  I had a wonderful get together with friends and family at the weekend.  This is a long standing family tradition.  I was given amongst other things a biro shaped like a quill.  (It looks great and is bliss to write with, having a very nice "flow").  Thanks to all who came and made my celebrations very special and those of my overseas family sending greetings via Facebook etc.

This birthday also marks my 20th anniversary as a writer as it was turning 30 that finally kickstarted me into taking my long held wish to write seriously and actually do something about it.  My Facebook post tonight looks a little at how much has changed in terms of what is available to writers now over that 20 years.

So what family and other traditions exist in your fictional worlds?  Are birthdays celebrated and, if so, how?  Are presents given?  What sort of presents would they be?  I am thinking of the gifts given by the fairy godmothers to Sleeping Beauty at the start of that story so there is a precedent here.  Can gifts backfire?  Are there things that can only be given to royalty/nobility? (I'm not just thinking in terms of cost here but perhaps a particular gift is reserved for their use only).

How much effort do your characters go to when trying to please someone they care for?  On the opposite end of the scale, what gifts would be considered to be acceptable bribes (and what would make those bribes necessary)? 

What celebrations does your fictional society hold and what is the purpose of them?  Is everyone expected to join in? If so, what happens to those who refuse?

I hope these questions trigger some interesting story ideas!

And here's to my next 20 years as a writer...

What do your characters do to relax and unwind? Do they relax on their own or with family and friends?

What is it that they need to relax from?  Eileen, prior to her defection, liked nothing better, after a hard day beating dragons, than a stiff drink, a long relaxing bath and plenty of sleep.  Jenny, after a hard day arguing with her mother (and it is difficult to win arguments with Eileen), prefers a long relaxing bath and a read of a good book (and in her case often the Good Book too).

Do your characters have hobbies and if so, which, and how often can they get to enjoy these?  What are considered normal hobbies by your fictional world and which abnormal?  Can anyone access hobbies or are they restricted to those of a certain class?

Nobody can keep going all the time and the same applies to your characters.  A glimpse of what they get up to when they unwind can be useful background material and can show you really do know your characters' likes and dislikes.

My latest post on Chandler's Ford Today called Writing as Therapy:  Introducing Chocolate Muffin Publishing discusses writing as therapy and shares links to groups working in this field.  It also introduces a local company who enable people with learning difficulties, dementia and children of all ages and abilities to write their own stories, illustrate them and produce them as books.  The five weeks course finishes with a book signing event for the proud authors to celebrate their achievement.

This led me to think about how the arts could be portrayed in fiction (I've written more on this on my other website, www.fairytaleswithbite.weebly.com). For this post, I'd like to look more at writing in fictional work. 

In my Fairy Kingdom setting, the fairytales are compulsory reading and are frequently acted out.  What form of literature, if any, is important in your fictional world and why?  If there isn't any, why not? Are books easily accessible to all or are they considered dangerous because they encourage people to think and to dream?  If books in your fictional world are controlled, who does this?  How did they establish that control and are there any threats to it?

How are writers treated?  What would be classed as therapy in your fictional world (and why would someone need this therapy?  For example post traumatic stress disorder must surely apply to other worlds where huge life changing events have taken place.  Spoiler alert:  I personally think Frodo in The Lord of the Rings shows something of this right at the very end of the triology as it is made clear he has not fully recovered from all that he has gone through.  Quite rightly too.  After such a fantastic adventure, there would be bound to be a toil taken on the mind/body/both).

So what place does writing and stories have in your fictional world?  At the least, these questions could make for some interesting background material to your world.

Today, of course, is St. Patrick's Day, which has been celebrated by the Irish all over the world.  And it led me to think what kind of festival and holy days could be celebrated on fictional worlds.

Who would they commemorate and why?  Are such celebrations held by all or are there those opposed to the festivals (and if so, why?)?  What would be holy to your fictional world? 

Would your world's government make it compulsory to celebrate the festivals or would they try and ban them?  What is the history behind the festivals and why your fictional world adopted them?  Is there trouble at these celebrations (alcohol induced or not) or do they always go well?  Are celebrations like this a highlight of your fictional world's year or do people groan when it is time to get the bunting and other decorations out again?

There must be several story ideas here!

I love reading writer interviews as I learn a lot from them.  One great joy of writing for Chandler's Ford Today is I have now started carrying out interviews with other writers myself.  Today (15th March 2016) I carried out an interview with someone involved in a very worthwhile creative writing project and I hope to give more details of this later as this will appear on CFT in due course.

But this reminded me another writing tip I've found useful in working out just how well I know my own characters is to interview them.  Take questions typically put to people in interviews and let your characters answer them.  For example, the "what inspired you to do what you did/become as you are?" can be adapted whether you're interviewing a heroine, a villain (can often be the same character depending on whose perspective you're writing from!) or rebellious fairy godmother (Eileen - and in her case the answer is "I hated magical power abuses and still do so of course I was going to challenge the status quo.").

Interviewing characters this way is a good way of finding out (a) just how well you know them and so are able to write about them and (b) just how strong or otherwise those characters are.  A weak character may be appropriate for your story.  Equally this may mean you need to develop them further but an interview will show this up.  Your characters should be able to "answer" the questions you  put to them.  And of course your character interviews could make interesting background reading on your website/blog for fans of your stories. 

And I've found interviewing characters is a lot of fun.  I've found out more than I thought and have found it encouraging to realise my characters do have depth to them.  The amount of depth varies but it is appropriate to the character.  So it should be with yours.

An interesting angle to take when writing (and indeed reading) stories is examining the perspective of those characters involved in the tales.  For example a village that has been rescued from a dragon attack is going to be grateful for that rescue.  The village that the rescuers rode through, trampling everything in their way, on route to carry out this rescue will not be so appreciative.

For every hero, there should be a coward somewhere.  Their perspective generally is going to be to save their own skin so what are they prepared to do to achieve that?  Would they betray others to a dragon or other monster on the grounds it lets them off (and given these creatures are unlikely to keep their word how does the coward react when he/she/it realises they are still endangered?).  What happens when someone else discovers the betrayal?

In my stories, a common complaint from my witches is that the fairytales are written from only one perspective - that of the fairies - so no wonder the witches get a bad press.  My first published story, A Helping Hand in Bridge House Publishing's Alternative Renditions, looks at the Cinderella story from the angle of the younger ugly sister.  Could you come up with stories that would be better if you took a character and their perspective different from the one you may originally have intended to use?  Equally could you write a follow up story looking at events from the perspective of the villain.  There could be some interesting material here.

I sometimes use photos I've taken as an aide to showing what my fictional Fairy Kingdom looks like in terms of terrain and so on.  Alternatively I've used my photos only as a starting point and then develop how my Fairy Kingdom would be different from anything I know on Earth.

I use my knowledge of flora and fauna to start me off with the magical world's equivalent and then research what I don't know to work out how magical creatures could be different.  It's not just a question of a dragon being able to breath fire or knowing they like meat! 

One of my dragons in The Trouble With Mother strikes Eileen as being different because it doesn't rush to attack her or Hanastrew. (Most dragons would take the chance to kill anything that might threaten them or would make a tasty meal and in this case both of those things would apply). So sometimes knowing what would be unusual behaviour for an animal can be useful in storytelling.

Working out what could threaten the landscape in your fictional world can be an interesting avenue.  I've used magical wars to make the land barren in places on the grounds nothing can stand having too much magic go through it in one go, which I think is a fair enough conclusion.  This gives me history to my fictional world (which to date I've only touched on lightly but I hope to come back to this in future books).  It also gives me an "ecological" aspect to my fiction and a reason why Eileen doesn't use magic unless she has to (and that most responsible magical beings would take the same view, not wanting to cause further damage and recognising the harm that has been done).

I know, I know.  It's a clever trick if you can do it!  But I have discovered that I can time travel to a certain extent every time I go to see a Shakespeare play in one of my local venues that show National Theatre Live productions.

The recent production of As You Like It  is the subject of my current Chandler's Ford Today post where I review the play and share some of its history.  But for this blog I wanted to share how, despite the modern set design (the Forest of Arden was made out of office furniture, yes really!) the language of Shakespeare remains timeless.  And it is that language which reminds you of how old these plays are and how well they've survived and been adapted over the centuries since their first performance.

It is thanks to actor friends of Shakespeare we have the plays in written form at all thanks to their compiling the First Folio.  My late mother was always a huge fan of the Bard of Avon and I've come to the plays relatively late in life (though she'd be pleased I'd been converted at all!). In researching my CFT post, I was quite pleased to discover the master playwright was worried about others copying his work and putting on inferior productions.  Copyright infringement fears really are nothing new!

Shakespeare is one of those writers who've added words to the language.  I've found with As You Like It and Hamlet that most of the Elizabethan language is clear and those sections which are not are brought to life and meaning by (a) the context and (b) the actors.  So the setting of the plays, the dress of the actors and so on  can be as modern as the producer wants but as long as they don't tamper with the Bard's wonderful language, it works. The stories are strong and he was a great believer in the sub-plot!  He also wrote more comedies than any other type of play so presumably knew what his audience wanted.  There are lessons for modern writers there I think... 

It is perhaps tempting to think that differing story formats are a relatively new phenomenon.  That is we can publish in traditional magazines, novellas, books or publish electronically on Kindle or on online story magazines.  That choices are because of our technology, current and emerging, now.

My current Chandler's Ford Today post called Producing a Legend:  Sir Bevis of Hampton has shown me this is not the case!  Sir Bevis was a mythical and medieval blockbuster hero, whose stories were hugely popular in those times.  And one of the ways of getting these across to people was via tapestry!  Henry V was known to "read" Sir Bevis's adventures via tapestries. 

It's hard to imagine a more beautiful way of reading a story! Though of course the downside was tapestries were very much a status symbol so the audience for this kind of story telling necessarily was limited.  The oral tradition of story telling, prior to the invention of print, would have been the main way of getting stories across to the "peasants".  I strongly suspect I would never been allowed anywhere near a tapestry had I lived in those times! 

Am I glad of more accessible ways of enjoying stories these days?  You bet!

What happens in your story? 

Can you sum up your story quickly, ideally in one easy to read sentence? 

How would you write your blurb? 

Do you know whose story your tale belongs to (and therefore are you writing it from the right point of view)? 

Show your characters’ thought processes. We readers need to know the way your characters think (or at least to think we know, villains of course seek to deceive).  We need to be able to gauge your characters, get a feel for them so to speak so we can identify with them and therefore keep reading. 

Do your characters grab your attention?  If they don’t, they won’t be grabbing anyone else’s!

Outlines

Outlines are a great way to work out what will happen in your story before you write it.  I should say  my outlines are not set in stone.  Nor should yours be. 

Often I’ve outlined a short story to realize as I was writing it the outline would be more suitable for a tale of over 3000 words, way too long for most competitions.  In a sense I’ve not been sorry about this as it makes me re-evaluate my outline and story and make it sharper, tighter, bring it down to the bare bones as most short stories are around the 1500 to 2000 word mark so they have to be to the point. 

Equally if the longer tale grips me, I look for those competitions which allow for a higher word count and enter the story that.  Occasionally the story of this length becomes a good outline for a novel.  So keep your mind open to the possibilities.  Never be afraid to edit. Never be afraid to change your mind as to where your idea and outline (and eventually the written story) are best suited.

But the biggest advantage of an outline is you can work out ideas first rather than start writing a tale and find you run out of steam.  I also don’t allow myself too long to do the outline.  A couple of sessions to work it out and then I get writing…  Outlines are there to help you write the tale, not to help you procrastinate (and there are so many fascinating writing blogs and books that can keep you away from what you should be doing - writing!).