My Chandler's Ford Today post this week sees me resume my series on 101 Things to be Put Into Room 101.  So far I'm up to number 45!  I'll have no trouble finding 101 things to banish...

What are your character likes and dislikes and why?  if your character loathes the colour brown, to name one example, what is the reason for it and does that loathing make them change their behaviour in any way?  Could that loathing change the way the story ends because the character's actions change (and not necessarily for the better either)?

You almost certainly wouldn't use all of this in one story but listing what your character likes and loathes is a great way of finding out all about them before you write the story properly.  You will write with a deeper knowledge of that character (and it does show through).

From the writers' viewpoint, I dislike characters who have no reason to be in the story but are clearly making up the numbers and  I have come across this.  (Earlier in my writing life, I've been guilty of it but I think many of us have been.  The important thing is to realise the characters don't have a role to play and cut them out). Each and every character has to have a very good reason to be in your story.  Each and every character has to be distinctive (even if it is, say, Character A loves flowers and Character B hates them because they have chronic hayfever.  Easy to tell those two apart!).

Writers learn early on to separate out dreams from reality.  The big dream of being published never goes away until fulfilled (and then you want to keep on being published).  The reality is knowing the writing journey is a tough one, that you've got to expect rejections but also knowing there are other options out there such as self publishing or seeking publication through the small independent press.

The latter is the route I, and fellow Chapeltown Books author, Gail Aldwin took.  Part 2 of my interview with her is up on Chandler's Ford Today for this week's post and we discuss writing tips and character creation amongst other things.

You need the dreams to keep you going. You need hard headed reality to be able to cope with the rejections, competition disappointments and so on.  It does help to know this is all part of the process.  The one good thing about it is that it does toughen you up so you face later rejections better than you might otherwise have done.

My latest Chandler's Ford Today post features fellow Chapeltown Books author, Gail Aldwin, and how her round the world bus journey influenced her flash fiction.

The obvious character journey (well for me it is!) is that of Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings.  Everything about this story is epic!  However, character journeys can be much smaller than that.  Scrooge went on a journey of sorts as he transformed from a miserable miser to a generous (and much happier) man in A Christmas Carol.

So what journeys are your characters going on? If it is a physical journey, why are they making it?  Do they like travelling or is is something where they have no choice?  What obstacles must they overcome?  What is the landscape like?  Are they from a background where travelling is normal?  (It generally wasn't for hobbits so Frodo's journey was unusual from that angle).

If the journey is more of a character development one, is the journey a good one or a bad?  (People can go from being good to bad, so why not characters?).  Is it a successful journey?  What is the impact of the character change on them and those around them?  Change can threaten others so how is this dealt with?

My Chandler's Ford Today post this week looks at (some of) the frustrations of publishing.

How do your characters overcome the inevitable frustrations they will face?  Do they handle them well or badly?  What are the consequences  of their reactions?  Are there frustrations caused by government (too much bureaucracy etc?

How do your characters face the day to day frustrations and when it comes to being under continuing pressures, how do they handle that?

In my latest Chandler's Ford Today post, which is Part 2 of 101 Things to Put into Room 101, I list, amongst other things, stilettos.  I describe these as one of the most stupid inventions ever.  They don't do your feet or your spine any good and when I did wear them in my younger years, I always dreaded getting them caught in a drain cover etc.  There are lots of stupid inventions out there but this is my pet peeve.  They are stupid shoes.

In Terry Pratchett's marvellous Discworld series, I loved his inventor, Bloody Stupid Johnson, whose ideas never seemed to quite work the way the inventor had envisaged!

So in your created world, who are your creative people, your inventors, your engineers etc?  It helps to bring a world to life if we the readers can see at least part of how your world works for those who live in it.  What are the technologies?  Are your societies developed or are people held back by the lack of progress?

Does your world have anyone whose inventions go wrong or whose ideas get pinched by someone else?  (There is a whole raft of stories there about how someone would cope with that/get their ideas back and so on).