How good are your characters at managing time or are they the type that couldn't manage their way out of a paper bag?  Which of your characters would be considered as some of life's organisers and did they have this role thrust upon them or was it one they sought?

How is time itself organised in your fictional setting?  The same way as ours or are their days considerably longer/shorter than ours?  The amount of natural daylight available makes a huge difference to what people can do so how are your characters employed and how does your world's time structure affect what they do?

Time itself is often portrayed as a character (especially in fantasy fiction).  I don't do this myself, preferring to drop in information as to how time is organised in my fictional settings,

I think the obvious follow up to my post on Why Write a day or so ago would be to look at reasons for reading.  The true bibliophile will need no excuse to read at whatever time of day or night but in case you do need an excuse....

1. I read for pleasure.  (And why not? Reading is known to help increase vocabulary).
2. I read to increase my education.  (As well as non-fiction books, would-be storytellers would do well to read widely from the fiction shelves to work out what you do and don't like so you know what to avoid)
3. I read to find out about worlds I will never meet
4. I use the library service to test out authors i'm thinking of buying books from.  If I like them, I'll buy their books later.
5. I read to catch up with the world.  (Does your world's news run along the same lines as ours?  Is the news edited before people can read it?).
   

When all that seems to come in through the inbox/letterbox are rejections, it can be useful to remind yourself of why you write at all and to evaluate how far you have come on your writing journey.  When you add up the little success here, another there etc., you'll see you are collecting writing CV credits and that you have almost certainly achieved more than you might think.

So why write then?

1. For therapy.  Writing literally does take you out of yourself for a while (doesn't consume calories either!).
   
2. For pleasure.
   
3. To try and make a career out of it.
   
4. To share your thoughts and worldview via your characters.
   
5. To write specifically about those things which interest you the most.
   
6. To write specifically against those things which you are most against.  Ties in with 4 above.  Secret here I think is not to go on for too long.
   
7. To try to write the book you want to read that isn't out there yet and you feel you have to come up with it.
   

Why ever you write, I think the most crucial thing is to enjoy it.  Good luck!

Amongst the things your characters would not want to hear are the following:-

1. Their role is being cut out altogether.  If the character is not moving the story on or contributing in some way, then they should be cut out. What this means is the character as you have written them is not important enough to the overall story to stay.  I can't think of any character who'd welcome that!
   
2. That you, the writer, aren't going to develop them further.  The more developed the character, the more rounded they are likely to be and the more they'll contribute to the plot.  The less developed, the more risk of being cut!
   
3. That you are going to use shorthand techniques to describe them.  This generally means you are going to "lego" build the characters and cliches are going to be involved.  Each character in a story needs to have a unique contribution to it (even if it is a minor part.  It still has to be a part that the story can't do without).
   

Before you worry, I'm referring to the middle of a story!

Quite rightly, we're all told we have to make the openings to our stories gripping, intriguing etc to draw the readers in.  Also quite rightly, we're all told our endings have to finish the story off properly and leave the readers feeling as if they have had a good, satisfying read. 

However, without the hardworking, load-bearing middle of the story doing its part well, the ending will, at best, sag and, at worse, collapse.  It won't matter how brilliant the start to your story was either.  People will be turned off by a middle section of a story that doesn't work as well as the start and you'll lose them.  They'll probably never get to your excellent ending!

I find the only way to ensure my story middles do not sag is to outline the major steps of my stories. I deliberately don't outline every single one.  You want to leave room for the old creative spark to fire up but I have found outlining the major building blocks means my middles are well thought out and, far from being restrictive, my plan encourages the old imagination to work that much harder because I've given it something to work with in the first place.

How to tell if a character is fully developed? 

1. A Life Outside the Story.  You have no problems whatsoever in imagining your character in different circumstances that don't form part of your main narrative.  You can see your characters living on.
   
2. You think of how they're react to a situation.  Even though you no longer need to do this, thinking of how your characters would react is a good thing and one you can apply to story after story after story.
   
3. Your character seems part of you.  What I refer to here is you can't imagine your character NOT being part of your universe.   (And it doesn't matter if you have killed the character off in your story!).
   
4. Your character is not afraid to stand up for themselves.  During the course of your story, they will have matured so are now better able to take care of better sitautions.
   
5. You can list your character's taste in music, books etc without having to think about it.  You will hear a song and think Character X would like that...
   

One advantage of writing genre fiction is people know what the rules are and you are generally not expected to reinvent the wheel.   For example, in fantasy everyone has wizards with black pointed hats.  It's what you then do with that wizard which counts for anything!  So a quick look at fairytale character traits reveals:-

1. Villains are always bad-tempered and impatient.  Naturally this leads to their downfall.  Fairytales are very "hot" on ensuring justice is done (and if it can be poetic justice so much the better).
   
2. It is vital your hero/heroine never judges anyone by appearance alone.  Powerful magical beings have the habit of testing the character of those likely to be heroes/heroines.  They do this by disguising themselves, usually as crones or old men, and see if said candidate will be kind to them or not.
   
3. There has to be a clear cut bad guy and good guy in fairytales.  People need to know who to "root for".  That doesn't mean your good guy is perfect.  The best tales are those where the hero/heroine clearly has flaws but overcomes them to get the quest achieved.  Also the villains have good reasons for being the way they are so people have some sympathy for them, yet it is still clear they are wrong and/or the way they are going about things is wrong.
   

I'm not referring to Microsoft, honestly!  I am referring to getting the word out there about your books etc.

I'm very much on a learning curve with From Light to Dark and Back Again but I have learned not to panic. It is important to do what you can publicity wise as well as you can, even thought it may not be as much as you were hoping for initially. The thing to remember is you, assuming you are planning to write more than one book, will always be getting the word out about your debut (and other works) when going to festivals etc.   So take a deep breath, work out where and how you'd like to advertise and then go and see people to make it happen.

Some local through the door magazines will take an advert (though some charge).  I had hoped to get a press release out though ran out of time and I was pleased to see my item went into the Books Event horizon, which is due tomorrow. 

If there is one true rule for writing fantasy/science fiction, it is to be aware your readers will be expecting the unexpected so be ready for it.  Can your readers get a sense of what your world is like from what you share with them?  Have you drip fed the information?  You can get your characters to give a commentary on what they see but this must seem natural.  Mix up the ways you share information your readers need to know.  Some repetition of the idea is useful too,

When magic is used, what are the rules surrounding it?  Can anyone just use magic?  If someone, who would usually use their magical powers, were banned from using magic, how would they get around this?  When something unexpected does happn, is there any kind of precedent found for dealing the issue?  How do your people react to such a thing?

I had my first ever book signing at Chandler's Ford Railway Station today (8th July) and it went very well.  People came over and found out what flash fiction is and I sold some books too!  But I must admit I was very nervous about it, especially last night, with the event "hanging over my head" so to speak.  In the end, I went in with no particular expectations (just as well I think) and "went for it" - what happened happened etc etc.  The signing was a lot of fun with chat, tea and, given all I was really hoping for was to raise  my profile a bit locally, today went a lot better than I thought (especially for a debut author). 

So why mention this here?  I had to overcome my nerves, as every writer does at some point (is there anyone who doesn't have the butterflies in the stomach at some point?!), but so do your characters.  I find characters who overcome nerves, obstacles in their way and so on far more believable (and readable as a result) than any who are "fully fledged" heroes etc, who never show or feel an ounce of emotion or nervousness.  Having said that, there should be good reasons why your characters are feeling the way they are.  It is there that reader empathy is generated.  (It has to be genuine too.  Readers will see right through "tacked on" emotions, they simply won't feel real because they're not!).

So then having set up your people with genuine emotions, including nervousness, fear etc, how do your characters overcome their nerves to get on with the task in hand?  That is your story.

This is a really apt post for me as I look ahead to my first book signing for From Light to Dark and Back Again (Chapeltown Books) tomorrow, 8th July, at my local railway station.  I have prepared as much as I think I can but I suspect I'm not the only author who feels both excited and a bit apprehensive about their first signing session!  I know the worst that can happen is nobody turns up - and it happens.  While I hope that doesn't happen to me, I am prepared for it and will just shrug it off and try better next time.  I guess it's the not wanting to let people down (especially my publisher) that's making me feel a bit anxious.  I know I will feel better once the signing is over, regardless of whatever happens at it!

So are you ready?  Ready to do your own marketing?  Ready to work with your publisher if traditionally published and help as much as possible?  I must admit I'm finding it hard to find time to write new flash fiction at the moment though that is a situation I hope to rectify soon - and I am so glad to be returning to blogging regularly too.  Keeping blogging, marketing and new writing in balance is something I know I'm not quite getting right yet but I do believe I will get there!

Are your characters ready for the tasks you've set them?  Are they up to it?  If not, why  not and how will that affect your story?  There must be a really good reason for choosing that character for the task.  The story can, of course, be about the failure of that character to live up to expectations.  I must admit I love characters that do rise to the task and achieve things they didn't think they were capable of, but mainly I think because this is so much more positive than writing about failure!

Can you tell your characters apart simply by the way they speak?  I've used characters who won't use contractions at all (yes, they are a snob!), others who will only use them when under stress (a snob but not quite as much of one as the first!) and those who speak as "common as muck" and have done with it.

One way of telling characters apart is to have them  have a favourite phrase or word.  The great thing with this technique is it is highly unlikely two characters would have exactly the same phrase or word.  Even if they did, they would emphasize certain words differently unless deliberately wanting to ape someone else.

Do your characters swear?  Are there certain words they'd never use (so when they do come out with them, your reader knows they are really under pressure)?  Do they use slang?  How big a vocabulary do they have?  And things like stuttering need very careful handling.  Not only do you not want to upset any readers who might study, a sympathetic portrayal could do some good here. 

Take your time over the final read through.  I usually find at this stage in a story's life, I'm almost sick of it and just want to get it out there so I can get on with a new writing project.  But ironically this is the very time to slow things down a little and remind yourself of the purpose of this edit.

1. You are checking for anything and everything which is tiresome but should result in a perfect story in terms of no errors.  That level of attention to detail can and does make the difference as to whether you're published or not.
   
2. Having come through so far with the story, don't you owe it to the tale (and yourself) to make sure everything is absolutely fine before submitting it?
   
3. You don't want anything about this story bugging you later so it really does pay to get the editing done correctly and thoroughly now.
   

It's funny how much can change in a year. 

Last year at about this time I prepared blog posts for this site and for my Fairytales with Bite one, happily scheduling them to appear while I was in Scotland.  Sorry, no time this year at all, for both happy and sad reasons. 

The sad reason was I lost my Dad in May (not unexpectedly).  The happy reason has been the publication of my flash fiction collection, From Light to Dark and Back Again  as a lot of my time has been taken up (and will continue to be) in "spreading the word".  I am so glad Dad got to see the book though.  He was very pleased and always had to have a copy of any book my stories were in.  My late mum got to see my first printed story.  Dad got to see my first book.  There is a nice kind of symmetry about that I think. 

So sorry for not having been posting so much lately.  I do hope later this year to revamp my websites, and finally get out a regular newsletter, but, in the meantime, I hope to get back to much more regular posting.

I interviewed Anne Wan, local children's author, for Chandler's Ford Today and I share Parts 1 and 2 here.  Anne shares some great tips and why she loves and loathes editing.  Do you agree?  I love editing.  I like the feeling of my story improving as I get rid of the words I suddenly realise I don't really need!  Anne also talks about some of the joys of writing children's fiction and I hope to interview other writers in different genres later in the year to discuss some of the joys and problems they face.

I am also going to have my first "physical" book signing at Chandler's Ford Railway Station on 8th July. You can never know in advance how these events are going to go so I am both looking forward to it and feeling a bit nervous all at the same time.  Not a comfortable feeling!!  Many thanks to the Three Rivers Rail Community Partnership for their support here.