I love well written characters I can identify with in some way but my favourites are the ambivalent ones who keep you guessing.  Favourites amongst these are Avon (Blake's 7), Severus Snape (Harry Potter) and Missy (current series of Doctor Who and brilliantly played by Michelle Gomez.  Somehow I don't think we've seen the last of her.  Hope we haven't anyway).

Ambivalent characters keep you on your toes as a reader and as a writer.  As a reader you are looking for signs that indicate they're becoming a good guy after all (not a chance with Missy!) and as a writer you are looking to put enough doubt into your reader's mind to keep them reading and wondering just what will happen with/to that character in the long run.  All thoroughly entertaining stuff and huge fun to write and read about!

Given we are all a mix of good and bad, I think ambivalent characters are probably the most realistic in fiction.  Okay now we are having flawed heroes (good thing) and villains who have a better side (makes them more interesting) but ambivalency shows a character doing what he/she/it (am allowing for possibility of ambivalent android here!) needs to do to survive.  And that always makes for a good story.

Characters should spark off each other or there is no story, but those sparks should be realistic.  Track records can be dropped into your tale, a bit here, a bit there, and this will increase tension. 

With Brankaresh and Eileen, I've deliberately not written one big argument scene, rather a series of hints that she has caught him out with bad magical practices.  These hints of course lead on to his hints (and more!) that he resents her for this. 

I've learned over time it really is best to drip feed information.  It is very tempting to tell your readers all they want to know in one go (gets it out of the way, doesn't it?) but the story reads and flows much better if information is fed in gradually.  It also means your readers can build up pictures for themselves as to what is going on and I know I love books that encourage me to do some work there.

Little details such as how a character speaks can add depth to your story.  L'Evallier, Chief Elf, will never use a contraction in speech (yet alone in writing) and it confirms his very posh pedigree.  It all fits together.

I try to think of information feeding as a case of putting it on with thin brush strokes, rather than laying it all one really thickly with a trowel!

Regardless of what genre you write it, answering certain questions will help you work out your outline (and as a result your plot).  Some questions I have found useful are:-

1. Is there enough going on in your story?  There’s no good having an interesting character if you don’t give them enough to do and say.  Likewise a great plot with a dull character will result in plot being killed off slowly. 
2. Are your characters real to you?  True to themselves?  
3. What is their overwhelming characteristic that differentiates them from others?  Can you tell your characters apart?  Their way of speaking should differ too.  They could have pet words, formal ways of speaking etc to tell them apart.
4. What are your characters likes and dislikes?  What are their tastes - think everything from food to music to clothes to being in the country (or do they prefer the coast?).
5. Have you given thought to your world’s geography?  Where it is in the universe?  How is it governed?  What is its weather like?  Does it have regional climates?
6. Do you have a dominant character?  How have they come to be that way?  Do they get away with being dominant? If so, why?
7. Are you enjoying your story?  If not, why would anyone else?  Do your characters grip you?  I find writing about someone who doesn’t have a problem with hypocrisy, Eileen, an absolute joy. 
8. Can you talk about your stories/novels?  Can you sum them up quickly?  Are you enthusiastic about them?  
9. When you get rejected short stories, are you trying to rework them and send them on elsewhere or just trying them as they are for another market?  
10. Are you open to positive criticism? The great thing is no writer gets it right first go.  Very little can’t be improved with some vigorous editing.  Incidentally you will come across negative criticism.  Rise above it.  A lot of this stuff will come from those who are insecure or vindictive.  Use criticism as a tool.  Examine what is said.  Is there any truth in it, something you can use to improve your work?  If not, happily ignore!

I write a rough outline for my short stories and novels.  Another thing I love about Scrivener is it makes it so easy to do this.  Their character and setting templates are a joy to fill in and by the time you write these, you have the bulk of your outline as by the time you've thought about your characters in detail, you should be able to see where your story is going and where your people fit in.

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.  (I love being able to set a word target in Scrivener and watch the bar change colour as I reach my word count.  I also find this simple device keeps me writing.  There is something that makes me want to see that bar drawing reach its goal and turn "green" so I keep writing until I get there!  I've also recently discovered if editing a longer piece you can still set the word target to the required level and watch your word count come down!).

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!).

Further to yesterday's post Dealing with the Wicked, I thought I'd look at how Eileen, that remarkable fariy godmother, deals with the wicked herself.

Eileen's overall approach is one of "come on if you think you're hard enough" and try attacking her school of thought.  She has no hesitation or compuction in blasting away any direct threat and always alerted the Queen to possible dangers coming up, something Hanastrew has taken over doing.

Eileen keeps herself fit, practices her wand firing and spell generation charms and seeks (and usually gets) pointers from the Queen.  Eileen questions practically everything, annoying the Queen, though Eileen points out  this questioning enables her to put herself in someone else's shoes and to deduce where threats come from efficiently.

Getting the balance right as you develop your characters is crucial to avoid the risk of creating a caricature or a puppet.  The most interesting characters have flaws as well as virtues and I personally adore creations where you are kept guessing (at least for a while) whether they're a good guy or not.  One of my favourites here is Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series.

Given you've got to have characters with strong motivations (why else are they in your story?), flaws and virtues should develop naturally out of these.  Just how far will someone go to achieve their ambition?  if generally they act honourably, what would make them act differently?  Have you developed another character who could put them under the kind of pressure that might make them crack?

Villains need to have plausible reasons for being what they are/doing what they are doing.  With very few exceptions, the vast majority of humanity has mixed motives a lot of the time for being what they are and I think fiction should reflect that.  For one thing, that would add/increase tension to your story in a way that comes across as natural and not something foisted on to the plot by a writer who knows they need more tension in there somehow!

I can't help but feel the title of the post could make a great title for a novel...  maybe one day I'll write it!  Each and every world has its own ways of dealing with those who plot against it, whether that threat is an internal or external one.

The Fairy Kingdom is tough on its approach to offenders.   Officiallly it hates the misuse of magic though Eileen has had grounds to question this in the past.  The realm will not hesitate to execute those who have threatened it in any way and Eileen has carried out these executions.  In fairness to her she has had absolute proof of the guilt of the beings concerned.

Magic has been used to try to contain a threat but the only problem with this is when dealing with someone clever and powerful enough to overcome those restrictions as that is what they do.  Overcome said restrictions and cause more problems for the magical world.

I know, I know - politics gets flaming everywhere, even into fantasy worlds!  But to be fair it is a great driving force for plots and character motivation and as a result good stories.

I can't see how you can actually keep politics out of a world you creat.  Someone has to rule it, they're either going to be a good ruler who makes mistakes, as we all do, or a dictator ruling by force.  Both scenarios will attract opposition.  In the first opponents will campaign to rectify the mistakes, in the latter they'll seek to overthrow the dictator.  Either way politics is born in your world the moment opposition is caused.  And without opposition there is no conflict and as a result of that no story.

Then there are the power-hungry who are driven by their wish to exert political (and other types of) control.  There are those like Fresdian who want nothing to do with politics and to focus on the natural world.  That rejection of political involvement is in itself a political act, albeit a negative one.

So yes there should be some sort of politics in your created world.  Who are your rulers?  Who are the ruled over?  What are the clashes?

What can threaten your world?  External forces?  Diseases?  Both? 

What are their approaches to science, magic, religion and so on? 

Are the beings in your world happy with their lot?  Is the government reasonable? 

How does society handle those against the norm or those who defect, like my Eileen did? 

How does your society organize itself? 

If it’s a magical world, do they use magic for everything or do they limit its use?  If the latter, why?  I use limitations on the grounds fairies etc want to save magical energy for more important magic.  After all, food can be grown, baked etc, so why use magic for that, unless in a dire hurry?  My Fairy Kingdom has also realized machines can be used for drudge work too, again saving magical energy for better things (like taking on the Witch!). 

Could your world come to an end?  If so, how?  If magic is involved, can that be misused to damage the physical world it’s set in?  In my novels, I’ve set up barren areas, made that way by having too much magic pounding them.  This has a knock on effect in forcing populations to move away and into other areas, causing tensions between the different groups (the sprites are generally condemned for having an irresponsible attitude to sex and reproduction - they are at it like rabbits!). 

I find asking myself questions like the ones above are a great way to generate story ideas.

Some of my favourite things about creating other worlds for my short stories and novels are:-

1. The creativity of it all.
2. When the places and people I invent become real for me and I can literally picture them.  It's one indication I'm on the right lines, which is always encouraging.
3. When I can think of a situation and know instantly how a character would react and, just as importantly, why (which is not always clear cut necessarily).
4. When I have other ideas that feed into my new world and strengthen it and/or the characters in it.  World building can only work when there's a reasonable world to build on to!
5. When I can see why a "bad" character acts that way as it means I can show this in what I write and it adds depth to that character and the plot.
   

I should add these ingredients are not, to my knowledge, available from Ocado (other online delivery services are available as they say...).  Nor do you want to get in the way as your average witch collects these.  You will pay badly for it.

1. Eye of Newt.  This one is not likely to go down well with the RSPCA.
2. Skin of Toad.  See comment above.
3. Deadly Nightshade.  If a witch offers you a herbal drink do find out what is in it first.
4. Digitalin.  A witch can never have enough poisons...
5. Apples.  Big ones ideally which she can embellish with a nice red colour.
6. Needles and thread for spinning wheels.  For those occasions when some stupid princess wanders in and takes too close an interest in what you're up to.
7. Red shoes.  Everyone needs something to dance in and enchanted red shoes really are something else.  Not only do you get to dance with death in them, you will dance to your death in them!  (The really smart witch gets a load of shoes in, puts spells on them and then palms them off on her enemies).
   
8. Dwarf repellant spray.  After that unfortunate Snow White incident, most witches are very wary of dwarves and wear this spray at all times.  It does nothing against a dwarf's axe though so most witches still use curses to defend themselves against dwarf attack.
   
9. Cat food.  For their familiars of course.
10. When the need arises, new brooms.  Witches do not make do and mend here.  Given they fly on the things, if a broom goes wrong it can prove fatal so witches take no chances here.  As yet there is no equivalent of the MOT available for brooms.  The moment there is, some witches at least will take the chance to save themselves some expense and get their brooms fixed.  In the meantime, it is always a case of must fly, must have new decent broom.
    

Books are special because:-

1. They take you to all places, real and otherise, and in all times.
2. They follow the lives of interesting characters, real and made up.
3. They come in a wide variety of formats and there's bound to be at least one to suit you.
4. They can be highly decorative items in their own right.
5. They contain stories!
6. They educate, scare, amuse, inform you.
7. They are available from a wide variety of places, including one of the best ever inventions - libraries!
8. There is nothing quite like a book.  And they are remarkably cheap sources of entertainment too.
9. There is something permanent about a book.  Is that why so many are keen to get into print?
10. They make fantastic presents.
    

Further signs all is not really in the Queen's realm are:-

1. Roxannadrell cancels all engagements and summons the Council back from their holidays.
2. The moon goes a funny colour and it isn't the result of a prank by some junior wizard somewhere.
3. Dragons feel free to rampage the Kingdom because there is nobody to keep their numbers under control anymore, which was the best reason the Council had to try to stop Eileen's defection.
4. The weather is wilder than usual, especially in terms of wind speed and the way in which it howls.  When it howls in the Fairy Kingdom, even the werewolves shut up.  That really isn't good.
5. Magic misfires all over the place.  Things aren't transformed into what the caster of the spell had in mind or effects are grossly exaggerated.  This means something is in the air interfering with everyone's powers and can be a sign the Kingdom is under attack from a rival magical world as this has happened before and was the opening shot in that attack.
   

The Fairy Kingdom has a wide range of warning signs that all it not well within its midst.  At those times, it is wise to take suitable cover.  Some of these signs are:-

1. Road Traffic Signs showing pictures of dragons are put up in areas where these have been seen.  These are put up quickly.  Virgins are advised to stay indoors and not advertise their presence.  Mind you, in sprite communities when the alcohol has been flowing freely, this is also good advice unless the virgin in question likes ribald commentary, suggestions etc.
   
2. Villages are deserted.  In any world you care to name, this is NOT a good sign.  Devastation has just happened or it is about to be inflicted.
3. Roherum goes unusually sombre on the FNN main news bulletin.  This usually means he's about to share news of a dragon attack, massive numbers dead etc.
4. The Queen changes her plans to visit what is left of a village.  You can guarantee at least one other village will suffer a similar fate.  When dragons, ogres etc go on the rampage, they don't usually stop at just destroying one place.
5. Witches are seen flying around but fairy godmothers etc are not.  This is usually indicative of a coup.
   

Fresdian, Eileen and Hanastrew are the experts in finding these places and they all use them to escape from their daily world for a while.  The Queen prefers to see nice photographs of them (though her Council is not sorry about this as they really don't want her disappearing and being out of contact.  They are generally happy for Eileen to get lost though).

Funnily enough, this would not include the Disney versions of the classic fairytales where they have been watered down to suit a young audience.  I do have some sympathy for Disney here as I wondered how they could ever produce The Little Mermaid as there is no way they could do it as Hans Christen Andersen wrote it. Having said that films that would go down well are:-

1. The Lord of the Rings.  Again epic quests go down well.
2. The Hobbit.
3. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  Good versus evil films always hit the spot.
4. The Harry Potter Films.  Most in the realm would have sympathy for a young wizard trying to fight evil.
5. The Sword in the Stone.
6. The Star Wars films - Episodes 4 to 6.  A heroic princess, unlikely heroes and an epic quest make these winners.
7. The Abyss.  The Fairy Kingdom also likes stories and films about strange alien worlds despite being one!
   

One of the things the Fairy Kingdom does like about Earth (and happily "borrows" - i.e.  nicks for its own use) is our literature.  They love the classic fairytales of course but other books they like include:-

1. Lord of the Rings.  Epic quests always go down well.  And there are many in the magical realm who can tell horror stories about cursed objects so audience sympathy here is entirely with Frodo Baggins.
2. The Hobbit.  Particularly goes down well with the smaller magical species.  They get fed up with heroes always been tall, dark and handsome and feel there is room for the small, light and frankly at times ugly.  Incidentally they are pleased the hobbits are NOT ugly and feel hairy feet should not be under-estimated.  (Great way of keeping the feet warm!).
3. Watership Down.  Anthromorphic tales generally go down well in the magical realm.
4. Pride and Prejudice.  Not widely known, this is one of the Queen's favourites.  She is partial to "light romance" - in fiction anyway.  Her Council wish she'd get on with the business of finding someone suitable to marry and produce heirs.  In the meantime, Roxannadrell happily sticks to reading about Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy.
5. A Christmas Carol.  A good morality tale goes down well too.  It is news to many in the Fairy Kingdom that humans have any morals at all so this story is nice proof of that.
   

As with life on Earth, magical literature covers a wide audience of ages and tastes.  Literature here covers all abilities in (a) reading at all and (b) magical capabilities.

Sprites love the limerick collections often produced by their colleagues.  Elves love the huge sagas.  All love the classic fairytales.

Dwarves relish the mining legends (those that have seen glimpses of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves do not like the way their kind are portrayed here.  Not one Fairy Kingdom dwarf has ever said "Hi ho".  Nor would they dream of doing so).

Each magical species has spell books appropriate to its kind.  There is some sharing of knowledge (encouraged by the Queen and her Council only when it improves safety standards, stops rioting breaking out and when it would generally be gooded for those doing the sharing and those they are sharing with).

There are comics.  The Beano is imported from Earth and sells heavily amongst the sprites.  This does not surprise everyone else. 

Hanastrew, the leader of the fairy squad, has a range of favourite spells, most of which have been in action thanks to the Fairy News Network filming the squad at work on a number of occasions.  Hanastrew doesn't mind this.  If seeing her blast someone to smithereens puts somebody else off even thinking about tackling the Queen or the fairy squad, Hanastrew considers the publicity well worth it.  Some of her best spells are:-

1. The Atomiser.  It's what the victims of it become - mere atoms.
2. The Reshaper.  Hanastrew's most powerful transformation spell is not limited by the size of the victim so is suitable for use on ogres and trolls as well as on awkward dwarves.
3. The Lasso.  This charm produces a very thick rope which lassoes itself around the victim of Hanastrew's choice.  The Mounties may always get their man.  Hanastrew always gets her magical being.
4. Invisibility in an Instant.  Hanastrew of course uses this on herself.  She has developed one of the quickest invisibility spells known to the Fairy Kingdom.
5. Flying Boost.  Hanastrew, when off duty, flies a lot to build up her stamina and distance flying but her boost spell is used to enhance her speed.  The Queen doesn't really approve and believes it be akin to taking performance enhancing drugs.  Eileen, Hanastrew's mentor, doesn't see the problem with that and neither does Hanastrew!
   

Spell book production is strictly regulated by the Fairy Queen and her government (much to the annoyance of the Chief Witch, though even she admits safety standards have improved considerably).

All spells have to be tested several times so all known effects (bad and good) can be written down.  The general principle the government works to is that, as long as suitable warnings are given, what happens after that is down to the individual taking the risks associated with that particular charm.  And if it goes wrong, it was down to them doing something wrong.

The books themselves must have spells put on them so they cannot be edited after production.  The buildings in which these books are produced also have defensive spells put on them and the government/Council send out inspectors regularly to ensure these standards are being met.  They also check that the defensive spells are robust enough.

The body of inspectors is officially known as OffSpell though the Witch calls them OffNoseyParkersGettingInHerWay.  She'd love to interfere with the spell books the fairies use so said charms would backfire to fatal effect but of course the fairies anticipated that centuries ago.