Technology is generally wonderful.  I'm from the era where cut and paste was literally cutting from a magazine or paper and using glue to paste it somewhere!  Don't miss that at all.  And it is so nice being able to blog and to share with social media with one hit of a button - usually!  Have had problems with my Weebly websites sharing to Facebook tonight though I hope this issue can soon be resolved.

Technical issues for writers usually refer to grammar, spelling, proper setting out of work and so on.  They're not the most important side of writing - the creative side is the most vital.  Without that there is nothing to edit!  Having said that I always see the editing side as getting the basic work into shape and hopefully ready for publication and so nothing to be afraid of.  I can understand why every writer prefers the creative side but not why some dread the editing.  It's all to help get your work into the best possible shape so why dread that?

The golden rule with grammar and spelling is if you don't know, check and use at least two sources to check with.  And it always pays to edit on paper not screen.  If you can get someone else to look over a piece of work, someone who is good with these things, before sending the MSS off anywhere, that is useful.  You always miss typos!  I would say for a novel submission this is crucial.  Short stories, well it is helpful but because of the length of the tale you are more likely to pick things up but I would recommend going through the final version (or what you think is the final version!) at least twice and over separate days because what you miss the first time, you are likely to pick up on the second.

I've recently started a new mini series on Chandler's Ford Today where I interview historical figures.  This series is called the Impossible Interviews  and I started this off with "interviewing" Richard III.  So I wondered if I could interview fictional characters (not my own) who would I choose and why.  Here's my list (I do love a good list).

1. Elizabeth Bennett. Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice is one of my favourite novels and I would love to quiz Elizabeth about when she knew she was different from her sisters and how she coped with her mother!
2. Bertie Wooster.  Didn't he get fed up with Jeeves knowing it all sometimes?  Definitely worth interviewing.  (Incidentally one thing I love about Wodehouse's portrayal is Wooster is not an idiot and he is kind, especially to his friends, who really don't deserve that).
3. Sam Vimes.  No surprises here given Sam Vimes is my favourite Discworld character, but given his deep suspicion of the Ankh-Morpork Times I doubt if he would ever consent to be interviewed. But if he did, I would quiz him about adjusting to life in the nobility and his continuing role in the Watch.
4. Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot, ideally together.  I could see sparks flying if I did interview these two together but that of course is where the fun is to be had!  Would love to know what they thought was their finest moments in fiction.
5. Docotr John Watson,  Now here's someone who knows the importance of keeping a good writing series up togther!  But would love to quiz him on how he handle Sherlock when the latter is being impossible.
   

1. Be unforgettable - for you and your readers.
   
2. Be a joy to write for.  You will know the character inside out so know how they will speak, the kind of things they will do, and how they react when  under pressure.
3. Enable you to develop the plot in unexpected ways.  Because you know this character so well, it makes it easier to explore their hidden depths and so expand the plot of your story.  Those hidden depths will spark other ideas for what this character could be capable of.
4. Be a spark for other characters in your story to react to/against.  This tells you who are the friends and who are the enemies of course.  But your villain has to have a decent heroine to react against.  And the hero needs a decent enemy.  There has to be conflict in a story.  Without it, there is no story.
5. Have the motivation/stamina and so on to finish the quest.  Good characters don't give in easily.  They'll make a decent fight of it whether they are the hero/heroine or villain.  A really good villain will enable most readers to work out where that villain is coming from with regard to why he is acting the way he is and even be sympathetic when he/she loses!
   

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

The ideal character is one that isn't!  I know flawed characters can be a cliche (especially in detective fiction) but there is no such thing as the perfect fictional character.  Nor should there be given fiction should reflect life and what humanity can be like. The "ideal" character from a writer's perspective should:-

1. Be a joy to write for.  Hypocritical characters can be huge fun to write about given they ignore the "rules".  That gives their creator a great deal of freedom to drop said characters right in it.  Those incidents expand the plot, bring in dramatic tension and so on.
   
2. Be flawed but also have virtues.  The writer should have sympathy with their character's flaws and not be annoyed by the virtues.  If we can't feel that way about our creations, nobody else will!
   
3. Know their own mind (even it if takes time over the course of the story to get to that point).  This all shows the character developing.  The most fatal thing for any character is to be static.  They will come across as flat and boring as a result.
   
4. Be true to themselves.  This applies whether the characters are heroines or villains.  Readers should be able to see where the characters are coming from and why they are the way you've portrayed them.  They don't have to agree with it though!
   
5. Be able to interact with other characters.  Even if this is done badly!  That in itself tells you a lot about the character.
   

We all have bad days.  Today wasn't one of my better ones for all sorts of reasons but it led me to wonder what would make a bad day for characters and why. So maybe it might turn out to be a good day after all because that thought sparks some story ideas!

What is it your characters are seeking to achieve?  When their day goes wrong, what can they do to rectify things?  Or is it a case of accepting it was  just a bad day and they pick themselves up and start again?  Just how good (or otherwise) are they at doing that? 

A lot can be revealed about personality by how well people handle the irritations (minor or otherwise) of life and how they react to being put under stress unexpectedly.  Can they "let go" when they need to or do they brood over something going wrong and it takes them longer to work whatever it was that did go wrong out of their system?  Can any enemy exploit whatever the dominant trait is here against them?

True character really does show up best when it is put under stress.  All "cover ups" tend to go by the by as we revert back to flight or fight type responses.  Your characters should show this too.

The title of this post sounds like Part 1 of those magazines that build up week after week and are usually advertised on TV just after Christmas!  (They usually start off very cheaply and then get more expensive.  They usually come with their own special binder, which is usually expensive for what it is.  Cynical?  Moi?  I think not, I've just seen too many of these things around).

One of my favourite pieces of world building advice came from the late great Terry Pratchett, who figured out how the plumbing would work in his Discworld and built up literally from the bottom upwards!  Well it IS a place to start...  and a vital one.  (After all in the UK where would we be without Sir Joseph Bazelgette and the sewer system he gave us? Up the proverbial creek....  literally too!).

I've started with looking at how the form of government would work in my fictional magical world and that led to me working out how villages would be, what kind of media there would be and that my creation was not above pinching ideas from other worlds it kept an eye on.  What I found was that one idea for filling in the details about a practical side of life my characters would have to live with is that this inevitably led to more ideas and my fictional world came to life piece by piece.  The more realistic it seems to you, the more convincingly you will write about it and the characters that live in it and that really will be picked up by readers.

So some questions to ask then:-

Where will you start with your world building? 
Who does sort out the plumbing and how?
Who runs the government and what kind is it?
How is magic used?  Is everybody magical or do differing species have differing abilities?  Is there scope for someone with relatively low levels of magic to improve themselves and their capabilities here?
How is education carried out?
How is society organised?

Enough there to be getting on with I think!

I started a new occasional series for Chandler's Ford Today this evening and called it Impossible Interviews.  My first "guest" is Richard III (!) but I hope to "interview" other historical figures from a wide range of backgrounds in due course.  This led me to wonder about doing the impossible from a writing viewpoint.  I'm not referring to getting an agent or a publisher, horrendously difficult though that can be.  I'm referring about being able to talk to your characters and perhaps more importantly listening to what they have to say to you.

I've discussed interviewing your characters before as it can give good insights as to their full personality, which in turn will inspire and drive the way you write about/for them.  But let's switch that.  What would your characters ask you?  What are they happy about in your portrayal of them and why? What are they unhappy about and do they have a point? (!).

What are their ambitions (long and short term) as these might not coincide with what you originally had planned?  Are their voices distinctive the way they need to be so your readers always know who is talking?

Are your characters, in themselves, good listeners to others in your stories?  What are the consequences if they are not?  This could be anything from missing a crucial bit of news to irritating another character so much they end up wanting to kill Character A!  (In a crime novel, they would kill them!).

There should be some good story ideas there!

What do your characters do to earn money, food or generally get by in life?  What counts as a working life?  (This is particularly pertinent to those who write fantasy and/or science fiction.  There may well be "brave new worlds" out there but your characters still need to provide for those closest to them and indeed for themselves, so how do they do this?).  What jobs exist in your fictional world?

The downside to a magical world is if you get everyone to use magic to solve all their problems, this is going to be pretty boring for your reader.  No conflict = no problems = no story.  Also I would have thought magic is bound to have an impact upon the body of whoever uses it. In my Fairy Kingdom I emphasize the fact magical usage drains powers, which obviously can be topped up, but it made sense for ne to show my magical people as using magic when they need to and using other methods to save on wear and tear on themselves!

For those whose work is magic (e.g.  say a chief wizard), how do they stop their best ideas being stolen?  How do they use magic to help enhance their life without feeling literally drained because they're using this power all the time?  Who carries out the lowly jobs?  How is  your society structured in terms of employment?

Music from most genres, of course, has a wonderful way of reflecting different moods.  Songs contain different meanings for people.  So how do your characters show their moods?  Is it in their preferred music choices? Are these all on the gloomy side or more positive and is the character deliberately reflecting themselves here or rebelling against it?  Perhaps the most cheerful soul likes sad music to show that he/she is capable of that deeper feeling and doesn't always appreciate being seen as the class clown?

How do your characters get across their real meaning to others?  We don't always speak directly.  We try to be diplomatic or to spare others feelings so do your characters do that too?  And then we have those who know us far too well for us to be able to get away with that kind of thing and can detect our real moods and meanings when others cannot.  Who does that for your lead characters and how do they handle this?  Are they glad someone really knows them like that or always worried that same someone will blurt out uncomfortable truths at an awkward moment (it always is an awkward moment of course!)?

I'm listening to a Radio 3 concert as I type this and, as ever, the orchestra sounds magnificent.  I like the idea of there being lots of individual strings combining to make one huge sound. 

What role does music have in your fictional world?  Can anyone play/appreciate it or is it limited to the privileged few?  Is music imported from other worlds (whether or not there is a lack of home grown talent here)?  Is music limited to, say, classical only? 

In my fictional Fairy Kingdom, humanity is looked down on for its warlike and polluting qualities (difficult to argue that one really!), but things like music are a big tick on the plus side for us.  Every species, including us, needs to have at least one redeeming feature.  All characters need at least one redeeming feature too.

There are all kinds of triggers for someone to find they are being taken out of themselves.  Yes, there are the dodgy/illegal ones of drugs and alcohol but there are also the innocent ones of listening to a great concert, reading a brilliant book and so on.  For me, music can be a marvellous way of forgetting all about what is going on in real life and escaping it all for a while.

So how do your characters "get taken out of themselves"?  What are the triggers for them?  What kind of music and/or books do they pursue to help them get the most out of life?  What kind of music, to name one example of an escape trigger, does your character's world appreciate? 

How do your characters treat others who get in the way of their escaping for a bit?  Do they become grumpy, perhaps at odds with their normal reactions to people?  And those who desperately need to escape for a bit (they're ground down, under a lot of pressure etc), what happens to them when they can't get taken out of themselves for a bit?  Just how far can they go before they crack?

I look at why I use Scrivener writing software in tonight's Chandler's Ford Today post but I am well aware the most important writing tool any author has is their imagination.  The biggest way of exercising the imagination is to not only write regularly but also to read regularly and widely too.  I discuss the importance of reading in my Fairytales with Bite website tonight in my post called Is There a Magic Wand for Writing?

Fiction, non-fiction, prose, poetry, in and out of your preferred genres - ideas can spark from what you read so the more widely you cast your net, metaphorically speaking, the more likely it is you will "nab" something which you can develop and turn into your unique fiction.

I've found writing exercises to be phenomenally useful for developing the old imaginative muscle. I list three exercises below but there are many others.

1. The Hemingway Six Word Story exercise.  His classic was "For Sale.  One pair baby shoes".  A recent one of mine is "He refused to kill the dragon". I've since developed this into a flash fiction piece.  But this is the great thing with this exercise.  It effectively gives you an opening line and it is up to you what you then do with it - flash fiction, short story, poem, the beginnings of a novel, anything is possible.
   
2. Write a closing line.  Sometimes Writing Magazine offers this as one of their competitions.  They give you a finishing line and you work out how you got to that point.  I've not used this one much but can see the usefulness of it. 
   
3. Free writing.  Set a time limit, say ten minutes, and literally just write anything.  Switch off the inner editor and just go for it.  The great thing about this one, which I use when I want to brainstorm future ideas, is I know whatever I come up with is going to be very rough and will need a lot of work but so what?  It really doesn't matter and knowing that can be liberating.  That in turn frees up your writing and your imagination and hey presto, on paper, you've suddenly got something you can work with.  Even if you come up with five ideas and you dismiss most of them, for whatever reason, you will find something you can explore further.  I've found in exploring an initial idea, other ideas follow.  It can be the getting started that can be difficult at times but this exercise is a good way round that.
   

In the UK there have been a couple of documentaries in recent months about the Carpenters, one of my favourite groups from the 1970s.  Amongst their many great hits, I loved their Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft.  What a song title for a start!  And the full lyrics live up to the promise of that title.  If ever there was a song for sci-fi and fantasy fans, this is it.

So in your fictional world who are the main inhabitants of that world?  Do they accept the existence of life outside of what they know?  Do they attempt to make contact at all?  Are they successful?  What are the consequences?

How do they make contact?  Is magic involved? And what happens when a magical species meets a non-magical one?  How can the latter survive without any obvious defence against magic?  Do they persecute those who are magical to try to protect themselves?

And if your world was originally inhabited by a species that was driven out, how did that happen?  And what would happen if that species tried to come back?

One of my favourite guitar riffs is the opening to The Beatles' Day Tripper.  (Another significant favourite is The Carpenters' Goodbye to Love solo at the end of the song). 

So does day tripping feature in the life of your heroes and heroines of the fictional world?  Is there enough leisure time for folk to want/be able to enjoy trips out like that?

Where would your characters go?  Where would they avoid?  Do they use magic to transport them there?  Does the government allow free travel or are they restricting thiis? Do special places within your overall fiction have meaning for your characters?  If so what and why?

That wonderful author, Roald Dahl, whose centenary is today, has left us a literally fantastic legacy with his characters and quirky stories.  I can't name a favourite story of his, there are far too many to choose from, but I loved the wit in his tales.  I also liked his Tales of theUnexpected series. 

So what legacies do your characters leave for your readers?  Are your characters leaving the kind of impression you meant them to leave?  If not, why not?  Do your characters surprise you and if so how do they do so?  I must admit I love it when my characters show more depth than I originally planned.  It is the sure fire way of knowing your characters have real potential and the way you've written them is not going to get in the way of that being shown.

What emotional legacies do your characters have?  Have they inherited a stiff upper lip attitude  or are they keen to wear their heart on their sleeve?  Is this affected by the differences in the generations?  My generation finds it easier to express emotions in ways that my parents' generation did not.  So legacies can be something that you're expected to attain to as well as what you already bring with and/or automatically inherit.

It doesn't matter what world you live on, or what role you yourself have, there is always an unglamorous job you're glad not to be carrying out yourself.  Magic can be dangerous (ask anyone who is the victim of it, assuming they've still been allowed to keep the gift of speech as opposed to being given the gift of being able to croak really well).  Magic can also be mundane if you are used to being in and around it all the time.

So the unglamorous side of magic can include having to collect ingredients for the local magical powers.  The higher up the migical hierarchy you are, the less likely it is you will collect your own eye of newt for use in a wide range of spells.  Someone has to keep a record of the official spell books available (and know who has borrowed them!).  If some witch asks you to look up a spell for this purpose or whatever, if you want to be able to get your pension at all, you will do as asked.  And herbal ingredients don't collect themselves (unless you're really skilled at magic and are happy to waste magical power on a spell to achieve this when you could get some lowly paid minion to do it instead).

And the real thing about being a lowly paid minion that really grates?  The fact everyone despises you.  But someone has to be the lowest of the low even in a magical world.  And that is the real function of being a lowly minion!

Sympathetic characters do not have to be the good guys, far from it.  For me a really "good" villain is one where I, as a reader, can see exactly where he/she/it/whatever is coming from and the reasons for their behaviour are understandable.  (In their minds, of course, their behaviour will be justified as well but that's another matter).

A really "good" hero/heroine is one with a sense of humour, awareness of their own flaws, tries to correct them and often fails (hey, don't we all do that?), is brave, persistent and does not get on the nerves of the readers by being too perfect.

For fiction to work, it is the characters that draw the readers in and there has to be something sympathetic about said characters for that drawing in process to have the remotest chance of working.  So how do you make your characters sympathetic? 

I tend to give mine a dilemma people can identify with, a robust sense of humour, courage (I always love characters who have plenty of that) and make them as down to earth as possible.  In my rebellious fairy godmother's case, she is stubborn but brave and honourable.  I think she is both admirable and a pain in the neck (I'd hate to live with her, visit yes but live with, no!).  In the case of her daughter, she is to be pitied for having to cope with her mother and to keep said mother's unusual past quiet as well as coming to terms with what that past means for her personally. 

Life often isn't easy.  It certainly shouldn't be for your characters!

As I type this, I am listening to one of my musical highlights of the year, The Last Night of the Proms.  For once this year I did finally get around to listening to most of the other Proms too and particularly enjoyed the John Wilson Orchestra and Quincy Jones Proms.  Both fabulous.  I love The Last Night.  It is wonderful hearing so many of my favourite pieces in one concert.

So what kinds of music are played in your fictional world?  What music does your main character enjoy?  Does it say something about their personality or do they deliberately choose to like a kind of music which is generally unexpected from those who know them well?  Or is your world an austere one where music is suppressed?  (After all you can express almost anything through music which, for a dictatorship, is good reason to suppress it).  The way a government treats musicians, writers or whoever can express ideas artistically can be a very good indication of how it treats the populace at large.

Do your characters sing?  If so, in which style?  Is dance enjoyed on your fictional world?  What would we recognize?  What is unique to your created world?  Why has music, dance etc developed in the way you have portrayed it? 

The title of this post isn't about me though it is fair to say I am not one of life's tall people.  I'm not one of life's average height people come to that.  I can confirm I did get heartily sick of the "short and sweet" comment directed at me when I was growing up.  Well when I say growing up, I got to a certain height and then stayed there!  And yes it wasn't that high!

However, fiction writing is different.  Short and sweet (or not as the case may be) is exactly what's needed for flash fiction.  My Chandler's Ford Today post tonight is the first half of a two parter all about flash fiction and explores what the genre is and gives one of my published pieces as an example.  The second part should be online tomorrow night and will be confirming news of my flash fiction book deal (exciting times!) and reveal what is on my writing desk and where my trigger to write comes from.

My flash fiction varies in tone from out and out humorous to borderline horror, hence the title of this post.  It very much reflects what I write.  But as I mention on my Fairytales with Bite website, you as a writer still need to keep to the point when writing.  It doesn't matter whether you're writing a flash fiction piece or a novel, each story must show the reader what is happening and then stop.  I must admit I find ending a story difficult at times, partly because I've fallen in love with the characters and want to keep writing about them, partly because I haven't worked out the proper ending for the story.  A thorough edit sorts that problem out though.

Characters can be short and sweet too, both in terms of their (relevant) appearance in a story and also in terms of their attitude.  Just don't make your characters too sweet.  I find that kind of thing very irritating.  I like my characters with flaws.  Much as I love Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, I always did find the flawed characters of Jo and Amy easier to identify with than Beth (and to a lesser extent, Meg).  Beth, I found, was a bit too nice.  Great friend to have.  Not so great in fiction I thought.

I do love adopting a well known phrase and seeing how I can apply it to my characters. So that explains tonight's post title!  And the really ugly are ugly in heart, never appearance.  Which of your characters are the unlikely heroes, the ones that go out of the way to help others?  Which of your characters are judged by their appearance?  (See The Ugly Duckling for more on that!).

Who are the really ugly ones (especially in terms of attitude) that reside in your world? Who are the so called beautiful ones but their outlook is anything but lovely?  Can most of your characters see through wrong atttudes? Is the outlook of the society you're writing about a generally liberal one and, if not, how  oppressive is it and how does it justify its stance?

What/who does their best to upset things at any public event?  (And why do they take the view it is their role to do it?  Is it out of spitefulness or to have a go at the fairy govenment or both?  What is the justification for ugly behavour - and there will be one). 

When I create a new character, one of the first things I ask myself is what their chief trait is going to be?  From that it is easy enough to work out that character's general attitude to life, if they get on with others or  if they wind everyone else up instead.

Sometimes I cross traits.  To name one example, my Eileen has stubborness, idealism and a sense of honour as her chief quallties.  How easily led are your characters?  Eileen isn't, she's the one doing the leading.  And therefore likely to clash with anyone else who thinks they should be the leader.

So what traits would you use to build your characters?  (Bear in mind all characters need to have thier positive and negative qualities).  How did they develop these traits?  How would the nature versus debate work out for them?

As autumn rapidly comes in throughout the  UK, my thoughts turn, appropriately, to the dark side.  I've mentioned in earlier posts about thinking about how time is organized on your fictional world.  How long are days?  How long are the nights?  What are the seasons and so on?

Which of your characters likes the darker side of the seasons and why?  Is it for dodgy/evil purposes or does bright light switch them off?  What does lurk in the shadows of your fictional world?  The great thing with fantasy and science fiction writing is it does leave lots of lovely room for you to invent your own monsters!  Okay crime fiction writers can have a lot of fun here too...

What are the monsters in the world you've created and how did they come to get that reputation?  Are they really as ugly as their deeds?  (I think I would find a good looking monster more scary funnily enough. I would wonder if their good looks distracted people from what they were doing/trying to do).

What is the dark side your main characters are trying to suppress?  Do they succeed or, as with My Hyde, does the real them have to come out and make its presence felt?).  And who decided your monster character is a monster?  Convention?  (if so does anyone deny it).