I read chiefly for pleasure but as part of the Future Learning Hans Christen Andersen course, I am studying the structure of stories in more detail.  Later on in the course, I'm due to study in more detail specific Andersen stories.  I'm looking forward to that as I hope this study will help me (a) improve my own writing and (b) achieve more pleasure from favourite stories as I see more layers in them and as a result get more from them.

Andersen's simplicity of language is brilliant.  He doesn't waste words in setting up the universe and scene for each of his stories.  He concentrates on telling you enough and leaves the reader to fill in the gaps.  This is something I think all writers should aspire to as I know I get a lot of enjoyment from working things out for myself when reading stories.  I want clues.  I want enough information to work things out but I don't want every little thing spelled out for me.  I think good stories give the reader that room to deduce things.  (This is even more crucial for detective stories but does apply to all genres).

Looking at the motivation behind the writer presenting the story as they have can be fascinating.  I also love studying the motivation of the characters.  I think the one question every writer should ask themselves with regard to their own characters is "is the motivation strong enough?".  Also working out the structure of a story can help you stick to a good frame work for your own stories.  There is no point, I feel, in reinventing the wheel when you know what structures work for what type of story.

Every writer builds on what has gone before, regardless of the genre they're working in, as this is unavoidable.  Nobody can reinvent the wheel and this is particularly true for creative writing.

It is also true you have to know what the rules are before you can even think about twisting or breaking them.  I've been looking at common features of fairytales as part of the Future Learning Hans Christen Andersen online course I'm currently studying.  While I think a lot of the language used in this kind of analysis is more convoluted than it needs to be, the features do make sense and you can see how one step leads to another and then another.  From there of course the story quickly builds up. 

I also think the Rule of Three principle is a natural way to tell stories.  You do need Event 1, Event 2 repeated, then Event 3 where the situation changes or a problem is resolved.  Without that middle repetition, there is no build up of tension yet equally you don't want endless repetitions.  It becomes boring.  Yet who first came up with this?  It's a centuries old technique and is found in the Bible (see the Parable of the Good Samaritan - the priest, the Levite, the Good Samaritan.  Three characters and three reactions to the situation).  I'm reasonably certain the Rule goes back further than that and emerges from the oral tradition of storytelling.

So do writers despair there is "nothing new under the sun"?  No.  We use the rules to strengthen our stories and recognize readers need a familiar framework to follow.  I think writers need them too.

I am currently studying one of the Future Learning's online courses which looks at six of the fairy tales of Hans Christen Andersen.  These tales are The Tinderbox, The Snow Queen, The Little Mermaid, The Story of a Mother, The Travelling Companion and The Red Shoes.

I had not read The Story of a Mother or The Travelling Companion before and I highly recommend them.  There's a really good twist to the latter.  I first came across Hans Christen Andersen's wonderful tales in The Reader's Digest Complete Fairytales Collection (which is a two volume set).  I still have these books but the spines have been taped together and I couldn't tell you how often I read these.  The colour illustrations are marvellous two and The Little Match Girl is particularly haunting, both for its story and its picture.

One thing I like about Andersen's work is its variety.  Not all of his tales have a happy ending (or what we would consider as one.  See The Little Mermaid especially for this).  This reflects life.  I believe it reflects his life.  But his simplicity of language and ability to appeal to all ages over time is amazing.  My favourite tale of his remains The Ugly Duckling.  Anyone with any experience of being bullied or of feeling they are different and misunderstood will identify with this tale.

The course lasts for six weeks and I hope to say more about it as it goes on but so far it is fascinating stuff and I am enjoying joining in with the online discussions.  This is the first online course I've ever taken but this one, all about fairytales, really did have my name on it!

I think that for most writers, writing success is not one specific moment.  It's a series of moments which hopefully lead on to other good moments, including publication. 

My new post on Chandler's Ford Today tonight, From Writer to Dancer: Felicity Fair Thompson, explores that a litle and shares useful thoughts and advice. 

My own special moments include having my first short story published by Bridge House (A Helping Hand in their Alternative Renditions anthology), going to my first writing conference, having work published online for the first time, my first blog post for Chandler's Ford Today and so on.  The great thing about looking on writing success in this light is each success boosts your morale.  If you just wait for publication to be the big success, then (a) you're probably in for a long wait and (b) you'll miss out on the joy of enjoying the steps you need to take to get to the publication stage.

The advantages of fairytales share a lot in common with the advantages of writiing genre fiction regardless of actual type.  For a start, while you do have to stick to some rules, you can also spoof those rules.  Shrek is a great spoof of the fairytale rule ogres have to be bad guys.  From whose perspective?  That is the whole point.  Shrek is not a bad guy from his viewpoint!

Fairytales have stock characters - the witch, the fairy godmother and so on - but you then develop your witch, your fairy godmother and flesh them out.  What do your characters make of the rules themselves?  My rebellious fairy godmother, Eileen, hates them and her name change to a drab sounding Earth one is in itself an act of protest against what she sees as magical power abuses.

Fairytales can get great messages across without preaching.  They can be funny, sad, or both though the ending has to be decisive one way or the other.  Fairytales can explore issues or just be straight entertainment.  Fairytales can be and usually are aimed at adults as well as children.  Adults will have picked up the themes behind The Ugly Duckling and The Little Mermaid  to name just two examples and be able to identify with them. 

For me, the main story building blocks are characters, plot and strong openings and endings.  Get these things right (or as possible as it is in this life to do so!), and you will have a strong story.

Without strong characters (and by strong I mean well thought out and developed characters),  you won't have anyone for your readers to root for.  Without a strong plot you have a meaningless story and characters without enough to do.  A strong opening is a must to draw readers in, but a strong ending means the reader is likely to want to read more of your tales in the future.

Does your story have the impact on re-reading it (ideally many times) that you want it to have?  Have you got rid of any of the dreaded boring bits?  Is everything relevant and/or moving your story forwards?  If the answer is yes, then get your story out there.  It's definitely worth trying to get it published. 

How do your characters develop?  Do they develop?  Remember it doesn’t necessarily have to be for the better.  Bad experiences can make characters bitter.  That in turn can affect their relationships but that character is still developing.

What does your character have to lose/gain from  your tale?  Is the stake high enough? How does your character cope with crises?  Do they bring out the best or the worst?  Are there enough crises in your story?  After all something’s got to happen!

Can you make use of your character’s memories to shape them?  For instance, the Queen’s mother was murdered, obviously having a traumatic effect on the Queen and triggering her wish to keep her family close to her, no matter what it takes.

Do your characters have friends?  What do they think of the characters?  Could friends be useful for subplots (though note these still have to move your tale along and shouldn’t be a distraction or a device to get your word count up)? Can the friends guide your characters as to which route they should take? And friends can get it wrong, just as much as the main characters can by themselves.

Do your characters have depth to them?  Do they fall in love, hold grudges, take revenge?  Do they develop say from wanting revenge to finding revenge wasn’t as satisfactory as they thought it might be?  Can you see why your characters act the way they do?

Do you show why your characters are villainous?  Is the reason good enough to keep the villainy going or can it be overcome?  Do you show how your world works?  What’s the system of government?  Are there those who resent the way things are run?

Can you picture your characters?  I don’t have character biographies, though I can see the point of drawing them up, but I can picture the type of being that L’Evallier is in my mind’s eye and it makes writing for him, just to name one example, a lot easier.

History is something everyone in the Kingdom takes a huge interest in.  Not only does it have direct relevance to relationships between the different groups (the dwarves and elves being the obvious example), all in the realm are aware of their world being attacked and who by and when their world is responsible for the attacking, thus provoking a violent response back again. 

There are history programmes on FNN (in favour of the fairy royals to nobody’s surprise).  Everybody responsible for history programming takes the official line.  Eileen is the nearest to a revisionist and even she takes most things as gospel. 

The Witch always disputed the truth of anything broadcast on FNN as she feels her family was unfairly portrayed and treated.  She has a point but sadly her family were mass murderers and rebels so the fairy royals were right to defend their people against them.  What Eileen queries is whether the royals could’ve intervened sooner, acted more fairly, preventing the need for a forceful defence. Eileen’s queries are not welcome.

Villages group together (in groups of five) annually for their summer carnival where al species takes part.  These are arranged throughout the season so the Queen and/or Eileen can attend them.  A lot of drinking takes place and that’s just by the organizing committees! 

There are floats, on the theme of fairy tales and nursery rhymes (the Kingdom's history effectively), but you can get the Kingdom’s equivalent of an “avant garde” float based on the theme of how horrible humanity is, which always goes well.  There’s nothing like condemning an alien life form to bring magical beings together in a spirit of unity. 

Fairy tales and nursery rhymes must be re-enacted regularly in the magical world to keep the stories “alive”.  Once the carnivals are over for the year, there’s a lot of competitiveness to see which group of villages got the best coverage on FNN and which royal seemed to enjoy which festival most.  The debates from this keep FNN and the press going for material for months.  This material ranges from nice to poisonous and forms part of a village's official history so people want to get the best coverage.  The disappointment of those who didn’t get on the organizing committees or felt their carnival didn’t get enough attention can be physically felt by all magical beings for over twenty miles!

Good storytelling is usually emotional storytelling.  The tale will make you feel something.  Whatever the emotion is, it will be appropriate for the story.  And it doesn't matter what the format is - a story can be in written prose, acted out on stage, broadcast or whatever - but what you read will hit you.

Good storytelling will "carry you" with the tale.  It should mean you don't want to miss anything.  It should mean the story lingers in the memory long after it first impacts on you. 

Good stories can be adapted.  And the really good ones, despite being centuries old, will still be produced regularly, published regularly or whatever.

The characters will be memorable, each in their own right.  You shouldn't be able to imagine the plot without any of them.  Good storytelling is something instantly recognizable the moment you come across it.

One great joy in writing is discovering more about your characters the more you write about them and the further you get into your story.  This adds depth and helps you write with even more conviction (which I think always shows through to the reader), but there are things you should know about your characters from the start.  This is not a prescriptive list but what I like to know about my characters before I start includes:-

1. Major trait.  Are they a coward?  Stubborn?
   
2. What drives them.  Are they moral?  Will they crack under pressure?  How much pressure would be needed?
   
3. What are their fears? This can feed into 2 above.  Also what they do to avoid their fears can make for interesting stories.  Are their fears sub-conscious so you, as their creator, reveal these as the story goes on and you discover just how your character reacts or do you know from the offset?  You need to decide.
   
4. What are their aspirations?  Leading onto what are they prepared to do to achieve them?
   
5. Their position in society.  It doesn't matter what world you're on, fictional or otherwise, but there will be a hierarchy of some sort.  It's almost impossible to avoid given someone has to have more power than someone else (who else would govern?).  How does this position affect your character?
   

To help make your characters seem more real you should have some reference to their family background.  After all nobody comes from nowhere and while the family doesn’t have to appear in your short story or novel or whatever, it would be odd if your character doesn’t refer to them in some way, no matter how briefly. 

After all what you make the character says here can show a great deal of how they interact (or not) with their family and the reader can speculate as to how they’re likely to get on with people in general and whether they’re likeable or not. 

Also if the character gets on well with the family, do they do this to the exclusion of getting on with anybody else?  Do they look down on others?

Does your character know what they must achieve?  Do they care enough?  If they don’t, your readers won’t care either and your story will sag.  Is your character doing everything they can to get to that point?  Commitment from the reader demands commitment from the character/author in the first place.

What brings your character to the crisis in their life that forms the basis of your tale?  Don’t put in a huge block of narrative to explain this, drip feed the information, but the stronger the character, the greater the crisis they can face.  A stubborn person can create more crises for themselves than a passive one.  And are your characters distinguished enough from one another to stand out?

Every character should have their faults and virtues, even the more minor ones who don't play a major role in the story.  These faults and virtues may not necessarily come into the story either but you will have clearer idea in your own mind as to who this character is and what drives them and so write about them with more conviction.  That shows.

I like characters that are ambivalent.  It keeps options with them wide open and they make for interesting reading.  Willl they do the right thing by the hero/heroine?  Willl they betray them to their enemies?  I am impressed with the character of Missy on Doctor Who right now for this reason.  You know she's bad but there's enough hints there is more than that to her and so you want to see how things pan out and what effect that will have on the Doctor.

I use traits to drive motivation as well.  A well motivated character acts consistently, will go beyond their limits to achieve their objectives and will achieve far more than they would otherwise have done.  That's true for us too!

Fairy Kingdom history is taught as stories.  This happened then because and so-and-so was to blame.  Eileen has never liked this simplistic approach but her version of events is not popular with everyone else.  The Queen's response to it turned the air bright blue.

The idea of serious documentaries looking at things from both sides' viewpoints is alien here.  And Roherum is more than happy to carry on giving out the "story" approach.  He loves drama and the stories are easy to act out even when just presenting them. 

Certain battles are commemorated every year on the relevant dates. Even Roherum adopts a more sombre tone for these.  Background music is subdued.  Naturally the losing side, the witches generally, have their own commemorations but these are not broadcast.  The likelihood of that changing is remote.

The magical world loves its heroes and heroines.  The more unlikely the character here the better.  Some of their favourites include:-

1. Eileen - obviously.  She has a good record.
   
2. Hanastrew - for taking over from Eileen and being very good at it.
   
3. Any downtrodden stepdaughter.
   
4. Any youngest of three.  They nearly always turn out to be heroic.
   
5. Talking animals.  When these turn up, their role is always to help the hero to be heroic or to give them useful information.
   
6. The humble.  They are always rewarded in fairy tales, even if takes a while.
   
7. Occasionally ogres like Shrek though the sad thing is they have to prove themselves for a while.
   
8. The wizard, keen to put a spell right started by a very unwise ancestor, does correct the spell, even with the passage of time.  Most in the magical world would welcome any evicence wizards don't just think about themselves.
   

As with all societies, there are the haves and have nots.  

The “higher” magical beings - fairies, witches and wizards, elves - have the greatest powers.  The “lower” ones - the sprites - have significantly less and resent it.  The fact they wouldn’t handle extra powers well they ignore.

Dwarves and trolls fall in the “mid-range” and, to be fair, everyone, including the sprites, has the chance to earn magical gifts from the Queen so even the lowliest sprite can add to what they were born with.  The schools teach relevant skills to the relevant groups and each group specializes.  There’s a reason why  nobody other than a dwarf can mine and go into raptures about gold.  Some things just are in the blood! 

The Witch’s dragon wanted to experiment with genetics by turning Jenny  into a lady dragon and mating with her, figuring their offspring would inherit her magical skills and making dragon kind independent of those like the Witch without whom he could not exist.  He was right to think along those lines.  Jenny was equally right to be horrified by the idea!

Fairies are the top beings in the realm, mainly because it is run by a Fairy Queen.  Earth depictions of them as twee are despised. The only thing twee about Eileen is her collection of classic skirts made out of a certain well known material!  The godmother class is the highest kind of fairy and it is from them recruits for the angels are usually found when godmothers reach the end of their time in the Fairy Kingdom. 

Fairies like Hanastrew are not yet godmothers but are clearly going to get there.  Those like the fairy squad will be the working fairies, some of whom will gain promotion, some of whom will stay put.  Not every fairy wants to be a godmother - a great deal more responsibility comes with it. Fresdian (Rose) managed to disguise her true godmother class to avoid those responsibilities.  All fairies practice their skills regularly.  Most fight like demons too when called on to do so by the Kingdom.

Eileen has always read widely both in the Fairy Kingdom and on Earth.  She reads to relax, mainly after her evening bath, but always reads to develop her magical skills.  The Fairy Kingdom produces a wide range of publications to encourage development of skills.  Some of Eileen's favourite books are:-

1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  The Queen would say this was highly appropriate given Eileen is full of both qualities.
   
2. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein.  Eileen likes a good quest herself so enjoys reading about others.  She also likes characters who persist with their quest no matter what the difficulties and has a soft spot for hobbits.
   
3. Magical Expectations.  This is an annual publication in the Fairy Kingdom and is a report on how magic has developed in different species during the past year.  Any new spells that have caught the public's attention (for good or evil) are reported in depth here.
   
4. Historical Truths.  These are Eileen's versions of Fairy Kingdom history.  Eileen takes the view if she doesn't like her own books, nobody else will, ignoring the fact the Queen and her government were bound to dislike these for their direct criticism and questioning of the official version of events.
   
5. The Best of P.G. Wodehouse.  Eileen likes classic humour and believes in reading the best.  She has good taste.
   

Another great thing about interviewing your characters is the responses make up their profile.  You can also interview them at different stages in their "lives" and see if their responses change depending on what has happened to them in your story.

I've found preparing interviews like this has made me think more deeply about my characters, how they would react and why and that can only be a good thing.  I think it helps me write their stories with more conviction.

You could get your characters interviewing each other as well.  What questions would they ask of themselves and of each other?  There could be some useful insights there.

I've found interviewing my characters to be a great way of finding out more about them.  I've based some of my questions on interviews I've read with other authors and other questions on what I think readers would want to know.  Some of my questions include:-

1. What is the single thing you regret most?
   
2. What would you say was your greatest strength?
   
3. Conversely, what would you say was your greatest weakness?
   
4. If you could change something about yourself, what would it be?
   
5. What would you say was your finest achievement?
   

I also ask questions specific to the character.  For example, to Eileen, I ask if she regrets her defection to Earth.  In all my interview questions I try to look at the character from an outsider's viewpoint.  Another great thing about the interview technique is in coming up with my characters' answers, I find out quite quickly whether or not I have given my characters sufficient motivation for being the way they are/acting the way they have.  An interview with answers can also form part of an outline for a story too.

What do I like best about writing?
Creating stories is fun in itself.  It’s also a positive thing to do.  Stories are practically as old as humanity itself and though the form in which they’re told changes, the need for stories will always be with us.  Stories are also great for getting messages across without preaching.  And a good story entertains, makes you think and sticks in the memory.  I want some of my stories to stick in people’s memories - for good reasons!

What do I like best about writing?
Getting the first draft down as then I’ve got something to work with.  Getting the first edit done as I start sensing the story “tighten” up.  Getting the final version out knowing I’ve written and edited it to the best of my ability.  What is nice is when the final version is a dramatic improvement on the first draft, as it should be.  It’s also encouraging to keep coming up with ideas to write about.  Whilst there are humans, there are always human conditions and whims and ways to write about.

What are your writing bug bears?
Bad spelling!  I can understand this being used to show an illiterate character but that’s all it should be used for and should only be part of the story/novel.  If authors can’t spell or be grammatical why should anyone else bother?  Writers ought to set a good example here, giving we claim to love the written word!  And texting is an abomination of the English language.  We’ve got vowels for a reason!  We need them!

What are your writing bug bears?
Celebrity “writers”.  I’ve nothing against ghost writing in itself (I prefer to see ghosts properly credited as it is an art form stepping into someone else’s life convincingly in print) but the “writer” really should be writing something as a contribution to the work and not just their name on the contract!!  There are enough luvvies in the acting world.  Do we really need them in the publishing one?

What are your writing bug bears?
The difficulties of finding publishers and agents! Being told you can’t have one without the other when you’ve tried very hard, and professionally, to get one of them! Whilst I’m getting short stories out, which is great, I still want to get my novels out. The fact there are charlatans about complicates things.  And when people claim they self published and you recognize the name of the publisher as a vanity company! Those authors will have paid thousands for the privilege of being published and lost their rights.  Self publishing means you keep the latter!

What are your writing bug bears?
Authors generally being under-appreciated.  Yes we fiction writers make it up but it is hard work doing so in such a way the making it up works. Okay the work is good fun but so many people dismiss writing as something they’d do if only they had the time.  This is why it’s great going to a writers’ conference such as the one at Winchester.  You know you’ve got a sympathetic audience there!  Oh and never having enough time to do as much writing as I’d like!