I've always found the expression "the ways of the world" a bit of an odd one.  What other world's ways can people mean when they say this?!  It's not as if we're regular visitors to another world and so following their customs and habits!

The great thing though about inventing your own fictional world is you get to set what ways your characters follow.  So what are the ways of your world then?  Why have they become the ways most will follow?  Who rebels against them and why?  What is the punishment for those who don't follow the ways of your world?

Did your world invent their ways or are they in turn influenced by other alien species they have had contact with in the past?  Does your world watch what other planets' peoples are doing and copying ideas they like the look of?  (If so you can bet copyright infringement is almost certainly not a big issue here!).

What are the ways everyone must follow if they want to live?  Who enforces these and how? 

Plenty of possible story ideas there...  happy writing!

Realistic dialogue, for me, means writing speech as clearly as possible and not necessarily as we actually speak it.  Hesitations are boring to read so I will only use the odd "umm" and "err" every now and again.  I also tend not to use slang (it dates for one thing) or anything that might seem or become a cliche.

I don't use accents in my characters though the best advice for those that do is only to use a "flavour" of what that regional accent is like - say the odd word now and again with the meaning clear from context.  This is mainly to avoid speech in characters being unintelligible to those who aren't acquainted with that accent.  I have come across "glossaries" at the back of certain novels and must admit I don't like these.  I don't want to have to look up the glossary to understand what the characters are saying.

With regard to swearing, I will get my characters to do so if appropriate.  None of them swear gratituously (though I recognise that can be a major trait in itself and reveal a great deal about the speaker).  Sometimes I report swearing - for example Character A turned and faced the walll and swore for several minutes.  Character B was not surprised.  I do this partly due to my personal tastes and faith and I am also all for the reader being able to fill things in for themselves.  I love doing so myself when reading other authors' works.

Further to yesterday's post about revealing opening lines (in terms of revealing character etc), I thought a post on closing lines would be appropriate. 

Sometimes the trick with writing is knowing where and when to stop, to know this story has finished and is best ended here.  I love endings which leave me wanting to know more (but knowing the writer is almost certainly right to finish where they have).   Punchlines can make wonderful endings. 

For example, this is the ending of one of my flash fiction pieces (though it could also make a great opening line).

I only wish I could say this time would be the last one where I watched Mother down her third double vodka.

I hope that intrigues you enough to want to know what led up to that finishing sentence.  And that is the point of the ending. It should wrap up the story.  It can end at another point of change (which can always  make a another story!  In my case I could write a second story showing Mother's battle with the booze and whether she wins it or not.  Note to self:  must do that sometime!). 

You should feel that when you read the ending, the writer has stopped at the right place, and that no words are superfluous or that the story is dragging on a bit.  Mind much the same goes for blog posts and I think that makes a good place to stop!

I love opening lines which reveal character or information in a few words.  Below are some examples I've either used or may well do so in the future!

1. He refused to kill the dragon.  I've used this to start a flash fiction piece, George Changes His Mind, which will be appearing shortly in my flash fiction collection, From Light to Dark and Back Again (Chapeltown Books (UK).  I like this start as it gives me all sorts of possibilities - this could be a comic piece, a tragic one (the dragon doesn't refuse to kill him!) or a rebellion against authority tale.  (Who sent him to kill the dragon?  Why is he so adamant he won't do as he's been instructed to do - refused implies there was an order issued after all).
   
2. She insisted on wearing the white.  I've not used this one yet, I've invented this for this post, but there are possibilities here.  Who is she?  Why the insistence on the white (and what, by implication, would she have been expected to wear?).  White is usually symbolic for purity - is the lady trying to make a point here to someone who may not believe her?  And the white what?  Whole outfit?  Hat?  Why would she not usually wear white?
   
3. The congregation was full of thieves so taking the collection was going to be interesting.  Again another invented line for this post.  Again this could become a comic story or it could be a straightforward crime one.  Where is this congregation?  Why have they gathered like this?  Who does take the collection (and what do they do with it?!).  Who is the narrator here?  (They're obviously not expecting to get the collection plate/bag back!  What will they do?).  And how does the narrator know they're all thieves anyway?
   

One of the great joys of coming out with lines like this is if I have an idea emerging from them which is not long enough to sustain a standard length short story, it will be fine for a flash piece.

What I like to see in any character in any story:-

1. The ability to learn from their mistakes.
   
2. The ability to develop relationships with other characters.
   
3. Having not only the wish to improve themselves but the ability and discipline to get on with it!
   
4. Being able to recognise the good in others and questioning official wisdom when necessary.  (No government ever gets it entirely right after all).
   
5. Not worrying about what others think of them but being true to themselves always.
   
6. They don't boast.  They acknowledge their own weaknesses.
   
7. They have phenomenally good reasons for acting the way they do (and funnily enough this is especially true for well crafted villains).
   
8. They don't ill treat others for the sake of it.  Even a villain has to have good sound reasons (at least from their viewpoint) for their actions - and what villain is going to risk having their minions rebel in protest at ill treatment when that isn't necessary?  (They also won't want a hero/heroine being able to exploit a weakness here).
   
9. Where appropriate to the story, having the ability to come to terms with their past or move on from it.  To not allow themselves to be sunk by grief, bitterness etc.
   
10. Accepting the need to change, where necessary, and doing so.
    

I have a theme on this website and my Fairytales with Bite website tonight - flash fiction.  On the other site, I share a new flash story of mine, The Magician (see the link).

Flash fiction is the only form in which I write in which I often start with knowing how the story will end and then work backwards to the beginning.  It is a great form for finishing with a punchline (and I am very fond of those). 

Equally sometimes I will use Hemingway's classic six words story exercise to get me started.  His famous example was For Sale: one pair baby shoes.  A piece I used recently was He refused to kill the dragon.  I've developed that into a flash story and it will be appearing as George Changes His Mind in my flash fiction collection, From Light to Dark and Back Again.  The collection is currently in production with independent publisher, Chapeltown Books.

I find getting that "moment", whether it is at the start or the end of the story is crucial for flash.  Flash, because of its limited word count, is also a great way to practice your editing and writing to a tight limit.  I came into flash fiction almost by accident in that I had one or two short stories I couldn't do anything with.  They were too short for standard competition entries, they couldn't be expanded (I hate padding and think it stands out like the proverbial sore thumb) so when flash took off as a genre, I realised these stories could fit there.  I then came across Cafelit's 100 word short story challenge and thought I'd give that a go.  I've not looked back since. 

And flash is a great way to use incidents as one complete story, when they wouldn't be enough in themselves for anything longer.  I also find it a wonderful vehicle for "mood stories" - i.e.  I want to show one character in one mood, whether it is funny, dark (occasionally murderous!), sad or what have you.  Give flash fiction a try - it can be a lot of fun.

I used to be frightened of the thought of story structure.  It seemed too formal, too technical etc.  I've found it helpful to think of it as the "edit where I check the story makes sense", which I appreciate is something of a mouthful!

But just checking that the world of my story is logical (even magical worlds  have rules) and that I am consistent within that, by checking the characters are coming across the way I meant them to do so - now that I'm not frightened of and I find it reassuring when I find, yes, the story does make sense.  I can then "relax" a little bit and focus on editing for grammar, spelling, can I improve the way I've expressed things (and the answer to that one is always "yes"!!).

I do at least three edits on a story - I ensure the structure is right first, then move on to copy editing and improving the way I've written what I have before having a gap and then coming back to the story with fresh eyes.  If at that point I'm happy with it, I send the story off.  The gap is crucial.  It's the only way I've found to really come back to a piece of work and read it as a reader would.

Why do I think flash fiction is a fantastic form of writing?

1. Flash fiction can reflect an "incident" which is too short to write up as a standard length short story.
2. Flash fiction can reflect one intense tone from funny to horror.
   
3. Flash fiction can cover all genres.
   
4. A flash fiction piece can be developed into a longer short story (or novella or novel) and can effectively act as a blurb later.
   
5. I find flash fiction is a great way of writing stories in the first person.  It seems to work really well.
   
6. Flash fiction makes you focus.
   
7. You've got to have a real grasp of what makes your character tick since (a) you will only have room for one, maybe two characters and (b) you don't have any space to expand.  Every word must "work for its keep" or you'll never stick to the word count.  This is particularly important for those writing 75 to 100 word stories.
   
8. Flash fiction is tailor made for reading on tablets, mobile phones etc.  It can be a great way of showing there is a form of literature for all, even those who are always in a tearing hurry!
   
9. It's easy to share a flash fiction piece you've written on websites, blogs etc.  It gives a concise way of showing people what you write and your style.
   
10. A really good flash fiction piece will leave a strong impression on you.  Often it will make you want to know more about the character(s).
    

Every writer seeks to build up on successes achieved or even from work they've had rejected, the latter being meant to change that rejection to a successful acceptance.  And of course to build up meaningfully takes time.   Our characters should seek to build up too - to build up on their relationships, their failures and successes and so on.

Do our stories show our characters learning from their mistakes and so building up themselves in terms of learning and moving on?  Do our stories show our characters struggling with failures and learning to make the best of these things?  When successes happen (hopefully!), how do our characters handle that?

When bad things happen, how do your characters handle that?  How do they pick themselves up and start again when that is necessary?  Can your readers see them becoming better characters because they're doing that?

One of the things I love about fairytales is how often judging by appearances is shown up as being a very foolish thing to do.  There are countless tales where the ugly person or an older, mild-mannered being ends up being the powerful magical entity you want to have on your side.  Or they turn out to be the hero/heroine.  This is one reason why I love The Ugly Duckling. 

I deliberately don't give a lot of physical description of my characters.  I try to give enough to help get readers started on creating their own mental image of my "people".  I've always believed the main trait (honesty, courage, stubbornness or whatever) is far more important in creating a character that works.

However, that doesn't mean your characters shouldn't judge other characters by their appearance.  After all, human frailities are reflected in fiction so why shouldn't this one be?  I could see comic, as well as tragic, stories coming out of characters getting it wrong when judging those in the story with them.  And even when a character judges another correctly, what are the consequences of that? 

Often it is the most unglamorous traits that bring out the best in your characters.  Persistence, hard work, dedication, and so on are vital for your characters.  Even your villains need to show at least some of these traits.  How else are they to have any hope of achieving their aims? 

Certainly all of these things are crucial for a writer.  You can't know how things will pan out.  I discuss on my Facebook Author page tonight the fact these "boring traits" have paid dividends for Andy and Jamie Murray, as they both finish the year as world number one in the mens' singles and doubles tennis.  But there is a lot in common with writing here.

Just as they have to practice and practice and practice, so do writers.  Just as they have had and will continue to have to accept losses as part of the overall game, writers need to accept rejections in a similar manner.  What really matters is can you learn from these things?  The overall aim is to never give up and always seek to improve what you write (improvements are always possible!). 

So onward and upwards for us all.  Likewise for our characters.  The "boring traits" really will bring out the best in them.  Frodo in The Lord of the Rings is a classic example of persistence, hard work, never giving up and so on.  The story wouldn't be the story without that.  He wouldn't be the heroic hobbit without them either.

The autumn storms are here in Britain, with the first named storm of the season due to hit the South Coast overnight.  Despite the awful weather (it has been raining heavily for hours already), I love autumn.  I love the leaf colour changes, the glorious sunsets (when we have them!) and the crisp days.

In your fictional world, what season equates with our autumn?  I can't see any way round having to have certain seasons. We need one for things to grow, to be in full bloom, to fade away, to seemingly die (until spring comes around again).  But you could have in between seasons with their own names and times.  What we call spring, summer, autumn and winter, you could rename.  And you could use our own climates, weather patterns and seasonal changes as a model for what you create in fiction.

My maternal grandmother always hated autumn.  She saw it as the time when everything died and she herself died in a September.  I see autumn as what is necessary before spring comes again.  How do your characters view the seasons and why?  Is their outlook a pessimistic or pragmatic one?  How does that trait affect their lives in general?

I love stories with unreliable characters in (whether they're narrating or not).  The classic genre for them to appear in is, of course, crime but they have a good role to play across all genres. 

For a recent storywriting competition I was privileged to judge, there were some great examples of unreliable characters who kept me guessing and misdirected me beautifully.  I guessed at the story endings, all sound logical guesses based on what I had read in the first page or so, and I'm glad to report I was wrong on every single one of them!!

Why glad?  Because those unreliable characters had been so well portrayed, their words and actions were convincing and then they successfully pulled the rug out from under my feet right at the very end.   For me, that is the very definition of what an unreliable character should be.  Everything that character says and does should be perfectly reasonable from their viewpoint. There should be no extremes (they'll alert the reader there's something wrong with the character and the element of surprise is crucial). 

Another character type I like are those who are convinced by their own perspective on life and have to face up the fact not all is as they would like it to be and they have to change at least some of their views.  The way a character changes during a story is endlessly fascinating for me, as it should be.  Characters drive the story.  They must grip your reader (even if they end up dropping said reader from a great height by misdirecting them!).

How to tell you've developed a character with potential for further stories?  Some thoughts include:-

1. As you write more and more for that character, the more you want to write "for them".
   
2. The character's basic traits will throw up ideas for future stories - does he/she annoy people?  Is he/she a heroine?  And there are loads of tales to be written in answering those two questions alone.
   
3. You know when the story or book finishes, the character is capable of having further adventures, that there is "unfinished business" you could write up.
   
4. The way the character interacts with other characters also helps inspire future writing ideas.
   
5. You realise you could put your character in any situation and you know deep down and automatically how they'll react and what they'll say.
   

One thing I have come to appreciate more over the years I've been writing is that feedback is invaluable.  Whenever I enter competitions and there is a choice of having an adjudication sent to me, then I nearly always go for that option.  I always learn something.  And one of the lovely things about writing is you never stop learning or developing.  I'm certain that has to be good for mental health.

What do I look for in a good adjudication?

1. An overall verdict on the story.
   
2. Practical tips on improving the story so it has a better chance of being published.
   
3. Encouragement.  All writers need this.  (I hope Shakespeare had some when he needed it!).
   
4. Good and bad points listed especially of characterisation.
   
5. Typos, punctuation and grammatical errors listed.
   

I'm sure you could think of other things to add to this list. What I love about story writing is the freedom of creation during that first draft, the relief at the end of that and you have a story to work on and improve (I always feel a sense of relief here!). 

What approach to getting things done is taken by your characters?  Do they just get on and do whatever needs to be done?  Or do they dither and hesitate? For those characters who are go-getters, are they able to do this without aggravating every other character around them?

Do your characters learn from their mistakes?  When there's more than one way of achieiving a task, what made them choose the method they used?  Can your characters adapt when better ways, spells etc are found or do they stick stubbornly to the way they've always got things done?

So much can be revealed about a character from the answers to these questions,

I love a wide range of music but especially in the course of the last 6 to 9 months have got heavily into classical music.  I never thought I'd enjoy choral works but I've recently heard an amazing arrangement of the hymn Abide With Me that made me stop in my tracks because of the beauty of the voices. 

It is probably a reflection of my now being into my fifth decade that "sad"/"moody" pieces of music I find the easiest to identify with.  (I do love more upbeat works too but I recently wrote a piece for Chandler's Ford Today about My Top 10 Classical Music Greats and the majority of them were string arrangements which alll conveyed an air of melancholy!).

So what kind of music is the favourite of your characters?  Does this reflect on their basic traits or is it something completely different?  (We all need our forms of escapism after all).  Is music celebrated in your fictional world or is it something only for the privileged few?

Are there concerts put on for the masses (like the BBC Proms to name one example) or do musicians play for those who commission them (which would almost certainly limit their audience to the rich)?  Is any type of music banned on your fictional world and, if so, what and why?  Does this ban stand firm or do people get around it by listening to it "underground" (literally if necessary!)?

Some story ideas there I think!

It is perhaps ironic some of the most beautiful works of art, in whatever form, are based on remembrance.  I'm thinking in particular of the war poets and their poignant works.  Something beautiful out of something ugly. 

Much as I wish we could always avoid the something ugly, when something beautiful or good comes out of a situation, then I feel almost a sense of relief that this has happened.  Given it is so often not possible to stop the ugliness happening at all, I guess I want some form of redemption to come out of it.  Something positive to blunt the edges perhaps.  Something that helps others express their grief and proves to be therapeutic or comforting (or indeed both).

Turning to our stories, what important events do your characters remember and why?  What are the major historical stories for the world in which you've set your stories?  How do these impact on your characters now (they are bound to do so to some extent)?  If writing about war or its impact, how did that war happen?  Could it have been avoided?  What fallout from it still hits your story world?

Since we remember (everything from Armistice Day/Veterans' Day to personal important events), getting your characters to remember gives us a useful way of being able to identify with them.  And a reader that identifies with characters will want to read more about them.

My favourite Rincewind novel by the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett is Interesting Times.  The title comes from an old Chinese curse "may you live in interesting times".  And I think it can safely be said we are definitely living in interesting times!  (Certainly there's enough at the moment to keep the political analysts busy for an absolute age!).

What would count as interesting times in the fictional world you've created?  What is a normal state of affairs (politically or otherwise)?  What would be seen to rock the boat?  How would the "establishment" handle a major upset?  How would they treat the one(s) creating that upset?  The way someone is treated says a great deal about the person/system behind the treatment after all.

I could see there being many a fine story in characters causing upset accidentally.  An action of theirs sets in train reactions and consequences so how would they feel about this?  Would they try to limit/undo the damage, get the hell out of there fast before the authorities come after them, or be unrepentant about the whole thing?

My most recent Chandler's Ford Today piece on My Top 10 Classical Music Greats has attracted some wonderful responses and additions to that list.  Thank you, all. And yes there is plenty of room for more wonderful selections to be added so more comments and ideas for this list would be very welcome. 

I spent part of this afternoon listening to some of the You Tube clips I included with this post as I was writing, folllowing the excellent example set by my lovely editor, who I know was doing the same thing! 

The older I get the more I appreciate the value of the arts.  They are good for the soul (the brain, your own creativity etc).  And given the arts play an important role in life, I think this should be reflected in the fiction we create.

In your stories what role(s) does the arts play?  Does everyone have access to them?  Or are they just seen as something for the elite?  What kind of arts exist in your fictional world?  What form(s) does music, just to name one example, take in your world?  Sherlock Holmes was renowned, amongst other things, for unwinding by playing his violin so how do your characters use the arts to help them relax?

The arts also generate revenue in various ways so what benefit does your world have from this aspect?  How does your fictional government/council etc use that revenue?  In my fictional Fairy Kingdom, my Fairy Queen has "adopted" photography from what she has seen from her observations on life on Earth.  "Adopted" being a code for "pinched the idea and used it in her own world for her own purposes, thank you".  Nobody said fairies were nice and above stealing ideas!  So in your setting, what arts would we recognise (painting I would have thought would be universal, just what is painted would change from world to world)?  What arts would be alien to us?  And has your world stolen ideas from other places it has visited/invaded in the past?

We all need forms of escape, if only to help us relax after a working day etc.  So how do your characters escape (if only temporarily)?  What hobbies and interests do they use as a means of escape? Do some end up with addictions (food, drink, drugs etc) and how do they overcome those?  What impact would this escaping through addiction have on others close to them?

How does your character escape from a threat (assuming they do!)?  Sometimes the threat can be from within the character - addictions threaten to overwhelm/destroy, sometimes worries can threaten a character's ability to cope and so on.  So how are those threats faced and dealt with?

Stories are about a point of change in a character's life and escaping can be part of that, whether it is in the literal escape from peril sense or something less concrete than that.