Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today
My Chandler’s Ford Today post this week is Writing Sayings – Truth or Nonsense? I share my thoughts about “never judge a book by its cover” and “write what you know” amongst others. I also share a couple of sayings I’d like to see added to the canon of useful writing “proverbs”. See what you think! Comments welcome in the CFT comments box.
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
How do your characters handle crises in their lives? Brilliantly, badly, or do they somehow just muddle through? How does handling such events change them and does it do so for better or for worse? Do they have coping “aids” (e.g. chocolate, wine etc) and do they really help the characters cope?
If they were rich, how would they handle losing their wealth? If always enjoying good health, how would illness affect them after they’ve got over it? Would it dent their confidence, changing their behaviour and relationships in other ways? How do other characters handle the change in them?
Change is crucial to any story. Something changes, conflict arises (there’s always someone who will resist change), and lo and behold you have your story, but that is thanks to how your characters deal with this event.
My favourite characters are those who battle against the odds and win. They don’t necessarily have to be charismatic, but they do need grit and determination. This is kind of appropriate given every writer needs tonnes of grit and determination to cope with rejections etc!
Fairytales With Bite – When The Truth Costs Dearly
My Chandler’s Ford Today post this week is called Writing Sayings – Truth or Nonsense? and I think some of the well-known sayings relating to writing really are nonsensical! See the post if you want to find out which I debunk!
It is a sad fact of life that truth so often is not welcome and that many people pay a very heavy price for it. Does this mean we shouldn’t portray this in fiction? I think not. Where it is appropriate to the story to do so, I think you should portray it. Indeed, it would be difficult not to given every hero has to have something to be a hero about and so often it usually is fighting for the truth about something to come out etc.
So the story here then is what is the truth as it relates to your characters and their world? Why is it being suppressed and by whom? How does your hero/heroine ensure the truth does come out? What price do they pay for doing this (and there is bound to be one, probably a very heavy one at that. I always liked the ending of The Lord of the Rings where it is made very clear Frodo has been changed so much by his adventures, that more change, another journey, is necessary for him. I don’t really want to say more than that in case you haven’t read it or seen the films).
This World and Others – Truth or Nonsense?
My latest post for Chandler’s Ford Today is Writing Sayings – Truth or Nonsense? and it was great fun to write. I discuss well known writing sayings and debunk a couple of them! But the “truth or nonsense” bit of the title made me wonder about how this can be shown in our fiction.
What would be considered to be truth in your fictional world? Does everyone have to subscribe to one faith or one political view? What happens to the outspoken?
Is there “room” for nonsense in your world? Is humour encouraged? Or is it clamped down on because it can be subversive (and great satire is, of course. It has never gone down well with everyone!)?
Are your characters truthful? How do they handle having to lie if it is vital they do so? What nonsense does the government come up with (and every regime from time immemorial has come up with nonsense in its time!)? Do the people “buy it” or have they seen through it ages ago? Who controls the media and is it responsible, giving good investigative journalism (to name one example), or does it rely on the government telling it what to say?
Food for thought there I think.
Allison Symes: Collected Works 