Facebook – and Chandler’s Ford Today
My CFT post is a review of the Fryern Funtasia held on Bank Holiday Monday. It is just one of those things I know but there is either heavy rain or baking heat when the FF is held! No happy medium. It’s either a big coat or the sun cream!
Having said that, the Funtasia WAS great fun and it was good to catch up with friends at Bettermaths and the Three Rivers Rail Community Partnership especially.
It was also good to see the Fair Oak dog display team, though none of the dogs were running around the agility course. They were trotting – quite rightly too – and there were several huge buckets of water for them around their arena. As for human refreshments, you should’ve seen the queues for the icecream and cold drinks!
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
Have got my schedule of writing for my train journeys all lined up for tomorrow. I’d like to come back home again with at least three new flash stories and an article drafted. Will report back on how I did but I am pleased to be able to make more use of travelling time like this, especially as by the time I get back home again, I usually just want to crash out. Should do even better when I go to Swanwick Writers’ Summer School in August. The journey is longer!
I need to get back to entering more flash competitions so, depending on how well I actually do on the train tomorrow, I may well have some stories to submit. Hope so anyway.
Fairytales With Bite – Why Fairytales with Bite?
The reason I refer to what I write as fairytales with bite (and so giving this website its name) is (a) it is a very accurate description of what I do and (b) I was fed up with fairytales being dismissed as “twee” or “just for kids”. I’ve written posts on this topic before but I thought I’d add here those elements I think make for a good fairytale.
1. Magic. There has to be magic somewhere but it is not the be all and end all in a fairytale either. See below. Also it is usually acknowledged there are limits to what magic can do.
2. Characters have to make choices. This is generally true of all fiction but in fairytales, the characters still have to decide something has to change. Cinderella wanted to escape her horrible life but still needed to be willing to do what the fairy godmother told her. (Couldn’t you just see the ugly sisters arguing with the godmother? I could!).
3. An appropriate ending. Most of the time in fairytales this is the traditional happy one, but not always, as Hans Christen Andersen proved with The Little Mermaid amongst others. Having said that, his ending to that story was apt for the way he’d written all that came before.
4. There has to be some hope. There has to be hope for the characters to achieve their happy ever after ending or, if they know this is not going to be the case, what can they salvage to make things as good as they can be? If you have to settle for second best, you are still going to want that second best to be as good as possible.
There are other elements of course but these strike me as being amongst the most important ones. Comments welcome!
This World and Others – Favourite Traits in Characters
What are your favourite traits in characters (your own or those from other writers)? I think mine would have to include:-
1. The ability to prove the doubters wrong. I love it when the underdog wins the day. Whenever I read of a character being “written off”, I am on the look out for that character turning out to be the hero (usually) or the villain (sometimes, and inevitably reacting against being written off! I do have some sneaking sympathy here. You can see why they would react that way at least.).
2. The ability to stick with the right path, no matter what. The ultimate example of this for me is both Frodo and Sam in The Lord of the Rings. (Sam was just as determined to do right as Frodo was, even though Sam was doing this for his friend, rather than for the “cause” directly).
3. Being the best friend/sidekick the hero didn’t know they needed until undergoing the quest. If awards were being given out for this, it would have to go to Sam Gamgee. Never ever overlook the sidekick. They’re in the story for a good reason and it is almost always a pivotal moment the hero needs.
4. Honest characters. I love those moments when, usually the sidekick, gives the hero/heroine a verbal bashing for missing something important or taking others for granted or for becoming arrogant etc. The lead characters do need others who can rein them in – nobody gets it right in life all the time so why should they in fiction? Just as we need others to tell us “hang on a moment there”, so do characters need other characters to tell them when they’re at risk of going off track.
Allison Symes: Collected Works 