Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to share Comedy in Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I celebrate comedy in books, films, radios, plays etc (the post was inspired by my recent visit to The Chameleon Theatre Company to watch Curtain Up), and look at comedy moments (which can bring so much depth to characterisation in a book which may not be funny overall).

I look at humour as a natural development. It should never feel forced. I look at humour and perspective too and how humour can ease tensions – that alone can make all the difference as to how things work out for your characters.

I look at humour as a character trait (is your character witty, droll, sarcastic etc?) and invite you to suggest which humorous books work for you and which do nothing for you. Comments welcome in the CFT box, as always.

Hope you enjoy the post. I love humour in fiction and think we can do with much more of it.

Comedy In Writing

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Lovely day in the park with Lady’s Hungarian Vizler pal and later, after a short swim, met up with some of my friends for tea and cake, as you do. So as you can imagine it has been a nice day (the chocolate cake and peppermint tea were wonderful, only one of those things was good for me!) and hope it has been likewise for you too.

Writing wise, my author newsletter went out earlier today and it was lovely to see everyone at last night’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group.

A huge thank you to Jacci Gooding for the shout out for me and Seeing The Other Side in her newsletter, which also went out today. That came as a very pleasant surprise.

Last but not least look out for Comedy in Writing on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady caught up with her Hungarian Vizler pal. Nice autumnal day, gave blood (if you can, please do, folks) and a special birthday in our household today too so a nice way to end the month.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later this evening. Author newsletter out again tomorrow. Will be looking at Comedy in Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Again, see above, and the Flash Group Meeting was fab.

Writing wise, am catching up with various blogs and other pieces of writing I want to get done.

Character Tip: Sometimes I will put on particular outfits to suit a mood or for a special occasion. We all do, right. So can our characters. What would your characters choose to wear for (a) moods and (b) special occasions? There will be stories behind exploring those thoughts.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope today has gone well. Pleasant one here and Lady got to see her Australian Shepherd boyfriend again and, later, her Hungarian Vizler pal. Lady has had a great week on the old social front.

Writing wise, I’ll be trying to get a draft started for a competition I’ve got in mind (but the deadline is the end of the year so I do have some time in hand but I like it to be that way). My next Writers’ Narrative article is due out next week too and I’ll be looking at Darkness In A Flash for that. Well, it is October and the nights are already coming in earlier and we haven’t had the clock change yet.

Character Tip: I often use traits as a way in to getting to know a character well enough before I write them up but sometimes a line of dialogue comes to mind and that shows me their main trait immediately. What would you make of a character who came up with “I told her umpteen times she’d regret getting involved with him.”

I’m hearing a shrill tone of voice, an element of bossiness (is that why the “her” here has not taken what could be good advice?).

What makes me wonder at this point is this speaker a gossip or are they genuinely trying to share some news with someone else who needs to know? I am also wondering what relationship the speaker has with the “her” in this tale (and probably with the “him” too).

But this is good. You want readers to start wondering about things like that – it is the key way to keep them reading. Certainly it makes me want to write the story up to find out more and that’s the best sign of all for a writer.

Great autumnal weather at the moment and am enjoying seeing the slow changing of the colours of many of the trees around my area. (There are lots of holly trees in the area too so not everything changes!).

Talking of changes, these are great trigger points for flash fiction tales. Okay, in the lower word count limit, you would need there to be one point of change with the appropriate consequence. In a standard short story you could have more but I’ve found with flash having to focus on the one point of change means I have a sharper, stronger tale.

I really do have to focus only on what matters for the character as a result of that change. One change = one consequence for the character = no dilution of the impact of that change on the character or the reader.

The change doesn’t have to be something dramatic to have consequences for your character. Something as simple as a bus being late could have consequences for your character. What does the being late do for them at (a) work or (b) for any appointment they were supposed to be keeping? Also how well does your character handle being late at all – some will handle it better than others?

Story ideas there.

Will be looking at outlets (some at least) for flash fiction as part of tonight’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. There are loads of outlets out there and far more choice than when I started writing flash seriously, which is great. You could spend all of your time writing flash pieces for the different competitions out there.

I’ve been writing a lot of drabbles (the 100 worders) for Substack and YouTube recently so may well pick a different word count to write to at the weekend. Picking a word count in advance gives you practice at writing to that count. If you go for the 50, 75, 100, 250, 300, and 500 word counts, you will find many competitions taking these.

I’ve also found picking the word count in advance means I need to think about how the story will look on the screen/page (a 50 worder is basically a paragraph, a 100 worder two paragraphs and so on).

Knowing this in advance means I tend to work out first how my story will end and then work backwards to the beginning. It makes sure each paragraph (or in the case of the 50 worder the one paragraph) does have everything in it to make it a proper story with a beginning, middle and end.

Fairytales with Bite – Special Numbers

This year has seen some special birthdays, you know the ones that end in zero, there’s a special anniversary coming up (likewise with the zero!), and certain dates, regardless of the year, always have significance. That thought can trigger story ideas.

What numbers would be special to your characters and why? What would they be keen to celebrate and/or remember? Equally, which numbers would they go out of their way to avoid? A number linked to a sad date, for example, could trigger memories for your character. Have they come to terms with this and “handle it” or do they go for a policy of avoidance or do other characters help them here?

Your setting may well have special numbers too – for example the date linked to its founding. Do your characters celebrate something like that or feel it is nothing to celebrate?

If your magical characters use numbers in their spells which would they use and what properties do these have as part of those spells? Also in a magical world, could anyone ever be said to be lucky or unlucky with their numbers in life? That is, do they consider certain numbers unlucky like we do with the number thirteen?

This World and Others – Significant Dates

Linking to Fairytales with Bite, how does your setting’s dating system work? Is it similar to ours or totally different? Do they have months as we understand them, for example?

If they mark the passing of time in ways we do not, how would their ways roughly equate to what we do here? I think there would need be some “equivalence” so readers can picture how time is used in your setting and what we would do here instead.

Does your setting mark special dates and, if so, how? Is everyone expected to take part in whatever ceremonies take place here?

What dates would have significance for your characters and why? What would they do differently on these dates?

Also we use the sun and moon to divide up day and night – what would your setting do if it is not based on something similar? I think there would have to be some sense of time and therefore dates and time passing by etc.