Image Credit: Unless otherwise stated, all images are from Pixabay. A big thank you to my guests on the Chandler’s Ford Today Series What Books Mean to Me for supplying photos.
Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today
I’m delighted to share the final, bumper edition of my What Books Mean To Me series for Chandler’s Ford Today. A big thank you to all of fantastic guests for sharing their insights here. It has been a superb series to put together and great fun!
This time Gail Aldwin, Paula Readman, Jim Bates, Wendy H. Jones, Val Penny and yours truly answer the three questions I set.
I asked which ONE book would you save in the event of a disaster, what does reading mean to you, and what do you think reading has done for you as a writer.
As ever, do share your thoughts on the books you’d save over on the CFT page.
A HUGE thank you to all of my guests appearing in the What Books Mean to Me series on Chandler’s Ford Today.
The series was great fun to put together. The wide variety of books chosen to save was amazing (as were the reasons why).
There is plenty to learn from also when my guests discussed what reading had done for them as writers (and of course continues to do).
If you were ever in doubt about the importance of reading for writers, do check this series out. My guests’ comments will leave you in no doubt that the best thing any writer can do to help them improve their craft – read and read widely and read lots. But, hey, don’t just take our word for it. Get on and read and discover how true this is for yourself (and the great thing is you can include reading the posts as part of that!).
Incidentally one of the joys of my CFT posts is choosing a Feature Image (nearly always from those magnificent people at Pixabay). Isn’t the library image for this week’s post just gorgeous?! See the slideshow!
W = Welcome into a new world (sometimes it’s this one but seen from a new angle).
R = Real characters you can identify with come to life before your eyes as you read and you root for them all the way to the finish.
I = Imagination. The writer has clearly shared theirs with you. Does your imagination picture the world the writer has created clearly enough? Does the story spark your imagination and maybe inspire you to write your own stories or, even if that is not the case, can you think how the characters might live on after the book is finished? The latter shows the characters really are “live”.
T = Tension. There should be plenty of that, even in the funniest of books. Characters have to strive for something important. Other characters should get in their way for good reasons of their own. No tension/conflict = no story.
I = Intensity. Does the story grip you with its intensity? Do you feel the emotions the characters are being made to feel? (You should. No cardboard cut out characters here, thank you).
N = Narrative should be lively and speed the story along. The information given here should be crucial to your enjoyment of the tale.
G = Genre. Read widely in many! Think how many worlds you can explore through book covers if you do that!
Looking forward to sharing Part 3 of What Books Mean to Me on Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. It has been great fun putting this series together and there have been some fabulous insights and books selected to be saved. More to come on Friday!
My guests this week are #GailAldwin, #JimBates, #PaulaCReadman, #WendyHJones, #ValPenny and…. er… Allison Symes. Well I thought I should answer the three questions I set! Never ask other writers questions you’re not prepared to answer yourself!
(And if the series gives you a marvellous Wish List for a certain season due in a couple of months’ time, even better!).
Second image in was taken on my phone at the pub just before the Waterloo Arts Festival in the summer. Here are three happy flash fiction writers – Paula Readman, Gail Aldwin, oh and me.
Many thanks to Wendy Jones and Jim Bates for supplying their pictures. Val Penny and I were having a selfie moment at the Winchester Writers’ Festival earlier this year.
Do check out everyone’s thoughts on what books mean to them on Friday. Meanwhile, there are Parts 1 and 2 to catch up on over at CFT.
https://chandlersfordtoday.co.uk/what-books-mean-to-me-par…/
https://chandlersfordtoday.co.uk/what-books-mean-to-me-par…/
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
Glad to say I will be having more stories on Cafelit later this month and into November. Two of them are linked. I’ve experimented with linked flash fiction stories this year and have found these to be good fun. I think the trick, if there is one, to them, is to ensure the link is strong enough and don’t keep it going for too long. Will keep you posted.
Tying in with my post on my author page, here is another acrostic which I hope shares some good tips.
F = Flesh out your character who is going to be the focus of your flash fiction story. Why are they the star of your story? What is special about them? Some of that needs to come through so your reader picks up on their special qualities and will want to read on. (Not necessarily all by the way. Readers won’t need the full biography! Just give the readers what they need to know.).
L = Lively pace. Well nobody wants a dull read, do they?
A = Animated character(s). They’ve got to be the type of people who readers will want to root for and, in the case of villains, are perhaps a little sorry when they lose (assuming they do).
S = Setting(s) to be places readers could picture, even if the setting is a fantastical world beyond any known galaxy. What is there readers can identify with? (That even on Planet QZog, the females of the species have trouble getting their men to put the bins out?).
H = History – character and setting. There won’t be a lot of room in a flash fiction tale of course, so imply what you can when you can. A character’s thoughts can be a useful device here as they consider what action they will take based on the circumstances you’ve put them in. They will decide what to do based on their past experience and also based on any known history of their country etc, as indeed we do.
What do I want my flash fiction to be?
1. Entertaining. (Never despite the value of the escapism value of a book or story. The ability to escape into a good story is invaluable and I’m convinced has health benefits too).
2. To have the impact on a reader I hoped it would, whether it be to make them laugh, scream, or, where appropriate, both.
3. To be something I can be proud of – not just now but years on when I can look back at it and think, yes I loved writing that story/book and I still enjoy reading it.
4. A good character study, even if my character is a rotten piece of work. (Marvellous fun to write up though!).
5. To sometimes, and where appropriate, give a reader (and me) pause for thought.
Fairytales with Bite – What Books Mean to Me
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed interviewing my guests for the Chandler’s Ford Today series for the past three weeks. But linking that into fiction writing, I’ve got to ask what do books mean to your characters? Are your characters set in a world where they can read and books are easily available? Or are their stories preserved in other ways?
When you think about it, we have not had the printed word for that long compared with how long we have had the oral storytelling tradition. I love both “formats” and long may they reign but what would your characters know best? What is their technological equivalent to the Kindle if they have it? What fictional books would they read?
You can also ask that last question as you create your characters. Their choices may well tell you a great deal about them (and do query why the choices are the ones they are. Do they love, as I do, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice because they appreciate irony? How do they express their own irony and is it appreciated? Does it land them in trouble?).
Thoughts to ponder!
This World and Others – Goalposts
When you create a setting for your characters, do you set up goalposts for yourself? What do I mean by that? Simply, do you set limits for the setting that you absolutely have to know about before you write?
For example, you may decide you need to know the history of the town your lead character lives in but not of the neighbouring villages. There’s one limit set (one goalpost if you like that you won’t cross!).
Look at what you decide you need to know and examine why you need that. You should have no problems justifying those choices. What does pay is if thoughts occur to you about your setting that do not appear to be relevant, do jot them down anyway. You may find they come in useful later on in the story draft.
Allison Symes: Collected Works 