Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today
There’s a nice little Q&A session which has developed from my CFT post this week about character types and why it matters to get them right.
This is one thing I love about my CFT posts. I can never know what reaction there will be until the posts go up and sometimes great discussions take place, sometimes not. Do pop over and have a look at this week’s post and if you have favourite character types I’ve not listed here, please do share them in the comments box.
Comments on the character -v- plot debate would also be welcome. I do come down firmly on one side here but I’ll leave you to find out which one it is!
My CFT post this week will look at some of my favourite character types and why it matters to get them right.
A good story can only be that way if the characters are strong enough. A decent plot will be let down badly if the characters are not “up to scratch”. More on this and the link tomorrow.
Am looking forward to going to the Association of Christian Writers’ Day at Bath on Saturday. Always good to meet other writers!
What are your characters like? What emotions do they have? Pixabay image.
It is with great sadness I see from the Winchester Writers’ Festival page that Barbara Large, MBE, who founded the original Winchester Writers’ Conference, passed away on Monday. She will be much missed.
Barbara gave so much support and encouragement to writers across a huge range of genres including me. I have a certificate for a Commended Short Story signed by her from the 31st Winchester Writers’ Conference and it has pride of place on my wall.
Condolences to all of her family and friends.
Barbara Large MBE (left) will be much missed by the writing community including Anne Wan (right) and myself. Image kindly supplied by Anne Wan.
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
The advantage of flash fiction is you have to learn to write tight to keep to the word count, even though there can be flexibility with that. You don’t have to stick to 50-word stories. You can have a go at the 500-word ones!
The advantage of a novel is you have room for sub-plots and can go much further into character development, which when well done adds layers to your story.
The short story is a cross-over to an extent. Usually there would be room for only one sub-plot (but there’s no room at all for anything like that in flash). You can go into character development but the word count restrictions here will limit how far you can take that. (Though that can vary from 1500 to 8000 or thereabouts as there are some longer short story competitions out there).
And all three are brilliant writing disciplines! All need decent editing and crafting to get your story into shape. Whatever form you’re going for, or if you’re going in for more than one, you can know you will be doing a lot of editing! But above all have fun with them. Writing should be fun.
How do you find coming up with promising opening lines? Is it a pain or is coming out with those just fine but then you struggle with delivering on the promise of that opening line?
I’ve found mixing up how I approach this helps a lot. I outline (briefly, appropriately for flash fiction) how a story could go from that opening line. There is usually some promise from those thoughts that I can develop. Okie dokie then, away I go and write the thing.
Sometimes though I’m not satisfied with what I’ve come out with. Somehow the thoughts don’t seem strong enough. DO trust your gut instincts here by the way, they’re normally right. When I have this happen, I then see if what I thought might be a good opening line would actually work better as a finishing one. I then work backwards to get to the starting point.
I’ve not rejected an opening line altogether yet because if one method here doesn’t work, the other does. It’s just that sometimes you can’t always see the best way to go straight away and that’s where outlining comes into its own and to your rescue!
A quick search of Writing Magazine’s Competition Guide has shown a couple of interesting competitions I’ll try and have a go at. Note to self: go through the guide at the weekend and mark the ones of interest! What is nice is some of the competitions are rolling ones in that there is one per month or something like that so if you miss one deadline, there are others you can aim for.
It proves that the market for very short stories and flash is a healthy one. Hooray for that!
Fairytales with Bite – Top Five Tips for Characterisation
My theme this week is character type(s) and my CFT post also featured this but I thought a quick run down of tips would be useful.
- Be realistic. Your characters must have motivations that we will all understand, even if we don’t agree with them all!
- Show flaws as well as virtues. None of us are perfect after all so why should our characters be? Besides they can get to learn from their mistakes.
- Stretch your characters. Don’t be afraid to put them through hell to find out what they are really made of/are capable of.
- Let your characters surprise you, sometimes (don’t overdo it!). A great example of what I mean here is Frodo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings. Nobody expects in that wonderful world for a hobbit to be a hero, yet Frodo becomes one. Frodo shows a determination and courage others far bigger than him are not capable of (and yet he’d have failed completedly without Sam Gamgee’s support). It would’ve been the easiest thing of all for Frodo to stay in Middle Earth and let someone else do the heroics.
- Weaknesses SHOULD get in the character’s way and be something they’re seen to be fighting against. And that, folks, is where the drama is! A great story has plenty of that!
This World and Others – Character Types
I look at character types and why it matters to get them right in my CFT post this week. It doesn’t matter how fantastic your world is, the characters must be believable for your readers to engage with them and want to read your story at all.
One key to getting this right is to examine your characters’ motivations. Why are they acting the way they are? Is it something we can understand? I’ve long thought Woody from Toy Story is a truly great character. Why? Because his jealousy when Buzz comes into his life is understandable. There are very few of us, regardless of our age, who haven’t been jealous of something or someone in our time.
Look at how your world is governed. Is it a democracy? Is there a tier of local government? What are the politicians like there? (And there will be politicians somewhere along the line. Where there is any kind of power, no matter how minor, politics and playing people off against one another will come into it. Sad perhaps but again this is something we all understand and will help make your world seem more real to your readers).
So think about emotions. What are your characters likely to feel and why? (This is one reason why the Cybermen as a concept are frightening. The removal of all emotions? Those are what make us human. They can also make your Species X what it is and differentiate them from other character types in your fiction).
Allison Symes: Collected Works 