Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today
One of the joys of writing my Chandler’s Ford Today posts is when I have a topic where I can go to town on finding music clips! The topic of books is one of them.
Many thanks to my wonderful panel – #JenniferCWilson, #ValPenny, #AnneWan, #WendyHJones, and #RichardHardie – for taking part in my mini-series The Joys and Challenges of Writing Series Novels. Hope you enjoy their fantastic insights AND the music I’ve used to go with these!
Had a great night out watching the Chameleon Theatre Group perform three episodes from Blackadder Goes Forth, including Goodbyeee. Review to follow on Chandler’s Ford Today in due course but I will say now it was superbly done and the set, made by the company themselves, was brilliant. Looking forward to sharing more on that.
Adaptations I’m generally happy with if they are faithful to the book/series etc. This is why I loved the Miss Marple series with Joan Hickson – they were faithful to the Christie canon – but the Marple series. No. Didn’t watch it. Just couldn’t bring myself to do so when it emerged they were altering the stories and bringing in characters that didn’t belong in the originals. Really don’t like that.
My CFT post this week will be the final part of my series on the joys and challenges of writing the series novel. As ever, my thanks to to #JenniferCWilson, #ValPenny, #AnneWan, #WendyHJones, and #RichardHardie. Nice range of genres between them too – from children’s to crime (and Wendy writes both!) to fantasy to historical crossed with ghost stories. Link up on Friday.
Glad to report I’ll be having more work on Cafelit later this week and again in November. Will share links as and when.
From what I’ve seen of the set the Chameleons have produced for the stage version of Blackadder Goes Forth, I anticipate a packed house and a wonderful and thoughtful evening of entertainment. Will review for CFT in due course. Do check their FB page out.
Pexels image. There are times when words are inadequate.
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
So more on my alphabetical list then.
J = Juicy Storylines! Not just for soap operas, honestly, but something every character wants. Now “juicy” can be taken literally of course, but I see it as the storyline being appropriate for the character and taking them and stretching them to see what they are really made of. There’s nothing like a crisis for bringing out the best or worst in someone and that applies just as well to fiction!
K = Kicker. Must admit I needed to look this one up. (It’ll be interesting to find out what I can research for Q!). In journalism it apparently means a sudden unexpected change of events. In fiction we’d usually refer to it as a twist in the tale. I like kicker though. Has bite. And your stories must too, whether they have a twist/kicker in them or not.
L = Lines. Who is getting the best lines in your story? Your hero or your villain? A great story will have this split between the two to prevent either becoming a stereotype or, worse still, boring! Also a villain capable of humour etc means while your reader will not want them to win (possibly SHOULD not!), they will sympathise and identify with the villain to a certain extent. There should be something about each character a reader can identify with. (My inspiration here is Alan Rickman’s masterly portrayal of the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves!).
About halfway through the alphabetical listing now. So then:-
M = Muse. The best way to feed said muse is to read widely and often (and do include non-fiction and poetry in this too. Different sources of writing are good for you and inspire your own thoughts and ideas in various ways). I’ve also found writing regularly feeds it too. Never worry about what you come out with at first being awful and needing work. That would’ve happened to Shakespeare too! It can and will be put right in the edits!
N = Narrative. Whose story is it? Whose viewpoint is going to dominate? What can that character see and know that the others cannot? Why have you chosen that character to lead the narrative? Answer those questions and your story will be off to a good start!
O = Originality. Reading widely feeds your originality. Partly this is due to what you read, but sometimes it can be because you read something you really don’t like or feel you can do better and that can be the trigger point for your own writing. Also, your voice is unique to you and will come through in your writing, especially if you write often. Regular writing (even if it is short bouts at a time) really does encourage your imaginative “muscle” to start working.
Pressing on with my alphabet topic then, we reach P, Q and R. (Great letters if you can get them out in Scrabble incidentally!).
P = Performance. Do your characters perform well in your stories? Do they live up to what you outlined them to be or have they gone beyond that? Read your stories out loud. Perhaps record them and play them back. Hear how your characters perform. Are they having the impact on you that you want them to have on your reader?
Q = Quizzing. I’ve found quizzing my characters to be a very useful part of my outlining. I don’t need to know the minute details. Nor do I put everything I outline in a story. However, I take my character’s basic traits and quiz them from there. If I decide a character is going to be brave, I will quiz them to find out if there are limits to that courage. I try to find out where that courage comes from. Does their “tribe” prize bravery? Or is it noticeably absent and your character is rebelling against that? What are the outcomes? (There WILL be some and that’s where the drama and your stories are to be found!).
R = Right Word Count for your Flash Fiction. I sometimes write a piece deliberately to a word count and that’s it. Sometimes I think a story will come to 100 words but discover it can be done in 75 or needs to run to 250, say. Be flexible on this. The story is the right length when the lead character has done and said all they have to do/say for the situation you’ve put them in. The great thing with flash fiction is there are so many different categories, that even if your treasured 100 word piece comes in at 500 words, there will be markets and competitions for that out there.
Goodreads Author Programme – Blog –
After the End, What’s Next?
If you’ve enjoyed a really good book, what do you do when you finish it? Go on to read more books by the same author, or read more in the same genre, or do you go for something that is completely different in mood and style?
I have done all three of these (though obviously not at the same time!) and it very much depends on my mood at the end of the story. If I’ve loved a gory crime thriller, I may well want something humorous to show the lighter side of life, albeit a fictional one!
With short stories especially, I tend to read a few by the same author before moving on. With novels, if the book has really gripped me, I’ve got to check out what else the author has done, even if I decide I’ll come back to those later.
The important thing though is that whatever you read, you enjoy it so much, you keep on reading, no matter what author, genre, style etc you choose next. Happy reading!
Image Credit: many thanks to the Hampshire Writers’ Society for taking the photo of me reading as guest speaker and for kind permission to use the photo. Both much appreciated!
Fairytales with Bite – Signs of a Fairytale World
What are the signs of a fairytale world? How can you know quite quickly you ARE in one (via fiction I’m presuming for the purposes of this post! If you do find a portal to another world, however, be sure to report back with plenty of details, pictures if at all possible. We will all want to know!!).
1. Magic. The biggest giveaway of course is the use of magic. The interesting thing to work out when planning your stories though is whether everyone can use magic or just a select few. If everyone can use it, what are the rules so anarchy doesn’t break out? Boundaries increase the drama in your story. If everyone can zap everyone else, that doesn’t make for much of a story. If only a few can do that but the price they pay is their own lives are forfeit, now there’s a potential story.
2. Inanimate Objects – The Use Of. We all know from Disney (see Beauty and the Beast) a teapot, to name one example, is rarely just a teapot! Sometimes they’re an enchanted victim. Sometimes these things are portals (also see Harry Potter). So what uses are the inanimate objects put to in your setting? Does a particular object convey a particular meaning or power and, if so, what and why? What are the limits to the use of objects?
3. Creatures. Ranging from domestic animals that can talk (hello, Puss in Boots! Loved Puss in Shrek. Thought they had the portrayal spot on) to odd creatures that are the stuff of legends to monsters of course. Basically what you wouldn’t see here! And there’s nothing to stop you inventing your own. This is where some knowledge of natural history is invaluable. Knowing what animals need to survive and how their bodies are designed to handle that should inspire some ideas for how the creatures in your stories will do this kind of thing.
Happy writing!
This World and Others – Music and Stories
In my latest CFT post, the final part of my mini-series on The Joys and Challenges of Writing Series Novels, I get to have some fun choosing music tracks to go with my fantastic panel’s insights. Many thanks again to Jennifer C Wilson, Val Penny, Anne Wan, Wendy H Jones, and Richard Hardie for taking part in this three part series. Hope you enjoy the insights and the music!
Music and stories have long been intertwined of course. So many wonderful songs are stories set to music effectively. Music can and does play a part in stories. It can be used to show character. Movies, of course, rely on music to help set mood. Think of the Jaws theme by John Williams. Every note of that puts pictures and therefore stories in your head (and possibly might put you off swimming in the open sea but that’s another matter! There are advantages to just swimming in the local public baths!!).
I write with classical music playing. (I often listen to Classic FM). Unlike other styles of music, it hasn’t affected my mood (and therefore what I write!). It does help me relax and I write more (and I hope better) when relaxed. I’ve also found it helpful to think of the kind of music my characters would be fans of when I’m creating them. It almost certainly won’t come into the story I write but it fills out my knowledge of the character I’m about to place before a reader. That has to be a good thing.
And I must admit I loved choosing the music for my book trailer for From Light to Dark and Back Again. The track used is an adaptation of Camille Saint Saens Danse Macabre (used as the theme tune for the BBC detective series Jonathan Creek).
Allison Symes: Collected Works 