Even in a magical setting, most of the time wishing isn't enough for your characters.  They have to have strong motives for being the way they are/acting as they are.  The important thing is those motives have to be strong enough in the characters' own eyes.  A character can justify all manner of things, but as long as the reader can see why the character is thinking the way they are, that is enough.

Even "crazy" characters have to have at least one reason for being like that, a reason your readers can follow.  So you have to know what drives your characters and that knowledge will affect how you write them but you will write much more convincingly.  If the reader is convinced you know what you are doing, then they will stay with you,  your story and your characters.

Am pleased to say From Light to Dark and Back Again is now also up on the Association of Christian Writers' online bookshop.  The idea of the bookshop is, of course, to showcase members' published works and there is a huge range.  As well as the devotionals and Christian fiction (across many genres), there are works, like mine, which are secular but are written by a Christian.  (Having said that, there is a strong sense of poetic justice (Old Testament perhaps?) in a lot of my stories).

So spreading the word then is something all writers have to do to a lesser or greater degree (I think how much depends on what the writer wants to achieve and how much they are comfortable about doing).  But what about our characters?  What word do they want to spread?

Well firstly, they will want to make it seem as if their view of the world is reasonable, whether it is or not!  Well written villains will have good reasons for being the way they are/acting the way they do (though there is considerable flexibility over what "good reasons" there are!  It is, of course, good from their viewpoint!). 

Secondly, especially in the case of a villain, they will want to "do down" any form of opposition so their word gets suppressed.

Thirdly, what media exists on your created world and who controls it?  Who is it answerable to?  When asked to spread the word by a government, does it automatically do as it is told?  Whose words do get heard in your fiction and why?

Technical issues meant I couldn't edit either of my Weebly websites yesterday, so no new posts, but am glad to see things are back up and running the way they are meant to be.

Reliability is a key issue for writers.  We rely on being able to type, being able to blog, on the internet and so on.  (Back up, back up, back up all work as regularly as possible.  I learnt my lesson the hard way there after a power cut one night.  I lost an evening's work but got it back thanks to recalling most of it and starting again.  Now I back up every 15 minutes or so).

Reliability should be a key issue for characters. Are they themselves reliable?  Are they right to trust other characters in the story?  What happens when they are let down or betrayed?  Do they seek vengeance or simply swear never to trust anyone again (and what are the consequences of that?  Could be significant).

A reader has to trust that the author knows what they are doing and will follow through on the plot and characters so ensure you do!

The downside of the happy ever after is the fact it is happy ever after so if disillusionment sets in, you're in trouble.

Did Cinderella discover her Prince Charming wasn't quite so charming after all? Even if everything was fine there, did she regret never being able to move freely in public without escort again?

Did Sleeping Beauty regret being woken up knowing she really would have to face life with all its heartaches again?  (Life is much simpler when you're asleep!).

Did the Three Bears swear never to leave their house again after the Goldilocks invasion (and wasn't that girl a vandal, greedy, and an absolute pest)?  Am only surprised they didn't tear her limb from limb).

So if your characters are finding things aren't quite as rosy as they'd hoped for, what do they do to try to rectify things?  There could be some great stories there.

In the meantime, here's me running a flash fiction workshop for the Southampton Writers' Circle.  A good time was had by all.  Many thanks to Geoff Parkes for his kind permission to share the picture.