Memories are a phenomenally important part of someone's life.  And the tragedy of things like Alzheimer's Disease is those memories are taken away - piecemeal usually.  In writing, memories obviously are the vital ingredient to memoirs but they have their place in fiction as well.

For your characters to seem real, they've got to have a rounded life and memories must be part of that.  Getting your characters to recall things differently (perspective varies) adds depth to fiction and can, of course, add conflict if one insists something happened and another denies that. 

Characters who are journalists (to name one example) will shape their stories so how can you show that?  How can you show them struggling to not let their bias creep in or are your characters determined to ensure the world sees things the way they do?  What happens when someone's memories are trashed?  Can memories be stolen (and not just by disease, could someone do it deliberately to destroy someone else?).

I find it easier to visualise the countryside around the Fairy Queen's Palace.  I can visualize the villages but the towns are harder  though I did picture a grid like arrangement around which the homes and other buildings are set.  This proved to be a useful starting point.

I've found visualising my setting an invaluable aid to visualising minor characters, where the main characters come from (and how they are thought of back there) and so on.  If your created world does not seem real to you, then it won't to anyone else.

I've also found being able to visualise a starting point (a place, a character etc) leads on to visualising more of the Fairy Kingdom and its inhabitants.  It's kind of like building blocks - you need one to start with before you can make a tower.  And to get me started visualising anything at all, photos (my own and others I see) are wonderful sources of inspiration.

I think there can be such a thing as too much analysis of a story but when it is carried out sensibly, analysis can add immense enjoyment to a tale.  I'm currently studying some of Hans Christen Andersen's wonderful fairytales on the Future Learning online course and so many layers and themes are coming out of the different stories I am seeing things from very familiar tales I had not considered before.

I am also becoming increasingly aware of just how good a writer Hans Christen Andersen was in that many of the themes have a great deal of depth behind them (nor has he laid it on thickly to ram the points home, he's far more subtle than that and it works far better.  Am picking up a lot of how-to-write tips here as well.  Well they say learn from the best!).

All of this is making me wonder whether I can apply some analytical techniques to my work and I think they could be useful when looking at the "final, best as I can make it at this time" edit just prior to sending stories out there.  So I hope to give this a try.  I think what may happen is I may pick up on things I need to flesh out a little bit more before submission and things like that.  Hope to report back on how I get on and if I notice any differences in my editing abilities.  I think they should be improved.  And if there is anything I have learned as a writer, there is always room for improving your skills.

While there is no such thing as perfection in writing, there are signs a story is as right as you can make it (at the time of writing anyway).

1. You really can't imagine another word being added to or taken out of your story.
   
2. The characters have come to life.
   
3. The plot races along and there are no "boring bits".
   
4. The conclusion is not necessarily happy but appropriate to your story and anything else would be odd.
   
5. Hopefully it's accepted for publication somewhere because an editor loves it.
   
6. You are still proud of the story weeks, months, years later...
   
7. It's a story you specifically mention on your writing CV because you're proud of it.
   
8. Feedback is generally positive.
   
9. The story works well read quietly or out loud.
   
10. If a character really takes off in this story, you may well be able to write follow-ups.
    

I think one great and fun way to improve your own writing is to read widely and appreciate the works of other writers.  I've a greater appreciation now of the work that goes in to producing a short story or a novel because I've written my own.  I've also found a greater love of words/the English language because I enjoy playing with both as I write my stories.  And when I come across great examples from other writers, as I do a lot, there is real pleasure in that.

I'm coming to the end of the Future Learning Hans Christen Andersen course and have been amazed at how much depth there is to his stories and most of the ones selected for study I already knew well.  So it proves there is always something to learn.  (A good thing I think!).  I hope it will lead to improvements in my work as I apply some of the analytical techniques I've learned to apply to HCA's stories.  I don't have a problem switching off my inner editor when drafting the story, I do see the process of creating a story as separate in itself (the editing can and does come later), but the analytical skills will be useful when it comes to editing.

And I hope others on the course develop an even greater love for fairytales.  There are some pretty powerful messages behind many of them.

Place is vital to a good story.  It isn't just the actual setting but also the place (metaphorical and literal) of your characters within it.  It's also the sense your setting could be real, which is backed up by the details you slip into your story. 

I've found that it is small details that help make fictional worlds come to life in my imagination.  (For example knowing there have been wars the current regime is recovering from yet the wars themselves are not the actual story).

Characters have to have their own sense of place but the great thing is this can be misplaced, which  can lead to tragedies or great comedies.  The struggle to improve place/position in society can add depth to a story.  Pride and Prejudice isn't directly about Mrs Bennett's wish to marry her daughters off to well connected, rich men but it is the love story of Elizabeth and Mr Darcy.  Yet without Mrs Bennett and her ambitions so much of the comedy of the novel would be lost.

I've used my knowledge of places (and what I've researched) to help flesh out my Fairy Kingdom, making it easier for me to visualise and therefore write about.  Hopefully it will, in time, make it easier to readers to visualise it too.

Just to show that rules can be broken sometimes, this post looks at things not meant to be used in writing (always for good reasons) and where authors ignored this.

1. No using a dream to resolve the story.  However, see Lewis Caroll's Alice in Wonderland and see how he totally ignores that!
   
2. No using coincidence to move a story along.  See Hans Christen Andersen's The Snow Queen to show that a skilled writer can and does use coincidence well as a major part of their plot.
   
3. No unnecessary repetition.  Again see The Snow Queen as Gerda has to repeat her story to those she comes across on her journey.  This could become boring but it doesn't with HCA.  He varies the way she talks about her quest.
   
4. No long sentences.  They slow the plot down.  See the entire works of P.G. Wodehouse for wonderful, witty and very long sentences.  They don't slow the plot down but do add to the joy of the humour but it needs a very talented writer to get away with this one, otherwise it does come across as being long-winded.
   

The depth of fairytales can be immense and is a good counter-argument to anyone who thinks such stories are twee and just for little kids.

I'm currently looking at The Story of a Mother as part of the Future Learning Hans Christen Andersen course and its depth is amazing.  It tackles the theme of grief and suffering, not a common subject for a fairytale.  Nor is it an easy theme to write about without becoming overly sentimental or harshly cold. 

I recommend HCA's story as I think he gets the balance right and the mother is a well rounded, sympathetic character.  It's definitely not a story you'd read at bedtimes to younger children.  There has to be a certain level of maturity to pick up on the themes of this story.  I'd not come across this story before the course but am glad I have.  HCA wrote with depth, understanding and sympathy and I'm appreciating his skills as a writer more.  His ability to write stories which reach out to children and adults is amazing.

I mean good as in terms of well thought out.  What follows equally applies to villains!  So what makes up a good character?  What traits should they have?

1. They must be believable so there must be flaws in amongst the virtues.  Flaws and virtues should be things anyone can identify with. 
2. They must have depth.  Shallow characters aren't going to "carry" a story.  The latter could appear as "bit" players though. 
   
3. Their motivations must make sense and be strong enough.  A general dislike of villainy is not enough to make a character want to take on the local Dark Lord.  There must be something personal at stake.
   
4. Readers should be able to like/dislike the character well enough to root for them/rejoice when they are killed or face whatever nasty fate you've invented for them.  I've never liked Miss Price, the heroine of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, because as a character she is far too passive.  Elizabeth Bennett from Pride and Prejudice is another matter altogether.
   
5. They live on in the memory long after the story has ended.
   

Odd title for a post perhaps but one thing I've always loved about writing "for" my rebellious fairy godmother, Eileen, is that she has no trouble with hypocrisy.  As a character she is well aware that attitude in itself is hypocritical.  Does she care?  No! 

But it does mean I can write for her in a way I couldn't with characters who are more obviously upright and honourable (and as ever less fun.  The villains do get the best roles, followed by the ambiguous characters like Eileen where you're never quite sure what they're going to do next).

Rules, for Eileen, go out of the proverbial window as and when it suits her.  There's a lot of fun to be had writing situations, relevant to the overall plot, which reflects this.  And there is always the fun of a hypocrite either being outplayed by someone better at hypocrisy than they are or by being brought down by that attitude. 

So let's hear it for the fictional hypocrites.  Almost certainly you wouldn't want to come across them in real life but on the pages of a book, in a story... let them entertain us!

Sometimes in life you get the chance to re-live your past, to evoke memories and to look at where you have come from.  I've recently lost my mother to mixed dementia and today members of my family and I literally went back to where she came from and explored sites that were familiar.  It was very therapeutic. 

I think you can do something similar with characters.  The important thing is they have to go back for a good reason (it must form a vital part of the plot, else it is just padding).  They should gain something from the return to their past - healing, an answer to a problem etc.  The other important point is the visit to the past should be long enough to be useful but not drag on too long.  We found a day visit was enough for what we wanted to achieve. 

In fiction, I think you would want to limit how much time/words/pages was spent on this.  In The Lord of the Rings we are drip-fed the story of how that wretched ring came into being.  The past had to be explored as the story of how and why Sauron forged the thing came out.  Yet this does not stop the flow of the story, it adds to it.  It adds to the drama.  The story would make less sense without it.  And that is how you know the fictional revisiting of the past has hit the right note.

If it was possible to visit fictional worlds, which would you choose?

I would want a proper guided tour, with personal safety guaranteed.  Most fictional worlds are not your nice oh-so-safe twee universes, they're flaming dangerous.  And in the case of Narnia the risk of hypothermia is extremely high!  (It also pays not to annoy any talking lions you happen to come across.  The Narnia stories do indicate this is unlikely to go down well).

So where would you visit?  I've always liked the sound of Middle Earth.  I love The Lord of the Rings and thought the Peter Jackson films magnificent.  I loved the hobbit homes.  Mind, being under 5' tall, I feel I have a natural affinity here though I can confirm I don't have hairy feet!

I wouldn't want to go to Mordor (twinned with whatever ugly modern town you can think of!). 

I quite like the idea of visiting Gallifrey (no prizes for guessing who my guided tour would be led by there!).   I would visit Narnia, suitably well wrapped up (though until the thaw did come I'd want to be able to have a constant supply of hot chocolate on the go).

So where  would you visit?

If you want to induce despair in your fantasy author of choice, you could do worse than ask at least some of the following questions:-

1. Are there dragons in your book?  If not, why not?  If yes, don't you think dragons are cliched?  (It does all form part of the same question).
   
2. Don't you think fairytales are twee and for little kids? (Definitely not and have you read  Hans Christen Andersen, the Brothers Grimm etc?).
   
3. Writing fantasy is all very well but the real genre in which to make money is crime, surely? (I love reading crime, I just can't write it).
   
4. Why do you think no fantasy author has won the Booker?  (Because some misguided people don't take fantasy seriously).
   
5. You just put magic in it, there's no real plot.  (I could put in a load of asterisks here to give some indication of the likely response to this but you could just add in your own swear words of choice here).
   

All writers build on what has gone before, inspired by what has been read and loved.  Sometimes I've come across stories I think are badly written and in a way they inspire me - to do better!

The "rules" of writing have been set down a very long time ago and I don't think it possible to re-invent the wheel.  It is possible though to make the wheel continue to turn smoothly and well by making your stories as good as you can make them.

Reading feeds writing so the more widely read you are the better.   (You have more sources of inspiration for one thing).  And all writers of adult fiction owe a huge debt to our colleagues in children's literature because people don't just walk in to a bookshop and get the latest novel. They go in because they already have a love of books fuelled by the stories they loved as children.

Following on from yesterday's post, here are a few of the fictional characters I definitely don't want coming into our world, should such a thing ever become possible.  Most are self explanatory.  I think the list is a good mixture!  Well it's not often you get Dracula and Mrs Bennett from Pride and Prejudice in the same list is it?

1. Dracula
   
2. Cruella de Vil (there are enough people cruel to animals as it is).
   
3. Mrs Bennett (I'd find her so irritating).
   
4. Fagin
   
5. Sweeney Todd
   
6. Sherlock Holmes (face it, he is a know it all.  We have enough of those).
   
7. Gollum
   
8. Sauron
   
9. Voldemort
   
10. Bellatrix Le Strange (was I the only one who wanted to cheer when Molly Weasley dealt with this creature once and for all?).
    

I came across an interesting photo on Facebook a while ago which showed a blue pill (no, not that one!) and a red pill.  The blue pill could allow fictional characters to come into our world.  The red pill could allow you to go into fictional worlds.  The question asked was which one would you choose.  My reply was I'd try one on one day and the next day try the other!

If fictional characters could come to life I think it would be a recipe for chaos.  Would they be subject to our laws?  Would their magical qualities work here?  Would they adapt to life on Earth or expect us to change our ways so our world resembled the worlds they come from?

Would they protest at the way they're portrayed in stories?  I think that would particularly apply for the traditional bad guys, especially in fairy tales.  Indeed in The Trouble With Mother my Chief Witch makes the point that fairy godmothers can often be as bad as witches but guess who gets the better press and who writes the fairy stories!  Valid point I think.

As for going to other worlds, it would definitely pay to read up before you go.  (For example, it pays to know that a thick coat is a very good idea if you're planning to visit Narnia.  Also don't ever upset talking lions that you come across - it never works out well).  I think I prefer my characters and fictional worlds to stay in books.  After all the pleasure of reading is to escape this world for a bit.  If their worlds come here, there's no escape!

One thing I love about fairytales is they are a good vehicle for getting messages across without being preachy about it.  Oscar Wilde's wonderful The Happy Prince shows that material things are not enough to guarantee happiness, indeed they cannot do so, and that's as relevant a message now as it was in the 1980s.

So when it comes to writing fairytales how can I ensure those have hidden depths?  By ensuring my characters have flaws the reader can identify with.  By having subplots which are relevant to the overall plot, which complicate things for my heroine, which still need to be dealt with and in the meantime the main problem still needs to be sorted out.  Rocket up the tension!

One thing I love as a reader is discovering the hidden depths in a story and trying to guess how it will effect overall plot.  A great story will have layers to it and can yield up something new on repeated readings.  Now there's a challenge to me as a writer!

I'm currently studying a Future Learning online course based on the works of Hans Christen Andersen.  Some of the stories chosen for the course are very well known (The Little Mermaid) and others less so (The Story of a Mother).

I'm finding the analysis of the stories fascinating but one of the biggest things to come out of the course so far, at least for me, has been discovering the inspiration of very old folk tales on HCA.  HCA appears to have wanted to keep these folk tales alive so did so by writing some of his fairy tales based on these original stories.  He, of course, also wrote his own, very original stories and, along with the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault, has left a wonderful legacy of fairy tales, most of which are still very well loved now.

I guess it proves the point that all writers build on what has gone before.

Fairytales have messages.  Some are blatant, others are more subtle (with those you may not realise you have picked up a message until after you have read whole story) but some messages include:-

1. Snow White.  Beware of strangers bearing gifts!  Don't underestimate dwarves either.
   
2. Cinderella. Welcome stranger (fairy godmother) bearing gifts!  Also if she wants a pumpkin, best you go fetch her a pumpkin and don't argue.  Patience is a virtue.
   
3. The Little Match Girl.  Poverty is vile.  So is death.
   
4. The Ugly Ducking.  Don't judge by appearances.  Also beauty can often appear later.  Be true to yourself.
   
5. Sleeping Beauty.  Double check your guest list and ensure you have included everybody.  When banning spinning wheels, double check you really have got rid of the lot.
   

All fiction writers, regardless of genre, follow what has gone before and build on it and add their unique contribution to the general mix.  Hans Christen Andersen did this by retelling the old folk tales he loved.  Writers have been known to rebel against the expectation of a genre.  Others fulfil it.  Still others spoof it.

I like genre fiction.  I don't like the snobbery that can often be aimed against it.  Writer and reader know what to expect of each genre.  Certain archetypes (character types found to name one example) save a lot of writing and explanation because writer and reader know what to expect.  These archetypes can be twisted but there is still the underlying structure which makes the twist work.  The twist can't come completely out of the blue.  Breaking rules only works when you know what the rules are in the first place.

I have no problems with standard characters like fairy godmothers, witches and so on.  What I like to do is make my fairy godmothers and witches unique.  I like to put them in situations not found in other fairytales or get them to face dilemmas that when the original fairytales were first written could not have occurred.  Fairytales are great vehicles for irony and wit and subtle references to what we know in our "real" world.

Fairy tale rules are made to be broken.  See the works of Hans Christen Andersen in particular for this (The Tinderbox - is the hero a traditional hero?  Definitely not!).

Yes, fairy tale characters can be generic.  Witches are always evil.  Heroes are always heroic.  There is always a happy ending.  Hang on.  The Little Mermaid (the original HCA version, definitely not Disney's take on it) definitely is not happy yet it is a classic fairy tale.

So rules can be broken but it is true you have to know the rules well to be able to do so effectively.

Humour and irony are used to great effect in fairy tales (another reason I love them) and the best ones also get points across without being preachy.  Yet there are sad stories too (The Little Match Girl.  It's no coincidence I'm referring to HCA stories.  This is partly because I'm studying a course on some of his works at the moment but also because generally his are the tales I remember best from my childhood and the ones I read most often).