Competitions – Page 31

is for killing. I am talking here of ‘killing your darlings’ of course. It’s how we writers normally refer to reducing the cast in a story.

In either novel or short story writing, we find ourselves lavishing hours on the creation of well-rounded, believable characters, which is exactly how it should be. A novel will have the capacity to allow for a large cast, whereas a short story is best trimmed down to five or less characters.

Where the novel usually has a longer time scale, it is able to convey a larger number of characters. A short story, by its nature, is created to fit a short time frame, and there is therefore no facility for a cast of thousands. The fewer, the better is the advice in a short story.

Whatever I’m writing, I tend to create each character with a comprehensive profile, even though I may only use a little of the information if it’s a short story. In a novel, with a similar character, I might drip-feed small pieces of information throughout the story. Be it a novel or a short story, I invariably end up with more characters than I need to get the job done, so in that circumstance, I ‘kill my darlings’.

The phrase is borne of the fact that we get to know our creations so well that we are reluctant to remove them. We have grown to like them, to feel a relationship with them, but to be in a story, they must earn their place. If when editing a story, you find a character that doesn’t move the story forward; that character has to go. It’s heart-breaking, I know, but we must be realistic.

I’ve made peace with myself by having a parallel universe in my files. I have a file full of people, already invented, but not yet put to use. There is a pregnant woman in her 20’s, a retired policeman, an old war veteran, and many more. They all get along perfectly well in that file, but perhaps one day a couple of them will meet in other circumstances and things will not be so good.

What is today’s advice then?

Use as much care as always to create believable characters, but please remember, don’t shoe-horn a character into a story just because you like them. When you edit, you are looking for extra characters as well as extra punctuation, adjectives, adverbs and all the other things that should be removed. Happy hunting my murderous friends.

Thank you for reading. I’m off on my daily blog patrol now, and I’ll be back on Monday, with an ‘L’ of a word.

is for imagery.

What is imagery in the context of writing and storytelling?

It is the use of words by the writer to suggest a picture or scene in the mind of the reader. That’s a personal definition, but I think it’s close enough. Let’s look at some examples.

Example 1.

Marcus said: “You can’t do this to me Charlotte.”

“Oh, yes I can,” she replied and laughed.

Example 2.

Marcus said: “You can’t do this to me Charlotte.”

“Oh, yes I can,” she replied, and laughed as she sliced through the safety rope. Marcus screamed until he bounced off the rocks.

Example 3. From my short story, ‘Simply Irresistible’

‘Mark’s attention was caught by the girl’s white blouse, or more accurately its contents, because the opening at the top provided a glimpse of cleavage and a hint of white lace. Mark raised his left arm pretending to check the time so he could look straight ahead.’

At one time, fictional literature was filled with gushing, flowery prose and carried the reader along on a slow and beautiful journey through the story. The modern reader is more inclined to expect a more rapid pace, and require fewer words to fire up their imagination. They want an interesting, well-told story, but with pace.

In essence, good imagery is about using as few words as possible to conjure up a sense of place, or scene, in the mind of the reader. It can be done in narrative, or effectively within dialogue. As with all passages of writing, don’t just write it and edit it; truly imagine it. If it takes three, four, or more attempts to get it right, just keep on going, because it will be worth it.

Thank you for reading, and I’ll be back tomorrow with my word and thoughts on ‘J’.