Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.
Every story focuses on a decision. At some point a character has to choose whether or not to act on a situation they’re facing. What they decide to do has immense consequences for that story.
Prior to that the writer has to make two decisions – who is going to be their lead character and what situation(s) are they going to have to deal with? Even for my 100 word flash stories, I have to make those two choices. Novelists have to make far more.
This is why I find outlining so useful as it gives me a chance to work out the best possibilities for my character(s) to deliver on an interesting premise.
I need to know what drives my character. So if I had an honest character, I would put them in a situation where they might have to lie for the best of motives (possibly to save someone else). Would they then do that? What consequences does this have on the story and for them personally? How do they handle having to do something they would not normally have dreamed of doing?
Character Decisions
As well as the individual character decisions, when you have a story with more than one character in it, that brings in an extra dynamic. The other character(s) could bring pressure on the lead one to act in a certain way or not. How well will your lead character resist that pressure or will they just cave into it? Peer pressure happens in stories too.
Also even in one character only stories, that character will face a choice as to what course of action to take. Do they find it easy to reach a decision? Do they make the right one? The story will play those consequences out. The choice doesn’t have to be the right one either – how many tragedies have come from that?
Writing Decisions
For my flash tales, I usually know what word count I am writing to, especially for competitions, where there is no leeway given. (It may seem harsh to disqualify a story if it is only a couple of words “out” but when every other competitor does stick to the rules, it would be wrong of the judge not to disqualify as it would be so unfair on the other writers).
Given I know the word count, I know what that will look like on a page/screen. A 100 word story, for example, is two or three short paragraphs, which lends itself to my making an easy decision on the story structure. The first paragraph will be character and situation set up. The second one will show the problem. The last paragraph will resolve said problem.
With a 500 word story, I’ve got one page of A4 basically. That tells me the first third of the page is the character and situation set up, the middle third is the problem, and the last third resolves it. All of that also tells me I can have two or three characters in this story too. I will have the room for them.
Also there is the decision as to what to do with the finished story. I submit some for competitions. I put some on my YouTube channel. I submit regularly to Friday Flash Fiction. But I do keep stories back for future flash fiction collections.
Career Decisions
With writing fiction, there are many decisions to be taken. Will you submit work to a traditional publisher (including the small indie presses, as I have done)? Will you self publish? Will you do a mixture of those two things as many authors do now? I can’t recommend highly enough The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook and The Mslexia Indie Press Guide for details on mainstream and independent publishers respectively. Both save writers a lot of research and time.
You also need to decide what marketing you are happy to do (and can keep going), given every author has to do this. We are the ones best placed to speak about our work. We also know the local links where we could spread the word about our writing.
It also means accepting the need for some social media in your life but I’ve found it useful to stick to a few platforms only and be consistent on them. Consistency matters. It helps you build up an audience over time.
Career decisions also take in things like which writing events you go to, whether these are single day events or for longer. Be open to possibilities. Do try out writing events. They’re also great fun. Bear in mind as well as learning from the courses on offer, you also get to network with other writers and you never know where that may lead.
Conversations with other writers can lead you to discovering competitions, markets, publishers etc which may be suitable for your work, even if they don’t seem to be at the time. I know. This happened to me many years ago when I met Gill James at the Isle of Wight Writing Weekend. I met Gill over meal time gatherings and we got talking. I wasn’t to know that years later Gill would become my publisher at Bridge House Publishing, CafeLit, Chapeltown Books etc. Gill couldn’t have known at the time either.
At Association of Christian Writer events I have met other writers who have told me about things coming up which I have then followed through on.
Being open to the idea of networking and marketing what you do is important. I’ve been (and continue to be) most grateful for useful advice and tips I’ve picked up to date from other writers as to what they’ve found helpful and what they haven’t. The latter can save you a lot of time when you realise this could well be true for you too so you know which avenues not to bother going down.
Conclusion
Life is full of decision making then. It’s not really a great surprise to find the writing life is the same here. But you can change direction if you find one avenue isn’t working out for you. You can also come back to that original avenue later if you wish. Sometimes timing can be a factor in rejections etc.
The main decision to take, I think, is to ensure you’re not taken in by the writing scammers out there and to always ask for advice if you’re not sure on anything here. I’ve found the writing community is a supportive one plus there are the professional organisations such as The Society of Authors and Alliance of Independent Authors to turn to for further guidance. Do make sure you know the difference between vanity publishers and genuine self publishing. Don’t be afraid to ask awkward questions. The genuine ones will be ready for these.
Related Posts:-
Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.
Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.
Never miss out on another blog post. Subscribe here:
Leave a Reply