Fi Phillips

Image courtesy of Comfreak on pixabay.com The purpose of this month's writing exercise is to become more familiar with your protagonist and antagonist. Here goes. If your protagonist and antagonist were in each other's shoes, how would they act differently? Would they act differently? What does this tell you about each of these characters? Let's look at an example - how about Harry Potter and Voldemort? If Voldemort/Tom Riddle had been orphaned and brought up by cruel relatives, would he had become a well-loved friend, hero and inspiration to others? If Harry had experienced Voldemort/Tom Riddle's upbringing, would he have followed a power-hungry path of evil? Are your character's actions based on their upbringing and background, or do they have the choice to carve their own paths? What would they do if they swapped lives?

The second writing exercise I ever posted on here was called ' Through the Window '. This month, I'm using another kind of threshold for inspiration - a door. Closed doors. Open doors. Locked doors. Hidden doors. An image and a description of any of these can tell a story in itself. Some doors make us feel uneasy. Others welcome us in. Today, I'd like you to choose one of the door images below as your inspiration. What story does your door  tell?

One of the things that interests me in writing a novel is breaking it down into its structure - beginning, middle, end, inciting events, resolutions, and so on. A well-formed structure can make all the difference, carving a path for the reader to follow. Janice Hardy discusses The Act One Problem on her website, Fiction University, "the  bridge between the beginning of the novel and the middle". Have a look.

As you know, I'm working on a re-write/re-draft/general page shuffle of my Shadowbinder novel. I made good progress throughout the April Camp NaNoWriMo dash but since then my writing progress has faltered. Faltered is an understatement. My writing progress has tripped, skidded, demolished a fence and thrown its rider (me) into a thorny hedge. I'm working on a new chapter. It isn't the first new chapter I've written this time around so I'm unsure why I'm having so much trouble. I have this image for inspiration. I walk past this archway at least once a fortnight and photographed it last time I passed. It always strikes me as a little odd, hovering between gardens as it does. I know what I want to happen in my chapter. I've identified who the major players in this chapter are too. I know how it must end and how it will set Steve and his friends on a path. Why can't I get it down on paper? So I've decided to fall back on a method I use when ...

The idea for this month's writing exercise sprouted on a weekend trip to a place called Bodelwyddan Castle. This is what got me thinking. My children dashed into the maze ahead of us and disappeared from view. We could hear them running along passageways, with the occasional glimpse of them through a gap in a hedge, but we didn't meet up again until we found the exit. Imagine a maze. What does it look like? What purpose does it serve? Is there a centre or just an exit? Is the entrance also the exit? Are the walls of the maze made from hedges, bricks or some other material? Is it open to the sky or enclosed by a roof? Is it joyful or frightening? Are there distractions along the way? Are there statues in your maze? Can you see the light of the sky? Do you cross waterways? Are there clues in your maze? Go on. Tell me about your maze.

One of the few constants in our busy lives is the sky. Whether it's filled with clouds or clear, it is always there. Personally, stopping to look up has saved me from making several bad decisions. It's comforted me and given me fresh perspective too. Wherever you are, in a city, in the countryside, even sat inside, look up and the sky is there. How does it make you feel? Does the sky set your mood or set you free? How can you use the sky in your writing? Does its mood reflect the mood of your writing? Does it bring together all the characters under it? Is it oppressive? In your writing, is it the Earth sky you can see, or an alien sky? Tell me about your sky.

As you know, I'm  taking part in NaNoWriMo this month (National Novel Writing Month). A large part of the NaNoWriMo experience is writing freely, without edit, and just keeping going. That's one of the reasons that it doesn't suit a lot of writers. Some people can just go for it full-pelt, while others need to stop and consider, research, edit a bit, and so on. So in honour of NaNoWriMo, the exercise I'm setting this month is to write for at least twenty minutes in the spirit of 'full-pelt'. Don't plan. Don't think. Just write. Don't edit and read back. Just keep going. Good luck.

Writing can be a lonely business so I was very interested to find out about the latest Writers & Artists video series, 'Write With'. It kicks off with writer, Cesca Major as she begins the second novel in her current series. 'Write With' Cesca Major - Week 1

In my children's novel, Steve Haven plods along (miserably). He thinks he knows what to expect in the life that has been plotted out for him. It isn't until all of that certainty is thrown into disarray that his real life begins In The Inciting Event , Janice Hardy discusses just such a point in plotting your novel. She says, "The inciting event is the moment when things change for the protagonist and she's [he's] drawn into the main problem of the novel, or problems that will eventually lead to that core conflict". Have a look. It's well worth a read.

As soon as I read this article by K M Weiland - The Impact Character: Why Every Character Arc Needs One - I thought of my own character, Hartley Keg. He flags up Steve's inner conflicts, creates all kinds of trouble and adventures by his actions, and generally throws Steve's world up and all over the place. This is a brilliant, well written and informative article that's well worth a read.

This is something we'll be seeing a lot of soon in the UK- a street covered in autumn leaves. My children are almost past the age to kick around in leaves but whenever we pass a pile of leaves like this, there's always the temptation. What could lie beneath this layer of leaves, beyond the obvious earwigs and worms? Something lost? Something hidden? What could you find if you bent to clear away the leaves?

The more I work on my novel, the more I get to know and like my cast of characters. My main character, Steve (the protagonist) has grown on me especially. He is the person who discovers the world of  the novel along with the reader. One of the ways I've familiarised myself with him is to ask questions so that rather than the plot leading him along, his motivations and reactions create the story. Bridget McNulty's article 5 Essential Questions to Ask When Writing Your Protagonist on the Fiction University website takes a similiar approach.

I love the characters in my novel, whether they're good or bad or somewhere in between. They're individuals with their own way of speaking and their own motivations. Like me, most of them will happily tootle along in the same routine, day to day, year to year. Working out what would make them change, react, break out can be a puzzle. On Janice Hardy's Fiction University website, there is an article by writer K M Weiland on just this topic - How to Find Your Character's Breaking Point . Have a look.

Normally, each week's choice words include a link and an image or video. This week, however, there's just one thing for you to read because of it's length and richness of advice. This infographic appears on the Galleycat site - J R R Tolkien's 10 Tips For Writers.  Enjoy.

I don't know about you but I have a contrary muse. Sometimes, she's happy to sit in the house with me. Other times though, she refuses to stay indoors. She sits on the doorstep, shaking her head at my invitations and beckoning me outside. Even then, she may well skip off down the street with me jogging behind. Ok, I don't jog, but I do have to go in search of my muse on occasion. Sometimes, nature does it for me - the park, the countryside, even my own back garden. On other occasions, I like the city with its mixture of traffic, footsteps and overheard conversations. The hubbub of a coffee shop can inspire me. Being surrounded by books in a library or bookshop can do it too. The point is that on occasion, your creativity needs a change of scenery to fire up. It needs a new kind of input, be it overheard conversation, fresh air or the colours of the high street. More than just adding new inspiration, it can give us a fresh perspective, especially if ...

Where do you write? You can usually find me at the dining table with a pad and pen or typing at the computer desk, but occasionally I set up on the couch or in bed. I say 'occasionally' because working away from a chair and table/desk always leads to me developing backache. In Writers - Be Careful How You Sit , Elizabeth Spann Craig writes about her own health problems caused by sitting in the wrong position to write and her problems with RSI too. It's well worth a read. Vlogging for Writers: with Leena from justkissmyfrog

I write murder mystery plays for a living and often, especially for a customer commissioned play, I have to research certain topics. For instance, this year's three new plays have required me to research aerobics routines, theft from railway lines, secret societies, how to construct a shed, the sex change process, Star Wars merchandise, and literary fairies. I'm also working on a children's fantasy novel. To a lot of people, the fantasy genre doesn't merit the same need for research and hard facts. How can you possibly research a fantastical world of goblins and magic and flying cars? Isn't it all in the writer's imagination?  I think research still has a important role to play in this genre. Look at Tolkien, for instance, whose studies in language led to his creation of the Elven tongue in his novels. Ursula  K Le Guin researched real locations, often visiting them, as inspiration for places in her novels, such as the Earthsea trilogy. Personally, f...

I've just got in from the morning school run. To keep my children on time, I keep to a reasonably strict routine first thing (well, as strict as it can be with two children whose imaginations and mouths are on overdrive). Part of this is our route to school, usually on foot but occasionally in the car and, of course, the route home. I can busy my mind with other things (breakfast, chores to do, arrangements to make) because I know where I'm going. Life is like that for most of us, most of the time. We know where we're going on the way to work, school or a night out. We automatically take those turns, manoeuvring ourselves through the world in probably quite a blinkered way. There's nothing wrong with knowing where we're going but what if, on occasion, we took a diversion? On whatever journey you take today or this week, take a moment to think of what might happen if you took the other route. Instead of  turning left to the shops, you turn right. Rather than ta...

The deadline for finishing my novel is fast approaching so I'm striving to write one to two thousand words a day. If I did that for the entire year then I'd have 365-730,000 words on the page (ok, computer) which is an impressive thought. Jamie Todd Rubin shares How I Wrote 400K Words in a Year on The Daily Beast website. Have a look. Creative Writing Masterclass 3: Plot

Do you cloud watch? When I was a child (an only child who regularly got dragged to gatherings where I was the only child), journeys home were often an inspiration. In the winter, the magic of the city lights would keep me entertained. In the summer, I would see islands in the clouds of the setting sun. I still sometimes stop and look at the clouds. On the school run, a couple of weeks ago, I saw these bird shaped clouds. Do they look like birds to you? Do you cloud watch? Do the pictures you see in the clouds inspire you? Why not stop today and look up. What do you see?