Fi Phillips

Spring has gone into hiding behind a rain cloud sky here. It's the kind of weather that sets a mood - grey, cold, hurried. In a novel, it would be a forewarning of something unseen on the way. Setting up the tension in your novel from Fiction University (the new name for The Other Side of the Story) offers more ways to create mood and tension in your writing.

I'm currently working on a murder mystery play that is set in a shed. Okay, it's a large shed, but still the scenes have to keep the play interesting in the way that they utilise the space so I was delighted to come across 6 tips on making similar scenes feel different  on The Other Side of the Story. Have a look.

One of the changes I have made (so far) in rewriting my novel for the 9-12 age group is to move the location of the attack on my protagonist. Originally, the attack took place in a deserted park which always felt slightly wrong. I think the problem was that I couldn't truly picture the park. In the latest draft, the attack has been moved to a derelict street where there is no apparent chance of help. I can see that street in my mind's eye. I can feel the roughness of the torn tarmac under my feet. I can hear the wind whistling through the smashed windows. It feels right. The Other Side of the Story has an interesting article on the same topic of settings - How your setting can affect your characters  - that is well worth a read. Have a look.

After yesterday's blog post about whether we should have an understanding of why a villain is bad (their background), I'm still in a quandary over my own 'monster'. In the novel I'm working on, Jared is what they call 'damaged goods'. His mother was a drug addict and he spent a lot of time living on the streets. My quandary is that I can't decide whether it would add anything to the novel for the reader to know his back story, or if I do reveal his upbringing, how much of it to include. Will it move the story along? The Other Side of the Story offers up many fascinating and incredibly useful articles on a regular basis and this one - 5 Steps to Better Characters Arcs - is no exception. It may well come in useful in making my decision about Jared.

I'm up very early this morning to get some extra mundane tasks finished so as not to eat into my writing slot after the school run. It's all very peaceful. My husband and children are slumbering, and even the dogs next door have quietened down (they start barking at 6.00 am most mornings). Coffee and quiet - bliss. As I'm writing the first book of a trilogy, I found this article on The Other Side of the Story very interesting. It's called 10 Things To Remember About Sequels . Have a read.