Tuesday Tip - Add complexity

Your story should be layered, just like life. There is no life-story that is not intersected by hundreds, if not thousands, of other life stories. All of these characters will have their own inter-relationships, but more importantly all will have their own imaginative life.

In writing fiction it is easy to forget that the character also has an imagination, perhaps a fictional life or an attachment to a certain story. To make a character complex and nuanced, we must tap into their imaginations as well as our own. I am just reading Essie Fox's The Somnambulist. She does this really well, the life that Phoebe's Aunt Cissy lives is more to do with what her imagination rests on, than it is to do with her mundane life.

Likewise, when I was writing "The Gilded Lily" the story of "Snow White and Rose Red" had profoundly affected the way the sisters felt they should behave towards each other, providing an ideal which both struggled to maintain.

So delve into your characters imaginations. What might they fantasize about, what key stories have they heard, which book has affected them so much it has changed their life?

The Tuesday Tip - A Visual Narrative

If I'm ever stuck in my work in progress, or can't seem to generate enthusiasm to write, I go to Google and type in Narrative Painting as one of the keywords, and the period I'm interested in - in my case the 17th century. Trying it today, some of the first random images to come up were these:

The work above is by Vermeer, this one by the Flemish painter Frans Snyders.

By writing around the character I see - a draughtsman or maybe a geometer looking out of the window, his attention caught by ....? Well what? Let your imagination supply the answer. I am particularly taken with the oriental rug which pehaps came from one of the places he is mapping. Has it just arrived? Is that why it is draped in the foreground like that? Where will it go next?

The second picture - well, what a variety of fish. In a world where mostly I see cod and haddock, and the occasional tuna sandwich, this is an eye-opener. Most of it looks as though it is writhingly alive. And what is that in the bottom left? An otter? My market scene has just taken on fresh vigour!

Sometimes all the imagination needs is a little stimulus - a prod, if you like. Questions are what oil our creative faculties, as it is human nature to want to resolve questions. Google Images supplies you with all the questions about your period that you need. It is at our fingertips, and is such a rich resource, especially for those writing historical fiction. Most writers have a visual narrative running in their heads which needs feeding. If the imagination is hungry, then go and feed it!