When it comes to my writing I like to write as simply as possible. There is nothing worse than having to look up a word in a dictionary (several times) when you are reading a story. I really don’t think a dictionary is the ideal companion to reading. I like readers to be able to understand the story without having to look up words in a dictionary every two minutes. I know it puts me off and I am sure it puts readers of stories off too.
The second thing I try to do with my writing, which might sound obvious, is to have a beginning, a middle and an end. The beginning of the story for me is like the opening scene. It is also a good place to put tension or conflict should the story have tension or conflict, The middle part of a story for me is where you can pad the story out with things that might seem irrelevant but are nonetheless important and are part of the story. As for the ending. I like to resolve things, to finalize them, if there is a finality to things. Sometimes some of my stories are open ended and it is up to the reader to discover for themselves what type of resolution, if any, there might be.
My favourite part of a story is the ending. For two reasons. Firstly because it means I have literally finished a story, which is always fun, and secondly it helps to tie up loose ends that might be still in the story from the beginning stages of the story.
Not all my fiction is personal or based on real events involving me. Most of it is pure fiction and I have no experience of events. When I do write about what I know I usually have a character on the sidelines that is my ‘voice.’ They a re usually on the edges of the story and might give an opinion on something that may or may not be favourable to my own experiences. I think it is important to have this type of ‘voice’ in a story. One who is not mentally or emotionally attached to the writer but who can still give an opinion.
Some of my favourite characters in my stories are like that. They have an opinion which is alternative to my own viewpoint on a situation. I hope that by having this type of character in the story that the reader gets a different outlook that is not necessarily my own.
