Just started a discussion on our social networking site (www.storyworld.ning.com) about characters. You may wish to sign up and join the debate.

It carries on from an earlier discussion about characters and deals with the ‘great’ character. Writers will differ on how to create characters, some will approach the task methodically with lists of background facts etc, others will hone in on the essence of a character. Both are right, most writers use a mixture of the two.

But what turns a character into a great character? For me, it is that the character dominates the stage whenever he or she is on it. And let me say straight away that a great character does not have to be a Hamlet or a Macbeth. It could be a humble person but one who is nevertheless a great character because they are so beautifully drawn. I am working with a writer whose central character is a meek, mild, almost fearful character, but by God, he dominates every stage he is on because he so real. And all those who have ‘met’ him love him for it.

And yes, I use the word stage advisedly. I know we are talking prose here but I always think that writers should approach their characters as if they were on a stage. Are they powerful enough to dominate the auditorium? Can they hold the audience? Does the audience (for which read reader) follow them wherever they go? Do they feel real? Do they feel as if they could knock on your door at any moment and walk in? Do you, the reader, believe?

There are so many things you could say about creating characters (anyone booking into our mentoring scheme will be sent a copy of our e-book on writing which includes some thoughts on characters) but the question is this. Have you created a great character, not a good one, but a great one who people will remember long after they have stopped reading the story?

And if so, introduce us to them!

John Dean

We have topped 80 members of our social networking site for authors at www.storyworld.ning.com and we are delighted with the feedback we are getting, with people expressing opinions about writing and helping us to celebrate their successes.,

The flash fiction competition running on the storyworld site has made a slow start and we hope it will pick up. Depending on how March’s competition goes we may try further ones.

Delighted to be talking to a few people about our mentoring as well: the message we are putting out is that it can be as flexible as you like. The nature of mentoring is that it can be tailored entirely to people’s needs.

If any of these things interest, you can contact me through this site, the storyworld site or at john.dean@certys.co.uk

John Dean

Been doing a lot of teaching about creating mood recently and stumbled, courtesy of the excellent Guardian website, across this quote by writer Elmore Leonard. “Never open a book with weather. If it’s only to create atmosphere, and not a charac­ter’s reaction to the weather, you don’t want to go on too long. The reader is apt to leaf ahead look­ing for people. There are exceptions. If you happen to be Barry Lopez, who has more ways than an Eskimo to describe ice and snow in his book Arctic Dreams, you can do all the weather reporting you want.’

It’s excellent advice. Elmore Leonard has always argued that writing should be about getting on with the story and not getting sidetracked on elements of writing, such as excessive description, that do not take the story on.  It’s what we should all be doing, I would suggest and it is certainly something I have worked hard on as I have developed the craft of writing.

John Dean

Want to discuss the issues raised in these blogs - or find out about our mentoring of writers and our new flash fiction competition? Then go to www.storyworld.ning.com where you can register for free and join our growing community of writers

Quite a bit of interest already in our new initiatives - the flash fiction competition and mentoring for writers.

What has become clear from the inquiries we have had about the mentoring is that each person’s needs are different so we will be as flexible as we can.

If you want help with novels then we can help with that, if it’s about structuring short stories we can help with that. Whatever you want we can help with, helping you along every step of the way.

The flash fiction competition is only two or three days old but we have already a few inquiries and a few stories entered - if you want to find out more on either initiative do drop me a line at john.dean@certys.co.uk or through our social networking site at www.storyworld.ning,com

John Dean

Stories are coming in for the March Global Short Story Competition with entries from the UK, Australia and Canada over the weekend.

John Dean

We are running our first flash fiction competition now, alongside the Global Short Story Competition, and looking for stories no more than 200 words long. It can be accessed via our sister site www.storyworld.ning.com

But what is so special about flash fiction? Well, I reckon that it allows the writer to pare down a story to what is important - with so few words to play with you end up asking questions about the way you describe your places and your characters and about what really matters in the story. The best flash fiction creates a story that still has a beginning, a middle and an end and still involves the reader despite the shortage of space.

Flash fiction is one of the biggest movements in current short story writing - and arguably the one which presents the biggest challenge for the writer.

We at Certys Limited are intrigued by the idea so are running a flash fiction competition, with a first prize of £25.

Put simply, flash fiction is fiction of extreme brevity. The standard, generally-accepted length of a flash fiction piece is 1,000 words or less.

Of course, it is not a new idea - nothing ever is. Aesop’s Fables is an example and practitioners have included Anton Chekhov, Franz Kafka, Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

The best example in many people’s eyes is the six words allegedly penned by Ernest Hemingway: For sale: baby shoes, never worn.

We are looking for stories no more than 200 words long. The judge will be myself and our other usual rules apply with one difference: you still pay £5 but for that fee you can enter up to three stories. The deadline will be the end of the month.

How to enter: We are running this through our social networking site at www.storyworld.ning.com You can register on the site for free then pay your entry fee via the Storefront (to be found if you click on Main at the top of the page). We will receive an email confirming payment and invite you to join the Flash Fiction group where you can post your stories as a forum post.

We know that writing can be a lonely pastime so we have created an online service which allows you to gain feedback on your work and discuss issues of concern in your writing either with a published writer or other members of a group.

Our aim is to help aspiring writers to improve their technique and improve their chances of being successful, either in competitions or admissions to book and magazine publishers.

Membership will provide all-year-round mentoring in which you will be given help and feedback with your writing as well as the opportunity of taking part in a series of themed-courses.

There is no official certificate of qualification at the end of the course but we hope you will have gained immeasurably as a writer.

The mentoring will be led by myself and as the scheme grows, we will also bring in other experienced writers to pass on their experience.

We are passionate about writing and our desire is to help writers around the world. We believe that this service will help achieve that.

If you want some details sending you can contact me through our social networking site at www.storyworld.ning.com or drop me a line through this site or by emailing john.dean@certys.co.uk

John Dean 

Decent start to March’s Global Short Story Competition with stories coming in from several areas of the UK, including Scotland, as well as America and Croatia. Some really nice writing as well.

We said at the start of this year that we hoped it would be an exciting twelve months for us and so it is proving.

The competition is in its third year now and we are now looking at other competitions, particularly a flash fiction one which we hope to launch shortly.

We have also secured a number of deals with e-distributors which will allow us to publish anthologies which can be downloaded.

Our first book is in production at the moment and features winning and highly commended stories from our first year’s competition and we are currently approaching the authors in question with details of the royalties arrangements.

We hope it will be the first of many such books and hope it will be out within the next two or three months.

Also, we are about to launch a mentoring service, whereby authors who feel they could do with a little extra help can sign up to a year-long service which gives them one to one feedback from professional writers.

If anyone is interested in this, do drop me a line at john.dean@certys.co.uk or through our social networking site on www.storyworld.ning.com and I can give you more information.John Dean