April's A - Z Challenge

A couple of years ago, I completed the A-Z in April blogging challenge. You blog for 6 days a week (Sundays off!), draw your theme from a different letter a day, and work through the alphabet. I had a great time and met quite a lot of great bloggers doing it, many of whose blogs I still read. I haven't become someone who does it every year though, and at the moment I'm quite glad not to have that pressure of daily blogging. You also really have to commit to visiting others' blogs which is, of course, a pleasure and often a delight, but does take up time.

Some of the blogs that I read regularly are doing it though. Perhaps you'd like to go and visit them and give them a cheer?

Nettie at @nettiewriting is doing a fascinating A-Z of Glasgow and all things Weegie. It's building up into a brilliant series of vignettes of Glasgow over the years.

Writer DJ Kirkby's A-Z has so far included short fiction and information drawn from her writing and her day job as a midwife trainer.

Maria at First Draft Cafe is a writer taking writing as her A-Z theme. She's been sharing tips and advice, and the occasional nugget from her WIP.

Rosalind Adam is Writing in the Rain features a unique A-Z. She's doing a song title and lyrics from each of four decades: the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s. It's such fun!

For more A-Z blogs (there's a massive list of all those signed up), visit the challenge's online home.

Good luck to the A-Z Bloggers!

As the first of April, today marks the beginning of the A-Z blogging challenge, in which bloggers commit to producing a post a day except Sundays in April, covering all 26 letters.

I took part last year, and covered a range of topics through the month, but many bloggers approach this in a more logical themed way. There's a list of some of these themes at the A-Z blog.

I'm not participating this year, but I did want to wish everyone all the best with it. The A-Z blog has a list of the 1600+ participants.

Why not visit a few and see what they're blogging about?

April A-Z: Reflections Mega-Post

So, that certainly was a challenge. When I started this blog in December, I never expected to be blogging daily (OK, six days a week). It's been fun, though, and has definitely helped me to improve my blogging habits. I've seen three main benefits from this challenge:

1. I've encountered (and now follow) several new, cool blogs that I probably wouldn't have come across otherwise.
2. I've gained quite a few followers myself through the challenge. That was an unexpected benefit for me, and very welcome.
3. Blogging within strict limits, like all writing to restraints, has been very freeing (in an odd kind of way). Having to come up with something starting with _ has forced me to search around for topics that I might not have blogged about otherwise. Some were a mite forced, but the most successful ones were arguably the ones I struggled most to find - there's definitely a lesson in there!

So, would I do it again? Yes, but not immediately. It's certainly encouraged me to go looking for more challenges/memes to join in with, but I don't intend to blog on a daily basis from now on.

April A-Z: Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist(from German, literally time-spirit; used in English to mean 'spirit of the age', the all-encompassing tone or theme of the time)

The zeitgeist in books is, I guess, like the concept of a trend. But of course, as we all know, writing 'to trend' is problematic, since books published now were usually accepted for publication at least a year ago, and therefore written at least two years ago. So if you start writing your 'trendy' book now, you're already (at least) two years behind!

This is, of course, depressing. What if I have the perfect idea for a vampire dystopian YA novel? Well, many say 'get on with it anyway'. Every time you hear of something being too old hat to contemplate, somebody somewhere has produced something so good that a publisher couldn't turn it down even though it was on the very theme they're telling everyone not to pitch with! An interesting angle, something absolutely not derivative, may well get you read. And that may be the key here: too many people are writing very derivative and formulaic stuff because they believe that to be the trend.

What's reassuring is that agents and publishers never define precisely what they're after. They'll talk about voice: a strong voice, a unique voice, a fresh voice. They'll talk about plot and/or characters: a plot that hooks, characters we care about. But this is all in quite general terms; they won't specify theme, plot type or genre (beyond the 'we don't handle sci-fi'-type statement). This is because they don't know either. How many times have you read "I'll know it when I see it" or some version of that?

Don't stress about whether your current or next WiP is 'on trend' (or likely to start a new one) - just write the best book that you can.

Have you read anything interesting about 'trend' lately?

April A-Z: Yes!

I thought I'd take the opportunity to share some blogs I've read recently that've made me go "yes" - either in agreement, or simple appreciation of the writing. Some I've discovered through the A-Z challenge, others are by people I follow on Twitter, or whose blogs I already followed.

Firstly, Rebecca Brown's "Little Notepad" is a fabulous showcase for her writing. It was on her blog that I first heard of the A-Z Challenge. It's hard to pick just one, so I'm going to link to a couple of her posts (and I also want to show you the different kinds of stuff she does!)
Her P post - Pier Pressure - was an excellent short story.
Her Wedding Fever post was a lively reminiscence piece about her own wedding, prompted (of course) by yesterday's Royal Wedding.

Lucy Coat's Blog, Scribble City Central, is one I've followed for a while. Last week, over a series of three posts, she treated us to a fantastic set of "Royal Wedding Revelations", which were her memories of the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana in 1981. She was actually there (being a schoolfriend of Diana's), which impressed my 7yr old no end!

A blog which I have discovered and enjoyed through this challenge is Shannon Lawrence's "The Warrior Muse", in which she posts mostly writing-related material. Her Y post focused on her plans for and achievements (so far!) this year.

Another discovery for the challenge is Sarah Makela's blog. She's another writer, who's used the challenge to present an alphabet's worth of mythological and legendary beasts. I particularly enjoyed S is for Selkie.

Finally, I'm offering you a blog of beauty. Joanna Cannon's blog provides beautiful and touching writing, mostly inspired by her day job as a doctor. The piece I'm linking to, A Beautiful Game, moved me to tears (and this is not a common thing - be warned), as did "Elephants" a couple of months ago. She deals with 'big' stories - birth, death, loss - but in a very understated and truly beautiful way.

April A-Z: Xenophobia

Tough one today! When I plumped for 'xenophobia', I was thinking of exploring how traditional legends, particularly of human and near-human creatures like vampires, werewolves and so on can sometimes be seen as an expression of xenophobia via fear of 'the other'. I was thinking also of how these (and other) 'races' of creatures from fantasy novels - trolls, dwarves etc - have been used by Sir Terry Pratchett in some of his Discworld novels to represent human races and to therefore play out issues of racism and xenophobia. I am sure this device has been used in other books also, but Pratchett's is the example I am familiar with.

Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because -- what with trolls and dwarfs and so on -- speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green.-- (Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad)

It occurred to me in preparing for this post, though, the xenophobia is perhaps more of a problem in the modern world, as we recognise diversity more and more, and live in increasingly mixed communities. This is perhaps why traditional beliefs and folklore show less obvious strands of xenophobia than more recently-occurring urban legends. In many developed countries, beliefs emerge about immigrants from poorer areas, often including some or all of the following:

• they eat inappropriate animals (often pets)
• they are unable to cope with technology
• they refuse to learn the language or customs of the land they are in
• they are incapable of appreciating the gifts of their host country, e.g. they are housed in a comfortable house but live only in one room, or wreck the house
• they are unable to adopt manners seen as basic in their new country, such as eating with cutlery
• they have poor hygiene

This xenophobia is also seen in national and racial stereotypes played out in jokes, and the use of a particular race in urban legends demonstrating extreme stupidity or incompetence - such as the one where someone assumes "cruise control" in their vehicle means they don't have to steer*.

*Of course, legends such as this might also feature other muted groups like a woman, a homosexual, an old person, a teenager, a transgendered person or someone in a job stereotypically believed to indicate low intelligence like a fast food worker or model.

April A-Z: Walpurgisnacht

Walpurgisnacht bonfire 

The first time I heard of this festival was in reading Goethe's Faust. It seems to me to be a cross between May Day and Hallowe'en: it falls on the night of April 30th into May 1st and is when witches are 'abroad'. It's celebrated in various European countries including Germany, Finland and Sweden.

It's interesting (to me, at least) that in many places, this night is celebrated with a large bonfire, which also forms part of traditional Beltane (or May Day) celebrations. Walpurgisnacht bonfires seem to be about scaring away spirits and witches while the people celebrate, while the Beltane bonfires seem to be more a symbol of purity and of fertility. Cattle would be driven between two fires at Beltane to purify them, and newlyweds would jump over a bonfire to bless their union and make it fertile.

Another similarity is in the decoration of the house with greenery or fresh flowers. This is (or was) practised in some European Walpurgisnacht celebrations and is often part of Beltane practice. Of course, greenery is used in many pagan-originating festivals, as both these clearly are. It's also significant that the 'may', or hawthorn is usually blossoming at this time, and it seems natural that there is a sense of the world re-awakening with the spring. Clearly, such a feeling is manifest in the new-blossoming trees and hedgerows, so the use of such natural decorations isn't greatly surprising. In some parts of Sweden, it used to be common for the young people of the village to collect greenery to decorate the exteriors of all the village houses. In an interesting cross-over to another festival, the payment for this greenery-collection was eggs!

The big difference between these two festivals is the belief that the devil, and/or witches, and/or evil spirits wander the world on this night. This is part of the Walpurgisnacht tradition, but is not associated with Beltane. In the system that includes Beltane, this belief is clearly part of the festival of Samhain (Hallowe'en), Beltane's opposite (since they are six months apart, at opposite sides of the wheel of the year). In both cases, people traditionally dress up in scary costumes - possibly to confuse the real scary things into leaving them alone, or simply to celebrate the spookiness of the occasion.

Have you seen or taken part in any Walpurgisnacht celebrations?

April A-Z: Variation

This letter had me stumped for most of today. For folklore, I thought: Vampires, I've nothing to add; Valkyries - Sarah Makela (sorry about the lack of umlauts!) did a lovely job on those already today. So I thought about writing and came up with virtue (an old-fashioned idea still prevalent in some kids' writing) and violence (how much in ok in kids' books?). THEN my 7 yr old wandered in to tell me how proud she was of herself for reading the bits that are 'said funny' in Stunt Bunny: Showbiz Sensation (which she's loving generally). The character in question has an accent - they are "ze best in ze world", that kind of thing. And then I knew what I could write about: Variation.

In my day job teaching English Language at A Level, the topic of 'Variation' is basically accent and dialect. The students need to be able to linguistically describe differences between different varieties of English (e.g. Geordie, West Country or US versus UK Standard varieties). It's a lot to ask of teenagers who frequently need to learn where these places are as well as what might be typical. It's no good teaching a class what's typically 'northern' or 'southern' in English accents if they think Norwich must be 'up north' and fail to realise that London is classed as southern! Anyway, all that aside, it's one of my favourite parts of the course. It's often the point where students realise the classist issues that we Brits have with accent, particularly since there are usually parts of their own usage that they've never realised are non-standard. For example, when I first started teaching in Nuneaton, I made the mistake of using the verb 'run' to teach the difference between the present perfective and simple past, not realising that 'I have ran' would be perfectly acceptable to most of the class. Issues like this help them to see how 'unfair' it is to make judgements about people based on usage, but also how ingrained it is for us to do that.

Anyway, I wanted to also link this to writing. Clearly, my little one was thrilled at being able to read and pronounce a non-standard accent, and it really helped the characterisation for her. This is exactly what using non-standard varieties in fiction should do: enhance characterisation. It shouldn't (I think) be a gimmick. I appreciate dialect literature as an attempt to strongly locate a story in a particular place, or as a way of validating non-standard speech. I know only too well that non-standard varieties are used because we value them as part of our identity. I don't appreciate the character who speaks in awkwardly-produced 'bumpkin' dialect that doesn't ring true to any particular place, used as a shorthand for 'uneducated' or 'simple'.

I think if you want to produce a piece of dialect literature, that's a specific undertaking, and worthwhile to preserve or raise the profile of a particular variety. Of course, you'd better get that dialect absolutely right!

On the other hand, giving just one character 'an accent' (i.e. spelling words phonetically only for them) often fails to ring true, or separates them markedly from everyone else. Sometimes, there's a reason for this - and if you are doing this, and know why, then fair enough. But dialect usage is arguably at least as effective when lightly drawn, i.e. the odd dialect word features, and Standard English words are spelt as standard. Or, as in the "Stunt Bunny" example above, you focus on one particular non-standard pronunciation and render only that phonetically.

Otherwise, to take things to their logical (if absurd) extreme, you'd need a different way of spelling 'grass' down South than up North. Grarss versus grass perhaps?

April A-Z: Unfinished Projects

All writers have unfinished work knocking around; it's an occupational hazard. Maybe something bigger or flashier whispered itself in the twilight, or maybe a project was deemed a 'no-go-er' by an agent, an editor, a crit partner. Or perhaps those unfinished pieces are more accurately unstarted pieces: fragments of ideas, brief jottings that haven't (yet) had their turn.

It's possible for these scraps to contribute to an evil time suck for the unwary procrastinating writer. Hours can be wasted in agonising over precisely which projects deserve the attention and nurturing which will develop them fully.

In fact, there are those who never actually finish any projects. "Oh, yeah, I was writing that book about (insert half-thought-through idea here) but it wasn't really going anywhere, so I started working on (half-thought-through idea B) instead." If this pattern continues ad infinitem, with nothing ever finished, this is not a writer. Perhaps worse (certainly for my sanity!) are those with half an idea but "no time" to write: "I'm going to write a book in the holidays/when I retire/if I win the lottery".  Trust me, if you wanted to do it, you'd find the time. Many of us who do write are really quite busy (again, I ask you to take my word for it); many published writers have a 'day job' as well. And, incidentally, it's quite rude to downplay our commitment like that, not to mention oh-so-safe to never actually take the risk and try producing a book...

Anyway, I digress. My point was intended to be this: the existence of unfinished projects (or some version of an 'ideas queue')  is pretty much a given if you are writing. The trick is not to get too bogged down in guilt for the occasional abandonment, as long as there are also finished projects in the mix. If you're never seeing anything through, ask yourself why. Are the ideas not fully developed before you start? Are you attempting to write in the wrong genre (e.g. are you aiming for novels with ideas that suit short stories more)? Are you more attracted to the idea of 'being a writer' than the actual writing?

April A-Z: Taliesin

From TreeCarving.co.uk 

Just a quick thought today!

I have always found the story of Taliesin fascinating. I'm referring here to the all-knowing bard created by magic (as related in the Mabinogion), rather than the historical bard. People of legend are often more exciting than those of history, aren't they?

What I find interesting now is the part of the story where Ceridwen is pursuing Taliesin, and they're turning into different creatures to escape from or catch each other. It's a motif found elsewhere in British folklore - in ballads like "The Two Magicians" (Child ballad 44), folktales like the Grimms' Foundling-Bird (Aarne-Thompson type 313a). It is also used later in children's books such as T. H. White's The Sword in the Stone and Julia Donaldson's The Princess and the Wizard, although in the latter the Princess is allowed to transform in order to hide from the Wizard, while the Wizard doesn't transform and chase her - he just has to find her.

April A-Z: Succubus

The succubus is a female demon who visits men in the night and traps them in lurid dreams. In some versions of the myth, this is in order to gather semen, so that other demons (incubi) may use it to impregnate women, since demons are (obviously) sterile themselves. In other tellings, this temptation of men is an end in itself, or it may be a way of harvesting souls.

The succubus is a motif I've seen used in various ways. Sometimes the night time 'excitement' is enough to prevent a man from having normal relationships, or to destroy his existing relationship. Sometimes it's used as a kind of morality tale, leaving the man physically weak, due to his, er, energy being spent with the succubus. Clearly, succubi have been used as an excuse for wet dreams ('but the demon visited me ...'). On occasion, a man visited regularly by a succubus is being gradually killed.

Interestingly, there is a kabbalistic legend about Lilith (first wife of Adam) being a succubus who uses human men to reproduce (in some versions) or simply seeks to waste the seed of men. This legend, being so old, has diversified into different strands: Lilith may be a succubus and/or a vampire; she may seek to steal or kill children (especially boys); she consorts with demons/fallen angels; her offspring may be generic demons, succubi, djinns or other evil beings.

In searching for an image to accompany this post, I discovered an urban fantasy series featuring a succubus was Richelle Mead's first series. Book 1 is "Succubus Blues" - covers from two different US editions shown right. From her website:

Succubus (n) - An alluring, shape-shifting demon who seduces and pleasures mortal men.

Pathetic (adj.) - A succubus with great shoes and no social life. See: Georgina Kincaid.

April A-Z: Romanticism and Folklore

Today's topic may seem a bit contrived, but please do bear with me! I find Romanticism very interesting, but it's clearly too big a topic to tackle in a single blog post. However, having turned to folklore and the theory of storytelling for several of these 'A to Z challenge' posts, I thought I'd look at how the Romantic drive to celebrate the simple, the pastoral and the 'natural' leads to a resurgence of interest in folk and oral tradition.

Our current knowledge of fairy and folk tales owes much to the Grimms' collection undertaken in the nineteenth century. True, this was an attempt to catalogue and characterise a living oral culture which, naturally, changed it in the process, but without the Grimms' work, much of our current understanding of folk and fairy tale wouldn't exist.  Perrault, of course, had begun this work almost two centuries earlier, but his work was more focused on using the existing tales to moralise, while the Grimms' concerns seem to have been more about preservation. Later, this cataloguing drive would manifest in Propp's narrative theory of folk tale, which has resonance with Campbell's 'monomyth' theory discussed in yesterday's "Quest" post.

Similarly, our repertoire of folk songs is largely due to Child's work in the same century: a cataloguing exercise which describes 'types' and 'variants' and identifies many familiar tropes in the traditional folk songs of Britain.

Without interest in such 'original' and 'natural' forms blossoming in the Romantic period, the essentially analytical, Enlightenment-style undertakings would not have been possible. The Romantic interest in 'folk' art is also apparent in music, with peasant dances influencing Romantic composers such as Dvorak and Liszt, while the first attention to traditional story - which would eventually lead to the Grimms' massive project - can be traced back to Goethe and Schiller in the Sturm und Drang pre-Romantic period.

April A-Z: Quest

The quest is central to narrative. I nearly put 'most' narrative, or tried to qualify it with genre, but actually that's not true: good storytelling features the quest. We sometimes think of this as a fantasy trope (get the sword/ magic jewel/ amulet or defeat the wicked wizard/ giant/ faery queen), but it can be found in romance, crime, family saga, whatever.

Many writers on writing ask the following key questions:

• what does your main character want?
• who or what stands in their way?
• what do they need to do to achieve their goal?

Surely this is just another version of the quest (or hero's journey)?

There is a wealth of material available on the hero's journey/quest structure online and in books for writers, so I won't rehash it all here. The version I follow is greatly simplified from the concept's very academic origins, but it is a working version for the material I'm working on:

1. Hero's world is introduced
• This is often very brief in writing for kids and YA, but it is important to gain some sense of the MC in their normal setting. 
2. Call to adventure
• This is the MC's first opportunity to act, to take on the quest or battle ahead. At this point, it is an option. 
3. Hero ignores call
• This step allows us to see the MC as normal (we wouldn't take up the quest either, probably!) and vulnerable. Often this refusal is due to self-doubt; that 'but what can I do about it?' moment.
4. Hero crosses the threshold
• At this point, something happens to force the MC's hand. Now we need to believe that there is no other way; the MC has to set forth on the adventure. Something needs to be at stake that is too big a risk for the MC to ignore.
5. A mentor appears 
• This doesn't always happen. In a folktale, we'd meet a magical character of some sort with a gift for the hero. Sometimes the mentor doubles as a romantic interest.
6. Encounters with negative forces
• At this stage, we don't always encounter the 'big bad', but perhaps their underlings. This can be quite a long stage, with many setbacks.
7. Hero's self-doubt
• This part is crucial. There must be a point where the MC almost gives up, or even almost joins the dark forces. 
8. A sign
• This is sometimes about a talisman or amulet which magically helps the MC to win a battle. It may also be a message they somehow receive which reassures them they're on the right path.
9. Final battle
• This needs to be inevitable, and is usually the MC's first chance to fight the Big Bad head-on.
10. Return to normal world
• This is another stage which is often shorter in kids' and YA fiction. In classical myth, the return home could take up a large part of the story, often with further encounters and dangers. In some more recent kids' books, this part includes characters piecing everything together and finally understanding how their separate experiences make sense as a whole (or Dumbledore explaining everything to Harry Potter, of course). There must be a sense that the MC's quest has made a difference in their normal world, not just to themselves.

If this is new to you and you want to read further, I'd recommend:

Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (for a scholarly explanation of the 'monomyth' theory)

Christopher Vogler, The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers (for a discussion of how the monomyth concept can help writers)

James Scott Bell, [Write Great Fiction] Plot & Structure (for a more recent version giving many examples from books and films)

This blog series from Terell Mims explores each stage in a different post. His follow-up series on archetypes is well worth a read too.

April A-Z: Protection

OK, in case you're all spooked out by some of yesterday's omens, here are some things you can use to protect yourself from evil:

• crossed fingers
• touching wood (or knocking on wood outside the UK) 
• a horseshoe nailed outside your house (I believe pointing upwards, but some would say pointing down...)
• salt - just sprinkle it around your house, or in the doorways and windows
• hawthorn, holly or ivy planted around the home (there are many other protective plants and herbs too)
• an amulet such as a rabbit's foot, a four-leaved clover or lucky coin
• a witch's bottle: a glass or ceramic jar or bottle filled with various things, often including pins/needles and thread/string to trap evil and sometimes a drop of the owner's blood (or a sample of their urine) to make it their own

April A-Z: Omens

Good luck or bad?

Meaning has been ascribed to some pretty odd things over the years. We're adept at interpreting these signs: some people in dire terms, others in a more balanced way. Omens are usually seen as a negative, but there is such a thing as a good omen (and not just in the Pratchett/Gaiman world either!).  It's interesting that the adjective 'ominous', derived from 'omen' is (I would say) used specifically for things with a negative portent, though.

Traditional omens include sightings (or hearings) of birds and animals, bodily signs and found objects.  For example:

• Magpies - "one for sorrow" etc (please note that exactly what a specific number of magpies seen might mean depends on where you're from, how old you are, and who you learnt the rhyme from)
• An owl hooting has been seen as an omen of death (or as a sign a girl will lose her virginity that night)
• Black cats may be seen as lucky or unlucky, depending on who you ask
• An itchy palm may indicate money about to be found or lost (it may be left = leaving, right = arriving - but again, that depends on where you're from etc)
• A burning ear is supposed to mean people are talking about you ("left for love, right for spite", but, again, your mileage may vary)
• A found pin (or penny?) is likely to foretell good fortune ("see a pin/penny (and) pick it up; all day long you'll have good luck)
• Finding a white feather means to some that an angel has been close by

Omens seem to be a very culture-specific thing, even more varied than many other superstitious or folkloric beliefs. It's perhaps surprising that there is such variation even within a relatively small country like England.

April A-Z: Names

Names have power. We all instinctively know this. It's because of this power that, in some belief systems, deities may not be named.

This is of course why a cluster of taboo words in English euphemise the names of God, Jesus Christ and even Hell. Many curses and swear words in Early Modern English derive from this area, albeit sometimes obliquely, as shown in Shakespeare's writing:

• Zounds (god's wounds - a reference to Christ)
• Gadzooks (god's hooks - a reference to the nails from the cross) 
• By Jove (the christian god could not be named on stage, so this Roman god was selected instead)

Words like heck and Sam Hill appear in later Englishes as variants of 'hell', showing a fear of naming that cursed place. This practice is made use of by Rowling in her treatment of Voldemort's name.

In more everyday contexts, our tradition for naming children formally at christenings or baptisms can be seen as a throwback to an older idea. Knowing someone's name gives you power over them, so it's safest to only reveal a child's full name once they've been ritually consecrated and placed under a god's protection.

Finally, this is also one reason that secret societies would re-name initiates: it acknowledges a new identity, but also cements a bond. Since only members of that group know your name and therefore wield that power over you, a high degree of trust is explicit within that group.

April A-Z: Magic

Fantasy writers of many kinds have an advantage, in that magic is available to use in their stories. That doesn't necessarily help as much as you might think, if you've never tried to write a story using magic. Magic must have rules; a logic of its own. In any invented world allowing it, magic becomes like a science, and it can never be used as a 'quick fix'.

A beginning children's fantasy writer could be forgiven for thinking you can just have the heroine remember a spell at the last minute to put everything right. After all, they won't have broken the 'rule' that adults mustn't bring about the resolution. But their child readers would be annoyed - they need the heroine to work for the Happy Ending, not just mutter some words, especially if this uses a skill or talent the writer hasn't already set up carefully. Of course, we needn't fear - such a story wouldn't get anywhere near any child readers, except for the author's longsuffering children.

Spells can't just go off willy-nilly.... 

As part of this 'magic has rules' thing, many writers set up consequences. Maybe it costs something to use magic, or maybe there's some sort of risk involved. These can be on the twee side - Magic Can Only Be Used For Good (or else unintended consequences occur) - or more straightforward - Magic is Tiring (so characters can only work so much magic per scene) - or (as in the Harry Potter books) they can be about the need for control, and the risk of non-magical folks discovering the secret.

Whatever system a book uses, it doesn't really matter, but there must be a system, or the magic will weaken the plot rather than strengthening it. Magic must never be a cop-out or an easy fix. It needs to add to the complexity of the plot and the conflict the characters face.

April A-Z: Life Lessons

I think that one of the most important things we've taught our kids is how to use the technique of visualisation for calming and to help them sleep.  I didn't learn stress management techniques until I was at uni, and it does take practice to really be able to benefit from them.  Obviously, I'm not suggesting life is stressful for our kids (at least I certainly hope it isn't), but these simple techniques have helped with the normal round of things like school worries, bad dreams and so on.

We've been much more consistent about it with the little one (currently 7) than the older (currently 12), and it does show.  Littl'un is much more likely to catch herself getting worked up and steady her breath without prompting.  She's had a 'bubble' to sleep in since she was very small: imagining a bubble of light around her, protecting her and keeping her safe.  This was a part of the bedtime routine for years, and has dwindled a bit lately, although she does refer to it sometimes if she's particularly tired or has had an argument at school or something.

She always liked to tell me what colour the bubble would be.  I encouraged her not to use red (too energetic for bedtime) or black (seemed too negative), and she'd usually go for a blue or purple shade.  Interestingly, when she needed cheering up, she'd often choose yellow or orange, which does chime with some 'received wisdom' about colour meanings.  Other than suggesting that red and black aren't 'good' bubble colours, I didn't influence her choices, so her selections imply to me that these associations (blue with calming, yellow with cheering etc) do have some kind of resonance at an instinctive level.  Kind of like aspects of myth and folklore.  Amazing what kids can figure out for themselves, isn't it?

What 'life lessons' have you given your children? What do you think families should provide in the way of learning?

April A-Z: Knockers

Following on somewhat from my iron post the other day, door knockers seemed a suitable topic for today. The tradition of having a knocker was clearly once simply a practical matter of enabling someone's arrival at your door to be heard easily. The decorative heads, animals and symbols are obviously a development that allowed people to combine a protective charm with a practical item.

The lion head knocker is a feature of 10 Downing St and has therefore come to be associated with status and power, but lions, gargoyles and fabulous creatures would once have been intended to repel evil spirits and witches. The fact they were frequently made of iron didn't hurt, either.

With the advent of electricity and doorbells that play (ahem) 'lovely' tunes, knockers were perhaps less popular for a while. But now that cheesy doorbells are less in vogue, knockers are enjoying something of a revival, as I discovered while searching for images for this post! Themed and quirky door knockers are fairly easy to find: various animal and character heads, 'amusing' anatomical designs (not sure who wants male genitalia displayed on their front door really, but there y'go...) and shapes such as pine cones (?), horseshoes (for luck of course) and garden trowels. Lovely - there's a knocker for everyone.

April A-Z: Justice

Children have a well-developed sense of justice and fairness. This is an important thing for children's writers to remember: our stories must appeal to that sense, or they're doomed.

Lest you think I'm unaware of even the most basic tenets of writing, I am not proposing that children enjoy dull tales in which everyone is nice and kind and fair to everyone else all the time. Clearly, conflict is required. But stories must conclude with a sense of justice served, of Good overcoming Evil.

This does apply to teen readers as well, but their moral sense is a little more subtle than younger children's, and they are more likely to accept 'random' circumstances afflicting characters. Younger children tend to need more of a reason for things to happen (even if that's just 'Character X is bad so she hurt Character Y').

Amongst many many other benefits, children's and teens' fiction can allow readers to explore their own moral reasoning without risk. Many kids' books require characters to break rules (or even the law) in order to serve some greater good or higher purpose, allowing the reader to consider the dilemma for themselves. Child readers can see the benefits of being brave and standing up to authority time and time again, before most would ever be in a similar situation in their own life.

What are your favourite 'just desserts' in kids' books? Dahl was fabulous at dishing out justice to the wicked, but what more recent examples would you recommend?