My theory of some things

Alternative title: I saw The Theory of Everything last week and got a bit excited.

Photo credit: Liam Daniel / Focus Features

I didn't even want to see it that much. My friend Sarah wanted to and she didn't want to go alone. Also, she has Orange Wednesdays. So I agreed to go, my expectations wavering between low and I-don't-care-much.

I was impressed with the film. I didn't know much about Steven Hawking before going in to the cinema (other than that I'm a dolt who always confuses his name with Tony Hawks - don't even ask). Now I feel like I know quite a lot about him, and a lot about his first wife, Jane. In my opinion, the film was 40% about Steven Hawking and 60% about Jane Wilde. A strong female character. Let me repeat that:

Strong. Female. Character.

In light of my viewing of The Theory of Everything, let's talk about strong female characters in writing.

They're not that difficult to create. Really, they're not. If you're capable of writing a strong male character (and I'm assuming you are), then there's absolutely no reason why you can't write a strong female character. And by 'strong', I'm not just talking about the muscle-bound, no-tears, rough housing type of character. I mean a character who is complex and believable.

What do I mean by complex? I mean somebody who is not just a stereotype. In real life, nobody is just one thing. No-one is just a mother, no-one is just a student, no-one is just an engineer. We are different things to different people - an another thing entirely when we're just by ourselves. We are a compilation of loads of different aspects of our character, and that should be reflected when writing. Try combining several aspects in one character: an engineer who is learning French and also has two kids. The next step is making that character a woman.

Experiment 21

This post is in answer to the question I asked myself, which was: what would a story look like if it was compiled of every first sentence from every story I've written ? Straight away I could see it was going to be ridiculous and not make any sense, so I changed my plan a little. I would use the first sentence from one story, the second sentence from another, the third from...

You get the idea. I also did not use EVERY story I've EVER written, because who has time to shift through a six year old's notebook? Not me. I used stories saved on to my USB, to my old email address, things that had been trunked and were slowly rotting in a forgotten folder. In total I used twenty-one stories, hence the title 'Experiment 21'. Then I shuffled the lines around a little bit. I think the results show just how much my writing has varied over the years: from grand, waffling sentences to concise enticements (I hope).

Why write a dream diary?

I have a dream diary. I used it in my first creative writing assignment and I got a pretty decent grade (yay!). Aside from that, I don't really show it off to people other than to brag "oh my gosh, I had this dream last night and you..."

As a writer, I think my dreams are important. They're basically my uncontrolled imagination taking me on a ride. The story is usually engaging, the characters realistic and well-rounded (I once had a dream where I was married for two years to a dream character and didn't question it). This isn't to say I could make stories directly from my dreams - I couldn't. Not tangible, linear ones that made sense anyway. But they are good for a few things:

• Keeping my imagination on its toes. Naturally.
• Forcing me to write as soon as I wake up in the morning. Then, even if I don't work on my story or do some poetry during the day, I have at least written something and haven't lost touch with the practice.
• Even if the dream makes no sense, there could be an aspect of it that's really interesting, or a character who is a force of nature and can't be forgotten. Once they're written down, they're there for me to come back to at a later time (hopefully after I've at least eaten breakfast) to expand on.
• I remember my dreams far more when I'm in the habit of writing them down. This means I get to annoy my friends have interesting conversations with people I know about them, as well as giving me the dream-strength of mind to lucid dream. And that's everyone's secret goal, right?

Do you keep a dream diary? Why?