Welcome to a bumper edition of my blogs round up. As ever, all pictures are from Pixabay unless otherwise stated.
Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today
It really is that time of year again! I look back at my writing year, anticipate the one to come, and share why networking with other authors is such a good idea. (And that’s besides it being enormous fun, which is the best reason of all to do it!).
I set short, medium, and long terms goals for my writing. Do share in the CFT comments box as to how you go about this kind of thing. The lovely thing with chatting with other authors is you can learn so much from each other. I’ve picked up useful hints and tips and hope I’ve shared some too. I’m a big believer in paying it forward and backwards.
I also share some wishes I know we can all second.
Incidentally, there will be no Collected Works round up from me tonight but I am planning a bumper edition next Tuesday. As well as the link to this CFT post, I’ll be sharing my ACW blog link (due on Sunday), my Goodreads post (due tomorrow) and all FB posts from today. I’ll be back in the writing “saddle” properly from tomorrow but have relished catching up with some reading over the Christmas period.
I hope you had a lovely Christmas and more power to our pens/PCs for the year to come. Creativity is a good thing and worth celebrating on its own account!
What are your favourite openings to a book or film?
I love the opening sequence to the first LOTR film which shows how Sauron lost the Ring of Power. There is a real sense of an opportunity lost to get rid of the thing for once and all then. You know then the rest of the story has to be about what happened to the ring, did anyone find it, and was it destroyed eventually?
It is a classic example of setting your theme and building a sense of anticipation from the start.
Another favourite of mine is the opening to Terry Pratchett’s Going Postal. It says a lot for the story that it starts with the hero being hanged and goes on from there. Yet I am really not giving much away when I say that!
Again you have a tremendous sense of expectation that the story and its hero will somehow deliver despite what must surely be a disastrous start! Do read it if you haven’t already. Even if you have, re-read it.
Great stories stand up to repeated reading and I find I always pick up on something new.
Reading is such a wonderful thing to do anyway and as a bonus, as a writer you will always learn something from what you read.
Facebook – General – and
Association of Christian Writers – More Than Writers – Christmas Angles
My monthly spot on the Association of Christian Writers’ blog looks at Christmas angles (yes, angles!) and why I like the telling details.
I looked at the little details that mean the most to me in my blog for More Than Writers, the Association of Christian Writers’ blog, this month. What was crucial was the Bible story only gives what it considers to be the vital details. Now there’s a lesson for a flash fiction writer right there!
What can be tricky is working out what ARE the vital details and I never get this right on a first draft either. But that’s not what a first draft is for. I’ve always loved Terry Pratchett’s take on first drafts when he said “first drafts are just you telling yourself the story”.
So let that thought take the pressure off. You don’t have to get it right at the first go – nobody does!
Facebook – General
I’ll be looking at Beginnings appropriately enough for this week’s CFT post. I’ll be sharing some of my favourite beginnings, have a look at why they’re so important to the success of a story or film, and discuss why I DON’T go in for New Year’s Resolutions. Link up on Friday (3rd January 2020).
I’ll be including LAST week’s CFT post (my end of year review) in tomorrow’s WP round up, which will be a bumper edition as it will also include a link to yesterday’s post for ACW on Christmas Angles. (I had to work hard here to make sure I DIDN’T put the word “angels” in. That’s the problem with words that are right in and of themselves. I’ve found grammatical aids do not pick up on context so it is still possible to come up with total nonsense, albeit it beautifully spelled and gramatically correct so beware!).
I’m editing two short stories for competitions and hope to have them submitted by the end of this week too. Whatever your week holds in store (writing wise or otherwise), I hope it’s a good one!
Am drafting this via my phone and Evernote enroute to West Bay, Dorset. This is one of my post Christmas traditions.
Having enjoyed the feasting, now comes the time to do the walking it off! Lady will be having a particularly good time today. She loves the beach.
Do your characters have favourite places to go? What makes these places special? How often can your characters get to go there?
Also, do they have special places from their past which they can’t visit now but which have special memories for them?
How do those memories affect their behaviour in the here and now?
I suspect some good stories can be generated from answering those points. Good luck!
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
I’ll be back in the writing “saddle” properly from tomorrow (Saturday, 28th December) but wanted to pop by to say I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. I managed to catch up on some reading which is always a fab thing to do!
My next Collected Works round up won’t be tonight but I am planning to post a bumper edition on Tuesday. I take a look back at my writing year on Chandler’s Ford Today which is now live.
http://chandlersfordtoday.co.uk/its-that-time-of-year-again/
I hope the coming year brings you much joy whether you write stories, read them, or do both!
Some thoughts for as we rapidly approach 2020:-
F = Find new competitions to enter but check out credentials first.
L = Love writing, love reading.
A = Always have stories to read and write.
S = Submit work regularly so you have plenty of material “out there”.
H = Have plenty of writing prompts to hand so you’re never short of ideas to work on.
And talking of which:-
I’m glad to say #GillJames has put together this book of prompts which were written by authors published by Bridge House/Cafelit/Chapeltown etc. I’ve got a few prompts in there too and I am very much looking forward to working my way through this book in the New Year. Hope you have as much fun with this as I intend to!!
![Prompts 2020 by [James, Gill]](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/315BC5RzclL.jpg)
Image by Gill James
The biggest challenge for flash fiction writers is continually coming up with interesting characters to write about (though that for me is what I love most about it).
I have, in the collection I’m working on, linked a few flash stories where either characters carry on into another story or two or where they are referred to by others. I’ve liked that and will continue to do it but I do relish inventing new people.
I also love taking known settings and looking at a story from the viewpoint of an alternative character. For example, I have a flash piece called The Craftsman in this quarter’s edition of Christian Writer, the magazine produced by the Association of Christian Writers. I took as my lead character the man who makes Jesus’s cross.
What alternative/minor characters could you get to tell a flash fiction story? What would their outlook be on an event we know well? It’s an interesting angle to work with.
Well, have you got your writing diary on stand by? I’ve gone for the same type as last year with lots of prompts to work my way through. (What with that and the book Gill James has produced – see below – I’m not going to be short of things to work on. Oh good!).
Whatever your writing year holds in store, have fun! Writing should be fun. It is also hard work, frustrating at times etc., but it should be fun most of the time.
Loved listening to Ravel’s Bolero on Classic FM when I drafted this post enroute to West Bay in Dorset earlier today.
Yes I do remember watching Torvill and Dean ice dancing to it in the 1984 Olympics. The other breath taking sporting moment for me was Murray winning Wimbledon in 2013. (Loved his second win too but the first was pretty special).
What breath taking moments have you created for your characters and why pick these to be special? Could you write a flash story solely based on something like that?
Hmm… now there’s a thought!
Goodreads Author Blog –What Day of the Week Is It?
Do you find you lose all sense of what day of the week it is after Christmas and Boxing Days? I do.
Time only has meaning in that I get to do more reading at this time of year. And naturally all time and its meaning goes completely when you’re engrossed with a good book! (But that is exactly how it should be).
Also why is it when, having decided to have a good read in bed, you find you’re asleep in minutes?
Conversely, on the thankfully rare occasions I have insomnia, why is it reading does not send me to sleep then?!
I read during the day when I can, usually at lunchtime, but it always feels a little like I’m playing truant. It’s tricky trying to ignore all the things I should be doing but I usually manage it!
Reading and time available are never in the ratio I’d like though! Still there is always time for one more book, one more story etc. Now back to that To Be Read pile. The only decision to be taken is whether I’m going for the “real” book TBR pile or the Kindle one!
Will resume Fairytales with Bite and This World and Others from my next post on Friday.
Have a wonderful 2020 and many thanks for your support.
Allison Symes: Collected Works 