Image Credit:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing.
Images from the Share Your Story Writing Summit kindly supplied by the organisers. Image of Wendy H Jones kindly supplied by her.
Hope you have had a good week. Have had exciting contract news in the last couple of days which I share below. (Images of me signing said contract taken by Adrian Symes).
Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today
Pleased to share Writing Prompts, my latest Chandler’s Ford Today post. I share a few differing kinds, discuss why prompts are useful, and why it is a good idea to practice them. Hope you enjoy this and find it useful.
A number of my published stories started life as responses to writing prompts so you now know why I am fond of them!
Oh and I’ll get a quick plug in for my monthly author newsletter too as I share writing prompts there too. If you would like to sign up for this, please head over to my landing page right here at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com
Contract News!
Big news! Thrilled to say I have just signed a contract to produce a chapter on flash fiction for a book #WendyHJones is editing on writing. Look forward to sharing more as and when possible but meanwhile here are the pics of one very happy author!
Don’t forget my Chandler’s Ford Today post is up tomorrow and is all about Writing Prompts. Hope you find it useful. Link up tomorrow. (See above!).
(I couldn’t tell you how many writing prompts I’ve used in my time but they are a fantastic way to kickstart some writing and I have had published stories as a result of using them. What’s not to like about that?!).
Am also thrilled to bits that a dear friend of mine has a piece of flash fiction up on CafeLit. Do check this wonderful online magazine out. There is a wonderful mix of stories and styles here. Yes, yes, I know. I am biased, I write for CafeLit, yes, of course I’m biased but that’s not the same as being wrong! And I’m not here – go on, pop over and have a good read. You really will find several things to suit you here.
Sun turned up today – hooray – and Lady got to play with many of her best buddies including the loveliest Rhodesian Ridgeback, a cute mini Jack Russell, a Hungarian Vizler, and a new chum, a lovely Whippet called Sky. Lady went home shattered but happy. Job done there then!
Questions to ask your characters. Bear in mind also if you’re writing non-fiction, if you are using a narrative voice, you can treat that voice as a character, so some of these questions at least may also be worth trying. So what to ask then as part of your outline?
- What do you really want and why?
- What stops you getting what you really want?
- Why would your life be complete if you achieve what you want?
- How are you going to achieve your objectives?
- Have you got other characters to support you and, if so, how reliable are they?
- Are you making your life unnecessarily complicated? (Worth asking this one – any complications getting in the way of your character achieving what they want should be those that arise naturally out of the plot. There should be nothing that seems “faked” to increase the tension in the story. The tension should be genuine, the obstacles real and so on.
- For a non-fictional narrator, a good question to ask instead of this one is are you communicating as clearly as possible (i.e. go for clarity, not gobbledegook, don’t make your narration unnecessarily complicated? Are you conveying the facts reasonably? Are you backing the facts up with evidence? What are your sources?).
- What has driven you to decide this is what you really want?
- What if you’re wrong? (How would your character handle that? That could make for a really interesting story).
Are there limits you won’t cross (and if so what are these? What is your thinking behind this?).- Are there rules you are prepared to break? What would the consequences be? How are you going to limit your risk (or are you not worried about that? Some characters aren’t!).
Now if answering those questions doesn’t generate story ideas, I’d be very surprised!
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
Pleased to say I have another 100-word story on #FridayFlashFiction.
Assumptions is about Mary who thinks she is good at art but is she? Hope you like it.
I have very good cause to appreciate flash fiction. It has led to me having two books to my name (From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic). It has led to me taking part in an international summit (the Share Your Story Writing Summit back in March).
It has led to me giving Zoom talks to a WI group and writing groups. It led to me having a book signing in a railway station (yes, really and obviously before You Know What).
It has led to me being on internet radion and being interviewed by the lovely #HannahKate for her Hannah’s Bookshelf show on North Manchester FM.
Then there is the podcast appearance on #WendyHJones’ The Writing and Marketing Show. I’ve also judged flash fiction writing.
Talking of Wendy though, the latest big news is I will be contributing a chapter to her book on writing and naturally I’ll be writing about flash fiction. Am thrilled to bits. Will share more news as and when I can but meanwhile here are the very happy author pics!
(I don’t know whether it is a case of my finding flash fiction or flash fiction finding me but I am truly not sorry for a form of writing I discovered by accident thanks to CafeLit!).
I sometimes have flash pieces published in the CafeLit anthologies and my Humourless is an example of this in the current book, The Best of CafeLit 9.
It is especially nice to have a flash story published here given CafeLit introduced me to flash fiction in the first place (and I am looking forward to sharing details of The Best of CafeLit 10 later on in the year where again I will have work published).
Do check out the CafeLit site. CafeLit are great in publishing a wide range of fiction, flash and otherwise, and from a diverse group of authors. It is always a joy to see friends’ work on here too.
Fairytales with Bite – Changes
No world or character should stay static. A story revolves around change. The character does this, then that happens, this is what happens after that and so on. Of course, some changes are far more welcome than others and interesting tales can be generated by working out how your characters would handle the less welcome developments.
But changes shouldn’t be something that come out of nowhere. For example, if your change is where your character faces a magical disaster of some kind, there should be some hint early on in the story that magical disasters are a possibility here. For example if the build up of spare magical capacity can trigger earthquakes, your created world should have that as part of its history. Perhaps your story can then revolve around people not taking the necessary steps to prevent the disaster happening again. This means when your disaster happens your reader will not feel cheated. They know the possibility exists. The possibility happened.
Once the change has happened, there should be change in the characters too. Nobody remains unmoved by changes and that applies to characters too.
This World and Others – Environments
What kind of environment is your story set in? Is it comparable to what we know here or something beyond the capabilities of our little planet?
Do your characters care about the environment they live in and how does that manifest itself?
Also think micro-environments – the immediate world around your characters. How does that impact on them? What are the threats they face? What are the nice things about their world they love?
Then there are things like political environments – dictatorships or democracy? How do your characters survive or thrive in these? Again, what is similar to here? It will be those things readers will latch on to – it is literally what we know and understand.
What dilemmas do your characters face as a result of their environment? The classic theme is survival in a hostile to life environment where the overall dilemma is to survive but there can be others. For example, if your character has to survive in their environment by killing something or someone, will they and how do they build themselves up to actually do that?
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsI have good cause to appreciate flash fiction. It has led to me having two books to my name (From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic).
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) May 27, 2021
It has led to me taking part in an international summit and to me giving Zoom talks to a WI group and writing groups. pic.twitter.com/SyNLCednxg
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsIt led to me having a book signing in a railway station (Really and obviously before You Know What). It has led to me being on internet radio and being interviewed by the lovely #HannahKate for her Hannah’s Bookshelf show on North Manchester FM. pic.twitter.com/JeBuHSwMEc
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) May 27, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThere is my podcast spot on #WendyHJones’ The Writing and Marketing Show. I’ve judged flash fiction. Talking of Wendy, the big news is I'll be contributing a chapter about flash fiction to her book on writing. Will share more when I can but here are the happy author pics! pic.twitter.com/ZDcqfoxT9q
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) May 27, 2021
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThere is my podcast spot on #WendyHJones’ The Writing and Marketing Show. I’ve judged flash fiction. Talking of Wendy, the big news is I'll be contributing a chapter about flash fiction to her book on writing. Will share more when I can but here are the happy author pics! pic.twitter.com/ZDcqfoxT9q
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) May 27, 2021
Allison Symes: Collected Works 