Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week. Was horrified to hear someone chopped down the sycamore known as Robin Hood’s tree (it was featured in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves). I love trees and have some in my garden. To chop something down for no reason is madness and heartless. Really can’t believe people at times.
What I do have to believe though is in how I portray my characters and one way I use to get this right is to quiz them. I talk more about this in my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. See below.
Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today/More than Writers
29th September 2023 – Second Post – CFT
Second blog post from me today and I am back on Chandler’s Ford Today with Quizzing Your Characters. I discuss working out what you need to know and give some pointers as to what you could ask your characters to help you picture them well (and write their stories up with more conviction as a result because you do know them well enough).
If you’re writing in forms where you need to invent characters a lot (as you do with flash fiction/short stories), having a way in to creating characters which works is obviously handy. I have found doing this so useful (and a great time saver when it comes to editing later).
Quizzing Your Characters
29th September 2023 – First Post – More than Writers
It’s double blog Friday from me this week. First up is Autumnal Writing, my post for More Than Writers (the Association of Christian Writers blog spot). I also share an autumnal story in this which I hope you enjoy. I discuss specific images, the use of the old game of word association, and set you a challenge too. Many thanks also to those who have commented on this one already.
Two blogs coming up from me tomorrow – Quizzing Your Characters for Chandler’s Ford Today and Autumnal Writing for More than Writers. See above. Have put them in the same order as I shared them on Facebook but hope you find both blogs useful.
Had lovely evening at the Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom last night. Good to see everyone and I hope you all get a good deal from the tips and exercises I set around the topics of opening and closing lines.
I’ve come up with a couple of further ideas myself here which I look forward to working up into drafts in due course. I deliberately set ideas for exercises for these meetings but then have a crack at them myself during the group session. I love live writing exercises like that and I get some drafts done! Win-win.
Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler girlfriend today so she has had a good week catching up with her pals. If ever there is a species to make the most of living in the moment, it is dogs!
Pleased to say I now have an “all in one go” link for Hannah Kate’s Hannah’s Bookshelf show on North Manchester FM last weekend. My story, The Natural Look, is on there. Link via Mixcloud below.
Lady thrilled to be with her best mate, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, this morning. Lovely time had by all.
Will be on the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom later this evening. This particular group works well online given the members of it live several hundreds of miles apart so could never get together in person. The development of Zoom and online meetings like this have been at least one positive thing to come out of the pandemic. (There have to be some positives, right?).
Writing Tip: Read your dialogue out loud and ideally record it and play it back. Ideally, you would do this for the whole story, but if time is short do focus on the dialogue. I have often found what looks good written down doesn’t always read well and hearing your dialogue played back is as close as you will get to a reader’s experience of your writing as they take it in.
Dialogue needs to mimic what we’d do in life but not be an exact copy so we cut out the vast majority of the hesitations, repetitions etc. The latter is real speech but is tiresome to read so you just put in a tiny amount of it – it gives the idea and that is all which is needed here.
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale, The Old Days. Hope you enjoy it. Find out here what my two characters made of their Silver Jubilee school reunion.
Next author newsletter coming out on Sunday. How can it be almost October already? As ever I’ll share news, tips, and links to stories of mine so a good all round read I think! To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com
Looking forward to sharing a cracking author interview for Chandler’s Ford Today again soon. I enjoy getting guest authors on here as I’ve always found I learn a great deal from the hints and tips they share. And, of course, it helps with marketing for them and for me/CFT so win-win there.
What I look for in a good interview is a two-way conversation and I always ask questions that have to lead to an “open” response. So there will be no yes/no answers in this neck of the woods, thank you!
Hope you have had a good day. Beginning to get blustery here. So glad writing is generally an indoors job!
Many thanks for the comments coming in on Secrets, my most recent tale on Friday Flash Fiction. Prior to the one I put up on Friday 29th September! On the plus side you get two stories in one post this time and if you check my MTW post out, a third one there!
This one is timely because I’ve been cake baking myself this afternoon ahead of a family do. I promise I have not done what my character, Mary Wentworth, does here!
Fairytales With Bite – Storytime Acrostic
S = Select your characters – think about why you want to write these into a story.
T = Time spent outlining your characters (working out what YOU need to know about them) will save time and grief and editing later.
O = Outlining doesn’t have to be rigid; I know I need to know my characters so I outline them rather than the story.
R = Regulate the use of magic in your tales – if everything can be resolved with a wave of the wand, where’s the tension and drama?
Y = Your world, your setting, your characters, your rules but be consistent.
T = Time – how does this work in your magical setting and how does it affect your characters? Can they manipulate it, for example?
I = Imagine what you need to know about your setting and how it works before you write your story. You need enough to get started.
M = Managing your characters can be like herding cats so think about who has to be in your story, why, and what their role is.
E = Endings need to deliver on the promise of your opening lines. Dilemmas need to be resolved, questions answered etc.
This World and Others – Puzzles Acrostic
P = Physics – how would this work in your setting? Physical geography – what would your reader need to know to make sense of the tale?
U = Understanding what characters can and cannot do. There is no story if one character can do everything. Also it’s unbelievable as we all have weaknesses.
Z = Zed time! Is there anything in your story which you find dull or boring? Worth looking out for this. Your readers will react the same.
Z = Zestful writing will keep the reader turning the pages and the best kind comes from having gripping characters readers care about.
L = Limit your descriptions to what readers must know and drip-feed in information as much as possible. Blocks of description are a turn-off.
E = Envisage your characters and then think of the best way of sharing that with your readers. You want readers to “see” your characters in action.
S = Story, story, story – what is the story? Does it deliver on its premise? If someone else had written this story, would you want to read it? Answer there should be yes.
WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK
AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsThe Old Days, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/GFyu2IR2Lt Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale, The Old Days. Hope you enjoy it. Find out here what my two characters made of their Silver Jubilee school reunion. pic.twitter.com/u1xH6Flr0w
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) September 29, 2023
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsMore than Writers: Autumnal Writing by Allison Symes https://t.co/MoYYgRiu84 Double blog Friday from me this week. First up is Autumnal Writing, my MTW post. I share an autumnal story in this and discuss specific images, the use of word association, and set you a challenge too. pic.twitter.com/jiHqdAtY2b
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) September 29, 2023
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsQuizzing Your Characters https://t.co/pQLYb6N0sr Second blog from me today. Back on CFT with Quizzing Your Characters. I discuss working out what you need to know and give tips as to what you could ask characters to help you write their stories with more conviction as a result.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) September 29, 2023