Month: November 2023

When A Story Works

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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 had a good weekend. Mine was lovely and could be summed up in three words – family, writing, Zoom. Great to meet in person and online – got to do both over the weekend though the advantage of meeting up with family in person is we got to have fish and chips together! Now counting the days to the Bridge House Publishing Celebration Event this coming weekend.

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Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day. Posting early today as off out later so my Flash NANO challenge for today might have to be done tomorrow. The good thing with these challenges is you can play catch up like that. Later, I will go through all the pieces I’ve drafted for this and work out what will go where, though I do have some ideas already for some of the stories.

How can I tell when a story works? There is no one simple answer to that but for me, it means:-

  • The story has gripped me and kept me reading.

  • I can’t see how any words could be taken out or added without something being spoiled.

  • When it is by an author, wishing I had written it is a huge compliment to them! (I can also imagine the time taken and editing that went into their piece so credit where it is due and all that).I cared about the characters and, ideally, would like to know more about them.

All of the above is a challenge to me too, of course, but that is a good thing. Writing should keep me on my toes. I want my stories (and blogs) to be as good as I can make them. Writing is so good for the brain because you do keep on learning how to improve.

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Nice start to the week for Lady as she got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today.

I mentioned yesterday I would be writing a post about themes for Chandler’s Ford Today. (See below). Well, that post is written and scheduled for later in December and I’m looking forward to sharing that. Hope it will prove useful.

But I am delighted to say for this week I’ll be welcoming back YA fantasy writer, Richard Hardie, to CFT to discuss his new book, Remember Remember. This is the third in his Temporal Detective Agency series and he has an online launch on Friday too so this coincides rather nicely.

I’ll share the CFT link on Friday but Richard and I discuss keeping tabs on timelines (he has two to handle in his new book!), tips on marketing, and much else besides. Looking forward to sharing that this week so do look out for it.

Pleased to say I did get my festive flash piece submitted over the weekend. See below where I mention I was getting one ready. Good fun to do, these things always are, now it’s fingers crossed time.

Even colder today, brrr! Am wearing thickest cardigan in the world too.

Will be looking at Getting the Most Out of Themes for Chandler’s Ford Today soon. So looking forward to the Bridge House Publishing celebration event next weekend. Will be great to see friends, old and new.

Writing Tip: When you’ve read a book or a story you loved, read it again and work out what it was you loved especially. I suspect it will be in the way the character(s) portrayal has been done.

Something would have engaged with you and you will be looking to do the same thing with your own characters so they engage with your readers. I’ve learned a lot by figuring out what I like about how characters are portrayed and, to an extent, from what I’ve disliked too.

With that at least I know what I don’t want to do. Besides reading (and re-reading much loved tales) is always a good idea, especially when it is cold outside.

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Brrr… it has been on the cold side today. Lady got to do plenty of running around and met a young Dalmatian so she (and the Dalmatian) have had a good day. Looking forward to catching up with friends on Zoom later.

I’ve a piece of festive flash fiction to edit this weekend and hopefully submit during the coming week. I love writing festive flash. It’s always good fun. I’ll be talking about this topic for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group on Zoom this coming week and setting some useful exercises.

Can hardly believe we’re almost at the end of November (and Flash Nano) for another year. Have put in my book request list for Santa, as you do. The joy of the cold weather? Staying in and reading good books. Also staying in and enjoying drafting my own tales!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Need to post early today as off to a meeting later. Talking of meetings, could one of those be the basis for a flash fiction piece? Who would meet whom and why? Friendly meeting or anything but? Set in this world or another? What would the meeting achieve?

Hmm… may need to give some thought to this one myself! There’s a good structure here.

Happy writing!

BookBrushImage-2023-11-27-21-1811It’s Monday. It’s dark. It’s getting cold again. It’s Monday. Time for a story then, which I hope will put a smile on your face. My latest on YouTube is The Last Cookie.

Have edited a festive flash piece this weekend and submitted it. Will let you know later how it does. I do love writing these stories. I like tales with humour in them and many of my festive pieces reflect my tastes there.

I hope to be reading some of my flash fiction at the Bridge House Publishing celebration event next weekend. I love listening to what the other writers have produced too. Who doesn’t like being read to like that?

Will crack on with the latest Flash NANO challenge later on. The great thing with this is the prompts do encourage you to think outside of your usual creative box and you come up with things which you would not have done in any other way. It is a good way of being stretched a bit.

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Thought I’d treat you today to something I’ve drafted for Flash NANO. This was in response to the challenge to write a flash piece in the form of an advert. Again, as with the police report style one last year, this isn’t something I’ve done before.

Last year’s police report one went on to be part of Hannah Kate’s Three Minutes Santas show on North Manchester FM. This advert one is too short for that (I have got something else in mind for potential submission to this year’s show) but I thought it would work well to share here. Hope you enjoy this (and many thanks to the great comments in on the Flash NANO Facebook page on this one). This one, Wanted, comes in at 53 words, excluding the title.

Wanted by Allison Symes
Help needed urgently! I need something to help me spot a big hairy animal with massive teeth in a dress is not my grandmother. Could never be my grandmother in fact. Can’t imagine why I missed this before.
Or do I need to go to the opticians?
Advice appreciated.
Little Red Riding Hood.
Ends – Allison Symes

Little Red Riding Hood's journey

Goodreads Author Blog – What Defines a Good Read For You?

Now this is a leading question, is it not?

What defines a good read for me is whether or not the book or story grips me enough to make me keep on reading to the end of it. I have abandoned a few stories and books which failed that basic test but am glad to say I can count the number of those on the fingers of one hand. Life is too short (and there are so many excellent things to read) I’m not going to waste time on what I consider to be “duds”.

Of course tastes are different but a good rule of thumb for me is if I don’t care about the character, the reading stops. I have got to be able to see where the character is coming from, whether I agree with them or not. There has to be sufficiently high stakes for the character to make me want to find out the outcome. And all of this is a challenge to me to make sure I produce those kinds of stakes, those kinds of characters, my readers will want to find out more about.

Mind you, even “dud” books have had their uses. They have shown me what I don’t like. Therefore, I make sure I don’t produce those kinds of things myself.

But on to good books. Nothing beats a good read, curled up, with a nice drink besides you, does it?

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Editing Tips

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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. Image of me at the 2022 Bridge House Publishing event taken, I believe, by Lynn Clements on my phone. Many thanks! Also thanks to Julia Pattison for taking the image of me at the editing workshop at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, back in August which I use in my CFT post. Always great having writing friends helping you out here!
Hope you have had a good week. Turning cold here. Time for thick jumpers, hot chocolate, and, when necessary, the heating goes on! Am making good progress on the Flash NANO challenges. So looking forward to the Bridge House Publishing celebration event (for the launches of Gifted and The Best of CafeLit 12) which is on 2nd December. Not long now! Will be so lovely to meet up with people face to face.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am pleased to share Editing Tips as my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. Hope you find it useful. I learned to stop fearing editing when I realised, on getting better at it, I was receiving more publication acceptances. There definitely is a link here!

I discuss editing on screen as well as on paper as part of this post and share what I think the purposes of editing are. It’s not about telling someone off for a typo, honest! Find out more here.

Editing Tips

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Am sharing my thoughts on editing in Editing Tips for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. I take a broad overview at what I cover in my workshops on this topic which is one of those subjects which is always timely and useful. See above.

Looking forward to the Bridge House Publishing celebration event coming up soon and, on Zoom, getting together with fellow members of the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction Group next week.

Have drafted some other flash tales which I hope to look at over the weekend. Have got ideas for homes for them too. But the break away from them is crucial for me to pick up on where I can do better. There is always room for improvement.

Sometimes it is a question of a phrase being fine but the odd tweak of a word here and there can make it better still. Is it as good as it can be? I also set myself a date when I will send a story off somewhere because I don’t want to procrastinate and at some point I need to test the market with it. You can over-edit. You can also not edit nearly enough. The battle is getting the happy medium right!

 

Hope you have had a good day. Getting colder (below freezing overnight at the weekend too. Still this is the joy of thick clothes and the lower calorie but still yummy Options hot chocolate!). Not that Lady minds the cold weather – she had a good run.

As you know, some of my stories have appeared in various anthologies over the years. The most recent is Gifted published by Bridge House Publishing. Now they have an excellent online bookshop called The Bridgetown Cafe Bookshop. Why not check it out and get some ideas for Christmas presents?

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am making good progress on Flash NANO 2023 and I plan to do today’s challenge later on. So far my word count is 6,908 excluding today. This averages out at 300 words a day.

I suspect by the end of the month I will probably end up with between 8000 and 9000 words written. That’s thirty new stories. Thirty stories I wouldn’t have written otherwise.

The nice thing with Flash NANO is even if you can’t do it all of it, you will still get some new stories drafted. And you can vary your word count for each day’s challenge as I’ve done. I’ve written the 100 worder right up to the 1000 maximum so far this time. Looking forward to having a go at the rest of the challenges too.

Advantage to flash is setting characters anywhere

Hope you have had a good day.

One of the joys of a flash tale is ending on a “punchy” closing line. Love doing this. You can check out an example of mine in Reaching The End of the World in Tripping the Flash Fantastic. The title of the story intrigued me when it came to me and I just knew I had to do something with it. I also knew it called for a punchy ending so it got one!

The December issue of Writers’ Narrative will be out soon, as will my author newsletter. You can sign up for the latter at the landing page on my website at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

 

Am cracking on with Flash NANO 2023. Am enjoying the variety of prompts. I’ve had the odd one where I’ve needed the full 1000 words. Likewise, I’ve had the odd one which has come in at exactly 100 words. The rest have been between 200 and 500 words. It was the same last year but I have expected that given the latter is where I mainly write to, word count wise.

I hope to save some of the drafted stories for submissions. Others, I know, have got a lot of work still needed on them before I think of sending them anywhere but that is the nature of writing for you.

Feedback has been tremendous where I have shared either the draft story or a brief post about what I’ve done with the prompt. I’m enjoying reading the drafts by other authors on the Flash NANO Facebook page too. The sense of community is good and is the thing to keep you going with your own drafts or, at least, I’m finding that to be the case.

Support your fellow writers. It is (a) nice and (b) you will find support come back to you too. What goes around comes around and all that.

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Fairytales With Bite – Supplies

Does your magical world create/supply everything by magic or are there items it needs to create/manufacture/import another way?

My own thoughts here are that the use of magic is bound to drain the energy of those using it and there are disadvantages, as a result, to using it all the time. I also think naturally produced food would be bound to taste better than artificially produced food (and I would see magically produced food as artificial. I like the thought of things being grown organically. I am with Sam Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings when it comes to “taters”, for example!).

So what does your setting do to get in supplies of what it needs to manufacture anything the “old school” way? Who would it trade with? What would it trade in exchange for those supplies?

Equally are other worlds around yours wary because of your world’s use of magic. To get any supplies in at all, does your world have to limit its use of magic to keep everyone else happy? How would the politics of this play out?

Who organises supplies? Who organises the suppliers? Is corruption a problem? Are certain sections of your society denied access to certain supplies or only get shoddier items? Again a political story could come into play here as characters seek to challenge that and change society for the better.

We all need the basic necessities of life. That goes for characters too and the supply issue could throw up some interesting story ideas.

The Lord of the Rings

This World and Others – How Much Do You Need to Know?

When it comes to setting up your world, you clearly need to know much more than the reader will. The reader only needs to know what is vital to making sense of your story and setting. But what is it you do need to know? Only you can know for sure.

I need to know character traits and what has led to my people (and other beings!) having these. There often is a cause and effect going on here. If your character hates poverty because that is how they spent their childhood, it would explain their attitudes towards being driven to gain money and it is then for you to decide if they work honestly to earn enough or they turn to less honest means to make ends meet.

But you will always need to know what makes your characters tick and why. It will have an impact on every aspect of your story because it will impact your characters’ attitudes and resulting actions. Those in turn will lead to consequences and increase the drama and tension in your tale.

But when it comes to how your world looks, what do you need to know? You need to know what kind of landscape your character is going to face if they’re going on any kind of journey. You need to know what the transport system is because that will dictate to your characters how they do get from A to B. You may not need to know every single bit of your world, just the area where your characters are and where they are likely to head.

You may not need to know the political system in great detail but your characters will be affected by whom is in charge overall because they could make life difficult or not for them. So who is in charge and what are their prevailing attitudes?

It really does pay for you to figure out what you need to know first. Once you’ve sorted that out, it makes an outline for your characters and plot easier to do because you have a rough idea at this stage of what your characters are likely to face.

You can then work out how they either overcome the challenges or find other ways of “getting around” them. If they’re likely to face, say, a hostile local government official, can they avoid having to deal with them by going another way if they’re on a journey, say? What impact would having to take a detour have on them and the story outcome? Or can they bypass the official by going above their head to someone more sympathetic?

I don’t outline every single thing because I want to give my imagination what I call manoeuvre room. I do plan the start and likely ending and major staging posts in between. Something has to happen at X before Y can happen. I then work out what that something is. I also know my characters well. I then have fun drafting the story knowing I have a rough road map. I find it reassuring. It also means I have a rough structure in place which will also help the story.

What do you need to know about your world setting

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

WN publicity shot - November 23 mag

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Book Buying, Past Stories, and Imaginative Advertising

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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 had a good weekend. Happily drafting plenty of flash stories and some of those written for Flash NANO this time, I’ve already got some ideas as to where I can try placing them. There is also a competition I would like to try before the end of the year too. Am so glad writing is an indoors activity. Weather has been a right mix again. It’s a win at the moment if Lady and I come home without being soaked.

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Facebook – General

Brrr… it’s cold today. Often when I swim, if it’s cold outside, the pool feels lovely by comparison. Not today. Cold outside and in the water. Fine when I got swimming though. I swear it’s done on purpose to make you get a move on in the pool. It worked today on me, that’s all I can say.

I’ll be talking about Editing Tips on Friday for Chandler’s Ford Today. I’ll be looking at my approach to editing (which I go into more detail about when I run my workshops on the topic). I see it as part of the creative process. Good editing is what will make the difference to your story being accepted or placed somewhere or not. I also discuss editing on screen and on paper. Looking forward to sharing that later in the week.

One of the joys of writing for CFT is coming up with interesting questions for interviewees. I had a lovely time doing this recently and am looking forward to receiving the replies back from the people concerned! I’ve also learned a lot from author interviews I’ve read or listened to, which is another reason to love them.

Author Interviews coming up on CFT

Hope you had a good weekend. Leaves coming off the trees at an incredibly fast rate right now. Lady is a bit wary of this time of year only because of the chestnut husks down. She picks her way through delicately but every so often she has to stop and I have to take a husk out of her pads, poor thing. It is like walking on needles. These are better after some rain funnily enough as they then soften.

Can’t believe we’re almost at the two-thirds mark of Flash NANO for another year. Am happily drafting other flash pieces too as I have a competition in mind I want to have a go at and other places I’d like send something into so busy, busy. Am also hoping to be interviewing other authors for Chandler’s Ford Today again before too long.

Must admit some imaginative writing caught my eye today on the packet of the coffee I get for my other half. It’s a new brand to him, as his usual wasn’t in stock. Usually coffee is graded for how strong it is, right? Well this one says “it will kick you THIS hard” and then shows you a star rating. I must admit I liked that. There was also a reference to “if you’re a nerd, you could do…” which made me grin. Great advertising too. Someone somewhere gave great thought to this and it is a great lesson in how to make the usually boring bits much more interesting!

Jotting down ideas for future use

Hope the weekend is being kind to you. Blustery weather here. Lady made a new friend today, a long-haired dachshund called Olive. Lovely to see them running around together. Olive is amazingly fast. Too tired dogs went home. Job done.

I was talking about Book Buying in my Authors Electric post yesterday. Today I’ve ordered my first Christmas presents – books, of course. Feel reasonably virtuous!

Writing Tip: Don’t give up on past stories. I’ve often had a look at past work which hadn’t got anywhere at the time I wrote them. With a good distance of time away from these, I’ve been able to fix flaws and get them out again. Some have gone on to be published.

So it is worth every so often going through your unplaced work and seeing if there is something you can do with them now. Also even if you can’t use the whole story, there may be a character you like you could put into another story or a piece of dialogue worth noting for future use.

Top Tips

Am pleased to be back on Authors Electric talking about a subject close to us all – Book Buying! Is book buying for others fraught with difficulties or do you just get them to give you a list? The only problem with the latter is any element of surprise has gone, of course.

I also ask whether books chosen for you, where you have not known in advance what is coming, have proved to be a fabulous surprise or not. I take the chance to put in a good word for the annual.

Confession time: I have got my list of book requirements for Christmas ready – you’re not really surprised by that, are you?

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good day and kept warm. It’s bitterly cold in my part of the world at the moment, not that Lady noticed when she ran around the park this morning!

Many thanks for the lovely comments coming in on Maisie, my most recent tale (or should that be tail?) on Friday Flash Fiction. See what my dog character makes of the ending of the world in this story.

Screenshot 2023-11-17 at 10-04-57 Maisie by Allison Symes

It’s Monday. It’s dark way too early in my part of the world. It’s cold. It’s Monday. It’s time for a story. Hope you enjoy Drumming Up Business, my latest on YouTube. What would you do if you found jam doughnuts deliberately smashed around your property? Find out what my character makes of it here.

I sometimes write poetic justice tales. I love these. It’s always a joy bringing down a character who deserves that or who finds a way to right a wrong. One of these is The Circle of Life in From Light to Dark and Back Again, where my character makes it clear what they think about animal cruelty and what they intend doing to stop their fellow villagers carrying on with their wrong behaviour. My character’s plan would work too.

This kind of story really does need the ending worked out first because having figured out what my character was going to do to fix things, I could then work back to the beginning to show readers what it was that needed fixing in the first place. It also meant I knew I had my structure in place for this tale immediately. Knowing that always gives my confidence a boost and that helps. It helps me get that first draft down quickly. I then come back to it later to tighten it up.

From Light to Dark and Back Again - by nightHope you are having a good weekend. Perfect day to be indoors writing and editing, to be honest. Talking of the latter, I will be discussing Editing Tips for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. More to come on that during the week though I will say now it helps to think of editing as part of the overall creative process. It really is given good editing will strengthen your work and give it more of a chance “out there”.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom later this month. Always good fun and we all get some useful drafts done during the session, yes me too. I make sure of that. I prepare my exercise types in advance but not my answers so to speak. I want to draft these on the night as the others are drafting theirs.

Have started drafting a festive flash fiction story. Always love writing these but it needs honing. Mind you, all stories do, but I’ve never minded this since realising this side of things is just as much a part of the creative process as is getting the first draft down.

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Goodreads Author Blog – What I Get From Reading?

What I get from reading is a leading question if ever there was one. Where to start is the question here for me.

Firstly, there is the entertainment factor. I love to escape into other worlds with books (literally if I’m reading fantasy or science fiction). Escaping your own cares for a while is something that should not be undervalued.

Secondly, books and stories introduce you to a wide range of characters. You follow their stories, their dilemmas, you work out whether you would have done or said what they did or said. Empathy is encouraged. You can also learn from what not to do here (and many comic works are fabulous at this. There is always a character who will give you a good laugh because they get it wrong).

Thirdly, there is education, especially from the non-fiction world, but you take this in via a user-friendly medium. I can put my feet up with a good book, a cup of something lovely and nibbles, and learn. Sometimes what I learn can inspire story ideas of my own. I often get a spark of inspiration for a fiction idea from reading something in non-fiction.

Fourthly, books are relatively inexpensive. You can keep them and read them many times over. I do. You can borrow from the library. You can read via ebooks, which are cheaper than paperbacks etc. There is at least one book format out there to suit you.

Fifthly, it is the perfect entertainment when the weather is lousy. Curling up with a good book is such a great idea!

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES


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Triggering Writing Ideas

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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. Many thanks to Julia Pattison for taking the image of me at an editing workshop for The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick.
Hope you have had a good week. Lady has got to play with pals, get a soaking with yours truly, play with pals again, get another soaking – yes, one of those weeks. Pleased to say the editing workshop for the lovely people at Medway Mermaids went very well. Always enjoy running these workshops and it is good to know they are useful.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Post 2 of 2 from me tonight. Post 1 below. It’s a fact of life you can have days where there is lots going on and other days where there is nothing! Having said that, it is always fabulous to have plenty of news and posts to share.

Am pleased to share Triggering Writing Ideas for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. It’s proved to be an apt topic given I talk on Gill James’ blog this week (see below for more) about how I took her theme of gifted for the Bridge House Publishing anthology of the same name and used it for my story in there. An idea was definitely triggered by someone else setting the theme. (This is another advantage to taking part in Flash NANO too).

Hope you enjoy the CFT post and find it useful.

Triggering Writing Ideas

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Bonus Post

Post 1 of 2 from me tonight. Many thanks to Gill James for hosting me on her blog to talk about my contribution, Desperately Seeking Talent, in the Bridge House Publishing anthology, Gifted, which is out and would make a great present for someone. Find out what I love about the short story form as well and why I took the theme of gifted the way I did with my tale. Link to blog here.

Screenshot 2023-11-17 at 10-06-01 Allison Symes talks to me today about her involvement in our Gifted anthology

My sport of choice is swimming. I go regularly and you get to spot other regulars there and start chatting usually as you come out of the pool. (One good thing about it being cold today was it did encourage me to get something of a move on in said pool!). Anyway, one of those regulars complimented me about being consistent and disciplined about my swimming. I find I have to be otherwise it would be too easy not to go, especially during the winter months.

But it occurred to me the need to be consistent is a good thing for writers too. It doesn’t matter what your routine is – writing daily, writing every other day or what have you. It is the regular turning up at your desk to get on and write which matters. It is the regularity of writing which will build up your stories, novels etc. I’ve found this to be the case and know I have submitted far more pieces than I might otherwise have done simply by being consistent. It’s an underrated quality I think.

And if you want some inspiration, I’ll be talking about Triggering Writing Ideas for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above.

 

Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal. Great run around by both of them and a massive zoomies session to finish with. Lady came over and “flumped” down in front of me as if to say, ‘Mum, I’m done!’. Takes a lot to do that to a collie!

I’ll be looking at Triggering Writing Ideas for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I’ll be looking at some of the methods I use here and hope the post will prove to be useful. See above.

Don’t forget the November issue of Writers’ Narrative is out. The theme is on Writing Novels this time and you can find the magazine at the link below. A perfect free read packed full of fabulous advice and interviews.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Glad to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale, Maisie. Does Maisie the dog know better than her owner as the world falls apart around them? Find out here. I hope you enjoy the tale and a big thank you for the comments already coming in on this one.
Screenshot 2023-11-17 at 10-04-57 Maisie by Allison SymesGlad to report Hannah Kate is having her Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM again this year. Full details via link here. Do give it a go. It’s great fun.

Top Tip: When you’ve got your story ready, do record yourself on Zoom and play it back to yourself. You will pick up on things like characters stumbling over dialogue etc but also get your timing right. The stories need to be a maximum of three minutes long and I’ve found it so useful to use Zoom here as that will give you an exact timing.

Good luck! Yes, I’ll be having a go again at this myself this year and am looking forward to tackling Day 16 of Flash NANO later today.

Screenshot 2023-11-16 at 16-59-30 🎅 3 Minute Santas 2023 is Open for Submissions! 🎅

Looking forward to having a crack at today’s Flash NANO challenge later on. I have to cut something already drafted in half. I’ve done this kind of exercise before. It’s a great discipline and takes longer than you think too. This time I have to add a specified object in. That will be fun. The object in question, well let’s just say I’m going to have to find a legitimate way of working it in! It wasn’t an “obvious” object but I did work the thing into my story legitimately.

I have used objects in stories before as one kind of exercise and cut a story in half as another but this will be the first time I’ve combined these two.

If I had to nominate a favourite writing exercise, it is the opening line one. Why? Because I can work out what possibilities could come from what has been set and a character to suit it.

I then go for what I like best. It is always the one that has the most impact on me whether it makes me laugh or cry or what have you. I figure if I react like that, readers will too. It is always a good sign when you remember the impact a story has on you.

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Fairytales with Bite – Laughter

In your magical world, is there much in the way of laughter? Do magical students give their teachers many a laugh when getting things wrong as they develop their skills? And that’s just to name one example. I can easily visualise this happening. (The Harry Potter series touches on this too, especially with Ron Weasley and his wand held together with Spellotape).

Does your setting encourage its inhabitants to laugh? Are communities made up of a wide mix of species type or do the different magical types not mix at all? Where folk really don’t get on, the latter is probably the best solution, but a better one is where they do mix and they live and laugh together.

Equally is this something your characters do get on with even though the powers that be may not entirely approve?

Laughter can be a great bridge builder and comedy the source of that laughter so how does this play out in your setting? Laughter can bring about understanding.

Is there one species type that is better at producing laughter than the others? Is this a talent or is it a case everyone else laughs at them and how do they handle that? Laughter makers can also be bridge builders. How could this be put to good effect in your stories?

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This World and Others – Sources of Information

We live in an age where sources of information have never been so readily available. If you don’t know where to find something of this nature, a quick search of the internet is likely to throw up ideas as to where you can find out what you need to know. Plus there are always the reference libraries and museums often have their own libraries. I’ve spent time at a lovely steam railway exhibition looking at their displays and then having a good read in their archives.

So in your world setting, what sources of information exist? Is there an equivalent of the web? Are there papers, media etc and do these operate freely or are they limited in what they can share with the general populace?

Also how well educated are your characters because that will make a huge difference to what they can access even if there are no other restrictions? Who publishes papers and periodicals and where do they get their information from?

Think back to the history of your setting as well. What does everyone “know” (or more accurately think they know) about it? What information in archives backs this up or challenges the accepted view (hence it was archived and kept out of sight!)?

What information would your characters need to make to fulfil their stories?

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Flash NANO Update and Using Colour/Senses

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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.
The Remembrance weekend was so moving, as always. Some things should never be forgotten. Writing wise, you could work out what your characters would consider they HAVE to remember and why. Even if you don’t use it in the story itself, it will give you a clearer insight as to what motivates and drives them, what they would do, what they would never do etc. That information is bound to help you with your characterisation.

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Facebook – General

Have been enjoying listening off and on today to the historic snippets from the last 75 years and classical music to go with them on Classic FM to celebrate HM The King’s 75th birthday (on 14th November 2023). Nice idea. The snippets have brought back many memories for me from the 1970s onwards, one of which was there being snow in the summer of 1975. Yes, remember that, and the drought the following year. They appointed a Minister for Drought as that wore on. Within days, the heavens opened. There’s a lesson there somewhere.

The Flash NANO challenge yesterday was the first where I’ve needed to go to the full word count for flash – 1000 words. The prompt involved a partial scene already laid out and it was a “what happened next” prompt. Bear in mind you could create a character and use the what happened next idea to create a story for him/her/it (I have occasionally had characters as “its” for good reasons).

Also bear in mind classic story ideas can and have come from the simple questions of Who? What? When? How? Why? and Where? (also known as Kipling’s serving men I believe). I like to add in What If? to that little lot. You’ve got yourself an outline right there. Now fill in the gaps! I love this kind of thing. It’s a fantastic way to trigger writing ideas (and talking of which that will be the very topic I’ll be writing about for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday).

Also to the good folk at the Medway Mermaids for making me so welcome last night at our Zoom meeting, thank you! I hope you find the editing thoughts and tips useful.

Also ask what if and does the reader need to know thisHope you have had a good Monday. Lady did – got to play with her two best buddies and the rain had stopped so that counts as a win.

Am looking forward to running an editing workshop for the Medway Mermaids later this evening on Zoom. (If I mention the word zoom to Lady, she’ll immediately assume she is up for the zoomies with her Rhodesian Ridgeback friend!). I look at editing from the viewpoint of an author, an editor, and competition judge as I am all three. I’ve learned so much from being all three.

Am enjoying the Flash NANO challenges so far. Might have to do today’s one tomorrow but you can always play catch up with these things. I found that handy last year. Word count is varying so far from 100 to just under 400, my natural flash “home”. Am not surprised by this. Found the same was the case last year.

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12th November 2023 – Remembrance Sunday

As ever it was a moving service where my family and I go. The village including the two churches gathers around the War Memorial. The poppy wreaths cover the steps. The colour stands out especially on a dull day.

On to writing, using colour or any of the senses sensibly can help readers picture your scenes better. It gives them a hook if you like. So if you are describing anything or getting your character to observe something, add in some colour or use a sense which seems most apt to them and your story.

I must admit that colour and sound are the two things I pick up on when noticing anything. Sometimes the lack of colour/sound/anything you would normally expect to find can be used to good effect, especially for horror tales.

On a lighter note, am so looking forward to meeting the Medway Mermaids on Zoom again for an editing workshop. Always fun to do these. And it was great fun too. Always pleased to spread the word about the joys of editing and there are joys to it, honestly!

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11th November – Armistice Day

Hope you have had a good day. Glad it stayed dry for the Two Minutes Silence today. Would like dry weather again for Remembrance Sunday.

Will be discussing Triggering Writing Ideas for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. As I am always writing flash fiction and blog posts etc., I am always keen to trigger ideas whichever way I can. I have several ways of triggering ideas and use them all regularly. I’ll be sharing some of the ways I use in this post next Friday.

Tomorrow is one of the days when I get a lot of flash fiction written and/or edited. It’s a lovely way to spend Sunday afternoons – in the warm, writing in the format I love most and with a decent mug of something nice (hot chocolate if it is cold, fruit tea if not) alongside me.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I enjoy creating story videos for my YouTube channel. I see it as part of my marketing and it proves my point, I think, that marketing can be creative and fun. I write the story and then create the video in Book Brush before uploading it to YouTube. Is also easy to share on social media. New subscribers to my channel are always welcome though. Do see the relevant link here.

 

Screenshot 2023-11-14 at 20-18-14 Allison Symes

It’s Monday. It’s been a tiring day. It’s dark far too early. And it’s Monday. Time for a story then. My latest on YouTube is Waiting To Write. Hope you enjoy finding out what my character, Tracy, does about poison pen letters.

12th November – Remembrance Sunday

Today is Remembrance Sunday. It is a day full of memories, rightly so too. I’ve long been a fan of the classic TV series, Dad’s Army, which is still shown regularly, gets good ratings, and is full of humour and often pathos. If there are two TV series to watch at this time of year, that is one of them. The other is Blackadder Goes Forth, especially the last episode, Goodbyeee.

Words have such an impact and perhaps we are more conscious of this on days like today. It is where we recall the writings of the war poets, the hymn writers like Isaac Watts, and so on.

Whether you write to entertain, to share a “message” without preaching, or do both, I hope you get much joy from your writing. Words matter. Stories matter. Stories can convey things long after the original storytellers have gone on. So write, enjoy what you write, and hopefully others will too.

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Just to say there’s a good offer on From Light to Dark and Back Again on Amazon at the moment. See link for details.

Am slowly getting a Christmas list together and there will be books on it. That won’t come as a surprise, I’m sure.

Yesterday’s Flash NANO challenge one was an interesting one and not of a kind I’ve come across before. You write ten sentences to make a story. You then change the order of those sentences to make another one. Great fun and the perspective of the story can change depending on your ordering. That I am sure is something which could be exploited to good effect by someone and I may well try this one again myself at some point.

Will be cracking on with today’s challenge later.


Goodreads Author Blog – Annuals

I’ve always loved annuals. They make smashing Christmas presents. I’ve enjoyed The Beano, The Bash Street Kids, and others in my time. These days and in a completely different mood, I love The Friendship Book. It’s a gentle, often amusing, and thoughtful read and a great comfort book. Other family members get the Private Eye annual. I know I turn to the cartoons first there when I get to look at it!

Annuals, I think, serve a great purpose in encouraging further reading. They are perfect for dipping into when you know you want to read something but don’t want anything “heavy”. I will add flash fiction and short story collections are also great for that but hands up, I am bound to say that, given I am published in both! It is still true though!

Which annuals do you enjoy?

D.C.Thomson, that wonderful publisher based in Dundee, are responsible for many of them.

Long may they continue.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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The Importance of Remembering

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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 and, here in the UK, managed to avoid at least some of the rain. Lady and I have had mixed fortunes on that this week. My post for Chandler’s Ford Today this week is on The Importance of Remembering ahead of Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday. I explore the role of the creative arts in remembering too. More below.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

It is a pleasure and honour to share The Importance of Remembering for Chandler’s Ford Today. I look at the role of the war poets and artists as part of this. Words have such an impact and poems such as In Flanders Fields and For The Fallen are deeply touching reminders of that. Words have been used another way too – in comedy, of all things, as Goodbyeee, the last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth proves.

My late grandfathers served in different ways – one in the Forces who was invalided out and later became an ARP warden in London’s East End. The other was in a reserved occupation and he, and his colleagues, were always being bombed out. My late parents were both evacuated at different stages in the war. My late father was too young to leave his mother initially but did get evacuated later.

It is a sombre thought to recall I am only two generations away from those who had fought against Hitler and only one away from those who had to be evacuated due to that.

Remembering is important.

The Importance of Remembering

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Today is the eighth anniversary of Mum’s passing. Hard to believe where the time has gone. I get my love of books and stories from her, which is the gift that keeps on giving. I was pleased she did get to see my first story in print (A Helping Hand in Alternative Renditions by Bridge House Publishing) back in 2009. My late Dad got to see my first book – From Light to Dark and Back Again. There is a pleasing symmetry to this, I think.

Give some thought as to what your characters would consider treasuring as memories. Why? This may not come into your story at all but doing this will show you something of their nature and what they value and that will come into your tale. It will determine their attitudes and likely actions and that could turn your story upside down. What does really matter to your characters? What are they prepared to fight for? What drives them (and their memories will have a major part to play in determining this)?

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady and I got a good soaking this morning. She dried off quicker than I did. No surprise there.

Will be looking at The Importance of Remembering on Friday for Chandler’s Ford Today. I’m also looking at the role of the creative arts in remembering from the war poets to the war artists and the iconic final scenes of Goodbyeee… from Blackadder Goes Forth. Looking forward to sharing this thoughtful post later in the week. See above.

Writing Tip: Always think about the impact your writing will have on your readers. How do you want them to react to it? Are you seeking to make them think, laugh, cry etc? Having an Ideal Reader in mind will help you focus. It helps me, when editing, to work out whether I really need this or that to achieve the impact I am after. If not, out it comes.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

My favourite form of flash fiction is the 100-worder, also known as drabbles. Why? Because these are a snapshot of one moment in time, usually one character, and they are great for humorous endings and/or twist finales. Think of these as a couple of short paragraphs and you get the idea. These also help you focus. You’ve got no room for anything but the most essential information for your reader. This is a good discipline to cultivate and writing the drabbles is a great way of developing that discipline.

Will be having a go at Flash NANO Day 10’s challenge later. I have drafted a couple of pieces so far which are close to the drabble in terms of word count. Am sure I can sharpen these up later and get them down to 100 words but I will not be editing these pieces much until after Flash NANO finishes. It gives me enough time away from the pieces to judge them objectively for one thing.

Funnily enough, you can convey a lot of information in 100 words. See an older story of mine, Times Past, from Friday Flash Fiction for proof.

Screenshot 2023-11-10 at 17-09-02 Times Past by Allison Symes

Glad to see Gifted (Bridge House Publishing) is doing well on Amazon. It is always a joy to have stories in anthologies because I love reading what the other writers come up with as well as enjoying seeing my work in there. I find anthologies (in whatever format) a great way of discovering writers new to me too, but then I have always had a soft spot for the “mixed assortment” kind of books.


Twist endings don’t have to be just for the purpose of crime flash tales. I’ve often used a twist to bring about a humorous ending to a tale (which I always love doing. It’s nice to end a story with a smile, especially at grim times).

I work out what the twist is going to be first, regardless of mood of story, and then see how I can bring this about legitimately. No twist should seem to be “crammed in” to get the story to work. It should be a natural development from the characters and plot. Mind you, that doesn’t just apply to twists!

I know not everyone likes planning but I have found some thinking things out has then helped me develop my story and get that first draft written quicker. It is a question I think of figuring out what you need to know.

Some writers need to know almost everything. Some just need to know the beginning (and maybe a rough idea of the likely ending). I know to know my starting point, why I am writing about the character I am (and what grips me about them) and to be able to see an end point, even if I end up changing it later. Road maps have their uses!

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Fairytales With Bite – Rights and Wrongs

A few thoughts/guidelines for the new fairy from a more experienced magical worker:-

  1. Use your magic properly and not just to stock up your cupboards to save a trip to the shops. Shopkeepers need to earn a living too, you know.
  2. Come to the aid of those needing it and don’t use your powers just to show off. Just because you can isn’t a good enough argument.
  3. Read your instruction books regularly. Revision and increasing your knowledge doesn’t stop when the exams finish.
  4. Practice flying regularly and be considerate to other sky users, especially those from the natural world. They will not necessarily be impressed to see you up there with them and need to know you are not a threat.
  5. When visiting Earth, be discreet. Don’t draw attention to the existence of the magical world. Humans are curious enough as it is. We don’t want to be encouraging them further here.
    Talking of which, do not take any pet dragons etc to Earth with you. Most humans will be terrified. The ones who are not are likely to want to control your dragon themselves. This is never a good idea.
  6. You are not to grant three wishes to anyone. You are a fairy, not a genie. (And if the latter ever suggests you join him in a lamp, get away fast. Intentions are unlikely to be honourable).

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This World and Others – Geographical Features and Their Impact

When thinking about your setting and story, what role does the geographical features play? If you have a water based world, where would your characters live? How would they manage? If the world is land based and water is scarce, what would your characters drink? What would they have to do to obtain enough hydration? Given wars can and do happen over borders, water rights etc., how could that kind of thing come into your story?

Also think about your characters in terms of their attitude. Do they take everything in their stride, regardless of what life, the environment etc., throws at them? Or are they fazed by havIng to climb a hill when the rest of their life has been spent on the flat ground? What would a character make of, say, a lake when they’ve not seen one before (and why is it they’ve not seen one)? All potential ideas for bringing your character to life and from there the first draft of a potential story.

Whatever your world’s geography looks like, it will have an impact on your characters. Your characters’ attitudes will shape how well or otherwise they cope, especially with something previously unknown to them.

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Question Time, A Birthday, and Flash NANO progress

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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. Photo of Lady taken by Adrian Symes. This is Lady’s natural chilled out look!
Hope you had a good weekend. One positive thing about the rain was it did reduce the number of fireworks – Lady and I are not sorry about that. Also Lady had her birthday and she prefers NOT to celebrate with fireworks. Extra treats go down a treat, so to speak!

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Facebook – General

Glad to say today has been a better day. Sunshine nice too.

Don’t forget the November issue of Writers’ Narrative is now out. The theme is about writing novels and I discuss (on Page 58) what I learned from writing mine. Mine is still unpublished. I hope to return to it at some point. Writing flash has taught me so much about editing and sharpening prose so I am sure I can apply those skills to the novel. As ever, the magazine is packed full of useful information. Do check it out.

Meanwhile I am making good progress with Flash NANO 2023 and look forward to tackling today’s challenge a bit later on. Such a great way to get more flash tales written.

 

Not a great start to my week – it has been one of those Mondays. Lady had the better time of it running around with her best mate, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, this morning. Still, Monday is only one day of the week, thankfully.

Had a fabulous writing session yesterday. Drafted a few flash pieces. The one from the Flash NANO prompt I then submitted to CafeLit. Will report back on what happens with that. Will be sharing my YouTube video over on my book page on Facebook shortly. See below. And I managed to submit something to Friday Flash Fiction too.

I do find writing amazingly therapeutic at times. My session tonight will help me unwind and relax as well as help me be creative. That is good for the soul and creative mind, I find. Hope you find that too. To do something creative and switch off the cares of the day is a good thing.

399885770_766323215507542_5265065045265636181_nNice to see some sunshine. Lady appreciated it too.

Knew this would happen but it never fails to make me smile. Amazon have kindly informed me today I might be interested in Gifted (Bridge House Publishing) when they know I have a story in there!

How do they know? Because they do update my Amazon Author Central page quickly when I let them know I’ve got work out in an anthology and I have to state my contribution to it. (I usually give them story title, page number etc as well as it makes it quicker for them to find me). They are very good on sorting this out for me (see screenshot below). As with the last one, The Best of CafeLit 12, they updated my page within a couple of hours which is all very commendable.

So yes, Amazon, I am interested in Gifted! I’m interested in all of the books on my Amazon Author Central page!

Screenshot 2023-11-05 at 15-09-47 Allison Symes
It’s Lady’s 7th birthday today. We can’t believe where the time has gone either. Lady is the only one of the three rescue collies we’ve had where we do know her birthday as it was on the Dogs Trust paperwork given to us when we adopted her. She enjoyed her usual muddy afternoon walk with my other half today. Downside? Lady has to have a bath. Plus side? Lady doesn’t mind baths. She also sees being towelled down as a chance for a cuddle and she dries quickly. Unlike us I should add!

On to writing matters, am thoroughly enjoying the Flash NANO challenges so far. Will have a crack at today’s one later on. So far, the prompts are not the kind I have come across before either and I relish that. Keeps me on my toes and all that.

I will be looking at The Importance of Remembering for Chandler’s Ford Today next week.

There are a number of flash pieces I want to draft for online websites and competitions so will crack on with those too though this is where Flash NANO comes in so useful. Last year, I was able to use some of the pieces I drafted for this later on, once edited and strengthened of course, and one ended up being broadcast on North Manchester FM on the Three Minutes Santa show hosted by Hannah Kate. Would love to do that again – nothing ventured, nothing gained after all!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am enjoying Flash NANO 2023 so much. Great to read the stories people share here. Feedback is always useful. Am varying the word count on mine. My lowest so far is just over 100 words, the highest to date is close to 400 words but this is the flash range where I feel most at home so am not surprised by this.

I write to the story/character demands and worry about the word count later. When writing for, say, Friday Flash Fiction, when I know I will want to write to 100 words, I work out the character and situation which will inevitably be a short sharp piece. What would work best for this?

I always end up writing over 100 words to begin with but the editing process is where I find better ways of phrasing things. It’s amazing what just doing that can do to your word count!

399329835_766882848784912_6869709463164798539_nIt’s Monday. It’s been stressful. I get Mondays like that every now and then. So definitely time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Question Time. This one is based on a question from a random question generator – what was the best compliment you’ve ever received? I’ve got my character to answer that one. Find out what she says and, more importantly, what she does here.

 

Finding the Pet Classics show on Classic FM very soothing. It helps Lady too. Please, folks, if you do go for fireworks, why not go for the no noise ones? You can get these from Asda now and you won’t upset wildlife, pets etc. It is really the colour and spectacle which is the “thing” with fireworks. Or it always was with me when I was a kid anyway. Oh and the jacket potatoes of course. Can’t go wrong with those!

I must admit the only kind of flashes I really like these days are the ones I write myself or read on Friday Flash Fiction, in collections etc. And if I choose to write a scary flash, as I occasionally do, I know my dog isn’t going to be worried by it!

Talking of flashes, many thanks for the comments coming in on Manners Maketh The Fairy. Link here if you missed the story.
Screenshot 2023-11-03 at 10-14-06 Manners Maketh The Fairy by Allison SymesHope you have had a good day. Am enjoying listening to the special pet friendly show on Classic FM at the moment. Lady is busy squeaking her ball (on her 7th birthday) so is clearly not fazed by anything!

One of the things I love about flash (and there are many as you know) is I can’t get bogged down in too much description. There are advantages to having a limited word count! What I want description to do, in whatever I read, is give me a sense of place and why it matters to the story. If it matters, I will read on because I will want to find out how it matters.

If I think description is just waffle, I will skip reading it and jump to where the action is but more likely I will just stop reading. Everything about a story, regardless of its length, has to be there for a good reason. When it is, I read every single word!

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Goodreads Author Blog – Comfort Reading

I love reading for many reasons but I can’t deny a big reason is books and stories are so often a comfort read, especially in times when the news is unremittingly grim. Even when reading crime novels, there can be the comfort of knowing the murderer is not going to get away with it. Justice will be served in some form.

I’ve mentioned before I tend to turn to humorous writing for comfort reading – Pratchett and Wodehouse especially. When I don’t feel like reading anything “heavy”, I will also turn to the flash fiction and short story collections. For the latter, it is also a case for me of reading in the field I’m working in so win-win there.

While I don’t read much in the way of romance fiction, I do understand its appeal. Why shouldn’t people have the comfort of a happy ever after/happy for now ending? (I understand the latter by the way but much prefer the former but then I’ve always loved the fairytales!).

So what would you class as comfort reading? Is is a particular author, book, or type of book, or just the act of reading in and of itself?

Screenshot 2023-11-04 at 20-07-06 Comfort Reading

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Stories Based On Other Stories

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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. Very stormy on Wednesday night/Thursday. Glad things are settling down now. But on the fabulous news front (and there so needs to be one!), I’ve started my Flash NANO 2023 “campaign”, my copies of Gifted (the Bridge House Publishing anthology) have arrived, and the fantastic November issue of Writers’ Narrative is now out. Its theme is writing novels. More details below.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good day. Am talking about one of my favourite topics – stories – for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I discuss Stories Based on Stories.

So many wonderful tales (book, plays, adaptations etc) have come into being thanks to inspiration from previous ones. We build on what has gone before. Writers need to be inspired and it is our own love of books and stories which does this. I also look at the advantages and disadvantages of stories based on other stories.

Hope you enjoy the post. All of my posts here are a joy to write but some are just that little bit more joyous. This is one of those.

Stories Based On Stories

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Sympathies to all affected by the horrendous weather in the UK today. Have seen some horrible pictures from places I know well in Dorset.

On a much happier note, I’ll be sharing Stories Based on Other Stories for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above. It’s always a joy to talk about stories and so many wonderful ones have been inspired by previous ones. I like to think of that as building on solid foundations.

Talking of books, don’t forget reviews are a great way to help authors. Reviews don’t have to be long either so if there is a writer whose work you have loved, do send a review in. It’s encouraging for one thing. Given writers spend so much time at their desks, encouragement like that is always welcome!

Part of a lovely review for From Light to Dark and Back Again reads ‘A thoroughly enjoyable read that kept me turning the pages’ but that does make a complete review in and of itself. It also encourages me a lot!

Am pleased to say the November edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out. Link below. The theme this month is novels (appropriately given November is NaNoWriMo time).

My article is on page 58 and I discuss what I learned when writing my first novel, though to date that remains unpublished. It was a fabulous learning experience though and what I learned has gone on to help me with my other forms of writing. If you are willing to learn, little is wasted in writing. I speak from experience there. And do check out the whole magazine for a wonderful range of in depth articles packed full of advice. It is a joy to be part of the team working on this.

For those of you who receive my monthly newsletter which went out earlier today, I hope to share a double link in my next one (out on 1st December) to cover the November and December issues of Writers’ Narrative. In the meantime, do check out a fabulous read below.

In other news, as they say, I’ve received my first Flash NANO challenge for 2023. Looking forward to working on that! Good luck and happy writing to all who are taking part in this and NaNoWriMo.

 

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with Manners Maketh The Fairy. Hope you enjoy this. It is one of what I call my fairytales with bite. This one has an environmental theme to it as well.

Screenshot 2023-11-03 at 10-14-06 Manners Maketh The Fairy by Allison Symes

Will be cracking on with the Day 2 challenge of Flash NANO 2023 shortly. Now since done and good fun it was too! I love the variety of prompts. Good way to kickstart the old imagination. Some of last year’s flash pieces will form part of my third flash fiction collection in due course.

I’ve always enjoyed those moments in stories (especially in film) where I know I’m going to be able to recall it years later. The great thing with flash stories is they are those complete moments. Short form writing can have far more of an impact due to its limited word count and flash fiction writers especially can use that to work out what kind of impact they want their latest tale to have. Then it’s a case of making the most of the word count you’ve got to play with.

396714200_764034269069770_9199351449952028100_nThere are some days when I have a quiet writing day. There are other days when loads of things happen at once. Today is one of the latter.

Firstly, the November issue of Writers’ Narrative is out and focuses on novels. Link shared on my main Facebook page (and above!).

Secondly, my author newsletter went out today. The subscribe link to Writers’ Narrative is in this. If you’re not already a subscriber, I highly recommend signing up and it is free!

Thirdly, my copies of Gifted, the latest anthology from Bridge House Publishing arrived today. My story, Desperately Seeking Talent, is in there. The joy of opening a box of books from your publisher never diminishes!

Does it make the hard work, the years of rejections and learning the craft (which is an ongoing process), all worth it?

Oh yes!

Fairytales With Bite – The Environment

Whatever your setting, there will be an environment. Some will be much nicer than others! What is the attitude of your characters to their environment? Do they care about it? Has damage been done to it they’re trying to rectify?

If the environment is generally sound, how do your characters contribute to it being so good? Are there laws in place banning certain activities or insisting certain ones are carried out?

In a magical setting, think about the energy your magical characters have. Where do they get this from? Even if it is from within themselves, what affect does their using it have on the outside world? Do they have to be careful with how much of it they use and/or where?

What creatures would live in your setting’s environment and what would be your characters’ relationship to these? If magic has done damage to certain parts of your setting, how did that happen (presumably magical wars/industrial kind of accidents are two ideas that occur to me here)? What is being done to correct that damage? Or are those areas left alone and is that the right thing to do? What would what passes for nature on your world do to correct things if left alone to get on with it?

How does the environment, which includes all manner of things from air quality to transportation, have a bearing on what your characters can and cannot do?

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This World and Others – Agencies

What kind of agencies exist in your setting? These can include environmental agencies (see Fairytales with Bite above) to agencies who care for elderly magical beings who need looking after in their latter days. And who almost certainly are grateful to be still alive to be looked after given most magical worlds are not exactly friendly to their inhabitants. Well, you can hardly call a place friendly when dealing with dragons is a daily, hazardous, occupation, yes?

Also you could think here of stories involving magic which went wrong and damage had to be undone somehow. There would be stories here. This might explain why you have elderly magical beings. They would have to be phenomenally good at their craft to survive, yes?

Every world will need some sort of government and even if you focus on one area, who would be in charge of that and how did they come to power? Do they rule well or badly? What agencies do they use to help their peoples (or to suppress them)? What kind of characters would work in these things?

I think in a magical setting there would have to be some agreement as to what was allowed and what was not to avoid chaos. So which agencies would set these rules and how do they ensure they are adhered to by everyone? The risk of not having rules is any powerful wizard worthy of the name would almost certainly ensure they became your setting’s dictator. See Sauron in The Lord of the Rings for more on this!

Also on a more peaceful setting, how do the agencies work with each other as there would inevitably be some overlap? There always is with any kind of agency. An environmental one would have to work with other agencies responsible for caring for specific aspects of the environment.

We in the UK for example have a Forestry Commission. We have water boards. Both are responsible for the environment but in different ways. When the water agencies need trees clearing to clear waterways, they would have to work with the forestry body. And that’s just one example. Where you have the need for co-operation, the prospect of conflict of interest arises and there would be interesting stories there in working out how to resolve these and what your characters do.

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Screenshot 2023-11-01 at 16-23-41 Writers' Narrative eMagazine November 2023

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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