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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 Geoff Parkes for the image of me taking part in a Swanwick Open Prose Mic Night a while back.

Hope you had a lovely weekend. I had a wonderful time with family and friends celebrating my birthday. Lady had a ball too and was so tired but happily so at the end of it all. Now time to get back to the writing desk. I wonder how many characters I’ll put in awkward situations this week. It will be fun finding out! The authorial joy of causing trouble for characters shouldn’t be underestimated – I love doing it and then finding out how they deal with the mess I’ve put them in.

Facebook – General

Posting early as have a meeting later. I sometimes tweet for the Association of Christian Writers and tend to draft my tweets in advance and schedule them, as my posts there are always related to writing in some way.

For Facebook, I tend to draft in advance but then put up “live” as and when I can get to my desk. I’ve done that with this post. The drafting in advance saves me time. In my more limited times to write, I like to hit the ground running as it frees up what time I’ve got to do other smaller jobs, such as starting to draft a future blog spot. I can stop at any convenient point for something like that.

I’ve also found having limited time slots for writing sometimes helps because it makes me focus even more than I already do. Sometimes when I have longer periods in which to write, I find you can waste time working out where to start. Have done this. I don’t do so much now. I work out in advance now what I’m going to do when so I know what I’m going to be working on before I get to my desk. I find that helps me make the most of my available time slot for writing, regardless of how long that may be.

A busy start to Holy Week. Mondays are often hectic for me. It is always a pleasure to get back to my desk after hectic days. Okay, I may not get to write so much (tiredness!), but I am writing something and loving being creative. I also find it helps me unwind after said hectic day.

Later in the week I get to write much more but I’ve got used to the ebbs and flows of the writing life. Often it will be on hectic days I will return to my notebooks and look up potential ideas to write up and jot down further ideas that come to me from them, maybe even write a first draft on one or two.

Time management, I think, is an art form and one which is well worth practicing! I’ve found I get far more done by using hectic days to do smaller items of writing and then making the most of longer writing times for longer pieces of work. Even just five minutes spent writing can produce something useful for you to work up later on.

Hope your weekend has gone well. Am recovering from yesterday’s party, as is Lady. Have rarely seen her that tired but oh so happy with it. Looking forward to listening in to the new Hall of Fame on Classic FM over the Easter weekend. Will be especially listening out for the ones I voted for. One is very close to the top of the chart and I would love to see/hear it make the top spot.

It is one of those odd things that I find no trouble writing whatsoever with classical music on in the background. Anything else and it disrupts my concentration. There is something relaxing about classical I think and when I am relaxed I just get on and write. I usually find I write more too.

Writing Tip: Stories often don’t find a home first go. Put any rejected pieces aside. Give it some time and come back to them. Can you see where you could improve them? I find I usually can after a break like that. I then submit it somewhere else. I have had work published doing this so it is worth a go but give yourself the necessary distance away from the story. It helps.

Hope you have had a good day. I’ve had a fantastic time with family and friends today. Mind you, the weather was strange. Sunshine, rain, hail, we had the works. Lady had a fabulous time with my cousin’s dog, Lily. Lady is absolutely shattered tonight!

Looking forward to sharing Questions and Answers for Characters for Chandler’s Ford Today. More details later in the week and link up on Friday. After that, I will be sharing details of a very special two part interview for CFT. More nearer the time.

Also looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week.

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again soon. To sign up for story links, news, tips etc., do head over to my website landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

When both of my flash fiction collections were accepted by Chapeltown Books, I had to come up with the strap line to go on the front covers.

For From Light to Dark and Back Again this was a collection of very short stories to suit every mood.
For Tripping the Flash Fantastic this was a carefully crafted collection of story worlds.

Now you would think, would you not, that having put books of flash fiction together, I’d have had no trouble writing the one line strap lines! Not a bit of it. It took me some time to come up with both of these.

Less is more is so true in flash fiction as a whole. It isn’t necessarily “easy” to write! Mind you, I’m not convinced there is any such thing as easy writing. What I see in works I read is the craft that has gone into these stories and I can guess how long the author would have taken to get their stories to this point. Naturally I put in a lot of crafting on my own work.

I often find I can get a first draft down relatively fast (thanks to having a helpful outline). The editing takes time. Mind you, it should take time. I set myself a deadline for getting a piece of work out somewhere if it’s not for a competition where I already know the deadline.

It’s to ensure I write my piece, rest it, edit it, rest it again, edit it again should it need it, and then submit the piece. I don’t consider a piece of work “finished” until I have sent it somewhere (or know where it will eventually go if I’m saving stories for future competitions I know are coming up or for a future book).

It’s Monday. It’s been a hectic day. Time to relax with a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – One Off. Will Vera returning to old habits scare Reg? What were those old habits anyway?

Have fun exploring the various random generators out there. I use these only to trigger starting points for story ideas. I’ve used the random number, object, pictures, phrases, and question ones, just to name a few. I then decide how I am going to use these.

The question one often makes for good title and/or theme ideas. Objects and pictures I can place into the story and I ensure they are crucial to the plot in some way. The number one I have used as a countdown, simply by turning the number into a time, or as part of an address where the action of the story takes place or where the lead characters lives/starts out from.

Phrases I tend to use as themes though occasionally I subvert one of these by changing one word. It can change the whole mood of the story I’m going to tell too. That’s fun. But do give them a go. I see these as the electronic version of the old story cubes (and I use those too).

There are also books of prompts, some of which I’ve contributed to over the years. If you want somewhere to start, I am only too happy to recommend The Book of Prompts (Chapeltown Books).

When you are writing flash fiction and short stories, you want plenty of triggers for ideas. All of these things mentioned here can contribute positively to your writing. Have fun!

When I write what I call fairytales with bite (often with humorous twist endings), I nearly always know the ending first and then work backwards to get to a logical starting point. I work out what could come from my planned ending and then take things from there. I find that approach works well.

For flash non-fiction (a lot of my blog posts could count as this), I usually know what I want the overall conclusion to be for my piece and then figure out the logical “staging posts” to get me to that conclusion.

Structure is one of those things you only notice when it is not there. When I’ve not had a proper structure in place, that has been when my stories have failed because I failed to work things out and then managed to box myself in. Has only happened twice.

So even if you don’t outline anything else, thinking about what your structure is going to be will save you a great deal of time and (editing) grief.

Goodreads Author Blog – Mixing Up Books

I like mixing up books in terms of having a wide variety of genres to read but I don’t especially like combining two types of books which were never meant to be put together (in my view). I see there is a place for zombie stories (though they’re not my cup of tea). There will always be a place for Jane Austen but putting Pride and Prejudice together with zombies to me just made me shudder when I first heard about it. Nor will I read it. I just don’t want to go there.

I also get annoyed when films rehash old stories. For me there is no improving the original The Italian Job with Michael Caine. I refuse to watch the so-called remake (and, separately, have heard indifferent reviews about it). So you see I am consistent here!

I do wonder if it is a lack of imagination going on here. Why not write your own zombies story? Why bring other characters from a much loved novel into it?

The simple answer to a lack of imagination is to read more. Then read more. Then read more again. I’ve always found reading well and widely fires up my own imagination. I then happily go and create my own characters and tales. I don’t see the fun in mish-mashes at all.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Mixing Up Books https://t.co/GzlGH4HiJo via @goodreads I share my thoughts on mixing up books from a genre blending viewpoint for this week's Goodreads post. pic.twitter.com/jTUX80MJtI

— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 23, 2024

It’s Monday. It’s been a hectic day. Time to relax with a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – One Off. Will Vera returning to old habits scare Reg? What were those old habits anyway?https://t.co/10V4IJlE0m

— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 25, 2024