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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 Jen Wilson for taking the photo of me leading the Lift Up Your Pens session about using numbers in fiction.

It is so good to be back at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick and a joy to catch up with friends in person. Have learned so much from the courses and workshops so far.

Facebook – General

Another lovely day at Swanwick. Enjoyed the sessions on The Write Mindset (Sarah Harlow) and Powerful Public Speaking for Writers (Simon Hall). Always plenty to learn from sessions like these. Sometimes it is just reassuring to know you are on the right lines!

On Tuesday afternoons there is spare time (which is done deliberately) where I hope to catch up with some of my writing. Later tonight I am due to take part in the Open Prose Mic Night and am looking forward to that. It does make a great advert for what flash fiction can be.

Many thanks to Jen Wilson for taking the shots of me at the Lift Up Your Pens session yesterday. It was a joy and privilege to lead the Lift Up Your Hearts session this morning, a short devotional session for all denominations.

Was back at Vivien Brown’s Short Story course this morning and then went on to Road to Self-Publishing Success led by Lizzie Chantree. Both packed full with useful information. Plan to get along to Anthologies Collaborations too.

There is so much choice here. It is one of the strengths of Swanwick and you choose how many or how few of those courses you go to. I trust the Book Room is also seeing brisk sales as if there is one thing I know about writers, it is none of us can ever have too many books!

Glad to say the session for Lift Up Your Pens which I hosted at Swanwick this morning went well. I was looking at different ways of using numbers in stories. There are more than you might think and using numbers at all encourages you to think outside of the box, which is also a good thing.

Thoroughly enjoyed Vivien Brown’s Short Story specialist course, the fist part of which was this morning. I went on to Twist in the Tale hosted by Val Penny which was on before and after lunch. Both of these topics are right up my writing street of course.

But one of the lovely things about creative writing is there is always something you can learn which can help you improve your craft further. Now that is a very good thing indeed!

Am on my way to Swanwick 2024. So looking forward to seeing everyone. Lady, with my other half, saw me off. I expect to be mugged by her when I get back. It’s what usually happens.

Will be talking about Never Fear The Editing for Chandler’s Ford Today. It is timely given my Swanwick course is on Editing as an Author, Editing as a Competition Judge. Link up on Friday for CFT (I just love scheduling in advance!).

Am getting back to my old habit of getting some writing done on the train. The notes app which came with my phone is great and proving to be a good replacement for Evernote as I don’t have a need for a paid subscription which they effectively now are.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Will be taking part in the Swanwick Open Prose Mic Night later tonight. Hoping to read from my books and one or two pieces from my stories on Friday Flash Fiction. Did take part in the general knowledge quiz last night – the team came 5th out of 8 though the placings between 5th and 2nd were very tight. Might pay to brush up for next year!

Nice to have a chat with fellow Bridge House authors, Linda Payne and June Webber, today. Always good to wave the flag for a lovely publisher.

From Left to Right below:  June Webber, yours truly, Linda Payne.

Having a fabulous time at Swanwick. I swear you can feel the creativity in the air! The gardens are as lovely as ever, as are the lakes, and I’ve found it refreshing to take walks around the latter at break times. Have never seen the fish so busy in those lakes as I have done this year.

Glad to have caught up with the lovely Linda Payne – she and I are the Bridge House Publishing contingent for this year! Also glad to have caught up with Susan Pope and Vikki Thompson (of the lovely Mermaids writing group. I’ve given a couple of talks for them on Zoom but it is so nice to see the ladies again in person).

Have some ideas from exercises already set but suspect I need to be back at home before I get a chance to write them up though.

But I haven’t forgotten it’s Monday and it is still time for a YouTube story from me. Hope you like my latest – One Hour. I shared in Lift Up Your Pens at Swanwick yesterday how to use numbers in fiction and one way is to use it as a time. Here’s my response to that!

Many thanks to Val Penny for the shout-out as part of her Twist in the Tale course at Swanwick today. Yes, for flash fiction, you can only have the one twist and that is it because you don’t have the word count room for more. However, it is precisely due to that I find twists in flash fiction have a more powerful impact as there is nothing to “water it down”.

Have put my name in the box for reading out at the Open Prose Mic Night. Flash is a great form for this bcause you can’t take too long. Goes down well with organisers and audiences, that one!

Hope to share some flash fiction at Swanwick again. It is a great format for Open Prose Mic nights as it doesn’t take long and the audience gets to hear complete stories. Have brought new material for this year.

Hope to get some flash written while away too. Am sure some of the exercises I will be set will end up eventually as flash tales.

Goodreads Author Blog – Collections

There is a great meme doing the rounds which claims it isn’t hoarding if it is books. I have a lot of sympathy for this viewpoint and confidently expect to add to my own hoard courtesy of the book room at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, which is my base for a few days.

I also love story collections and have done from an early age thanks to the collected fairytales Reader’s Digest brought out as a two volume set a long time ago.

I’m not unbiased given many of my stories are in collections and I often edit them for others. I love the mixture of tales in these and to be able to dip in and out of the books as I wish.

I often read them in between reading novels. I like to mix up reading the short and long forms. A well curated collection is a joy to read.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I’m sharing the link to the June 2024 edition which was on the theme of poetry. My article looks at the links between flash fiction and poetry. Hope you enjoy it.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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https://t.co/Xojn3TnS97 Well, this is a topic close to my heart!

— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) August 10, 2024

Having a fabulous time at Swanwick. You can feel the creativity in the air! But I haven’t forgotten it’s Monday – time for a YouTube tale. My latest is One Hour. I shared in Lift Up Your Pens how to use numbers in fiction. One way is to use them as times.https://t.co/7ddyrQZpn3

— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) August 12, 2024