Writers and Stationery – A Match Made In Heaven

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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. Images of me with CafeLit 13 and Creativity Matters were taken by Adrian Symes. Many thanks to Wendy H Jones for the other Creativity Matter shot with the rosette on it (love that rosette!). Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week., Pleased to announce I will be changing newsletter service provider from 1st May. I have put in the link to the new one where you can subscribe now. This link is on other pages of my website too now. Lady has had a lovely week with her friends int he park – as have I!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good day Lady had a lovely time in the sunshine with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal this morning. Great time had by both dogs.

Delighted to share my latest Chandler’s Ford Today post. This week, I talk about Writers and Stationery – A Match Made In Heaven. I don’t know of any writer who has enough notebooks and pens!

Fun post to write. Just to prove that, here’s the opening line.

With apologies to the late Jane Austen, I will start by saying it is a truth universally acknowledged that writers have two obsessions, okay three if you count chocolate, but what are the other two?

Hope you enjoy a cheerful post written in a cheerful spirit!

Writers and Stationery – A Match Made In Heaven

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Lady and I made the most of a lovely sunny day again today. Didn’t get to see any of her pals today unfortunately. Lady had to put up with me but she made do well enough!

Will be sharing Writers and Stationery – A Match Made in Heaven on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above. Such fun to write. Hope you will enjoy the post too.

Newsletter News: Just to say I am changing my newsletter email service provider. Sadly, my current one is stopping the free plan (as from June), which is more than enough for my needs as things stand at the moment so have found another leading service provider instead. I didn’t want to leave this until the last minute so have made the switch now.

For new subscribers, I do have the link set up so you can sign up both my via website and I will also be sharing the link again on my website/blog round up post tomorrow. I’m also sharing it here. See screenshot below for what the new sign up form looks like.

The first newsletter to go out with the new service provider will be the May one. Any queries, do contact me via my contact form via my website.

Hope you had a good day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. Lovely time had by all.

Had a lovely Zoom meeting re editing at lunchtime and am looking forward to another webinar this evening on storytelling. Zoom has made a lot of things possible including learning more about your craft without having to travel anywhere. It means I can take part in more things than I would otherwise have done and I’ve made the most of this, especially over the last couple of weeks or so.

Zoom Tip: I prepare presentations on PowerPoint when I run groups on Zoom but it pays to have a practice run on this ahead of your meeting. I do rehearse short stories and flash (especially for Open Prose Mic Nights) via Zoom but you can do the same with presentations. 

I do find on the run though I will think of other ideas to add in to make the presentation more useful. I think this is because I am putting myself in the audience seat when doing such run throughs and I can spot any gaps or something which would be additionally useful that much more easily.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

No Friday Flash Fiction story from me this week as the submissions window isn’t open again after the Andrew Siderius competition. The window will be reopen again soon and I will flag it up when I know it is.

Writing for FFF has got me back to the joy of writing the 100 word tales, which was my introduction to flash fiction in the first place. Also bear in mind the 100 words limit is a popular competitions one so it is worth practicing writing to this flash category.

You still need a proper beginning , middle and end but it is often at these lower word counts, I work out the ending first and then plan backwards to get to the start. It gives me a structure and I can confirm it works. No danger of running out of word count for the ending because I have already sorted that out. Helps keep me on track for a tight beginning and middle too. No waffle room at all! That is a great thing.


Just to confirm the news I’ve shared over on my author page, I am changing my newsletter email service provider. Link here. First newsletter out on the new provider on 1st May where I will continue to share news, tips, story links, and celebrate all things flash fiction related in particular. Any queries, do contact me via the contact form on my website.

Looking forward to getting on with more flash fiction writing over the weekend. This kind of admin is rarely fun!

Another glorious day. I don’t usually use the weather at all in my stories which is for two reasons.

Firstly, I want to avoid cliche (yes, like the proverbial plague!).

Secondly, I am usually focusing on what my character is saying, thinking, or doing. To me that has always been more interesting.

But there is no reason why you can’t use the weather to reflect or contrast with your character’s moods. You could use the weather conditions to make those moods better or worse (and readers will then want to find out what the outcome will be). Moods will have a direct impact on actions and attitudes – they do for us after all!

Fairytales with Bite – New Starts

How easy would it be for your character to make a new start in their magical setting? Fairy godmothers and their ilk aren’t exactly going to be able to pretend they’re not magical so if someone has had enough, or retires, what happens? Can they hang up the old magic wand and have a new start? Do they find they can’t give magic up altogether or is it a case magic won’t let them go?

For non-magical characters, where do they fit into your society? Are they prized for special skills not available to those who are magical? (You could also look at the reasons they they’re not available There could be some interesting stories here). Are they looked down on? Are they expected to be in certain stations in life? Can anyone break the mould here?

What would a new start mean for your character in terms of how they would break the news to whom they are closest to – or do they just get on with the new start anyway and deal with the consequences later on?

This World and Others – Career Changes

Linking in with Fairytales with Bite, new starts can often led to career changes. Why would your characters want to change careers, how easy or otherwise do they find this, and does it work out for them? Good story possibilities there.

Are certain characters encouraged to change careers and what is the motivation behind that? Could be good – no not! (Someone wanting to get a certain character out of the way for a job they want perhaps?).
Is there such a thing as a Careers Advisory Service in your setting? (There could be humorous possibilities here).

When a career change has happened, how does your character adjust? What inevitable mistakes do they make? How would this impact on the story as a whole?

Good possibilities for serious and humorous stories here, I think. This is where we can write about what we know of the working world but put it in a different magical setting and adjust accordingly. There would be careers in the magical world we wouldn’t have obviously but it could work the other way around. Your setting needs skills only the non-magical have. (Could this be behind alien abduction stories, they need someone do do the cleaning! Just a thought!).

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