The New Writing Year

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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, with the image of me holding The Best of CafeLit 13 taken by Adrian Symes.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Pleased with writing done over that time which included writing new flash and reviewing draft short stories. Hope to submit the latter in the next couple of weeks or so. Have got my eye on other competitions to enter too. Lady has been in fine form too.

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Hope Tuesday has been okay for you. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler today (and our neighbour’s retriever) so she has had a good day. Still pretty cold here.

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again before too long. It’s amazing how quickly the first of the month comes around. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com and many thanks to all who have subscribed.

I subscribe to a number of author newsletters myself. I find them useful – writers always learn from each other – as well as helping me to stay informed of what else is going on out there, writing wise. I find the world of writing infinitely fascinating and love hearing more about it and not just in my sphere.

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Hope Monday hasn’t been too bad. Lady got to catch up with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today and has had a good day.

Monday is one of the days in which, due to other commitments, I don’t get to do so much writing so I use it to do “little bits and pieces” which then frees up my time later in the week, when I can have longer writing sessions.

What do I count as “little bits and pieces”? Well, adding items to my newsletter is one, finishing off a blog post is another etc. Longer writing sessions will see me write one or more flash pieces, edit a story, make submissions and so on.

It is a question of working out how to make the best use of your writing time, I think. I aim to finish most days by being pleased with what I managed to get done in the time available to me rather than beat myself up about not getting much done. It helps me cope with Mondays for a start!

Hope the weekend has gone well. Freezing again here and murky.

Glad to say I’ll be talking to fellow Swanwicker Gemma Owen-Kendall about her novel Red Daisy for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. It is a great interview. Looking forward to sharing it.

I hope there will be further author interviews throughout the year. It’s always fascinating to find out about the writing journeys of other writers. I’ve always found you can learn so much from each other this way.

I often “interview” my characters when I’m preparing a story. I find it useful to know what makes them tick and certain questions such as what is the one thing you would ask for if you could be allowed a wish to be a great way to find out more about my potential “star”. For a start, I will find out if they would ask for a selfish wish or not and that alone can reveal more about them.

Pleased to be back on Authors Electric with my first post here for 2025. This time I talk about The New Writing Year.

I share how I use January, often a gloomy month, to ensure I have something to look forward to, writing wise, later in the year and discuss competitions and writing plans. This time of the year is a great time to focus on what you’d like to achieve by the end of it, I find.

Hope you find the post useful as you consider your own writing plans for the year ahead.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I love flash fiction for many reasons but a big one is being able to set my characters in different settings, meaning I can play with genre here.

I’ve written fantasy flash, fairytale flash, historical flash, crime flash, ghost flash and much more. I like the variety.

What all of these things have to have in common though is characters who will grip a reader (not literally!). This is why I always start by working out who my characters are and I have found this pays off.

It’s Monday. It’s still cold, dark and January and, of course, Monday. Time for another story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube. This one is called To Do. Wilma takes matters into her own hands when she gets fed up with her neighbour’s boasting and she gets to complete her yearly bucket list too. Find out how and why here.

 

Will shortly be embarking on flash fiction Sunday. Also want to review a couple of stories I drafted last week. For flash and short stories, I usually find a few days is enough time to give me the necessary distance to see what needs to be fixed. The one thing I know for sure is something will have to be fixed!

I also write longer short stories though I tend to stick to between the 1001 and 2000 words mark for those. I must admit anything over 1000 words does seem lengthy to me!

Am delighted to say I will be sharing my first author interview for 2025 on Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll be interviewing fellow Swanwicker (and short story and flash fiction writer) Gemma Owen-Kendall about her novel, Red Daisy, which was launched at Swanwick last year. Looking forward to sharing that.

Talking of flash fiction, Writing Magazine have a 500 words competition. See link for more information and good luck if you enter this. Deadline is 15th March 2025. If you can get hold of the current copy of the magazine, they’ve issued their competitions guide. Well worth having to hand.

Goodreads Author Blog – Why Reviews Matter

There are two things every reader can do to help authors. The first one is obviously to buy their books in whatever format you prefer (and where that’s not possible, do borrow from the library. Authors usually receive Public Lending Right – at least in the UK). The second one is to review their books here on Goodreads and/or Amazon.

Reviews matter to writers for several reasons.

Firstly, it is good (and encouraging) to know we are being read.

Secondly, it is helpful for us to know what you like about our books and yes occasionally what you dislike. All we want is for any review to be fair, as most of us accept not everyone is going to like what we do.

Thirdly, we can use the fact we have had reviews as part of our marketing.

I always check out reviews for any product I’m interested in – books or otherwise. Often, I will come across something linked to the product I’m looking into I hadn’t heard of before simply because a review for it turns up. I then check it out.

The good news is reviews do not have to be long. Some of the best ones I’ve had have been one or two lines only. What helps is in saying you liked the book (hopefully!) and what in particular stood out for you. Job done.

Do I review books myself? Oh yes. I tend to do this in batches of two or three books at a time but I keep my reviews short. (Also makes it easier for the author to use part of the review in quotes they want to share).

A good New Year’s Resolution for any reader would be to review more. As we’re a community who love books and stories, it’s a nice one to try to keep, don’t you think?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Making the Most of Your Writing Time

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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.
Hope you have had a good few days. Lady has been catching up with her pals and I’ve been catching up with my writing. Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week too. Smashing author interview coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today next week as well – looking forward to sharing that.

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Delighted to share Making the Most of Your Writing Time for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. It’s always a useful topic!

I look at the positives of planning out your writing time and discuss the negative side to it. I share what one piece of advice P.G. Wodehouse gave to a writer (which has a considerable impact on my way of thinking here) and look at mixing things up to make the best use of the writing time available.

Hope you find the post useful.

Making the Most of Your Writing Time

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Hope today has been okay for you. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler friend today. Lady has had a good week in catching up with her pals.

Looking forward to sharing Making the Most of Your Writing Time on Chandler’s Ford Today – link up tomorrow. Hope it will prove useful. See above.

Planning, over the weekend, to have a look at the two short story competition entries I drafted a few days ago and see what needs to be done to make them better. There will be something, there always is, but I love this stage of writing. To see what needs to be fixed and then to do it and know your work has taken a good step forward – well, all of that pleases me a lot. Also increases my chances a lot too!

I’ve always taken some consolation from the knowledge I can’t think of any writer who has ever written a first draft. It’s okay I don’t do so either then but what matters is seeing it for what it is – a first draft only I’m ever going to see.

 

Hope Wednesday has been a good day for you. Lady got to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals today – a lovely time was had by all in the park.

Now I hope you received lots of lovely book presents for Christmas. Am working my way through mine but I thought this would be a good point to say a lovely present for any author would be to receive reviews on Amazon etc. Other than buying the books themselves, leaving thoughtful reviews is the next best thing you an do to support authors.

Reviews don’t have to be long. One of mine for From Light to Dark and Back Again is a sentence long – An eclectic mix of flash fiction, from an author with a great imagination.

Many thanks to the author of that review. Much appreciated by me, obviously. Reviews like this can be useful for marketing purposes but also the feedback is so useful for writers.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s lovely to be back on Friday Flash Fiction once again after a fabulous and enjoyable Christmas break. Hope you enjoy my A Different New Year though I know for sure one of my characters in this one certainly won’t.

Flash fiction is, of course, short, but you still need to give yourself plenty of time to edit and to polish your stories. It doesn’t matter what word count you write to, the editing does take time, but it is so worth it when you have a polished as good as you can make it piece of work to send out.

Crafting your work to make it as good as you can does make all the difference to whether a piece is published or not, or gets a placing (or a win) in a competition or not.

Some of you will know I discovered flash fiction by accident. It remains the happiest writing accident I’ve had. CafeLit issued a 100 word challenge and I went for it. Haven’t looked back since.

But I mention this as I think it shows the importance of being open to writing possibilities and not to be afraid to try something new.

I’d been writing the longer short stories prior to that (and still do but flash has given me another string to my bow and a way into having books with my name on the front covers. Really love that).

It has pleased me a lot to see increasing opportunities for flash with online story markets and flash being added to competition categories. All good, that!

Fairytales with Bite – Pantomimes

In the UK pantomimes are along standing tradition and usually run from December through to about February. They are often the first introduction to theatre for many and most of the stories for them do come from the traditional fairytales. I will be off to see a production of Cinderella later this month which will be staged by my excellent local amateur theatre company.

Pantomimes are funny, colourful, and jokes are aimed at all levels. It is deliberate adults will get some jokes when the children will not. You have the pantomime Dame, always played by a man, wearing the most garish costume and makeup. The Principal Boy is always played by a girl. Certain phrases are always used (he/she is behind you etc) and the audience is always encouraged to join in. There is often music too.

Another tradition here is some of the jokes will poke fun at those in authority while other gags will refer to local issues/events/places. All great fun. Chaos is expected.

Fairytales work brilliantly for this as they have a good three act structure which translates well to the stage. There are obvious baddies and goodies too and magic is involved somewhere. It helps the audience know the story because they know when they can join in.

But it led me to wonder for this post what kind of theatre or pantomime would your setting have? Would they have anything like the pantomime? What fairytales do they have they might base their own version on? Could you invent something here for your stories?

This World and Others – Behind The Scenes

Linking with Fairytales with Bite, I know my excellent local amateur theatre company create their own sets and what they come up with here is amazing. They have, I’m sure, great fun with the pantomime sets they create – lots of bright colours etc. But without this, there is no show. Without their lighting and sound crews, the shows wouldn’t be so good. It’s amazing how the well placed light or sound effect makes a difference to the impact on the audience of the story being acted out.

Naturally it won’t just be in the entertainment industry, there will be those elsewhere whose work behind the scenes (a) makes things happen at all and (b) without whom what does get done isn’t as good.

So for your stories whose work behind the scenes is crucial to the success of what your lead characters are doing/plan to do? Equally who could unintentionally or otherwise scupper your characters’ plans by their work behind the scenes which has an impact later on?

You could also have characters who are behind the scenes but don’t want to be and what impact any resentful attitude on their part plays in your story.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Tips, Flash Fiction, and Marketing

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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 the weekend went well. Hope the coming week does too! Writing wise, I’m looking forward to sharing a post on Chandler’s Ford Today later this week looking at Making the Most of Your Writing Time, which is always a relevant topic.

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It was nice it wasn’t so cold today. Instead of looking like a walking inflatable thanks to wearing so many layers when taking Lady out, I managed to look like half a walking inflatable today. It is progress!

Will be looking at Making the Most of Your Writing Time later in the week for Chandler’s Ford Today.

Busy preparing a presentation for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group next week. I love putting these together and I join in with the exercises I set on the night of the meeting. It means I get some drafts done too.

Was pleased at the weekend I managed to draft two possible short story competition entries. Will be looking at these tales again this coming weekend. Know they will need work but then that is what the editing stage is for.

 

Hope Monday hasn’t been too bad for you. I have a lovely Zoom meeting to look forward to this evening, which will be especially welcome after a hectic day.  It was!

Marketing Tip: It might sound obvious but ensure you enjoy the marketing you do. I like sharing flash fiction videos on my YouTube channel so have no problems doing that kind of marketing! I also love blogging, so I blog.

I’ve found it pays to split my time into writing and marketing so I don’t neglect either of them. So I work out what I can do based on my other commitments on any given day. I’ve found that helps with focus and I do get writing and marketing done by the end of each week. This post of course is a bit of both of those things!

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Hope you have had a good weekend.

About to start my flash fiction Sunday afternoon writing session – always look forward to this. Have a couple of short story competitions I want to have a go at so plan to start fleshing out ideas for those too. Will be good to get the old brain fired up!

Writing Tip: Good ways to get into flash stories include asking a question so your character has to answer it in some way or with a line of dialogue so a reader will want to read on to find out how that conversation finishes.

Best of all, you can combine these! See my example below.

‘What is that at the end of the street, Dora?’

All sorts of possibilities arise from that. Has Dora’s friend spotted something alien? Is the friend seeing something Dora really cannot see (or are they trying to wind Dora up for some nefarious reason)?

You could also ask a question you too would like to know the answer to and get your character to answer it! (And if you’re stuck for ideas do heck out the random question generators – these can be useful for giving you a starting point).

Have fun!

Tips will help you make the most of your writing day
Hope your Saturday has gone well. Still pretty cold around here.

Plan to get back to submitting stories to Friday Flash Fiction this weekend. Also will be writing about Making the Most of Your Writing Time for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Always a timely topic that one!

At the end of the month I’m off to see Cinderella as performed by The Chameleon Theatre Group and unlike the lead character, I do plan to be home before midnight! But The Chameleons always stage wonderful pantomimes and I am so looking forward to having many laughs at this later this month.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I sometimes write flash tales as acrostics but find these work best when I only use one or two words to form the acrostic itself. For example:-

New Year by Allison Symes

N = New Year’s Day is when my hopes are high.
E = Ending days later when normal life resumes.
W = Wendy sighed. It is the same every year so why am I surprised?

Y = Yet deep down I still feel this year should be different.
E = Even though long experience tells me otherwise.
A = And then she picked up the letter from her mat.
R = Recognizing the New Zealand address of an old friend, she opened it and a return air plane ticket fell out.

Ends
Allison Symes – 14th January 2025

Hope you enjoyed that. Acrostic tales are fun to do and make for an interesting change to the usual prose format.

Advantage to flash is setting characters anywhere

It’s Monday. It’s cold. It’s dark. It’s still January. It’s still Monday. Time for a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Getting On With It.

 

Still cold here but not as bad as yesterday. Am cheering myself up a bit by looking out for the early signs of spring on the way. I have a tiny primrose out in my garden. Have no idea whether it will survive the frosts but it is out.

And that reminds me of a useful character trait which I’m sure you could find a use for in stories – a character with persistence, who will get through or overcome some difficulty, no matter what the odds are against them. There are definitely story ideas from that thought and all inspired by a tiny primrose. I like this.

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Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this month. It’s always great fun and Zoom makes meetings like this possible where in person get-togethers are simply not an option, as is the case here.

Zoom is also useful for recording your stories and playing them back (you simply set up a meeting with yourself, press record, end the meeting and Zoom converts the recording into an mp3 file for you). I always use this facility when I’m submitting a flash tale for potential broadcast. It is the only sure way to know I have got my timing right.

Usually with these things you’re given a maximum recording time rather than a maximum word count. When I play my recordings back, I’m listening for errors in dialogue but also making sure I’m not speaking too fast.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Books For the Darker Times of Year

January can be the gloomiest month of the year. Christmas is over and it is still ages before spring turns up. It is a great time for getting more reading done though! One of the simple delights in life is curling up with a good book in a cosy chair with a hot drink or several to hand.

For me, January is definitely not the time to be reading anything gloomy in itself. I want something to make me smile or laugh (Wodehouse, Pratchett and Austen are my go-tos for this).

I also like to read plenty of short fiction (it’s so often easier to find funny short stories tor flash fiction than novels – well that’s been my experience).

But if there is anything positive to be said for January, it is a good reading month. Escaping into a world contained in the pages of a book always seems like a good idea to me but never more so than when it is dark and cold outside.

Screenshot 2025-01-11 at 17-23-00 Allison Symes's Blog - Books For The Darker Times of Year - January 11 2025 09 22 Goodreads

 

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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The Joys of Fairytales

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Brrrr…. Has been a cold one this week. Not that Lady has minded. Very little slows her down. Writing wise, am looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom later this month and had a most enjoyable one as part of another ACW group on Wednesday this week. All good fun and useful.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good first full week back into normal routines. Still pretty cold here but Lady had a lovely time in the park playing with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Coco, the Labradoodle, pals so they’ve all had a great time.

Pleased to share The Joys of Fairytales as my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. A gem of a topic as far as I’m concerned and I hope you enjoy the post. I look at fairytales and the reading diet, fairytales and the writing craft, as well as share my own life long love of the form and why I think we shouldn’t stop reading them because we’re no longer children. Hope I can persuade you to keep reading them!

The Joys of Fairytales

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Lovely time in the pool today. When the weather is cold outside, the water feels like a tepid bath by comparison. Trust me, it isn’t. It only feels that way by comparison but it does help me to get going with the swimming.

Will be discussing The Joys of Fairytales for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above.

Pleased to be getting back to preparing my monthly blogs in different places and scheduled the first one of those yesterday. Makes me feel like I’m getting back into the swing of things again. Like this. Can take me a while to get going again after the Christmas break. Just like with my swimming really! Having said that, I am also busy editing at the moment and am glad that is going well.

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Hope the day has been okay. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler today and both dogs were so affectionate with each other. So nice to see. Some sleet, a little snow, but not a chance of it laying as the ground is so wet. (Hope I don’t wake up tomorrow to regret saying that but it is the case as I write this!).

Will be looking at The Joys of Fairytales for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I’ve loved fairytales for as long as I can remember so this piece was a particular joy to write. Very much a labour of love. Fairytales were my introduction to the fantasy genre as a whole too and I’m so appreciate of that. Can’t imagine not having read The Lord of the Rings or the Discworld series now but fairytales gave me my way in to finding those books.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope to have stories of mine on Friday Flash Fiction to share here from next week but just to flag up the submissions window is now open again. Link  takes you to where you can find out all you need to know for submitting 100 word stories, which is where they prefer you to start.
Screenshot 2025-01-10 at 09-57-33 100-Word Submissions - Friday Flash FictionCold again but better than yesterday – no sleet!

How can you use the weather in a flash tale without resorting to cliche? I don’t do this often but when needed, I tend to use what a character is wearing as a way of doing this. If my character takes half an hour to dig out their scarf and gloves, I don’t need to say otherwise the weather is cold, do I?

It also shows you what kind of character they are – not an organised one! Writing the weather like this makes it more fun to write and, I hope, to read as well.

473008266_10162940845417053_8634434704547746209_nA grey day today, weather wise. One lovely benefit to creative writing is it can help you escape all of that. For a start, you’re usually indoors in the warm. Secondly, by getting caught up in what your characters are up to and what happens next, that means you can forget at least some of what is going on outside!

The latter thought is another reason why I am so fond of writing light hearted flash fiction pieces. They seem to me to be a brief moment of cheer and we could all do with those!

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Quick Fact:  The above picture was going to be part of the cover for Tripping the Light Fantastic but as a rectangular picture cannot fit into the square frame of Chapeltown Books’ covers, I had to choose another image. Pleased with how things worked out though, see below!

Escape with a Good Book - TTFF.jpg

Fairytales with Bite – Twist Endings

Now given almost anything can happen in a fairytale, as magic is prevalent, what could possibly count as a twist ending here?

One answer to that is to get your characters doing the unexpected. For example, they don’t use magic when it was expected they would do, but ensure their reasons are strong enough to justify this. You can then have fun working out what consequences would occur because they haven’t done something. Would they also get into trouble with the powers that be because they should have used magic and didn’t?

Also, what would happen if a character, who is not supposed to use magic, does so? There is, of course, the glorious example of The Sorcerer’s Apprentice here (and I can still see visions of Mickey Mouse and those brooms from Fantasia here) but what if the character develops a real gift for it and proves to be useful. Could they break down prejudices in their setting and set something positive in motion here, a positive twist if you like?

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This World and Others – Stories as Told In Other Worlds

Now I know so many of us appreciate the fairytales – those who wrote them, collected them, and in some cases those who did both. We think of Charles Perrault, Hans Christen Andersen, and the Brothers Grimm.

But in your setting, who would write the stories? Who would collect them? Are they aware of stories from other cultures in their world? Are they aware of stories from other worlds such as ours? Would they “import” stories from worlds like ours?

In what formats would their stories be shared – orally, in print, both? Do they have ebooks or something better? And who can access the stories? Are they for everyone?

How would their stories differ from ours and why would this be?

Story ideas there!

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Why I Write – Guest Blog Appearance – and Characters

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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. Many thanks to Janet Williams for the photo of me signing books – always good to share those photos! Image from the Autumn Gathering in October 2024 (an Association of Christian Writers event) was taken by me, Allison Symes, as were all screenshots taken by me.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Ghastly weather all over the UK. Very wet with some flooding here. I hope all clears up soon. Writing wise, it was good to get back to my usual flash fiction Sunday afternoon, the first of the New Year. Am also looking forward to sharing author interviews on Chandler’s Ford Today in due course. And I’m delighted to say I was on Val Penny’s blog as a guest writer looking at Why I Write. Link below.

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Facebook – General

Sorry running very late today (7th January 2025). Have had one of those days – good but busy. Lady was delighted to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal again today and I was delighted later, to have my first swim of 2025. The water seemed warm compared to the cold outside!

What one thing about creative writing do you enjoy the most?

My answer is creating characters who come to life as I flesh them out more. I love that process. It means I know I’ve got a character who has a story to share.

Okay, what other thing about creative writing do you enjoy the most?

My answer is getting the story finished, submitted, and accepted!

Best get on with things then!

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Hope the first Monday of the New Year hasn’t gone too badly. Lady got off to a good start by seeing her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals again. Avoided part of the park (think muddy ski slope and you have a good idea as to why my doing this was a good idea!).

Glad to see Writing Magazine have issued their competitions guide again. Will have a good look through at at some point soon and mark up some possibles. I find doing that is a good inventive to then get something in for said possibles!

Character Tip: Give some thought as to what you most love about your character and also what you loathe about them. Think about why you come up with the answers you do here. It will give you further insight as to what your character is made of and you are bound to find that useful as you tell your story (sorry, their story!).

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Hope you are having a good weekend. No snow here, thankfully, but it is very wet and there is flooding in the usual places around here.

Will be looking at a topic close to my heart for Chandler’s Ford Today this coming week. I’ll be discussing The Joys of Fairytales. It’s apt too as later in the month I will be going to see Cinderella, as staged by my excellent local theatre company, The Chameleon Theatre Group. Looking forward to seeing that and sharing something about my love of a classic story form on Friday.

Also glad to report there will be more author interview coming on CFT too. More details nearer the time.

4th January 2025
Many thanks to Val Penny for inviting me on to her blog today. It was a joy to talk about Why I Write. It is a great topic!

It makes you think about why you put yourself through producing work you don’t know will see the light of the day. (It’s why acceptances mean so much when you get them). You do need a thick skin and the love of story I think to be able to keep going despite setbacks (which every writer faces).

I also share something of my writing journey as that has a huge impact on why I write at all. See link.

Screenshot 2025-01-07 at 20-40-45 Why I Write by Allison Symes

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I usually submit stories for Friday Flash Fiction over the weekend so will look forward to doing so again this coming one. It will keep me on track (though they are open for submissions again from today, 7th January).

I like to mix up my story moods for all flash I write and go from a mixture of light and dark (which directly inspired the title of my first collection, From Light to Dark and Back Again. Sums the book up well, I think).

Given fiction reflects the human condition – with all our failures and vices – I think a mixture of light and dark is appropriate for that reason too!

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6th January 2025

It’s the first Monday of the New Year. It’s dark, the weather’s ghastly, and it is still a Monday. Definitely time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Making the Best of Things. Perhaps an apt title!

 

I get my inspiration for my flash fiction and short stories from many different sources. I like this a lot. I’ve found it pays to keep the ways you’re inspired varied as it keeps things more interesting for me too and encourages me to “raise my game”.

Naturally I’m inspired by books and stories I love written by other authors. The various prompts are a huge source of inspiration, especially if I tweak them a bit to suit my purposes better.

The proverbs and well known sayings are often great for use as themes for your stories. And ideas do occur as I’m out walking the dog. (I note them down as soon as I can on getting home again). Reading comes into all of this a lot. I’ve been inspired for stories by interesting non-fiction articles or books as I wonder what my character might make of what is in that article or book.

Ideas are all around but it is a question, I think, of expecting there to be ideas and thus to be open to spotting them. Reading does expand the mind. It can expand your own imagination too. I like that a lot too.

The one thing I consistently find is if I’m especially tired, that is when ideas can be harder to spot. So I aim to be kind to myself, get some rest, and read. I know that will fire up my own imagination again in no time, spurred on by that rest.

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Hope you have had a good day. No snow here but did have a very heavy frost. Am so thankful writing is something I get to do in the warm!

Looking forward to resuming my flash fiction Sunday afternoons tomorrow. I’ve also got a couple of short story competitions I want to enter so will try to start fleshing out ideas for those as well. Plan to send in a story for Friday Flash Fiction when they re-open next week.

Good to have my copy of Writing Magazine come through the letter box. Pleased to see Debz Hobbs-Wyatt’s piece in there. I recently interviewed her for Chandler’s Ford Today re her novel, If Crows Could Talk. I always see it as a good month when I know (or have heard of) at least four or five authors in the magazine. It is a good month this time!

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Goodreads Author Blog – Influences

Isaac Newton claimed “If I have seen further it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants”, rightly meaning he was building on what had gone before. But every single writer does this, regardless of what we write. Every reader will experience it, regardless of what you read. Why?

Simply because every author has their influences – the writers who have gone before. I have too many to mention but I especially love Pratchett, Austen, and Wodehouse (what a trio!). Every writer is inspired by what they read and readers get the benefit of that though they won’t know it directly.

Austen showed me the wonderful use of irony in fiction. Pratchett showed me fantasy and humour were a superb mix. As for Wodehouse, his mastery of the English language is sublime and his creations live on long after him. Nobody will forget Jeeves and Wooster.

Any time I enjoy a book, I am indirectly taking in what and whom the writers of those books were influenced by. I think this is a lovely thing.

Screenshot 2025-01-04 at 18-00-53 Allison Symes's Blog - Influences - January 04 2025 10 00 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Story Tips

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Happy New Year! Am slowly resuming my usual writing routine and it is good to get back to it. Having said that, I did enjoy the Christmas break and I hope you did too. This week, the first full week “back” for many (bar New Year’s Day of course), is going to be the tough one, I think, but I hope reading and writing help a lot – I know they do for me. Both take you away from it all for a bit!

BookBrushImage-2025-1-3-19-624Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today so she was happy.

Am pleased to share my first Chandler’s Ford Today post of the New Year. I look at Story Tips and this, I hope, will be useful whether you write flash fiction, short stories, or anything longer, fiction wise. As well as sharing tips I’ve found useful, I look at taking in stories via song and film as well as books, and share what I think the story writing challenge is to all writers. Hope you enjoy the post.

Story Tips

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It was a much pleasanter but colder day for walking Lady today and she got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals this morning so she has a good but tiring day, the kind she loves. Enjoyed listening to Classic FM at the Movies for a lot of New Year’s Day. Glad it finished with the Wallace and Gromit tune – the best thing on TV over Christmas we felt. Loved all the film references.

Also appreciated Classic FM playing one of my favourite movie film tunes – the only one I can think of which inspired a cartoon series. What can it be? Nothing else but The Pink Panther of course. Those of you of a certain age will now have had your first earworm of the year but it is a great theme!

Does music ever influence what I write? I find not at all with classical on in the background. What the music does for me is help me relax. When I’m relaxed I’m happy to write and keep writing.

Character Tip: What would your characters like musically and why? What does this say about their personalities? How could you use that to flesh them out more for your readers? Could their choice of music have a direct effect on the plot?

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1st January 2025

Happy New Year! Started 2025 by going for a long, wet, and muddy walk with other half and Lady though the weather here wasn’t as stormy as had been predicted. We got home again less wet than expected and Lady had a fabulous time.

Will be sharing Story Tips on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above. Glad to say there will be an author interview coming up later this month and I’ll be reviewing a pantomime by my local amateur theatre company as well. It’s good to be back in business!

Writing Tip: It’s natural for us to think of new beginnings at this time of year so think about what new start your characters would like to have and why. There will be great story ideas to come exploring that thought. Have fun!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

No Friday Flash Fiction story from me today but they are open for submissions again from next week – see screenshot. Am hoping to be getting back to sending tales in to them regularly from then onwards. Did like the break though and I am sure they would’ve done too! If you’d like to check out some of my stories on here do follow the link.
Screenshot 2025-01-03 at 10-02-13 Holiday - Friday Flash FictionWill be sharing Story Tips on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. Useful for flash fiction and writers of any length of story. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Plan to be submitting work to Friday Flash Fiction again from next week. Haven’t yet chosen my first flash competition of the year yet to have a crack at but I’m keeping my eyes open. I do already have a couple of standard length short story competitions on my To Do list though and hope to start work on those in the next week or so.

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1st January 2025

Happy New Year!

Hope you enjoy reading and writing more flash fiction over the next twelve months. I plan to!
Later in the month there will be another session of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group, which I’m looking forward to very much. I expect by then January will have felt as if it has gone on for ever. Do check out Brian Bilston’s wonderful poem Mnemonic for the definitive thoughts on that!

Less is More is the theme for flash fiction writers

Fairytales with Bite – Beginnings

At the start of our New Year, it is natural to think about beginnings. In your setting, how is time marked out and what day/month would your characters know to be the beginning of a new passage of time for them? (Doesn’t necessarily have to be in the form of a year of course).

Do your characters welcome new beginnings as set by the passage of time or is it something they dread? Are there communal celebrations as we know?

What beginnings would your characters like to have? What is getting in their way to achieving these? Which would they fear and why? What would happen if they have to face up to those fears?

Beginnings are a chance to start again, to do better, and the marking of time is one way to set a new beginning. How would you characters make the most of this? Or what would they do to get out of having to face up to a new beginning?

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This World and Others – Changes

A New Year is a change to make changes to normal life. I don’t bother with New Year Resolutions. They tend to be broken by the end of January (at best!). But I often take the chance at New Year to look at where my writing is at and consider where I would like it be by the end of this coming twelve months. I make changes as I need to so I have my best chance of achieving what I would like to see done. Same as most people, right?

But what about your characters? Do they welcome changes or fear them? Do they have to be dragged/forced in to making any changes at all? Which changes should they make and why? Who is pushing them to do this and what are their motives for pushing your characters to change? Those motives don’t have to be great, naturally! How do your characters react to the ones trying to make them change? As ever, what are the consequences?

If there was to ever be an ingredients list for a great story, I would list characters, conflict, action, consequences. Wharever your word count, having those things in a tale (and ensuring all are delivered on) will help your story be well on its way to being a great one.

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New Year, New Writing Hopes

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I hope you had a lovely Christmas and may I wish you a Happy New Year! This is a longer post that normal taking in all the usual “bits and bobs” I would have put in a post had it been a normal week. Lady had a fabulous time over the break and yes Santa Paws was generous to her – no surprises there. The big surprise? The squeakers are still in her Christmas toys!

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

31st December 2024

Happy New Year! However you celebrate it, have a lovely time.

Will be sharing my website round up later this evening which will include the usual items I would have written had last week been in any way a normal week! Hope you enjoy a good read when it is up later. It is this very post!

Author newsletter out again tomorrow.

Will be off to the pantomime at the end of January (so yes I know it’s ages away, we all know how long January drags on for!). Will be seeing Cinderella as performed by my local and excellent amateur theatre company, The Chameleon Theatre Group. Know it will be a good laugh and I always have time for that! By the end of January, I will be in good need of that laugh I should think!

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Lovely to get back to seeing our park friends again. Lady loved playing with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals.

Writing wise, am slowly getting back to the usual routines, and I will be sending out my new author newsletter on 1st January though it won’t be at midnight! To sign up for writing news, tips, prompts, and more, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Will be discussing Story Tips for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday.

Newsletter with envelope image

29th December 2024
Pleased to be back on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, with a timely post called New Year, New Hopes. Hope you find it useful.

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27th December 2024 – second post, none on 28th

Second post tonight as will be happily busy tomorrow with last of the Christmas family events. Lady will love it too and be shattered by the end of the day, as she always is with these things.

Writing Tip: I find using my old school desk diary invaluable for planning out my work, making sure posts are scheduled, I know when I have to get competition entries in by etc. Writing things down helps in that I find it “commits” me to achieving these things. Seeing something written down like that does prod me to get on with said writing!

Top Tips

I hope you have had and are continuing to have a lovely Christmas. Couple of posts from me tonight as I’m off again tomorrow. Normal service (or as close as I can get to that!) from Sunday.

First up, I’m pleased to share my Chandler’s Ford Today post for this week – New Year, New Writing Hopes. I look at the value of taking some time out at around this time of year to work out where you are with your writing and where you would like to be by the end of next year. I also share a summary of what I’ve been up to and what I’d like to achieve in 2025. I also celebrate the return of Writers’ Narrative. Hope you enjoy the post.

New Year, New Writing Hopes

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Nothing for 25th and 26th December for obvious reasons!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

31st December 2024

Happy New Year, everyone.

Looking forward to writing my first flash pieces of 2025 but at least I won’t have long to wait for that. Am loving the flash fiction related book I was given for Christmas (it’s an anthology and I recognise some of the names, which is lovely). Some stories so far were deeply moving, others made me laugh out loud. Sums up what I love about flash as a whole – I love the mixture of moods it can conjure up.

Where will your fiction take your readers

I don’t know about you but it doesn’t feel like a Monday, even though I know it is one! This post-Christmas-but-still-holiday-time does feel odd. However, it definitely means it’s time for a story. Hope you like my last one for 2024 on YouTube -Another Year. I suspect writers will identify with this one.

 

Wonderful day spent with family yesterday. Lady loved it too and came home as a very tired but happy dog!

I’ll start submitting work to Friday Flash Fiction from next week but it is so nice to be back at the desk again. Loved the break. Am loving getting back to the writing again. It’s a good place to be and flash fiction gives me a nice way into resuming work again – in writing short creative short pieces, which will get the old imagination fired up again!

Flash Fiction focuses on THE important aspect of a character's life

28th December 2024 – second post, none on 28th
What will be nice resuming my flash fiction afternoon later this weekend is it will ease me back into my writing routine nicely. Loved the few days off. Caught up with some viewing. Liked the Doctor Who and absolutely adored Wallace and Grommit. Loved spotting all the film references in that. Am beginning to think of potential competitions to have a go at soon as well. Want to start off the coming New Year on a good creative footing!

Always a joy to talk or write about flash fiction

27th December 2024

A couple of posts from me tonight given I’ve a busy but lovely day or so coming up. Will be back to my usual Sunday afternoon writing lots of flash fiction later this weekend. One of my Christmas presents was flash book related and I’m enjoying a thumping good read of that. Has given me ideas for a potential future market too so win-win there.

Quick flag up to fans of Friday Flash Fiction. They will be re-open for submissions from Tuesday 7th January 2025. See screenshot. I’ve taken the opportunity of Christmas to have a writing break here myself but know I will raring to go again sending stories in here from next week.

Screenshot 2024-12-27 at 09-50-54 Friday Flash Fiction - 100-Word Stories

Nothing for 25th and 26th December for obvious reasons!

Fairytales with Bite – Time Off

Even the fairies need a break from their wands.
It’s not just the equipment which needs a recharge.
Time to put the feet up, make non-magical brews.
As there are many evil beings at large,
A fairy godmother’s work is never done.
For now it’s time for tea and a decent iced bun.

Ends
Allison Symes – 27th December 2024

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This World and Others – Resuming Work

A break is always welcome but it can be so hard
To resume work and get back to the old routine.
But if one has no wish to be scorned or even barred
From the old fairy network, back to work you go,
Let Santa and the seven dwarves say ho ho ho.

Ends
Allison Symes – 27th December 2024

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Goodreads Author Blog – The Joys of New Books and Revisiting Old Favourites

I hope you received (and gave) plenty of book related presents over Christmas. I was delighted to receive a flash fiction related book and am enjoying reading that at the moment. There is something so special about receiving new books. But I also love the joys of revisiting old favourites. Books are for life!

I took in a lot of my favourite Christmas stories via films – Hogfather, A Christmas Carol (the definitive version by The Muppets, of course!), and The Polar Express. I never get tired of these.

A major joy of a new books is in discovering an unknown world (regardless of what genre it is) and getting to know characters new to you. The joy of old favourites is knowing these already but enjoying these things all over again. I never tire of that either!

I hope the New Year brings you plenty of opportunities to enjoy your old favourite books and to discover many new to you.

Happy reading for 2025!

Screenshot 2024-12-27 at 20-06-32 Allison Symes's Blog - The Joys of New Books and Revisiting Old Favourites - December 27 2024 12 06 Goodreads

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Happy Christmas – and Festive Writing and Reading

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Spent a lovely weekend singing a lot of carols at various church services. Almost there on my Christmas prep. Also looking forward to a few days off. My next post here will be a week away – on New Year’s Eve. I hope you have a very happy Christmas and New Year.

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Facebook – General

24th December 2024 – Christmas Eve
Have a very happy Christmas, everyone. After my website round up which I will share later tonight, the next one will be next Tuesday, New Year’s Eve. I’ll share a Chandler’s Ford Today round up post on Friday but that will be about it for a while as am taking a few days off and looking forward to them! Have a lovely time.

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Glad to say I now have a single Mixcloud link to the Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM hosted by Hannah Kate on 14th December. One easy link to check out 23 great stories. My tale, Perspective, is on in the first half of the show but do enjoy a good listen. There was a great range of tales here. Perfect to listen to as you finish your present wrapping, maybe?

Screenshot 2024-12-23 at 19-43-51 Hannah’s Bookshelf 3 Minute Santas Special - 14_12_2024 by Hannah's Bookshelf Mixcloud

22nd December
Am making up for posting late yesterday by posting early today! Many apologies for forgetting to share my Authors Electric post on 18th December. I blame being caught up in Christmas prep and Southern Water for cutting off my water supply on 18th December for 36 hours, bless them (not!). Anyway, I am only too glad to share the post now and it is on a topic close to my heart – Festive Writing and Reading. Hope you enjoy the post.

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Hope you have had a lovely day. Christmas can now start for me. Have just got back from a candlelit Festival of Carols and Readings which was lovely. I read out a great poem about the wise men which was new to me. (It’s called Star of Wonder by Abigail Blessing – worth checking out, made me think again about a story I know well).

Writing wise, I probably will write a short Chandler’s Ford Today post for next Friday (I love being able to schedule in advance!) and one round up post on my website probably on Christmas Eve but not much more until after Christmas. Will be catching up with friends and family and am looking forward to that.
And, yes, Lady will be spoiled rotten and has got her wish list into Santa Paws in good time.

AE - DECEMBER 2024 - FESTIVE WRITING AND READING - Best version of A Christmas Carol is the one by the Muppets

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

24th December 2024 – Christmas Eve
Good to sit down after the usual Christmas Eve prep work. Will be doing a little writing later on but then will be off for a few days. To friends, past, present and future, Happy Christmas!

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It may be Christmas Eve Eve but it is still a Monday and therefore still time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Time Off. Everyone needs some down time, especially at Christmas.

 

Hope you have had a good day. Had my church’s carols by candlelight today (yes two lots of singing in two days as I took part in another one yesterday – great fun). Our minister’s Christmas cracker jokes made us laugh and groan in equal measure. But I guess that’s the purpose of a Christmas cracker joke!

I guess you could argue it is a form of flash writing given these jokes are generally under 50 words or so but you’ll be pleased to know, for humanity’s sake, I’m not preparing to write any myself!

Am wrapping up my flash tales for this year. There will be one, maybe two, to come on my YouTube channel but that will be about it for now. I shall look forward to the break but also resuming work after Christmas. Flash is a lovely way to get back into writing again after a break given it is short. A gentle way to get back into the writing life, I think.

Advantage to flash is setting characters anywhere

Hope your Christmas prep is going well. Am almost there on mine though the early part of next week will be busy with cooking etc.

As part of my flash fiction Sunday afternoon tomorrow, I hope to write a flash fiction piece for YouTube (to go out on Monday) but won’t be doing much more flash work now until after Christmas. I’ll be looking for competitions to enter from the New Year (but think Writing Magazine should be issuing their competitions guide again before too long . I hope so anyway. It is useful).

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Goodreads Author Blog – Happy Christmas and Lots of Lovely New Year Reading

I do hope you have had a good reading year. I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy Christmas. I hope you end up having lots of lovely New Year reading to get on with thanks to gifts under the tree! Okay you can’t disguise a book shaped present – why would you want to anyway even if you could? – but it is such fun unwrapping such lovely gifts! Naturally I got my wish list in early here!

Not sure whether I’ll be posting again here before the New Year as am looking forward to catching up with friend and family over the Christmas break but I did want to finish by saying a book isn’t just for Christmas, it’s forever.

I also wanted to say books make the perfect Christmas presents and authors and readers are the easiest people in the world to buy for!

Happy Christmas!

Screenshot 2024-12-21 at 21-03-40 Allison Symes's Blog - Happy Christmas and Lots of Lovely New Year Reading - December 21 2024 13 03 Goodreads

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Bridge House Publishing Celebration and Broadcasting News

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Hope you have had a good few days. I’m one of the tens of thousands affected by a water outage – has not been great. Am hoping it will be restored very soon and hopefully by the time this post goes out. Water was finally restored at 11 pm on Thursday 19th December – I so enjoyed my shower on the morning of the 20th!
Writing wise, am now winding down for the Christmas break and will resume normal posts from towards the end of next week onwards. Meantime do have a very happy Christmas and may I wish you all the best for the New Year. (Lady loves Christmas – gets spoiled rotten and she has high hopes from Santa Paws, of course).

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good day. Joy reigns supreme here as we got our water back at 11 pm last night! I so enjoyed my shower this morning! Would like the Southern Water bosses to lose their unearned bonuses though. Can’t think how they could possibly justify those – and that’s as political as I get, folks.

Nobody around here has a good word to say for SW. We feel sorry for the engineers and the ones handing out the water bottles at the various centres (only three of them for 58,000 people – madness) but the management? Bah humbug as someone once said!

On a much happier note, I’m delighted to share this week’s Chandler’s Ford Today post on Bridge House Publishing Celebration and Broadcasting News. I share a round up of the recent BHP event and links to last weekend’s Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM where 23 authors, including me, had their festive flash tales put out on air. Do have a listen. The tales were lovely to listen to and cheered me up no end. My tale, Perspective, is on in the first half of the show (the first link shared in the CFT post).

Bridge House Publishing Celebration and Broadcasting News

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Still no water here. Hoping it will be restored tonight/tomorrow. There are tens of thousands unhappy customers of Southern Water right now including yours truly.

Looking forward to sharing a round up post on Chandler’s Ford Today about the recent Bridge House Publishing Celebration event and the Hannah Kate Three Minute Santas Show, where my story Perspective, was broadcast recently – link up tomorrow.

It was good to be in splendid company on the radio show too – I know five of the authors who were part of it and have heard of many of the others. I call this a result!

Loved the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting last night. It was good to see everyone and I look forward to catching up with everyone again in January.

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Not a great day. I’m one of the tens of thousands currently without water thanks to Southern Water. Have not been able to get through to them, even online, and the earliest re-connect time will, hopefully, be tomorrow! Grrr… Turned out we didn’t get water back until Thursday – water was off for 36 hours.

On a happier note, Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. I’m looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this evening – it’s our wrap up and chat session for the year. Hopefully some festive flash pieces will be shared too.

Will be sharing Bridge House Publishing Celebration and Broadcasting News on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above.

Chandler's Ford Today post reminder picture(1)
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

No story on Friday Flash Fiction from me now until after the Christmas break but I did want to say a huge congratulations to the winner of their Christmas competition plus the runners-up and all who were Highly Commended or Commended. Do check out the link to the 100 word stories section of the website and enjoy a great read, folks. (Am feeling much more cheerful than I did yesterday as our water supply was restored at 11pm last night).

Screenshot 2024-12-20 at 18-05-26 Friday Flash Fiction - 100-Word Stories

Hope you have had a good day. Still waiting for Southern Water to restore “services”. (So if you are seeing posts saying it has been fixed, well not yet is the true position).

Something I mentioned at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting last night is, when you’ve got a topic you know will always come up, do jot down ideas for it early. Do get that first draft and polishing done early.

I know there will always be calls for festive flash so I can prepare a lot of work in advance of the actual call here. There are so many topics you can do this with too – there will always be calls for love stories for February, spring stories in March/April etc etc.

So it’s worth keeping an eye out on the calendar then and not just as we approach the year end.

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One week to go to Christmas Day. Am I ready? No but am well on the way. It’s where I am usually at around this time. (Would however like my water supply back, pretty please Southern Water – grrr).

Probably won’t be submitting any further pieces to Friday Flash Fiction until the New Year as they are having a well deserved break. I know I’ll only be writing bits and pieces from the weekend onwards. One of my favourite aspects of the break is getting to spend more time on the sofa with my feet up and enjoying a good book. Always look forward to this as don’t get to do this as often as I would like.

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Fairytales with Bite – Where a Wand Simply Will Not Do by Allison Symes, December 2024

Where A Wand Simply Will Not Do
Where a wand simply will not do is where a fairy needs to cheer her client up first.
Cinders needed this before the wand could be put to work.
The professional fairy will ensure all needs are met and not just by a wave of the wand.
Cinders needed reassurance, then the gown, then the coach etc.
Just a pity the girl had no sense of timing but even then magic isn’t the answer to that.
What Cinders really needed was a decent watch and the sense to check it regularly!
And the fairy godmother needed an updated spell book where poor Cinders did get fur slippers and not glass ones.
Those must’ve been hell to dance in.

Ends
Allison Symes – 18th December 2024

Hope you enjoyed that.

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This World and Others – Winter/Story Festivals

Does your setting have anything like Christmas? (Discworld does – it has Hogswatch. Narnia gets Christmas back of course ). What do your characters do to pass away the time during the long winter months? What would they celebrate? What stories would they recount at these times?

Most places would have some sort of winter event – usually connected with showing the light in some way – so what would your setting have here? What special foods and drinks would there be?

Does everyone join in with the festivities or are there those who are deliberately excluded or choose to avoid the events? Why would either of these cases be?

When it comes to storytelling for festivals, are there writers who are banned? If so, who and why? Are there stories everyone expects to hear? What are these and how did they come to be part of your setting’s heritage?

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Characters and Motivation

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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 Lynn Clement for the recent image taken at the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event and to Janet Williams for the one taken of me at the Book Fair in October.
Hope you had a good weekend. A busy one for me with next weekend being even busier still though I suspect that will be true for most. Will be taking a few days off in Christmas week so will probably end up doing one round up post here only that week. Am wrapping up various writing things now.
Looking forward to reading a wonderful poem about the three wise men in a church service later this week. It’s one of the few times when I get to read poetry out – always a lovely thing to do (and listen to I find). There are links between flash fiction and poetry in that both focus on specific details, are looking to make impact by the specific choice of words (we think about how they sound when read out etc) , and word count is limited.

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Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day. Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today so all well there. Looking forward to resuming swimming from tomorrow. Have been poorly but also had car off road so not a great combination of circumstances. All well with car and with me now!

Character Tip: What is it about a character that makes you want to read their story? This is where studying the books you love by other authors is so helpful to you. You can work out what you like and dislike and apply that to your own creations. I know what I dislike in characters so make sure those traits don’t turn up in mine.

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Family funeral today so was out early with the dog. Lady will hopefully catch up with her pals properly later this week though she did get to see one of them on our way home (and the two dogs gave each other “muzzle snuggles” – sweet to see).

Writing wise, am busy editing and wrapping up various pieces of work because come next weekend, I know I won’t be getting much writing done!

Author newsletter will go out on 1st January (though I’m not going to promise it will be on the stroke of midnight!). I share news, tips, prompts, story links and more here so if that sounds of interest, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Many thanks to all who have signed up to the newsletter this year and to all who continue to support it. Much appreciated.

Newsletter with envelope image

Hope you’ve had a good weekend. Cold but dry. Lady and I have appreciated not getting soaked!

Will be sharing Bridge House Publishing Celebration and Broadcast News for my Chandler’s Ford Today post this coming week. Will also be sharing a free festive story not found elsewhere as part of this. Link up on Friday.

Looking forward to wrapping up the year with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Wednesday. Four of us had a story on Hannah Kate’s show yesterday – well done, all.

Character Tip: Actors need to know their motivation, so do your characters. Funnily enough, motivation can be something small (though it would be major to your character). So, for example, a character can be motivated to act in a certain way simply because they want to successfully carry out one petty act of revenge against someone, whereas most of us would just let something like that go.

The motivation has to make sense to your character (and to your reader – we don’t have to agree with it, mind you, and neither do you. I can think of some of my characters whom, if I could meet in real life, I would want to shout at).

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Saturday 14th December 2024
Have had a delightful afternoon listening to Three Minute Santas on North Manchester FM with Hannah Kate. A lovely range of 23 stories – loved them all. Well done, everyone, and such a great advert for festive flash fiction, I think. Hope to share a link later (and again in my Chandler’s Ford Today post next week where I’ll also share more from the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event).

Writing Tip: I often get ideas for festive flash much earlier in the year so I do just dot them down then and come back and work on them at a later date. Naturally you can do this for other obvious topics (someone is bound to want a love story for February for some reason!).

Basically, when you get the idea write it down. Don’t rely on your remembering it – you won’t. I’ve lost ideas myself in not doing this. Something always comes along to distract you. But once it’s safely noted down in a notebook, or on your phone etc., you do at least know you have something to come back to to work on later.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Looking forward to an informal Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom tomorrow. It’s a lovely way to wrap up our writing year. We share festive flash pieces, have a good chat, and Christmas hats/jumpers etc are entirely optional!

I won’t be entering any further competitions this year though I was glad to get a couple of flash related ones in at the end of November/early December. Won’t know for a while how they did. Fingers crossed time!

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It’s Monday. It’s time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Ringing The Changes – Not. There is one person who would love an iced bun with a cherry on it but knows they cannot. Expectations and all that. Find out who and why here.

 

Has been a busy weekend. I suspect the next one will be busier still!

I did love enjoying all those festive flash pieces on Three Minute Santas yesterday – it is a great advert for the form. Many thanks, Hannah Kate. Lovely way to support short form writers.

Am busy enjoying Christmas favourite films at the moment. Watched The Muppet Christmas Carol on Friday and plan to watch The Polar Express soon (Tom Hanks is great in that). Have seen Hogfather.
Definitely time for festive stories – flash or film related!

As for hopes and plans for 2025, I’ve got a few ideas in mind. As ever for this year, I’ve written more than I thought in one direction and not quite finished other items off, though I have made good progress on them – the usual mixed bag! Will be winding down the writing from next weekend for a few days. One thing I look forward to just after Christmas is having more time to read – and I do make the most of that.

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The challenge with writing festive flash, in particular, is coming up with a new way at looking at what are familiar stories and legends. For my Perspective, broadcast on Three Minutes Santas on North Manchester FM earlier today, I took the story of the Nativity and showed how it looked through the viewpoint of the oxen, one of whom especially was a bit on the grumpy side. As ever my way in is to find the character I want to write about and then take things from there.

What appeals to me about a potential character? With a grumpy character like my oxen, I can explore why they are grumpy (and often this can lead to humour). But there has to be something in the character for me to be able to draw out.

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Goodreads Author Blog – The Reading List

I suspect if ever there is a time of year for the reading list to grow, as if it had been fed with a super speedy fertilizer, it will be the time of year just on Christmas and just afterwards. It’s a nice problem to have though and I hope your reading list grows with lots of interesting new items this year.

Now I admit any book related presents I receive at Christmas do go automatically to the top of my reading list. I think there must be an written rule somewhere that new books do go to the top of the list like that. I tend to top up my Kindle reading list in the New Year (it’s a great way to use any given vouchers etc).

One thing that doesn’t change is the variety I have on my reading list. I like a good balance of the long and short forms, non-fiction as well as fiction. I’m never short of something interesting to read – the thought of that makes me shudder. Just as well there’s no chance of that happening then – and my reading list continues to grow and thrive!

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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