Tag: A New Start by Allison Symes

Stories To Remember

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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, as was the classic author photo of author’s books in the box they came in (The Best of CafeLit 13)! Image of me at Swanwick 2019 reading at the Open Prose Mic Night was taken by a Swanwick colleague. We all help each other out this way. Swanwick is a lovely writing community.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Had lovely time with family on Sunday – Lady loved it too. Have since had manic Monday to follow! Am hoping the rest of the week calms down a bit… Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Having a Superpower for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I love writing all my posts here but this one was especially fun to write. More on that a little later on in the week.

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Facebook – General

Lady got to play with her two best friends again today so again three happy dogs went home! What was sweet yesterday was, having come in to the park and knowing her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal was a little way behind Lady turned around, sat down and wouldn’t move until said chum joined her!

I’ll be sharing Having a Superpower on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Am glad to say I’ll be welcoming back Jennifer C Wilson to CFT to talk about her new book, 31 Days of Writing, the week after that. More on that nearer the time. Always a pleasure to share author interviews here.

Author newsletter out again on 1st July. If you’d like to sign up to hear news, tips, enjoy stories etc., do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Newsletter Tip: I’ve found it useful to have a loose theme to base my monthly newsletter on. As well as sharing useful tips on that theme, I can share links to where I’ve written on the topic in more depth on Chandler’s Ford Today. I aim to keep the newsletter “cheery and chatty” but useful and not going on for too long – all those things are key ingredients I think!

 

Manic day today though Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback chums and they all had a lovely time.

Thought for you: I’ve run late all day today. These things happen to us all. Frustrating, some of it beyond my control etc., but you soldier on right? But what about making this happen to a character of yours? How would they handle it?

You could get a story or two directly from that but also you could use this as an exercise to find out more about your character before deciding what story to put them in. If you knew they tended to panic when things went wrong like this, you could show that in your story. You could also get another character to play on this if they knew what buttons to press here.

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On my wall I have various pictures, all of which have connections to family and/or friends/my past. Writing thought for you: what picture would mean the most to your lead character and why? What does this tell you about your character? If your character has no pictures, why is that? Is that a deliberate choice? Are they trying to get away from a past they don’t want to revisit?

Plenty of story ideas there I hope! If you want some more ideas, do check out the random picture generators. I find the landscapes especially useful as I work out who might live in them or who might want to go there for some reason. Story ideas there too!

448092151_907891608017368_3200174101329249721_nHope you have had a good day. It was great to welcome back Jenny Sanders to Chandler’s Ford Today for the last couple of weeks and I hope to have further author interviews later in the month. Next week’s post though is called Having a Superpower. Those who went to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting recently will recognise this as I used it as a prompt for two exercises, one of which was to write a non-fiction piece on the topic. I’ve done so and it will be on CFT on Friday!

I was delighted to receive my order of The Best of CafeLit 13 yesterday. The joy of opening boxes full of books with your work in them doesn’t go away! It was a joy to add the book to my Amazon Author Central and ALCS pages too.

Writing Tip: Every so often look back at some of your older stories, the ones which were turned down, and see if there is something you could do to improve them now. I’ve done this and have had, sometimes, work published this way. But it is worth reviewing your older stories. Even if you can’t use the stories themselves, you may well see now, after time apart from them, why they might have been turned down and you can learn from that. I have.

Close up of my copies of CafeLit 13

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Flash fiction is a joy to share for things like Open Prose Mic Nights. The stories don’t go on for too long and you can mix up the moods of the tales you pick to read out. These nights are great opportunities to show what flash fiction is and can be. I use Zoom to help me rehearse whatever I’m reading. It is handy being able to play a recoding back and hear the stories as an audience would.

Prior to sending any story anywhere it pays to read your work out loud. I’ve mentioned before that what looks good written down doesn’t always read out loud well. So out comes the editing pen! I’ve also discovered character names can sometimes be more tricky to read out loud than I’d thought so again I change them.

I don’t want readers stumbling over anything like that. This kind of thing can put people off when of course I want to draw them into the world of my story and character. So it really does pay to take a bit of extra time here and read your work out loud. The advantage of Zoom is in being able to play your work back again but it the reading out loud bit which really matters here.

448319348_10161947262462053_7757431296356457753_nIt’s Monday. It’s been manic for me. It’s still Monday. Time for my latest on YouTube then. Hope you enjoy A New Start but does Jemma actually get to have the new start she wants? Find out here.

 

Had a lovely time with family today (a 60th birthday do). Lady came with us and loved it but she always does love family events. So many to make a fuss of her of course!

Prepared a lot of my flash writing yesterday. Another advantage to flash writing is I can still get something written and completed (at least as a first draft) when I don’t have a lot of writing time. I’ve learned over time how to use small pockets of time, such as I have tonight, to make my writing life reasonably efficient. I’ve found I have got more written learning to use ten minutes here, ten minutes there etc. It all mounts up.

Writing Tip: Look at what time you have over the course of a week. I do this. It means I know what I’m doing when. It ensures I meet my deadlines for Chandler’s Ford Today etc. I use a desk diary to plan out what I do when. It helps a lot.

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Good to see the sun back out. One of the fun things about flash fiction writing is, due to its restricted word count, it has to be character led. But you can set those characters in whatever setting you want. I’ve written crime flash, ghost flash, fantasy flash and other kinds of story besides those. I’ve also set flash pieces in the past, in the present day, and well into the future or on an alternative world. All good fun!

What matters for me is finding good ways to create characters. As long as I have ways into creating them, I will have ways into creating stories.

Unless writing for competitions or for sites like Friday Flash Fiction, where I know I am writing to 100 words, I worry about the word count later on. I get the story down first, then edit it later. Sometimes a story simply does work better at 250 words rather than 100 so it just means I may have to find another market for the longer tale.

What matters is getting the character and their story right first.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Stories to Remember

I write this blog during the week where we remembered the 80th anniversary of D-Day. There are stories we really should remember, whether they are in book form, or are in the form of personal testimonies, many of which were heard/seen on the media this week from surviving veterans.

I’ve recently read Double Cross by Ben Macintyre. This tells the true stories of the D-Day spies who were used to deceive Hitler. A great read and one I’m happy to recommend. I also recommend the same author’s Operation Mincemeat, which is the true story of “the man who never was”.

The depth of research in books like these is incredible, rightly so, but the purpose of these books is to show the background to the history we know and to shed light on things which, at the time, rightly had to be kept quiet.

I’ve developed a real love for non-fiction books like these in recent years. My only regret is not discovering them sooner! I do like the development in non-fiction using some of the techniques of fiction to get wonderful information across to readers in an entertaining way. History, and factual books generally, do not have to be boring!

Screenshot 2024-06-08 at 17-57-15 Stories to Remember

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Characters and Lost In A Bad Book

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you had a good weekend. Had first snow in my part of the world but it didn’t settle. Big coat time! Mind you, Lady takes the view her coat suits all weathers and all occasions! Was pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction last week and have managed to get in my first competition entry of the year so a good start.

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Facebook – General

Brrr…bitterly cold in my part of the world today, not that Lady noticed. I did though!

Delighted to say I’ll be welcoming back Val Penny to Chandler’s Ford Today this week to discuss her new short story collection, Hunter’s Christmas and Other Stories.

Naturally I was intrigued by the challenges a novelist like Val faced when writing the much shorter form of story. Writing short stories and flash is a challenge anyway but when you are used to writing the longer works, perhaps they are even more so!

Look out for interesting thoughts and tips on writing the short form and what led Val to go down this particular writing route. I’ll be sharing the interview on Friday and it will be part of Val’s blog tour this week.

Tour Poster

Hope you have had a good Monday. Had some snow here but ground still so wet from the horrendous rain late last week it wasn’t going to settle. Lady got off to a cracking start to her week by getting to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals.

Pleased with my writing weekend. I finished a story I’d been working on and got that sent off to a competition I had my eye on so nice to get the ball rolling with this one. Also working on various blogs and a couple of PowerPoints for future use.

It is one of those things that I do tend to write a fair bit over the weekend and less so on a Monday (too many other domestic things going on which even I can’t put off) but I take the view as long as over the week as a whole I’ve got certain things done, that’s fine.

I don’t set myself a word count target per day because I know life can get in the way of that. I do set myself a task I’d like to get done each day (and for longer works to get to a next stage on them). Most of the time I do it and that’s fine because when I can’t, it’s because I’m away, ill etc. Learning not to beat yourself up as a writer helps a lot! A relaxed writer is (usually) a reasonably happy one!

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Hope you are having a good weekend. Weather has dried out but it has become bitterly cold. Still, it is January. Lady doesn’t mind the weather but when the rain is especially heavy she’s not sorry to get home either.

Characters are the bedrock of any story in any format because they are what readers/listeners/viewers get behind. We like Character X. We hope Character Y gets their overdue comeuppance etc. This is why I start with working out characters and then figuring out the kind of story they would star in to be at their best or worst (depending on whether they’re the villain or not. A “good” villain will be at their worst after all).

So understanding what makes us tick is key to understanding what could make your characters tick. This is where reading widely comes in because it gives you the chance to work out the kind of characters you like reading about. From that, you can work out what it is you like and then how you can apply that to your own creations. There will always be a need for good and bad characters in fiction – what matters is how we portray them.

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Many thanks for the great comments coming in on A New Start, my first story on Friday Flash Fiction for 2024. Hopefully, many more stories to come and do check out the website – there are marvellous tales here.

Why do I love the drabble/100-worder?

Firstly, it was my introduction to the world of flash fiction so it will always have a special place in my heart just due to that.

Secondly, I just adore the tightness of this word count limit. You have enough words to give enough detail but nothing more.

Thirdly, these are great for twist endings and/or humorous ones. These work well in the longer forms of flash fiction too but I think there is something more direct about the 100-worder. Impact isn’t diluted because the word count here is so tight.

Screenshot 2024-01-05 at 10-03-40 A New Start by Allison Symes

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Writing for online sites such as CafeLit and Friday Flash Fiction is a great way to hone your writing skills and, in the case of the latter, to get useful feedback on your stories.

In the case of CafeLit you have the chance to end up in their annual print anthology too. CafeLit takes stories from 100 words up to 3000 words so there is plenty of scope there for the flash fiction and short story writers. Why not give both websites a try?

With Friday Flash Fiction, you need to send in one x 100 word story. If they like it, that goes on their site on the following Friday. Then you can do the same again. After that they will be open to you sending in longer flash pieces but you do have to have two x 100 word stories on site with them over two weeks before you send in longer work. The idea with them is you create a new piece of flash for one Friday and then another one for another week. You don’t get to send in two stories in one week. See the link for further information.

Have fun here. I do!

Screenshot 2024-01-09 at 20-03-20 Submission GuidelinesScreenshot 2024-01-09 at 20-38-58 Submissions
It’s Monday. It has been snowing. Being a dog owner, am used to having to put a big coat on! It’s dark. It’s cold. It’s story time then. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Lost in a Bad Book.

 

One of the challenges of writing flash fiction is in continuing to come up with interesting characters. Thankfully, it is a challenge I love!

I mentioned over on my Facebook author page that characters are the bedrock of any story. See above. This is especially true for flash fiction. There isn’t the word count room for lots of description so I make sure I focus on the telling details which will reveal something of the setting and/or the character, leaving readers to fill in the gaps and they do.

It is one of the charms of the form. Readers do have to work things out. This is also true for crime fiction. Who doesn’t like trying to guess who the murderer is after all?

My job is to make sure I have put the right clues in place so readers can do this. The idea is at the end of the story, people can go back and think, yes, this clue should have made me realise this could be the outcome here. Twists must come from within the plot and character. Even in a fantasy setting, it all has to make sense.

416051240_804987978307732_8478984873316795526_nHope you are having a a great weekend, the first “proper” one back after Christmas. I see Amazon have updated the look of the Author Central pages. I like the new look. You can check mine out at the link.

With their update, I took the opportunity to update my author bio on here so it now includes what I write/do for Writers’ Narrative. Periodically it pays to have a look at this and update accordingly. It is too easy to forget to do it though!

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Goodreads Author Blog – The World of Books

I can’t imagine a world without books. I don’t want to either. But that does not mean I need my stories (whether I write them or read them) to be solely set in this world, a planet we know. I love fantasy, fairytales, and sci-fi. These story worlds can show us something of what we are like. Stories set in the future show us what we could be.

I love the way books can take us anywhere – past, present, future – and any setting – known or fantastical. While some fantasy worlds are easier to understand than others, I find I’ve got to salute the imagination behind them all. What is a book without imagination behind it? Blank!

Yes, there has to be imagination behind non-fiction works too. How does the author conjure up, say, a historical world which will intrigue present day readers? They have to think of the details which will draw us into this world.

I love historical fiction and non-fiction. I remain thankful I live in the era I do, for all its faults, but I can explore past worlds via books. Safest way to to do it too. I really would not fancy being at the court of Henry VIII, say, but I can explore that world thanks to books.

The world of books is an amazing one – any time, any place, anywhere. There is also room for more worlds to be invented in fantasy and sci-fi too. The only limit is our imagination. Books encourage us to develop that imagination.

Screenshot 2024-01-06 at 17-34-21 The World of Books

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
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The Joys of Writing Dialogue

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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. A huge thank you to fellow author friends for taking various publicity shots of me last year. Much appreciated and said shots are being put to good use!
Well, the New Year in the UK has got off to a very stormy start. Hope you are all okay. Plenty of flooding and high winds in my part of the world. Have well and truly christened the new boots received for Christmas!

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

My first Chandler’s Ford Today post for the New Year is all about The Joys of Writing Dialogue. I love getting my characters to talk but I do have to ensure what I get them to say is relevant to their story and moves the tale on in some way. Otherwise there is a risk of conversational ping-pong which gets in the way of a good, pacy story.

I share thoughts and tips on what I’ve found useful in writing dialogue. I also share why knowing your character types helps with this aspect of writing too. Hope you enjoy the post and find it helpful.

The Joys of Writing Dialogue

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Hope you are all okay. Stormy weather today. Enjoyed my swim but that was the only occasion today when I welcomed getting wet. Even Lady didn’t like the heavy rain and it was very heavy. Did our walk in record time this afternoon!

Another reason to love creative writing – it is something you can do in the dry! Talking of which, I will be sharing The Joys of Writing Dialogue for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above.

My interview with Val Penny will be Friday week so plenty of good things to look forward to (and I hope you enjoy reading them in the dry!).

Will be having a busy weekend looking at some drafts for competitions. Deadlines are in February but I follow my own advice to get my entries in at least ten days before said deadline, having gone through my scripts several times. Yes, even for flash. It’s amazing how typos can get through several edits.

The one consolation here is this happens to every writer but I know to look out for this and my final edit on anything is to specifically look for these. So I set myself dates where I will have an edit to check the story works done by a set date, then I will have another edit a few days later to ensure I am still happy with the plot and go through for errors. Then a few days later still I do my final edit for typos and get the story submitted. Then off to the next story!

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The weather was a complete contrast with yesterday. Lady and I didn’t get wet at all. She did get to see her best pal, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, and a riotous time was had by both of them.

Am looking forward to interviewing Val Penny for Chandler’s Ford Today again soon on her book of short stories. More details nearer the time but did I want to quiz a novelist about switching to the short form? You bet I did! All sorts of questions arose from that which I look forward to sharing later, along with Val’s answers.

Writing Tip: Never worry about rubbish first drafts. That’s the point of a first draft. You just get the story down and tidy up later. Nobody ever writes a perfect first draft. Shakespeare didn’t either. There is some consolation in that thought, I think!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s great to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my first story for 2024 called, aptly, A New Start. Find out if Gemma does actually have her own new start this time. Hope you enjoy the tale (and many thanks to those of you who have already commented on this one).
Screenshot 2024-01-05 at 10-03-40 A New Start by Allison Symes

Sometimes I use a theme as a title. One example of this is The Power of Suggestion in Tripping The Flash Fantastic. I get my character to show how the power of suggestion changed their life and whether it was for the good or not. Themes are fantastic hooks for stories and I like the thought of having a double whammy here by using them as titles as well.

Writing Thought: Why not write down a list of your favourite themes (and this can include proverbs and sayings too) and pick one or two to write stories up for? Think about your favourite films, TV shows, books etc – is there a common theme or two behind what you like most?

I’m attracted to the thought of people not always being what they seem (this is a classic idea in fairytales) so the moment I came across Strider in The Lord of the Rings, I did guess correctly there was more to this character than was apparent. I also thought this was true for Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series.

So do I write stories where characters are not all they seem to be? Oh yes! Simply because it is a theme I care about and working out what those are for you can be a great place to start when looking for new story ideas.

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There are several good reasons to have a try at the flash fiction and short story competitions.

Firstly, these are excellent ways to practice writing to deadlines.

Secondly, following the submission rules (and these do vary) gets you some useful practice in following any future guidelines on submissions of longer work.

Thirdly, if you are long or short listed or win or get a runner’s up spot, all of this makes for excellent material to put on your writing CV. This is especially true when you are submitting longer work. It will show a publisher/agent someone else judged your material to be of a standard to get any of those placings.

Fourthly, you get in useful practice in sticking to word counts. This is especially true of the flash fiction competitions where there are those who want you to write to an exact word count. Not one word more. Not one word less. It is a good idea, when you’re drafting flash for future use, to draft some which come in at the 250, 300, and 500 word counts as these are some of the most popular categories I’ve come across for competitions.

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

Fairytales With Bite –

New Year Acrostic – Tips for Visitors to the Magical World

N = Never underestimate a fairy waving a wand.

E = Expect the worst if you come across a witch with a cauldron as she is highly unlikely to worry about your health and safety.

W = When visiting a magical world, expect strange creatures but the good thing is they’ll think you’re odd too.


Y = Your three wishes, if you are fortunate enough to get any, cannot be extended or transferred.

E = Expect high moral standards here, even with strange creatures about – greed is generally looked down on, for example.

A = Always treat anyone you meet with respect – you never know what powers they’ve got and prudence is a good thing here.

R = Restrict yourself to following the proper tour with guide and don’t go wandering off – it won’t end well for you if you do.

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This World and Others – Beginnings

At the start of a new year, it is natural to think about beginnings. For fiction, we can look at beginnings for characters but also for settings.

How did your magical world begin? How did it get to where it is now in terms of development? Has the use of magic enhanced your setting or weakened it? Have there been magical wars? Has power had to be controlled to stop chaos erupting?

For example, if magic polluted your world, was there a point when the “bosses” said enough was enough and limited the use of magic to prevent further damage? How did your setting and characters then cope with a new beginning of limited magical use? How difficult was it to adjust?

For your characters, what beginnings have they had to face up to and were these welcome or not? What are they leaving behind so they have their new beginning? Do they have regrets or are they only too glad to have a new start (and what could lead them to feeling that way)?

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Screenshot 2023-12-05 at 21-13-46 The December Magazine isHereAMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
Screenshot 2024-01-05 at 20-14-06 Amazon Authorhttps://author.amazon.co.uk/books

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