Tag: Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group

Springtime in Words and Music

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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 (my lovely editor at Chandler’s Ford Today) for taking the photos of me at a local Book Fair. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week. Have had a lovely time on Zoom this week at an online book launch from a fellow ACW member and then on the next night I followed on with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. Lady has had a smashing week too in that she has seen plenty of her friends.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good day. Lovely day in the park though Lady had to put up with just me today. Having said that, we both had a lovely time.

Pleased to share Springtime in Words and Music as my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. I discuss books I associate with the season (well some of them anyway) and share some thoughts as to how we could use spring as a season in our writing. Plus there are some lovely music clips courtesy of YouTube.

Hope you enjoy the post. Thought it would be a nice one to wind down a working week with and the writing thoughts I hope “spring” story ideas off in you!

Springtime in Words and Music

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Will be sharing Springtime in Words and Music on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. Link up then (see above) but in the meantime if you fancy a fantastic read (and why wouldn’t you?), why not check out the April 2025 edition of Writers’ Narrative, which came out today (27th March 2025).

The theme is Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy, a theme I love as many of my flash tales are fantasy related. And yes it is possible to write fantasy in the shorter forms of fiction. My two articles in this month’s magazine are Flash Fiction Fantasy and Writing Fantasy in Short Forms of Fiction.

Do check out the wide range of articles in here which look at all aspects for writing in these genres.

 

Hope you have had a good day. Lady had a fabulous puppy party this morning with her best friends the Hungarian Vizler, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, and the lovely Labradoodle. Some very tired but happy dogs went home again!

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom this evening. We’ll be looking at editing flash fiction, always a useful topic.

Enjoyed going to an online book launch by a fellow ACW member last night.

Will be celebrating Springtime in Words and Music for Chandler’s Ford Today. Link up on Friday. Pieces like this are always a joy to write. See above. It was a pleasure to write this one. Need more positive things right now, yes?

Has been a nice week so far. Hope to look at competitions again at the weekend as I am actively trying to submit more flash pieces to more competitions this year. Not doing badly so far.

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Something a bit different this week. Friday Flash Fiction are currently running the Andrew Siderius competition. Last week I submitted my 100 word entry. This week I use the other theme in the 151 to 500 words category as you can only enter one story in each category and only use one of the two themes for each tale you send in. It is about the only time of year when I do enter longer stories for FFF.

Hope you enjoy my It Was There (which comes in at just over 300 words).

As ever do check out the other tales, the 100 words and the longer ones, on this site. Makes for a great read!

Pleased to report I have two articles in the latest edition of Writers Narrative. (April issue out today – see my author page for the link – see above). One of those articles looks at Flash Fiction Fantasy and I often do write flash pieces on a fantasy theme. It can be done!

I know when you think of fantasy it is easy just to think along the lines of a three part epic (The Lord of the Rings, anyone?!) but I often write fairytales with bite which come in at well under 1000 words so it can be done.

What I do is select the relevant telling details to flag up this a fantasy piece and I often do this via the characters. For example, I will often show you a fairy godmother at work so that flags up immediately this has to be a fairytale/fantasy piece. I can show a spell being cast or someone being on the receiving end of that spell and again it flags up this has to be a fantasy piece.

So if you like fantasy but want to write the short form, you can do it and have a lot of fun with this. I do.

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There is more to editing flash fiction pieces than just trying to get to the required word count, as I’ll be exploring with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group this evening.

I learned to appreciate editing much more than I had done on realising good editing was helping me obtain more acceptances for flash and short stories. It has also helped to know no one writer ever gets it right first go and, for me at least, it is easier to edit the whole thing so I can see what it is I have to work with than try to do it a paragraph at a time etc.

I’ve also learned to see writing and editing as two separate creative tasks, It is lovely when as I edit a story, I can see it “tightening up” and becoming a stronger piece for it. There is a creative element here, honestly.

Fairytales With Bite – Keeping Busy

Keeping Busy
A fairy’s work is never done.
Dawn to dusk, always on the run.
Checking on clients old and new
Having many spells on the brew.
Recording how these things work out
Being honest by sharing doubt
If ideas are useful or not.
It’s never good when a new spell
Blows up the roof and creates hell!

Allison Symes
26th March 2025

This World and Others – Working Weeks

Naturally most of us are used to a standard working week of Monday through to Friday. But what would a working week look like in your setting? Are there weeks as we know them or does your setting measure time in a totally different way? What does work look like to your characters? Are their jobs similar to what we know here? What jobs would be different because your setting is literally alien?

As in any setting, there will be those who love their work, those who hate it, and those who work just to meet needs (which can also include cultural expectations as well as financial requirements). There will be those who work hard and those who do the bare minimum, the ones you know could do more but don’t. So how would characters like that work in your setting? How about writing some “industrial” stories set in your world? There could be potential for humour and/or drama here. Work is something we all understand so a story set in the world of work should be relatable.

And there are stories to be written about those characters who leave their working week behind altogether to do something unexpected? Why? What happens? What is the outcome? If they return, are they welcomed back? Do others understand why they did what they did? How would your characters handle any resentment because they didn’t keep going with a normal working week and left their colleagues to it all?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Do see the link to the April 2025 magazine given above.

 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Zooming Around and Author Anniversaries

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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 have had a good few days. Had a fabulous birthday weekend. Lovely to see folks. A huge thanks too for all of the online birthday wishes. Lady had a great time too. Now back to the writing work…

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Looking forward to going to an online book launch later this evening. Lovely way to end a Tuesday!
Will be sharing Springtime in Words and Music on Chandlers Ford Today on Friday. Nice to finally have the weather to go with a post like that!

Hope to have more time this coming weekend to explore more competitions to try. Have a draft story ready for one of the regular ones I go in for so also hope to edit that and submit in a week or so.

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again in a few days time. To sign up head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com and many thanks for all of you who subscribe. The support is much appreciated.

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Hope you have had a good day. Hectic here but then it is Monday. Looking forward to going to a friend’s online book launch tomorrow evening plus I then have the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Wednesday. I will be “zooming” around. Sorry, couldn’t resist that one.

Writing Tip: What do your characters do with their spare time? Do any of their hobbies and interests have a bearing on what they do in the story? Do any of your characters take up a hobby or interest which they know will help them later? Does it pay off?

Hope you’re having a lovely Sunday. Enjoying a quiet one after a fabulous do yesterday. So good to see everyone. Lady is still pretty tired from yesterday!

Writing wise, will be getting on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. I hope to have another go at the Andrew Siderius competition being run by Friday Flash Fiction at the moment (they do this annually). This time I will have to write in the 151 words + category. You can only enter one story per category and my story last week was a classic 100 worder.

Busy week coming up. Will be going to an online book launch and the following night I will be leading the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. All will be fun though!

22nd March 2025
A huge thank you for the wonderful birthday messages. Much appreciated. Had a fabulous day with family and friends today. Lady is shattered but then she was hosting a spaniel family member (and yes the spaniel went home very tired but happy too!).

Writing wise, I’ll be celebrating Springtime in Words and Music for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll also be looking at ways of using spring itself in our stories. More on that next week.

Meantime I’m looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow. Have another competition entry I want to sort out too.


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Hope the day has gone well. Lady had her usual wonderful time over the park. Always good to see that.

Sometimes when I am out and about, I will spot things I think I can use in a story. It’s okay. I’m not a spy, honest. But I will see, for example, an interesting coloured hat, or catch a snatch of conversation I know I can turn into something a character of mine would say and so on. Incidentally, I should add the original people having the conversation would never know I’d used it even if they read my story out loud in front of me and I remembered it was them saying it originally.

Why? Simply because I have one golden rule here – never use anything directly, I am treating these things as prompts and then put my own spin on them. That’s where the creativity comes in.

So if my interesting coloured hat was a purple trilby, I would turn it into a lime green knitted hat – you get the kind of thing. But it will be little details like this which will help make my characters and their stories stand out. Colours and items, not necessarily clothing, can make it easier for readers to picture your setting and your characters.

It’s Monday. It’s been even more hectic than usual my end. Definitely time for another story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Breaking the Contract.

It seems anyone can succumb to the lure of chocolate but for some at least there are consequences…

I know the theme for my Friday Flash Fiction story this week and will be working on that soon. I like to enter a range of competitions and tend to find I have a rough split between those where the theme is set and the other kind where it isn’t. I love both. It’s a good idea to regularly practice writing to both types then you will be ready for any competition coming your way.

One thing about using the random generators (or books or prompts) is it does give you practice at writing to themes not set by you. I plan to have another look for more competitions to have a go at next weekend, when I should have more time. 

Good luck if you are sending in any stories shortly.

22nd March 2025 –

Well, my birthday do went by in a flash, somewhat appropriately given what I write! Great fun.

On a somewhat more serious note, life is made up of good moments and I aim to treasure the ones which come my way.

Now there’s a thought you can use for your flash and other stories too. Which moments would your characters treasure and why? Also which moments are they glad they would never see again and why?

Bound to be some story ideas there.

Goodreads Author Blog – Author Anniversaries – P.G. Wodehouse

Often when we think about author anniversaries, we’re commemorating the birth, sometimes the death, of globally renowned authors such as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens etc. Or it can be the anniversary of when one of their most famous books was first published, you know the kind of thing here.

But 2025 sees a strange author anniversary for one writer and where the events took place within weeks of each other. In early 1975 the wonderful humorous author, P.G Wodehouse was finally knighted. In February 2025, sadly he died. So this year sees the 50th anniversary of these things and the P.G. Wodehouse Society (UK) has been commemorating these. (I’m a member).

I love Wodehouse’s way with the English language. It is simply brilliant and his characters live on in your head long after you’ve finished reading the stories. I even like Wodehouse’s golf stories and I hate the game as I do see it as a good walk ruined! There aren’t many writers who could achieve making someone read about a subject they are really not keen on. Even fewer can make them enjoy it!

Wodehouse’s characters live on in the forms of Jeeves and Wooster, Lord Emsworth, Uncle Fred, and so many more. There are some books of letters out written by the great man too and they’re well worth a read as they’re a fascinating insight into the writing life he enjoyed.

You also get to see his wartime controversy from his viewpoint (and I would add had the Nazis got irony at the time Wodehouse would have been in real trouble. Check out the reproductions of his radio speeches which caused so much trouble and you will see what I mean).

But above all check out his stories, Especially when life is grim, and it is right now, they are a tonic and I happily recommend them just on those grounds.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Writing Progress, Word Counts and Anthologies

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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 one image from the 2024 Autumn Gathering run by the Association of Christian Writers. The shot ties in nicely with my belief it is good to write first, edit later. See further down.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Lovely one here. Good weather, able to wear plimsolls and lighter coat rather than boots and heavy dog coat. Nice to see more flowers out. Plenty of stories submitted over the weekend too.

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Hope your Tuesday has gone well. Nice one here and Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler chum again.

Enjoyed a writing related Zoom last night. Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom later in the month. The use of Zoom was one good thing at least to come out of lockdown as it has given alternative ways of having workshops etc and I was especially glad to have these during that dreadful time.

I’m glad to continue to enjoy online and in person writing events. Certainly the Flash Fiction group couldn’t meet in person so Zoom has made more things possible writing wise which I welcome.

Hope you have had a good start to your week. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today and it has been another fine day too. So win-win all around there.

Writing wise, I’ve had a productive weekend. Got three stories off to various places. Hope to be drafting more later this week. Made progress on my long term project and I hope to get that submitted this week.

Also later this week, I need to put up a couple of blog posts for different places which are due to appear mid month roughly and latter end of the month respectively. Texts for both need editing and then I’ll create some pictures to go with them but, as with my stories, I draft the blogs and rest them. Then I can see where I need to improve things and there always is something to improve.

I never mind this. It’s the nature of writing.

Another nice day, more butterflies out, and I even spotted a very early bluebell (outside a neighbour’s place). Lady enjoyed her time in the park but this is where I am grateful she does not share one trait with my first dog, Gracie. The footballers were out today and Gracie would have wanted to go on to the pitch to join in. Lady gives them a casual glance and then resumes playing with her own ball, thank you!

Looking forward to starting flash fiction Sunday afternoon shortly plus I hope to review and send in a longer short story. Did so too!

One Liner Tip: Ideally keep short and snappy. Think character and action in one short burst, which a reader will know has to led on to something. The reaction from a reader has to be somethlng like now what? Only way to find out – read on, so they do just that to find out what does happen.

For example, how about The dragon blew but no flame emerged. I know I would want to read on to find out what happens next and what does the dragon do?

A lovely sunny day. It was nice to wear lighter clothes, a body warmer and plimsolls (instead of heavy dog coat and boots, makes such a nice change!). I also spotted my first butterfly of the year (believe it was a Cabbage White). Lady loved the weather and her time in the park too.

Writing wise, I will be sharing Writing Competition Tips on Chandler’s Ford Today next week and then after that there will be a wonderful author interview with fellow Swanwicker, Joy Wood. More details on each of these nearer the time.

Have a couple of submissions I want to get out by the end of the weekend. Am also working on a presentation for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this month.

Writing Tip: Think about how you can show us your characters in action, so to speak. Rather than get them to run quickly up a hill, get them to race up. You save on word count (important for flash writers especially) but raced is more definite than ran quickly. I can run quickly compared to a snail but that does not say much, I can tell you!

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Write first, edit later is one of those tips I wish I’d picked up sooner than I did especially since I now do this all of the time.

For flash especially I just get the story down, sort out any problems with it after having a break from it, and then worry about the word count. I know I have to get the story right first and then I can figure out what to do about the word count.

I often find, when I know I want to write 100 word stories, my first draft usually comes in at 150 or 160 or thereabouts. But usually better ways of phrasing things help me get that count down without losing anything important from the story.

It is the way of it though that I can’t find better ways of phrasing things until I do get that first draft down!

It’s Monday. It’s a lovely sunny one where I am but it is still Monday when all is said and done. Time for a story then, a darker one this time. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube called Book Ends.

Is Sheila the helpless old lady she seems to be and where do her book ends come into it when she is faced with an aggressive burglar?

 

Hope the weekend has been a good one. Nice one here.

Drafted a flash piece (a 500 words maximum piece) I hope to submit next weekend. Have stories to review and send in later on.

I am looking through the Flash NANO pieces I drafted last year. One or two I’ve already polished up and sent off but hope to come back to the others in cue course. Most I know I can use.

There was only one I know for sure won’t be seeing the light of day but that’s fine. A duff piece is a duff piece. It was a good exercise to try but nothing more.

How do your characters respond to the seasons? Today has been a lovely spring day where I am and it lifts the mood. How could you use this to help your characters achieve more than they might otherwise have done? Equally can you use geographic and climate conditions to get in the way of your characters and could magic and/or science be used to make this happen deliberately?

Flash Tip: Why not write four stories about one character but set the tales in the four seasons? Compare and contrast your character’s attitude and actions due to whichever season they’re in. Could be some interesting linked flash stories here.

Goodreads Author Blog – Story Competitions and Their Anthologies

I’ve been privileged to have stories of mine win competitions and appear in anthologies as the prize. Separately, I have had work in other anthologies brought out by independent presses (as these are a great way of highlighting what they publish).

Why mention that? Simply because I want to commend anthology reading. There is the obvious reason I’m in some of course, but I have found reading these books has introduced me to authors I would not have known about otherwise.

I’ve also found reading some of those authors’ short works has encouraged me to engage with their novellas and novels but all because I discovered their work in an anthology first.

Plus I want to encourage short story reading as part of an overall reading “diet”. We celebrate stories here in all their forms so why not check out the shorter forms in a convenient book form?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Bridge House Publishing Celebration and Broadcasting News

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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 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)
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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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Broadcast News and Knowing Your 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. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good few days. Weather now stormy and wet. Delighted to have been on North Manchester FM over the weekend. Looking forward to taking part in Flash NANO again in November. Also have a fabulous interview coming up with Anita D Hunt to discuss her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Do look out for it. Plenty of useful tips and advice. This is one of the great things about author interviews You learn so much from them.

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Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day. Drier today, thankfully. Am also thankful Lady drives off quickly and doesn’t mind my towelling her down. Not all dogs like this. Lady sees it as a chance to get another cuddle in!

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom tomorrow night. Always good fun. Theme this time is marketing. Talking of which, I’ve been busy preparing pitches, one of which I’ve just submitted, the other is almost complete ready for reviewing.

Writing Tip: Consistency helps a lot with (a) getting your writing done and (b) with your marketing. I’m not on every social media platform. I am on the ones I know I can keep posting to on a regular basis.

Being consistent helps you build up your brand

Delighted to be able to share a single link now to Hannah Kate’s Autumn Equinox show on North Manchester FM on Saturday afternoon. Do check out the stories on there – I found them to be a great mix. It was lovely listening to it on Saturday afternoon.

Don’t forget I’ll be chatting to Anita D Hunt about her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Plenty of advice and tips shared, this is one of the great strengths of author interviews, I find. You learn so much from other writers’ experiences.

Screenshot 2024-09-23 at 17-36-41 Hannah’s Bookshelf Autumn Equinox Special - 21_09_2024 by Hannah's Bookshelf Mixcloud

The storm hit Hampshire today. So much water on the road. Glad to get back home. Much as I love autumn, torrential rain does nothing for me save get me wet (and Lady dries off quicker than I do).

Writing Tip: I sometimes know what mood of story I want to write – funny, sad, scary, etc. Sometimes that mood is set by the theme of a writing competition too. What I do here is work out the kind of character who would suit that mood and as I outline them, I find myself discovering ideas for the situations they’d be likely to face. Put all that together and I have an outline for my first draft.

Knowing my character well enough for whatever length of story I write to works for me. Asking a few questions helps me to get to know that character well enough. Obviously the longer the story the more I need to know but even for flash I have to know what drives them and why.

There are often hints as I outline them as to where that drive has come from. If their drive is to make money and plenty of it, are they being greedy or are they fearful of debt because they’ve know what it is to face that?

I could write two different stories depending on how I answer that question. There is nothing to stop me either from writing two stories with two characters who answer that question differently and this is just one example of the benefit of some forward planning.

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Broadcast News: Enjoyed listening to the stories on Hannah Kate’s Autumn Equinox special show on North Manchester FM this afternoon. Lovely mix of styles. I’ve shared the links – link one above, link two below. My story, Spade Work, is on the second half of the show coming in at about the 22 minutes mark but do listen to all of the tales. You will be in for a treat. Do note I now have a single link to the whole show above and it may be easier to use that one.

Many thanks for the kind comments coming in on the Ruth Leigh interview I shared on Chandler’s Ford Today yesterday. Much appreciated. I think this interview proves a point I’ve made before about learning from author interviews. You can pick up all sorts of tips which will be useful to you.

Am pleased to say there is another super interview coming up next week with Anita D Hunt, who will be discussing her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain. Looking forward to sharing that. I’ve loved author interviews since I started writing seriously. I know I’ve picked up so much useful help and advice from them and it is a great joy and privilege to conduct them for CFT.

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Anniversaries can make a useful theme to write about. Not only are there the obvious anniversaries, which you could show in relation to your characters and what they make of them, bear in mind your characters might also have specific dates they commemorate, which would be meaningless to anyone else.

So what would your character commemorate that nobody else would? How do they do this? What made them start doing this? A magical character could commemorate the day they “graduated”, for example. How do they celebrate – crate a new spell for the occasion, say?

Room for humour in stories like that, I think.

Fiction reflects on our lived experiences so certain themes are bound to occur regularlyIt’s Monday. It’s been raining heavily all day. And it’s a darker than usual Monday due to the weather. Time for a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Appreciation.

Has been a busy and soggy weekend. Hope things have been okay for you. Don’t forget my author newsletter is coming out again soon. To sign up just head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I’ll be talking about author newsletters for my More than Writers post for the Association of Christian Writers later this month too. I write a few monthly blogs and, as with my newsletter, I do plan out when in the month I will have these ready by. I’ve found this pays. Doing this frees up other writing time which I use for marketing and writing more flash stories. Win-win as far as I’m concerned.

Talking of flash, I’ve also found it useful to hit the ground running with my tales. I want to set up curiosity in the reader immediately and I can do this by setting a question you know the story has to answer or by giving an intriguing opening and you have to find out where it goes from there.

In my Enough Is Enough (Tripping the Flash Fantastic), I start with the opening line of She knew she had to stop it. What I hope that line does is set up immediate questions for the reader – who is she, what has she got to stop and why, and is she successful? The story does have to answer all of that. (It does, of course!).

I’ve found it helpful to think along the lines if it intrigues me, it should intrigue someone else. It can be a useful place to start, regardless of what length of fiction you’re writing.

It was a joy this afternoon to listen to wonderful autumnal flash on Hannah Kate’s show on North Manchester FM. It was a joy to be part of the show too. Autumn is a wonderful theme to write about because you can take it in many directions. You can look at a character’s attitude to it. You can bring in the changes in nature. You can bring in the sense of things winding down.

My maternal grandmother hated the season because she saw it as the time when everything died. I’ve used that thought in my story, Spade Work, which was broadcast this afternoon. I also used my own attitude to the season where I don’t agree with my grandmother’s view. My character, Holly, shares my view autumn is the time of beautiful changes and sees this in her Virginia Creeper where its leaves change from green to a fabulous shade of red.

But thinking about what your character makes of autumn or indeed any of the seasons can give you great insight to your creation. Their attitudes will also have a direct impact on their behaviour too and there will be story ideas there.

If they hate autumn, what would they do to get out of having to go any seasonal events? How would characters around them react to their behaviour here, especially if they love the season and the events?

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Goodreads Author Blog – Books I Could Not Do Without

With a title like this, I know I could go on at some length but decided to limit my choices to ten but have included some collections. So what ten books could I not do without then?

  1. The Bible – I especially love the Psalms (wonderful poetry) and Jesus’s stories (especially The Good Samaritan always a challenging one that).
  2. The Lord of the Rings – THE fantasy book in my view.
  3. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – loved the story. Cried when I first read what happened to Aslan at the hands of the White Witch.
  4. The classic fairytales – I am especially fond of Cinderella.
  5. Men at Arms – Terry Pratchett. A classic whodunnit as well as a wonderful addition to the Discworld canon.
  6. Nemesis – Agatha Christie. Her best Miss Marple novel I think.
  7. The ABC Murders – Agatha Christie. Her best Hercule Poirot book (though I was torn between this and Murder on the Orient Express).
  8. Jeeves and Wooster – P.G. Wodehouse. Can’t pick any single one. They are all brilliant and never fail to make me smile.
  9. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens. The ultimate ghost/redemption story. Simply wonderful.
  10. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen. Her best book, I think. Wonderful characters and Elizabeth Bennet is ahead of her time.

Which ten books would you choose?

Screenshot 2024-09-21 at 18-00-25 Allison Symes's Blog - Books I Could Not Do Without - September 21 2024 10 00 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the October 2023 edition, which had horror as its theme. My article is on Writing Horror: The Telling Details.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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The Joy of Writing Events

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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 goes to Penny Blackburn for the image of me reading at the Swanwick 2024 Open Prose Mic Night, to Jen Wilson for taking the one of me at the Lift Up Your Pens session, and to June Webber for the Swanwick celebration photo. (I swear I was on the apple juice and NO not cider!).
Must admit the weekend was mainly spent recovering from Swanwick week but I suspect every other attendee did much the same! Have slowly resumed my usual writing routine this week. I find having a routine helps enormously. I know what I am writing when and by the end of the week I’ve got more done precisely because I haven’t dithered.
Of course most of this week I’ve also been thinking about what was I doing at Swanwick a week ago. It would never surprise me if other Swanwickers do the same.

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Hope you have had a good day. Glad to be swimming again. First time back in the pool after Swanwick. I came out feeling a little bit less like a beached whale! (You do get looked after very well at The Hayes!).

Writing Tip: Even if you’re not thinking of being published or are published yet, it would still pay you to work out what you would say if someone asked you about what you write. That question does make for a good ice breaker at events like Swanwick so it would pay to be ready for it.

Should the time come when you’re submitting work to a publisher/agent, they will want you to be able to describe your work succinctly. If you are writing a book or a short story collection, it also pays to think of your one line hook for it because these take more time than you might expect to get right.


Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Zoom on Wednesday. Plan to share some useful tips, after which I hope people will share a piece or two of flash fiction.

It’s not a bad idea to get used to sharing work in an environment where you are comfortable doing so. It gets you used to reading your work out. You receive immediate feedback from a friendly audience. It can be a major source of encouragement.

Talking of which I was encouraged Bridge House Publishing shared an excerpt from my Tripping the Flash Fantastic. See screenshot. Nice start to the week.

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Pleased to be back on Authors Electric with a timely post. I talk about The Joy of Writing Events, two days after returning from the wonderful The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Post went out originally on 18th August 2024.

I look at the joys of being with like-minded people who understand the joys and frustrations of writing and discuss the benefits of joining in with writing events. Zoom, of course, has come into its own thanks to the pandemic making online events possible. I regularly run a workshop on flash fiction using this.

What is great is that there are benefits from both types of event. For me, being with others who understand that urge to write is one of the biggest ones. No need to explain anything!

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I was mugged by Lady on getting home from Swanwick yesterday as expected. Lady duly delivered and she was delighted to see her best pal, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, as we returned from our lunchtime walk today. Win-win for the dogs!

Eventful journey home yesterday as the train to London St. Pancras had to stop at Kettering because of a medical emergency and everyone had to change trains. Just hope that poor passenger is okay. Especially glad to get home after that and see everyone.

Will be writing about my week at Swanwick for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Looking forward to writing that one up! The rest of the weekend though is booked for recovery time. As expected, I came back from Swanwick, re-inspired, re-enthused, and shattered but these are all signs of a truly great week!
Many thanks to June Webber for the picture too!

Celebrating at Swanwick 2024 - photo from June Webber
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I was resting a flash fiction competition entry prior to going to Swanwick. Glad to say I have now reviewed it and submitted it.

I knew there wasn’t a lot to do to it but those who came to my editing course will know I talked about having a “final, final edit” where I look for typos, ensure I’m following all the rules etc. I then get the story sent off which is now done for this one. I won’t know anything until much later in the year but I’m 11 days ahead of the deadline so that pleases me too.

Never leave submissions to the last minute – you will miss something. I’m not guilty of this one myself but have known it to be done. It never pays off.

So on to the next flash competition then and I do have something in mind to have a try for here. Now to get on with a first draft (though I will probably add this on to my flash fiction Sunday afternoon spot later this week).

Sometimes I know which competition I’m trying. Sometimes I have an idea for a character, write their story up, and then if a suitable competition comes up, I will review my story and after polishing it, send it in. But I do always like to have some flash “on the go”. That does pay off!

Polishing your manuscriptIt’s Monday. It’s the first Monday back from Swanwick. I need a story! Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Dial a Character.


I suspect it will be a slow return to normal after the bliss of Swanwick week. Having said that, one thing which will help enormously is having my usual flash fiction writing on a Sunday afternoon! I also had the lovely task of judging some flash stories for a competition and I have now sent in my choice. It was hard to pick a choice (which is alway a good sign of great quality writing overall). I’ll be judging flash stories again for a writing group in September and am looking forward to doing that. Will also be resuming my editing work later this week.

Oh and have managed to submit a story for a flash competition, which I was “resting” during Swanwick week. I’d drafted it at the end of July, edited it a week or so into August, and then rested it, came back home, minor tweaks only required, and off it has gone.

One of the things I mentioned in my editing course was having a deadline by which you will send a piece off somewhere. It is possible to use editing as a form of procrastination and I am aware of this so always set myself deadlines to get work out by. It gets around that issue nicely.

456023104_10162139308377053_632554507637700600_nLooking forward to seeing everyone next week at the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group on Zoom. I plan to share some top tips and I hope people will get the chance to share some of their flash pieces. Well, everyone likes to listen to stories, right?

Pleased to share the word about flash fiction at Swanwick. It is also a fabulous format to use at Open Prose Mic Nights because you can give your audience complete stories and still not over run. Win-win there.

Am looking forward to resuming my usual flash fiction writing on Sunday afternoon. Nice way to end the week. Good luck to anyone who has entered the Friday Flash Fiction competition (which is timed to run as the Edinburgh Festival runs).

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Goodreads Author Blog – Celebrating Books and Those Who Write Them

I’ve recently returned from my highlight of the writing year – a week spent at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, which is set in the lovely county of Derbyshire. I have a week of workshops and courses (I ran a two part one on editing there this year) and spend a week immersed in the wonderful world of writing with other authors who understand the drive to write at all.

It is also fantastic catching up with old friends in person. For the rest of the year we stay in contact online. It’s also lovely getting to meet new people and chat with them about what they do writing wise. (The topic is a guaranteed ice breaker).

I like to see Swanwick as a chance to celebrate books and those who write them. I come back refreshed, reinvigorated, and shattered! You can feel the creativity in the air, I think.

In general terms, I would like to see more celebrations of books and their authors. Books are one of the best things humanity has ever given to the world.

Screenshot 2024-08-17 at 20-12-50 Allison Symes's Blog - Celebrating Books and Those Who Write Them - August 17 2024 12 12 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I’m sharing the recent May 2024 edition which was based on memoir. My article was on using memoir techniques for character creation.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Best Invention Ever – Books!

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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, though photos of me with The Best of CafeLit 13 were taken by other half, Adrian Symes. Thanks also to Julia Pattison for taking the image of me about to run a workshop at Swanwick 2023.
Hope you’ve had a good weekend. Back to hot sunny weather here. Getting ever nearer to the wonderful Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick – so looking forward to that. Lady has been catching up with her pals and having a great time in the park with them. Dogs keep things simple. I like the simple approach myself when it comes to drafting a story. I ask myself whose story is it and then work out the character and away I go from there.

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A hot one day but Lady keeping nice and cool, I’m glad to say. I have a flask of water with me for her which is a blessing.

Will be reviewing Bleak Expectations recently performed by the excellent The Chameleon Theatre Group for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. If you love a Dickens spoof and your own local theatre company put this show on, do go! Locals to my area, if you’ve not seen The Chameleons in performance, you should. You’re missing a treat otherwise. More to come in my post this week.

Don’t forget my author newsletter is out again on Thursday. Yes, I know, how did we get to August already, but there is no getting away with it. But plenty to share in my newsletter so do look out for it. If you’ve not signed up you can at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

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Pleased to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This month I’m talking about Best Invention Ever – Books! Well, it’s hard to argue with that one, isn’t it?

Regardless of what you like to read, life would be so much poorer without books in it. Hope you enjoy the post. I do ask how can we persuade people there are books out there for them, especially if they don’t come from a background of having always read. I do come from that background and am mindful I shouldn’t take that for granted.

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Lovely sunny day and Lady got to see her Jack Russell pal, Willow, today. Very sweet dog. Lady always pleased to see friends.

Had a lovely Zoom session with Swanwick friends last night but what is nice is the next time we meet up it will be in person at Swanwick. So looking forward to that.

Writing Tip: I draft my various posts in advance, I’ve found it pays. When I have any spare writing time, I jot down ideas and then start writing those up even if I don’t have a definite date in mind for using said posts. It does mean I always have something “on the go”. It also gives me more time to finish these pieces off. I’ve found that pays too.

Same applies for story writing. Even if I don’t have a definite market or competition in mind, I will draft away because I know I will find a home for these tales later on.

453212528_940839758055886_1379820348304126146_nHope you have had a good weekend so far. Nice to have lunch out in the garden with other half and the dog. Just as well we did, Is clouding over ominously as I write this!

Next week’s Chandler’s Ford Today post will be a review of Bleak Expectations, recently staged by our excellent local amateur dramatic company, The Chameleon Theatre Group. Their last performance of this is tonight, 27th July. Those with fond memories of the Radio 4 show of the same name (which includes me) will love this show as it is based on that and written by the same chap, Mark Evans.

Looking forward to flash fiction afternoon which is a highlight of most of my Sundays. Have a competition entry to finish and send in too this time as well as preparing my usual stories. Am making good progress towards a potential fourth collection too. During the week my writing consists of a mixture of blogging, story writing, and marketing items (such as getting my newsletter ready etc). Never short of things to be writing and that is how I like it.

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Have used one of the prompts I worked on during the recent Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting from my most recent YouTube video which I shared yesterday. I love joining in with the live writing exercises. It keeps me on my toes and I get more flash written – win-win.

All of us share what we prepare on the night. I like to encourage this because it is a good idea to get used to talking about what you write. Helps overcome the nerves in doing so too I find.

Youtube image 2It’s Monday. It’s a hot Monday. It’s still Monday. Time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – All Going Swimmingly. Those from the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group may recognise this one from our recent meeting. Knew I’d do something with this tale and here it is!

 

Always look forward to Sunday afternoons. I always write a lot of flash fiction then. I know it sounds almost too horrible to contemplate but it won’t be that long before I am drafting my festive flash pieces. Yes, I know. Not even out of summer yet and I’ve hinted at a certain season coming along!

I bear in mind the women’s magazines will already know what will be in their seasonal specials later this year already so I tend to draft my festive pieces as and when the mood strikes me. I often do this in late summer/early autumn so I know I have pieces to look at and polish before sending them in anywhere. I like having time on my side as much as possible.

453042414_10162062645657053_8222404052672727223_nI sometimes have fun with my flash tales in that I use films I’ve loved as inspiration. For example, my Where The Wild Wind Blows (Tripping the Flash Fantastic) is based on The Wizard of Oz and I use one of the witches for the viewpoint character. It was great fun to do and a different slant on the tale I think.

I have a soft spot for this kind of story writing given my first story in print, A Helping Hand (Alternative Renditions – Bridge House Publishing) is a take on the Cinderella story. Hard to believe that was way back in 2009 – where has the time gone?

The tip I would give here though is always pick a story or film you know almost “inside out”. You need to understand the characters in the, if you like, “authorised” version before you can work out how to write a story suing a different angle based on it.

If you know Cinderella well, you will know the cast of other characters in that fairytale as well, giving you the opportunity to write something from their point of view. As you will know the characters well, your sharing of their viewpoint will come across as plausible to other readers who also know the story well, which is what you are after here.

Goodreads Author Blog – Spoofs

I’ve recently watched a wonderful play (Bleak Expectations) based on the works on Dickens, of course. The show itself was based on a Radio 4 comedy from many years ago and that and the play are written by the same man. There were many wonderful references to lines by Dickens, book titles etc in the play, which I loved. It was great fun spotting them!

But this led to me thinking about spoofs in general. Many are based on books – Bored of the Rings, anyone? (There is also A Midsummer Nightmare out there).

What I hope is the case here is the spoof comes about as a result of a genuine love for the author/books being spoofed. That is definitely the case with Bleak Expectations and if you get the chance to hear the radio series or go and see the play I heartily recommend it. Loads of laughs too! I wonder if any of these spoofs have led to people discovering the authors of the original works? I would like to think so.

One of my favourite moments from the long running Radio Four series, I‘m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, is when they have a books round and usually the players have to add a word to the title or take a word away to come up with a totally different book. I’ve often thought some of the titles they come up with for this would make excellent spoofs.

A well done spoof then, I think, can add to the pleasure of reading in general. Certainly Bleak Expectations has reminded me of Dickens’ titles I need to check out again!

Screenshot 2024-07-27 at 17-20-28 Allison Symes's Blog - Spoofs - July 27 2024 09 20 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the link to the November 2023 edition of the magazine. The theme this time was Novels and my article is called Writing Novels. I share what I learned from writing my first novel. Do check the excellent advice throughout the magazine out.

 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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The Writing Life, Writing Blurbs, and Killing the Mood

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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.
What a soggy start to a new week! Oh well at least Lady dries quickly. Writing wise, I’m looking at Making the Most of a Writing Event for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday and it won’t be long before I am their arts correspondence once again as I’ll be off to see The Chameleon Theatre Group’s latest production, Bleak Expectations, soon. Well, the weather is certainly bleak at the moment but I am expecting plenty of laughs as the show as it is based on the radio show of the same name which went out on air some years ago. Should be fun.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady and I didn’t get soaked today so we’ll take that as a win.
Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting next week. Maybe summer, my theme for this, will be back by then? I can but hope!

Writing Tip: I draft presentations such as the one for the ACW group well in advance and then go through it nearer the time, having rested it for a bit. As with my story writing, that gap gives me time to see if I’ve missed anything and/or if there’s anything useful I could add in and so on. It pays off.

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Lady did get to see one of her chums, the Hungarian Vizler, today despite the awful weather. We all hope it is better tomorrow. Has anyone got Noah on speed dial?

Am preparing drafts for future flash fiction competitions. Deadline – end of August so I will aim to have something submitted by just before I go to Swanwick or shortly after I get back again. Will ensure I have time to spare and I always like that.

Then I will look out for autumn deadlines for flash competitions. After that, it will indeed be time for the festive flash season again. Yes I know. (Have not spotted anything to do with that particular season yet. It is a matter of time though! I remember always getting fed up when I was a kid when I spotted the Back to School signs in the shops and I’d only just broken up for the six weeks break. I swear this is worse now).

Will be interviewing the lovely Val Penny for Chandler’s Ford Today again soon. More details nearer the time.

Am also busy editing at the moment but the great thing with all of this? I stay in the warm and dry to do it!

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Saw a lovely kite in the shape of a US plane flown in our park today. Looked fabulous when in flight. Lady doesn’t know what to make of kites so stays well clear which is no bad thing. We also get red kites in our area. You can tell when they’re about. The smaller birds disappear!

Writing wise, will be enjoying flash fiction Sunday today. I always start a story with the question who am I going to write about because for me a story is all about the character, who they are, and what happens to them/because of them. Even when I’m given or I generate a potential opening line, I am thinking who would be the best character to “serve” that line.

When it comes to my Chandler’s Ford Today or Writers’ Narrative posts, I think along the lines of what would serve a reader best. So, whatever I write, I have the reader in mind all the time and that’s good. I’ve found it helps me focus on only those things the reader needs to know or would find useful to know.

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Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. Mixture of sunshine and soggy here.

Will be looking at Making the Most of a Writing Event for Chandler’s Ford Today next week and share useful tips on this. A lot of those tips will also apply to online events. Timely one to write about given in August I’ll be at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. I also hope to get to an Association of Christian Writers day event in October too.

I remember – too many years ago to count now! – going to my first ever writing event and being so nervous about it. But I had a lovely time, learned loads, met my now publisher there too (and neither of us could have foreseen that one). Have not looked back since. If there is a writing event of use to me I can get to I’ll go!

As well as being a delegate at Swanwick, I am also one of the course tutors. I’m running a two part course on Editing as an Author, Editing as a Competition Judge. Looking forward to this and every aspect of Swanwick week. I come home refreshed, reinvigorated, and absolutely shattered. Now that is a sign of a great writing event!

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Happy with a draft flash for a competition I’ve got in mind to enter next month but have already seen where I can sharpen it. A bit more of a gap resting it and I will see more to sharpen but that is the nature of the beast.

Where I’m happy with the draft is knowing I’ve got the character voice right and am always happy when I’ve got that nailed down. Everything else is then looking at whether I’ve expressed things as well/as tightly as I can and there is always something I can tweak usefully. But the first draft is exactly that.

Shakespeare didn’t write a perfect first draft. I know I won’t either! It is all in the edit, folks!

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It’s Monday. It’s a wet Monday. So wet even Noah is wondering whether it’s time to set sail again. Definitely time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Killing the Mood.

 

Despite being used to write to tight word counts, writing the blurb (say for my Tripping the Flash Fantastic page on Amazon) still took time to craft.

I focused on what led me into writing flash fiction at all, then picked some highlights from the book to share, and flagged up it was a follow up to From Light to Dark and Back Again. I did this in under 70 words but it took ages to hone it down that tightly.

Was worth doing though. It sums up everything a potential reader has to know and having that in the back of my mind helped a lot.


Allison Symes loves reading and writing quirky fiction. She discovered flash fiction thanks to a Cafélit challenge and has been hooked on the form ever since. In this follow-up to her “From Light to Dark and Back Again”, Allison will take you back in time, into some truly criminal minds, into fantasy worlds, and show you how motherhood looks from the viewpoint of a dragon. Enjoy the journey!

Once you’ve got a potential line or two like this down for your own books, read them out loud. Hear how they flow. Can you simplify your lines without losing anything important? Editing comes into this too!

 

Given the weather is so changeable again – yes, I know it’s July, someone needs to tell the weather systems this – why not take the chance to catch up with your reading? At least that’s not weather dependent!

I love reading flash fiction as well as writing it and am often inspired by the wonderful stories I come across. Every writer needs to feed their own imagination and the best way of doing that is to read widely, in and out of your genre, and do include non-fiction.

Sparks for story ideas have come from non-fiction articles for me before now. Keep your imagination pool wide and deep and always topped up is my motto!

The other huge advantage to being a writer who reads well is you know what works well for you when you read something by someone else. You can work out why that is too. You can then apply that to your own writing. Win-win there I’d say.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Reading Acrostic

R = Read widely and well – every writer is advised to do this but why leave it just to writers?
E = Enjoy a wide range of genres and discover the wonderful world of non-fiction.
A= Authors cross all ages and genres in their work so why not discover their crated worlds?
D = Discovering a genre and/or writer new to you, whose work you like, is a great joy.
I = Imagination, inspiration, intricate plots, immense and amazing characters – what’s not to like?
N = Novels, novellas, short story and flash fiction collections – why not try them all?
G = Gives you good opportunities to read contemporary works as well as the classics.

Screenshot 2024-07-13 at 17-14-03 Allison Symes's Blog - Reading - An Acrostic - July 13 2024 09 13 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

The link below this time is to the October 2023 edition of the magazine which had a horror theme to it (well, it was Halloween month!). My article here was on Writing Horror: The Telling Details.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Author Interview: Maressa Mortimer – Going Downsteam

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From Light to Dark and Back Again - by night
Tripping The Flash Fantastic - by night
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 have had a good few days. Lady and I are not sorry it has cooled down a bit – much easier to manage! It is a delight to welcome Maressa Mortimer back to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her new book, Downstream. She also shares wonderful advice about world building and much more. Do check out the interview. Link below.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

I’m delighted to welcome back Maressa Mortimer to Chandler’s Ford Today this week to discuss her fabulous new book, Downstream. Maressa is the author of The Elabi Chronicles and Downstream is book three in that series, (the other two being Walled City and Beyond the Hills).

Maressa shares wonderful tips about world building and writing series books and also discusses the importance of supportive writing groups amongst other topics. Hope you enjoy the interview. Much to enjoy here and good luck with Downstream, Maressa.

Author Interview: Maressa Mortimer – Going Downstream

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Do check out my interview with Maressa Mortimer about her gripping novel, Downstream, which will be on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above.

As well as sharing details about the book, Maressa and I discuss writing series books (including sharing useful tips on this), having a writing routine, favourite characters, world building and so much more. Looking forward to sharing this. Oh and I know writers aren’t supposed to have favourite characters from their own works but I suspect we all do.

Writing Tip: If you have an author newsletter, plan out when you want to have your draft for the month finished by. I do this and usually have a draft completed by the 20th or thereabouts. I find this useful because it still gives me time to add things in (especially news which can come in at any time) and I have then time to review it all well ahead of when I press send.

When I have ten minutes or so to write with, I will sometimes use that to add something in to the newsletter. I like to build up the content as the month progesses so there is no last minute rush.

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Today would have been my father’s 87th birthday. I can’t believe it’s eight years since we lost him.
Lady and I are focused on keeping as cool as possible. Am thankful she likes water. At least I know I can rely on Lady to drink plenty. (She has been too. Is keeping well and is being sensible. When it is hot is about the only time she is sensible!).

Am so grateful writing is something to be done wherever I like and right now I like cool!

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting tonight. We’ll be looking at writing 50 and 100 word stories. If you ever want an interesting challenge, have a go at these. The 100 worders were my first introduction to flash fiction. Have never regretted discovering it!

FLASH - Flash fiction encourages focus but you can apply that to other forms of writing

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday. It’s time for a story. And I’m delighted to be Lisa’s Choice on Friday Flash Fiction this week. Hope you enjoy my latest here – I Remember You.

Screenshot 2024-06-28 at 10-14-49 I Remember You by Allison Symes - Friday Flash Fiction

Don’t forget my author newsletter is out again soon. I especially focus on flash fiction so if this sounds of interest do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

This time I will also have news relating to The Best of CafeLit 13 so do look out for that if you already subscribe.

Had a lovely time at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group last night. We were looking at writing to 50 and 100 words. Have got a couple of drafts from that. Will be looking at these in a few days (I like to think of this as my cooling off period!) but think I know what I will end up doing with these stories.

Back to flash fiction writing over the weekend. Catching up with some blogs in the meantime. All wonderful things to write! (Oh and Lady and I are not sorry it has cooled down a bit. Is helping us both a lot!).

 

I’ve mentioned using questions in stories before. The reason I love them is they give you an instant structure to your piece because you and the reader know there will have to be some sort of answer before the end of said tale.

In my What the Neighbours Think (Tripping the Flash Fantastic), I use a question to make a character reflect on themselves as something odd happens and another one towards the end of the story to show a resolution to the tale. Nobody says you have to ask just one question but no matter how many you have there has to be an answer somewhere in the story to each and every one.

Metaphorical questions are fine by the way. It should be clear from context that a question is of that type and therefore no direct answer may be appropriate though in the case of this story of mine, even that one is answered by the way the story plays out.

BB - Flash with a Dash for TTFF

Fairytales with Bite – Accidents

No prizes for guessing what inspired this little tale.

A = A crafty but lazy apprentice
C = Conceited and sure of himself
C = Concocted a plan to get out of cleaning.
I = Imagination was wonderful, he thought.
D = Daring him to go further still.
E = Except things went wrong.
N = Now he had no control over the broomsticks and buckets.
T = Terrible things awaited him, he felt, when his boss got home.
S = Sadly, he was right, and he never meddled with spell books again.

Ends
Allison Symes – 26th June 2024

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This World and Others – Upholding the Law

How is the law upheld in your setting? Do most characters find this easy enough to do? Are the laws fair?
If your lead character could bring in one law, what would they choose and why? What does this reveal about them to you? If there was one law they could abolish, what would they choose and why? Again what does that choice reveal about their personality?

Who is responsible for bringing laws in? Can they or the laws be challenged? How far back in time do the laws go? Is the government a democracy or a dictatorship? The answer to that would reveal the kind of laws your society will have and how they are upheld. In the case of the latter, I would suspect with brutality where needed, given what happens here.

If you could think of a funny law, which is apt for your characters, what would you bring in and why? Story thoughts there, I hope.

BookBrushImage-2024-6-28-19-5821WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Screenshot 2024-05-31 at 16-55-29 Writers' Narrative June 2024Screenshot 2024-05-31 at 16-55-58 Writers' Narrative June 2024

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

 

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What I Look For In Stories – Reading/Writing Them

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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 have had a great weekend. Lovely summer weather continues here. Looking forward to sharing another author interview on Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. This time I’ll be talking to Maressa Mortimer about her latest book, Downstream, which is a cracking read. Always plenty to learn from author interviews, I find. There will be more to come in July too.

Coming soon - more author interviews in my CFT column

Facebook – General

Busy evening tonight so am posting early.

Writing Advice I’ve Found Most Helpful: Could write a series on this, I’m sure, but I think the number one top tip here is to write something first, then edit it. See these as two separate creative tasks. I’ve got to know what I’m working with in the first place before I can figure out how to improve it (and there will always be things to improve!).

I edit on paper but also on screen so for the latter I do what I can to make the text look different. It helps with spotting errors. I also know to look for “missing words”, the thing I could’ve sworn I typed up but on closer inspection find I didn’t. Happens to us all but it helps a lot to be aware of this kind of error so you know to look for it.

Writing Advice

A lovely start to the week as Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal before the heat took hold this afternoon. Great to see them having a lovely time.

Now Writers Narrative is taking a break for a while but there is plenty to read and enjoy in the back issues. Every so often I will pick one and share it here. Naturally since we are still in June, for this post, I’ll share the current edition, which is on the theme of poetry. I look at the links between flash fiction and poetry in my article here – there are more than you might think. Hope you enjoy.

Hope your weekend is proving to be sunny again – lovely weather here. Lady loves it as it is pleasant but not too hot.

What do I look for in stories I read? Generally I want to be entertained and to care about what happens to the characters. Am not into highbrow books for the good reason I’m not highbrow! Indeed at under 5’ tall, I am anything but highbrow! I want to see interesting plots, threads followed through properly etc.

What do I look for in stories I write? I want to be entertained (because if I’m not, who else would be?). I want to care about what happens to my characters (and I adore giving just deserts to those worthy of it – that is such fun). I want a good storyline/plot and yes for threads to be followed through properly.

Even in flash fiction, there can be threads. These come in more towards the upper end of the flash limit range and you don’t have so many of them. Having said that, they’ve still got to be tied up properly or the reader will feel cheated or, worse still, feel what was the point of that then? You never want readers to feel that about your stories.

This is why when I’m editing my stories, I always ask what does the reader get out of this? It’s a good question to ask. The challenge to me is to make sure I can answer it.

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Hope you are having a nice weekend so far. Great weather. Lady got to see our neighbour’s retriever at the park and the pair had a lovely run around. Normally they’re barking at each other either side of our fences! It does sound like a conversation. I wonder if the pair of them are rating their owners…hmm…

It’s a busy time at the moment but am loving it. I will be interviewing Maressa Mortimer about her latest book, Downstream, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I’ve read the book. It’s a gripping read but I’ll let Maressa herself tell you more about it when the interview goes live next week. Be sure not to miss. Again there are lots of tips and useful thoughts for other writers.

Talking of which, I’ll just say a huge thank you to Jennifer C Wilson for what she shared here on CFT yesterday – all excellent stuff and if you like writing prompts do look out for her 31 Days of Writing. Prompts are an excellent way to kick start or reinvigorate your writing mojo.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good day. Continuing warm here. Lady keeping nice and cool.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting tomorrow on Zoom. Will be looking at writing the 50 and 100 word flash tales. So apt given the 100-worders were my way into discovering the fabulous world of flash fiction and they remain one of my favourite categories to write to. Writing for Friday Flash Fiction regularly has reawakened that love of the good old drabble!

If you’re thinking of getting into writing to specific word counts like this, have a good look at the websites which publish them. I find it helps to be able to visualise what a 50 or 100 word story looks like, something I’ll be discussing with the group tomorrow.

It’s Monday. It’s sunny and lovely – hooray. However, it is still Monday. Time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Provisions. See how I make use of a well known phrase here!

Wow, the month is rattling on, is it not? My author newsletter will be out again on 1st July. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Many thanks to all of my subscribers for your support.

Also please do check out my author services page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com/author-services-allison-symes/

As well as writing, I judge competitions, run workshops on editing and flash fiction writing, and, of course, I am an editor. Many thanks to Yvonne Walus for her recent wonderful testimonial on this page re the latter. I am also happy to give talks online or in person depending on distance. Do contact me via the contact form on my website if any of this is of interest.

And what has fuelled all of this? My love of writing, especially flash fiction which has taught me so much about editing and writing craft. In some ways it it the gift which keeps on giving and I appreciate it a great deal.

Screenshot 2024-06-24 at 21-01-28 FacebookScreenshot 2024-06-23 at 14-12-50 Author Services – Allison Symes – Allison Symes Collected WorksLooking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting next week. We’ll be looking at writing 50 and 100 words flash fiction, two of the most popular categories. The 100 worders will always have a special place in my heart as it is thanks to them I discovered flash fiction in the first place.

There are a number of competitions for them too and, if you like to share stories every so often on your social media to show a little of what you do writing wise, as I do, these are ideal for that. Don’t take too long to read. Entertaining (hopefully!) for readers too. Win-win there, I think.

I’ll be busy judging flash and short stories over the summer and autumn and am looking forward to doing that. Plus I am hoping to get to read some of my flash fiction (including from CafeLit 13 and Friday Flash Fiction) at Swanwick if I can. I like to mix up material I share this way in terms of mood and will have a good selection here.

Less is More is the theme for flash fiction writers

Goodreads Author Blog – Mixing Genres

Do you enjoy books which mix genres? I do. I’m a huge fan of the Discworld series from the much missed Sir Terry Pratchett. The Sam Vimes novels in that series cross fantasy with crime stories and successfully meet the needs of both genres here. They work as stand alone crime novels too. Highly recommend Men At Arms and Feet of Clay in particular here. Really good detection tales.

I see the mixing of genres as an inevitable thing. Why? Because I’m focused on whether or not I care for the characters. I’m focused on finding out what happens to said characters. If they’re in a fantasy world I want to find out how that changes what the characters do. They will have challenges to face in that world they wouldn’t have in a non-fantasy world. I want to see how that plays out.

Also a character doesn’t live in a vacuum, any more than we do, so their setting is bound to have a bearing on their stories. It has been said the Harry Potter stories cross boarding school tales with the magical world. Well, why not? Why shouldn’t a world like that have its own education system? To me, it would be odd if there wasn’t something like that. Therefore it makes sense to have stories based on this premise.

So mixing genres then? No problem at all for me. I find it gives me an ever wider choice of books to read and I’m all for that too.

Screenshot 2024-06-22 at 17-44-37 Allison Symes's Blog - Mixed Genres - June 22 2024 09 44 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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