Tag: Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group

Faith In Stories

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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 weekend. Weather still chilly but sun is appearing more often. I’ll take that. Really enjoyed the play I went to see last week – review on that coming up on Friday on Chandler’s Ford Today. I have CFT to thank for introducing me to the joys of local theatre and National Theatre Live. Must try and catch some more of the latter again soon. I see theatre as enacted stories – another way of taking tales in.

BookBrushImage-2024-4-30-20-320Hope you have had a good day. Enjoyed a great swim this afternoon and caught up with friends there.

I’ll be reviewing Waiting For Gateaux, recently performed by The Chameleon Theatre Group, for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Looking forward to sharing that.

Author newsletter goes out again tomorrow. (1st May 2024). How come it is the end of April already? (Lovely to see all the bluebells out in my part of the world though).

Writing Tip: If you do have or are thinking of having an author newsletter, do have items you can always share which will be useful to people regardless of whether or not you have any news to share.It pays to plan out what you will do with your newsletter long before you set one up. I have done this with mine and find it pays off.

I often find I have lots of items of news at once and then none at all for a bit so I will share what I have when I have got it but also share advice and tips useful to writers. There is no use by date on those!

Think about what you could talk about here as well – for example your writing process, what you have found useful to you, favourite stories of yours and why you like them and so on. You’re engaging with your readers directly here so make it fun and useful. I try to go for a bright cheery style with mine. Okay if you write horror, that style might not be so apt (!) but there has to be something of value to your readers for them to keep reading what you send out.

Newsletter with envelope imagePleased to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This time I’m talking about Faith in Stories where I look at having belief in the process of creating your tales. I share what the biggest single thing any writer can do to help themselves (reading, no surprise there) and discuss why it helps. Hope you enjoy the post.

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Nice quiet day here. Lovely way to wrap up the weekend.

Don’t forget my next author newsletter is out on 1st May. If you’d like to subscribe head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

When I draft a new story, I start with the character(s) but have different ways of bringing them into being. I use a simple template a lot where I jot down a name, their species (where apt), their main trait, and anything else I think I might need to know.

Sometimes I write down something I just know they would say or think and then work out what it is that makes me feel this because that will indicate the underlying trait of this character I will want to bring out more in the story itself.

Sometimes I write down a line of dialogue or internal thought and then work out what kind of character would come up with this. All are fun ways to create characters.

When it comes to competitions, especially those with a set theme, I like to work out what kind of character would best serve that theme. When there is an opening line competition, again I would work out what character would come up with this line, or if it is a description, what character would be noting this and then work out why it is important to them.

But for all stories, regardless of who writes them, for me it is all about the character. I have got to get behind them to want to read on and I take the view most readers will take the same view with my creations.

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Hope you are having a good weekend so far. Nice quiet one here. Lady got to see an old pal, Miller, today. Dogs do get so much from being with their pals.

Am looking forward to reviewing Waiting for Gateaux for Chandler’s Ford Today next Friday. Will also be having a smashing author interview coming up on CFT towards the end of May which will continue into the early part of June.

Many thanks for the lovely comments coming in on my most recent Friday Flash Fiction tale, Deception. In case you missed it, please see the link.

Also the next issue of Writers’ Narrative will be out soon. Do look out for it if you subscribe.
Screenshot 2024-04-26 at 10-12-54 Deception by Allison Symes

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I’m fond of poetic justice stories and flash fiction suits these well. You set up the situation. You show the character who is either on the receiving end of said poetic justice or is the one to dish it out. You finish by delivering on that justice in the last line.

One example of this is my The Circle of Life from From Light to Dark and Back Again. This one is just under 100 words and I get my character to share their story in the first person where they show you what they want to do something about and why and then finish with how they are going to do it. Let’s just say those on the receiving end of the plans here deserve it.

It was a fun and satisfying story to write and I hope readers like it but the important point here is if you have set something up in your tale, you must deliver on it. Else there is no point. What I love about flash fiction is the restricted word count means you do have to ensure everything in your story is necessary. You haven’t the space for anything irrelevant. This does wonders for your story pacing too.

From Light to Dark and Back Again - by nightIt’s Monday. It’s been a long day. It’s time for a story. (Plus side it isn’t raining this week!). Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Something. The lead character may seem familiar to all fairytale lovers.

 

Am happily working my way through some of my own answers to exercises I set for the ACW Flash Fiction Group back in March for story ideas for my YouTube channel and Friday Flash Fiction. Am looking forward to tackling what I came up with for the April session in due course as well.

The March session involved possible opening and closing lines (two of my favourite writing exercises as my recent Chandler’s Ford Today post on the topic highlighted).

The April one saw the return of my character creation template and there are at least two possibles here I am keen to get to work on soon. When a character possibility grips you like that, it is a great feeling. Mind you, I feel the same way when I read a story by another author and I really “get” their character. Sam Vimes from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series is a classic example of that as are Jeeves and Wooster from P.G.Wodehouse’s fabulous works.

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I was looking at genres and flash fiction for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Wednesday night. As flash has to be character led (no room for lots of scene setting basically so you must lead with characters), you can set those characters wherever and whenever you want. Those characters don’t have to be human either.

I also use a simple template to help me create some potential characters. I put those ideas aside for a while and then come back to them later. If the ideas still grab me after that break, I will write them up. I know there are at least two from Wednesday’s session I drafted I will come back to at some point. Looking forward to doing that.

But it is the time away from your jotted down ideas which matters. You need objectivity and time away from your notes helps you get that. The positive thing for notes like this and for draft flashes that time away doesn’t have to be a long one. I usually find a few days is enough. What matters is your being able to come back to your work and be able to see it as if for the first time. It is that which will help you see the strengths and weaknesses of your ideas. You can then of course do something about the latter.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Holiday Reading

Am looking forward to a break away in May but I already know what my holiday reading will be. It will be whatever I am currently reading on my Kindle. The ebook comes into its own for this kind of thing, of course. No packing of heavy books. No limitation on what you can take to read either. All I must remember to do is pack my charger (especially since it does my phone as well!).

I don’t read what is normally known as holiday reading. Not really my genre though I can appreciate why the lighter reads are wanted for the summer season. (They’re even more important to cheer people up if the weather is a wash out as it can be in the UK).

For me, my light reads are the humorous books I love – Wodehouse and Pratchett works especially. I usually get to listen to some Pratchett audio books on the journey to and from my destination so get some extra stories in that way.

All counts as holiday reading in my book, some pun intended! I’m just listening to the tales rather than reading them but audio books are fantastic inventions. I get to take in even more stories and revisit old favourites -nothing to dislike about that.

Screenshot 2024-04-27 at 17-57-08 Holiday Reading

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Light Writing and Leaping Into Writing

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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 and also you made the most of having an extra day on 29th February. I used the theme of Leap Years for the ACW Flash Fiction Group this month – odd topics can encourage lateral thinking and a great deal of wonderful creativity came out of our session, especially on the 29 words flash fiction exercise I set. Lady is still waiting for spring. So am I.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Author newsletter out this morning. I look at Seasonal Writing and share a prompt I hope you have fun with!

Screenshot 2024-03-01 at 19-12-03 Allison Symes - March 2024 - Seasonal Writing

And, as it is Friday, it is time for my Chandler’s Ford Today post. This week I look at Light Writing. I celebrate the works of P.G. Wodehouse and Sir Terry Pratchett and discuss why light writing may look easy but is anything but when it comes to writing it.

I also think it shouldn’t be looked down on as any less worthy as literary fiction, say. I also look at reading being a form of communication between writer and reader and light reading can encourage that communication in a way the “heavier” tomes simply cannot. See what you think – link below.

(Also glad to say there will be more author interviews coming for CFT in due course).

Light Writing

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Two posts from me on my author Facebook page today (29th February 2024). First up, I am delighted to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This one is a rare beast as I only get to do a post here once every four years given my day here is the 29th of each month! Normally there isn’t a 29th February!

This post is all about Leaping into Writing and I hope you find it an encouragement. Many thanks to all who have commented so far on this one. Sometimes a topic can set off resonances with other writers and this one seems to have done so, especially when I discuss small wins. For more see the link.

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29th February – Second Post – more on March WN

Second post from me today. I mentioned briefly yesterday the March issue of Writers’ Narrative is now out. (See further down).

My piece on Writing for Children is on Page 16 and my Writing for Anthologies is on Page 38. Do check out the whole magazine, it is free, and I strongly recommend subscribing so you don’t miss out on excellent writing advice for writers at all levels.

To mention just some of the articles in this edition, you will find:-

How to Develop a Children’s Book Series (Jennifer Navarre)
Publishing an Anthology (Wendy H Jones)
Writing For Children – What a Privilege (Jenny Sanders)
The Power of Writing Collaboratives (Morna Milton-Webber)

And there are many more besides. Time to put your feet up and have a good read? That’s a good idea if ever I heard one!

 

Delighted to discover via my copy of The Author (the quarterly journal from the Society of Authors), I can set up a member’s profile page. Have had a pleasant time this afternoon doing just that. Can’t share the link (you have to be a member to access) but it was nice being able to set up a gallery of useful pictures. I have shared below the screenshot from that.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later this evening.
And am thrilled to say the March edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out. See above. Will talk more on this tomorrow (I did, see further up!) but meantime do have a fabulous read. Theme this time is on Writing For Children and I have a piece in the magazine on that and also on Writing for Anthologies.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Glad to say my author newsletter went out earlier today. I do share links to my stories on Friday Flash Fiction and on my YouTube channel as part of this. It makes a handy “one stop shop” so to speak.

Talking of Friday Flash Fiction, I am thrilled so many lovely comments have come in already on my latest one here. I hope you enjoy Visitor Expected too.
Screenshot 2024-03-01 at 09-40-46 Visitor Expected by Allison SymesDelighted to say the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction Group meeting went well on Zoom last night (meeting held on 28th February 2024). My topic was Leap Year Flash and it produced some wonderful creativity.

One of the exercises I set was to write a 29 word story (with one other word to be used for the title – Flash NANO set a 30 word exercise only last year). I loved the 29 word stories folk came up with. Good fun to do. It’s an excellent writing exercise and links into the topic of Leap Year and our extra day on 29th February nicely too.

Do give it a go. See this as having a line where you set up a story and another line or two at most to resolve the story. One of my examples from last night’s meeting is below.

Unfair
Jenny seethed. How like her mother to swan off to a do in a silk gown and leave her to do the chores. Had she not heard of Cinderella?
Ends
Allison Symes – 28th February 2024

Always a joy to talk or write about flash fiction

Hope you have had a good day. Lady had a fabulous time with her best buddy, the lovely Rhodesian Ridgeback.

Looking forward to talking flash at the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction Group meeting later this evening.

Had a great time over the weekend drafting stories (one of which is a flash tale) for submissions (and I have ideas on where to submit these pieces). Will be looking again at these tales over this coming weekend, having had a few days away from them. It is the only way I know to be able to judge my work more objectively and see what needs fixing. There always is something but that is fine – I just get on and do it!

Oh and I had a nice surprise too – lovely comment on my books page on my website today.
Newsletter will be out again on Friday. To sign up do head over to said website at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Fairytales with Bite – Why I Love Fairytales

I’ve loved fairytales since I was a small child. My late father bought me The Reader’s Digest Collection of Fairy Tales, a wonderful huge two volume set with fabulous colour illustrations. I still have those books. One of them has the spine bound up with tape! I used to love hearing the stories read to me and, later, loved being able to read them for myself.

I also like the fact that in most fairytales kindness is rewarded and justice is done. The arrogant are brought down several pegs and the ill-treated end up living a full and proper life well away from those behind the ill treatment. (Usually something horrid happens to them!).

I knew even as a kid real life isn’t always like this. Fairytales can be escapist but there is nothing wrong with wanting kindness to prevail, even though, so often, the real world has other ideas.

I also like the way those who underestimate older people are brought down because said older people are normally powerful magical beings in disguise. The disguise is a test. Those being arrogant fail said test and are then made to see the error of their ways. (See Beauty and the Beast especially on this one).

Fairytales confirmed to me love and kindness are important, they are vital, and that message is as relevant as it ever was.

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This World and Others – Fantasy Settings – Advantages and Disadvantages

I love fantasy, especially the humorous type, and the best of the lot is Discworld by the much missed Sir Terry Pratchett. Fantasy settings have their advantages and disadvantages.

The advantages include the writer can’t get it wrong because they make it up and they decide on the rules. I like this – a lot.

You can also bring in magic or other powers into your setting and use these to create things we don’t have here but which could be echoes. For example, you could use magical transport and in some ways that transport will resemble what we have here, it will just be powered differently.

You could also show the disadvantages of magic (and compare that to the misuse of power which goes on here. Fantasy is great for making points and reflecting on what we do know here).

The disadvantages are people can be derisory of fantasy simply because it is made up and nothing like we have here. My answer to that is fantasy is not meant to be a documentary. I think the rise of steampunk is interesting given it takes inventions from the Industrial Revolution and puts a twist on them. Jules Verne’s Around the World In 80 Days could only happen with the invention of the hot air balloon. Some would see that as steampunk.

You also do need to think about how your world would work and be consistent with whatever rules you decide need to be in place to make it work.

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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CafeLit, Resting Stories, and the Influence of 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. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Also hope the storms have not caused too much damage – feel so sorry for those who’ve lost power. Hope all is restored soon. Glad to report publication news and Lady having a great time with her best friends – a good start to this week anyway.

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Facebook – General

How long should you rest a story before coming back to edit it? There is no definite answer to this as far as I know though the longer the work, the longer the rest period. You really do need to come back to a piece and read it with fresh eyes.

I find with my flash fiction and short stories a week to ten days is enough but a novelist will need considerably longer than that. After all you have immersed yourself in the world of your novel and it will take you a while to come out of that world so you can then assess it objectively. With short stories and flash fiction, you enter the story world quickly. You come out of it again quickly.

I have always found though that the time away is invaluable in spotting errors. I have no idea why I don’t see them after immediately writing the story but the fact is I don’t. I need that break away to spot things like typos, grammatical errors, but also where I’ve missed words out. That is so easily done. Your brain fills in what you mean to say and you can assume you’ve typed it. Err…. No. Not necessarily. Only coming back to the story after a break makes this kind of error stand out – and we all do it.

So don’t see the rest period as a waste of time. It’s far from that. It can help you get your story right and give it a better chance of being published. Besides which, I get on and draft more stories or blogs during that rest period. Well, there’s always something to write up, which is how I like things to be.

Editing takes time, you need more than one sweep

Hope your week has got off to a reasonable start, despite the storms raging in the UK at the moment. Monday night is story night. Coming up on my book page shortly will be my YouTube video for this week (see further down) but right here and now I’m pleased to say I have another story published on CafeLit.

Hope you enjoy An Unexpected Alliance. CafeLit like writers to assign a drink to their stories. I’ve selected raspberry tea for mine – can be sweet, can be tart! I thought it apt for this story. See what you think.

Screenshot 2024-01-22 at 17-47-46 An Unexpected Alliance by Allison Symes raspberry tea

Hope your weekend is going well. Busy week coming up. Am looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom on Wednesday. And I’m off to the panto, Sleeping Beauty, on Thursday – oh yes I am! In between that I’m also off to a meeting on one evening and then the dentists for the usual checkup on another afternoon. Nobody wins it all, do they?!

Have a story to submit this week so will be working on the finishing touches to that later today. Plus there is another competition I’ve got my eye on – and an idea for – so need to get on with a first draft. But these are fun things to do and I can stay out of the wild winds doing them!

(Lady doesn’t respond that much to bad weather, she just gets on with it, though I have noted she can be more skittish when there are strong winds about. I understand toddlers are much the same. There’s a link here).

420070684_814180027388527_6694004179551173272_nHope you have had a good day. Glad to say it’s warmed up a bit here but I stress it is only by a bit!

Will be looking at Fairytales and Pantomime for Chandler’s Ford Today next week, ahead of my review of the performance of Sleeping Beauty, which I hope to put up the week afterwards. I am due to go and see this show with my lovely editor at CFT, Janet Williams, on Thursday. The Chameleon Theatre Group always put on a good show and their pantomimes are always a great laugh so am looking forward to this a lot.

Have been sorting out my bookshelves today. Pleased to say I’ve now got all of my books, including the anthologies I’ve been in over the years, all in one place. Next to them are books written (and signed for me) by friends. Have wanted to get these in one place for some time. So job now done and a perfect task to do on a chilly day. Still want to see more books by me up there though! (Am working on it before you ask…!).

The next edition of Writers’ Narrative will be out soon. Don’t forget you can subscribe for free. See the link.

Screenshot 2024-01-22 at 20-48-10 Writers' Narrative

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope today has been okay. Am also hoping the forecast storm tonight isn’t as bad as the last one (Sunday night).

Writing Tip: Do make the most of a good old fashioned diary to help you plan out what you’ll write when. I find mine invaluable. I used the A4 ones but I find committing myself to getting something done by such and such a date means I am more likely to do it. It is like making an appointment with myself.

Notebooks are brilliant for writing exercises but you can’t beat a diary for scheduling. I also find the act of writing something down with old school pens again commits me to getting done what I would like to get done. I am also old school enough to want pens to come into the writing process somewhere!

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Do check out my author page on Facebook where I share my latest tale on CafeLit but you know what the drill is here on my book page on a Monday night.

It is indeed Monday. It’s stormy. It’s dark. There are signs of spring on the way (I’ve spotted daffodil shoots in my garden, hope the storms don’t blast them away!). But it is definitely time for another story.
My latest on my YouTube channel is Other Options Are Available. Hope you enjoy it.

Looking forward to the first ACW Flash Fiction Group meeting of the year on Wednesday night. Will be lovely to talk flash again! We’ll be looking at the topic of newness, apt for the first month of a new year.

It is worth exploring open topics such as newness for story ideas, by the way. You could take this in a few directions. For example, what is new in your character’s life and do they welcome that or not? Plus you can put your character in a situation new to them.

Other good topics could include breaking the rut (just how does your character do that?), opportunities (which and does your character take them?), and so on. A broad topic can be split down into separate threads, any one of which could be a story trigger.

Pleased to say Amazon have a very good offer on the paperback of my From Light to Dark and Back Again. See link for more details.

Does music influence what you write? I find classical doesn’t. What it does do is relax me and when I’m relaxed, I just get on and write. I find I write more too.

I haven’t yet used music in a story but it is always an option! I do like adding audio tracks to my flash stories on YouTube though. It is fun finding what I think will be an appropriate choice from the vast options YouTube give you (and no need to worry about copyright here either. Some pieces you do have to put an acknowledgement in your description of the video but there are so many where you don’t even have to do that).

If you haven’t come across my channel here, please check it out at the link. I’ll be adding another story to this on Monday. See above.

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Goodreads Author Blog – The Value of Story Collections

I write for story collections as well as having my own flash fiction books out with Chapeltown Books. So I appreciate story collections and have a number on my shelves, including those I have not written for.

I love novels. I love short stories. I love mixing up reading longer work with shorter work. I think short story and flash fiction collections are invaluable additions to my book shelves. Story collections are perfect for dipping into, especially when you don’t have as much time to read as you would like. It happens.

From my viewpoint as a writer, I have found at book events, it is easy to share a little bit from my collections to show what flash fiction is and can be. I’ve made sales that way! People love being read to and indeed I love this myself.

So when you are wondering what your next book should be, why not turn to the shorter form and try out a collection or two? They are also excellent for introducing you to other writers. I’ve come across great writers, whose works I’ve loved, this way.

Screenshot 2024-01-20 at 20-04-34 The Value of Story Collections

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Screenshot 2023-12-05 at 21-13-46 The December Magazine isHere

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Remember, Remember – Author Interview: Richard Hardie

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Many thanks to Richard Hardie for logo, author, and book cover pics for a marvellous interview on Chandler’s Ford Today this week.
It has been a very cold week here, with some snow and sleet showers. Not that Lady worried as she got to run around with her best friends all week. I just put on extra layers and my big coat! Looking forward to the Bridge House Publishing celebration event on 2nd December. Will be lovely to see everyone again. (And it’s indoors out of the cold!).

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am pleased to interview Richard Hardie for Chandler’s Ford Today again. He is the author of the Temporal Detective Agency series (aimed at YA though I must admit despite not qualifying on that score for some considerable time, I find the books a great read too!). Today he launches his third book in the series, Remember Remember. This follows Leap of Faith and Trouble With Swords.

Richard discusses with me the challenges and joys of writing series fiction, his publishing company, Authors Reach, and what they have been up to since our last interview, and how Richard manages to keep details for his characters correct from book to book. This is a major consideration for anyone writing series. Plus there is much more useful information and great insights into the writing life here.

Many thanks, Richard, for a great interview. Link below.

Remember, Remember: Author Interview – Richard Hardie

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I am so pleased to welcome back Richard Hardie to Chandler’s Ford Today this week to talk about his new book, Remember Remember. This is the third in his Temporal Detective Agency series. The series is aimed at Young Adults but there are many who no longer qualify as such who also enjoy these books! Richard and I will also be chatting about marketing and other topics as part of this interview. Link up tomorrow (and Richard’s Facebook launch starts at 1 pm UK time tomorrow too). Interview above.

Two days to go to the Bridge House Publishing celebration event. So looking forward to seeing everyone.

I cannot believe today is the last day of Flash NANO 2023. I will be having a go at today’s challenge (aptly a thirty word story one) later on this evening. Have so enjoyed taking part in this again and the feedback and support on the Facebook page has been wonderful. Thanks, all, and also to Nancy Stohlman for setting all of this up.

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Pleased to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This month I talk about Story Formats. What would be your favourite – the hardback, paperback, ebook, audio book? I welcome different formats and see them as ways of getting people into reading at all. Comments welcome over on the MTW page. (Let’s take the opportunity to celebrate the written word in all its formats!).

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Author newsletter out earlier today. I know it’s early to wish everyone a Happy Christmas but my next one isn’t until 1st January which would be a tad late, I think!

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with The Lost Coin. Hope you enjoy it. See what you make of my Gran character in this. Is she harsh or does her grandchild deserves what happens in this one because they ….. Well, no spoilers here. Link here for you to check it out! And many thanks to those who have already commented on this one.
Screenshot 2023-12-01 at 10-11-56 The Lost Coin by Allison Symes

Had a fun time at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom last night. We drafted some stories based on the festive theme. Glad to see some of our group taking part in the Flash NANO challenge too. Hard to believe we’ve reached the end of that already.

Once I’ve completed tonight’s challenge – a 30 words only story – I will have written 46, 586 words over the month. This is not far short of the 50,000 set for NaNoWriMo writers. Am pleased with this.

I didn’t have an overall target in mind when I began this. I just wanted to respond to each day’s challenge. Some of my stories were towards the upper end of the flash range but most were in the category I most write to – the 100 to 500 words count.

Am NOT surprised at that but what Flash NANO proves is all those “little” bits of writing do add up! So don’t worry about only having short times in which to write. Have fun. Get something written. Edit later. You can get more achieved than you think by using pockets of time like this.

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Don’t forget my author newsletter is out again on Friday, 1st December. (Just where does the time go?!). If you would like to sign up for tips, news, story links etc, please head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Meantime, I am looking forward to tonight’s ACW Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom. There will be more than a hint of a festive flavour about our flash writing this evening! It was great fun too!

 

No acrostics are ages so here are two in one go! Hope you enjoy them. The second one sets some interesting questions for potential stories.

Fairytales with Bite – Festivities

F = Fairies, including godmothers, need to let their hair down every so often, you know.
E = Energy is drained by the continual use of magic.
S = Slippers, glass or otherwise, take a great deal of creativity energy – it’s not just a quick spell and away you go.
T = Time to have a party then for friends and colleagues so what does your average fairy do here?
I = Innovation is key – they invent spells to conjure up delicious food and drink without them having to lift a finger to do it.
V = Variety matters too – there will be spells for music, brightly coloured lights and so on.
I = Invitations are treasured for a fairy’s party – you know you’ve made it when you get one.
T = Timings of said parties are flexible but all start at midnight, it’s a traditional and a nod to Cinderella.
I = Imaginative dress is expected of the guests but this isn’t an issue – just don’t turn up as a wicked stepmother and you’ll be fine.
E = Expect to have a good time and an even better sleep when you eventually go home.
S = Strictly RVSP and no red apples whatsoever to be seen anywhere at a fairy’s festive do – it spoils the tone, you know.

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This World and Others – Traditions

T = Traditions are a bedrock of any society so what would your setting have?
R = Revere the traditions or do your characters ignore or despise them?
A = Are there traditions based on religious or other festivals and does everyone take part?
D = Dancing – is this allowed in your setting and, if so, what form does it take?
I = Invented traditions – who invented them and why; what were they seeking to replace and why?
T = Timings of traditions – are these celebrated/commemorated all year or just in certain seasons?
I = In your world’s traditions, what would people do, eat, drink, and why these things in particular?
O = Ongoing traditions – why have people wanted these to continue?
N = New traditions – have your characters taken well to these and what purpose do they fill the old ones couldn’t?
S = Solemnity in traditions or super fun or a mixture of both? Which would your characters prefer and why?

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Random Generators and Story Moods

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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.
It is shaping up to be a good week in that I will be running the Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom for the Association of Christian Writers on Wednesday, which is always fun. The exchange of news is useful to us all too. No one writer can know it all which is why it is important to network, whether it is in person or online or both. I’ve been very grateful for lots of useful information I’ve picked up this way over the years.

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Facebook – General

Looking forward to the Flash Fiction Group meeting (Association of Christian Writers) tomorrow. Always great fun. Will be looking at marketing flash fiction, always a handy topic. Also looking forward to chatting to Swanwick friends on Zoom at the weekend. That’s always great fun too. Ah, the joys of Zoom!

For non-fiction, what draws you in? For me, the topic has to grip immediately and my go-to here is history based. I then pick a book based on the period it is covering. If it is one of my favourite periods (World War Two, the Wars of the Roses, the Elizabethan era (the first one!), then I’ll check out the blurb and if I still like it, it gets bought. Most of my non-fiction books are on Kindle and there can be some great offers here.

For fiction, I turn to crime (make of that what you will!), historical fiction, fantasy and I like a mix of novels and short story and flash collections. I make a point of ensuring I enjoy 99.9% of what I read. Life’s too short to do otherwise!

When writing my own fiction, I focus on getting my characters right (as that, I find, also helps get the plot right) and I want there to be something intriguing about them that will make readers want to find out more.

Lady had a great start to her week as she got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals. Temperature is up and down at the moment. Have just got used to “layering up” as it had turned cold only to find the temperature has shot up again.

Writing Tip: Editing always takes longer than you think so try to allow for that. This is why I take time off any official competition deadline and set my own date by which I have to send something in. It means I have a safety net here should I need it.

My personal deadline date is set at least a week before the official one. I plan when I will have my first draft done by. I also then plan when I will edit said first draft so by the time I reach my deadline all editing is done and it is then a case of having a final check for typos, have I followed the rules to the letter and so on.

I use the good old fashioned A4 diaries you can get from the Post Office for my planning and it works for me. I have found in writing my plans down I am much more likely to get them done. I also journal a little bit in my diary too – makes things more interesting for me too.

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Weather calmer today, even seeing some autumn sun. Seasons can usefully be indicated in stories simply by what you get your characters to wear. You can also bring in colour to describe the clothing. It is unlikely a story set in my part of the world would have a character wearing a thick orange jumper in the height of summer. (If they are, there will be a reason for it and that will be explained by the story).

This can be an excellent short cut for descriptive passages and you can take it further. If that orange jumper is coupled with, say, a purple pair of trousers, I would want to know why a character would wear such a combination. Are they doing it for a laugh? Are they just outgoing and they show it through their clothing? Only one way I can find out and that’s to read the story. I would also want to know if these items had any bearing on the outcome of the story. (Would you turn up for a blind date wearing that combo? I know I wouldn’t!).

If I had a character wearing shorts, I would assume automatically the story has to be set in the summer. I would need the story to show why that wasn’t the case. But again I would then want to know why the character has chosen to wear shorts in a colder time of year – there will be a reason for it.

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Hope everyone is okay – weather ghastly.

Will be talking about Scene Setting for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Many thanks for the comments on Facebook about my interview with Jennifer C Wilson re The Joy of Writing Groups and Workshops.

Author newsletter will be out again soon. To sign up for tips, news, story links etc., do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Working out what to read next on my Kindle given I’ve finished Churchill’s Wizards. Sometimes you can have too much choice! It’s a nice dilemma to have though.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to see some fabulous reviews coming in for The Best of CafeLit 12. My story, Jubilee, is in there. Do check out the reviews and the book at the link below.

It’s Monday. It’s getting darker earlier in the evenings and the UK hasn’t put the clocks back yet. Weather can’t make up its mind whether to be cold or mild. It’s still Monday. Time for a story then. My latest on YouTube is Away on Cloud Nine. Hope you enjoy it.

When I’m taking part in Open Prose Mic Nights and the like, I try to mix up the moods of the stories I’m reading. It’s a great way to showcase what flash can do and be. You usually have three to five minutes for your slot which is more than enough time to read a couple of stories.

I also practice what I’m going to read and good old Zoom helps me ensure I get my timings right. The record yourself and convert the file to an mp4 function is a great tool. Whenever I want to send something in which might be broadcast, I always use that facility. It’s the audio equivalent of not going over a set word count!

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As you know, I sometimes use random generators to help trigger story ideas. A great use for the random question one is to get your character to answer the question. It will show you more about them.

What makes you cry? I generated this question for this post and thought there are a few ideas here.

1. Get the character to answer the question directly.

2. Think about whether the character resolutely will not cry, whatever the circumstances, and what led to that. There will be a significant story there.

3. If something makes you cry, but would not do so for your character, give some thought as to why this is the case.Not quite the same thing as 2 above given some folk just won’t cry for good reasons. It is not their way to “vent”.

Cruelty, for example, can easily make me cry but if my character isn’t moved by it, I want to know why and what would trigger them being upset instead. There has to be something that would trigger tears, surely? If so, what would that be and why aren’t they upset by an “obvious” thing?

It could well be the character is so used to cruelty they have become blinded to it (which is tragic in itself). It would change how they react and interact with other characters too.

4. What makes someone cry (or refuse to do so) will shed some light on what motivates them and this will be useful for you as the writer to know.

Quizzing my characters

Goodreads Author Blog – Favourite Character Types

Stories are all about the characters for me. I like a good plot but if the characters don’t do anything for me, I won’t read on. I need to understand where the characters are coming from, even if I disagree with them. But if they don’t make me feel something, for me there is no point to the story.

Going on from that led me to think about favourite character types. I have some and these are:-

1. The underdog fighting back against the odds. Ranges from Cinderella to action heroes, this type!

2. Righters of wrongs. It’s why I am fond of crime novels. Favourite Poirot for me is Murder on the Orient Express. Favourite Marple for me is Nemesis. There is no question with either of these two that the murderer will get away with it. I like this a lot. I would also argue Elizabeth Bennet counts in this category when she puts down Lady Catherine de Bourgh!

3. The surprise character. This is where someone shows unexpected qualities or without whom the lead character could not succeed in their task. Sam Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings is a great example of this given he shows unexpected courage.

4. The rough diamond character. Sam Vimes from the Discworld series is a prime example of this kind. Despite being a Duke, he’s never going to speak politely, he will fight crime and win. He is the type you want on your side in a fight! Sam Vimes is a cross between a righter of wrong and a rough diamond. Many characters can be more than one type.

Whatever the character type though, I do know I have to be gripped by them and I have to understand them for that to be able to happen.

Screenshot 2023-10-21 at 20-26-11 Favourite Character Types

The author's take on a character type brings the character to life

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Quizzing Your Characters and Autumnal Writing

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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 week. Was horrified to hear someone chopped down the sycamore known as Robin Hood’s tree (it was featured in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves). I love trees and have some in my garden. To chop something down for no reason is madness and heartless. Really can’t believe people at times.
What I do have to believe though is in how I portray my characters and one way I use to get this right is to quiz them. I talk more about this in my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. See below.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today/More than Writers

29th September 2023 – Second Post – CFT
Second blog post from me today and I am back on Chandler’s Ford Today with Quizzing Your Characters. I discuss working out what you need to know and give some pointers as to what you could ask your characters to help you picture them well (and write their stories up with more conviction as a result because you do know them well enough).

If you’re writing in forms where you need to invent characters a lot (as you do with flash fiction/short stories), having a way in to creating characters which works is obviously handy. I have found doing this so useful (and a great time saver when it comes to editing later).

Quizzing Your Characters

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29th September 2023 – First Post – More than Writers

It’s double blog Friday from me this week. First up is Autumnal Writing, my post for More Than Writers (the Association of Christian Writers blog spot). I also share an autumnal story in this which I hope you enjoy. I discuss specific images, the use of the old game of word association, and set you a challenge too. Many thanks also to those who have commented on this one already.

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Two blogs coming up from me tomorrow – Quizzing Your Characters for Chandler’s Ford Today and Autumnal Writing for More than Writers. See above. Have put them in the same order as I shared them on Facebook but hope you find both blogs useful.

Had lovely evening at the Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom last night. Good to see everyone and I hope you all get a good deal from the tips and exercises I set around the topics of opening and closing lines.

I’ve come up with a couple of further ideas myself here which I look forward to working up into drafts in due course. I deliberately set ideas for exercises for these meetings but then have a crack at them myself during the group session. I love live writing exercises like that and I get some drafts done! Win-win.

Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler girlfriend today so she has had a good week catching up with her pals. If ever there is a species to make the most of living in the moment, it is dogs!

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Pleased to say I now have an “all in one go” link for Hannah Kate’s Hannah’s Bookshelf show on North Manchester FM last weekend. My story, The Natural Look, is on there. Link via Mixcloud below.

Lady thrilled to be with her best mate, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, this morning. Lovely time had by all.

Will be on the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom later this evening. This particular group works well online given the members of it live several hundreds of miles apart so could never get together in person. The development of Zoom and online meetings like this have been at least one positive thing to come out of the pandemic. (There have to be some positives, right?).

Writing Tip: Read your dialogue out loud and ideally record it and play it back. Ideally, you would do this for the whole story, but if time is short do focus on the dialogue. I have often found what looks good written down doesn’t always read well and hearing your dialogue played back is as close as you will get to a reader’s experience of your writing as they take it in.

Dialogue needs to mimic what we’d do in life but not be an exact copy so we cut out the vast majority of the hesitations, repetitions etc. The latter is real speech but is tiresome to read so you just put in a tiny amount of it – it gives the idea and that is all which is needed here.

 

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale, The Old Days. Hope you enjoy it. Find out here what my two characters made of their Silver Jubilee school reunion.
Screenshot 2023-09-29 at 10-11-20 The Old Days by Allison Symes

Next author newsletter coming out on Sunday. How can it be almost October already? As ever I’ll share news, tips, and links to stories of mine so a good all round read I think! To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Looking forward to sharing a cracking author interview for Chandler’s Ford Today again soon. I enjoy getting guest authors on here as I’ve always found I learn a great deal from the hints and tips they share. And, of course, it helps with marketing for them and for me/CFT so win-win there.

What I look for in a good interview is a two-way conversation and I always ask questions that have to lead to an “open” response. So there will be no yes/no answers in this neck of the woods, thank you!

 

Hope you have had a good day. Beginning to get blustery here. So glad writing is generally an indoors job!

Many thanks for the comments coming in on Secrets, my most recent tale on Friday Flash Fiction. Prior to the one I put up on Friday 29th September! On the plus side you get two stories in one post this time and if you check my MTW post out, a third one there!

This one is timely because I’ve been cake baking myself this afternoon ahead of a family do. I promise I have not done what my character, Mary Wentworth, does here!

Screenshot 2023-09-22 at 10-11-14 Secrets by Allison Symes

Fairytales With Bite – Storytime Acrostic

S = Select your characters – think about why you want to write these into a story.

T = Time spent outlining your characters (working out what YOU need to know about them) will save time and grief and editing later.

O = Outlining doesn’t have to be rigid; I know I need to know my characters so I outline them rather than the story.

R = Regulate the use of magic in your tales – if everything can be resolved with a wave of the wand, where’s the tension and drama?

Y = Your world, your setting, your characters, your rules but be consistent.

T = Time – how does this work in your magical setting and how does it affect your characters? Can they manipulate it, for example?

I = Imagine what you need to know about your setting and how it works before you write your story. You need enough to get started.

M = Managing your characters can be like herding cats so think about who has to be in your story, why, and what their role is.

E = Endings need to deliver on the promise of your opening lines. Dilemmas need to be resolved, questions answered etc.

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This World and Others – Puzzles Acrostic

P = Physics – how would this work in your setting? Physical geography – what would your reader need to know to make sense of the tale?

U = Understanding what characters can and cannot do. There is no story if one character can do everything. Also it’s unbelievable as we all have weaknesses.

Z = Zed time! Is there anything in your story which you find dull or boring? Worth looking out for this. Your readers will react the same.

Z = Zestful writing will keep the reader turning the pages and the best kind comes from having gripping characters readers care about.

L = Limit your descriptions to what readers must know and drip-feed in information as much as possible. Blocks of description are a turn-off.

E = Envisage your characters and then think of the best way of sharing that with your readers. You want readers to “see” your characters in action.

S = Story, story, story – what is the story? Does it deliver on its premise? If someone else had written this story, would you want to read it? Answer there should be yes.

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Writing Exercises

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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 photo from a local wildflower meadow.
Hope you have had a good couple of days since we last met here. Newsletter will be out again next week. How can it almost be September already? Not that Lady worries. She’s been having a fabulous times with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals for a lot of this week so it has been a good few days for her.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am pleased to share Writing Exercises on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I discuss my nervousness when I was first set them, thinking help, I can’t do this. But I did draft something and later realised that was the idea. Just get something down. You can work on it again later if you wish. I usually do with my writing exercises and some of them have gone on to be published.

I also set a couple of exercises in this post for you to have a go at as well. Hope you have fun with them and find the post useful as I also share why writing exercises are so useful for any writer.

Writing Exercises

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In my Writing Exercises post for Chandler’s Ford Today this week, I will be looking at some of the most popular types I’ve come across. I’ll also have a look at the benefits of practicing writing to these.

Glad to say the writing exercises I set at last night’s Association of Christian Writers Flash Group meeting went well too. And if I get set exercises, as I so often am at things like Swanwick, I am only too glad to give them a go. I get a draft out of it! Sometimes I go on to do more with that draft. Sometimes I don’t but I find it fun just having a go at these things. More in my post tomorrow.

Am so looking forward to the next production from The Chameleon Theatre Group in October. They’re staging Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett (adapted by Stephen Briggs). Will be a real treat. Great story. Will be the first time I’ve seen a Discworld play.

What's your story - writing exercises can help you find out

Lady had a lovely time with her two best girlfriends in the park today. Good time had by all.
I’ll be looking at the usefulness of Writing Exercises for Chandler’s Ford Today this week – link up on Friday. See above.

I’ll be setting some writing exercises for the flash fiction group I’ll be leading later today.

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again on 1st September. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Looking forward to sharing further publication news soon too.

Ideas are triggered by writing exercises and the more you do, the more you trigger said ideas

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale, Puzzled Out. Hope you enjoy it – this is a story where I knew the ending first. And then worked backwards to get to a logical start. Definitely one for puzzle fans.

Screenshot 2023-08-25 at 10-16-23 Puzzled Out by Allison Symes

Have signed up to take part in Flash NANO again in November. This is where you are given a flash fiction prompt for the thirty days of November and you write them up as flash pieces. Last year, I managed to complete the challenge – that’s thirty new pieces to edit and submit somewhere and/or put towards a new collection. I hope to do the same again this year.

I found it great fun to do. I found it useful to write the prompt each day but found with some I had to “carry over” to another day but that was fine. I had something to work with, which is the whole point, The person behind Flash NANO is Nancy Stolhman. More details below.

 

Hope you have had a good day. As well as mixing up the kinds of flash fiction I write in terms of mood and setting, I also mix up the word count length. My overall favourite is the drabble, the 100-worder, but I am fond of the whole range of flash. My next most common category to write in is the 250 to 500 words bracket. I do write some at 750-1000 words but not nearly so often. I usually find if I’m going for a longer work, I will turn it into a standard short story instead (and it ends up at 1500 or so).

For my blogs, all of them are between 500-1000 words or so. For Chandler’s Ford Today I can and do sometimes go up to 1500/1750 depending on what kind of article I am writing. It isn’t always apt to split an author interview in two, for example.

You do end up getting a feel for what kind of word count works best for which item of writing. Practice helps which is why regular writing comes in handy as you get to develop your style of writing and which word count works best for you for certain pieces of work. At least that has been my experience.

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Fairytales with Bite – Once Upon A Time – Acrostic

O = Original characters in an original setting – your magical world won’t be exactly the same as anyone else’s while it will have elements in common.

N = Never mind how your characters feel – drop them right in it and see how they fare.

C = Create characters we will care about in some way – we all love to boo a “good” villain but need to understand why they are being the way they are.

E = Experience will tell – it is not unreasonable for your main character to have a magical mentor of some sort.

 

U = Undertaking – there will be something special for your character to do here and there will be high stakes.

P = Persistence and perseverance – two qualities every hero will need. (Funnily enough the villain needs them to a certain extent too but naturally they usually don’t have enough of these qualities. There has to be a difference between them and your lead).

O = Once upon a time is a classic way to start a tale but you could mix it up by bringing us straight into the action. We will have to read on to find out what happens.

N = Never leave loose ends – there has to be a resolution.

 

A = Always care about your own characters – you are the first to believe in them. You don’t want to be the last!

 

T = Truthfulness in character portrayal pays off – people will believe in your characters if they feel they are or could be true. Knowledge of human nature and what we’re capable of and why can be useful here.

I = Imagination, Imagination, Imagination – why do we read? To find out what the author has imagined for us to enjoy.

M = Memory can be unreliable. If you’re writing series stories, it would pay you to note somewhere what you need to recall about your characters. It’s too easy to change colour of eyes, say, from one story to the next.

E = Enjoy the writing – creativity is fun. Bear in mind editing can be creative too as you seek to strength your story. But do see the writing and editing as two separate tasks. I find that helps a lot.

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This World and Others – History and How It is Told

So much depends here on what value your world setting puts on history and who controls the narrative. That seems a familiar tale does it not?! But when history is told, how is it done?

Is it just via books or are there plays, reenactments, and so on? I once went to a historical reenactment in Tewkesbury – good fun but what was interesting was you got a real sense of the smells, the sounds etc which you would not have got had you just read a historical account.

So in your setting, who writes the history? Is it performed? Who would do that? Do they have to stick to the official version of the history or can they put their own interpretation on it?

In your setting, are new historical discoveries ever found? Are these welcome? Not all might be! If something were to put a different spin on a genuinely accepted event, people (as well as their government) are not likely to react well to it.

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
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Publication News – Writers’ Narrative – and Writing to Unwind

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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. Images for Writers’ Narrative magazine used in the Chandler’s Ford Today post and on my Facebook posts were kindly supplied by Wendy H Jones, Editor in Chief. The Feature Image is based on an image supplied by Wendy too. Many thanks also to Richard Hardie for taking the picture of me at the recent Book Fair.
Hope you had a lovely weekend. Had a family to to celebrate my other half’s significant birthday – good time had by all, despite the weather. Lady loved it all. And it was lovely to be able to share more publication news just before the weekend too.

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Am thrilled to say the first issue of Writers’ Narrative magazine is now out there. It’s a fabulous read for any writer (and written by writers who understand what people are seeking in this kind of magazine). I talk about Boosting Your Writing with Flash Fiction but there is an astounding range of articles in here. And the magazine has already hit the No. 1 spot in the US on Amazon. It was a real pleasure to receive the magazine in my inbox this morning – and you can receive it this way too. Just see the link.

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Hope you have had a good start to the week. Mondays are always hectic but it is nice to get to that point of the day where I can write for a while. Bliss and I find it invigorating and a great way to unwind at the same time, strange as that may sound. Writing satisfies a need to be creative. This is especially great after a day of doing more mundane things.

Looking forward to catching up with everyone at the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction group meeting on Wednesday. I am glad to say several have had pieces on Friday Flash Fiction which is fabulous. Flash fiction writing, I find, comes into its own when I don’t have as much time as I would like to write. I still can get something down!

May be an image of text that says "Learning to go with the flow takes time but you will be happier for doing so."As well as sharing the wonderful news The Best of CafeLit 12 is now out (with my story Jubilee on page 110 – guess who looked!), I get to do some authorial housekeeping. I’ve updated my Amazon Author Central Page – I will give Amazon their due here. I put the request in and literally minutes later the book was up on my page. Can’t fault that.

Updating books on Goodreads is more tricky though – I’ve sent a request in but don’t know when I’ll hear on that. Am less impressed. I’ve never found updating anything on that site easy.

I’ve updated the books page on my website (see link – I’ve got the books page as my home page – I think there is something apt about that. Books always make me think of home and the lovely volumes I have here!).

Oh and I’ve got the book listed with ALCS (Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society). As a member of the Society of Authors, I get to be part of ALCS for free but it doesn’t cost much to join and your membership fee is taken from your first payment. Just the once too. You pay once and that’s it.

Adding my books on to my ALCS list means I will get something from my contribution to this book in due course from them. It is worth adding on your books (but they can’t do ebooks). Well worth investigating if you’ve got books out (or contributions to print anthologies etc).

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Had a family do today. Great time had by all. Lady loves it when we have guests around. They all make a huge fuss of her and treats are involved too so what’s not to like?

Am so looking forward to sharing next week’s Chandler’s Ford Today post – Welcome to Writers’ Narrative Magazine. I’m talking with Editor in Chief, Wendy H Jones, for this one. Amongst other topics will be how you can subscribe to this free magazine and how to submit articles for consideration.

The first (August) edition is out during next week (25th July, just ahead of my post). See above. Trust me, there is plenty of good reading here. I am privileged to be part of the editorial team here. Naturally I am also contributing articles! If you would like to sign up now, to ensure you don’t miss a single thing, you can do so at the link here.

Writers' Narrative

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Delighted to be talking about how writing flash fiction can boost your writing overall for the first issue of Writers’ Narrative, which came out today.

I will also be focusing on flash fiction for tomorrow’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction group on Zoom.

This is a good example of why it is important to love what you write. All writers need to market their work (else how else will people know about it?) so it is vital you enjoy what you do to (a) help you keep going with this and (b) talk about your writing love with conviction. It does show.

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The good old notebook is still useful for Zoom workshop attendees

It’s Monday. It’s been wet, dark at times, more like an autumn day than a summer one, wet, and it is still Monday. Time for another YouTube story from me then. Hope you enjoy my latest called Celebrating though my character Sheila is celebrating alone. Find out why here.

 

Sunday afternoon is flash fiction writing time for me and is something I look forward to immensely. I’m also looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Wednesday evening.

My story, Jubilee, in the recently released The Best of CafeLit 12 is a piece of flash work. Yes, it is about the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. So much seems to have happened since then, yes?

Events like this can act as time markers for fiction – most people remember where they were/what they were doing at these things so that can save you a lot of description and gives a setting immediately. (And nobody, who saw it, is going to forget the marvellous sketch with Paddington either!).

CafeLit12 MediumHad a lovely time at the family do held earlier today. We don’t let the weather get in our way! Just as well too given it poured down all day….

The first edition of Writers’ Narrative magazine is out online next week and I’ll be taking about flash fiction in that. See above. Am excited about this as the magazine really is fabulous.

Talking of which, I am thrilled to have a flash fiction piece of mine, Jubilee, out in the recently released The Best of CafeLit 12. Many congratulations to all of the other writers in this lovely collection. Great mix of stories and authors here. Do check it out. Good read guaranteed!

 

Goodreads Author Blog – Publication News and Being Read

Am thrilled to have another story out, Jubilee, in the recently released The Best of CafeLit 12. The buzz of being published never dies! It’s a continuing joy to know your work is being read.

I regularly mix up what I read. I will read novels, non-fiction, fiction across most genres, but I also make sure I include the short form (short stories and flash fiction). Okay, I’m biased because I write short stories and flash fiction, but they are just as every bit a valid an art form as the novel. You cherish all of these things, I think.

The advantage of the short forms of fiction is they are perfect for those without much time to read or who do not have the confidence to read bigger works.

The shorter forms are ways of showing there is something out there for all reading needs. Not everyone wants to read a huge novel, at least to begin with, Maybe they’ll get to that later once they‘ve had confidence in reading built up (and the short forms can help a lot there). Sometimes a story is best told in fewer words and it genuinely works better at 10,000 words, say, rather than standard novel length of about 100,000.

What I love is there is plenty of choice out there and I will always wave the flag for the shorter forms of reading. They can be a great way into reading altogether.

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
As well as selling my books, I was selling books I've contributed to - those went well too

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Must admit I do not like the new X symbol for Twitter. I liked the bird! Is staying here for the time being at least.

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Books Which Work and Those Which Don’t

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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 weekend. Not bad here. Glad to spread good news about the forthcoming monthly online magazine, Writers’ Narrative. This is written by writers for writers and the first issue will be out soon. More details below. Am very pleased to be part of this. (Images kindly provided for Writers’ Narrative by Wendy H Jones, Editor in Chief).

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Am pleased to be back on Authors Electric once more. This month I talk about Books Which Work and Those Which Don’t. I do love titles which get to the heart of the matter! Hope you enjoy the post.

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Back to the changeable weather today but Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler friend so was very happy with that.

Will be looking at Websites – Why A Writer Needs One for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up on Friday. Looking forward to the next Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Group meeting next week too.

The countdown to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick starts about now. Well, at least it does for me! So looking forward to catching up with friends and making new ones and the workshops are always an inspiration.

I’m chatting about Books Which Work and Those That Don’t for Authors Electric – link up tomorrow. See above.

May be a graphic of 1 person and text that says "The writing life is addictive but fun. The support of other writers makes a huge difference."Better day weather wise today though was thankful to avoid most of the rain yesterday. Still our park is looking much better than it had done. The grass is looking like grass as opposed to straw.

Many thanks for the comments coming in on my post yesterday about Writers’ Narrative. Much appreciated. I’ll be sharing a fabulous interview with editor in chief, Wendy H Jones, about the new writing magazine, in a couple of weeks time on Chandler’s Ford Today.

Meantime I’ll be looking at websites and useful material for them for the post coming up on CFT this coming week. Hope you will find both posts useful. More on each nearer the time.

15th July – Val Penny blog tour
So pleased to be part of Val Penny’s book blog tour to link in with the re-release of Hunter’s Blood. The tour is organised by Lynsey Adams but do check the tour out. And good luck, Val.
Screenshot 2023-07-18 at 20-42-30 Reading Between the Lines Online Book PR15th July – second post
Am pleased to share more news about Writers’ Narrative, the forthcoming new online writing magazine. Written by writers for writers. The first issue will be out soon and the best way to ensure you don’t miss an edition is to subscribe to it. Best news of all – this is free – do see the link (and meet the team as well while there). The magazine will be a monthly one and packed full of advice and aspects of the writing world you will not want to miss. Oh and check out the cover on the first one – it’s fabulous.

Writers' Narrative

 

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Many thanks for the great comments coming in on The Neighbours, my most recent tale on Friday Flash Fiction. This is the only tale I’ve written which is inspired by Shakespeare, Terry Pratchett, and the female characters from long running sitcom, The Last of the Summer Wine. It’s a good mix though! If you missed it, do check out the link.

(Oh and many congratulations to other members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group for having work on here this week as well. Always good to see that).

Screenshot 2023-07-14 at 10-10-17 The Neighbours by Allison Symes

It’s Monday. I just about rescued my washing in time from a heavy downpour when the forecast said there would be no rain. (Have always felt the forecast is more like an intelligent bet – and sometimes it does not pay off!). Time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Porridge.

 

I’ve mentioned before that telling details, which includes having a hook-them-in title, are crucial components for flash stories. With no room for much in the way of description, you do have to show only what your readers what they need to know and leave it there. The rest can be implied.

This is where using the senses can come in handy. Rather than get my character to wear a drab coat, I would get them to wear a beige one. It is specific. Beige is considered a drab colour. Job done there.

Sometimes for locations you can use sound to imply where a character has to be. If they’re listening to a wide variety of bird song, they’re unlikely to be in the middle of a big city. Other little details can then flesh this out such as the character relishing the sound of walking through crunchy leaves etc (and that gives you the season too without you having to say so).

Naming a street, say, would imply the character has to be in at least a village.

It pays then to work out what your reader has to know and then work out how you can show that through your character’s actions and thoughts.

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As promised, more news about Writers’ Narrative. I am one of the team behind the magazine (the editor in chief is Wendy H Jones) and the magazine is packed full of wonderful information and advice no writer is going to want to miss and much more besides. Good news! You can subscribe to the free magazine here. The first issue will be out soon. It is a pleasure and privilege to be working on this. (Oh and naturally I’m talking about flash fiction in the first issue). You can subscribe for free here.

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Goodreads Author Blog – All The Fun of the Book Fair

I was thrilled to take part in a Book Fair local to me last weekend. It was the first one in the venue chosen (and the venue was excellent). It was fantastic to see a wide range of authors covering so many different tastes in books and age ranges too.

Non-fiction (travel journeys) was well represented too. The organisers counted well over 100 people in attendance and there was a constant footfall flow all afternoon. This is highly encouraging. There is hope this event will become an annual one. For obvious reasons, I hope it does too.

But I also saw it as encouraging that people still love books. They want to see what their local authors are coming out with. If you have an event like this coming up near you, do go if you can. You may well be pleasantly surprised at the wealth of reading material on offer. I was – and I was taking part!

Also great to see these events back again. The last one I took part in was before the pandemic – that seems like a world away now – though I have run workshops, gone to conferences etc since. Good to see the book fairs back too now! This was something I was especially pleased about as our bookshops are now several miles away so having the books come to the locality will always be a fantastic idea.

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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This tweet came as a nice surprise! Thank you. Jacci Gooding! Also have been very busy on the Twitter front this week – that bird has been tweeting a lot from my end!

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Windsor Castle and Cake Glorious Cake

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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 Penny Blackburn for taking the image of me reading at the Swanwick Open Prose Mic Night back in 2019. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, as were the photos from Windsor Castle.
Had a lovely day out with my younger sister over the weekend. It was a trip down Memory Lane in some ways. While we’d not been to the Castle itself before, we have been to Legoland and, prior to that on that site, the old Windsor Safari Park. (That was very much of its time). In both cases we remembered the magnificent views of the Castle from those places. This time, it was nice to see the views FROM the Castle!

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Posting early as have a busy evening ahead. Have another one again tomorrow with the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom. Talking about flash fiction is always fun and it has been great to see people with this group have works published on Friday Flash Fiction etc. The proof of the pudding etc etc. Writing exercises (and I set these regularly) do spur creativity and are worth having a go at for that reason alone. If you can then go on to get the works published, even better.

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Today would’ve been my father’s 86th birthday. He would have heartily approved of my kid sister and I having a trip to Windsor Castle over the weekend. The last time we were in the area at all, we were kids and he was driving. Yes, I am going a long way back. I have a long way TO go back!

Lady had a good time with her two closest pals, the Rhodesian Ridgeback and the Hungarian Vizler. It has been cooler today – nobody in my acquaintance, human or otherwise, has been sorry about that!

Looking forward to welcoming Gail Aldwin back to Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. (Many thanks again to Francesca Tyer for her two part interview – it was great).

Have submitted a short historical piece as an entry for an article competition. So enjoyed writing the piece too. Am pondering whether to have a crack at a flash fiction competition – deadline end August.

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Another hot day (though cooler than yesterday). Lady and I are not sorry about that.
Many thanks for the great comments coming in on Deserved Desserts, my most recent tale on Friday Flash Fiction. The opening line here is an odd one even by my standards but huge fun! Hope you enjoy it if you missed the link on my book Facebook page on Friday (From Light to Dark and Back Again).

Sometimes I will start an idea from a quirky opening line I’ve jotted down (usually during one of my brainstorming sessions). I then work out what I could do with that line and I usually find something. Don’t forget you can use random generators to come up with opening lines (quirky or otherwise). This makes for a good writing challenge. There are competitions which are based on opening lines set by the competition organisers so this is well worth having a go at on a regular basis.

Screenshot 2023-06-23 at 09-56-26 Deserved Desserts by Allison Symes

Had a fabulous day out at Windsor Castle with my kid sister. Lovely time had by us both. So hot though. What is nice is we’ve been able to convert our tickets so we can visit again during the next year during the times the Castle is open to the public. We hope to get to do that. No extra money for this either. Also very impressed with how well organised they are for those with mobility issues.

Looking forward to sharing a fabulous interview with Gail Aldwin whose The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell is out soon. Link up on Friday. And then I’ll be sharing more news about the Book Fair I’m going to be part of in July.

I’ve occasionally written a flash piece based on a work of art. Gill James set this as a challenge ages ago and it was fun to do. Will I do it again? At some point, yes. I was impressed with the Van Dycks and other masterpieces I’ve seen today at the Castle so plenty of inspiration to be found there! Am not short of potential material at least…

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I mix up the pieces I use for reading at Open Prose Mic Nights etc – in terms of mood, word count as well as by using different tales. I rehearse reading these (and yes I do often record them on Zoom to play back) but the important thing is to have a good read through (ideally several) as it is too easy to assume you know the material, you can wing it. Err… no.

What I do find the rehearsals do is help calm my nerves because I know I have rehearsed. It helps. The tricky bit is working out how much to drink (non-alcoholic as alcohol can dry the throat aside from any other side effects!) ahead of an event because you don’t want to have a dry throat when reading (it can lead to coughing) nor do you want to be caught short! I find about an hour before hand works well.

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It’s Monday. It has cooled down a bit! Still time for a new story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Cake Glorious Cake. Is on the dark side, probably like the chocolate involved in the cake. Hope you enjoy it.

 

Internal thoughts are a great way to show character attitude (and usual practice is to have these in italics. It distinguishes them from “speech” and flags up the the reader this is a character thinking). I use this a lot as I often want to get across attitude and don’t we all think things we don’t then go on to say? Characters can do the same thing! What the thoughts will do is influence their behaviour and show the reader directly why your character is acting the way they are, both useful things.

May be a graphic of text that says "Thoughts are effectively internal dialogue but should still suit the character you portray and the genre of the story."


Looking forward to running the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom next week. Always good fun and it is an enjoyable challenge for me to find a useful topic to set exercises on. I like setting (and then doing) writing exercises. I’ve had several stories go on to be published which started life this way.

Now I must admit I find the hot humid weather not the easiest of conditions to cope with but it led me to wonder if you could get a character to find the same thing. How would that change their attitudes and behaviour? How would that change the course of your story? And are other characters tolerant of their struggles to cope with the conditions?

Goodreads Author Blog – Classic -v- Contemporary Reading

Now for me there is no debate when it comes to whether you should read classic or contemporary works of fiction and non-fiction. You do both of course. For non-fiction you need to be aware some information is likely to be out of date but there is still inspiration to be had from what people thought at the time of publication. That could even lead to fictional story ideas.

I often mix up my reading so I’ll read a novel, before going on to a story or flash collection and then I’ll move on to some non-fiction but it is a good idea to mix up between classic and contemporary as well. You don’t want to miss out on the classic works and you want to see what is out and about now. I see this as having a good reading diet (which I find helps inspire my writing too).

It’s also encouraging to know great writers have always been inspired by others’ stories. So I should be too! But it is interesting that ideas for stories often come when I’m reading non-fiction. And I can be as taken away by fabulous tale whether it is a classic or contemporary one.

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Allison Symes - Flash Fiction Collections

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