Tag: Author interviews

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

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Learning from Author Interviews

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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. It was a Bank Holiday one here in the UK. Mixed bag weather wise but that’s normal. Lady saw her best chum, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, unexpectedly on one of our afternoon walks. Both dogs relished that.
I’m catching up with my writing again after an unwelcome break (as in break in!) and being so glad to be back doing normal things again. Well, as normal as things get for a writer anyway. Have not yet thought of a flash story where a burglar gets their comeuppance but give me time…!

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Facebook – General

I love conducting author interviews for Chandler’s Ford Today and also enjoy reading those in writing magazines etc. I’ve picked up many useful tips along the way from these. I also find it endlessly fascinating how each writer comes up with ideas, how they approach getting the writing and editing done and so on.

I got into the habit of reading author interviews long before I had anything published. I was interested then chiefly in how writers got their breakthroughs and quickly discovered no two writing journeys are exactly the same.

But I also realised if I was the one being interviewed and asked these questions, I ought to work out just what I would say in response. So I jotted down several questions and worked out what I might say in the event I had stories published (and then later a book) and had these posers put to me.

I’ve found that so useful. It also helped me filter out what I do need to get across when talking about my writing and to leave out those interesting side bits which aren’t relevant to the questions being asked. I also found doing all of this helped with self confidence.

Practicing talking about what you do (and using interview questions you’ve come across as a guide) is a good thing to do. I found it ensured I was able to summarize my books in a line or two. That’s useful too.

Look up author interviews and get a feel for the kind of questions that are asked

Hope you have had a good Monday. Bank holiday here in the UK. My usual hectic day but with the family at home. Usually feels like a strange cross between a Sunday and a Monday.

Writing wise, I’m interviewing Jenny Sanders on Chandler’s Ford Today about her new devotional book, Polished Arrows. This will be a two-part interview and we will be taking a good look at this kind of writing, which is a specialised form of literature. More to come on Friday.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Wednesday evening where the topic will be questions and answers.

And don’t forget the June issue of Writers’ Narrative will be out very soon.

Weather back to being all over the place again. Oh well. Glad to see some love-in-a-mist coming up in one of our borders. Lovely name for a pretty plant. First time we’ve planted it. Something cheery to see after a bad week.

I had a quick look at a random theme generator and the topic which came up was redemption.

Interesting one. Fiction wise, you can invent a character in need of redemption and work out whether they obtain that or not (or deliberately refuse to be redeemed. There would be consequences from that. How would that play out?).

Also bear in mind the character themselves may well feel they don’t need redeeming at all but those around them do! Who would be right? The need for redemption is in the eye of the beholder perhaps.

For non-fiction, there could be some interesting pieces about redemption as a theme in art and the artists who created those pieces, just to name one example.

That is just one topic.

Bear in mind you could also combine themes which come up on the generators. Another one which came up on my look through was spaceship. Okay, you could look at who needs redeeming on board said craft! I’m sure there’d be some interesting possibilities there.

What I always look for when I use random generators, story cubes, books of prompts etc is a starting point, a way into creating interesting characters I then want to write up (and dump right in it and then see how “they” get out of that situation).

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It was a pleasure to share on Zoom a one hour talk on editing with the Spiderplant writing group (who are affiliated to the Association of Christian Writers). Many thanks for making me feel so welcome and I hope you found the advice useful. (Many thanks to Rosalie Weller for kind permission to use the photo).

As well as being an author, I’m an editor and judge competitions too. This can be enlightening because it helps me improve my own writing. This is because I can see where mistakes are made (especially on competition entries) and then try to ensure I don’t make the same ones myself.

In other writing news, I will be talking to Jenny Sanders on her new book, Polished Arrows, in an in-depth two part interview which starts next Friday on Chandler’s Ford Today. Looking forward to sharing Part 1 then.

Spiderplant advert for editing talk by Allison Symes on 25th May 2024

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Occasionally, I do have scene breaks in my flash stories. These tend to be for the tales which are 750 to 1000 words in length such as my She Did It Her Way, Kind Of (From Light to Dark and Back Again). Most of the time the action of my stories is dealt with in a few paragraphs but this story did need the full flash word count range to show what I needed it to show.

This tale had four characters in it (one was a dog) and another was referred to by the two female, human characters. (The last character was a pushy salesman who fell foul of the dog). I especially enjoyed writing the ending for this story where everything is wrapped up.

A story has to be the appropriate word count length to tell it properly. Sometimes I find a story I thought would come in at 100 words does need more space and can end up as being a 500 words tale instead. That’s fine. I just find another market for it than the one I originally intended.

For me, a story is only complete when everything is wrapped up and I feel not another word could be added without diluting the impact in some way.

Framed Flash CollectionsIt’s Monday. It’s a Bank Holiday but nothing disguises the fact it’s Monday. Garfield, the cartoon cat, famously loathes Mondays. But then he wasn’t about to enjoy a new story from me on YouTube! Hope you like my latest here – First Class. Is Griselda right to be suspicious of posh looking mail coming by first class post and is she in trouble? Find out here.

I talked about random theme generators over on my Facebook author page but wanted to add here there is a huge amount of these things out there. I find it pays to mix up the ones I use as this makes for an interesting challenge. Can I write to what has been generated? It is useful practice for writing to story competition themes as well, I think, because you’re getting into the habit of responding to a prompt which has been set by someone else.

The opening line kind is my favourite because I can use that to kick start a new piece of flash fiction or a short story. Occasionally, if the line is right, it can inspire an idea fora blog post. One I generated for this post reads I am optimistic that…

Now you can write an article or a blog post from that but you could use it for fiction too as a story told in the first person by your character. What are they optimistic about? Are they right?

The important thing is, whatever type of prompt you use, to have fun with them. I’ve created (and had published) many stories and flash pieces which started life this way.

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All stories need a proper beginning, middle, and end, regardless of their word count. I find for flash fiction it helps to visualise my word count. This is where studying sites like Friday Flash Fiction helps a lot. You can literally see what 100 words looks like on screen.

Having got the visualisation sorted, I can then work out when I need to have the character and set up by, leaving myself enough words to show the problem and worsen it for my poor characters, while still leaving myself enough word count room again so I can give a proper finish.

For a 500 word story, for example, that is roughly one page of A4 so I can visualise splitting that A4 into thirds to deal with the three crucial elements of any tale.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Fictional Humorous Worlds

Every story, of whatever word count length, is its own mini world, of course, but I have a soft spot for humorous worlds, especially when the books concerned are part of a series.

My two overall favourites here are Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series and practically anything by P.G. Wodehouse. The latter has multiple worlds – the worlds of Jeeves and Wooster, the Blandings world, the Psmith world and so on.

I love humorous writing. It is wonderful escapism. There is always a time and need for that but perhaps never more so than now when the news is so grim. What I love about the book series though is watching how characters develop over them. This is especially true for Pratchett’s Sam Vimes. That character arc is a fascinating one. Compare who he is in Guards! Guards! with how he is in the final book he is in, Raising Steam. It is a fascinating character study all authors can learn from. Feet of Clay and Men at Arms also work as great detective stories too so do check them out.

You could argue Jeeves and Wooster don’t change that much but that is part of their charm. What does change is the chaos around them they have to sort out, especially Jeeves.

But what is consistent about all of these is the laughs! In a troubled world, I so welcome these. I do wish humorous writing wasn’t looked down on though. I learned a long time ago what looks like easy writing took an awful long time for the writer to craft. It’s even harder for humorous writers given humour can be subjective.

Screenshot 2024-05-25 at 18-08-02 Fictional Humorous Worlds

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Author Interview: Val Penny – Hunter’s Secret, Writing a Series, and Blog Tours

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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 and photos of the lovely area of Northumberland taken by me, Allison Symes.
Coming to the end of my time in Northumberland as this goes out. Had a lovely time. Gorgeous scenery and the break has been much needed. Is lovely to be writing somewhere else now and again too. Lots of walking done – we’ve averaged five miles a day. Lady, because she has a fine line in zig-zagging everywhere like our dog, Gracie, used to do, has probably averaged at least a third again on top of that!

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am thrilled to welcome back Val Penny to Chandler’s Ford Today as part of her blog tour for her new book, Hunter’s Secret. Val discusses her latest book in her DCI Hunter Wilson series and shares fabulous advice on blog tours, useful information for all writers. She also shares great advice on what writers can do to help themselves in the run up to publication day. Do enjoy a great read and good luck with the new book, Val.

Author Interview: Val Penny – Hunter’s Secret, Advice on Writing a Series, and Blog Tours

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Another glorious day at the Druridge Bay Country Park though this time we took a different direction on that glorious beach and had a fabulous three miles walk towards Cresswell. Then it was time for our around the lake walk after lunch and then coffee/hot chocolate and cake before heading back to our cottage. This is what we call a good day.

Lady having a wonderful play on the beach and a calming walk after lunch is what she calls a good day (though she wouldn’t have minded snaffling some cake from the couple next door to us at the cafe. Fortunately they liked dogs! Lady didn’t have any. I brought her own treats for cafe time). We worked out we’ve averaged five miles a day walking while we have been here (and on one particular day we have cause to think it was closer to eight). We have all been sleeping very well. No surprises there!

Will be sharing a great interview with Val Penny tomorrow on Chandler’s Ford Today. Link above. She discusses her new book, Hunter’s Secret, and shares a wealth of useful information especially on blog tours. So do watch out for this if you are planning a blog tour yourself.

I know I’ve been grateful for all I’ve learned from author interviews over the years, whether I’ve conducted them or not. And learning like this can help save you a great deal of time as you work out what is likely to work best for you.

 

Smashing day out again at Kielder Forest and Water Park. There are so many different walks here and it was a joy to do some different ones today (as well as admiring the marvellous view over the Kielder Viaduct again). There was a wonderful sunset as we came back to our cottage too. Autumn in Northumberland is lovely.

Finished listening to Thud (Terry Pratchett) today and started Feet of Clay (also Pratchett – it is a fabulous crime story. All of the Vimes novels in the Discworld canon stand alone as detective tales). I love the characterisation in Discworld and the dialogue between regular characters in particular. Vimes has a fine line in sarcasm.

Talking of dialogue, this is another area where writing flash fiction helps you hone this. Dialogue in flash fiction needs to be kept to the point. I love getting characters to talk but the need to keep things concise means I ensure all I get them to say is relevant to the story. Anything else gets cut.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to share my latest tale, Lucky Thirteen, on Friday Flash Fiction. But is the number thirteen as lucky for my character, Shelley, as she thinks? Find out here.

Screenshot 2023-10-13 at 15-50-30 Lucky Thirteen by Allison Symes

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

The November edition of Writers’ Narrative will be out soon too. To make sure you don’t miss an issue, do subscribe (for free) at http://subscribepage.io/WritersNarrative

I do follow a number of author newsletters. I love reading them and it is a great way of keeping up with authors you like. I prepare mine over the course of the month, adding in news items as I get them in, and find that a useful way of compiling the next edition. Doesn’t take too long doing it this way either.

 

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting at the end of the month. It’s always great fun and I love the way information is shared two way. Also looking forward to running an editing workshop via Zoom in November for another writing group. Zoom has been a great tool for workshops.

I’ve mentioned before that flash makes for a great writing exercise and you can use this in different ways. Firstly, you can choose which word count to work to. After all, if you like to start your main writing work by a warm up exercise, why not write a flash fiction tale to 50 words, to 100 words, to 300 etc? It gives you something else to try and get published later as well.

Secondly, in writing flash, you write concisely. You can apply that to any other form of writing you do. Thirdly, if you are writing long form work, there will be a time when you are resting that ahead of editing work. Why not have fun writing the short forms in the meantime?

Less is More is the theme for flash fiction writers

Fairytales with Bite – Character Development

One of the things I love about Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series is the way his characters develop over several novels. Sam Vimes, I think, is the best here. But what about our own characters? Can your characters develop even if they are “one-offs”?

For the vast majority of my flash fiction and short story work, my characters are “one-offs” but they develop over the course of the story I’ve put them in. After all, every story has to show change and that change is how our characters develop. Okay, the outcome might not always be a positive one but it will still be change. My characters are not the same at the end of the story as they were at the beginning and that is how it should be.

So in a magical setting, how would your characters develop? Is it a question of improving their skill sets, their ability (or otherwise) to get on with others, their growing realisation that magic is not always a good thing etc? Development takes many forms after all and our stories can reflect that.

What I want to see in characters I read is to see how they change. Sometimes I’ll root for them because the change they’re going through is, to my mind, the right one. There are others I want to scream at because I feel they’re taking the wrong path (and often in the story, later on, I am proved to be right).

What I never want to read or write are static characters. Where is the interest there? For magical characters, development can be enhanced or complicated by their magical skills (or lack of).

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This World and Others – Supplies -Magical or Otherwise

How do your magical characters top up on supplies? Are there things which a wave of the old magic wand simply cannot produce? (I must admit if I was living in a magical world, I would want my food and drink produced naturally, the old school way if you like. I would be deeply suspicious of anything produced by magic which is meant to be edible. Snow White should have taken the same view!).

When your setting has things which have to be produced by means other than magic, how is this done? Is there agriculture, for example, as we would know it? Are the producers of non-magical items respected or looked down on? What is the attitude of the society around them?

Does your setting have to import its supplies from other sources (other planets, other countries on their own planet etc)? Does your setting ever have problems getting supplies in and how is that overcome? Does your setting trade magical skills to get in supplies from elsewhere? Who would organise getting those supplies? How would trading agreements work?

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Anniversaries, Attitudes, and Interviews

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Hope you had a lovely weekend. Pleased to say poppies from seed I planted last year are now flowering. Am especially pleased as I’m not the world’s greatest gardener by any means. Lovely splashes of colour and it occurs to me that with the right telling details in our stories, we can add splashes of “colour” to the portrayal of our characters, making them seem more real to readers. The use of the senses can help a lot here. I can picture a character in a red coat, say, rather than one in a dull coat. Dull isn’t a strong enough image for me.

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Facebook – General

Today would have been my maternal grandfather’s birthday. It is also, of course, the anniversary of D-Day. (I’ve only seen mention of that on social media incidentally. Am surprised not to have seen at least a mention of it elsewhere). He was in a reserved occupation for the war. Other members of the family were in the forces and then went into the ARP and fire watched.

Anniversaries can be tricky subjects to write about given so many emotions are tied up with them. On those grounds, I tend not to write about them directly but where stories can help, I think, is where you have a character showing the reader what something, including anniversaries, means to them. The action of the story should show why they feel this way.

The nearest I’ve got to this is in my They Don’t Understand from From Light to Dark and Back Again where my character shares a poignant snapshot of his life. He references events many would identify with and certainly I just felt for my poor character in this tale. I hope other readers have done too. Sympathy and understanding are much to be encouraged and stories do have an important role here.

May be a black-and-white image of text that says "A well drawn character will encourage empathy from readers, even if we still think their decisions are wrong."

Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler girlfriends today. All had a nice time. Mind you, Lady couldn’t believe the Ridgeback’s human mum really did not have any treats in her bag. Lady had to stick her nose right in said bag to make sure. Why can you never get a camera out quickly enough for things like that?! Lady looked so comical.

Good laugh had by all and Lady no doubt wondered what the fuss was about. All dogs can do a very good impersonation they are not fed enough, they desperately need more food/treats etc. Don’t believe a word of it, well at least as far as Lady is concerned anyway!

Writing wise, am busy working on another interview for Chandler’s Ford Today, as well as looking forward to sharing the one with Val Penny this coming Friday.

Also looking ahead a little will be preparing material soon for the next Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting at the end of the month. These presentations are always great fun to do and I set plenty of exercises. I do write up the exercises myself and on the night of the meeting too. Live writing like this is a good challenge.

The great advantage to it is nobody expects perfection. You simply can’t do it in the time scale (often only minutes) you’ve been given. The idea is just to get something down. The polishing and editing can happen later.

May be a graphic of text that says "Whatever you write, get the draft down first. Punctuation and paragraphs can be tidied up in the editing."

Another lovely day in my part of the world. Am almost at the end of reading 1000 Years of Annoying the French. Good read, humorous, and an interesting look at history. Highly recommend.

I’ve developed a love for non-fiction in recent years and often find ideas for stories spark from something I’ve read in non-fiction. Think about the spouses of past inventors who were never appreciated in their life time. How did they handle that? Did they appreciate what their spouses were trying to do? Story ideas there for a start!

I like to mix up my reading so the next on my list is a crime novel I’ve been looking forward to reading so that will be fun. Your reading as well as your writing should be fun (at least most of the time).

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I’ll be interviewing Scottish crime writer, Val Penny, for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Looking forward to sharing a bit more about that nearer the time. The interview itself will be up on Friday.

Talking of interviews, I do sometimes quiz my characters as I’m coming up with an outline of a possible story. I need to know my character is the right one to be the “lead”. I do see it a bit like casting the right actor for the right part.

I need to know their main trait (and that will often show me likely attitudes to spring out of that). I also need to know what would they not do if they could at all avoid it and then put them in a situation where they do have to face this.

Dumping your characters right in it is a fabulous way of finding out what they’re made of – it’s also great fun. Okay not for them but it is for you, the writer. It will also keep your readers gripped as they will want to find out what your character does to get out of the situation (or If they do at all of course).

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Many thanks for the wonderful comments coming in on Telling It As It Is, my most recent story on Friday Flash Fiction. All much appreciated. The views on my lead character’s behaviour is pretty much unanimous!

Screenshot 2023-06-02 at 09-42-22 Telling It As It Is by Allison Symes

Mondays are especially busy for me so by the time I get to my desk, I’m already feeling tired. But the good thing is I am aware of this so I use Mondays for “little bits and pieces”. It makes me feel better I’ve got something done. Being creative at all helps me unwind which is just what I need after a busy day.

And one of my “little bits and pieces” is to share my latest YouTube video with you. Hope you enjoy Walking Away.

 

Sometimes I use an attitude as the basis of a story. One I’ve used is the idea of having to make the best of things. My story, Decisions, from Tripping the Flash Fantastic is an example of this.

So think about attitudes you love/loathe and think about how your character(s) could “act” that out. You are not telling the attitude here. You are getting your character to show it and readers will pick it up and run with it. I like to go with positive attitudes (it’s not a bad idea for life!) and as with Decisions, these can often lend themselves well to humorous pieces.

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I love writing humorous flash stories. The mini story form is ideal for funny tales and to end with a punchline is a delight. I try to ensure the humour arises naturally from the characters and their situation. This means it is is less likely to date. Some things we will always find amusing and it is that kind of humour I try to tap into with these stories.

So think about what you find funny and why that is. One important thing to remember is normally in a comic story, the character themselves does not find their situation funny. It is for the reader to do so. A character can think their situation tragic (and with cause) while we, the readers, fall about laughing. If you look at the classic TV (and radio) comedies, watch (and listen) out for this.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Book “Flops”

What do you consider makes a book “flop” for you? Thankfully, I’ve not had too much experience of this but if a character doesn’t grip me quickly, I’m unlikely to read much further. I have to care about the character. I have to care about what happens to them and what they do or don’t do to help themselves. There has to be the hook to draw me into reading more and then more etc.

For non-fiction, firstly the topic has to grip me. Secondly, the narrative has to be interesting. I don’t want a list of dates. I want a good read which helps me take in useful information as I go. (This is where I welcome creative non-fiction which uses techniques in fiction writing to great effect in presenting non-fiction material in a more engaging manner. I’ve mentioned before I love the works of Ben Mcintyre. His books read as novels though they are all non-fiction. Case in point here I think).

The biggest killer of a book is dullness. Dull presentation. Dull characters. Funnily enough, you can learn from books you didn’t enjoy and work out what it was that failed for you to help you avoid doing the same in your own work.

Screenshot 2023-06-03 at 20-34-17 Book Flops

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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To Outline Or Not To Outline

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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.
Another glorious week here and Lady has got to play with her best girlfriends (and her gentleman friend, a smashing Aussie Shepherd) so all is right with her world. Writing wise, I have got some smashing author interviews coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today, the first of which will be next week (9th June). So looking forward to sharing these. I always learn something from author interviews and it is a pleasure and privilege to conduct some!

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Pleased to share To Outline or Not to Outline for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I share thoughts on what I find useful about outlining and also how you don’t need to plan out everything. Hope you find the post useful. Suitable for planners and pantsers!

To Outline or Not To Outline

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal today and to show off again in front of her Hungarian Vizler buddy. Lady has had a fab day! Mine has not been bad either – I loved my swim earlier today.

Also got my author newsletter out (do see link).

Pleased to say I’ll be running a workshop again in early July and am looking forward to that.

Writing going well, lots to get on with, which is how I like it. Hope to be sending in a competition entry next week and I’ve another draft to work on too.

Plus there will be author interviews again soon on CFT as I mentioned yesterday. Love doing those and it is a great pleasure to share them.

Allison Symes - June 2023 - Workshops and Book Fairs

 

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Looking forward to sharing To Outline or Not To Outline on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. (See above). The good news here is an outline can be what you want it to be. I just need enough to get me started on a piece. More on this later in the week.

Author newsletter out tomorrow. Author interview coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today on 9th June. More details nearer the time.

Making good progress on a draft of a story for a competition. I hope to be submitting this sometime next week. And I’ve come across another competition I’d like to have a go at so that gives the old brain box something to be thinking about.

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Telling It As It Is is my latest flash fiction piece on Friday Flash Fiction. My character, Sarah, lives up to the title but… well see for yourself via the link. (A huge thanks for the wonderful comments coming in on this one already).

Screenshot 2023-06-02 at 09-42-22 Telling It As It Is by Allison Symes

I’ve written flash stories as diary entries before now. (Losing Myself in Tripping the Flash Fantastic). I find I need to use towards the upper word count (1000 words) for these as I want to give a good selection of “entries”.

The other fun I have with this kind of story is being able to get the diary “writer” not to just reveal their story but what they think about other characters who they’re involved with. Well, diaries are often of a confessional nature, yes?!

With my story, I gave some thought about how many entries there were to be, over what time span, and how the diary would end. I knew there would be a twist at the end and I then worked out how to get to that point logically. I then filled in the “gaps”! Great fun to do and something I must have another go at some point.

It was fun inventing the character and their diary entries. For one thing, I had to think about why they might want to write something down for someone else to deliberately see which was the hub of this particular tale.

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There is an offer on From Light to Dark and Back Again at the moment on Amazon. See the link to my Author Central page for more.

In both of my collections, I mix up the word counts of the stories so there are some at the 100 words count, others at 250, still others at 500, and some at the 750 to 1000 range. As with the mood of story varying, I did this deliberately. This is to try to give a good idea of what flash can do and be.

Also some stories genuinely work better at the upper end of the count. Others are best being “punchy” and kept to under 300 words.

Allison Symes

Flash with Amazon and Barnes and Noble

Fairytales with Bite – Character Planning

Whether I write my fairytales with bite or other kinds of flash fiction/short story, I’ve found planning my characters to be so helpful. If I can picture them, so will readers and that is the point. What do I mean by “picture them”? Simply that if these characters could become real somehow, they would be believable. Readers should be able to imagine them being able to exist too.

Some writers need to know what their characters look like. For me that’s not so important. I like to know their attitudes, their main traits as so many things can come from those. For one thing traits have a direct impact on likely behaviour.

When I am writing about characters with magical abilities, I like to work out what they can do and what they can’t. I also like to know if they can improve their skills. While tales about magical schools have been done (!), they will continue to be done. It is what you can bring to the mix that will make your tale stand out (and it would have to stand out given the illustrious predecessors here).

If a character can improve their skills, I could write up stories about how they do so, their failures, their successes etc.

If they can’t, I’d want to look at why this is and what is getting in their way. Can they overcome the “system” to get the chance to improve their skills?

As for what magic they can do, there are story ideas on working out how the character uses these.

I would want some limitations on magical ability so the character has to use other methods to achieve their objectives. A wand getting someone out of trouble all the time isn’t going to keep the reader’s interest. It is what a character does when that isn’t an option which will grab attention and hopefully hold that attention.

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This World and Others – Impact of Your Setting

Setting can sometimes act like a character in its own right. Think about The Hound of the Baskervilles, Wuthering Heights, anything by Dickens. You can’t imagine those stories being set anywhere else, right?

So think about why you have chosen the setting you have and how your characters manage within it. They don’t necessarily need to manage well. The setting can act as an obstacle.

Can your readers visualize your setting? What do they have to know about it to be able to picture it? Again, as with characters mentioned in Fairytales with Bite, I believe planning is necessary especially if you’re hoping for a series of books.

Planning things out will give you confidence in what you write. You know how the government works, you know how people are employed, you know how technology works, if there is any,. A lot of that won’t appear in your stories but you need to know it to be able to convey what you do need to show your readers. That includes the setting and an industrial society will look very different from a non-industrial one, just to name one example.

Think about whether your setting is prone to natural disasters and how that would be something your characters have to learn to cope with. But again a reader will need to know early on that natural disasters are possible within your environment, otherwise it will look like coincidence.

Think about what you need to know. From there you can work out what the readers needs to know.

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Publication/Submission News and The Flash NANO Challenge

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Weather all over the place so far this week. Busy week with publication and submission news and the Flash NANO challenge continues… am never short of things to do writing wise. And that is the way I like it!

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Lady and I spent a lot of the day getting wet. When I went out earlier it was to go swimming! You couldn’t make that up!

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Part 1 of a fabulous interview with fellow Mom’s Favorite Reads contributor, Jenny Sanders, over on Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. Link up on Friday. More interviews to come too.

Progressing well on Flash NANO. Also looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting at the end of the month. And I’ve proofread my story – Ever Green and Good to Go – which will be appearing in Evergreen, this year’s Bridge House Publishing anthology. More details on that publication as and when I have them.


Busy day as usual for a Monday. Hope things have not been too hectic with you. Pleased to get my usual batch of stories prepared and scheduled/submitted yesterday. Sunday afternoon is flash fiction writing afternoon! The rest of the week is blogging and more flash writing but I do reserve Sundays specifically for getting new material prepared and out.

It is like responding to “live prompt” writing with a very short deadline to meet and I enjoy doing that. I was pleased that something I prepared for Flash NANO will fit perfectly for something coming up shortly so I have gone and submitted it. Also submitted my third flash collection over the weekend so am pleased with weekend’s achievements.

I have some wonderful author interviews coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today so am looking forward to sharing these with you over the next few weeks.

Author Interviews coming up on CFT

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Hope you have had a good day. The service at the War Memorial in the village where we go to church was most moving. Remembering and being grateful for sacrifices made is so important.

What would your characters consider important to remember? What does this reveal about them? What stories and poems do they choose to hold dear? Also what would they be prepared to sacrifice and what would drive them to do it?

And remember you can use a character’s memory as a point of conflict with another character. How would that then play out in your story?

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Many thanks for the comments coming in on my In The Blink of an Eye, my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction. I’ve loved getting back to the 100-worders (aka drabbles) again. These were what first got me into flash fiction writing at all and is a joy to be writing these weekly for FFF.

For Flash NANO, I’ve found my word count has been variable but that’s okay. They’ll be even more variable when I get to edit these pieces! But it will result in, I hope, thirty new stories written by the end of the month and I know I’ll be doing plenty with those.

Screenshot 2022-11-11 at 08-57-23 In The Blink Of An Eye by Allison Symes

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Am glad my story on YouTube, Time Management, has gone down well. Also thank you for the comment left on this one over on my YouTube channel. Don’t forget you can subscribe to my channel and new subscribers are also welcome. Many thanks to those who already do!

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14th November
You know the drill. It’s Monday. It’s getting dark early. It is still flaming Monday, and it’s time for a new YouTube story from yours truly. I concede I may be a little early with this one given the subject matter (Time Management) but hope you enjoy it anyway!


Flash NANO challenge continues to go well. And I submitted my third flash fiction collection yesterday so fingers crossed time!

Over on my author page, I was thinking about the use of memories for story ideas. Flash can be an ideal form for monologues. So you could focus on one character and one specific memory and how that changed them to create a poignant flash piece. (I did this with my They Don’t Understand in From Light to Dark and Back Again. I think it works well precisely because it has to be kept short and pertinent).

The memory you select has to be something that has changed your character and which would rivet a reader into wanting to find out why the character was changed by it.

Allison Symes - Flash Fiction Collections


Flash News: Hannah Kate will be running her Three Minute Santas again on North Manchester FM. See the link for more details but I hope to submit something for this and it is easy to do too. Have since sent something in. Again fingers crossed time!

What I do is prepare my story, edit it, and then when I’m happy, I set up a meeting with myself on Zoom and record it. When you end your meeting Zoom turns the file into a mp4 file for you. Not only can you hear it back, you get the timing for your file too. (And reading your work out is always great for hearing whether your story flows as well as you thought).

3 Minute Santas

Goodreads Author Blog – Book Memory Associations

Books are special for so many reasons. Not least is the fact books have so many positive memory associations for us. I still have my Reader’s Digest Collection of Fairytales which my father bought for me many, many years ago. I think he saved up cigarette coupons to get the books. You could back then!

You went into what was a effectively a catalogue shop (a bit like Argos) and redeemed the coupons. One irony here is I know I did get a recorder thanks to those coupons thanks to Dad’s smoking habit, which I am glad he gave up much later on. Anyway, I still treasure those fairytale books. The spines are taped up because I read them so much when I was younger.

Then there are the books I inherited from my mum. There are the books I bought for myself to start my own collection off. There are the books I’ve written or contributed to and there are plenty of books on my shelves written by friends. I love them all!

There are books I associate with reading at certain times of the year. There are those I dip back into occasionally but I am just glad to know they’re on my shelves somewhere. For me a home isn’t a home without books in it. They are a great comfort.

So which books have great associations for you? Which books could you not bear to part with under any circumstances?

Screenshot 2022-11-12 at 20-08-03 Book Memory Associations
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Back Home – A Blog Appearance and Flash Fiction

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots and holiday photos taken by me, Allison Symes. The week back after a holiday is always a busy one but so far I’ve appeared on a blog and I’ll be running a Flash Fiction group on Zoom soon too. Hit the ground running then, Allison!

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From Seahouses looking across to Beadnell Beach. Weather last week was glorious.

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Good to get back to swimming today. Always a tough one – the first swim after a break.

Posting early today as out this evening. What do you look for in an author interview? I look for information, helpful tips, and something indicating the writer has had their fair share of ups and downs. I don’t know about you but it makes me feel considerably better to know I’m not the only one there!

When I’m on the receiving end of an interview, I look to give tips, share warnings about some of the scams out there which can trip up the unwary writer, and share some of my own ups and downs. It helps to know It is normal for the writing life not to be a straight road.

I’ve learned so much about the writing world from author interviews whether I read them or listen to them on podcasts etc.

Look up author interviews and get a feel for the kind of questions that are asked

Hope you have had a good start to the week. Busy one here. Lady back to enjoying her usual visits to our park (and got to see the lovely Coco yesterday, who is a smashing Labradoodle).

Am pleased to say I am on Gill James’ blog today. I talk about all things CafeLit. Do see link (and many thanks to Gill for hosting me).
Screenshot 2022-10-17 at 13-55-16 Allison Symes talks today about her experince of writing for CafeLit
There is a lot of truth in the saying you need a holiday to get over a holiday! This coming week will be especially busy but it was lovely to get away.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Group meeting on Wednesday. Always good fun.

Hope to be working on my stories for YouTube and Friday Flash Fiction later on. Now which random generator will I use tonight? Hmm… decisions, decisions – but these are fun ones! And there is a wealth of generators to choose from. You will find one(s) to suit.

I refuse to think about a certain festive event until the end of the month though I will add now if you have a writer in your life, be thankful. We are so easy to buy for. There are always books we want. Pens, notebooks, book-related mugs etc always go down well. So come the end of the month, I will be starting to put my list together! (Oh and the other easy type to buy for are dogs so I shall need to get Lady’s list for a certain person together next month too).

And it will be time to be thinking about festive flash too. I usually write a couple of these. Good fun.

My flash collections are available in Kindle and paperback

Had great time in Northumberland. Good weather for most of the week too. We always do self catering as it is easiest option for dog owners. Would happily stay in our cosy cottage again. Great views over farmland and such a comfy place.

For Chandler’s Ford Today I will be interviewing Ruth Leigh to talk about her new book, The Continuing Times of Isabella M Smugge. Isabella is one of those great unforgettable creations who is funny and moving. Once read, want to read more which is a great sign of fabulous characterisation.

Ruth and I will also be chatting about launches and marketing. Part 1 of the interview is up on Friday.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Group meeting on Zoom tomorrow night. The members here live hundreds of miles apart so an in-person gathering is not feasible. Zoom has been (a) a lifeline and (b) made certain things possible and not just for ACW.

Naturally it is good to have a couple of hours to talk flash, have a go at some writing exercises and so on (I have great fun thinking these up by the way!).

Intrigue the reader

It’s Monday and time for another YouTube flash story from me. Transforming Hope is based on a line triggered by a poetry line generator (yes, really!). I adapted the line a little bit to suit my purposes. Hope you enjoy this.

 

When I’m picking flash tales to read at Open Prose Mic Nights, I look for a mixture of moods. I like to mix up funny with more sombre tales as it is a good advert for flash doing that. You can pack a punch with a short piece. You can also make people laugh with a short piece. I love trying to do both.

Life so often is a mixture of light and dark and I think it apt fiction overall reflects that. After all I read to either match my mood or to give me an uplift, depending on how I am feeling so what I write will do this too.

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

I came across some lovely place names while away in Northumberland. Possible inspiration for future character names, I think. I wouldn’t be the only writer to use place or other names for character names. P.G. Wodehouse famously did this for Lord Emsworth, Galahad Threepwood etc. Emsworth is in my home county of Hampshire.

I also use random name generators. I often just go with the Christian name. I don’t always need a surname. I use names to indicate likely social status, if they’re from this world or not, also age. Names make a great indicator and I find them useful in flash for that as they can be a useful shortcut. A name can tell you things and save a lot of description.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Non-Fiction Inspiring Fiction

Non-fiction can inspire fiction. How things are made, for example, can trigger ideas for how things would be made in your fictional settings and the characters who would make them.

Equally reading up on science that interests you or a period of history can trigger ideas for characters. I’ve always found getting a character in my head is a surefire way to spark story ideas.

So having a reasonable general knowledge, fuelled by non-fiction reading, is a useful “pool” to fish in for story ideas. And as ever, the wider you read the bigger your “pool” to fish from.

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A Day in the Life of an Author and Being an Indie Author Part 2 with Maressa Mortimer

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Image Credit:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Author images and book covers kindly provided by Maressa Mortimer for the CFT interview.

Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing.

Hope you have had a good week. It’s been a busy but interesting one on Zoom for me this time.

 

Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

It’s a pleasure to welcome back to Chandler’s Ford Today #MaressaMortimer, who balances a busy writing life with an even busier homeschooling life for her family. So you know I’ve said before it is important to make time to write even if that time is only ten minutes or so but you can still achieve a great deal as long as you’re consistent, well Maressa is living proof that is true! Those pockets of time do mount up. Perseverance does count – and makes a great deal of difference.

I know Maressa via the Association of Christian Writers (indeed it was my privilege to enrol her given I’m the Membership Secretary). We both took part in the Share Your Story Writing summit earlier this year and, in November, we will meet up in person again at the Brechin/Angus Book Festival.

Meanwhile, Maressa chats with me about how she feels her writing has developed and shares what she would like to try writing wise in the future amongst other topics.

Mind you, we do disagree about what constitutes flash fiction. It definitely isn’t 3000 words, Maressa, though I appreciate that is on the short side for a novelist!

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Looking forward to sharing the link for Part 2 of my interview with #MaressaMortimer on Chandler’s Ford Today. Link up tomorrow. See above. This week Maressa shares with me her views on marketing, Facebook Live, book tours, and outlining amongst other topics. Plenty of useful insights here.

And that is the great thing with author interviews. There is always something useful to pick up from them. Even if you can’t use a nugget of information now, it may well prove to be useful to you later on. I’ve lost count of how many times that has happened to me. When the need for the information arises, your subconscious will remind you “hang on, I found out something about that” and you will go and look it up. I always check out author interviews regularly, even when I don’t host them, as they are entertaining and precisely to pick up those nuggets of information I know I may well find handy at some point.

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Day in the life of a writer Part 108. Email in from The Bridport Prize. No joy with my story this time but I will at some point have another look at it, polish it up further if I can, and re-submit it somewhere else.

Email in from CafeLit telling me my story with them will be on the website next week! More details and a link on that nearer the time.

When I was first starting writing seriously, any rejection etc would hit me hard. Now it doesn’t so much. Yes, obviously, I’d like every piece of mine accepted but I am realistic enough to know that rarely happens to anyone. Also it is an opportunity to look at the story again, correct any flaws, and get it out somewhere else. I’ve gone on to have work accepted somewhere else, having done that. So I like to see rejections as a “not here but could go somewhere else” kind of thing. It is a more positive approach to take – and it can kind of work like a self-fulfilling prophecy too.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good week. Am thrilled that my Making Amends is now up on #FridayFlashFiction. I continue the (mis)adventures of my hapless magical being, Sarah. Can she make things up to her neighbour, Tina, after unwittingly letting loose a box of frogs in the latter’s house last time? Or will Sarah unleash something worse?
Screenshot 2021-09-17 at 19-12-46 Making Amends, by Allison SymesAs well as having a story accepted yesterday, I had another turned down. That is the way of things! So at some point I will dig out that story again and see if I can improve it and somewhere else. I’ve had work accepted elsewhere doing exactly that.

Sometimes I’ve edited the rejected piece further, sometimes I can’t honestly see what else to edit but pick a market where I think it is in with a reasonable chance. And you do get better with time and plenty of practice in submitting work in working out which markets are most likely to suit you and your writing style.

The important thing is not to give up (though changing direction is fine. I did that with flash fiction and look where that has led!).

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Delighted to say I’ll have a story on CafeLit next week. Will be one of my longer flashes too. Well, I say longer. It’ll come in at just under the 600 words mark. Be fair, that is a long story by my standards compared with many I write!

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting next week. Great exchange of ideas and information and groups like this push (in a nice way) everyone along with their writing. Sometimes you need that kind of push. A good group will encourage and help you develop your writing and get you to try writing techniques you might not have thought of before, as well as helping you to polish up those with which you are familiar.

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Fairytales with Bite – Cause and Consequence

Fairytales are full of examples of cause and consequence. (It is one of the things I love most about them). Annoy a wizened old man or lady and you can bet you are going to be turned into something unpleasant until, usually, true love redeems you. You do just know there is going to be some sort of comeuppance for those less pleasant characters.

Maybe that is why fairytales so often appeal to much older readers than kids. We know life isn’t like that (and kids sense this too, I know I did) so we get some comfort from reading about justice being done in the stories we read.

And if we write stories as well, we can have a lot of fun ensuring causes do have consequences. The bad guys don’t get away with it etc.

But the consequence has to be in proportion to the cause. In the fairytales, there is always a chance of redemption (usually by the caring actions of another character, usually unseen at the start of the story). And that I think is the aspect I like best. I like the possibility of redemption even if a character in need of it turns it down or doesn’t realise they have this chance. You have to be open to the possibility and not every character will be.

So what consequences will your characters face in relation to their causes? Is their cause just in any way? How do they handle the consequences which result? The answer to that will also reveal a great deal of their personality too.

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This World and Others – The Basics

The basics of world building for me must mean looking at what characters need to be able to survive. How do they breathe? How is food grown? What do they drink?

Then it is a question of looking at how the societies here organise themselves. Who governs whom? Do your societies live in peace with each other and/or within themselves? Thinking about what we need here can help you visualise what your fictional world needs to make it seem real to a reader.

While it is true you will need more description to help a reader, it doesn’t necessarily mean you need pages and pages of it. What are the telling details people need to know? Characters chatting about the latest atrocities carried out by Lord XXX of YYY will show a reader your creations are living under a tyranny without you needing to spell out each and every detail of that tyranny.

The golden rule here is to include only that which is directly relevant to your story and will move it on in some way. Characters can reveal information but ensure they don’t talk about things that, logically, they should already know. That will come across as the info-dump that is it is and switch a reader off. Getting characters to talk about latest developments will show a reader what is going on and you would expect characters to talk about that kind of thing and how it is likely to affect them.

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Final Thoughts on The Writing Game

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Image Credit: Pixabay/Pexels. A HUGE thank you to my fabulous guest authors for their pics, including book cover ones, for the Chandler’s Ford Today series, The Writing Game – and What to Watch For.

FINAL PART OF THE WRITING GAME – AND WHAT TO WATCH FOR TONIGHT.  Hope you find it useful and enjoyable.

Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

I’m thrilled to share the final part of The Writing Game – and What to Watch For. HUGE thanks to all of my fabulous guests for the wonderful advice they’ve shared in this three-parter.  Do take a bow, everyone!

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Today my guests are from the world of independent publishing, Swanwick Writers’ Summer School, and Association of Christian Writers. Some of them cross more than one category!

 

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Many, many thanks to all of my fabulous guest authors for taking part in The Writing Game – and What to Watch For. This is one of those series for Chandler’s Ford Today I should’ve written a long time ago!

Hope you enjoy this and find it useful.

Mind you, I can speak for all of my guests in that if this series stops one person going down the vanity press route, with all the heartache and expense that causes, we would be well pleased.

I know, looking back when I first started writing for publication seriously, the main problem is in NOT knowing what you DO need to know. As you start to make progress with your writing, you then REALISE you don’t know but your next issue is where do you turn to for advice? If you needed a really good reason to make writing buddies, this is it. And the best places to meet and make writing buddies?

Writing groups – online and otherwise. Creative writing conferences – day events and longer etc. At the moment so many of these have to be online via Zoom etc., but still take part in these things. You will get a lot from them.

Have a fab weekend!

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Facebook – General – and Publication News

Delighted to say the story I was working on inspired by a #GailAldwin prompt is going to be published on Cafelit later this month. Will share the link when I have it. I hope this will be next week.

It was great fun to write (and thanks to Gail for a great idea here. Given my love of chocolate, writing stories inspired by sweets could keep me busy for a while! Mind you I still have well over 200 prompts to work through in Gill James’ excellent Prompts book! Still they say slow and steady wins the race. If true, that means I’m in for a brilliant result!).😆😆😆

Fence news: have finished creosoting the wretched fence. Lady was most upset I would not allow her out to join me but I really didn’t fancy going back indoors with a Ronseal “Matured Oak” coloured border collie! (There is no way she would have kept her nose out of the tin either!). Not sorry to have this done ahead of the heatwave due this weekend – and yes, Lady will be kept nicely cool.

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Lady, the border collie cross (flat coat retriever and chiahuahua, yes really, the inquisitive and loveable! Image by Allison Symes
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I’m looking forward to sharing the concluding part of my CFT series – The Writing Game – and What to Watch For – on Friday. My guests this week will be from the world of self publishing, the Association of Christian Writers, and Swanwick Writers’ Summer School. Fabulous tips and advice to share once again. A big thank you to all of my great guests over this series.

Have been happily drafting a new flash fiction piece where the prompt was to write about a sweet. This was a prompt suggested by #GailAldwin in the Prompts Book by Gill James.

I’m slowing working my way through the prompts though it is going to take me well over a year to get through them all! I hope eventually to get another collection out of these pieces in time. I also hope to share some of them via Cafelit in due course too.

But what is lovely about writing like this is it means I can get a flash piece drafted in those short pockets of time which might otherwise be wasted.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

The final part of my The Writing Game – and What to Watch For is now up on Chandler’s Ford Today. For the next couple of weeks, there will be some fab interviews with writers who are changing direction with their most recent publications. Looking forward to sharing those. Lots of interesting insights.

I love reading, as well as hosting, author interviews. There is always so much to learn. But that I think is one of the great things about writing. It spurs you on so. You take the view that “I’ve done this before, I can do it again, but can I do it better?”. The answer to that one is always yes, incidentally!

And that is the way it should be. You always want to strive. It is the striving that will make you the better writer. With flash fiction, I’ve had a lot of fun recently with haiku and hope to continue that. I’m sure there’ll be other kinds of flash to have a go at somewhen as well.

Have a fab weekend! (Must admit I am NOT looking forward to the heat. Lady and I will be doing all we can to stay cool).

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I’m aiming this year to have something submitted to Cafelit once a month. Am glad to report a story I was working on the last day or so will be on there later in August. Will share the link when I have it.

Submitting stories regularly helps give me focus. I can vary the length of story I send in and I sometimes use the Prompts book Gill James produced to trigger my submissions. (Many of the Bridge House/Cafelit/Chapeltown authors contributed to the Prompts book including yours truly. Do check it out. It’s a fun book to work through – and you could play “lucky dip” with this too. Pick a page and write one or two of the ideas up from that etc. Pick an idea and write it to different word counts etc.).

 

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Many of the Cafelit, Bridge House, and Chapeltown authors contributed to this book by Gill James. There is a prompt for every day of the year.
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Hope you have had a good Wednesday. I’ve been drafting some work from the Prompts book by Gill James, as I mentioned over on my author page here, but what are the advantages to working to prompts?

1. The prompt gives you a framework to write your story to and I’ve always found that so helpful. It is why I prefer a competition with a set theme rather than an open one as a rule. I’ve got something there immediately to have a crack at!

2. There’s nothing to stop you taking the prompt and writing one story, two stories, three tales from it. Why not take the theme in two or three different directions and see what you can do with it? If you get two or three different stories to submit, fabulous. If not, you pick the one you think is strongest and submit that one.

3. If you find you’ve written a story to a prompt and you really like the character, again why not write other fiction for them?

4. Writing to someone else’s prompt can “prompt” your own imagination to come up with ideas you might want to note down for future use. This happens a lot with me but that’s fine. It means I’ve got a good store of ideas to write up as and when I can.

Happy writing!

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Fairytales with Bite – 

Who Defines the Goodies in Fairytales?

Yes, I know, the writer does obviously BUT a lot depends on the reaction of the reader too. I can’t help but think of Alan Rickman’s wonderful portrayal of the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. The out-and-out villain almost had people rooting for him to win! Now that was not supposed to happen was it?!

And Shrek turns the idea of the ogre being the bad guy on its head. There is a lot of fun to be had writing fairytales from alternative character viewpoints. This is something I’ve done a lot and my first printed story, A Helping Hand in Bridge House Publishing’s Alternative Renditions anthology, was written from the viewpoint of the youngest “ugly sister” to good old Cinders.

Now don’t get me wrong. I am rooting for the good folk in fairytales but bear in mind good can also encompass those who’ve been misunderstood. (I’ve not seen Maleificent but believe that is the crux of the plot there).

What makes a character good to me is that their actions and motivations are understandable and do not harm others. Courage in facing up to evil usually comes up to it somewhere too. (What is even more interesting is when a character realises the evil can lurk within themselves and takes steps to fight that).

So who are your good people in fairytales and why?

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This World and Others – Reflections

One of the joys of setting stories in alien worlds is they can often reflect on aspects of life right here on Planet Earth. The Lord of the Rings and The Narnia Chronicles both do that for me. What matters is being able to understand the characters and why they’re acting the way they are, no matter how outlandish their home planet is etc.

This can work both ways round of course. An outlandish setting could seem ridiculous to our eyes but you could write a story set here in such a way it actually makes what we know the daft option!

Fairytales have, for centuries, reflected aspects of human nature. They’re not flattering when it comes to showing what characters (and therefore us) could do. The motivations of the characters are all ones we know about too.

So how can you make your world and characters understandable to us?

No matter what your setting, your character has to be striving for something important and the readers have to care about the outcome. So outline what your character could need to do and what is in it for them if they succeed and, even more importantly, what would happen if they fail. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a life or death thing (though it could be) but it DOES have to matter and the reader should be able to pick up on that.

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Non-Fiction Journey and Author Interviews

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It is always a huge pleasure to chat with fellow authors on Chandler’s Ford Today. There is always something interesting to learn. Every author’s writing journey is unique and I find that endlessly fascinating. Hope you do too.

This week I chat with Scottish crime writer, Val Penny, about her venture into non-fiction publishing with her recently released Let’s Get Published. Not that she has left her (writing) life of crime behind, I’m glad to say.

I love reading as well as writing author interviews. Every writer has their own insights into the business of writing, as well as thoughts on the ups and downs we all face, whether published or not. It is also good to know you are not alone on those ups and downs. (It is also reassuring to know that is normal!).

Hope you enjoy!

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The current hot weather is one of the few times I bless living in a north facing bungalow. It is relatively cool in here. The heat doesn’t affect my writing much in that I still get on and do it but I tend to finish earlier than normal knowing I’ll feel tired earlier than normal. Still I compensate by starting my writing session earlier so that’s okay.

Looking forward to sharing my interview with Val Penny on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. She talks about her venture into non-fiction with her recent publication, Let’s Get Published. I’m always fascinated by other authors’ writing journeys. Each is unique to the writer and you can always learn something useful and interesting.

Am happily editing a short story which I hope will end up being published at some point! As ever, having a bit of time away from it has proved useful. That time away makes it much easier to see where the weaknesses are and therefore do something about them!

Have also been busy drafting flash fiction pieces.

I’ve also recently revised my Linkedin profile.

So not a bad old week so far but I must admit I won’t be that sorry when it cools down a bit. (And neither will Lady!).

Screenshot_2020-06-26 Allison Symes LinkedIn

 

I’ve mentioned before that sometimes I will start a flash fiction story by writing the ending first and work backwards from there. It’s a useful technique but I do sometimes find that by the time I’ve finished, I’ve thought of a better last line. But that’s okay. I just change it.

I remember I used to feel annoyed at that kind of thing. Why couldn’t I have thought of the better last line in the first place etc etc?

Now I know better than to waste time and energy fretting about that. Just change the line and move on. It’s a good sign the story has “go” to it when you can think of things to improve with it.

Yes, it would save a lot of time and effort if you could cut straight to the chase, but writing doesn’t work like that for me. I need to get some ideas down before I can come up with better ones.

What helped me to come to terms with that was on realising other writers find the same thing happens to them. It’s always good to know you’re not alone!

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One thing I’ve learned to watch out for when editing my stories is my pet phrases. Most of the time with my flash fiction, they are amongst the first things to be cut, along with my wasted words of very, actually, and that. (Very few examples of that are actually necessary! If the story works just as well without them, out they come).

Every writer has their pet phrases. Sometimes they’re useful BUT not each and every time! Pet phrases can act as a kind of shorthand for you but if they’re not useful to your readers, it is best said phrases come out. (Another meaning for the phrase “kill your darlings” perhaps).

 

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Finding ideas for flash fiction is generally not an issue for me. It is working out which are the really strong ones and worth pursuing that can be tricky at times.

But I find character outlining helps me with that. By the time I’ve fleshed out what I need to know about my lead character, I can tell whether they’re “up” to being in a story.

I can also tell the kind of trouble they’re likely to land themselves in (with help from yours truly of course as I love landing my people right in it!) and from that the story starts to take shape. Away I go and write it before resting it for a while before editing it.

I also find flash fiction writing to be a useful warm up or warm down writing exercise. From my viewpoint, it’s another piece of work produced which I can polish and hopefully find a home for in due time.

Whatever you’re working on at the moment, I hope the writing is going well and that you’re enjoying it. Enjoying your writing is so important. It helps to motivate you and to keep you going when all you seem to get are rejections or not hearing back from competitions etc.

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I’ve found it helpful to think of flash fiction as it being from the viewpoint of ONE main character getting across ONE vital point and there has to be transformation in it somewhere.

That’s why we read. We want to find out what happens to the character. Do they get their happy ever after ending? Do they muck it up big time but somehow manage to redeem the situation? (I LOVE those stories!).

One of the aspects of flash fiction I love the most and I think is one of the useful as well is that it does make you focus on what really matters to your character. You do have to work out what the story is so you can focus on it properly.

 

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Fairytales With Bite – Murphy’s Law of Fairytales

So how could Murphy’s Law relate to fairytales then? I offer the following thoughts.

1. Never be unkind to the wizened old crone or man etc. They are bound to be a powerful witch/wizard/fairy godmother in disguise. It will be just your luck to cross them and be turned into something unpleasant. These things happen in the fairytale world.

2. Never be rude to passers-by. You might be glad of their help later on, especially if you HAVE crossed the wizened old crone etc. You’ll need someone to tell you what it is you have been turned into. Then and only then can you scream.

3. You know that downtrodden kid everyone ignores or is rude to? Watch them. They’re either going to end up marrying Prince Charming or somehow do something heroic. In the fairytale world, that kind of character is always marked out for great things. They like humility here.

4. It is best to assume the animals you come across can talk, are intelligent etc., and a quick word to the wise – if you do come across bears who live in a house, never ever pinch their breakfast. It won’t end well.

5. Actively be kind. You may be rewarded. You may not. But you won’t end up crossing the aforementioned wizened old crone etc.

6. If you come across a sweet covered house, run the other way as fast you can. (Well, you don’t want to risk a huge weight gain thanks to gobbling all that sugar now, do you?).

7. Don’t try and eat the Gingerbread Man. He resents that kind of thing.

8. If you need to cross a bridge and you are not sure if there are trolls in the area, see if you can get some friendly neighbourhood goats to cross the bridge first. They are excellent at getting rid of unwanted trolls.

9. If you think Grandma has suddenly become very hairy, it is not a trick of the light. She has. Go and get the woodcutter NOW.

10. If something seems too good to be true, it is. Mind you, that applies to all universes so is a good general principle to go by.

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This World and Others – 

Creating Something Out of Nothing

I was listening to Classic FM when it was reported a well known composer still suffered nerves when coming up with a new composition. They were still made nervous by the blank page, despite their many years of successful composition. Ironically, this cheered me up somewhat. It’s the same for any creator and I know it’s true for me. That touch of nerves before you start writing is the worst bit. Once you get going, you’re absolutely okay.

I’ve learned over time to just get the words down any old how. Editing and polishing happen much later. Nobody writes a perfect draft. Shakespeare didn’t. Austen didn’t. Dickens didn’t. I’m certainly not going to but that’s fine! So how can you get over the nervous start bit or, at least, make it not so bad and easier to handle?

I’ve found having a range of ways to get started on stories or blog posts helpful. I also find having brainstorming sessions every so often useful to jot down ideas and when I am struggling, I can turn to these and find something to inspire me there. My range of ways to get started include:-

1. Using a random word generator, pick three, and put them into a story. Using random words like this makes me think deeper and if there is no obvious link between the three words, even better. It makes me think again!

2. Look back over my old blog posts and stories. Often there will a link there I didn’t follow up at the time but might prove useful now.

3. Take a well known saying and use it as a theme or title (sometimes both) for a story or article.

4. Use a spider diagram or flowchart to flesh out basic ideas. That will soon show if ideas in the back of my head do have some “legs” to them or not. Naturally I go with the ones that do! This is especially useful when used in conjunction with a random word generator.

5. Look up writing competitions. Sometimes I’ll enter said competitions. Sometimes I’ll just write up a story to the theme and not submit it deliberately. I will go back to that story at a later date to polish it up further knowing it is not ready for a competition yet but I can still write to the theme. Who knows? The story might end up in an anthology later. Themes come up reasonably often so there will be other competitions the story the might fit.

However you get over the blank page nerves, happy writing and good luck!

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I know I have lots of stories and books in my head but I didn’t mean it literally! Pixabay
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Gill, Dawn and I will be talking about the writing life and working with a publisher on 26th September 2020 via Zoom. Pixabay image.