Tag: author newsletter

Resting Stories and What ARE your characters like?

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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. Had one of those lovely weekends where I was out in the garden and managed to get lots of writing done. Lady has had a good start to her week, seeing her two closest girlfriends on Monday. It is smashing to see them get on so well. When we’re leaving the park, it does look a bit like “the girls are back in town” as the three dogs walk together!

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Drizzly all day. Never worries Lady though she didn’t get to see her chums today.

In happier news (Lady misses her pals when they’re not in the park), I’ll be running a two part course on editing at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick in August. So looking forward to that but I will also be offering 1:1 sessions during that week too. My topics are flash fiction and editing (general tips). See screenshot for more information. Looking forward to this too.

My attitudes to editing became far more positive on realising good edits make all the difference to being published or not. Prior to that, I’d just seen it as a chore. Now I see it as part of the overall creative process but do find I have to get the story written (or blog post) and then edit later. I can’t do the two tasks at the same time. That just doesn’t work for me.


Hope you have had a good start to your week. Lady got to see and play with her two best buddies, so she has had a good start to her week. Crocuses are starting to spring up. Lovely to see that.

Writing Tip: Think about what your characters like in terms of what they like to eat and drink, do they appreciate the natural world, what kind of music do they like etc. Also think about what they loathe.

Now put them in a situation where they have to put up with what they loathe, they have no choice. How do they handle this? How do they get out the situation which has landed them in it? Good story possibilities there. Could also take this in a humorous way or a more serious one so give some thought as to what mood you want to convey here.

422035451_828776429262220_1929857604074121295_nToday has been lovely. Nice church service. Sunny, a bit warmer than recently, and more signs of spring on the way. Love days like this. Lady does too.

Don’t forget my next author newsletter will be out on 1st March. How quickly February whizzes by! To sign up for news, tips, links to stories etc., do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com and I will just say many thanks to all of my subscribers. Support much appreciated!

Writing Tip: I’ve talked before about resting stories before editing them but how long should a rest period be? There is no one straight answer to this but I’ve found a couple of days is another for a flash fiction piece.

I tend to rest a longer short story (1500 words upwards) for a week or so. The advice I’ve come across for novelists is to leave your work for at least a month. The reason for resting any kind of story is so you can “escape its world” for a while and when you come back to you will see the tale with fresh eyes, as if coming to it for the first time. That is the way to be objective about your stories.

Newsletter with envelope imageHope you have had a good weekend so far. At least it’s dry today in my part of the world. Managed to get out and do some gardening. Had a lovely task today – to proofread my three stories which will be in The Best of CafeLit 13. That was a joy to do!

I’m looking at Writing Themes and Saints’ Days for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. What on earth is the link there and how can writers make use of it? I will share all on Friday. Looking forward to sharing that. Ideas come from a wide range of sources and this post is an example of one that came as a surprise to me but I trust the post will prove useful to other writers.

Have had a good week. I’ve submitted another story to a different market. Will say more assuming I hear more though this may not be for some time. I followed my own advice and, having checked things out and being happy with what I found, I figured I had nothing to lose. Didn’t cost anything either. There are good reputable free to enter competitions and markets out there. It is just a question of finding them.

In this case, it was from a tweet I saw and I then followed it up. Have done this kind of thing before but previously, on checking things out, I found something I wasn’t comfortable with so didn’t go further with it.

Never be afraid to walk away from a market or competition if you are not entirely happy with it. There are others out there with which you will be happy. You need to think a little longer term here and think along the lines of would I be happy with my work appearing here. If the answer is not an emphatic yes, do walk away.

Writing Advice

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Many thanks for the views coming in on Likely Story, my latest YouTube story which I posted yesterday. (See below). Much appreciated. Subscribers to my channel are always welcome.

I love creating the flash tales here. I use Book Brush to help with creating the video itself and then use YouTube’s own vast library of audio tracks (free to use etc) to add music. But I create and edit the story itself first. Sometimes I have to think laterally to come up with a suitable video background but that is always a good challenge!

It’s Monday. It’s slowly getting lighter in the evenings where I am. Hooray! More spring flowers emerging. Double hooray! Still Monday though. Still time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Likely Story.


I’ve occasionally started two flash fiction pieces with a similar opening line. See Mishaps and Jumping Time in Tripping the Flash Fantastic. These stories were written together, are meant to follow on from one another, and were fun to do. It meant I could take the character I created for Mishaps, the first story, and get even more use out of him for the second story!

As both of these are humorous tales, there was more fun to be had with two tales rather than just the one. They also worked better as two stories rather than one, there was a natural end point for the first story, which gave me a good start for the second one.

I had in mind from the start how these two stories would look on the printed page later, naturally hoping they would make it into print! It is no coincidence one is on the left page and the other on the right either. Layout can sometimes help your stories have more of an impact too.

So this is another aspect to flash fiction you could use. If you have a character you love, put them in more than one story. Use that to help you sort out your running order for your book in due course. It will flag up to a publisher and future readers this is a deliberate use of the same character.

Also to get the most impact from two or more stories with one “star”, that impact will be the greater for keeping the tales together.

BB - Flash with a Dash for TTFFOne of the things I love about writing for Friday Flash Fiction is that I am effectively given a weekly challenge to produce new writing to a 100 word count. So I do! The themes I can set, it is just the word count which is fixed, and I know now, after a lot of experience, 100 words looks like two to three short paragraphs. You can see what I mean via the link.

I find being able to visualise what the word count looks like enormously helpful. I know I’ve got two paragraphs and the second one of those has to wrap the story up. The first one, of course, reveals what the story is so there, straight away, I have a story structure in place. Love that too.

 

Goodreads Author Blog – Themes in Stories

Do you have favourite themes for stories? I think mostly this is an unconscious thing. I know I like to see justice done, to name one example of a theme, so this is one reason why I love the classic fairytales, where it generally is done.

I also like crime novels where justice is done. (It is one reason why I love the Agatha Christie books).I don’t like the ones where justice is perverted. But I pick the fairytale or crime novel to read based on what I can read of the plot outline and then decide whether it is for me or not. It is funny though how favourite themes do come out time and again in what I choose to read.

As for themes I like to write to, I do like the character who turns out to be more than what others expected. Again I’ve got fairytales to thank for that one, especially The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christen Andersen. It is a good lesson in not judging by appearances, another theme I love reading about/writing for.

The best stories do have timeless themes behind them. Writers will always have something to say about these things. These themes will always have resonance with readers. Certain things about us as a species will not change which is why these themes resonate and why they make such great stories.

Screenshot 2024-02-10 at 17-25-53 Themes In Stories

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Review: The Sleeping Beauty and Publication News

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. A huge thank you goes as ever to The Chameleon Theatre Company for supplying the photos for my review of their pantomime for Chandler’s Ford Today this week.
Hope you have had a good week. Author newsletter out this week, as is the super duper bumper issue of Writers’ Narrative for January and February 2024. Plus I review The Sleeping Beauty pantomime for Chandler’s Ford Today. Lady has seen her friends all week so she has had a great time too and I’ve spotted first daffodils out. Spring is on its way at least here in the UK.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

So pleased to share my review of The Sleeping Beauty recently performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company. Great show. Wonderful performances and The Chameleons prepare all their own sets too.

My review looks at the classic ingredients for a perfect pantomime. Did The Chameleons deliver on these? You can find out via the link – oh yes, you can!

Review: The Chameleon Theatre Company – The Sleeping Beauty

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Author newsletter out today, I’m glad to say. Given it is a Leap Year this time around I shared 29 tips/prompts which I hope my subscribers find useful.

Will be sharing my review of The Sleeping Beauty as staged by The Chameleon Theatre Company on Chandler’s Ford Today. Link up tomorrow (see above) and I hope the review reflects the fun of pantomime. It was a great laugh when I went to see the show last week. This is always a sign of a great pantomime wonderfully performed.

Have two stories to work on and submit over the next day or so. Have also got a number of possible competitions to check out in the Writing Magazine guide that came with the February issue. Looking forward to checking these out.

Screenshot 2024-02-01 at 17-32-50 Allison Symes - February 2024 - Leaping Into FlashDelighted to say the super-duper double issue of Writers’ Narrative magazine is now out covering January and February 2024. Lots to read with plenty of superb interviews and advice. Hope you enjoy it (see link below).

I have two pieces in here. I talk about New Beginnings for Characters on Page 14 and ask Flash Fiction Romance – Is It Possible? on page 40. But to find out the answer to that question, do check out the magazine.

If you haven’t already subscribed, there are links to do this within the edition itself. It means you won’t miss an issue and it will come straight to your inbox. Happy reading!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble, Down Time. Find out why a robot would like to dream here and what it tries to smuggle into its shed on its down time.

Screenshot 2024-02-02 at 09-52-13 Down Time by Allison Symes

Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to play with her youngest friend, Coco, the small Labradoodle today. Both dogs happy. Coco did not want to go home. I guess that’s a good sign!

Flash fiction has many joys to it, including being able to write in different genres and moods with it, but it is also adaptable when it comes to working out what you do with your finished pieces.

Some of mine are reserved for future collections. Others are sent in for competitions. Others go to Friday Flash Fiction and still more on to my YouTube channel. Flash is easy to share as part of your marketing. It shows what you do and, hopefully, gives some entertainment for potential/actual readers. I find the dribbles and drabbles (the 50 and 100 worders respectively) work best for this.

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Pleased to be talking about flash fiction again in the double issue of Writers’ Narrative magazine where I look at Flash Fiction Romance – Is It Possible? (Check out the link to find out more).

One of the joys of flash fiction is it has to be character led, as you haven’t got the word count room for lots of description, and you can set said characters wherever and whenever you want. I love doing this. I’ve written crime fiction, historical fiction, monologues, fantasy flash fiction etc. I’ve written from the viewpoint of a mother dragon and from an alien curled up inside a ping pong ball! Had a ball writing both of these two as you can probably imagine.

The only limitation is that upper word count limit of 1000 words but there is plenty you can do effectively up to that word count. Some of my most poignant stories come in at this count or under (see They Don’t Understand in From Light to Dark and Back Again and The Pink Rose in Tripping the Flash Fantastic).

Fairytales with Bite – Character Ambitions

What ambitions do your characters have? Where magic is involved in your setting, is it a question of your characters getting any magical powers at all or is it a case they wish to top up on what they already have?

Would their ambitions be easy to achieve because they’re expected to have ambitions like that and there is a clear career path, or would they have to fight to get to where they want to be? If magic is restricted to only those of a certain background, how would those of other backgrounds get access to magic? Who breaks the barriers and how do they do it?

If your characters fulfil their ambitions, does this bring them what they were looking for, or are they left feeling let down, frustrated even? If the ambition is a “good” one, what is your character hoping to do by achieving it and are they seeking this “good” ambition for its own sake, for others, or just for themselves?

Are character ambitions limited to whatever class your characters are in? Is there only so much a character could hope to achieve because of their background? When it comes to limitations, who brought them in and why? Were there logical reasons for stopping a certain kind of character achieving something others are allowed to achieve?

Good potential for stories there! Characters who break the moulds set on them by others are always fun to write and there is no lack of tension and conflict, which means there has to be some sort of resolution as well. Pretty much an inbuilt story structure going on here.

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This World and Others – Types of Character

One of the fun sides of world building is working out what kinds of character you will have populating it. Are they based on human biology or on something different? Give some thought as to whether your characters will determine the kind of geographical location they can live in or whether the latter dictates the kind of the characters you have to invent who can live there.

A water based world, for example, is likely to have aquatic creatures, which may or may not be the stars of your stories or may threaten/be helpful to your other characters who are the lead, as the case may be. In a water world, would your characters, assuming they are roughly humanoid, be expected to swim and do they have features we do not? For example, would they have gills and fins attached to a human like body?

Also give some thought as to type of character based on intellectual ability or the complete lack of it.

What kind of characters to you need to bring your setting to life? For any setting to seem plausible to a reader, you need to show something of how it works and one great way to do that is by showing your characters at home in their environment as part of the story.

If they’re on a journey, what transport would they use, for example? In showing, say, they can hire flying cars, readers will assume there is a whole industry behind producing said flying cars, which immediately highlights your setting as being reasonably well developed.

Where you have different types of character, you can also show how well or otherwise they get on, what the politics between the different types are and how this affects your characters, amongst other things. (There will be a history behind whether types of characters get on with each other or not so you can imply/show some of that history. If an outsider queries why Character Type A does not get on with Character Type B, a third one can reveal it was because of the war in the year 18,006 and Character Type B’s people committed atrocities. You don’t have to give a lot of information. My example here would be a line or two in a conversation between two characters).

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Writing Difficulties and Favourite Openings

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good few days. Had a marvellous time at the pantomime last week, review to follow in Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. Good to see more signs of spring emerging too – the snowdrops are out and the birds are busy nest building. Writing wise, have got a draft of a story down for another competition so will come back to that in a few days and work on it again.

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Facebook – General

Chilly today but Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal this morning and happily showed off (I.e. racing around with her ball) in front of said pal (who looks on vaguely amused or so it seems to me. The Vizler is older than Lady).

Looking forward to sharing my review of The Sleeping Beauty as performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Do check out your own local amateur dramatic companies by the way – you are bound to find gems. I have! And going to the theatre is another way of taking in stories, when all is said and done.

Amused to see I have another one star review for Tripping the Flash Fantastic over on Amazon but no comments to go with it. Every author gets these so I guess it is a sign I am part of the “club” here then!

When I review books myself, I always pick out something I have liked to comment about. I don’t review books I dislike. Don’t think that’s fair to the author simply because no one author or book is going to please everybody. Things don’t work like that. And that’s fair enough. Tastes differ.

I have varied tastes in books but some things are just not for me so I give them a wide berth. But I’ve long believed the hatchet jobs say more about the reviewer than whoever is on the receiving end. That doesn’t just apply to books of course.

Don’t forget my author newsletter is out this coming Thursday. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Newsletter with envelope imagePleased to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, for my first post here of the New Year. I talk about Writing Difficulties this time. We all get them. We start a piece of work full of enthusiasm and then get bogged down.

My post looks at what I find can trigger struggling with writing for me (being overtired really does not help) and how I handle that. Being aware of what can trigger writing difficulties is so helpful because you can work out how to overcome these. It isn’t always possible to avoid them but it helps a lot as well to know you’re not alone here.

Hope you find the post useful.

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Hope the weekend has gone well. Spotted first snowdrops today.

When I’ve got odd moments of time when I can write something, but not necessarily enough time for a flash piece or short story, I jot down ideas for titles, promising opening lines etc.

I also start drafting blog posts, perhaps an opening paragraph or so. It is great to have something to come back to later. Those pockets of time do mount up as I’ve mentioned before. I also make a point of starting the next blog posts as soon as I can after publication of others.

So for the monthly Authors Electric and More than Writers I am starting to draft the following month’s posts as soon as the current ones have been published. I can then add to these pieces throughout the month. I usually find I have a post finished, edited, and pictures selected for it about ten days before my posts are due for these two places. I like that.

What I try not to do is leave writing a post until almost the last minute. That doesn’t work for me. I find drafting my newsletters over the course of a month also works well. It means I just have to send myself a test email a few days before it is due out. I can spot anything I need to add in or change, do so, and then I know the newsletter is good to go on the first of the month.

I am a big believer in taking pressure off myself. Knowing I have something drafted helps with that a lot. For fiction, I do similarly with competition entries and use my diary to ensure I get things off in good time. It may be old school using a diary but as I mentioned recently it works.

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Hope you have had a good day. Great to see some signs of spring appearing. Am spotting daffodils beginning to emerge.

Looking forward to sharing my review of The Sleeping Beauty performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company this week. Pantomime is a great tradition in the UK and long may it continue.

It is amazing how long admin tasks connected with writing can take. I’ve had to change my email over the Christmas period and getting everything updated has taken longer than I thought. I am there now though (or at least I believe I am, time will tell!).

On a much more fun note, I’m glad to say the flash fiction group meeting (for ACW) went well on Wednesday. I’m also going through the Writing Magazine competition guide and marking up several possibilities for flash fiction and short story competitions. Am looking forward to checking these out and giving them a try.

Next issue of Writers’ Narrative magazine will be out soon. Watch this space. Will share the link once I have it.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

One of my favourite openings to a story of mine comes from Decisions from Tripping the Flash Fantastic. It reads He could watch the world end or jump on to the alien spaceship that encouraged visitors.

You’ve got to read on and find out what happens, right?

That’s the whole point of having a strong, intriguing opening line. You want to draw those readers in but you do need then to deliver on the promise given by that opening line.

This is why I outline. I work things first out and then write my draft. It helps me ensure I do deliver on that promise.

TTFF with social media iconsIt’s Monday. It’s slowly getting lighter in the evenings. It’s still Monday and time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Sunset.

Inspiration for this came from a random phrase generator which I then adapted further. I often use these things as a starting point. I also will take phrases and proverbs and change one word – that can affect the mood of the story I then write. It’s good fun to do – why not give it a go?

One aspect to Flash NANO I loved was the variety of prompts but this included those I wasn’t so keen on. I thought this was a good thing.

It made me go outside of my comfort zone for one thing. For another, it encouraged me to think laterally as to how I would tackle those prompts. And I did produce something to these, as well as for those I knew I could do having done those kinds of prompts before.

It does pay you to try different kinds of writing prompt because it will prepare well for writing to different themes for competitions. It’s also not a bad idea to mix up the word counts you write to for flash as mentioned yesterday. See further down.

I try to think along the lines of what can I do with this rather than have not done this before, can’t do this. You can. This is where I think jotting down your prompt and then working out what could come from it helps. Think along the lines of flowcharts and spider diagrams here. There is something about the act of writing something down which helps me to kick start the imagination.

For example one prompt I hadn’t done before last year was the one sentence only/stream of consciousness writing one. I wouldn’t usually write like that. I did do something for it. I won’t use this prompt directly but what came out of that prompt may form the basis for a longer flash piece at a later date. What I came up with was part of an early memory of mine.

Now I could take that and apply it to a character. Or I could get a character to tell me “their” early memory. But there are ideas I could work up here. That is the point of any writing prompt – to make you see what you can do and there will be something, even if it takes you longer than normal to think of something.

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I like to mix up the word counts I write to when writing flash stories. For some sites like Friday Flash Fiction, I stick to the 100 worder (aka the drabble) but elsewhere most of my stories end up at between the 100 and 500 words mark. A lot of flash fiction competitions are based around the 100 to 500 words mark so it is not a bad idea to practice writing to these word counts. I’ve found it pays!

But sometimes when I have a character who has more to show us, then I will write to the 750 to 1000 words mark. Sometimes I do need the full extent of flash fiction to show the full depth of a character because a reader needs to see that to make sense of the tale. So I get the story written first, edit it, and then and only then think about what the word count should be.

For Friday Flash Fiction, where I know what I am writing to word count wise, that tells me just how much I can show via my characters. It has to be short and sharp – so my works are. I can show one incident and one character.

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Goodreads Author Blog – What Books Do For Us

Aptly, I could write chapter and verse on this one but I will limit it. Books are one of the best inventions we’ve come up with as a species. Books entertain us and take us away from our cares for a while. Books educate us. Books inspire us.

Reading encourages empathy as we follow what characters do and root for them to succeed. In the case of villains where we’re normally rooting for them to fail, there is still some empathy here usually for what the hero has to overcome. Sometimes you can see where the villains are coming from but still don’t agree with their actions. So again there is some empathy. Encouraging empathy is good for us per se.

And then there are the stories of the writers who bring us the books we love. The stories of how they overcame difficulties and became published authors inspire so many and do continue to inspire me though I am now published myself.

In writing books, authors have to think about their characters, what they’re going to do, what the plot line is going to be and so on. Working all of that out has to be beneficial for the brain, I would have thought. Certainly I know writing inspires me to try and write more and better. The striving behind writing and bringing books out is a good thing too.

I’ve loved the rise of the indie press, partly because I am published by them, but mainly because they are bringing more books to more people and giving more authors a voice.

Last but definitely not least, there is a genre and format of book to suit everyone – ebooks, audio books, crime fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, and all manner of other genres and formats.

Books are meant to be enjoyed. Long live the book!

Screenshot 2024-01-27 at 18-45-51 What Books Do For Us

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Fairytales and Pantomime

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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 the publicity shot of me at the Book Fair last summer.
Hope the last few days have been okay for you. Weather settling down a bit more. Busy week with the ACW Flash Fiction Group and a pantomime on my agenda this week but both were lots of fun – oh yes, they were! Lady has been playing with her two best buddies so she has had a lovely time and made more friends at my Slimming World group. I don’t normally take her with me for that but circumstances dictated I had to do this for this week and she loved being fussed over. I put a thank you post on our SW timeline and it had over 110 views! Think Lady has a new fan club…

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Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am pleased to share Fairytales and Pantomime, my latest post for Chandler’s Ford Today. I look at why fairytales do make for wonderful pantomime material and why fairytales and pantomime help to keep each other relevant and in people’s memories. I think that matters.

I also look at why pantomime can encourage a life long love of theatre. Nothing to dislike there! Hope you enjoy the post. This is a lead in to my review of Sleeping Beauty performed by The Chameleon Theatre Group. Am looking forward to sharing that next week.

Fairytales and Pantomime

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Early post as am off to the pantomime tonight. Oh yes I am. No. There’s nothing behind me either! I am off to see The Chameleon Theatre Group perform Sleeping Beauty. Am expecting lots of laughs, excellent performances, and a great time to be had by all. Well, that is exactly what happened for all of their other pantomimes so am not expecting differently tonight!

I hope to review the show for Chandler’s Ford Today next week but my post tomorrow will look at why Fairytales and Pantomime are such a great match up. Looking forward to sharing that one. See above.

Don’t forget my author newsletter goes out again next week. I know, I know. January, for once, has flown by and we are almost into February. This time as well as sharing my news and useful tips, I am also sharing a pdf which I hope will prove useful to the writers amongst my subscribers. Plenty of time to sign up. If you wish to do so, please head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

While on topic, I’d just like to say a big thank you for all who have signed up to my newsletter and a big hello and welcome to those who have signed up recently.

 

Hope you had a good day. Lady has. Got to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback friends. Me? Housework and going to the dentists! Having said that, dentist is reasonably happy with me (!) and I am looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting later on. Zoom is a blessing and the meetings are always great fun.

Will be looking at Fairytales and Pantomime for Chandler’s Ford Today – link up on Friday. See above. I explore why fairytales are brilliant stories to adapt for pantomime. Am going to see The Chameleon Theatre Group perform Sleeping Beauty on Thursday. Looking forward to that. Review to follow in due course.

Why do I love fairytales so much? Firstly, they are great stories. Secondly, the most unlikely characters often turn out to be the heroes and I have a very soft spot for that kind of thing. Thirdly, you just know the villains won’t get away with it (so unlike life, sadly). Fourthly, they were one of my first introductions to the wonderful world of stories as a whole. That alone is enough to make me love fairytales.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with If Only, a tale which shows the consequences of the Fairy Queen banning magic from being used in baking. Hope you enjoy the story. Many thanks to all who have commented on this one already.
Screenshot 2024-01-26 at 09-44-55 If Only by Allison SymesAm currently working my way through the excellent competitions guide and handbook which came with the current edition of Writing Magazine. I’ve set a goal to enter more flash and short story competitions this year and am sure this guide will be an enormous help. This is where setting myself some deadlines (and using my diary to help me stick to them) will be useful.

Writing Tip: I know this one isn’t always possible, life has a habit of throwing curve balls etc, but I have found it so useful to block out times in which I will write. Again I use a diary to help me with this. Sometimes that time is a short slot. Today’s slot (Thursday 25th January slot) is as I’m off to the pantomime (oh yes I am!) after dinner tonight so I’ve got about ninety minutes in which to get some writing done.

Knowing this was coming up, I’ve worked out what I can do in that time slot and am doing it. It helps. When life does get in the way – as it does and will – whatever I scheduled for myself to do, I just “rebook” on another day. I find booking myself writing time helps me stick to it and I do get more written. It is worth a go.

It is fine if you can only book fifteen minutes here, half an hour there etc. Pockets of time mount up and I find the smaller slots ideal for drafting some flash pieces to finish off later. I then book myself a longer slot to do that finishing work.

420089602_816851383788058_2462316315740363443_nAs well as flash fiction, I write short stories and have just submitted one coming in at the 2000 words mark – for me, that’s a huge tale! This story was fun to write because I had the word count room to expand my characterisation in a way that suited the tale. I know it has added depth to the story.

But this also reminds me why I love flash so much. The impact of a flash piece can be tremendous precisely because there are not so many words to deliver that in. Flash fiction, for me, is like snapshots – one moment in time. A short story can be two snapshots put together if you like – you can have a couple of moments in time.

Both are wonderful fiction forms and I hope to write more of both in 2024 than I did last year. Onwards and upwards!

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Fairytales with Bite – Spanners in the Works

Troublesome characters are great fun to write and to read. They are the ones who throw the spanners in the works but it is not always for evil reasons. Sometimes they can see the lead character is heading off in the wrong direction so they may cause trouble to make that character face up to this and make the right choices instead.

Maybe causing trouble is the only way to make the lead character face reality. So give some thought to your troublesome characters. Why are they causing trouble? How do your other characters respond to it? Are your troublesome characters being troublesome just because they can or because they have good motives to do so?

A good example here is Gollum from The Lord of the Rings. He was troublesome to put it mildly. Even when he helped the hobbits, it was from mixed motives. Yet he did help them (even if on Mount Doom, he hadn’t intended to do so).

Troublesome characters can add a great deal of tension to your story but there should be good reasons (even if only from the character’s viewpoint) for them being that way. Gollum really thought he was right to want the precious back. Okay he was wrong but he thought he was right. And you can use that kind of thing to portray a character causing trouble because they honestly believe it is the right thing to do.

It is then up to you to work out whether that is the case or not and, especially where not, what your lead will do to overcome all those who cause trouble for them. After all, we wouldn’t want things to be too easy for our lead characters now, would we? The story is in overcoming the problems somehow.

BookBrushImage-2024-1-26-19-3721This World and Others – Problems

What problems do your characters face which are directly caused by your setting? Those problems can come from geography (dreadful terrain to have to journey across) to government dictatorship (not allowed to travel without a legal permit which would be a nuisance, to put it mildly, if your character has to go on a quest. Yes, they can ignore the requirement but at some point I would expect them to be challenged so they have to be prepared to deal with this somehow).

Think also about a character’s own problems. Do they have to overcome fears? Do they have to overcome family/friend objections? Are they going against what their society would expect them to do and, if so, what drives them to do this? There would have to be pressing reasons to do that. Nobody upsets the old apple cart without good cause.

Stories focus on problems and how characters overcome them. I find outlining my characters useful as I work out their traits and the negative/positive qualities coming from those. That will show me how well or otherwise said characters are likely to be at overcoming problems and often gives me good ideas for the problems I will make them face.

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Newsletter Tips, New Hats, and a New Reading/Writing Year

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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 Richard Hardie for taking the publicity shot of me at the Book Fair last year. Many thanks to Gill James for taking the publicity shot of me at the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event which I’ve used in my Authors Electric post for this month. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week. Continues cold here. Perfect weather for staying in and getting on with the writing then!

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to share Newsletter Tips, my latest post on Chandler’s Ford Today. I hope this post proves especially useful to those considering setting up an author newsletter. I share why I decided to have one and what I have found helpful in keeping it going.

I also discuss the advantages of having one at all and, some great news here, is that to begin with at least, it is perfectly okay to use a free plan from one of the service providers such as Mailchimp or MailerLite. I share thoughts and tips on scheduling your newsletters and coming up with interesting content too.

Hope you enjoy the post.

Newsletter Tips

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Am pleased to be back on Authors Electric with my latest blog post – A New Reading and Writing Year. I ask what you would like in this new year on both counts and share some of the things I would like.

I share a few thoughts on AI and Twitter too (because I would like to see authors appreciated more. Robots can do many things but the world would be a far poorer place without human imagination).

Hope you enjoy more fabulous books (reading and writing them) in 2024.

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Another chilly one today. Glad to say Lady got to play with her best buddies, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback. Good time had by all. Life came back to my feet on getting home!

Don’t forget I’ll be sharing Newsletter Tips on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Will be especially useful if you are thinking of setting one up. See above.

Am looking forward to resuming my “arts correspondent” role for CFT soon as I am off to see The Chameleon Theatre Group’s latest production of Sleeping Beauty next week. It is panto time. Oh yes it is! Review to follow in a couple of weeks though I am planning to write a piece about fairytales and pantomime the week ahead of that review.

I do hope The Chameleons do get to stage Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters at some point as I know they’d do this well. It was a shame they couldn’t go ahead with this last autumn after all but I hope they get to have another crack at this. Great story and I know they’d do it justice.

I’ll be looking at A New Reading and Writing Year for Authors Electric ahead of all of this though – link up for that tomorrow. Again see above. Busy week on the old blogging front!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Thrilled to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale, New Hat Time. This story came about as a result of my using a well known saying as a theme. Clue: it involves hats! Hope you enjoy the tale. Many thanks also to those who have sent in comments already on this one.
Screenshot 2024-01-19 at 10-00-38 New Hat Time by Allison Symes

Hope you have had a good day (and kept warm enough. Lady was running around with her best buddy again so she was fine).

A major focus for me when I write flash fiction is thinking about the impact of my story on potential readers. Do I want to make them laugh, cry, occasionally scream etc? I then look at the characters who can “deliver” these things.

Competitions with set themes, I find, kind of give me a head start here because I can work out immediately the kind of impact their theme is likely to deliver, though you do sometimes get themes which can be taken in more than one direction. I enjoy those. I get to pick which way to take it!

Though when that doesn’t happen and a theme has an “obvious” impact, I have great fun in working out how I can deliver on that and what would make my characters stand out. It is a good challenge. Entering competitions is useful for this and for getting you into the habit of writing to deadlines.

420271522_812239524249244_449972747403738715_nBrrr…. Am so glad writing can be done in the warm! (Ironically I have enjoyed my swims so far this week. When the weather is this cold, the water feels like you’re getting into a tepid bath. Trust me it isn’t like that!).

When drafting a flash piece, I focus on getting the story down. Then and only then do I think about the word count. The story is the most important thing.

Once down, I can then look at whether I have expressed things as well as I can. Usually a turn of phrase can be improved. Sometimes I will add in a detail to improve my characterisation. The odd detail here and there can create a stronger image and make my character more relatable to a reader.

That all done, then I can figure out what word count suits the story. Sometimes I leave it at a longer count. Okay, that will change where I send the piece, but the story has to be complete in and of itself and sometimes these things do work better at 300 words rather than 100.

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Fairytales with Bite – Fairytales and Theatre

This topic came to mind as I will shortly be looking at this for a longer article for Chandler’s Ford Today. I’m off to see Sleeping Beauty performed by the excellent local amateur theatre group I often review performances for and, of course, there is a close link between fairytales and pantomime.

But it led me to wonder if your stories are set in a magical world, what would they do for entertainment? What would they consider to be fairytales? Do they have such a thing as theatre? I must admit I would hope so. There is something almost magical about theatre, I think.

In your magical setting, when it comes to performing any kind of story, would magic be allowed to be used, especially for what we would think of as special effects? Or is it a case, in a magical world, that the one time this power is not used is in putting on entertainment as that has to be done “manually”? By that I mean using the arts of acting, stage set design and so on directly rather than having a wave of the magic wand solve all of that.

There is much satisfaction to be had in creating a piece of work yourself. I find this every time I complete a flash fiction piece or short story (even though I know there will be more work to be done on these things). So could your characters want to produce things like theatrical entertainment without resorting to magic to help them? This is where they get their creative spark. Just a thought. There could be some interesting stories here.

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This World and Others – Alien Forms of Entertainment

Linking in with Fairytales with Bite, what would alien forms of entertainment be? After a hard day’s work collecting specimens from other planets for your bosses (and you don’t want to know what happens next, not your job to worry about that etc), where would your average alien go to be entertained? Or is the thought of entertainment, as we know it, alien to them?

On the assumption it isn’t alien, what would your characters like do to do relax? Would there be music, cinema, theatre, sports, the arts etc? Would there be things in common with Earth here or is what they do different? How would they play sport if they don’t play it as we do? How would they enjoy music if they don’t do so the way we do?

Here is where you would need to give some thought as to what your characters look like and what their physical biology is? If they don’t have ears, how would they appreciate music? Could they absorb it through their skin instead, for example?

If there is an entertainment industry, who controls it? Can all access it? Do your characters have to pay for their entertainment and, if so, what form does the payment take? Are certain entertainments more valued than others?

Now I can see story ideas forming here but also you could use these kind of questions to work out what you need to know about how things work in your setting and then share with a reader only what they need to know. So you set out early on a character absorbs music through their skin, say, by showing this to a reader early on. Readers will pick up that is what happens in your setting but naturally you need to know how things work first.

You can also drop entertainment into your story as a backdrop. Perhaps your character has to meet someone/thing important at a certain entertainment venue before going on to do whatever is expected of them. There have to be places where your characters meet and there is no reason why it couldn’t be your world’s equivalent of our pub etc.

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Happy New Year! Hope it includes lots of lovely reading/writing. I’d like to find authors new to me this year as well as get more things published and have a go at more flash fiction competitions. Not exactly New Year resolutions but good things to aim for. (Lady loved Christmas by the way and, yes, Santa Paws did visit).

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Facebook – General

Lady and I got a good soaking so I guess we have got back into routine well enough! Mind you, I did manage to have a far more pleasant soaking when I went swimming today. Now I’d like to say dry for the rest of the day – not a big ask I think!

Good to resume submitting flash pieces to Friday Flash Fiction.

Have got a couple of other pieces drafted for potential competitions so am pleased with that (though I will ‘fess up and say one of them is a draft based on one of my Flash NANO 2023 stories. Having said that, this is the whole idea of Flash NANO – to prepare work at the time and then edit and submit it somewhere at a time of my choosing!

I’ll be looking at The Joys of Writing Dialogue for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday.

1st January 2024 – New Year’s Day

Happy New Year! Happy new writing/reading year too.

Author newsletter went out earlier today. One good thing about January being such a long month is I have plenty of time to think about the next one! I will be doing something a bit different for the February edition, more details much later on in the month.

Was pleased with efforts at the writing desk over the weekend – short story drafted, blog posts drafted – feels good to be back in the saddle again.

Screenshot 2024-01-01 at 19-36-05 Allison Symes - January 2024 - A New Writing Year

Do you review your writing year on New Year’s Eve? I do look to have had work published during the year, made progress (running more workshops is a good example of that), and got on with my longer term project. Am pleased I have made good progress on all three of these things. As for the coming year, would like more of the same and even more stories out there.

Glad to see my author newsletter is growing steadily. Next one will be out tomorrow, New Year’s Day. (The 1st is a handy date to remember!). If you’d like to sign up for tips, news, story links etc, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I enjoy various newsletters from other writers too. We learn and inspire from one another. That’s one aspect to the writing life/community I adore. Let’s hope for more of that in 2024 for us all! It is such a pity you can’t store inspiration for those times when we flag a bit. It would be lovely to drag that store of inspiration out for those times.

Mind you, I do go with the P.G. Wodehouse principle of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair regularly. It gets my brain into “it’s writing time then” mode and I find that useful. I also find it helpful to just free write sometimes. I inevitably won’t ever do anything with those pieces of writing but they can be excellent warm up writing exercises.

Newsletter advertHope you have had a good day. I must admit it doesn’t feel like the weekend. I couldn’t tell you what day of the week it does feel like though!

I’ll be looking at The Joys of Writing Dialogue for Chandler’s Ford Today as my first post there for 2024. Link up on Friday. You’ll get to find out what conversational ping-pong has to do with it too.

Looking forward to resuming what I know as flash fiction writing day (aka Sunday afternoon). Do have longer short stories to draft for later on in the year but this time of year is great for brewing ideas and then going with the ones I like best.

Am slowly getting back to my writing routine and am adoring my Christmas books.

What do I hope for in 2024 writing wise? Hmm… well would love to have more stories published but this is an ongoing wish. One good thing about that one is there is no use by date on it! Would like to do more workshops etc. Looking forward to usual writing events.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good day. I’ve spent a lot of It getting wet (walking with the dog – unavoidable – and then swimming, which was fine!).

Have spotted a flash competition I want to have a go at, which I’ve not tried before. I do want to enter more new competitions this year so see this as a promising start. Deadline is mid-February. Am also drafting a longer short story for submission elsewhere. So getting off to a good start!

I love mixing my story moods when writing flash (which is how From Light to Dark and Back Again got its title). Flash encourages focus on the character(s) and I can set them wherever and whenever I want to – and I do.

Writing Prompt: Take any well known proverb and see if you can write (1) a sad story based on it and (2) a funny one based on it. Proverbs are great sources for themes and most themes can be taken in more than one direction.

Sayings and proverbs used as themes can show us timeless truths

1st January 2024 – New Year’s Day

Happy New Year! It’s Monday, it’s dark, it’s chucking it down with rain where I am, it’s still Monday but it is the start of a brand new year. Definitely calls for a story and what else could my latest on YouTube be called but Happy New Year! Hope you enjoy (and find out if Mary is too late for a late romance after all).

The days of my staying up to see the New Year in ended when I realised I really do appreciate my sleep more! And, funnily enough, after a great writing session, I usually do feel shattered. Time to wind down with a good book then before snoozing. It is lovely to switch from writing stories to reading them. It is such a lovely way to relax.

Sunday afternoon is usually when I get a fair bit of flash written (or I’m drafting a longer short story for a competition). I don’t tend to measure my writing output by word count which may seem odd for me to say given flash focuses on a limited word count.

What I look to have achieved by the end of a writing session is to focus on what have I got done. Have I completed a draft? Have I edited a draft? Am I working out ideas for future blog posts etc? As long as I can think yes, got this done, got that done, or am well on my way to getting it done (for longer works) then I’m happy. I take the view the word counts will mount up as I press on.

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It doesn’t really feel like almost the end of another year to me. This odd time between Christmas and New Year almost feels unreal. But it is lovely getting back to the writing again. Will be back on with my flash fiction writing tomorrow afternoon I hope as I often do use Sunday afternoons to get a fair bit done here.

Do have an interim goal of trying to get more flash submitted to more places this year (and I suspect my drafts for Flash NANO 2023 may well prove handy here!).

Talking of the passing of time, what do your characters make of it? Do you ever use Time as a character?

I’ve used the phrase Time Waits For No Man as a title (in fact, I’ve used it twice but the stories are totally different. The title was apt for each story though!). And in my The Pink Rose I use time as a thread throughout the story as we see one character go through something witnessed by her daughter. The latter also fears time given what she has witnessed.

So maybe this is a good time to think about using time in our stories then.

Goodreads Author Blog – New Year, New Books, New Authors

Well, this had to be the topic for my final Goodreads post for 2023. I’ve had a great reading (and writing) year. Hope you have too. Delighted with my Christmas book presents.

Am reading three of them together – as you do. They’re a great mix too – one is crime, one is history non-fiction, and the other is biography (the late great Terry Pratchett’s A Life In Footnotes). Loving all three books so far. Hope to review later.

So for the new year, what would I like which is book related?

Naturally, I would like to discover authors new to me this year. I often find going to writing events is a fabulous way to do this. I also like using the Kindle to try out authors new to me. If I like what I’ve read, I may well then go on to buy other books from that author in paperback.

Naturally also, I will be on the look out for new books by authors I already love reading. On a personal note, I’m keeping my fingers crossed my own third book will be out in 2024 but will keep you posted on that one.

I do hope 2024 gives us all plenty of excellent reading material. To fellow writers out there, may your pens/laptops etc be blessed by inspiration! We always need stories.

Happy New (Reading and Writing) Year!

Screenshot 2023-12-30 at 20-09-52 New Year New Books New Authors

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Approaching a New Year/Reviewing Your Writing Year

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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 and Julia Pattison for images of me in my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week.
I hope you had a lovely Christmas and hope you go on to have a Happy New Year. It was nice having a break and catching up with family. Lady was spoiled rotten. And I have several new books to read so am very happy about that! This post is a round up one covering the Christmas period. Back to my normal twice weekly routine here from next year (but then that’s only a few days away now!).

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

29th December – CFT
Second post and it is my usual weekly one for Chandler’s Ford Today. I look at Approaching a New Year. There is a theme emerging from my posts tonight! I ask if you approach a new year with anticipation or apprehension. Well, I recall the hopes for 2020 and we all know how that turned out!

But this is a good opportunity for writers because we’re about to enter a new writing year too. This is a great chance to look at your writing goals and see where you are with them. Do they need adjusting? Sometimes they do and that’s fine but taking the time out to think about this is a good way to help propel your writing forward.

Why? Because you will make necessary tweaks and other changes to help you towards your writing goals or, if they’re not working out for whatever reason, to re-evaluate what you want to do with these. I changed direction to the shorter forms of writing as a result of one of my re-evaluations. It has proved to be a good move! Hope you find the post helpful.

Approaching A New Year

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29th December – More Than Writers
It’s double post time! First one up tonight is my post for More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This time I look at Reviewing Your Writing Year. I share why I think taking time out to review your writing for the past year and what you would like to do over the next twelve months is a good idea.

And I stress why it is vital to focus on the positives. There will be some. Those positives can be built on too. I also take a look at reviewing your reading too given what we read is a great source of inspiration for our own stories. Certainly in my case if I didn’t have a love of reading, would I have wanted to write? Probably not!

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Am enjoying my additions to my reading pile. Good to get back to some writing yesterday. Not doing much today as seeing family. Back to full on writing from tomorrow. Will be looking at Approaching a New Year for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above.

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Am off for further family celebrations tomorrow so may post early or not at all but I wanted to pop by now and say (a) hello, (b) hope you had a lovely Christmas and (c) to say my Chandler’s Ford Today post on Friday will be about Approaching a New Year. Will be back to normal writing routine from Friday but must admit I have enjoyed the break and am looking forward to catching up with family tomorrow. I also hope you had lots of lovely books as presents. Have added to my TBR pile!

And last but not least, though nobody really knows what day of the week it is now (there is something odd between Christmas and New Year that does this to people I think), it is time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Down Time. It does seem apt!

NO POSTS Christmas Day or Boxing Day (I wonder why! Hope you had a fabulous time).

Have a lovely Christmas. I hope you get plenty of lovely books amongst your presents! Have ticked off The Muppet Christmas Carol from my viewing. Will be watching Hogfather later. And there’ll be other favourites to enjoy over the next couple of days – a favourite here is The Great Escape, which I remember always being on at Christmas.

I do have a soft spot for films based on true stories (though I admit The Lord of the Rings is a notable exception!). I expect I’ll be watching some of my favourite Morecambe and Wise sketches too.

Back in a few days, folks. Have a great time.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lovely to have a brief chat with my great editor at Chandler’s Ford Today earlier this afternoon. Will be catching up with her more when we next go to see The Chameleon Theatre Group perform. That will be in January – for the pantomime which is always a good laugh. Oh yes, it is!

Will be discussing Approaching a New Year for Chandler’s Ford Today next Friday. I won’t be posting for a few days over Christmas and my next round up of what I write where won’t appear until the 29th too (you will still get a bumper read though!). Think I am delivering on this promise!

Hope to get plenty of reading done over the Christmas break too. I definitely put books on my wish list. Now you can’t say you’re surprised by that, eh? Hope you too get plenty of lovely books. When I’m not writing, I want to be reading.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I do hope you had a lovely Christmas. I loved catching up with favourite films, many festive, some not. All of the films had something in common though – they all had fabulous storylines and fantastic characters. Those are the two most important ingredients to any story, no matter what format it is in.

Hope to get back to submitting work to Friday Flash Fiction from next week.

And I hope having a break has inspired you with your reading and writing. I know mine has. I loved the break. I am happy to be writing again. Win-win. (And I am loving my Christmas reading!).

Naturally I hope to write more flash in the coming year. It would be nice to have a go at more competitions too.

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F = Flash makes you focus.
L = Limitations on word count encourages creative thinking.
A = Always use specific details to create strong images in your readers’ minds.
S = Specific images also help you make the most of your word count.
H = Have fun with your characters as they are the stars of your flash tales.

 

Just to say I hope you had a lovely Christmas. Will be back to normal writing routine on Friday but wanted to say hello now and to flag up Amazon still have a good offer on my From Light to Dark and Back Again flash fiction collection on the paperback. See link below for more. Over 40 stories for under £4.00 – bargain!

In other news, my newsletter will be going out again on New Year’s Day. To sign up for that, please head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I use my newsletter to share tips, news, story links and so on. Many thanks to all who have subscribed – it is much appreciated.

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NO POSTS Christmas Day or Boxing Day (had a great time. Hope you did too. Lots of lovely new books to read. One very happy writer here!).

Happy Christmas. Will be back online next week. Hope you get to enjoy plenty of stories and down time. There will be a Chandler’s Ford Today post on Friday where I’ll be looking at Approaching a New Year. It literally will be timely! In the meantime, have a lovely time over the festive season.

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Glad to be able to share the Mixcloud link to the Three Minutes Santa show hosted by Hannah Kate on North Manchester FM last weekend. One easy link to click! Do have a listen. I loved the variety of stories and music. Enjoy!

Goodreads Author Blog – Story Time!

I know it’s not quite pantomime time. For those not in the know, pantomime happens after Christmas and goes on to late January/early February. It is a fabulous way of getting people into the theatre as it is aimed at all the family with a lot of audience participation, adlibs, and much humour. The stories used for pantomime are based on the classic fairytales. Pantomime is an old tradition too). I do know it is story time though.

I love the story of the Nativity, poems such as Twas the Night Before Christmas (also known as A Visit from Saint Nicholas), and the carols. In the Bleak Midwinter is my favourite and Christina Rossetti, like Charles Dickens, have added to Christmas related literature. Not many can claim to have done that. I also love stories in film (The Muppet Christmas Carol, The Polar Express, Hogfather).

I also love to write festive flash fiction and was privileged to have one of mine, This Is The Partnership, broadcast on internet radio recently. My tale looks at how Santa deals with a dodgy salesman. Good fun to do.

But as I mentioned in a recent post here, I am looking forward to that lovely time just after Christmas where I will get to read more, the normal routines are suspended, and I get to enjoy those presents which just happened to be books. I always have a request list here. No surprises there.

I hope you have a lovely Christmas and you get to listen to/watch/read some wonderful stories.

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Fairytales With Bite – A New Beginning

A new beginning is what comes after the happy ever after ending in the classic fairytales when you think about it. Cinders and Prince Charming had to get used to their new beginning of a married life. The woodcutter in Little Red Riding Hood may well have gathered extra business in terms of removing threats after what he did to the Big Bad Wolf. If so, it would have meant an entire new career.

Major events can often trigger new beginnings. Not everyone responds to these well. (Just ask the evil fairy godmother in Sleeping Beauty. She didn’t welcome the christening. Okay it was because she wasn’t invited but there would have been a reason for that).

So think about what a new beginning would mean for your characters. Would they welcome or fear such things? When the new beginning has been forced on them, how do they handle that? Does something good come out of their situation? Can they see the point of the new beginning later on?

If your setting has to start again – new government, new way of ruling etc- how does that come about? Why? What are the consequences of the change? Does anyone resist the new beginning and do they have good cause? Are they successful?

Good story ideas there!

BookBrushImage-2023-12-29-20-298This World and Others – Time Measurement

I write this as we approach a New Year – 2024 – which is the one time everyone is focused on time. We measure our time by seconds, minutes, hours, days etc but how would your world do it? Would time be based on the rising and setting of any sun like star?

If your world has an industry, how would they measure working time? In the UK, time became standardised thanks to the coming of the railways. Time needed to be standardised for the railway system to work at all (no good having one time in one place and another time in the train’s destination, say) so does your setting face anything like that? Does anyone resist the change to timing systems?

What devices are used to measure time in your setting? Who invented these?

If you have Time as a character in a story, how are they recognised? How would “they” prefer to be measured?! (Would be good to ask Time directly, yes?).

No system for measuring anything can ever be infallible so what would be the failings with the system your world has and how would these impact on your characters? Here in the UK we have to adjust our clocks by an hour twice a year to adjust to daylight hours available. So what would your world do when “corrections” were needed?

Also give some thought to the downsides of being able to measure time? Are your characters’ lives dictated by the clock or other measuring device and how would this show in their behaviour and attitudes?

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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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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Stories Based On Other 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 week. Very stormy on Wednesday night/Thursday. Glad things are settling down now. But on the fabulous news front (and there so needs to be one!), I’ve started my Flash NANO 2023 “campaign”, my copies of Gifted (the Bridge House Publishing anthology) have arrived, and the fantastic November issue of Writers’ Narrative is now out. Its theme is writing novels. More details below.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good day. Am talking about one of my favourite topics – stories – for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I discuss Stories Based on Stories.

So many wonderful tales (book, plays, adaptations etc) have come into being thanks to inspiration from previous ones. We build on what has gone before. Writers need to be inspired and it is our own love of books and stories which does this. I also look at the advantages and disadvantages of stories based on other stories.

Hope you enjoy the post. All of my posts here are a joy to write but some are just that little bit more joyous. This is one of those.

Stories Based On Stories

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Sympathies to all affected by the horrendous weather in the UK today. Have seen some horrible pictures from places I know well in Dorset.

On a much happier note, I’ll be sharing Stories Based on Other Stories for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above. It’s always a joy to talk about stories and so many wonderful ones have been inspired by previous ones. I like to think of that as building on solid foundations.

Talking of books, don’t forget reviews are a great way to help authors. Reviews don’t have to be long either so if there is a writer whose work you have loved, do send a review in. It’s encouraging for one thing. Given writers spend so much time at their desks, encouragement like that is always welcome!

Part of a lovely review for From Light to Dark and Back Again reads ‘A thoroughly enjoyable read that kept me turning the pages’ but that does make a complete review in and of itself. It also encourages me a lot!

Am pleased to say the November edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out. Link below. The theme this month is novels (appropriately given November is NaNoWriMo time).

My article is on page 58 and I discuss what I learned when writing my first novel, though to date that remains unpublished. It was a fabulous learning experience though and what I learned has gone on to help me with my other forms of writing. If you are willing to learn, little is wasted in writing. I speak from experience there. And do check out the whole magazine for a wonderful range of in depth articles packed full of advice. It is a joy to be part of the team working on this.

For those of you who receive my monthly newsletter which went out earlier today, I hope to share a double link in my next one (out on 1st December) to cover the November and December issues of Writers’ Narrative. In the meantime, do check out a fabulous read below.

In other news, as they say, I’ve received my first Flash NANO challenge for 2023. Looking forward to working on that! Good luck and happy writing to all who are taking part in this and NaNoWriMo.

 

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with Manners Maketh The Fairy. Hope you enjoy this. It is one of what I call my fairytales with bite. This one has an environmental theme to it as well.

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Will be cracking on with the Day 2 challenge of Flash NANO 2023 shortly. Now since done and good fun it was too! I love the variety of prompts. Good way to kickstart the old imagination. Some of last year’s flash pieces will form part of my third flash fiction collection in due course.

I’ve always enjoyed those moments in stories (especially in film) where I know I’m going to be able to recall it years later. The great thing with flash stories is they are those complete moments. Short form writing can have far more of an impact due to its limited word count and flash fiction writers especially can use that to work out what kind of impact they want their latest tale to have. Then it’s a case of making the most of the word count you’ve got to play with.

396714200_764034269069770_9199351449952028100_nThere are some days when I have a quiet writing day. There are other days when loads of things happen at once. Today is one of the latter.

Firstly, the November issue of Writers’ Narrative is out and focuses on novels. Link shared on my main Facebook page (and above!).

Secondly, my author newsletter went out today. The subscribe link to Writers’ Narrative is in this. If you’re not already a subscriber, I highly recommend signing up and it is free!

Thirdly, my copies of Gifted, the latest anthology from Bridge House Publishing arrived today. My story, Desperately Seeking Talent, is in there. The joy of opening a box of books from your publisher never diminishes!

Does it make the hard work, the years of rejections and learning the craft (which is an ongoing process), all worth it?

Oh yes!

Fairytales With Bite – The Environment

Whatever your setting, there will be an environment. Some will be much nicer than others! What is the attitude of your characters to their environment? Do they care about it? Has damage been done to it they’re trying to rectify?

If the environment is generally sound, how do your characters contribute to it being so good? Are there laws in place banning certain activities or insisting certain ones are carried out?

In a magical setting, think about the energy your magical characters have. Where do they get this from? Even if it is from within themselves, what affect does their using it have on the outside world? Do they have to be careful with how much of it they use and/or where?

What creatures would live in your setting’s environment and what would be your characters’ relationship to these? If magic has done damage to certain parts of your setting, how did that happen (presumably magical wars/industrial kind of accidents are two ideas that occur to me here)? What is being done to correct that damage? Or are those areas left alone and is that the right thing to do? What would what passes for nature on your world do to correct things if left alone to get on with it?

How does the environment, which includes all manner of things from air quality to transportation, have a bearing on what your characters can and cannot do?

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This World and Others – Agencies

What kind of agencies exist in your setting? These can include environmental agencies (see Fairytales with Bite above) to agencies who care for elderly magical beings who need looking after in their latter days. And who almost certainly are grateful to be still alive to be looked after given most magical worlds are not exactly friendly to their inhabitants. Well, you can hardly call a place friendly when dealing with dragons is a daily, hazardous, occupation, yes?

Also you could think here of stories involving magic which went wrong and damage had to be undone somehow. There would be stories here. This might explain why you have elderly magical beings. They would have to be phenomenally good at their craft to survive, yes?

Every world will need some sort of government and even if you focus on one area, who would be in charge of that and how did they come to power? Do they rule well or badly? What agencies do they use to help their peoples (or to suppress them)? What kind of characters would work in these things?

I think in a magical setting there would have to be some agreement as to what was allowed and what was not to avoid chaos. So which agencies would set these rules and how do they ensure they are adhered to by everyone? The risk of not having rules is any powerful wizard worthy of the name would almost certainly ensure they became your setting’s dictator. See Sauron in The Lord of the Rings for more on this!

Also on a more peaceful setting, how do the agencies work with each other as there would inevitably be some overlap? There always is with any kind of agency. An environmental one would have to work with other agencies responsible for caring for specific aspects of the environment.

We in the UK for example have a Forestry Commission. We have water boards. Both are responsible for the environment but in different ways. When the water agencies need trees clearing to clear waterways, they would have to work with the forestry body. And that’s just one example. Where you have the need for co-operation, the prospect of conflict of interest arises and there would be interesting stories there in working out how to resolve these and what your characters do.

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Screenshot 2023-11-01 at 16-23-41 Writers' Narrative eMagazine November 2023

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Moments 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 a mixture of torrential rain, sunshine, cloud, and high winds. More to come too. I am so thankful that writing is something which is usually done indoors in the warm!

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Facebook – General

Next author newsletter due out tomorrow but there’s still time to sign up. Please head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com for tips, news, story links etc.

Also due tomorrow is the start of Flash NANO where I’ll receive 30 flash fiction prompts for the whole of November. I took part for the first time last year and had a wonderful time with this. I am looking forward to more of the same! It’s a fabulous way to get some drafting done.

I think that’s the secret, if you can call it that, to this and NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). See these as ways to get first drafts done. Editing can come in later. But getting those stories down is vital and these ideas can help you get off to a cracking start. You can’t edit a blank page now, can you?

Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to show off in front of her Hungarian Vizler pal, who she treats like a mother figure (and the Vizler loves it too, she loves being “boss dog” here). Managed to avoid most of the rain. Always see that as a bonus. Lady and I don’t always manage it so see it as a win when we do.

How do your characters react to the weather? Equally how does the weather affect the story? It is often used to make life more difficult for the characters (see The Lord of the Rings for more on this!) but could you use it to help your characters instead?

For example, bright sunshine will make any journey more pleasant for most of your characters but if they’re facing threats from vampires, guess who the sunshine isn’t going to help!

Perspective is an issue here too. What some characters see as helpful, others won’t though it can be interesting to explore why the latter take a negative attitude as that may well have a bearing on how well or otherwise they “do” in the story. Outcomes could change too.

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Am pleased to be back on More than Writers with my post Moments in Stories. I look at some of the memorable moments in fiction I love but also discuss whether, as a writer, you can know what these are for your stories before you’ve gone through at least one edit. I also ask why do you care about your characters enough to write their stories up at all. Hope you enjoy the post

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Hope you have had a good day. Very changeable weather today. Still the rain did make me get round to one job I often put off doing – the ritual tidying up of the desk!

Will be looking at Stories Based On Other Stories for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Looking forward to sharing that. I love stories full stop. I have even more love for a story which is based on or inspired by another, stays true to the character/setting portrayal of the original or is upfront enough to say it is Tale X based in the Year ZZZ, but is its own tale too.

Not an easy balance to get right but it can be done. So many tales have been inspired by Pride and Prejudice, for example. Not all are set in the Regency period. Must admit though I don’t like the zombie cross one though. That just seems wrong to me. I dread to think what Jane Austen would have made of that.

Author newsletter due out again next week. I compile this during the month as news and story links come in and is great fun to put it together. I had hesitated about having one but am now glad I have gone ahead. I think it is vital to enjoy what marketing you do here. It is that enjoyment which will help keep you going.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good day. I don’t “do” Halloween (much prefer All Souls’ Day) but I have written the odd ghost story in flash fiction. Like any other character, I give good thought to the motivation behind a ghost turning up. There has to be a good reason for it.

In Tripping the Flash Fantastic, in my story Getting It Right, I write from the viewpoint of the recently murdered Richard III who is lamenting how he has been misrepresented. It gave him a chance to have his say to a modern audience! That was my motivation there.

For almost all of my historical pieces, I “allow” my characters to speak in relatively modern English so they can make themselves understood to us in the present day. Olde worlde English can be tiresome to read in huge quantities. As with accents, slang etc, a little goes a long way and I have always felt the most important thing is to get the character and their situation across in a way readers will want to follow. So the use of modern English is my one conceit here.

I have written from the viewpoint of Anne Boleyn too and it was, again, much more important to get her as my character to show you how she is feeling on the eve of her execution and to hopefully encourage sympathy for her and her plight. The Tudor English would get in the way of that, I think.

Allison Symes - Book Collection and TTFFIt’s Monday. The clocks have gone back in the UK. It’s darker earlier. There has been more heavy rain. It’s Monday. You know where I’m going with this – it’s definitely time for a story.

Hope you enjoy Numbers, my latest on YouTube, and see how my postie characters deals with the stuck up folk in Wisteria Crescent.

Many thanks for the comments coming in on Musical Neighbours, my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction. If you missed it, you can check it out at the link below. I love coming up with the 100-word stories (aka drabbles) for FFF. Great fun to do. And do check out the website for great reads. (My problem here is tearing myself away from the stories but that’s a good problem to have!).

Am looking forward to Flash NANO which starts on 1st November. Had a great time with this last year and out of the 30 prompts, I was able to get stories I was happy with out of most of them which is fair enough. Not every prompt will suit every writer but I had a great time responding to the challenge.

Screenshot 2023-10-27 at 09-46-42 Musical Neighbours by Allison Symes

A huge thank you for the wonderful comments coming in on my news about Gifted, the latest Bridge House Publishing anthology. Much appreciated. Am so looking forward to the BHP celebration event in December.

One of the things I love about writing flash stories is I can give the characters who deserve it their well earned comeuppance quickly! I tell you writing can be so therapeutic at times – for the author at least! But whatever kind of flash tale I write, I do have to know my character well enough to know they are going to deserve to have me drop them right in it. Then it is great fun delivering on that!

Flash works so well for twist stories and humour too. My ideal story is a flash one where a character gets their comeuppance and it is a funny one. Love reading that kind of tale too. Probably says a lot about me but one of the joys of fiction is in knowing that a lot of the time justice is done (especially in crime stories) when in life it sometimes isn’t.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Anthologies and Collections

I’ve had the lovely news this week that another story of mine is out in the latest anthology by Bridge House Publishing called Gifted. My story in there is called Desperately Seeking Talent. I often submit work for anthologies and it has been a great joy many of my stories have appeared in these over the years.

But I love reading anthologies and collections as well as contributing to them. I love discovering the different styles of the writers. I was one of the winners of the Waterloo Arts Festival Writing Competition where the writers had to write to 1000 words all on the same theme. Fifteen different writers came up with fifteen varying stories and it was amazing to see the creativity here and a joy to be part of it.

Reading anthologies and collections is also a great way to discover writers new to you. Why not use what you like about their short form work to check out their longer stories and books?

I see books like this as “mixed assortments” of stories. What is there not to like about that? I also read these books in between novels as I like to mix up reading the long form with the short form. There is so much to enjoy about both kinds of writing and I want to make sure I get plenty of reading done in both forms.

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
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Twitter Corner with hashtag, Scrabble tiles, and the blue bird

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