Tag: Author Newsletters

Publication News and Character Voice

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All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you had a lovely weekend. Good one here despite the weather. Managed to get some stories submitted for competitions. Hope to look at a good competition guide I have to pick others to have a try at soon. All good for encouraging the imagination.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Murky and grey again today but not as cold as yesterday. Lady and I weren’t sorry about that.

Don’t forget I’ll be interviewing the great Gill James on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday to discuss her new book, Natascha’s Story. Gill is author, editor, and publisher and is the brains behind CafeLit, Bridge House Publishing, Chapeltown Books and more.

As well as discussing writing for the younger end of the children’s market. Gill will be sharing thoughts and advice which will be useful to any writer so do check this out when the post goes out later this week.

Writing Tip: If you’re thinking of having an author newsletter, think about what you would want to see in it if you were receiving it rather than writing it. Seeing things from the viewpoint of your audience is so useful (and for your fiction and non-fiction writing elsewhere too).

As well as the content itself, think about how you would want the newsletter to look. Keep it uncluttered but with plenty of interesting things for your reader such as text boxes, bullet points, photos (suitably sourced of course so either use your own or use a free to use photo site such as Pixabay), and white space to make it a pleasure to read.

Gaps (white space) matter because what you don’t want is a huge block of text hitting your reader in the eye. Trust me, it’s off putting and won’t make readers want to read on.

Publication News – 10th February – Freedom on CafeLit
It’s a lovely start to the week for me as I have a new story up on CafeLit called Freedom. Hope you enjoy it. Find out here if Goldilocks really is a reformed character or not.

Hope the day has gone well for you. Busy one here so it is now especially nice to be back at my desk and start writing. Have a couple of stories to review this evening ahead of submitting them for competitions.

Character Tip: How do I know when I have got my character’s voice right? It’s when I can write their dialogue knowing this is exactly what they would say given the circumstances I’ve put them in. Everything rings true.

Sure, later, I’ll tidy that dialogue up as there will be things to strengthen and correct but I will know I’ve got the voice right. This is another reason why I need to know their major trait because a lot of their attitudes and therefore what would say and think comes from that.

Another grim and drizzly day. Lady and I made it around the park in record time. Even she wasn’t sorry.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to sharing a fabulous author interview with Gill James on Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Amongst other topics, we’ll be discussing the joys and challenges behind her latest book, Natascha’s Story, which is aimed at they younger end of the children’s market. Plus Gill will be sharing wonderful writing and marketing tips plus much more besides. Do look out for this next Friday. Plenty for writers of all genres to enjoy.

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Pleased to have got stories reviewed and submitted over the weekend. This coming weekend, I hope to look through and pick a couple of other competitions to try.

Plus I will need to think about stories for competitions I usually enter soon too. With competitions coming up in May, June etc it is about now I will look through stories I’ve already drafted and check to see if any are suitable. Often I find something which is and so polish that up and send it in.

Sometimes I will think not and create something new but I do make sure I write new stories throughout the year so I always have a stock to refer to like this. I’ve found it pays (and it is lovely when I find a story which will suit a competition theme – think square peg and square hole here! Very satisfying whether or not it goes on to do anything in the competition itself. You can only give these things your best shot and you do have to be in it to have any chance of winning it).

It has been a grey murky Monday,. But I was cheered by having a story up on CafeLit today (see my other page for the link to that – see above). But of course I am also cheered whenever I share another YouTube video. Hope you like my latest on here called Proportion.

Has Glenda blown things out of proportion or have she and Dave really got a witch stuck in their chimney, broomstick and all?

 

I enjoy submitting stories regularly to Friday Flash Fiction because it has (a) got me back to writing 100 word stories regularly and (b) I like having a deadline (to be in for the following Thursday) to stick to as I find having any deadline means I am more likely to get something written and submitted. 

Competition deadlines are useful for the same reason. You know you have to meet the date to have any chance at all.

Many thanks too for the comments in on my latest story on FFF – Come Back.
It’s going to be flash fiction Saturday afternoon for me this week as I’m out at a village/church event tomorrow. I do hope the weather picks up a bit in time for that!

The challenge of flash fiction is in coming up with so many different and interesting characters. It is the bit I enjoy the most as I’ve always loved creating people for stories.

The first thing I need to know is what makes my character tick because from that I can work out whether they’ll be interesting enough to write about. It is a bit like casting the right person for the right role in a play. Get it right and it will work seamlessly. If you don’t, however, readers/audience members will find your character hard to believe/get behind. (And you as the writer will find to harder to write the story up with any enthusiasm).

When I know what makes my characters tick, I want to feel like I cannot wait to write their stories up. This is a great sign. It shows you that you do have something to work with here and you will be more inclined to get on and do it.

Certainly this has been my experience. So a little time taken out to work out the character first pays dividends, I find.

Goodreads Author Blog – Books, Books, Books

Of all the inventions created by mankind, books are one of the best. I cannot imagine a world without books. Nor do I wish to be able to do that.

Books entertain, educate, inform, can show us plenty about this world we won’t get to find out any other way (not all can travel as freely as they’d like for example), and take us to worlds which will never exist but which are fun to visit for the purposes of a story. I’m thinking Middle Earth and Discworld amongst many others for that!

I never mind about the book’s format. I just want a good story for fiction. For non-fiction I want an interesting narrative which keeps me gripped by the subject. Most of my books are paperback (my favourite format) but I cherish my hardback, audio books and ebooks just as much. All have their advantages.

I have various books I re-read during the course of a year, though for some if I have the story as a film, I will take the story in again that way. I often rewatch Hogfather by the late great Sir Terry Pratchett. I can then read another book by him or another author, having taking in a story I know I will want to take in again at the right time of year, in this case just ahead of Christmas.

But I fervently believe you have to have the books in the first place!

And if you want to check out books and authors new to you, why not check out what your local library has to offer? They are full of the most marvellous books, books, books!

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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The New Writing Year

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All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, with the image of me holding The Best of CafeLit 13 taken by Adrian Symes.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Pleased with writing done over that time which included writing new flash and reviewing draft short stories. Hope to submit the latter in the next couple of weeks or so. Have got my eye on other competitions to enter too. Lady has been in fine form too.

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Hope Tuesday has been okay for you. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler today (and our neighbour’s retriever) so she has had a good day. Still pretty cold here.

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again before too long. It’s amazing how quickly the first of the month comes around. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com and many thanks to all who have subscribed.

I subscribe to a number of author newsletters myself. I find them useful – writers always learn from each other – as well as helping me to stay informed of what else is going on out there, writing wise. I find the world of writing infinitely fascinating and love hearing more about it and not just in my sphere.

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Hope Monday hasn’t been too bad. Lady got to catch up with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today and has had a good day.

Monday is one of the days in which, due to other commitments, I don’t get to do so much writing so I use it to do “little bits and pieces” which then frees up my time later in the week, when I can have longer writing sessions.

What do I count as “little bits and pieces”? Well, adding items to my newsletter is one, finishing off a blog post is another etc. Longer writing sessions will see me write one or more flash pieces, edit a story, make submissions and so on.

It is a question of working out how to make the best use of your writing time, I think. I aim to finish most days by being pleased with what I managed to get done in the time available to me rather than beat myself up about not getting much done. It helps me cope with Mondays for a start!

Hope the weekend has gone well. Freezing again here and murky.

Glad to say I’ll be talking to fellow Swanwicker Gemma Owen-Kendall about her novel Red Daisy for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. It is a great interview. Looking forward to sharing it.

I hope there will be further author interviews throughout the year. It’s always fascinating to find out about the writing journeys of other writers. I’ve always found you can learn so much from each other this way.

I often “interview” my characters when I’m preparing a story. I find it useful to know what makes them tick and certain questions such as what is the one thing you would ask for if you could be allowed a wish to be a great way to find out more about my potential “star”. For a start, I will find out if they would ask for a selfish wish or not and that alone can reveal more about them.

Pleased to be back on Authors Electric with my first post here for 2025. This time I talk about The New Writing Year.

I share how I use January, often a gloomy month, to ensure I have something to look forward to, writing wise, later in the year and discuss competitions and writing plans. This time of the year is a great time to focus on what you’d like to achieve by the end of it, I find.

Hope you find the post useful as you consider your own writing plans for the year ahead.

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I love flash fiction for many reasons but a big one is being able to set my characters in different settings, meaning I can play with genre here.

I’ve written fantasy flash, fairytale flash, historical flash, crime flash, ghost flash and much more. I like the variety.

What all of these things have to have in common though is characters who will grip a reader (not literally!). This is why I always start by working out who my characters are and I have found this pays off.

It’s Monday. It’s still cold, dark and January and, of course, Monday. Time for another story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube. This one is called To Do. Wilma takes matters into her own hands when she gets fed up with her neighbour’s boasting and she gets to complete her yearly bucket list too. Find out how and why here.

 

Will shortly be embarking on flash fiction Sunday. Also want to review a couple of stories I drafted last week. For flash and short stories, I usually find a few days is enough time to give me the necessary distance to see what needs to be fixed. The one thing I know for sure is something will have to be fixed!

I also write longer short stories though I tend to stick to between the 1001 and 2000 words mark for those. I must admit anything over 1000 words does seem lengthy to me!

Am delighted to say I will be sharing my first author interview for 2025 on Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll be interviewing fellow Swanwicker (and short story and flash fiction writer) Gemma Owen-Kendall about her novel, Red Daisy, which was launched at Swanwick last year. Looking forward to sharing that.

Talking of flash fiction, Writing Magazine have a 500 words competition. See link for more information and good luck if you enter this. Deadline is 15th March 2025. If you can get hold of the current copy of the magazine, they’ve issued their competitions guide. Well worth having to hand.

Goodreads Author Blog – Why Reviews Matter

There are two things every reader can do to help authors. The first one is obviously to buy their books in whatever format you prefer (and where that’s not possible, do borrow from the library. Authors usually receive Public Lending Right – at least in the UK). The second one is to review their books here on Goodreads and/or Amazon.

Reviews matter to writers for several reasons.

Firstly, it is good (and encouraging) to know we are being read.

Secondly, it is helpful for us to know what you like about our books and yes occasionally what you dislike. All we want is for any review to be fair, as most of us accept not everyone is going to like what we do.

Thirdly, we can use the fact we have had reviews as part of our marketing.

I always check out reviews for any product I’m interested in – books or otherwise. Often, I will come across something linked to the product I’m looking into I hadn’t heard of before simply because a review for it turns up. I then check it out.

The good news is reviews do not have to be long. Some of the best ones I’ve had have been one or two lines only. What helps is in saying you liked the book (hopefully!) and what in particular stood out for you. Job done.

Do I review books myself? Oh yes. I tend to do this in batches of two or three books at a time but I keep my reviews short. (Also makes it easier for the author to use part of the review in quotes they want to share).

A good New Year’s Resolution for any reader would be to review more. As we’re a community who love books and stories, it’s a nice one to try to keep, don’t you think?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Newsletters and Competition News

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All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you had a good weekend. Lovely to catch up with family and friends and relieved the weather held. It was bucketing down again on the Sunday! There are times my gutters do a credible impersonation of the Niagara Falls! Writing wise, am busy judging a flash fiction competition at the moment and editing, as well as writing my usual materials. Plenty going on but that’s the way I like things. Also have had some exciting competition news of my own – see below.

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How come it is October already? Having said that, I like October. It can be a lovely month, weather wise, though today it has been changeable in my part of the world.

Still the first of the month always reminds me to get my author newsletter out and accordingly my latest went out earlier today. I guess producing one of these a month makes it easier for me to spot how quickly the year is passing!

Writing Tip: I know it’s an oldie but this tip is a goldie and one I use a lot. The moment you get an idea jot it down as soon as you can. Don’t rely on yourself to remember. You don’t. I know I’ve lost ideas this way. I try never to do so now.

Now what do you do when said idea strikes at an awkward moment? Often does for me – the shower is a favourite location for my brain to decide it is suddenly going to show up with some inspiration. Goodness knows why, though I am grateful it never happens just as I’m trying to sleep. I know that would irritate me no end.

Anyhow, I have notebooks in different places to allow for this. Alternatively, I grab my phone and use the note feature on that to jot things down. Sometimes I’ve just jotted down key words but have found that is enough to get the idea “back”.

Have been known to mutter words to myself re the idea until I can get to that notebook or my phone. It may sound odd but it works, honest! Just helps to have an understanding family though!

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Screenshot 2024-10-01 at 16-21-40 Allison Symes - October 2024 - Writing Events

Hope you have had a good start to the week. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals this morning. A good time had by all despite the dodgy weather.

Glad my Newsletters post on More than Writers (I shared the link yesterday – see below) has triggered questions. I have now responded to those for those of you who commented on the post itself. I will add in that I was a late comer to having an author newsletter but am now glad I have one. It is an easy way to engage with readers and I find them fun to put together too. I believe in keeping it simple and being consistent, two good qualities for any writer!

And talking of which, my next newsletter is out tomorrow, 1st October. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com – and many thanks to all who have subscribed.

 

It’s my turn again on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This time, I talk about Author Newsletters and share tips as to what I’ve found helpful in setting up and running mine. Hope you find the post useful.

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Hope you have had a good day.

Will be looking at Story Inspiring TV and Its Music for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Am sure it will bring back many happy memories for many of you. Looking forward to sharing that on Friday. Then it will be back to author interviews again. More details to come nearer the time.

You often hear the advice to treasure the moments (and we should do too) but you can make this true for your characters too. Think about what moments they would treasure and why. Sure to be a story or two behind answering those points.

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Competition News:  Had a lovely email in this morning saying one of my stories has come third in a competition, I can’t say any more than that yet but will share more when I have a link to share as the story will be published. Could do with more emails like that!

Mind you, while I have been on both sides of the editing fence at the same time before, this is the first time I’ve been on both sides of the competition judging fence at the same time as I am currently judging flash pieces for a Scottish writing group. Lovely position to be in though.

 

It’s Monday. The weather here has been iffy to say the least. It’s time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Cake and Candles, a timely theme as I was celebrating a family birthday over the weekend. Well, they say write what you know, do they not?

 

I’ve always had a soft spot for characters who can see beyond the obvious and who are not necessarily prepared to go along with the crowed (especially if they can see said crowd is being foolish).

One of my characters like this is from The Terrified Dragon (Tripping the Flash Fantastic) where the local butcher can see a way of putting an unexpected dragon to use (well, be fair, it is never good news when one turns up in the neighbourhood), instead of just trying to kill the thing. Great fun to write and I always find characters like this more interesting to write for. I start by working out what it is about them which makes them different to the rest.

Another example of mine is from The Circle of Life (From Light to Dark and Back Again) where my character finds a novel way to stop animal cruelty. Funnily enough, I didn’t name either of these two characters (for longer stories I would’ve done) but they’re memorable because they stood out against the crowd.

Allison Symes - Flash Fiction CollectionsI used the random object generator recently and used what came up, a cookie tin, as inspiration for my stories on Friday Flash Fiction (The Old Bat and the Cookie Tin) and on my YouTube channel (Appreciation) this week. Two different characters, two different story lines, two stories full stop and all from one object idea! I like this! Hope to play again with the random object generator soon.

You can make even better use of the generators by changing the parameters you use for them but I’ve found not generating too much in one go is a good idea. I limit myself to two or three things at a time.

By the time I’ve clicked a couple of times something will have rung my inspiration bell and off I go with an outline and first draft. Having too much in one go I’ve found tends to swamp me. I have got to see the wood for the trees!

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Goodreads Author Blog – Encouraging Reading

It is no surprise all authors are always huge fans of reading. It is usually a case of having loved stories all of our lives, we then want to write some of our own. I’m all for things like World Book Day which encourages children to engage with books. Would like to find ways of encouraging adults to read more though!

I do think one of the most important things about children’s literature is in its role in engaging kids to read at all and then to keep them reading, Every writer of stories for adults owes a debt to the children’s writers given they grown our audience for us.

It is not unheard of for someone to discover books as a an adult but it is far more often the case someone has developed a love of reading which started when they were children. It is said the best way parents can encourage children to read to let their children see them read for pleasure.

I can vouch this approach works. My late mother encouraged my love of reading this way and also by ensuring, when very young, I was read to every night. The oral tradition of storytelling is an ancient one and must never die! It does lead on to reading for yourself.

So let’s hear it for the children’s writers and also get on with our own reading. In doing the latter we support other writers and I would hope encourage those around us to read for pleasure too if only by setting a good example here ourselves.

Screenshot 2024-09-28 at 14-00-03 Allison Symes's Blog - Encouraging Reading - September 28 2024 05 59 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the November 2023 issue which had novels as its theme. My article is on Writing Novels and is based on what I learned from writing mine. That book is still unpublished though I hope to return to it soon.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Broadcast News and Knowing Your Characters

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All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good few days. Weather now stormy and wet. Delighted to have been on North Manchester FM over the weekend. Looking forward to taking part in Flash NANO again in November. Also have a fabulous interview coming up with Anita D Hunt to discuss her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Do look out for it. Plenty of useful tips and advice. This is one of the great things about author interviews You learn so much from them.

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

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

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

Being consistent helps you build up your brand

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Room for humour in stories like that, I think.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Goodreads Author Blog – Books I Could Not Do Without

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

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

Which ten books would you choose?

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

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Decisions

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All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week. Mine has got better as we slowly recover from the burglary. There is much to be said for keeping the drama strictly to the pages of fiction!
But Lady has seen her best friends this week and, especially on Wednesday, you could see she was being cheered up considerably by her Rhodesian Ridgeback bestie. It was sweet to watch. Tuesday was so stressful.
It has been a relief to get back to writing. It has helped enormously in terms of feeling things are almost normal again and just being creative in and of itself, I’ve always found is its own reward especially in stressful times. I guess it is because it is an outlet.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to share Decisions, my latest post for Chandler’s Ford Today. I look at the topic from the viewpoints of writing decisions (including the choices characters have to make), career decisions, and the value of going to writing events and chatting with other writers, as you can often find out so much from this.

That in turn can lead you into writing paths you might not otherwise have found (more decisions to be made there!) and I can vouch for this. I met my publisher many years ago long before I wrote anything for them. Neither of us at the time could have known how things would pan out here. More details in the post.

https://chandlersfordtoday.co.uk/decisions/

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Things are slowly returning to normal here. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler friend today.

My Decisions post is up on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow (see above) and my next author newsletter will be out on 1st June.

To sign up do head over to my website at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I set a monthly theme for the newsletters, as well as sharing news, as it gives me a “peg” to hang tips and short posts on which I hope prove useful. I try to think of what I would look for in this newsletter if I was the one receiving it. I find this a useful technique here and for writing my fiction because it helps me to focus on what really matters here – giving something of value to readers (potential or actual).

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Everything stops for tea, including changing the world apparently, as my character, George, testifies in my latest tale for Friday Flash Fiction called Tea Break. Hope you enjoy the story.
Screenshot 2024-05-24 at 11-56-13 Tea Break by Allison Symes

I like to hit the ground running with all of my stories so try to ensure my opening line intrigues in some way. Sometimes I use dialogue for this. Sometimes I set up an odd situation. Sometimes I show a character’s thoughts and ensure they’re thinking something interesting!

Sometimes I use questions as an opening line because you then know the story has to answer said question. All are fun to do and if you would like to check out more of what I do, the link takes you to my Amazon Author Central page.

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Fairytales With Bite – “Normal” Routines

I’d decided on this topic before discovering I’d been burgled earlier this week so I guess it is a timely topic! What would your magical characters consider to be their normal routines? Which do they like? Which do they tolerate (on the grounds they probably don’t have much say in the matter?

Can they ever get back to their normal routines after their adventures or do they have to make new ones and, if so, how easy or otherwise do they find that process? Are others around them, especially those who did not go on the adventures with them, understanding of this or not?

If you have more than one kind of magical character, where are there similarities in normal routines for the different types of being? Which would be radically different? Can this lead to conflict? Are there bridge builders who try to improve relationships between the species?

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This World and Others – Dealing with the Unexpected

Again, I came up with this topic before my burglary this week. I have indeed been dealing with the unexpected!

How do your characters cope with the unexpected? As with us, some will inevitably handle it badly, especially if they are routine dependent. Others won’t be fazed by the unexpected at all. Could you put the two types here together in a story?

What impact does the unexpected and how it is handled have on them both? Would the more confident one help the other one to cope with future unexpected events because of the way they show them how they handle this one right now?

Where does the unexpected come from incidentally? Is it something that could reasonably be expected at some point or is it truly coming out of nowhere? If your world is facing something unexpected, who takes charge to deal with it? Are they successful?

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Tea Break, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction <a href=”https://t.co/Lf2Am2VCkA”>https://t.co/Lf2Am2VCkA</a&gt; Everything stops for tea, including changing the world apparently, as my character, George, testifies in my latest tale for Friday Flash Fiction called Tea Break. Hope you enjoy the story. <a href=”https://t.co/SThc7EAYKq”>pic.twitter.com/SThc7EAYKq</a></p>&mdash; Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) <a href=”https://twitter.com/AllisonSymes1/status/1794067934945464514?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>May 24, 2024</a></blockquote> https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Decisions <a href=”https://t.co/JxpGU14jqa”>https://t.co/JxpGU14jqa</a&gt; Pleased to share Decisions, my latest post for CFT. I look at the topic from the viewpoints of writing decisions (including choices characters make), career decisions, and the value of going to writing events and chatting with other writers.</p>&mdash; Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) <a href=”https://twitter.com/AllisonSymes1/status/1794069007454077312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>May 24, 2024</a></blockquote> https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

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Writing Magazines, Author Newsletters, and Notebooks

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All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good few days. Will be sharing My Top Five Writing Exercises for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday but I don’t limit myself to five. I regularly use many more different writing exercises, which I also love, but had I written about all of those, I would have a long running series on my hands!
Lady has had a good start to her week, seeing some pals she hasn’t seen for a while, as well as her Hungarian Vizler chum. Back to the drizzly weather here unfortunately.

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Facebook – General

Busy day and evening today so am posting early.

Don’t forget the next issue of Writers’ Narrative will be out again soon. You can subscribe for free at http://subscribepage.io/WritersNarrative

What do I love about quality writing magazines?

Well, firstly there is the great advice. Everyone can use those.

Secondly, they remind me I am part of a writing community. Being reminded of that is great especially when you can’t meet other writers in person as often as you’d like. (It’s just one reason I treasure going to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, in August).

Thirdly, I do love the author interviews and always learn something useful from them.

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Hope you have had a good start to your week. Lady got to see some chums she hasn’t seen for a while and her Hungarian Vizler friend who acts a bit like a mum figure to her.

Have got a busy week ahead of me but it will be fun to go and see Waiting for Gateaux being staged by The Chameleon Theatre Company on Thursday. Review will follow in due course on Chandler’s Ford Today. I have CFT to thank for introducing me to the wonderful world of local amateur theatre.

Did get my competition entry off over the weekend so well pleased with that. Will be thinking about drafting more stories soon. I like to have a stock in so when a suitable or open competition comes up, I have something that could be a contender. Suspect this may need to wait until the weekend though.

438681466_10161844752107053_3183887308183743724_nWhen I’m not writing for a specific deadline (whether that’s a post for Chandler’s Ford Today etc or a story competition), I will take some of the ideas I’ve jotted down in my notebook and then start drafting them as potential non-fiction articles. I know I will find a use for these at a later date. It is lovely to have work “ready to go” when an opportunity arises.

I will also draft flash fiction and short stories from my jottings for fiction ideas, even if I don’t have an immediate home for them, because I know there will be competitions later in the year where they could be placed.

For my regular deadlines, weekly or monthly, I try to stay ahead of myself in that I will have a post out there, one ready to put up, and ideas for ones beyond that. I find it pays. I’m never short of things to write up either.

One of the biggest aids to my creativity has been in getting to my desk knowing what I’m going to be writing. Just as with my fictional openings, for my writing overall, I do like to hit the ground running.

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Hope you have had a good day, More sunshine! Yes, Lady and I have made the most of it again. Got the lawn cut. She played with her football.

Am looking forward to sharing My Top Five Writing Exercises for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I evaluate these five, all of which I use regularly. Link up on Friday.

Also looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom on Wednesday and going to see the wonderfully named Waiting For Gateaux being performed by The Chameleon Theatre Group on Thursday. Review to follow on CFT in due course but I must say this does sound more fun than Waiting for Godot. A busy week to come then but should be a fun one. (Now if only the news could get better!).

Writing Tip: Every so often I jot down potential ideas for future blog posts for Chandler’s Ford Today, Authors Electric, More than Writers, and ideas for possible articles for Writers’ Narrative. So the jotting down of ideas for future use doesn’t just have to apply to fiction. I find it just as useful for non-fiction.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Don’t forget my next author newsletter is out on 1st May. Only a week to go, folks! If you’d like to sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

As well as sending out my own newsletter, I subscribe to a number of other author ones too. I enjoy finding out what my favourite writers are getting up to with their books and stories and any tips they share.

Sometimes I will find out about competitions relevant to me I hadn’t known about. No one writer can know it all here. There are loads of writing competitions out there. It pays then to stay in touch with what is going on in the writing world and author newsletters, as well as the writing magazines, are great and fun ways to do this.

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It’s Monday. The rain is back. It is still Monday. Time for a story then. My latest on YouTube is Changing Time. Does Maxran get away with his scheme to make it seem as if he has been on time for once? Find out here and what will happen if he fails. Hope you enjoy the story.

Hope to be submitting a flash piece later on today for a competition. I won’t hear back for some time but I like to get entries in well ahead of official deadlines. Also ensures I don’t forget to send entries in – that is so easy to do. It may be old school but paper diaries work! I use one all the time to plan out when I need to submit stories or articles. I find doing that keeps me on track.

So even if you don’t plan out your stories, you may find it pays to plan out your writing time, competition deadlines etc. I also plan out when to have my newsletter drafted by and give myself plenty of time to add in last bits of news etc. That pays too.

Being organised sounds dull (okay it is dull, it is not something to get excited about) but I have found it has made me more productive and I welcome that.

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I like to mix up what I get from my story titles. Sometimes I like to intrigue – see The Terrified Dragon (Tripping the Flash Fantastic). The obvious hook there is why would such a beast be scared and of what? Sometimes though I like to keep a title “open” such as Identity (also TTFF). There the hook is to find out what identity is being referred to and why it matters.

So I give good thought to what I want my titles to do. I also like a good mixture in collections of the specific and open titles. Also helps me get a good mixture of moods of story. I try to keep my titles short (usually) as they’re easier to remember. The majority of mine come in from one to five words though sometimes I have gone over that if I need more words to convey the mood I want to set.

I have a working title for my drafts. I find it helps. I do sometimes change that if a better idea occurs to me as I’m writing the first draft. I’ve learned not to be surprised when that happens and just go with it but having that starting point is useful for giving me to something to work to.

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Goodreads Author Blog – The Lure of a Great Book

The lure of a great book, for me, is in its characterisation. I have got to want to find out what happens to them. For non-fiction, the “character” is the narrative voice and that has to grip me enough to make me keep on reading.

I find it is the characters I remember and from there the plot line rather than the other way around. If someone says Sam Vimes to me, I will picture his character in the Discworld books, then favourite lines by him or concerning him, the overall story etc. It is in that order though.

Once a book has got me gripped, that’s it. I’m away. To ensure I do get a good night’s sleep, I limit myself to a chapter or two. That can be difficult at times but I cheer myself up with the thought I will be having more to look forward to the following night.

The characters/narrative voice do have to get under your skin. They stay with you after the book has finished too. Now that is the sign of a great book if ever there was one. If I were to ask you to name your five top characters, I am sure you would have no trouble doing that. The problem would be in limiting it to just five.

This is why I think characters are so important. We get behind them, not the plot. We want them to succeed (and fulfil the plot but without the characters the whole thing falls apart anyway).

For non-fiction I tend to recall the authors/narrative voice but when these work really well, I am definitely going to be getting more books by them.

Screenshot 2024-04-20 at 19-49-59 The Lure of a Great Book

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Online Workshops and Broadcast News

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good few days. Delighted to share broadcast news this time (and there will be publication news in the next post too). Weather still all over the place though have had some spring sunshine. Lady is as loveable as ever and continues to have a great time with her pals.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am pleased to share my latest post on Chandler’s Ford Today and this week I’m talking about Online Workshops. I discuss the advantages of these and share tips on how to make the best of them, whether you’re an attendee, a tutor, or, like me, you do both. Hope you find the post useful.

Mind you, if you find the refreshments on offer at an online workshop are not all they should be, you really do only have yourself to blame!

(Will be having some fabulous author interviews coming up on CFT in April and May. Am so looking forward to sharing these too. More to come later).

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Broadcast News: Am delighted to announce my story Budding Betrayals will be broadcast on Saturday 16th March on North Manchester FM. I have an unusual lead character in this one but you will have to listen in (live or on catch up) to find out more.

Hannah Kate is hosting a special Spring Equinox show in her Saturday afternoon slot and I am delighted my tale will be part of it. Many congratulations to every one else taking part too. See link and screenshot for more. I hope to share the link to the show itself sometime next week.

Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 09-49-18 North Manchester FM Hannah's Bookshelf Spring Equinox Special Saturday 16 March 2-4pm - Hannah Kate

Today would’ve been my mother’s 90th birthday. Many thanks for the gift of reading, Mum. It has led to a lot!

Don’t forget my next author newsletter goes out on 1st April. Not an April Fool, honestly! To sign up for news, tips, prompts etc, head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I chose a monthly time slot deliberately as it gives me plenty of time to put the newsletter together and it isn’t too frequent an arrival in your inbox! All of the author newsletters I subscribe to are either monthly or occasional. Does anyone send one out weekly? How would you have the time?!

Having a newsletter forms part of my marketing, of course. It’s a joy to put together and it also gives me an opportunity to share links to my stories on Friday Flash Fiction for the month and to my videos on my YouTube channel. It makes a good “one stop shop” for me here.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am delighted to share my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction – Neighbours. Neighbours are not always what they appear to be and that is the case for the characters in this story. Hope you like it.

(From tomorrow, 16th March 2024, Friday Flash Fiction are running an annual competition in memory of Andrew Siderius. Check out the home page for more information).

Screenshot 2024-03-15 at 10-08-09 Neighbours by Allison SymesPleased to have another flash fiction tale due to be broadcast by Hannah Kate on North Manchester FM this coming weekend. (Saturday 16th March 2024). I hope to share a link to the show itself sometime next week. This news came as a nice surprise today.

Am making good progress on what I hope will end up as a fourth flash fiction collection in due course too.

I love flash for its flexibility in mood, style, genre I write in, and even the word count I write to, as long as I don’t go over 1000 words. Great fun to do. It also makes for an excellent warm up writing exercise. Why not give it a go? I did. Two published books later and another in the pipeline, I’d say I made a good call!


My mother would’ve been 90 today. She saw my first published story in print. She would’ve been pleased about the flash fiction collections. I owe my love of stories and books in general to her. It is the gift which keeps on giving.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction group meeting later in the month. Always good fun. It’s also an opportunity for folk to share news of relevant competitions etc as no one writer can know them all and I was told about Flash NANO via the Flash Fiction group. Am appreciative of that!

I sometimes write what I call “slice of life” flash tales. One of these is Judgement Day from Tripping the Flash Fantastic which has a “punch in the gut” ending. You would root for my character in this one and that, of course, is the reaction I wanted to generate with this story.

When I write slice of life tales, I focus down on what matters most to my character and that then is the story. There will be change. There will be development. There will be reflection. All of this comes together to bring about an emotional tale, which I hope gives readers pause for thought. For me, that is the purpose of a slice of life tale.

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Fairytales With Bite – Humorous Fantasy

I am very fond of humorous fantasy and my favourite series here is the Discworld one by the much missed Sir Terry Pratchett. Humour can often get across points better than “telling”. People are more willing to “take in” humour.

Humour has its place in the world of the fairytale too and many of my flash fiction pieces fall in this category. I love ending a fairytale piece with a punchline ending.

One of my own favourites here is Making The Grade from From Light to Dark and Back Again. I often read this one at Open Prose Mic Nights as it is short (100 words), has a punchline ending, and involves a magical character and exams. All good fun!

I’ve found a good way into writing this kind of humorous fairytale is to have a strong character in mind first. Ensure you know what their main traits are. My character in the story above is determined to do things her way and a lot of the humour comes from that.

I also find knowing a rough idea of the ending helps. I often write down a potential punchline finish first and then work out what could lead to that. It means I have a logical structure in place. I’m just writing from B to A rather than A to B.

So think about what your characters would find funny. Also what situations could you put them in where humour could develop. I am a big fan of outlining (yes, even for 100 word stories) and find jotting down ideas helps clear my mind and sparks other ideas too. I then go with the one which has the biggest impact on me as that will be the same reaction other readers will have.

But do have a go at writing humorous fairytales. They are good fun. I find they work best when kept relatively short but there are places in the flash fiction market which would be open for these kinds of stories.

And they make people smile. I like that.

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This World and Others – Humour In Your Setting

Linking with Fairytales with Bite, I thought I’d look at humour in your setting. Does your setting have anything intrinsically funny about it? Does it have species which are considered to be funny by others and if so, what are they? What is it about them that produces the smiles? (I think there is something intrinsically amusing about the duck-billed platypus, for example. I like the way it breaks the rules. Mammals aren’t meant to lay eggs but it does).

What would your characters find funny? Do the powers that be in your setting encourage humour or suppress it, given humour is often linked to freedom of thought and speech? What would your characters do or where would they go to find humour? Is there an underground humour movement? (For more on this kind of idea do check out The Goodies’ show Goodies Rule UK? It is brilliant).

Do all of your main species have humour or do only some have it? What kind of problems could their humour cause, especially where it is not shared? Could you use humour in your stories to bring species together, maybe to even wrap up your stories?

Humour is a powerful and wonderful thing. Tastes in humour vary too. That could be something to be explored in your character portrayal too.

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots and photos of the lovely area of Northumberland taken by me, Allison Symes.
Coming to the end of my time in Northumberland as this goes out. Had a lovely time. Gorgeous scenery and the break has been much needed. Is lovely to be writing somewhere else now and again too. Lots of walking done – we’ve averaged five miles a day. Lady, because she has a fine line in zig-zagging everywhere like our dog, Gracie, used to do, has probably averaged at least a third again on top of that!

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Less is More is the theme for flash fiction writers

Fairytales with Bite – Character Development

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

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

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

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

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

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This World and Others – Supplies -Magical or Otherwise

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

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

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

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Screenshot 2023-09-25 at 12-14-31 Writers' Narrative eMagazine October 2023

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
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What Makes A Character Work

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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 Jennifer C Wilson for taking the image of me about to run a workshop at Swanwick in 2022. Looking forward to catching up with you, Jen, at Swanwick 2023! Many thanks to Richard Hardie for taking the image of me at the Book Fair.
Hope you have had a good weekend. I’m off to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick this coming weekend for a few days. I am planning to post but times will be different. Am looking forward to catching up with friends (the rest of the year I meet them online only) and attending the excellent workshops.

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Facebook – General

Someone hasn’t told the weather it’s August, have they? Oh well. On the plus side, the grass in my local park does now look and feel like grass as opposed to the straw it had resembled during that period of hot weather we did have.

My latest author newsletter went out earlier today – many thanks to all who have signed up. Hope you enjoy the latest one.

I came to author newsletters fairly late though I enjoy reading several and it is something I should’ve done sooner than I did. It is a useful way of keeping in touch. I aim to put in mine what I know I’d like to receive myself. I think that helps (and shows). It is a great joy putting these together – marketing can be fun, honest!

May be a doodle of text that says "E-MAIL out my NEWSLETTER I send author newsletter ơη the 1st of each month and share news, tips, story links newsletter EMAIL etc. talk about flash fiction and share thoughts ση writing it here tσơ."

Allison Symes - August 2023 - Out and (Flashing) About

Had to have a chuckle. Had an email in from Amazon today suggesting I might be interested in The Best of CafeLit 12. Credit where it’s due and all that – they’re not wrong.

Someone might have noticed though I asked Amazon to add it to my Author Central page, which they’ve done – speedily too – within minutes of my asking, and that’s because I’m one of the authors in here! Mind you, I have had this kind of email for From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic as well. Joined up thinking? Possibly not here.

In other news, have started packing for The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Told you I was looking forward to it.

Bit of a strange day today. I’m standing down form a voluntary role I’ve carried out for some years. Absolutely right time to go. Things are developing for me in my church life and my writing one too, which means I no longer have the time for the voluntary role as well. Am still a member of the organisation concerned. I am looking forward to “just” being an ordinary member again though but when you have carried out a role for a long time, it does seem odd to be moving on.

Am so looking forward to sharing my review of Lilies on the Land, the latest production from The Chameleon Theatre Group, for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Such a moving play and it brought back memories of stories I was told by my parents/grandparents. More in the post. I suspect the play has and will continue to bring back memories for others too.

Don’t forget my next author newsletter goes out on Tuesday. Still time to sign up at my landling page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Newsletter with envelope image

It’s my turn once again on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This time I talk about What Makes a Character Work. Hope you find the post useful and you can find out why the Sheriff of Nottingham as played by the late great Alan Rickman puts in an appearance here too.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good day. Busy one as ever. Am currently working on a flash piece I hope to bet submitted probably just after I get back from Swanwick.

I want to get it to the “resting” stage before I go away. When I come back – well, that will be enough of a break to give me the chance to judge the tale objectively before sending it anywhere. It’s amazing how many things I can pick up when I’ve given a story proper rest period like that and it can make all the difference to whether a tale is accepted or not.

This is why I build in time for this to happen so I still submit well ahead of any deadline. It is a tip which works and has worked repeatedly for me which is why I am happy to recommend it. I like tried and tested tips a lot!

May be a graphic of lighting and text that says "Like these three points but I would also add in a reminder that editing takes longer than you think at times. 1) Dream 2) Set goal 3) Action"

It’s Monday. It’s the Monday before I go to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick! Still time for a story though. My latest on YouTube is called Welcome to Earth. Hope you enjoy it.

Damp and drizzly here today. And the month we’re in is what exactly?! Having said that, I do not envy the poor souls with the heatwaves. I know I couldn’t cope with it, I can cope with the rain.

Heads up for those who send in stories to Friday Flash Fiction. For the next couple of weeks, they are only accepting the classic 75 to 100 word flash tales. See link for more information. Their contest ties in with the Edinburgh International Book Festival though, of course, the FFF one is purely online. Usual rule of one story a week applies. Good luck if you’re having a go at this.

Screenshot 2023-07-30 at 17-04-37 Edinburgh Festival Competition 2023

Hope you have had a good day. Changeable weather again here. This time next week I’ll be at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick and am so looking forward to it. Naturally I shall be spreading the word about flash fiction. Will report back for Chandler’s Ford Today in due course.

Talking of which, there is an offer on for the paperback version of From Light to Dark and Back Again on Amazon at the moment. You can check it out at the direct link below.

Goodreads Author Blog – Biographies

I’m currently reading London by Peter Ackroyd, a biography of the city which is an interesting way to approach writing history. Enjoying it immensely so far. But it led me to wonder about biographies, I have read some (mainly autobiographies) of figures I’m interested in. Agatha Christie’s autobiography is a fascinating read but unless the subject interests me, I don’t read much in this genre. No celebrity biographies for me!

Are there biographies you would recommend and what appeals about them? I do think the subject has to have led some kind of interesting life. With Agatha Christie, I am a huge fan of her books so am naturally interested in what she had to say about herself. I love history so the idea of London appealed to me too. (It helps I’m a Londoner by birth I suspect – another reason to be interested in the subject).

I suppose one reason I do like some of these is I am at that stage of life myself where I am interested in what others at this stage of life or beyond it have got to with theirs! This is another reason why I’m not interested in the younger celebrity books here.

I do wonder well what experience of life have you got other than that which made you famous? For me that isn’t enough, I like to read of how people struggled, made the breakthrough, made mistakes, picked themselves up again etc. Those are stories worth telling.

Screenshot 2023-07-29 at 20-19-37 Biographies

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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