Tag: Books as Presents

Favourite Aspects of Writing

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you had a good weekend. Had a lovely time with family for a family birthday. Lady had a smashing time. Lots of cuddles, extra food, and she just adores being with people. One shattered but happy dog at the end of the evening! Writing going well and will have another workshop to do in November which I’m looking forward to doing. Not that far away now. I can hardly believe we’re into October already.

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It’s hard to say what is my favourite thing about writing.

For fiction, I love coming up with characters. Always did like the idea of inventing my own people/other beings of choice. This is from a woman who has written from the viewpoint of a mother dragon, mind you!

For non-fiction, I love it when an idea for a blog post sparks other ideas and I know the post will end up being useful and I hope entertaining too. I am so glad the days of dull but worthy non-fiction works has finally bitten the dust. Not before time. I recall going to libraries as a child and the non-fiction section contained rows of huge encylopedias and the like. Wasn’t going to encourage me to read there – and I loved reading back then just as much as I do now.

I think most people have creative skill. It’s a question of working out what it is and then deciding if you want to develop it or not. I can’t draw. I can sing. I can’t dance. I can write. There has to be a creative outlet somewhere – or at least there has to be for me and writing is it.

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Lady got to play with her two special girlfriends, the Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler, today. Great time had by all. Missed the thunder and heavy rain thankfully – that came in later. Lady thankfully isn’t frightened of storms but she doesn’t like them either. Her policy is to get up and move to what she considers to be the safest room in the house. Once she’s done that, she’s happy again!

Many thanks for the comments coming in on The Old Days, my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction. Have you been to a school reunion? See what my characters make of their one in this story.
Screenshot 2023-09-29 at 10-11-20 The Old Days by Allison Symes

Wow! October already. Author newsletter out earlier today. I share some thoughts on finding ideas this time along with the usual news and story links. Hope you enjoy.

Will be celebrating the joys of The Writing Community for Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. Looking forward to sharing that post on Friday.

It was fantastic to catch up with my lovely editor here, Janet Williams, in person yesterday. Great to have a good chat and I am looking forward to seeing Wyrd Sisters with her to be performed by The Chameleon Theatre Group towards the end of the month.

It will be the first time I’ve seen a Discworld play and given the story is such a strong one, I just know the play will be something special. Plan to review in due course for CFT.

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Posting at a different time today as have a family birthday do. Lady loves these events. Everyone makes a good fuss of her and she usually gets more snacks than usual. It isn’t even her birthday! See photo above! Fab time doesn’t begin to cover it…

What events would your characters want to celebrate? If your story is in a fantasy/sci-fi setting, are birthdays celebrated as we know them or is the date of birth considered irrelevant? Could they consider the day someone graduates to be more important, for example? What events would characters be compelled to honour in some way, whether that compulsion is imposed by family, friends, the wider society, or the government?

There needs to be a sense your characters have a life away from your story. You can imagine Character X going to school even if that is not part of the tale. Characters will have memories so what would they consider important enough to recall?

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good day. One of my favourite writing exercises is to jot down promising opening lines I will flesh out at a later date. I often use odd pockets of time for this and the great thing is when I have more time at my desk I’ve already got ideas to think about.

If an opening line still grips me a couple of weeks or so after I drafted it, I then run with it. I outline my character and work out how that opening line would apply to them. That nearly always sparks the kind of story they would have to be in for this to happen. Basic story structure in place and away I go with my first draft.

My opening line from Seeing Is Believing (Tripping The Flash Fantastic) reads When Ben was unwell, strange signs appeared in the sky above his house. That was fun to flesh out! I worked out who Ben was (not all of this is in the story. Only I needed to know it). I also worked out from that why strange signs would be associated with him. Then I was away on my first draft.

As I am writing flash and short stories a lot, I am always looking for ways into character creation. I also like mixing up the kinds of writing exercise I use. It keeps me on my toes and they all generate ideas.

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It’s Monday. Autumn is really coming in now with the dark evenings starting in my part of the world as early as 7 pm. It’s still Monday. There has been heavy rain. Dog really wished it hadn’t thundered, though not scared of it. (She just moves to what she thinks is the safest part of the world and treats it as an inconvenience!). Definitely time for a story then. Hope you enjoy Escape, my latest on YouTube. One of my darker tales, this one.

 

Amazon have an offer on the paperback of From Light to Dark and Back Again. Details in the link below. A fantastic review here refers to FLTDBA as “An eclectic mix of flash fiction, from an author with a great imagination.” I always appreciate reviews received and it is a great way to give some feedback to an author.

So please do consider leaving reviews. My example above proves it doesn’t have to be long. As well as being an obvious morale boost, reviews can help authors with their marketing. I review too – and not just on books.

I do a fair amount of online shopping and I always check the reviews out on products new to me. I find them a useful guide. And yes I am a great believer in reviewing and being reviewed – to me it is only right to be on both sides of the coin here!


Posting outside usual times due to family commitments (nice ones!). Flash has to focus on moments. Events are often held around a specific moment such as a birthday in a character’s life or an event considered to be important if it is some sort of ceremony. Can you use this as a backdrop to your tale?

If it is meant to be central, your flash tale will focus on why an event is important to your character but you can’t go on at length. So hone down your event to a specific thing your character is focussed on – an outline for your story will come from that.

If the event is a birthday, your character may wish to focus on the cake. Maybe they never had one before? Maybe their attempts at baking have gone wrong and someone has come to their rescue meaning for once they’re looking forward to eating their birthday cake?

You get the idea. I’ve found figuring out what really matters to my character helps me to write them and their tale up more efficiently.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Books as Presents

I’ve long loved receiving books as presents. Next best thing is receiving book tokens so I can go out and buy my own books later. And I love giving books too. If I’ve loved a book, I can think of nothing more lovely than sharing that experience with a friend by getting them to read the book too.

Paperbacks and audio books are by far the easiest formats to go for and I must admit I love seeing book shaped presents under the Christmas tree. Okay, you can’t really disguise them but why would you want to? The anticipation of discovering what book has been bought for you is great. Don’t want anything spoiling that.

Matching up books with friends is a fun game too (and a nice one). Putting potential book lists together is also a pleasurable task and I will be starting mine soon for the Christmas season. Readers and writers are the easiest people in the world to buy presents for – we always want books. Well done, us!

As for books I’ve received, all are treasured. People have chosen well for me and I appreciate that.

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
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Using Story Cubes, Workshop News, and Writing Exercises

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, as was my photo of my much missed Bearded/Border collie cross, Gracie, my first dog.
Hope you have had a good week. Mine has started with an interview (to go out later this week) and Lady has been getting to play with her best friends, so she’s happy too! Hope all well with you. Lovely to see signs of spring in my part of the world – does give a good lift to the spirit.

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Hope you have had a good day. Despite it being bitter out again, Lady had a lovely time running around with her Aussie Shepherd gentleman friend today. Both dogs had a fabulous time. Definition of a gentleman here? Simple! A dog that doesn’t pinch another dog’s ball even when said dog easily could – Lady appreciates touches like that! She was also thrilled to see her pal, Coco.

Looking forward to sending our my author newsletter tomorrow. I do enjoy putting these together.

Delighted to say I’ll be running another Zoom workshop later in May and am looking forward to that too. Always love to spread the word about flash fiction.

I’ve talked before about using those odd pockets of time we all get to help your writing along. I like to mix up how I do this. Sometimes I’ll jot down title ideas. Sometimes I’ll note down promising opening or closing lines. Other times, I’ll start drafting a flash fiction tale I’ve already got in mind. I like variety here too.

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Busy start to the week as usual but it has been a reasonable Monday. Hope your day has been good too.

Loved the catch up interview with Hannah Kate – the broadcast goes out on Saturday, 4th March. More details and a link when I get it. Looking forward to sharing that.

Have been using the story cubes again for ideas for this week’s submissions to Friday Flash Fiction and for my YouTube channel. Great fun to use. This week I only used one of them. I’ll be sharing the results for my new video over on my book page shortly. See below.

But I wanted to say I love mixing up the way I approach finding ideas for stories. I think it stretches me and I also know that if one particular way isn’t doing something for me during any one week, then another way will, and I find it reassuring to have that kind of safety net. It is why I like practicing writing to different kind of prompts. Stands you in good stead!

Why not consider putting your own spin on writing prompts to generate more ideas

 

 

 

Hope you have had a good day. Am looking forward to being interviewed by Hannah Kate from North Manchester FM later today. That interview will form part of her show next Saturday, 4th March. Will share the link to the show once I have it.

I’ll be looking at Deadlines – How to Make the Most of Them for Chandler’s Ford Today next week so look out for that on Friday, 3rd March.

And before that, on Wednesday, 1st March, I’ll be sending out my latest author newsletter full of news, tips, and story links. Please sign up if interested at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Have a great (writing/reading) week.

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There is an environmental theme for my latest story on Friday Flash Fiction though that hadn’t been my intention when writing the story. The basic idea came for this one from a story cube showing a cute picture of a bee! Hope you enjoy Buzzing Around though I will confess I prefer bees to wasps.

My first dog, Gracie, one got a bee into her mouth. Thankfully she opened her mouth and a rather soggy bee came out and flew off. Not sure who was more relieved – the bee or me! I never trusted Gracie anywhere near insects after that!

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Looking forward to running another Zoom workshop in May. Do let me know via my website at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com/contact/ if you think this might be of interest for your writing group. Zoom has made more things possible for writers and I’ve appreciated this directly. (Flash works especially well for a workshop like this given it is is easy to share examples – and it makes for a great way to advertise what flash can do and be).

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It’s Monday once more. But I managed to do the evening dog walk without having to use my torch – hooray! – for the first time since at least November! It is the little victories which mean so much! This is another story which has come about as a result of using story cubes, in this case just one of them. Hope you enjoy L-Plates.


I’m planning to use the story cubes again to generate story ideas for YouTube and Friday Flash Fiction this coming week. Last time I just used three of them and picked the images from there. Today I’m probably just going to use one.

It’s another way of changing your parameters! I do this all the time when using the online random generators. I find setting limits encourages creativity. It makes you think laterally. But you can mix up how many you set and I find doing that useful too. Keeps me on my toes. Keeps things interesting. If it’s interesting for me, it should be for readers too.

May be a cartoon of text that says "Story cubes and random generators are excellent ways to generate ideas. However, it is a good idea NOT to have your posture like this though when writing! 一"

What is your attitude to writing exercises, especially when you’re set them at workshops, writing events etc? I love them. I see them as a challenge to rise to but I never expect what I come up with to be perfect straight away. This is my chance to get a first very rough draft down on something which I can polish up later.

If you get the chance to share some of what you’ve written do so. Nobody is going to judge you. Nobody is expecting the perfect bit of prose “straight out of the traps” so to speak. But feedback can be really useful and get you off to a head start when you do get to sit down and polish up what you’ve come up with here.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Books as Presents

Do you prefer people to buy you books as presents or would you rather choose your own? I like to do both. Yes, I know, wouldn’t everyone?

What I do for birthdays etc is give people a list (two or three books) but because I know others will give me money or book tokens I get to use the latter to pick my own choices not on that list. Seems like a great arrangement to me. (And I am so thrilled book tokens have not gone the way of the dodo. Support these, folks. Get book tokens for the ones you love who love books. Keep these wonderful things going!)

There is something special about picking your own books. There is something just as special about giving people a list and looking forward to finding out what they picked for you. Either way you get books out of it! There is plenty to love about that!
Now if you could give one book to a fictional or historical character, what would it be and why?

My nomination?

My historical character? Richard III.
The book I’d give him? The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey so he can find out for himself not everybody believes he was a villain.

Screenshot 2023-02-25 at 20-54-00 Books as Presents


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ALLISON SYMES – BOOK BRUSH READER HUB

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MOM’S FAVORITE READS LINK – CHECK OUT THE MAGAZINE INCLUDING MY FLASH FICTION COLUMN HERE –

March 2023 edition out very soon.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
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Plus many other books, including my flash fiction collections.

 

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Christmas Plans and Writing Across the Genres

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.
Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing.
Hope you had a good weekend, the last before Christmas. Have not finished my preparations for Christmas but am getting there!

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Hope you have had a good Tuesday. Am enjoying listening to the carol concerts on Classic FM as I write. Soothing and I can join in with the carols – win-win as I love a good sing. (Of course whether anyone else appreciates me having a good sing is a completely different matter!).

I’ll be taking a couple of days off over Christmas but there will be another blog round up on Christmas Eve. And my Chandler’s Ford Today post on Friday will be sharing some festive flash fiction. I will probably “pop up” over the period between Christmas and New Year but I don’t anticipate “normal service” being resumed until after 1st January. Whatever you do for Christmas, I hope it proves to be a blessed time for you.

I did manage to get a story submitted for the Writing Magazine Grand Flash Prize. There is still time to enter that one if you’re interested – deadline is 31st December.

There will be a Chandler’s Ford Today post on New Year’s Eve where I will be talking about Out with the Old?

I will take the chance to say a big thank you now to those authors I’ve interviewed for CFT over the last year. I very much hope there will be further interviews to come in 2022.

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A big thanks for all the lovely comments coming in on All In the Blend, my latest story on Friday Flash Fiction. Much appreciated (and it gives me another excuse to have another read of the wonderful collection of tales on there so win-win!). It is good to be back writing the 100-worders regularly again.

What do I enjoy most? Usually on my draft, I end up at anything between 150 and 200 words initially. What I love is the honing and pruning to get the story to 100 words without losing anything of value. That is where the challenge lies and I find it to be great fun.

Screenshot 2021-12-17 at 19-28-36 All In The Blend, by Allison Symes


Hope you have had a good Sunday. Finally got my Christmas cake iced. Am very late on it this year but it looks good and I shall look forward to having some next Saturday!

Will be slowly winding down as we head towards Christmas but I will be sharing a festive flash fiction post on Chandler’s Ford Today on Christmas Eve. As well as including the link to listen again to the Three Minute Santas flash fiction special hosted by Hannah Kate yesterday, I will also share another story and talk about the delights of writing festive pieces. Hope it will prove to be a very positive note to go into Christmas with!

I plan to do my usual blog round-ups on Tuesday and Friday this week but that will be about it for a few days. Am looking forward to my usual Christmas story intake of favourite films and books too.

My next author newsletter will go out at some point on 1st January though I cannot promise it will be particularly early!

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Delighted to share the first of two posts here tonight. It was a pleasure to have a festive flash piece on Three Minute Santas hosted by Hannah Kate on North Manchester FM. Wonderful to listen to the collection of stories on here. Great start to the 7 day countdown to Christmas! Link below is to the listen again service and the show is divided into two halves – first hour and second hour. I’m on during the first hour with my tale The Night Before Christmas.

Listen Again Page on North Manchester FMScreenshot - Three Minute Santa pageScreenshot 2021-12-20 at 20-21-57 Hannah's Bookshelf pre-Christmas Christmas Special - 18 12 2021Lovely to be on North Manchester FM again

I look at Book Products for my post on Authors Electric this month. I look at what I like here and what I loathe. I also share what I would like to see on the market including a gizmo for ensuring I never lose a notebook or pen again! Now that would be a best seller!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I like writing across the genres with my flash tales. It’s great fun and I see no reason to restrict myself here. The one restriction that counts for anything here is the 1000 word count limit for any individual flash story.

Given flash has to be character led, I may as well set my characters wherever and whenever I want and see what they come up with. This is where my love of reading over the years comes in as naturally that plays a major part in the kinds of story I love to read (and thus to go on and write myself as you write from the heart).

With my historical flash pieces, the one “conceit” I allow is in getting my characters to speak and think in a style of English we will understand. They are communicating their tales to us and it is a question of ensuring we understand them.

I also think using old English is a little like using accents and dialects in storytelling. You want a little of it to give a “flavour” of the era, perhaps, but not so much it “over-balances” the entire story. Nor do you want to make the story difficult to read (and Old English is difficult to read so again it makes sense to limit it!).

For my flash tales where my word count is restricted, every word has to work hard to justify its place to be in the story at all and, again, gives me a reason for not using old style language. It would, I feel, get in the way.

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It’s Monday. It has been a long day. It’s story time then! Hope you enjoy my poignant festive tale, Getting By.

 

I’ve always sided with character in the character -v- plot debate as I’ve mentioned here before, but flash fiction writing has made that call even easier to make. Why?

Simply because I haven’t got the word count room to give lots of lovely description and intricate plot points. I have got to focus on what my character thinks says, and does – and I absolutely love doing that!

But this is precisely why I need to know my character well enough first and why I find a simple template invaluable in getting to know that character. Think of it as interviewing your character. You do want your character to “say” I do like this, I don’t like that because…

The interesting bit here will be in the because as it will be the reason given which will show you even more aspects to your character. I’ve found that makes it easier to write them and their stories up as a result.

writing-advice707359_S.jpgImage - Allison Symes - Light and Dark - these questions can help you establish which applies most to your charactersCharacter Needs are everythingQuizzing my characters


It was a joy to be on the Hannah Kate show again today with my story The Night Before Christmas. I love the idea of a Three Minute Santas festive flash fiction special show. Flash works really well when read out and this show proves that.

The collection of stories is varied and each of them conjures up its own little world. I loved listening to it and I am all for things like this which promote flash and show what it can do and be. Perhaps flash comes into its own at this time of year when everyone is busy and reading might take a bit of a back seat for a while.

Well, you can still read/listen to flash! Hope you enjoy the stories on here.

Joy to hear stories as well as read them

Goodreads Author Blog – Books as Presents

I don’t know how many books are given as presents at Christmas but it must run into millions. Hardbacks, paperbacks, audio books, ebooks – a fabulous celebration of the written word, fictional and factual. I love that aspect. Yes, I’ve got books on my wish list this year – I always do – no surprises there.

I still have an annual (The Friendship Book which is still going strong after many decades and published by that marvellous publisher, D.C. Thomson of Dundee). I wonder how many kids got into reading thanks to having an annual every Christmas. Certainly they’re a great way to encourage reading.

Comics and comic books can serve the same purpose. Flash fiction, my genre, can do so too because these can tempt the reluctant reader in – you don’t have to read a brick of a novel (a) all at once and (b) as your way into reading. You cam start smaller and build up or read the brick a bit at a time.

The important thing is to read and I hope whatever book presents you receive this year, you have a fabulous time reading them!

 

The BHP book stall

Cafelit books - Book Brush mock upBridge House anthologiesHow many books will be on your wish listBooks as presents

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Photo by BERK OZDEMIR on Pexels.com

FINDING IDEAS - The finest way I know to feed my imagination is to readWhere will your fiction take your readers and will it make them laugh

 

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