Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Busy one here – lots of admin – but managed to get plenty of writing done though competitions are still going to have to wait for a bit but that’s life for you.
Looking forward to sharing a presentation on 12th October with an online group I go to and I have an interview with Gill James which went out last week. See below for more.
Facebook – General
Pleased to finally share my interview with Gill James about Seeing The Other Side and flash fiction. This went out last week but today is the first chance I’ve had to share it but better late than never is a good motto!
Hope you enjoy the interview. I get to answer the tricky question about whether I have a favourite in my new book, how I discovered flash fiction in the first place, and I share a tip or two for anyone wanting to write flash.
Many thanks, Gill, for the interview.
It’s a busy Monday and am looking forward to going to an online history group this evening, which is why I’m posting early.
Still time for a story though which I initially posted to Substack yesterday. Hope you enjoy Ten.
Hope you’ve had a relaxing Sunday. Was a mad rush this morning but this afternoon has proved calmer.
Writing wise, I’ll be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. Looking forward to tomorrow when I am due to share a presentation for a group I go to online once a month. And I hope to get on with drafting some questions for a future Chandler’s Ford Today interview during the coming week as well.
Competition writing is again on the back boiler for the moment though I do have drafts to look at and revise so I kind of have something here (or will do once the editing gets done). There are times when you’re just on the go all of the time – I’m in one of mine right now! (I suspect things will slow down a bit in November and then speed up again as we head to the festive season).
Writing Tip: When time is short, focus on writing and reading what you can. The rest of what you’d like to do here can be done later. Prioritising what does have to be done has taken me ages to get right but I have found it worth doing and it is helping me now.
The other thing helping me is drafting bits and pieces in odd moments and coming back to them when I’m at my desk again. It means I’ve already made a start and that helps a lot because it makes me feel better – I have done something creative.
Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. Getting chilly here.
Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Fairytales and Their Impact for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. This one has been a real joy to write given fairytales continue to have a major impact on my stories. You can spot the influence! More on this in my post on Friday.
Hope to catch up with some writing pals on Zoom later this evening and cracking on with flash fiction writing tomorrow.
Dialogue Tip: I’m a great believer in keeping things simple here so I will get one character to use certain kinds of words and another one something more “lofty”.
When my flash tales often feature one character only, I already know what their background will be and that directly affects how they speak and think. Knowing your character is key. What would they say? How would they say these things?
Keep those thoughts in mind and your dialogue will be fine.
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady had a fantastic puppy party with her two closest chums, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback. Later, I had a lovely swim and tonight will be happily spent writing.
Delighted to share my interview with Gill James over on my author page here. See above. I love author interviews – taking part in them and being the one to set the questions. You always learn so much from these.
But I often interview my own characters too. It’s a good technique to help me work out what I need to know so I can picture my characters and believe in them enough to feel they’ve got a story worth sharing. I’ve got to be convinced by them before anyone else can be after all!
Another hectic Monday but I’ve a lovely online meeting to look forward to this evening. Meantime it’s time for a new YouTube story. Hope you enjoy Ten For Tea.
The kid may be right to want to make amends for broken furniture but can Goldie’s Mum find enough chairs to make this work? And who on earth is coming to tea?
Haven’t shared a flash acrostic here for ages. Time to rectify that then!
F = Fun format in which to write and you can vary the word count up to 1000 words.
L = Lively writing because you haven’t got the word count room to do anything else but it is fab for your readers.
A = Assuming different identities for your characters – from humans to magical beings to dragons – and telling their stories is fun.
S = Styles of story can vary too from standard prose to acrostics to flash pieces told in poetic format to all dialogue ones.
H = Handy practice for writing exercises set at groups and workshops too; if you’re already writing flash, you’ll be used to writing to smaller word counts, which is all you have time for at these things.
We’re well into autumn here now in the UK and the weather is turning colder by the day. When I want to indicate a season in a flash tale, I will pick one detail for a character to notice.
Instead of going on about the leaves changing colour, I’ll get a character to spot the Virginia Creeper is turning to red earlier this year than it did last (which also tells you the character is observant and interested in plants). Picking the right detail conjures up more inferred information and does wonders for keeping your word count down.
What can be tricky is working out what the right detail is for your story. I try to use something which brings in at least one of the senses because it helps readers picture things, hear things, imagine the smell, touch or taste of something.
It’s all about the focus, folks.
Goodreads Author Blog – Favourites
We all have favourite things – beverages, chocolates, books and stories though for the last three I find hard to list just one thing for!
I think the characters we create should have favourite things too – it helps them seem more real. I agree with Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of The Rings about his love of potatoes. Gollum on the other hand can have the raw fish on his own!
Favourite stories stay with you all your life. My own writing is inspired by the fairytales I’ve always loved. The elements of right being done for the deserving, the villains getting their comeuppance and so on come into my stories a fair bit. Indeed it can be fun when reading another author to play “spot the influence”. You usually can spot some.
I treasure my favourite books – ones I’ve bought, inherited or have been written by friends. I think you can’t have too many favourites here!
