Anti-Scammers and the Three C’s

March 8, 2022Leave a comment

Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

With the awful news going on right now, I think it is more important than ever to appreciate all of the creative arts – and avoid those who would scam you as a result of your trying to follow your dreams here.

Facebook – General

Many thanks for the wonderful responses to my anti-scammers post yesterday. See below. And do bear in mind there are plenty of sharks who try to lure in the unwary writer too. Never be afraid to check things out and organisations such as The Society of Authors and Alliance of Independent Authors should be your first ports of call for advice. This is also another advantage to joining in with writing groups, whether these are online or in person, because writers share what they learn from one another and that includes warnings about which so-called “services” to avoid etc.

It’s also a good idea to regularly read the writing magazines too as you learn so much from these too and check out websites like Writer Beware! This is an American site but the principles of what they expose for rogue publishers etc applies the world over and you will at least know what to look out for.

It was only when I had been a writer for a while I realised how much there was I didn’t know and needed to know but recognising that and then doing something about it like joining writing groups etc is a good first step into being more savvy about the do’s and don’ts of the writing life. Don’t be conned!

I’ll be talking about Imagery In Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I look at writers using words to “paint” images with and the importance of book covers. One way or another, imagery comes into fiction a lot, even if it is not always obvious.

Will be giving a talk soon on historical flash fiction soon – looking forward to that and, of course, next week, I’ll be heading off to Scotland once again. I’m at the Scottish Association of Writers Conference from 18th to 20th March and will be running a flash fiction workshop there. Plenty going on then and I will report back from Scotland for Chandler’s Ford Today in due course.

Oh and a word to the wise – I am getting emails in from those who say they have a proposal for me. I bet they have too – how to check my email address is a genuine one and use it for phishing at best. Stay well clear of these things, folks. I delete immediately and then clear my delete folder immediately too. Never click on the links they send you.

Not sure whether this one is targeted at me because I’m a writer or whether it’s a huge mailshot and they only need a few people to respond to make money (and that is what they’re after – your money). Hmm… maybe there’s a flash fiction story or several in which scammers like that get scammed themselves. Something to think about!

Screenshot 2022-02-11 at 19-39-37 Scottish Association of Writers Everyone has a story to tell

Screenshot 2022-02-18 at 20-54-40 Writing Workshops Conference 2020 Scottish Association of Writers

Screenshot 2021-10-27 at 21-16-37 Authors events

Screenshot 2022-02-18 at 20-57-33 (2) Allison Symes Facebook

Where do my ideas for stories come from? All over the place which I know is not exactly helpful. The point though is to be open enough to recognise something as a potential idea. My ideas come from things I have read, fiction and non-fiction, and from triggers such as the random generators I often use. Also overheard snippets of conversation can be the starting point for a story.

But what matters is recognising what I call the “aha moment” when I come across something and think yes, I could do something with that. And the more you read, the bigger the pool you have to fish in for ideas of your own. We all build on what has gone before.

What we do is bring our unique take to an idea or a theme and make it our own. Prompt books are always useful too. What I find matters is finding a way in to writing a story. And you have to love reading stories to know that you yourself want to write them.

Fiction has a variety of purposes as I’m currently exploring in my In Fiction series for Chandler’s Ford Today. Escaping from worries via a variety of genres or exploring the human condition or confronting evil head on via what our characters go through is all fine.

What matters is that fiction is truthful. It has to be to have any meaning. And for fiction to be truthful, the characters have to be true to themselves, whether they’re the best hero of all time or the worst villain.
This is why I need to know the major trait for my characters before I write their stories up. I can look at how and why they’ve developed that trait (and this is so often a springboard for further story ideas).

Major traits can tell me so much about the characters in themselves. If my character’s major trait is they like a good laugh, I can look at what has driven that. Is their life sad and they want to escape sadness at any cost so put on a jolly persona to cover that up? Is it their way of being accepted by others and what drives the need for that acceptance?

Also, I can take things another way and show how their good laugh helps another character or causes problems. All sorts of story ideas can come from just knowing my Character A will do almost anything to have a good laugh. And that is just one example of how knowing a major trait can trigger ideas. For me, that’s more important than knowing what the character looks like.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

In any story regardless of its length, there has to be conflict, character, and change – the three C’s! Without a character experiencing conflict, even if it is internal only, there is no story. There should be change. Did the character overcome or succumb to the conflict? Either way that is a change though one is obviously more positive than the other!

One of the lovely things about flash is I can have, as a story, a self-contained moment of change for my character which simply isn’t long enough to even be a short story yet is still insightful.

How your characters react to things tells you so much about them. How you react to the character’s reaction may well shed insights about yourself – fiction can be illuminating like that. Flash does it more intensively than any other form though so be warned!

You know I’ve written from the viewpoint of a mother dragon before, yes? (See my book trailer for Tripping the Flash Fantastic). Well, I think I’ve upped my game a bit here. See my latest YouTube video and see what you think. Hope you enjoy it.

Writing a short story, such as flash fiction, is not easier than writing longer work. Nor is longer work easier than writing shorter items. You need the idea. You need to get that first draft down. You need to edit it. And edit it again. You need to rest it for a while. You look at the story again, spot the errors you missed first go around (and we all do that!), correct those, and once happy submit the piece or save it for a collection. And you do this over and over again because you love the challenge of it.

As I’ve mentioned, I find I can get a first draft down quickly. It is the editing and crafting of the story, even my 100-worders, that takes the time. Rightly so too. I want to get every word right. Where I can find a better choice of word that gives more “oomph” to my writing, I will change to that word. And if I am writing to a specific word count, as I so often am, I then have to check I haven’t gone over that and adjust things where I have.

The one thing I have learned over the years is I’ve got to give myself enough time to follow things through thoroughly enough. But that’s fine. I’m drafting more pieces while resting others so I always have something to work on. No chance of getting bored and I love that too.

Just to flag up Amazon have an offer on the paperback of Tripping the Flash Fantastic. See link for more.
I like the variety flash offers me. I can write across a number of genres, write my stories as acrostics, all-dialogue pieces, monologues etc., and I can choose my word count up to 1000 words.

My hopes for flash is that it will encourage the reluctant reader to dip their “toes” into the wonderful world of books and encourage people to write their own stories. Creative writing is good for you. And writers read so book sales go up! There’s nothing to dislike about that scenario!

But I hope flash brings characters to life for people. Those brief glimpses of a character’s life, I hope, will intrigue people to want to read longer stories, novellas, novels etc. Characters are the draw for readers. We need to know what is going on in a character’s life. You don’t necessarily need to write an epic to give that fascination to a reader.

Goodreads Author Blog – Realistic Characters

I’ve never been fond of characters who seem too good to be true. I love the characters with flaws and who change for the better. For any fiction, regardless of genre or length, I’ve got to be able to “get” where the character is coming from and why. I don’t necessarily have to agree with them though!

For my own writing, I like to work out my character’s major trait as all sorts of things can come from that. If a character is brave, are they reckless with it? If they like a laugh, what will they do to get that laugh from others? Plenty of story ideas there – and you can explore the idea of when things go wrong too.

So I like characters to resonate with me in some way. While I will always root for the hero/heroine to win, I want to see that the villain does have reasons to behave the way they are. Their objective has got to make sense. There is never any room for the pointless character. I suppose writing flash fiction with its restricted word count of 1000 words maximum has made me more aware of that.

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Realistic Characters https://t.co/rW35r6UfCZ via @goodreads I look at why I like realistic characters and what makes them so for me. I look at why flash fiction writing, my genre, has made me more aware of this. pic.twitter.com/1xgz8KAPjX
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 5, 2022

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Many thanks, @valeriepenny – my books are below – available in paperback too. If you like a mixed assortment of stories, try these out! https://t.co/ffOf8jcpso pic.twitter.com/3R8JXWR8Jw
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 7, 2022

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Human Behaviour in Fiction

March 4, 2022Leave a comment

Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

In a horrifying news week, I think we need books and stories more than ever – they encourage empathy and the world could definitely do with more of that. Keep reading, keep writing. Stories matter. Truth matters. And stories share truths in a way that is often more palatable than “preaching”. My CFT post this week takes a look at that.

Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

I’m pleased to share Human Behaviour in Fiction, my latest Chandler’s Ford Today post. As I mentioned yesterday (see below), I think this may be a timely post. All human behaviour is mirrored in fiction somewhere and fiction doesn’t flatter. Fairytales, for example, call evil out for what it is and rightly so too.

Mind you, fiction does have to reflect us, no matter how fantastical its setting. We read to find out what goes on in the setting, we root for characters to succeed or fail, and this is based on what we know about how we behave.

Fiction gives us ways of exploring through characters what could happen in this circumstance, that one etc., and may well make us reflect on whether we would be as brave as Character Z or as cowardly as Character P.

Human Behaviour In Fiction

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I’m talking about Human Behaviour In Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I look at how fictional characters reflect us and why the big themes, which matter so much to our humanity, come up time and again (and across different genres too). Link up tomorrow (see above).

Just sometimes a post is timely. This one might be I suspect. Not planned either – you can’t always avoid these things as a writer. There is a good case why you shouldn’t – writers need to be honest whether they’re writing fiction or not – and sometimes a theme you pick will resonate with what is going on in the news. There is little you can do about that but you hope the resonance makes people think. What you do need to do is be honest and sensitive.

And my post reflects on the fact characters have to be “true” to what we recognise in ourselves, which is why we root for the “good” characters to come through and be successful and why we want to see the villain fail.

Factors that can affect your writing include tiredness, low mood, and anxiety. Ironically, settling down and doing some writing, even if it isn’t much, helps lift my mood, takes me out of myself for a while, and I head off to bed happily having created something I will polish up and submit later on.

This is where writing flash is a great help because just writing 100 words means I have got a story I can knock into proper shape later. Incidentally I do focus on just writing in these situations. It’s the creative aspect I find most helpful here.

The creative aspect to editing is more challenging so when I just need to be kind to myself for a bit, I just focus on drafting something. And knowing now, in the way I didn’t when I first started writing seriously, it is absolutely okay to come back to something later, it is absolutely fine to accept nothing is going to be perfect on the first go anyway, helps enormously.

Just get something written. Be creative. Have fun being creative. Get yourself ready for the editing stage by being kind to yourself here. It pays off for later on too.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

When I look at a draft of one of my flash pieces, what am I looking to improve?

The first thing I ask myself is whether the story makes the impact I aimed for it to have and is there anything that might weaken that impact?

The second thing I look at is whether the character(s) draw me in or not. Do I absolutely have to find out what happens to them? The answer to that one should be yes, of course.

The third thing I look at is whether I have chosen exactly the right words and phrases to convey maximum impact. I often find I can change the odd word here and there to strengthen things so I do!

Then and only then do I sort out typos etc which inevitably creep in and are the bane of every writer. (I’m a fairly fast typist so I know to expect the odd typo creeping in thanks to that alone!).

I’ve talked before about flash having more impact because of its very short nature (and for once I can justify the use of the word “very” there, it is one of my bugbear words to be cut out usually!). But that doesn’t mean the impact has to be blunt. It can be sensitive and thoughtful and this works well for character studies. My They Don’t Understand in From Light to Dark and Back Again is an example of this. Without giving anything anyway, this tale leaves you with sympathy for my lead character.

I will think ahead as to what kind of impact I want my story to have. That in turn points me to the mood of the story and the kind of character who would best suit that mood. For me, it is another way into writing a flash piece. And I like having more than one way in though the route I choose does then lay out how I approach the writing of the story.

I was talking over on my author page about how certain factors can affect your writing. But you can bring those factors in to play for your characters too. How does your character act and react when they’re tired or anxious? What decisions do they make in this state they wouldn’t usually have done? What are the consequences from that? And when your character understandably decides to take time out to be kind to themselves how do they do this? How does it impact on characters around them?

Fairytales with Bite – The Stuff of Nightmares

What would count as the stuff of nightmares in your fictional magical world? Much would depend on whether your setting is a generally peaceful one or a war-like type. Also what one character would count as a nightmare someone else would dismiss.

So think about what your characters would consider as nightmares and then make them face it. Would your character sink or swim? Would they overcome the nightmare and never be bothered by it again? (I would consider that the best, the happiest and most logical ending to a story of this kind).

You can also use the nightmares you think your characters would have outside of the story itself. It would be a good way for you to find out what your character is truly made of before you write their story up. Do they use their nightmare to drive them to achieve a great deal or does it hold them back? Does their nightmare affect certain aspects of their personality (and therefore what decisions they are likely to make)?

When it is a question of facing a nightmarish situation, what traits do your characters possess to help them deal with this? It is crucial they don’t just cave in (where’s the story there?) but it does make sense to have them struggle and then come through at the end. Most of us would sympathise with that – don’t we all want to overcome our own nightmares in some way?

This World and Others – Peacemaking

Who are the peacemakers in your fictional world? Why have they been chosen for this role or do they find it thrust upon them? Why is the peacemaking necessary and how are the “hawks” overcome? (There are always plenty of those about).

I must admit I do despair at peacemaking sometimes being seen as “weak”. It isn’t. It takes great strength of character to get on with that demanding and often unappreciated work. So it would be realistic to have your characters feel that despair and then find ways to overcome it (and this is where loyal support from friends etc can make a huge difference too).

A positive story would show the rewards of peacemaking too. I like to see vested interests overcome when these are not good ones though you can create a conflict for your peacemakers to overcome here as different people will define what is good here differently.

As with our own world, there are times when a situation is black and white and it is a clear case of wanting the good guys to win through. Mostly though things are often shades of grey (I leave you to decide how many shades of grey there are!) . How do your peacemakers reconcile this to get the best possible outcome for as many as possible? That logically should be the objective here.

When writing a story like this, the need for peacemaking should be clear cut. Why the conflict arose should also be understandable. As in life, people don’t like things that seem to happen for no good reason. We can’t always avoid that in life. We should avoid it in our fiction.

Human Behaviour In Fiction https://t.co/EDPNhAD3TM I look at how human behaviour is reflected in fiction, discuss why that must be so, and why fiction can make us see ourselves in a clearer light. We won't always like what we see – fiction doesn't flatter – we need that honesty. pic.twitter.com/m7uN1M8cIC
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 4, 2022

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Making an Impact with Words – and Delia’s Choices

March 1, 2022Leave a comment

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.

When the news is so grim, and the impact from words can be dreadful, we need stories more than ever, I think.

Facebook – General

Am delighted to share the link to the brand new edition of Mom’s Favorite Reads for March 2022. As ever the magazine is a wonderful mix of articles, photos, puzzles, and, of course, stories.

My column this time is called Random Generators and I share some of those I use regularly as well as share a story I created using one. As ever it was a joy to read the stories submitted on the the theme I used here. I’ll be sharing the topic for next time soon on the MFR Facebook page.

On a separate note, I was thrilled to see someone I know from the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School mention they were inspired by some of my 100 word flash pieces for Friday Flash Fiction and then submitted a piece themselves to the Swanwick newsletter.

Flash is great fun to write – and addictive too! There is always the challenge of can I write a story in 100 words, then 50 etc? And you find you’re never afraid of editing again, as thanks to the restricted word count, you do have to develop a robust attitude and not be afraid to wield the red pen.

https://moms-favorite-reads.com/2022/03/01/moms-favorite-reads-emagazine-march-2022/

One good thing about having the 29th as my slot for More Than Writers, the Association of Christian Writers blog spot, is that I get every three Februaries off! Am looking forward to blogging again on there next month.

Now I’ve been planning my In Fiction series for Chandler’s Ford Today for a while and this week I’m up to H. My topic is Human Behaviour In Fiction. It’s the kind of topic you could write a treatise about but I’m keeping it to one blog post.

And is it timely with all that is going on in the news? Possibly. It is odd sometimes how something you prepared becomes timely. It can sometimes happen with fiction too. Always sends a shiver down my spine when it happens to me.

Anyway, I’ll be looking at how human behaviour is both reflected in fiction and why it is the cause of fiction. Link up on Friday. Oh and I’ll be sending out my author newsletter tomorrow as well. Went out on 1st March but I share a link to the newsletter further down.

Stories help us to make sense of the world

Am thrilled to be back on CafeLit once again with my story Delia’s Choices. This story is a result of the ten minute writing exercise set by #AnnmarieMiles at the last Association of Christian Writers Flash Group Zoom meeting. I set the name thanks to using a random name generator.

Those of us at the meeting all gave this exercise a go and shared the results. There was a lovely range of stories all based on one character called Delia. Writing to a set theme does produce varying results as we all have our individual author voices and those come through especially well when you’re all writing on the same topic. Hope you enjoy my effort here (and do let me know what you think of my Delia).

https://www.cafelitmagazine.uk/2022/02/delias-choices.html

Many thanks for the comments coming in on Light of the Moon, my latest Friday Flash Fiction tale. Much appreciated.

I’ll be sending out my author newsletter again next week so if you would like to sign up for tips, stories, news etc., do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com – would be glad to see you.

A big hello to all who have joined since the last edition and many thanks to all who follow me here and on my website.

Now what is the most important thing about any character, regardless of genre, length of story etc?

For me, they have to be relatable whether these characters are human, animal,some odd alien species or what have you. There has to be something I can identify with (though I don’t necessarily have to agree with the character)

https://www.fridayflashfiction.com/100-word-stories/light-of-the-moon-by-allison-symes

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to get my author newsletter out earlier today. Do take a look (see link at https://mailchi.mp/5955992ab501/allison-symes-march-2022-newsletter-heading-north-again). If you’d like to sign up head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com.

And a big thank you to the lovely comments in on Blue Memories, my latest YouTube story.

It’s Monday. It’s story time. Hope you enjoy Blue Memories, my new YouTube video. I’ve taken a random object, a blue hanky, and based my tale around it. I’ve done the same for the one I hope will appear on Friday Flash Fiction later in the week. The moods of the two stories are different too. It’s good to mix the moods up and I am relishing getting two ideas out of one randomly generated item.

Flash fiction is the ultimate in the quick read but that doesn’t mean the stories are quick to write. I can get a first draft down in minutes (especially for the 50 to 100 word tales) but the crafting takes much longer. And for me a story isn’t written until it is fully edited and “out there”.

With the limited word count, I am always asking have I really expressed this in the best way possible? Is it better to have extra word count here because it gives more depth to a character and/or moves the story along, and if so (and the answer to this is nearly always yes), what do I cut elsewhere?

Equally do I accept the story is better at 150 words rather than 100? Often the answer to that one is yes too. So all sorts of things come into play when I am putting the final version of the story together and that takes time – as it should do.

What I want is the most powerful story in terms of impact on a reader in the fewest possible words yet to have the best characterisation possible within that limit too. I don’t want much, do I?!

I read flash collections as well as write them, as it is important to read what is in your genre as well as reading widely from outside it. Firstly, it is important to support the industry I am in and, secondly, it helps me to see what is out there in terms of flash and that in turn encourages me to up my game. I also have come to love flash, as you know, so it makes sense to feed that love by reading it.

Goodreads Author Blog – Making an Impact with Words

One of the joys of stories and books is when the words flow, you have to keep turning the pages, and the language just hits you “right there” as it is so appropriate for the character or what have you. And the very best authors add words to the language too, Shakespeare being the obvious one there. There is more than one way to make an impact with words then – have some of your invented ones make it into the dictionaries!

As a flash fiction writer, with a maximum word count of 1000 words per story, I have to make an impact with words quickly. So anything that doesn’t add to my characterisation or moves the plot along gets cut out.

The joy of the novel is having a wonderful reading experience and looking back at that – reading The Lord of the Rings for the first time was a fantastic experience once I had finished the book. It was only by finishing it I could really appreciate the depth and scale of the work. For the short story and flash fiction formats, you get the “pay back” of impact that much quicker.

But the joy of reading widely, in whatever form or genre, is you take in words and their impact and you can learn from how other authors do this to improve your own works so other readers get the impact from your stories, your words.

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Making an Impact with Words https://t.co/dxRjRt4mt0 via @goodreads I look at how words can make impact via stories regardless of book length, how flash fiction writers like me must make that impact quickly, and the benefit of reading widely. pic.twitter.com/J7PnZ6owxo
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 26, 2022

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CafeLitMagazine: Delia’s Choices https://t.co/VosRbpETP3 My latest on CafeLit is a result of a 10 minutes free writing exercise set by @amowriting (the lovely Annmarie Miles) at our ACW Flash Fiction Group Zoom meeting. I used a random name generator to set the name. Good fun! pic.twitter.com/m60fYNePtN
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 27, 2022

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It’s Monday. It’s story time. Hope you enjoy Blue Memories, my new YouTube video. I’ve taken a random object, a blue hanky, and based my tale around it. https://t.co/Z7K76tjjAD
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 28, 2022

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Am delighted to share the link to Mom’s Favorite Reads for March 2022. The magazine is a wonderful mix of articles, photos, puzzles and stories. My column is on Random Generators. I share some I use regularly and share a story I created using one. https://t.co/Hyrtt3eufy
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 1, 2022

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Pleased to get my author newsletter out earlier today. Do take a look.https://t.co/T7eSpIqsvZ pic.twitter.com/9CcU4StKYh
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 1, 2022

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Geography in Fiction and The Light of the Moon

February 25, 2022Leave a comment

Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing.

It has been a dreadful week news wise. I think the image below, which I used earlier this week, says it all.

Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

Delighted to share my latest Chandler’s Ford Today post. This time I’m looking at Geography in Fiction. A strange topic? I don’t think so. Geography plays a major role in so many stories and books. Can you imagine, say, The Lord of the Rings without it? Or Winnie the Pooh? Or The Wind in the Willows? And geography can help create stories simply by the problems it can cause, based on what we know here. Hope you find the post useful.

Geography in Fiction

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News wise, it has been a dreadful day. I wasn’t expecting war in Europe again, ever.

One of the roles of the creative arts, including writing, is, of course, to allow us to escape into what are effectively alternative universes for a while. They can make us reflect. Stories can show us the best and the worst of ourselves. They can console and cheer.

Yet, much as I love stories, I know they’re not the most important thing in the world right now. Despite that, I also believe they do have a vital role to play in emphasizing our humanity. I really cannot stress enough how important it is we don’t lose that.

So keep reading. Writers, keep writing. Stories matter.

Hope you have had a good day.

I’ve talked before about drafting a story and leaving it for a while before coming back to editing it. Once edited, I take another break from it and then I do a final edit. What is the point of one break, yet alone two?

The first break is to enable me to check my story structure and character works after that initial thrill of creation. (And I do get a real buzz from that. Pity I can’t bottle that feeling really). Happy with that, I make adjustments to my story to strength my characterisation where I feel that is needed. It is also at this point I may well spot an element of the storyline that could be improved so I do that too.

The second break means when I come back to the story again I spot the typos and grammatical errors. There inevitably are some (nobody gets away with these things entirely scot free) but I know to look for them and to trample on the lot!

I want to give my story the best possible chance out there so going over everything and ensuring there are no errors takes time but it is worth doing. I remember in my early days not doing that and spotting a glaring error after I sent the story off. No surprises when I tell you that story didn’t get picked. I did rework the story and sent it off elsewhere and if memory serves me correctly, it ended up on CafeLit.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday. It’s story time again. Pleased to share Light of the Moon, my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction. Not everyone enthuses about the light of the moon – find out why here. Hope you enjoy the tale.

It is difficult to know what to write after a dreadful news day. But I do know it is important to write. To tell stories. Stories can unite us, whether we write flash fiction or epic sagas. And stories encourage the imagination and can help with empathy. If you understand where a character is coming from, you’re well on your way to understanding where other humans are coming from, given stories reflect on us.

What do I do with flash tales which don’t get picked for a competition win or placing? I look at said stories again, polish them up, and send them out elsewhere. I have gone on to have stories published on the second or third attempt.

But it has to be said, the break away from the stories has meant I can look at them again with a critical eye and try and work out why it might not have been picked. Sometimes it is a question the story is just not to the judge’s taste – and that’s fine. You learn to accept early on that not everyobdy is going to like what you do. There are styles of story I’m not keen on so that’s fair enough.

But sometimes you do spot a character portrayal didn’t quite work out as you thought, maybe it was a little weak so I look at ways to improve things and then get my story out again somewhere else.

Waste not, want not!

Fairytales with Bite – Humour

I have a very soft spot for humour in any kind of fiction but especially in the fairytales. Many of them can be grim (some pun intended!) so something to lighten the mood a little I find helpful. While I’m not a huge fan of pantomime, I can understand it and the reason why roles such as the pantomime dame exist. Widow Twankey doesn’t have much of a role in the actual story of Aladdin. “She” does have a major role in the pantomime versions of the story.

I like the humorous one liners and these can work really well in short stories and flash fiction. (If anything they can have more of an impact because the forms are short). This is where creating your own characters and getting them to come out with those one liners is great fun! And they can make fantastic punchlines for your stories too. The key is ensuring that the one liner is something your character as portrayed would come out with. You can’t just tack a funny line on to them.

Humour should arise naturally so if your fairy godmother has a malfunctioning wand, then humorous situations would arise from that.

This World and Others – The Value of Humour

Does your fictional world value humour or suppress it? I am always wary of anyone who cannot laugh at themselves (as it makes me wonder if they have any empathy with human foibles at all and we all have some!). Is humour encouraged in your creation or firmly kept “underground”? Are there any off limit topics for comedy?

I know I deeply appreciate humour. Something that makes me smile or laugh is bound to add a bit of a shine to my day. It does for most people but how do your characters see it? Does their reaction here show you more about them that you can develop further for your tale?

Perhaps your character likes one-liners but has no time for the longer funny monologues. Does that reflect on them just wanting to get on with things quickly in other areas of their life? Perhaps they appreciate quick wit rather than farce or physical comedy? Maybe they were clumsy (or still are) and find physical comedy with its emphasis on slapstick and falls makes them feel uncomfortable. How do they handle that discomfort if this type of humour is normal for their world?

Reactions to humour vary from person to person. You can show elements of that with your characters too. If someone finds something funny and their closest companions don’t, how does that then change how they get on? Does that change how their overall “mission” pans out?

If humour doesn’t exist as we know it here, what would your created world have instead? How would your people cope with naturally funny things in a world that doesn’t acknowledge humour? And what might happen if someone dares to laugh when all around them dare not?

Food for funny thought there, I think!

Geography in Fiction https://t.co/8NEA6eaopa A strange topic? I don't think so. Geography plays a major role in so many stories and books. And it can help create stories simply by the problems it can cause, based on what we know here. Hope you find the post useful. pic.twitter.com/A8yTqhKvoB
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 25, 2022

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Light of the Moon, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/IyTe12ddpy Pleased to share my latest tale on FFF. There are those who are wary of the light of the moon – find out why here. Hope you enjoy. pic.twitter.com/H0427sVQOO
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 25, 2022

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Acrostics, Blogging, and Character Studies

February 22, 2022Leave a comment

Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Recovered from Storms Dudley, Eunice, and Franklyn. Don’t like the way we’re getting through the alphabet so quickly for storms! Hope all is well with you. One lovely thing about writing is you generally stay in the warm and dry to do it – have really appreciated that these last few days!

Facebook – General

Busy day again today though Lady had a lovely surprise when her best buddie, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, came to to play. It is quite something seeing the pair of them have the “zoomies”. You stand well back and enjoy the show basically!

Looking forward to sharing my Chandler’s Ford Today post on Friday. I’ll be talking about Geography in Fiction. It may not have a starring role in many stories but it does play a crucial role and can inspire story ideas. For one thing your characters do have to live somewhere!

And I don’t know about you but I like to have a picture in my mind of the setting in any story I read. It helps make the story more real to me, a kind of if this place existed for real it would be exactly like this.

And, as with so much else in flash fiction, you can imply setting simply by who your character is or by what it is they call their day job. After all, magical characters have to have a magical environment to come from, even if they don’t stay there.

AE - Feb 2022 - Knowing character mains traits means I write more convincingly too

Hope you have had a good Monday. Very hectic here – and still gusty out there. Hope things are settling down where you are.

I’ve used the topic of the moon for my Friday Flash Fiction story this week and for my YouTube video which I’ll share over on my book page shortly. See link further down. Good fun to do and I’ve always liked the idea of getting more than one story out of a basic premise and taking those two tales in very different directions. Outside prompts for writing are useful, whether you get them from random generators, books of prompts and so on.

Talking of the latter, I will draw your attention to Prompts 2020, Prompts 2021 and Prompts 2022. Is it me or is there a theme developing there?! Anyway, the books were compiled by #GillJames and many of the Bridge House Publishing/CafeLit/Chapeltown Books stable contributed to them, including yours truly.

I’ve used some of the prompts myself for CafeLit submissions and I do think prompts encourage you to “up your game” writing wise. I love the challenge of responding to the challenge with something that works and fulfils the criteria.

Let’s stretch those creative writing muscles then!

Not a great weekend weather wise – keep safe. (My crocuses were just beginning to make an appearance – I fear they’ve probably been battered!).

In more positive news, I have submitted two stories today and have already heard one of them will be appearing on CafeLit next Sunday. Looking forward to sharing the link then. Members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group who were at our Zoom meeting last Wednesday will remember the lovely #AnnmarieMiles set a ten minutes free writing exercise based on a name I came up with thanks to a random name generator.

It is the story I drafted for this exercise which will be appearing on CafeLit so am pleased about that. More later in the week. I’m not likely to hear about the other story for a while (and that is more usual I have to say for story submissions).

Hope you have had a good day. Things settling down here in Hampshire after Storm Eunice yesterday. Tree debris all over the place, a few fence panels down etc – got off lightly I would say and am grateful.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Geography in Fiction for my post for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Hope by the end of the weekend to submit a couple of stories and catch up with some blogging I need to get on with (though I do have a good deadline on all of these. Where possible, once I’ve posted a blog somewhere, I am writing the next one for the same site, but it isn’t always possible to do that. So then as soon as I can I have a major blogging session where I play catch up. Those “spare” blogs come in very useful during particularly busy times. It is always worth having something spare in the “bank” whether it is a blog post or a story you can edit and submit).

If anyone knows of a way to stretch writing time, I’d be glad to hear it though! (Oh and while I don’t use any of the “switch off social media sites for so long” apps, I do just ignore social media until I’ve got my writing done).

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Flash can be a nice vehicle for short character studies. My piece, due on CafeLit on Sunday, is of this ilk and it was great fun to write. But of course for this kind of thing you need a strong character voice. I have to get to know my character a bit. When I was drafting this tale, I knew that I wanted my character to have hidden depths to them and they were not all they appeared to be. Knowing that was enough to get me started and away I went!

So when thinking of this kind of story, consider why you want to write about your character. What is special about them that readers have to know? What tale does the character have to share with us? It doesn’t have to be overly dramatic but something has to stand out about your character it is obvious to the reader why you absolutely had to write their story down.

Many thanks for the response to my Storm acrostic flash piece yesterday. And it’s story time again now with my latest YouTube video called Decision by Moonlight. Hope you enjoy it.

I was chatting about acrostic flash fiction yesterday so I thought I’d share one for this post. Hope you enjoy it.

Storm

S = Shocking weather, isn’t it, and such a lot of it too!
T= Terrible winds and torrential rain; I’ve given up on my umbrella.
O = Orange with black dots on it; yes, the one you called an eyesore.
R = Romance isn’t dead but you have put it on the critical list; you know I loved that brolly from my old Nan.
M = Money’s not the problem; I don’t want a new boring brolly from you, but I will say I didn’t fancy becoming the next Mary Poppins!
Allison Symes – 20th February 2022

I was chatting about acrostic flash fiction as part of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting the other night. They are fun to do but I have found the following tips useful.

1. Pick one reasonable length word OR a couple of small ones. I’ve used words like Guarantee and phrases like Talk The Talk.

2. Keep the story short – acrostics work best this way, especially as they are meant to be visualised. You want your chosen word to be fully visible to readers no matter what device they’re using to read your tale.

3. Once you’ve picked the word or mini phrase you want to use, give yourself plenty of time to work out ideas to come from them. Think about the character who will “serve” the acrostic story.

For Guarantee, my first thought was of a salesman trying to make a difficult sale to an awkward customer and of course one thing a salesman like that would offer would be a “cast iron” guarantee. (Of course whether it is or not is another matter!).

It will save you time in the long run if you work out different possibilities first and then go with the one you like best. It also means some prep work here means you have got a logical way to make your story work from the start.

4. Where possible, I have one sentence following the starting letter of the acrostic. Where not possible, I link with semi-colons, dashes, or whatever is the most appropriate piece of punctuation to use. It can vary. Where even that is not possible, I write two short sentences per line then hit return and go with the next letter of the acrostic but I do keep my tales to one line = one letter of the acrostic as much as possible.

Goodreads Author Blog – Why Stories Matter

The problem with a post like this one is keeping it short! Where do you start on this one?

Well, stories matter for me because I can escape into other worlds for a little while. I’ve always loved that aspect. I also love following what the characters do and say and figuring out whether or not I would do and say as they have in the books and stories I read.

Stories can take me to places I cannot get to physically either because right now I can’t commit to the length of time to say, going to New Zealand would take (and that is on my list of things to do) or because they’re invented worlds and unless someone invents a portal which takes you to fictional places, I’m not getting to go there! Mind you, it could be argued the book is the portal here!

Stories can convey important truths without preaching and I find the theme of a story is far easier to remember. And I love the way stories come in different formats – books, film, audio etc. There is something to suit everyone here. Stories can pass down tradition and build communities and show you truths about yourself/the human condition.

Last but definitely not least, they are entertaining.

Let’s hear it for the stories!

liked Allison Symes's blog post: Why Stories Matter https://t.co/L1rzhpwzr7 via @goodreads Well, where do you start with a topic like this one? Be reassured – I have kept it short! Honest! I share why stories matter to me. Hope you enjoy. pic.twitter.com/YWaxOWuAqG
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 19, 2022

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It’s story time again now with my latest YouTube video called Decision by Moonlight. Hope you enjoy it.https://t.co/Y8c4Jv2CAd
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 21, 2022

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In Fiction – Frameworks and Animals – and A Good Cause

February 18, 2022Leave a comment

Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Somes 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 are all safe and well. UK currently experiencing Storm Eunice. Must admit I’m not impressed by her! Neither was the dog…

Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today/Authors Electric

Authors Electric
Busy night on the old blogging front as I have two separate posts to share. First up is my Authors Electric post for this month where I talk about Animals in Fiction. This is something I talked about for Chandler’s Ford Today a few weeks ago but the topic bears repeating. I share my love of animal characters and talk about what I do when I write from the viewpoint of an animal character. I’ve written from the viewpoint of a mother dragon after all! Hope you enjoy the post.

Screenshot 2022-02-18 at 19-20-30 Animals in Fiction by Allison Symes

AE - Feb 2033 - Sherlock Holmes and animals

AE - Feb 2022 - Aslan and the sacrifice scene

Chandler’s Ford Today

And now time for my Chandler’s Ford Today post. This week I’m looking at Frameworks in Fiction. I look at why frameworks matter, share a few of the different ones I use (and why I like to mix them up), and what can be used as a framework, even when at first glance the device in question doesn’t appear to be a framework at all! I also ask if frameworks can be too constricting. Hope you enjoy the post and find it useful.

Frameworks in Fiction

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Lull between the storms in the UK right now. Take care, everyone, with Storm Eunice due tomorrow.
On a happier note, my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week will be about Frameworks in Fiction. I use a number of different ones for my flash tales and will be discussing these and why frameworks are so useful. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Don’t forget I send out an author newsletter on the first of each month with tips, news, prompts etc. If you’d like to sign up please head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Currently busy on story judging and editing as well as my own writing so am staying out of mischief well enough!

It was lovely catching up with everyone on the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group on Zoom last night. We all ended up with a new story to work on thanks to a free writing exercise set by #AnnmarieMiles. I used a random name generator to come up with the name of a character to write about and there were excellent and different approaches taken. All good fun!

screenshot-2021-11-19-at-12-19-08-allison-symes-collected-works

The wind is already getting stronger here in Hampshire – take care, everyone, over what promise to be a wild few days in the UK.

Now I don’t use the weather in fiction at all (too many cliches etc and It was a dark and stormy night has been done!). But you can use the elements to help set mood including landscape as well as weather. Think about the detail a reader needs to know. You won’t need to spell everything out. The joy of flash is so much is inferred and the reader fills in the gaps.

I’ve always loved doing that when reading longer works but for flash writing, it is crucial. I may need to know your character is on a moor. I don’t need to know how wet, boggy etc the moor is because I have my idea of what a moor is like and that will be what I visualise when I read the word “moor”. What is more important to know is the season. Is your character there in the summer or the winter? That will make a huge difference to the conditions they face.

So it is the question of the telling detail then – select what readers have to know, what they cannot guess at, and let your readers fill in the gaps. We will – and it saves so much on the old word count! Nor do you irritate readers telling them what they can work out for themselves.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Now earlier this week, I shared my YouTube story called At Number 64 – see below – and I mentioned I had submitted a linked story to this for Friday Flash Fiction. Well, I am glad to say my second story on the same theme is now up on FFF and I am glad to share it here. Hope you enjoy A Good Cause (and many thanks for the fab comments in on it so far).

In a month’s time I’ll be on my way to the Scottish Association of Writers’ Conference where I’ll be running a flash fiction workshop. Looking forward to that immensely. Never thought I’d be doing this kind of thing when I started out.

But I have a very soft spot for workshops anyway. You get to meet other writers. You get to learn something useful. And a good workshop should trigger ideas for you own stories too.

Best invention since sliced bread? The notebook and pen of course.

Still great for workshop/conference environments. And flash gives you potential for writing up your exercises from workshops etc into polished stories you can submit later. Every so often I will go back through my old notebooks and see if there is something I can polish up. Sometimes I will find something useful like that. Other times I’ll read something which will trigger other story ideas and that’s great too.

I was talking about giving readers the telling details they need to know to make sense of your story over on my Facebook author page just now and I referred to the elements. But you need to think about telling details for your characters too.

I’ve mentioned before I like to know the character’s major trait as all sorts of things can come from that which you can use to bring your character to life (e.g. the character is brave, they have a tendency to be reckless because of it and that’s where the story is – in what that recklessness leads to).

So work out what you need to know to make the character work for you. (If the character works for you, they’ll work for a reader). If a character is poor, do you need to know if they have become poor or have always been less well off? What is their attitude towards it? Can that attitude be where your story is – if your character is bitter, do they do something against anyone they hold to blame for their situation?

Ask yourself questions about what you need to know. I’ve found doing that sparks ideas and soon an outline for a possible story emerges. I like that – a lot!

Fairytales With Bite – Happily Ever After?

And they all lived happily ever after has to be one of the most famous endings to any story. Though it should be added the original versions of fairytales often did not have a happy ending or gruesome things occurred before the happy ever after bit.

I understand it being in the classic tales for children but it is not one I am comfortable with myself. I like most of my stories to have a positive, upbeat ending where you can see things would continue to be okay for my deserving characters long after the story has finished. But sometimes I write stories with poignant endings because that is appropriate for the characters I’ve come up with.

And that is what I am really after in the stories I read and write – appropriate endings for the characters.

One thing I do get from my love of fairytales is the wish for the villains to get their well deserved comeuppance. I’m actually more interested in seeing how that pans out rather than the happy bit (because with the comeuppance bit achieved, the rest will follow).

I also like to see happy ever afters “earned” by the characters concerned – it seems more realistic to me the characters (a) deserve to get their happy ever after ending and (b) contribute to achieving that significantly themselves.

So give some thought to how you want your stories to end. When it is a happy ending, have your characters be worthy of it. You want your readers cheering them on to the happy conclusion after all.

This World and Others – Living In Peace

Does your fictional world live in peace with other creations around it? Do the inhabitants of your created world get along with each other? How many species live in your world and is there any “history” between them? Do they live in peace now after centuries of not doing so? Is your world one of those where peace is a rarity or where war is unknown and disputes have to be resolved in other ways?

What would your fictional world make of our real one? Answering something like that can give you insight into how and why your people behave and act the way they do. Could they live in peace with us? What do they make of our warlike ways? Some would despise that (and possibly because we’re not warlike enough in their view). Some would hate it because they cannot understand violence. Some would love it, possibly seeing possibilities of exploiting that quality against us.

Living in peace takes effort. How much effort are your characters prepared to make? What is the incentive for them to be at peace especially if their culture is one of war?

Good story possibilities there I think especially since there is always someone who is prepared for various reasons to go against the status quo.

making-up-your-own-world-is-a-massive-attraction-to-writers-as-well-as-readers-of-science-fiction-and-fantasy

STARTING AND FINISHING - Working out what you need to know

stories-told-from-the-viewpoint-of-alien-characters-have-a-big-appeal

real-writing-post-where-will-your-characters-take-you

Where will your fiction take your readers and will it make them laugh

I use a variety of writing prompts to help me trigger story ideas. Do you have any favourites? I like the idea here of responding to a challenge set by someone else I suppose. It makes me think outside of my usual box. pic.twitter.com/Ba8Jt94dfx
— ACW (@ACW1971) February 16, 2022

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I often use random generators (noun, adjectives, questions etc) as a way of triggering writing prompts. Pictures are also useful. I like landscapes where I can imagine who might live there. pic.twitter.com/I2pGbNmKQh
— ACW (@ACW1971) February 17, 2022

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Competitions with set themes to write to are giving you a prompt to respond to and I like those. I use spider diagrams to come up with differing ways I can take the theme and then go with the one that has the strongest impact on me. I figure it will do the same for a reader. pic.twitter.com/AvpkTaWLuI
— ACW (@ACW1971) February 18, 2022

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Authors Electric: Animals in Fiction by Allison Symes https://t.co/6dlw9fezSE I share my love of animal characters in this month's post and talk about writing from an animal point of view. I also invite you to share your favourite animal characters. Hope you enjoy! pic.twitter.com/wDHiWtjDlr
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 18, 2022

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Frameworks in Fiction https://t.co/d2wPNLDxUs I look at why frameworks matter, share a few of the different ones I use (and why I like to mix them up), and what can be used as a framework, even when at first glance the device in question doesn’t appear to be a framework at all! pic.twitter.com/OSvfsSq8EI
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 18, 2022

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A Good Cause, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/o9d5H7q4Cg I put on my YouTube channel earlier this week a story linked to this one. It was great fun to write them both. Hope you enjoy A Good Cause (and many thanks for the fab comments on it so far). pic.twitter.com/yp6WizzeDw
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 18, 2022

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Endings in Fiction – and Retreats as a Theme

February 11, 2022Leave a comment

Image Credit:-

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.

Having been away at a retreat last weekend, I used the theme of retreat for my YouTube video earlier this week and for Friday Flash Fiction this week! Hope you have had a good week. Not bad here. Looking forward to being part of the Scottish Association of Writers’ conference in March. More news to come on that in due course (and I don’t think you can beat their website image – see below!).

Screenshot 2022-01-21 at 21-07-58 Writing Workshops Conference 2020 Scottish Association of Writers

Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to share Endings in Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today. Memorable endings stay with you long after you’ve finished the book or story and make it far more likely you’ll read more work from the author concerned.

I also look at why I feel the “it was just a dream” ending only worked the once and why. I look at linear, circular, and twist endings. (I use the latter a lot for my flash fiction so am especially fond of those). I go on to discuss what I think a good story ending should do. Hope you enjoy the post and do share your favourite story endings in the CFT comments.

Endings in Fiction

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Brrr… after an almost spring-like day yesterday, it has turned cold again. Mind you, it has been nice to see the signs of spring appearing – I’ve spotted primroses out and my solitary clump of snowdrops is doing well.

I’m talking about Endings in Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today this week and I’m looking forward to sharing the link for that tomorrow. See link above.

A classic ending reverberates long after you’ve finished reading the book. A weak ending lets whatever came before down and a writer risks having readers not want to take a chance on their stories again. Well, you’re not going to risk being disappointed again, are you? So it matters then that you get your ending right. No pressure then! But it is worth taking your time to get this right.

Think about the impact you want your story to have on a reader. Think about what you yourself would want to see in the ending as if you weren’t the writer.

Putting yourself in your Ideal Reader’s shoes is an invaluable thing to do because you want your stories to impact on your reader so they want to read you again and again and again. If you are thinking about them from the start, you are less likely to go off on unhelpful tangents because you are seeking to reach them so you are thinking of what they need to see from your characters and plot.

GENRES - Character studies are best kept short so work well in flash

SEASONS IN WRITING - When life gets in the way be kind to yourself

AE - July 2021 - A well rounded character will show us something of ourselves

Storytelling shows us so much about ourselves

The ending of any story must have impact

AE - July 2021 - Great characters will keep you turning the pages

The writing journey is not meant to be static

Hope you have had a good day. Very busy one here – from housework to taking the dog to the vet for her annual booster, it’s all glamour here – umm…. maybe not!

There is an offer on the paperback of Tripping the Flash Fantastic via Amazon. See the link for more information.

How did I come up with the title for my second flash fiction collection? Well, one of the stories in it is called Tripping the Light Fantastic but I wanted something indicating the book’s genre so it was an easy choice to just change one word here.

Titles are so important. A good title is your first “hook” to draw the reader in to read your story (and the second one is an intriguing opening line). It is worth giving yourself plenty of time to think of the title that will attract readers to your book. Try to put yourself in the reader’s shoes. What would intrigue them? If you weren’t the writer of the book, what would intrigue you about it? Does the title grab your attention?

Screenshot 2022-02-09 at 19-55-30 Amazon co uk Allison Symes

Web capture_8-2-2022_203821_www.facebook.com

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I was away at the ACW Committee Retreat last weekend and I used the theme of retreat for my YouTube video earlier this week. I also used it again for my story this week for Friday Flash Fiction. Hope you enjoy Misunderstanding and many thanks for the great comments in on it so far.

Yet another advantage to writing flash fiction is you have a form of writing which is ideal for people who want to write but know they haven’t got the time or desire to write longer works.

And flash pieces are easy to share on your website, social media etc to help raise your profile (though do bear in mind this does count as having been published. I don’t worry about that because I do want to reach people with what I do and sharing a story every now and again is an easy way of doing that. I see this as part of my marketing work but you have to decide what you are happy to share here and what you want to keep back for submission elsewhere).

I would also say if the thought of writing a longer work is too overwhelming, do think small and start there. With online magazines and competitions for flash available now, you can build up publishing credits here and have something to put on a writing CV if you do decide to submit a longer work to an agent or publisher later on.

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Advantages of writing flash fiction number 999 (or so it seems to me!):-

You can use old writing exercises as the basis for creating new flash fiction pieces. Take what you scribbled down in a writing conference talk and see if you can turn it into a story. Most material produced by exercises like this are far too short for the standard short story market. No problem! Write, edit, polish, and send off to the flash one instead!

Dig out those old notebooks – what can you develop from those initial notes? It is worth doing. I took one of mine (The Balcony Seen) and edited and polished it and it ended up on CafeLit.

Fairytales with Bite – Justice

One aspect to fairytales I’ve always loved is you know justice will be done – in some form anyway. Evil is generally thwarted. Good will prevail eventually. Simplistic, maybe, but even as a kid I knew real life wasn’t always like that and it was a comfort to see wrong being righted in fiction.

And another lovely aspect to fairytales is characters traditionally considered as villains don’t have to be. Think Shrek. The ogre is the hero there.

So how would justice be seen to be done in your fairytale setting? Are characters reliant on a helpful fairy godmother turning up and waving the old wand about or are they expected to do some of the work themselves and then call for magical backup? You can probably guess which approach I prefer by the way I’ve worded that!

And yes I do like to see characters contributing something to getting themselves out of trouble even if their efforts don’t succeed. Likewise, I prefer characters who try to act justly even if sometimes their actions are misunderstood or they “let the side down” briefly by those odd moments when, perhaps provoked too far, they don’t act justly. We’re not perfect. Our characters won’t be either.

The theme of justice is often tied up with another theme – redemption. A character hasn’t acted justly. They regret that. What do they do to try to make things right and does this ensure justice is done? All interesting possibilities to explore further.

This World and Others – Law

How does the legal system work in your fictional environment? Is there a civil law, a separate military one, or is there just one? Who ensures justice is done (or do they like to ensure it isn’t done unless it is for them or their cronies)?

Are there trials as we would know them or is everything settled by armed combat? Do ordinary characters have easy access to the law for when they need legal help or is it dependent on whom they know?

As the law stands in your fictional world, what is the history behind it? For example, if people or other beings used to be able to vote but they can’t now, what changed and why? Did your characters try to bring the right to vote back? What stopped them?

How do laws get changed or repealed? Who works for the law (police, barristers, judges etc)? And when punishment is to be inflicted, what form does that take? What does the law in your world allow and what is the basis behind that?

Law underpins a society. Something of that should come through in your fictional world too. Your readers won’t need to know all of the details but they will need to know Character A can’t do this course of action because it is illegal in your setting and your character has to come up with something else instead.

Endings in Fiction https://t.co/paIKTBww5w Memorable endings stay with you long after you’ve finished the story and make it likely you’ll read more work from the author concerned. I also look at at linear, circular, and twist endings. I use the latter a lot for my flash fiction.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 11, 2022

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Misunderstanding, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/7sRblTMfcV I was at the ACW Committee Retreat last weekend. I've used the theme of retreat this week for FFF. Thanks for the fab comments on Misunderstanding so far. https://t.co/52c6OIFqrR pic.twitter.com/GDagirYAS9
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 11, 2022

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Retreats, Flash Fiction and Books You Treasure

February 8, 2022Leave a comment

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. Images from The Hayes, Derbyshire taken by me too. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing.

Hope you have had a good weekend. It was lovely to catch up with my colleagues on the Association of Christian Writers Commitee as we plan ahead. I think The Hayes is probably going to be my second home this year – I am due to be back there two further times this year!

Facebook – General

Am loving tonight’s Classic FM Concert – it’s celebrating John Williams’ 90th birthday. My favourite is The Raiders March from Indiana Jones. I think the best Williams has ever written is the Theme from Schindler’s List. The scariest? No contest – that’s the Jaws theme.

Moving on rapidly from that (and I am so glad I only ever swim in a swimming pool!), my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week will be Endings in Fiction. I’ll share some classic examples and look at what I think a successful story ending should achieve. Link up on Friday.

I’ve used the theme of retreat for my YouTube video this week (I’ll be posting the link on my book page shortly at https://www.facebook.com/fairytaleladyallisonsymes – see further down for the link).

I’ve used it for my submission to Friday Flash Fiction this week as well but the moods of the two stories are different. That’s a lovely thing about setting a broad theme – you can take it in many different directions and you can write up differing stories. So why not give it a go?

Allison Symes - Chandlers Ford Today header

Many thanks for the wonderful responses in so far for Timing, my latest piece on Friday Flash Fiction. Much appreciated though what my dentist will make of it is another matter. To find out why I mention that, check the story out at the link. Great fun to write – hope you enjoy it.

Currently on way home from the ACW Committee Retreat. Had lovely time, we got plenty done, and it was so nice to see everyone.

As ever with these things, I took plenty to work on in my spare time. Did manage to do more than I thought but not as much as I’d have liked! Always the way of it, I guess.

Today must be a strange day for the Queen – sadness and celebration all intermingled. (6th February 2022 – the 70th anniversary of her Accession but also the 70th anniversary of the loss of her father, King George VI).

Emotions can be strange like that – and our characters shouldn’t be all sad, all happy, and nothing in between. For them to seem real to our readers, our characters should reflect the mixture of emotions we experience.

I’m at The Hayes, Swanwick for the Association of Christian Writers Committee Retreat. So lovely to see my colleagues in person again rather than just on screen, even though Zoom is incredibly useful.

I’ll be back here again in June for the ACW WOWIG weekend (Worth Our Weight in Gold) and I’ll be running a flash fiction workshop here. The weekend celebrates ACW’s Golden Jubilee. It is a big year for Jubilees!☺

And I’ll be back yet again in August for the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School. I think 2022 is when this lovely part of Derbyshire is going to be my second home!

Am also looking forward to running a flash workshop at the Scottish Association of Writers Conference in March.

So busy, busy but all in great ways and I adore talking about flash and trying to persuade others to give it a go. It’s fun, helps you improve your writing and editing skills, and if like me, you love creating characters, it is the ideal format for you.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you enjoy Retreat, my latest YouTube story. Am a day later this week due to being away at the weekend but the thought of my being on retreat then led me to take the idea of retreat as a theme. Also pleased I found such an apt audio track on this one and again a huge thanks to #DawnKentishKnox for letting me know about the YouTube audio library. It is useful!

Hope you have had a good start to your week. I hope to get a story off to Friday Flash Fiction this week and I plan to write a YouTube tale, hopefully to share tomorrow. I think the first part of this week will be spent catching up with what I didn’t manage to get done while away.

Having said that, I did manage to get some useful writing work of my own done while on the train over the weekend so was pleased with that. (And flash fiction is easy to draft on the ever useful Evernote!).

How do I start on a flash fiction tale? It depends. Yes, I know – helpful, not! But when I say it depends, it really does depend on whether I’ve got a theme in mind already or not. Sometimes I’ve got my eye on a competition with a set theme so I know I’m writing to that or I just know I want to write a funny piece and then I think about the kind of character who could be the star of said tale.

My outline then is either based on the theme and what I could bring to it or on the character – why are they funny? What do they do to make the situation funny? Does their personality increase the comedy? Characters almost always don’t think they’re funny or that their situations are – it is serious for them – it is the reader looking in who gets the laughs and that is how it should be.

But I must admit I do have a soft spot for the pompous character as it is great fun to set them up for a deserved fall. Writing can be therapeutic at times like that! If I’ve had a tough day, writing something to make me laugh is great fun but also takes me out of myself for a while and hopefully the story will do the same for a reader.

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Flash fiction is aptly named as a flash light illuminates a brief area and flash tales focus on one important moment for a character.

If the character grips you, there’s nothing to stop you putting them in other flash tales and showing other aspects to them.

And there is novella-in-flash where each chapter (up to 1000 words) is its own stand alone story but where succeeding chapters develop the character and storyline further. So that is always an option.
Bar the word count, flash is flexible.

One thing I bear in mind when writing flash is how many characters I want to write up.

For flash tales under 500 words, I find two characters work best though I often only use one and get them to refer to another character who is effectively “off stage”.

For between 500 and the 1000 words maximum, I will use two, sometimes three, and again there will be references to others.

Whenever I use references to other characters, it is to add depth to my tale and the information in the references always moves the story on.

Everything in the story has to justify its being in the story.

Sayings and proverbs used as themes can show us timeless truths

Themes - the tricky bit is finding ones to suit you

Image - Allison Symes - Light and Dark is a feature of life so let's use it in fiction

Goodreads Author Blog – Books You Treasure

I treasure all of the books I have, of course, but some are just that bit extra special.

These include books left to me by my late mother (a beautiful collection of the works by Dickens is the highlight there) and the first book I bought for myself in my teens.

That was Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and I still have it. I collected many of the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton in my younger years too.

I still have the Louisa May Alcott books – Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men and Jo’s Boys.

I will always have a soft spot for Jingo as that was the first Discworld novel I read. I eagerly read the rest of Terry Pratchett’s fabulous and fantastic series after that.

So which books do you treasure and why?

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https://t.co/H7GMaDBKSP. I look at books which are extra special to me this week. Which would be your list? pic.twitter.com/8mxEPy2tQE
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 5, 2022

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Hope you enjoy Retreat, my latest YouTube story. https://t.co/mVPvaH3jZC
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 8, 2022

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Character Types in Fiction

January 28, 2022Leave a comment

Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

A huge thanks to Geoff Parkes for the picture of me taking part in the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School Open Prose Mic Night back in 2018. (That does feel a world away – so much has happened since!).

Hope you have had a good week. Not been a bad one here and Lady has got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal a lot this week so all is well with her world. Am busily blogging, story judging, and drafting short stories at the moment – all fun!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

I’m pleased to share Character Types in Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today. I take a broad look at heroes, villains, narrators, and minor characters and their role in fiction. I also take a brief look at those with the power to help or hinder the lead character. Hope you enjoy (and by all means share some of your favourites of these kinds in the CFT comments box).

Character Types in Fiction

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So sorry to hear of the passing of Barry Cryer. I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue remains a favourite of my other half and I – and we adore Morecombe and Wise, The Two Ronnies, and so many other shows Barry wrote for.

I’ve always adored word play and puns so shows like this were always bound to appeal but I wonder if a love for creative writing can come from simply loving to play with words like that? Maybe it is a key ingredient (and even more so for anyone wanting to write humour).

I also learned a long time ago that if someone makes something look easy, whether it is writing of any kind or any other skill, that same someone has worked their socks (or other hosiery items of choice) off for years to get to that point.

There are no shortcuts but practice, being willing to learn from others, and perseverance are so important. Not at all glamorous or exciting but behind the writing there needs to be a certain amount of grit and acceptance you are in for the long haul and then you still keep on going…! But that is where the support of fellow writers is so invaluable.

Hope you have had a good Wednesday. Will be sharing Character Types in Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See link above.

This will take a broad look at main character types (otherwise such a post could carry on indefinitely as could one asking for favourite characters. I will make a mental note to not write that one up when I get to the letter F as I am writing an “In Fiction” alphabetical series for CFT at the moment – you can see I am going to be busy for the next 20 odd weeks or so! Wish me luck when I get to Q and X!).

Am happily drafting a short story at the moment too and I hope to have a first draft of that done shortly. I will then rest it for a bit before coming back to it for editing. I do find the break away does help me see the faults and virtues of a piece that much more easily. I am really enjoying writing my lead character’s voice in this story which I trust is a good sign.

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My latest Friday Flash Fiction story is called Tears Before Lunch. This one was inspired by a question I chose from a random question generator – what makes you cry? I decided to get a character to answer that one and this is the result. Hope you enjoy it. (Also huge thanks for the fabulous comments coming in on it so far – the feedback on this site is amazing and so encouraging).

Hope you have had a good day and many thanks for a wonderful response to my post yesterday about having a stock of stories ready for use at Open Prose Mic Nights.

Whether you take part in these things or not, reading your work out loud is a great idea. If you stumble over dialogue etc., so will your readers. It is an oddity that what looks good written down does not always translate into something that is easy to read. But reading work out loud helps you spot that.

I used to record some of my stories on Audacity back in the day so I could play them back. Even easier to do it on Zoom of course which handily converts your file to an mp4 for you. And if you are taking part in reading events, you can play your recording back to hear how you sound to yourself. It is odd to hear yourself but it does show up whether you’re reading too fast, too slow, are clear enough or not etc.

The great thing with flash pieces of course is they don’t take too long to read out but it does mean you have to grab your audience’s attention literally from the first word.

I’ve mentioned before I have a stock of stories I use for reading at Open Prose Mic Nights, for author talks etc. It pays to regularly rehearse these and I also like to mix them up to keep things fresh and interesting. I also use stories I hope will make it into a further collection – I know I like a balance of old and new material when someone is reading to me so I do the same here.

Putting yourself into your readers’ shoes is a good idea for when you’re writing the story or performing it. Doing this when writing means you are thinking about what your reader would want from the tale and helps no end in keeping your tale relevant and to the point. Doing it when performing a story I’ve found helps me “project” the character’s voice better. It is their voice I want to get across to those I’m reading to after all.

Fairytales With Bite – Dark Days

One of the downsides to January in my part of the world is the days are dark (though towards the end of the month you do start to spot the evenings becoming lighter). In your fictional world, are dark days a seasonal thing, as we know here, or is it a part of your world’s geography that days are naturally short and extended periods of darkness is something that everyone has to cope with? How do your characters cope with those dark days?

From a historical viewpoint, does your fictional world consider a part of its past as “dark days”? Why? How have they moved on from this? What has got better since then? What might be considered to be worse?

What kind of “dark days” do your characters face and how do they get through these? This can take the form of that stage in the story where their quest is looking lost and all seems lost. It can also take the form of loss of confidence by a character in themselves and their ability to carry out the task they’ve been set. How do they overcome that? Who helps them? Who hinders them?

You can then take the idea of dark days several ways to create new story ideas. Good luck!

This World and Others – Seasonal Activities

What kind of seasonal activities take place in your created world? Is there a planting time and a harvest time, for example? Are there harvest celebrations? Does everyone take part in these?

What kind of holidays are held in your world and what are the purpose of them? Bearing in mind the Romans famously said that what people needed were bread and circuses, how does the government of your created world apply that principle? Does it work?!

Think about the geography of your created world too. A lot will depend on how much natural light is available for plant and food growth and seasonal activities will follow that of course.

But in the “down times” when things cannot be grown, for example. are there events specifically designed to get your people through those times? Something like a winter festival to give people something to look forward to (Christmas etc for us)?

Are there political seasonal activities everyone has to take part in regardless of their personal feelings on them? How did these come into being?

Again, plenty of story thoughts there I think!

Tears Before Lunch, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/AWIP4npAij Delighted to share my latest drabble on Friday Flash Fiction. This one was inspired by a question from a random question generator – what makes you cry? Hope you enjoy it. pic.twitter.com/Hu2cZVfmly
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 28, 2022

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Character Types in Fiction https://t.co/t26HcPcMCD I take a look at heroes, villains, minor characters, and narrators as broad character categories in fiction. I look at what I expect to find in these. This challenges me to ensure I produce these qualities in my characters!. pic.twitter.com/7JWpuMf4Za
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 28, 2022

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Best Friends in Fiction

January 21, 2022Leave a comment

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. Image of Lady and myself taken by my other half, Adrian Symes. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing.

Hope you have had a good week. This week has ended well as a still poorly Lady is now a lot, lot better and back playing with her pals in the park again.

Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am pleased to share Best Friends in Fiction, my latest blog for Chandler’s Ford Today. I take a look at the role of the best friend/sidekick character and nominate the one I think is the best fictional friend of all time. Take a look at the post and see if you agree with me. Nominations for your own candidate would be very welcome in the CFT comments box!

I also discuss why some stories simply wouldn’t work without the best friend character (and I am sure you can think of loads of examples. To name only one could you really imagine Wooster without Jeeves? I know I can’t. And while I know Jeeves is Wooster’s “gentleman’s personal gentleman” there is no question that the advice and help he gives Bertie is the kind of advice the very best kind of best friend character would give.)

Hope you enjoy the post.

Best Friends in Fiction

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Had a lovely time at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom last night. We were chatting about writing prompts and random generators amongst other things, both of which I love and use a lot. I like to mix up the kinds of prompt I use as that keeps me on my toes.

And if you are looking for ideas for prompts, I will flag up Prompts 2020, Prompts 2021, and Prompts 2022, all of which were produced by Gill James and with contributions from many Bridge House Publishing authors including yours truly. The link takes you to the Bridgetown Cafe Bookshop page. But having a book of prompts to hand is a good idea as is using the different kinds of random generators. It all helps inspire the imagination.

Screenshot 2022-01-20 at 19-51-08 Amazon co uk Prompts by Gill James

Screenshot 2022-01-20 at 19-49-30 The Bridgetown Café Bookshop

Hope you have had a good day. Lovely highlight for me today was having a long overdue catch-up chat over a cup of tea with my editor at Chandler’s Ford Today, Janet Williams. (As ever, Lady thought any visitor has to be for her. It is difficult to convince a dog otherwise).

I’ll be talking about Best Friends in Fiction for CFT on Friday. So much wonderful fiction relies on the best friend/sidekick character and, as well as looking at what the best friend’s role is for, I nominate whom I think is the best ever friend in fiction in my post. Looking forward to sharing that. See link above.

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It’s the end of the standard working week (at least here in the UK) and it’s story time again. Am pleased to share Someone Like Her, my latest piece on Friday Flash Fiction. This story is a little unusual for me in that it is the first time where I have deliberately repeated a whole line. It is appropriate to do so for the tale and I think gives the piece a good rhythm.

Normally I would consider a repetition like that a waste of words, especially in such a tight word count. I would normally seek to say something similar in a different way if I needed some repetition for emphasis, say. But here I think the repetition works well. Comments always welcome here and on the Friday Flash Fiction page under my story.

One huge benefit to flash fiction writing is, if you are pushed for time (and how many of us are not at times?), you still have a form of writing where you could produce something in ten minutes, say. Okay it will need editing later but all forms of writing need that so that’s fine.

I must admit I find it satisfying to produce a piece and not have to wait too long for a pay-off from it (and even when that pay-off is a turn down, I can edit the piece again and re-submit it somewhere). I’ve found it useful to save small pockets of time to draft future stories.

When I have more time, I can come back to those and polish them up, ready to submit somewhere. But it is so nice knowing I can use those pockets of time for something useful (and which helps me make the most of those longer writing sessions later on).

What do I want a flash fiction story to achieve? Well, a lot depends on the story’s mood of course but whether I am trying to make a reader laugh, cry, or scream, it is all about the impact. My characters must make my readers care about what happens to them. There has to be impact. I want a reader to enjoy my flash pieces and feel that not a word could be added or taken away.

Fairytales With Bite – Three Is Magical

The number three crops up in fairytales often. Three wishes. The youngest son (out of three) is the one to do well. And then there are the titles – The Three Bears, The Three Little Pigs, etc. In any story where something happens, then that same or very similar something happens again, I am expecting the something to be resolved on the third “go”. The Rule of Three is something we take in all the time while being usually unaware of it.

And there are good reasons for this. The first “occasion” sets up a situation, the second one repeats it where the character clearly hasn’t learned the lesson they’re supposed to have learned, but on the third time they have changed what needs to be changed so the situation is resolved, usually happily. The structure works.

A fourth “go” and the story would seem to drag on for too long. Resolving the situation in two “goes” would not seem realistic either given characters (and us!) need time to realise they’ve got something wrong, work out how to put something right, try something, it still doesn’t quite work out, but on the third attempt they’re there.

So three is a magical figure for fiction telling then. With fairytales, you can always arrange for your character to have three magical objects (naturally the last of these will be the most powerful). What matters here is how your character uses these things. Do they use the first one wastefully or greedily? Does this backfire so they are less greedy or wasteful when it comes to using the second object but are still not quite using magic honourably?

By the time they’re ready to use the third, have they stopped being greedy or wasteful and use the last object in a sensible way? Scene – action – reaction. Scene – action – reaction. Scene – positive action – positive resolution.

This World and Others – Who Tells The Stories?

What form(s) do stories take in your created world? Is there a written/printed story tradition or is it oral only? Is technology used for storytelling or are there bards and the like telling stories the old-fashioned way? Are stories valued and accessible to all?

Or does your world prefer facts only and the stories told are those of past battles won etc? (It can be an interesting reflection on a place where it celebrates its victories but ignores its defeats. For that sort of world, I would expect there to be oppression, no freedom of the press etc).

Who tells the stories is an interesting question in another way. Who tells the storytellers what they can say? Does the narrative ever change? Does the narrative get challenged? And what would happen if your created world was made up to face up to the fact that one of their so-called great victories was actually a defeat and there has been an almighty cover-up?

Are there libraries and who can access these? If books are banned in your creation, which ones and why? Also is there a black market for the banned books (there often is for this kind of thing)?

Whose voices are represented by the stories being told? Whose stories are ignored or treated with contempt?

Answering questions like these will help give you a clearer picture of what your world is and its attitudes. It should then show you your characters’ reactions to those attitudes. Do they just accept it as it has always been that way or do they seek to change it?

How did 2021 go, writing wise? Did you set writing goals? I set a few. I managed a few too while there are others where I didn’t get as far along as I thought I would. That’s fine. They come up the queue for this year! So never fear, another year is here and goals can be moved. pic.twitter.com/awLiOqzjtw
— ACW (@ACW1971) January 19, 2022

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Not everyone likes writing goals but I find having something I’d like to achieve defined means I’m more likely to do it or make progress on it. I like to set an achievable goal, another I’m likely to do, and a long term one, where it is a question of monitoring progress. pic.twitter.com/mSBVmglQBL
— ACW (@ACW1971) January 20, 2022

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Goals confirm why no writer should compare themselves with another. Calls on our time differ. Our writing differs. So will our goals. Writing goals are meant to spur you on and encourage you. If goals make you feel miserable, change them. They won’t work for you left as they are. pic.twitter.com/J2KySeRCZz
— ACW (@ACW1971) January 21, 2022

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Someone Like Her, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/8yoEAjyIvE Delighted to share my latest FFF story – being different can be a life saver. Find out why here. Hope you enjoy. pic.twitter.com/IZf2cVobzq
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 21, 2022

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Best Friends in Fiction https://t.co/6l8ngpHlAy I look at the role of the best friend/sidekick character in fiction and nominate the one I think is the best ever. Check the post out and see if you agree! pic.twitter.com/6A08Ai7zTp
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 21, 2022

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