Tag: character reactions

Motivation, Characters, and Magazines

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Image Credits:- All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Lady and I are enjoying the glorious weather at the moment. Writing wise, am busy preparing a splendid author interview I look forward to sharing on Chandler’s Ford Today soon. Am beginning to think about The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. So looking forward to that in August. And it’s business as usual with the flash tales and the blogging so all well here. Hope your writing is going well too.

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Another glorious day to be out and about in the lovely weather. Lady and I have made the most of that.

How do your characters react to unexpected news (good or bad)? Are they the type which like surprises or loathes them? What do their reactions show you about them? This is all useful stuff to help you portray your characters with more depth.

If I know my character hates surprises because they once got caught out by a nasty one, that attitude will come into the story in some way and will have a direct bearing on its outcome. I’m showing this trait for a reason. Whatever I put into a story there has to be a good reason for its inclusion.

Lady and I busy being out and about enjoying the lovely weather. I have a wonderful doggy flask which makes it easy to carry water with me. Her friends seems to like the flask as well. I am sure it is because it is easy for them to use the “lid” to drink from – will fit any snout!

I can’t remember when I first realised it was the characters which were the most important part of any story for me, whether I read them or write them, but I do know it to be true for me. If I can’t be gripped by the characters, the rest of the story will fall apart for me.

I don’t want splendid descriptions or marvellous dialogue unless they are relevant to the characters in some way. Mind you, knowing this helps me to keep on track for my own writing which is no bad thing.

Another gorgeous day today. Am making the most of it, as is Lady.

Writing Tip: It can be hard to motivate yourself to write anything when feeling tired, unwell or anything like that.

So firstly take it easy. The writing will be there for you again once things are back to normal. Trust the process.

Secondly, if you can do any writing at all, do “little bits and pieces”. It’s what I do especially on those hectic days when I know from the start I won’t get a lot of writing done. I focus on what I can do and am always pleased to have written something, even if it is literally just a few lines. I can build on this later.

Hope you’re having a good start to your weekend. Another lovely day weather wise. Delighted to say my lilac is out – has wonderful flowers and a heavenly scent. It us worth the hay-fever, put it that way!

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Inspiration Ideas for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. After that I’ll be sharing a great author interview.

Did get my competition story off this week, well ahead of the deadline. Will be researching others to have a go at in due course.

I make a point of checking out competition backgrounds to ensure all is as it should be. I also check fees are reasonable compared to the prizes on offer. I don’t enter any competitions which insist I sign away all of my rights either. Saves a lot of grief later!

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I am fond of writing what I call fairytales with bite which are tales set in a magical world, and where there is usually a twist in the tale. I often use irony in these too so they’re not aimed at the younger end of the market.

I would say these stories are aimed at young adult upwards and for anyone who appreciates the quirky. Often these tales work best when kept short so it is a good match for flash fiction writing. I like this, as you can imagine.

The mood of these can range from lighthearted to dark and that thought inspired the title for my first collection with Chapeltown Books, From Light to Dark and Back Again. Gives a good idea of what to expect!

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It’s Monday. It’s gorgeous and sunny where I am but it is still Monday and time for a tale. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The List.

Shirabelle’s life is full of lists but this week has good news and bad news. The good news is there is only one item on it. The bad news is should Shirabelle go ahead and do this task? Find out what that is here.

 

One nice thing about flash fiction is it is useful for those times when you would like to write more but don’t have the time to do more or other circumstances are getting in your way. That happens to us all. Even fifty words gives you a story (and you can write less than that in flash to have a complete tale).

Hope to research more flash competitions soon. I have been entering more short story ones so far.
Most popular categories I’ve come across are the 100, 300, and 500 words kinds. Worth practicing these then!

Often with these things you can enter two flash pieces for one fee, especially at the lower word count ranges. I do take advantage of this. May as well!

Goodreads Author Blog – Magazines

I will admit to being biased here but I do see a good quality magazine as being every bit of a good read as a collection, novella, or a novel. The fact I write and copy edit for one (Writers’ Narrative) is the reason for the bias!

I love good magazines because they’re a great, portable read. The very best ones encourage further (book) reading too.

They can also be a fabulous introduction to a topic (and there will always be books on that topic. What reader wouldn’t welcome that? The magazine is a relatively cheap way of working out whether the topic is for you or not but if it is think of all the books you can go on to enjoy).

MailerLite – Allison Symes – Newsletter Sign Up

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Merry Christmas, Everyone

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Image Credit:  Pixabay, unless otherwise stated.

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Merry Christmas, everyone. I hope you have lots of lovely books as presents and plenty of time in which to read them. Now if that’s not a good wish, I don’t know what is!

Hang on, I can think of another. If you’re a writer, may you be inspired by plenty of excellent ideas and have lovely stationery as gifts to jot down those thoughts, which will surely become works of genius in years to come.

Yes, I think that counts as a good wish too. Not quite sure how Santa can deliver that one exactly but I am sure the great man will think of something!

Have a wonderful time. Will be back online in a few days.  NB:  I don’t know if I’ll be posting on Friday as, if I do, it will only be a link to my CFT post and I may save that until next Tuesday.

 

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I hope you have a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Whether you write books or read them or ideally do both, I hope you find plenty of fascinating new material to be enjoying in 2020.

Not sure what my plans writing wise are for the rest of this week but I am planning a CFT post which will be a review of my writing year. I will also be sharing a few timeless wishes. Link up later in the week.

There is a surge of reading at this time of year for obvious reasons but I do hope that leads to a surge of reviews in the usual places in the New Year! As a certain supermarket would say, every little bit helps!

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I was reminded of the power of words and music to move the human spirit at the Carols by Candlelight Service I went to this evening.

Firstly, I heard the most beautiful rendition of O Holy Night I’ve ever heard (well done to the two ladies concerned) and it was one of the loveliest things I’ve heard EVER regardless of musical style etc. The congregation was deeply moved by it. I was close to tears (of the good variety).

Secondly, even without the familiar tunes, the carols are great poetry in and of themselves (and they all tell a story too so I’d love them for that reason alone).

I also read the poem Shepherd by Lisa Debney which was a great pleasure to do. It takes an unusual angle on the Christmas story – that of someone coming to terms with Jesus as a baby – and the words are so moving.

Words – and music – are wonderful things. Any of us working with either or both are so privileged. Enjoy!

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I’ve created a book trailers page on my website. As well as the one for From Light to Dark and Back Again, there are trailers for Nativity and Transforming Being, both of which I have stories in. A big thank you to #GillJames for her wonderful work in creating these three.

I’ve also included a short video I created for Job Satisfaction which is in FLTDBA. I hope to add more trailers (and things I creat too) on this page every so often.

Meanwhile I hope you enjoy the new page!

Nativity Medium

FromLightToDark_medium-2

Image from Chapeltown Books

Transforming Being

Transforming Being. Image by Bridge House Publishing.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Merry Christmas, everyone. I’ll be offline for a few days. I hope you all have a lovely break – and enjoy plenty of flash fiction, whether you’re reading or writing it (or both), of course.

To finish here are some of my micro Christmas stories. Hope you enjoy!

1. Scrooge grimaced as he walked home, having heard some youngster tell a snippet of a ghost story. Ghosts! Whatever next?

2. In the bleak midwinter, they could have done with a snow plough.

3. Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer found that telling everyone he was suffering from a nasty cold stopped the awkward jokes about what he was adding to his water trough to generate said red nose.

4. Frosty the Snowman was the first to admit he really could not appreciate the benefits of central heating.

Allison Symes – 2019

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Thought I’d share one of my flash fiction stories. Hope you enjoy it.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

She knew she had to stop it. It wasn’t doing her any good and any comfort she derived from it had vanished long ago.

She put on her huge black coat, it made her look slim, grabbed her cavernous bag and shook out the massive pork pie she stored in there. She grimaced at it, picked it up and, as she left her flat and walked out of the roadway, she dumped the pie in the community bin.

Today she would start again. Enough was enough. She took a deep breath and headed to where she knew the slimming group met. She’d put off going for ages. But today was different.

She was NOT going to be mistaken for a giant tomato on legs again by anyone. She would show the world she could do it.

And when she had she would get the most rotten tomatoes she could find, hide and hurl the things at those people who’d humiliated her tonight. She knew where they were. They did not know where she was. And it would stay that way.

A year later, the local papers appealed for help in tracking a mystery assailant going around pelting rotten veg at people coming off the 28 bus at different times.

She laughed.

ENDS

Have a wonderful, story filled Christmas and New Year!

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There are certain things about the Christmas story I particularly love – and those are the telling details (which is highly appropriate for a flash fiction writer as only the most important nuggets of information are included in our stories. We have no room for anything else and readers have to fill in the gaps though, for me, that is the joy of flash. I love having to work things through like that and picking up on the implications etc).

One such nugget is the Bible story says Mary was perplexed by the angel’s greeting to her and wondered what kind of greeting this could be. Firstly, I can just picture that (!), and secondly, it makes Mary so real. It would’ve been very odd NOT to react that way I think.

When it comes to our own stories, our characters’ reactions MUST be realistic to the situations we’ve put them in. Readers should be able to think yes, I’d react like that or yes, I could see why they would react this way but I would have…

So when reviewing your stories look at how your characters react to something. Is that reaction reasonable? If a character goes “over the top”, can a reader understand why they might do that?

Happy writing!

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I love the poem The Night Before Christmas. It’s a wonderful story told in rhyme. As is The Gruffalo. I admire hugely anyone who can tell a story in rhyme like that. It’s such a challenge NOT to go for slightly awkward phrasing just so you get the rhyme you want.

Flash fiction can be told in poetic form and I occasionally experiment with this. It’s an interesting challenge but not something I’d want to do regularly. If there’s an award for most difficult category of writing ever invented, I think it would have to go to poetry. So hats off to all poets out there!

But flash fiction writers can learn a lot from poets. DON’T go for awkward phrasing just so you can achieve a desired word count. Your phrasing has to read naturally. You don’t want anything to jar with a reader. You do pick up on “duff” notes in the rhythm of your prose and I know when I’ve come across it in something I’ve read, it throws me. The writing will have to be pretty special to make me keep reading after that.

I write a flash fiction piece, edit it until I’m happy with it, and THEN select the competition or market it is best suited for. When a competition comes up for, say, a 250 word piece, but my story works better at 300, I won’t crop it. I’ll save it for another competition.

Incidentally unless a competition or market specifically says otherwise, it is okay to come in UNDER the required word count. I’ve found though my work tends to come in at 20 or so words below whatever the limit is and that is deliberate on my part. It means I’ve got a little bit of room to manoeuvre if I need it and allows for those places where the title IS part of the word count. You’re never going to have a 20 word title, are you?!!

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Goodreads Author Blog – 

Why Everyone Needs a Writer in their Life

If you’re not a writer yourself, you definitely need one in your life somewhere. Why? Well for one thing, you’ll have an easy present buy for said writer.

If we don’t give you a list of books we’d like to find under the Christmas tree, we’ll always appreciate nice pens and notebooks!

But the chances of us NOT asking for books, in whatever format, are extremely remote. Nor will we ever moan about a book shaped present waiting for us! We don’t care we know it’s a book in there. We just want to find out which one you picked out for us!

And this is why I loved receiving book tokens as presents too. I relished the thought of going to pick up my own present after the Christmas holidays – the thought of all that choice…oh good!

I don’t know about you but I always find it a joy buying presents for people where I know they’re going to like said present. And writers as a rule fit that category very well.

I can’t think of any writer who would pass on the option to have books bought for them!

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What Writing Means To Me

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Image Credit:  Unless otherwise stated, the images come from Pixabay.

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What does writing mean to you? For me it’s:-

1. Escapism. (Always welcome that!).

2. Writing stretches and challenges me. I came up with blog posts or stories yesterday, can I do the same today? (The discipline of daily writing is very good for developing your imagination and stamina and is also brilliant for keeping the brain active).

3. Writing has given me a creative art form I can take part in and love. I’m useless at art (my kid sister was much better there – and still is) but I can use words. I believe most of us have a creative streak somewhere and it’s a question of finding the one that suits us best. Being creative does something positive for my soul/mental well being/self-esteem etc and that is a good thing for my sake obviously but also for those around me.

4. Writing has led me to doing things I would never have dreamt of doing (such as reading publicly from my own work).

5. Writing has given me wonderful friends who understand the joys and frustrations of writing and that wonderful buzz when your books arrive with your stories in them!

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So what does the coming writing week hold in store for you?

I’m currently preparing a review of the play My Husband’s Nuts performed by The Chameleon Theatre Group for Chandler’s Ford Today. Yes, it really is called that. Reviews can sometimes be tricky. How much do you reveal about the plot? My approach is to give enough of the “flavour” of the play without giving away spoilers. And yes, this one is a farce. Well with a title like that, it kind of had to be really.

I’ve just submitted work to a competition and I plan to work on my big projects throughout the week. Am making good progress on one in particular. I also want to get another flash fiction collection together at some point.

Delighted that the Best of Cafelit 8 with its lovely green cover goes beautifully with the cover of my From Light to Dark and Back Again. They’ll look good together on a book stall! The Cafelit series always has the same cover image, just the colour of the cover changes, and the Chapeltown flash fiction collections always have a frame around a differing central image. Branding, folks, branding – it does matter but it doesn’t have to be complicated. Simple ideas here can work wonders.

I have two stories in this volume of excellent short fiction.
My flash fiction collection. Image taken by Allison Symes.
FLTDBA for sale in the Swanwick Book Room. Image by Allison Symes
Image by Adrian Symes

Publication News

Delighted to share my latest story on Cafelit called Humourless. Hope you enjoy. Definitely not something that could be applied to me, I’m glad to say.

Good questions for writers to ask themselves.
Sometimes the books come to you! Pixabay
What writing can give you. Pixabay
All great ideas for writing but you still need to “apply the seat of your pants to the seat of the chair” (P.G.Wodehouse). Pixabay image.
Nothing like getting down to some writing… Pixabay
Feedback can vary in scale! Pixabay image.
Warning: Writer at Work. Pixabay
Something writers know only too well…
So many lovely forms of writing… Pixabay

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When something unexpected happens, how do you react? Okay, okay, I know. It depends on whether the unexpected happening is nice or not. (I was nominated for Miss Slinky in my Slimming World group tonight – very nice surprise and it brightened up my Tuesday considerably!).

Okay, next question. How would your characters react? Same response from you? Yes, and rightly so too. But it pays you to know how your characters are likely to react, no matter what turns up in their lives.

Also think about why they would react the way you think they will. If someone reacts badly to a balloon bursting, is that because their link that sound to a bad memory? There should be a reason for their reaction, especially if other characters seems to consider it an over-reaction. You can ask yourself if it IS your character over reacting and then think about why your character might do that. Trying to get sympathy perhaps?

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I occasionally write a piece of flash fiction where the first letter of each line spells out a word. Let’s give that a go again now and appropriately I think I’ll go for Autumn. (Now this is where I could cheat and go for the American word of Fall here to make my life easier but I won’t!).

AUTUMN

A = Allison finished digging in the garden not a moment too soon as the rain started pelting down.
U = Urgent requirement for a hot cup of a tea and a Hi-fi bar made her put her spade away in record time.
T = Turning away from the garden shed, she ran indoors, put the kettle on, and grabbed her bar from the larder.
U = Unaware her actions had been witnessed.
M = Missy, next door’s dog, got through the gap in the fence and went to where Allison had been digging.
N = Never had a body been uncovered again so quickly; never had Allison shooed a dog off so quickly before as she rushed to cover up her work.

Allison Symes – 26th October 2019

Not based on a true story, honestly!

 

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Reasons to engage with other writers positively:-

1. It’s fun – best reason of all.

2. You will learn useful information – I’ve found out about competitions etc thanks to chatting with other writers. Some of it I’ve used, some of it I may use in the future, some I may never get to use at all.

3. When you can share useful information, see it as paying your dues. I know I’m grateful for the good advice from other writers that has helped me so pass it on.

4. Ultimately, we all want to write good material, whether it’s flash fiction, or an epic saga. There are things on our writing journeys that we will share in common. You don’t have to cope with these things on your own!

5. You can be warned about scams. No industry is exempt from these so why should publishing be?

6. Linking with 5, other writers can tell you where to go for good advice and what has helped them.

7. I was told about Cafelit and from there found out about flash fiction and I’ve been very grateful for finding out about those!!😀

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Pleased to have another story up on Cafelit – Humourless. More to come too.

http://cafelitcreativecafe.blogspot.com/…/10/humourless.html

For Cafelit, you need to assign a drink to your story and I try to match the mood of the tale with an appropriate beverage. I sometimes find that harder to do than write the story and I’ve often searched cafe menus for inspiration!

It is a great way to discreetly flag up the mood of the tale though. This, and finding pictures for my CFT posts, are probably the main ways where I’m “forced” to think laterally sometimes. But it is worth persisting with doing that. Other story ideas have come to me that way.

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I always feel a certain amount of relief when I’ve got the first draft of a story written. I never worry about making each line or paragraph “perfect” before moving on because I know if I took that approach, I would get very little written. Also, there’s no such thing as “perfect” writing anyway.

I like to get a first draft written, move on to another piece I’m editing or submitting somewhere, then come back to that draft to give myself enough distance from it to be able to judge it as objectively as I can.

There are two reactions made by a writer to something they’ve written.

1. This is genius. Not true, sadly.

2. This is awful. Whatever made me think I could write. Not true either and that’s better news!

It is inevitable as you read through a piece, ideas for better ways of phrasing things occur to you so go with that and don’t worry about it.

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Association of Christian Writers – More Than Writers – A Season For Everything

Do you find the seasons affect your writing? I can’t say they do with me. One good thing about the evenings drawing in earlier is the lure of a cosy room, my desk, hot drinks on the go, and an evening’s writing is even more appealing than it normally is!

I don’t write much about the seasons. Flash fiction with its word count limits means I have little room for description. If I want to show it’s cold, I’ll get my character to put on their big coat, having established they usually wear shorts or something daft like that.

Sorry to all shorts fans out there but I’ve never liked them. I’d also consign flip-flops to history’s dustbin. If I ever come up with a character I really can’t stand, I could make them wear shorts and flip-flops in freezing weather and make them suffer! I guess that could be fun…

Is there any writer who doesn’t get some enjoyment out of putting their characters through the mill, especially when those characters have it coming? I refuse to believe that is just me.

If I have seasons to writing, it is not in the quantity of what I do but in the tasks themselves. I will have weeks where I’m submitting work all over the place. (I finished drafting this after sending three stories off to Cafelit).

There will be other weeks where I’m editing work I’d deliberately put aside to look at again with fresh eyes prior to submission. It does pay to give yourself that time so you return to your story afresh. It’s the only way I know that works where you do come back and read your work as a reader would.

Without a time break, I’ve found you can be too close to your own work to be objective about it. This is why when there’s a competition deadline, I take off at least a week from the official end date and that will be the date I aim to submit the piece by. If life gets in the way as it does sometimes, I still have a few days in hand to still submit that piece.

I am so grateful for email submissions! I did start writing seriously when everything went in by snail mail (it was just after the last T Rex left this world). Some things have definitely got better. (I don’t miss typewriters, carbon paper or Tippex either. I did use to cut and paste literally).

I’ve found it pays to have periods when I’m creating new work. While I’m working on the second story, the first one is having its “time break” for me to edit effectively later.

There is always something on the go  writing wise and that’s how I like it. I have a very low boredom threshold and the lovely thing with creative writing is that threshold is never tested. There is always something to do.

Happy writing, editing etc etc!

Goodreads Author Blog –

What Do I Want Books To Do For Me?

I look for different things from books, depending on which genre I’m reading, but there are things in common across the spectrum. A good book for me must:-

1. Entertain me. (I want to be gripped by its pace and narrative. I don’t want to be sent to sleep by it!).

2. I want to learn something from it and this applies to fiction as much as non-fiction.

From the former, I can learn something about behaviour and choices depending on what the characters do.

Learning from non-fiction books is obvious but it is a good idea to read outside the subjects you might usually choose (and this is something I need to do more often).

I love history and that is my “go to” for non-fiction reading but I always used to like geography so maybe I should try some travel writing books etc. Hmm… might look up some ideas to put on my Christmas present wish list then!).

3. I want to want to read the book again in due course. Good books call for repeated reading (and I find I pick up more details on a second or third read). I also wouldn’t undermine the comfort of reading a familiar book. There is much to be said for that.

So what do YOU look for in a good book?

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Relaxing with a good book. Image via Pixabay.

WHEN EVERYTHING IS COMING UP ROSES, BEWARE OF THE THORNS!

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FAIRYTALES WITH BITE

In When Everything is Coming Up Roses, Beware of the Thorns, I ask how your characters  react when things  are going well, then suddenly they’re not.  I also ask how they react when things are going badly for them but other characters are still doing okay (which is not always easy to handle). How do your characters handle adversity in general?  (A lot about their true nature can come out in how you show this).

THIS WORLD AND OTHERS

In Going Home I look at exactly what this means for your characters as they try to resume normal life after their adventures.  I also look at and ask about what a typical home would be like in your setting.  (I always thought the hobbit holes in The Lord of the Rings looked nice and cosy!).

FACEBOOK PAGE

I discuss a horrid video I saw on Facebook today which shows a book being gutted.  I know – a truly horrible thought.  Some people clearly have no shame…

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FAllison.Symes.FairytaleLady%2Fposts%2F922902057812774&width=500

Poetry conjures up images so beautifully. Image via Pixabay. See Sandra Lyn Gordon's wonderful poem on Chandler's Ford Today for another example of great imagery.

The fields of home, perhaps?  Image via Pixabay.