Tag: character types

Things I Wish I’d Known Earlier

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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 the week so far has gone well. Lady has had a lovely few days with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal and I’ve kept busy with the writing and editing. Also went to a fun ACW Zoom group (on science fiction and fantasy). So not a bad week at all so far here.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to share Things I Wish I’d Known Earlier on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Have focused on writing things here. Am sure there are plenty of thoughts here which most writers will identify with!

Hope you find the post useful and encouraging. I think it helps to know you’re not alone as a writer on things like the topics (time taken to get published, rejections, opportunities which may not seem as if they are at first etc) I share in this post.

Things I Wish I’d Known Earlier

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Hope you’ve had a good Thursday. Lady had another fabulous time with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal (they’ve had a terrific week!) and saw her lovely spaniel friend, the gentle Daisy, too.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Things I Wish I’d Known Earlier on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up for that tomorrow and I restricted the post to just being about writing otherwise the post would’ve been far too long! See above.

Later in the month I’m off to see The Ghost Train (written by Arnold Ridley of Dad’s Army fame) performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company. I’ll also be off to the Association of Christian Writers in person meeting at Egham where I’ll be pleased to catch up with members of the flash fiction group in person, as well as other ACW members I haven’t seen for a while.

Plus I will have further author interviews coming up on CFT too so plenty to look out for and plenty going on with me at the moment. But then that is how I like it to be.

Lady was overjoyed to see and play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback friend again today. Lots of cuddles were exchanged. Sweet to see.

Pleased to see my author newsletter went out this morning. I was looking at short fiction forms for this one (and that will be the theme of the October Writers’ Narrative which is due out at any time).

I am also looking at Things I Wish I’d Known Earlier for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link for that up on Friday. To prevent the post from being far too long, I have limited the topic to things associated with writing! Am sure you will identify with a lot of what I will be sharing here. Again, see above, and if I hadn’t limited the scope of the post, I really could have written chapter and verse on the topic!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my Lighting Up. I hope you enjoy the story and would you like Marian as a friend or relative of yours?

Flash gives me the opportunity to have fun with genre as I have written flash crime stories, flash historical ones, flash fairytales, and many more types. I love the variety here. I have to lead with my characters given there isn’t room for much in the way of description though that in turn makes you focus.

I show you what the character needs to show you. The character only gives you the dialogue and internal thoughts you need to make sense of what they are doing and why. But given I can put my characters anywhere, I do take advantage of that. It makes life more interesting for me and I hope for my readers too.

Certainly for the collections, it leads to a good variety of stories. I love reading those as well as writing them so know I want to see plenty of story types in my collections.

Hope the day has been a good one for you. Not bad here. Looking forward to going to an ACW Zoom group tonight – always good fun.

Am pleased to know a few of the Flash Fiction Group will be going to the in person ACW event later this month. It will be lovely for us all to come out of our “Zoom boxes” and meet in person”! Naturally we will put in the word about the joys of flash fiction at some point (and I will be sharing some of this in the October Writers’ Narrative which is due out at any minute I will share the link as soon as I can).

Character Tip: One of the strengths of flash fiction is it does mean you have to focus which is why I recommend for our story to focus on one character and one moment in time, especially if your story will be 500 words or fewer. I like to think of this as not “diluting” your story.

Fairytales with Bite – Natural Light

As I write this in October 2025, the autumn season is well under way. The nights are drawing in, the leaves are changing colour (which is one of my favourite sights at this time of year) and the acorns are coming down rapidly (you should hear the sound as they hit the car roof!).

Now much as I love autumn, it is always a shame to see the amount of natural light fading. While it is lovely to cosy up inside with writing and good books, I also love being able to enjoy the natural light as long into the evening as possible. So this led me to wonder, how does light “work” in your setting? Do they have a sun (or more) as we know this? How are your characters affected the amount of natural light available?

Can natural light be created artificially? Does your setting have electricity as we know it? (I always loved the old character Catweazle describing it as electrickery. For those who don’t know, this was a 1970s UK children’s programme and many have fond memories of it. Catweazle was a time travelling wizard effectively).

How does the geography of your setting, including light and darkness, challenge your characters? How can they use natural light, or the lack of, to their advantage?

There will be story ideas there.

This World and Others – Character Types

How many character types does your setting have and are they anything like what we have here? Are species easy to differentiate? Is there a clear hierarchy in terms of magical power etc? Is there a dominant species and what led to them becoming that way?

I have an interest in hierarchies in settings because I am always looking out for the underdog in a story and seeing what they get up to. I guess that comes from my long love of the classic fairytales where the underdog often turns out to be the hero/heroine.

I also have a soft spot for non-human characters but then I have written from the viewpoint of a mother dragon before now. As long as readers can understand why your characters (of any kind) are the way they are, why they have the attitudes they do, why they act the way they are, then the story will follow through. I also think variety in character types is a good thing. The Lord of the Rings would be much poorer without that.

Why does your setting need the character types it has? I would expect to see geography and climate to have an impact here given we have different species suited to different conditions so it would be odd if a fantasy world didn’t have something similar.

Also give some thought as to how your character types developed the skills, magical or otherwise, that they have? Is there evolution going on here? If there is an overall creator in your world, how do they control how things/characters develop? Is there a limit to how far they can go?

MailerLite – Allison Symes – Newsletter Sign Up

WRITERS’ NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Character Types (and Why It Matters to Get Them Right)

Leave a comment

Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

There’s a nice little Q&A session which has developed from my CFT post this week about character types and why it matters to get them right.

This is one thing I love about my CFT posts. I can never know what reaction there will be until the posts go up and sometimes great discussions take place, sometimes not. Do pop over and have a look at this week’s post and if you have favourite character types I’ve not listed here, please do share them in the comments box.

Comments on the character -v- plot debate would also be welcome. I do come down firmly on one side here but I’ll leave you to find out which one it is!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

My CFT post this week will look at some of my favourite character types and why it matters to get them right.

A good story can only be that way if the characters are strong enough. A decent plot will be let down badly if the characters are not “up to scratch”. More on this and the link tomorrow.

Am looking forward to going to the Association of Christian Writers’ Day at Bath on Saturday. Always good to meet other writers!

 

There will be an expression here which will match your thoughts about most adaptations - Pixabay image

What are your characters like? What emotions do they have? Pixabay image.

It is with great sadness I see from the Winchester Writers’ Festival page that Barbara Large, MBE, who founded the original Winchester Writers’ Conference, passed away on Monday. She will be much missed.

Barbara gave so much support and encouragement to writers across a huge range of genres including me. I have a certificate for a Commended Short Story signed by her from the 31st Winchester Writers’ Conference and it has pride of place on my wall.

Condolences to all of her family and friends.

 

Resized Barbara Large and Anne Wan

Barbara Large MBE (left) will be much missed by the writing community including Anne Wan (right) and myself.  Image kindly supplied by Anne Wan.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

The advantage of flash fiction is you have to learn to write tight to keep to the word count, even though there can be flexibility with that. You don’t have to stick to 50-word stories. You can have a go at the 500-word ones!

The advantage of a novel is you have room for sub-plots and can go much further into character development, which when well done adds layers to your story.

The short story is a cross-over to an extent. Usually there would be room for only one sub-plot (but there’s no room at all for anything like that in flash). You can go into character development but the word count restrictions here will limit how far you can take that. (Though that can vary from 1500 to 8000 or thereabouts as there are some longer short story competitions out there).

And all three are brilliant writing disciplines! All need decent editing and crafting to get your story into shape. Whatever form you’re going for, or if you’re going in for more than one, you can know you will be doing a lot of editing! But above all have fun with them. Writing should be fun.

What is unforgettable about your story? Pixabay image.
How will you portray your characters? In the limelight or the background? Pixabay image.
How can you show your readers your world? Pixabay image.
A good adaptation will confirm images the reader has already conjured up from the original material. Pixabay image.
Gollum from LOTR. More sinned against than sinning? Pixabay image.
Reading immerses you in another world. Pixabay image.
This made me smile! Pixabay image.
Indeed! Pixabay image.

How do you find coming up with promising opening lines? Is it a pain or is coming out with those just fine but then you struggle with delivering on the promise of that opening line?

I’ve found mixing up how I approach this helps a lot. I outline (briefly, appropriately for flash fiction) how a story could go from that opening line. There is usually some promise from those thoughts that I can develop. Okie dokie then, away I go and write the thing.

Sometimes though I’m not satisfied with what I’ve come out with. Somehow the thoughts don’t seem strong enough. DO trust your gut instincts here by the way, they’re normally right. When I have this happen, I then see if what I thought might be a good opening line would actually work better as a finishing one. I then work backwards to get to the starting point.

I’ve not rejected an opening line altogether yet because if one method here doesn’t work, the other does. It’s just that sometimes you can’t always see the best way to go straight away and that’s where outlining comes into its own and to your rescue!

What populates your fictional world? Pixabay image
Good question! Pixabay image.
Well, what will your characters do next? Pixabay image.
Use weather, climate etc to reflect moods in your story but don’t overdo it. Pixabay image.
Great characters escape from great books! Pixabay image.
Clarity = communicating your ideas well through your characters. Pixabay image.
My smartphone has not yet managed this! Pixabay image.
Give your readers the details they need to know about your setting. Pixabay image.
Where is your setting? Pixabay image.
No matter how strange your characters or setting, there must still be identifiable elements for a reader. Pixabay image
How does gravity and time work in your settings? Pixabay image.
How is your world governed? Is it done well? Pixabay image.

A quick search of Writing Magazine’s Competition Guide has shown a couple of interesting competitions I’ll try and have a go at. Note to self: go through the guide at the weekend and mark the ones of interest! What is nice is some of the competitions are rolling ones in that there is one per month or something like that so if you miss one deadline, there are others you can aim for.

It proves that the market for very short stories and flash is a healthy one. Hooray for that!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Fairytales with Bite – Top Five Tips for Characterisation

My theme this week is character type(s) and my CFT post also featured this but I thought a quick run down of tips would be useful.

  1. Be realistic.  Your characters must have motivations that we will all understand, even if we don’t agree with them all!
  2. Show flaws as  well as virtues.  None of us are perfect after all so why should our characters be?  Besides they can get to learn from their mistakes.
  3. Stretch your characters.  Don’t be afraid to put them through hell to find out what they are really made of/are capable of.
  4. Let your characters surprise you, sometimes (don’t overdo it!).  A great example of what I mean here is Frodo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings.  Nobody expects in that wonderful world for a hobbit to be a hero, yet Frodo becomes one.  Frodo shows a determination and courage others far bigger than him are not capable of (and yet he’d have failed completedly without Sam Gamgee’s support).  It would’ve been the easiest thing of all for Frodo to stay in Middle Earth and let someone else do the heroics.
  5. Weaknesses SHOULD get in the character’s way and be something they’re seen to be fighting against.  And that, folks, is where the drama is!  A great story has plenty of that!

Always good questions to ask. Pixabay.
Fiction can take you anywhere. Image via Pixabay.
Fiction should show you new ways of looking at the world. Image via Pixabay.
Books are fabulous, whatever the format. Image via Pixabay.
Planning your writing can save you lots of time later. Pixabay image.
Books have their own sense of time and space. Image via Pixabay.
Is this light the way into a new world? Pixabay image.
Ah, the bliss of reading! Pixabay image.
Whenever and whatever you read, enjoy. Image via Pixabay.

This World and Others – Character Types

I look at character types and why it matters to get them right in my CFT post this week.  It doesn’t matter how fantastic your world is, the characters must be believable for your readers to engage with them and want to read your story at all.

One key to getting this right is to examine your characters’ motivations. Why are they acting the way they are?  Is it something we can understand?  I’ve long thought Woody from Toy Story is a truly great character.  Why?  Because his jealousy when Buzz comes into his life is understandable.  There are very few of us, regardless of our age, who haven’t been jealous of something or someone in our time.

Look at how your world is governed. Is it a democracy?  Is there a tier of local government?  What are the politicians like there? (And there will be politicians somewhere along the line.  Where there is any kind of power, no matter how minor, politics and playing people off against one another will come into it.  Sad perhaps but again this is something we all understand and will help make your world seem more real to your readers).

So think about emotions.  What are your characters likely to feel and why?  (This is one reason why the Cybermen as a concept are frightening.  The removal of all emotions?  Those are what make us human.  They can also make your Species X what it is and differentiate them from other character types in your fiction).

Preparing the blog. Image via Pixabay.
The dark can seem to overcome the light but light will prevail. Image via Pixabay
Even a world populated with dragons has to make sense. Pixabay
A book worm’s idea of heaven and picture books will be in here! Pixabay image
A truly beautiful diary. Image via Pixabay
Is your reading journey a straight run or does it twist and turn? Pixabay image.
Getting the balance right in adapting work is never easy. Pixabay image.
The realm of the fairytale has always fascinated me. Pixabay image.
Reaching out for writing ideas. Image via Pixabay.
Ready to write? Image via Pixabay.

 

 

 

GETTING ORGANIZED

Leave a comment

FAIRYTALES WITH BITE

In Getting Organized, I discuss character types – the planners and the dreamers!  Which of your characters is which?  What happens when the two types must work together to survive?  (I could see plenty of conflict there but they would have to resolve it in able to be able to keep on living.  Could be some good stories here).

THIS WORLD AND OTHERS

I discuss New Ventures tonight given Chapeltown Books have set up a Facebook page for From Light to Dark and Back Again.  My new venture is to promote my book!  What new ventures do your characters have to face?  When a new venture is “in the air”, how do your characters react to this?  Do they welcome the challenge or fear the changes that will inevitably come?

FACEBOOK PAGE – FROM LIGHT TO DARK AND BACK AGAIN

Here is the link to my Book Page on Facebook.  Many thanks to Chapeltown Books for setting this up.

https://www.facebook.com/fairytaleladyallisonsymes/

FACEBOOK PAGE – GENERAL

Main news tonight is the launch of the Book Page.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FAllison.Symes.FairytaleLady%2Fposts%2F950882738348039&width=500

 

The old fashioned notebook and pen still have major roles to play in interviewing - image via Pixabay

Where books start…  Image via Pixabay