Tag: character vocabulary

Review – The Chameleon Theatre Company – I’ll Be Back Before Midnight

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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. Many thanks to Janet Williams for taking the image of me at The Hilt Book Fair and to Adrian Symes for taking the image of me holding The Best of CafeLit 13.  A huge thank you to the lovely folk at The Chameleon Theatre Company for kind permission to use their photos in my Chandler’s Ford Today post reviewing their recently performed I’ll Be Back Before Midnight.
Hope you have had a good week so far. Not bad here. Delighted to share my review of I’ll Be Back Before Midnight recently performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Plays are another way of taking in stories and I have discovered many fantastic ones going to see the various shows The Chameleons have put on over the years. It will be panto time for them next – oh yes, it will be!
Am busy with Flash NANO and preparing separate flash pieces for competitions plus there will be further author interviews to come on CFT. Still with the weather being dark, murky and damp, I am so thankful writing is something which is generally done indoors! It is no hardship to sit at my desk in a nice warm room!

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Lady had a smashing day today in she got to see her Hungarian Vizler friend and then play with Coco, her young Labradoodle pal. Damp, dull, and murky weather again today though.

Delighted to share my review of I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, recently performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company as my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. One of the joys of my involvement with CFT has been discovering my local amateur theatre company.

I review the performance and the play itself (so if you get a chance to see it elsewhere, please do. I haven’t given too much away, just enough of a flavour for you to get a good idea that this is a cracking thriller, well worth seeing).

Hope you enjoy the post and well done to the splendid Chameleons for a fantastic performance. They also build their own sets. The work they did for this one was amazing and their lighting/sound crew were brilliant, adding so much to this play.

Review – The Chameleon Theatre Company – I’ll Be Back Before Midnight

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My review of I’ll Be Be Back Before Midnight recently staged by The Chameleon Theatre Company on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. Do check it out. See above.

As well as reviewing the performance, I take a look at the play itself and this one has a fabulous storyline which kept me on the edge of my set all evening.

One of the joys of loving stories, writing, reading, or watching them (as plays), is you do get to learn how stories work. You take this in as you read, watch or listen, I find. And all of that you can apply to your own writing. It does mean when I go to see a show, especially a thriller like Midnight,

I am looking out for what I think might be red herrings, bluffs etc. It is a joy when I spot them but it is an even better one when I am wrong footed. For a book, I will then go back through and see how the author managed to do that. So much to learn here. It is a pleasure to do it too.

 

Hope you have had a lovely day. Lady is having a tremendous week in that she played with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals again. Sadly though her Chuckit ball thrower broke (the ball holder end sheered off!) but fortunately we have a spare. Have had the thing for years and it does get a lot of heavy duty usage so fair wear and tear here. Lady has more than tested it!

I’ll be sharing my review of I’ll Be Back Before Midnight recently staged by The Chameleon Theatre Company for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Looking forward to sharing that. The play had a fabulous storyline. More later in the week. See above.

Am cracking on with Flash NANO 2024.Will be tackling Day 6’s prompt shortly.

Writing Tip: If you outline your characters (as I do, even if you outline briefly), give some thought as to their vocabulary. What kinds of words would they use? Which would they never use? How does their educational background feed into this?

You can tell a lot about a character from what they say and think. When editing, just ensure there is consistency here and also ask yourself if readers can tell characters apart just on the grounds of how they speak. They should be able to do so.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale, Okay. When a friend rings you to find out how you are after a divorce, what answer would you give? Find out what Beth says to Jenny here – and that all is not as it might seem.
Screenshot 2024-11-08 at 10-00-38 Okay by Allison Symes - Friday Flash Fiction


Looking forward to having a go at Flash NANO’s Day 7 prompt later. Again it is so different from all of the others so far. This is the joy of this challenge – not knowing what is coming and having a go at as many prompts as I can manage.

I know I’m going to be late with one over the weekend as I have a family do happening (Lady will love the company and the food!) but I will catch up and enjoy doing so. My word count so far has varied but it always does for this.

I would like to see if I could write a 50 worder (aka a dribble) at some point over November for this. Didn’t manage it last year (the lowest word count was a 30 word exactly tale).

Am also preparing separately three flash pieces for competitions which I want to have out by early December. So plenty going on with the flash fiction right now.

Less is More is the theme for flash fiction writersNow I’m sure the thought of a certain event in December is not too far from your minds and there is one simple thing you can do to cheer up any author – well two actually.

One is obviously to buy their books. The other is to leave a review. Reviews don’t have to be long but every single one helps a build the author’s profile with Amazon. I’ve had some lovely reviews for From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic though more are always welcome – neither is there a use buy date on these things!

You can check out my works (and the anthologies I’ve been in including the recent The Best of CafeLit 13) via my Amazon Author Central Page at https://author.to/AllisonSymesAuthorCent

Aptly my reviews are on the short side but this is right for flash fiction books, yes?!

Flash with Amazon and Barnes and Noble

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Fairytales with Bite – Getting in the Way

Who or what gets in the way of your magical creations achieving their ambitions? Are their own powers limited? Is there an overriding authority who controls what being can do what kind of magic and how is that policed, if so? There is always someone who wants to break the rules. Can your characters get in their own way where ambition is dwarfed by their lack of competence? (There would be some funny tales to be written there).

When something or someone gets in the way, how does your character react to this? What do they do to try and overcome the problem? Do they succeed or only make things worse (again potential for humour there)?

Fairy godmothers often put something in the way of a being they’re punishing, something they have to achieve. (In the case of the Beast from Beauty and the Beast he has to win love from Belle to be set free. He has to make the effort here). So having something getting in the way isn’t always a bad thing and you can capitalize on that for your characters.

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This World and Others – Who Obeys Whom?

In your magical setting, who lays down the rules? Who decides who has what magical powers? If these things are a species issue given at birth, how did these originate? What are the limits? Overall, who controls the use of magic and how did that come about? (The reason why is obvious – to prevent chaos and to give more beings a chance of surviving).

Is your system of government a monarchy, a republic, or something else entirely (such as a ruling Council)? What are the consequences of not obeying the top beings here?

Can your beings make progress and develop further magical powers if they “fit in with the system”? Are they rewarded for being obedient? Or is it a case they have little choice but to obey if they wish to see the end of the day alive and in one piece?

Can reforms happen and if so, when were the last ones done and why? What struggles did the beings concerned have to overcome to get these reforms through? You can learn so much from history here and it can inspire many tales. I understand Game of Thrones by George R R Martin is inspired by the UK’s War of the Roses in the medieval period.

Has your system moved away from a “might is right” attitude, having learned its lessons from its own bloody history?

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the June 2024 magazine which was based on the theme of poetry. I look at the links between flash fiction writing and poetry in this one. There are more than you might think.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Ways Into Creating Characters

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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. Many thanks to Geoff Parkes for taking the photo of me at one of my Swanwick Open Prose Mic Nights.
Hope you have had a good week. Lady and I have had a wet week -with many soakings! I am so glad writing is generally an indoor activity where I can stay dry! I share a flash fiction in Fairytales with Bite this time which I hope you enjoy. I also share how I wrote this. I look at character vocabulary too.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am pleased to share Ways Into Creating Characters as this week’s post on Chandler’s Ford Today. I hope you find it useful. I look at why stories are character led (I have good reason to think this given how many I invent over a year), and share various tips.

I look at picking a trait, interviewing characters, and thinking of situations you want to write up (as from that comes the kind of character who would work best in those situations) just to name a few thoughts and tips. I also discuss why a writer needs to know their characters well enough.

What is “well enough” will change from writer to writer as so much depends on what you need to know to be able to picture your people/other beings of choice in your head but you should figure out what it is you do need to know. I have found that last bit to be invaluable.

Ways Into Creating Characters

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Lady and I had a real soaking this morning. She dries off far quicker than I do! Then I went swimming…. That soaking I didn’t mind at all!

I’ll be looking at Ways Into Creating Characters for Chandler’s Ford Today this week, link up tomorrow. Hope you will find it useful. Looking forward to sharing it. See above.

Am also looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week. Theme will be on the fact it is a leap year and how we can use that in our flash stories.

Am also busy working on PowerPoint presentations and enjoying writing these. I hadn’t used PowerPoint for years until Zoom came into my writing life. It is useful for this. Flash writing helps for this kind of thing too. The slides work best if you don’t put too much on them! Far better to have more slides than crammed ones.

409093199_10161745951532053_3758194475051098623_nHope you haven’t got too soggy today. Lady and I probably soaked up your share when we were out this morning. No ducking it today! Am glad rain doesn’t make you shrink otherwise we’d both be in trouble.

Newsletter out again shortly. Where does the time go? Having a monthly newsletter brings home how quickly it does pass. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Writing Tip: I work out my characters’ likely vocabulary as part of my outlining process. I have an idea of the kind of speech they would use (based on what I believe their educational levels would be) and, just as importantly, what they wouldn’t come up with unless under great stress.

So if I get a non-swearing character to suddenly change their mind on that, there has to be a great reason behind that change which plays out in the story. It does mean I would’ve dropped them right in it and the kind of situation they’re in is likely to produce this effect.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Time to end the working week with what I hope you will find is a fun story. Am delighted my latest piece is now up on Friday Flash Fiction. Hope you like Facing The Frog.

Screenshot 2024-02-23 at 09-53-30 Facing The Frog by Allison Symes

When I take part in Open Prose Mic Nights, I look for a mixture of flash pieces to read in terms of mood. I like to try and show what flash can be capable of and that it can produce moving, punch in the gut type tales as well as laugh out loud on a punchline ending ones.

I also mix up whether I read pieces in the first or third person. Flash works well for both. And yes when I am reading a first person piece, I do try to get “into” the character so it is almost a performance rather than a straight reading.

Why? Because I am showing the audience my character. Acting out their story helps me to get them across more vividly I think. And it is huge fun. I am being the “I” in the story after all even if I “just” read it so I may as well get right into the character’s head and “perform” their tale.

409093199_835375105269019_9075061831183394162_nI’ve mentioned before flash is great for twist and/or humorous punchline endings. It is also great for giving a character who deserves it their comeuppance fast. Is fabulous fun to do.

One of my favourite stories of mine here is A Kind of Hell from From Light to Dark and Back Again. Comes in at 94 words, excluding the title, and I paint a scene where my horrible character does get justice and in an appropriate way too.

With these kind of stories, again I work out what the appropriate justice would be first, write that out, and then work out how I could logically get to this point. It works!

Allison Symes - Flash Fiction Collections

Fairytales with Bite – Crossing Spells

Crossing Spells by Allison Symes
The great inventors always discover things by accident. Oh they write down what they think will happen but something always goes awry and either there is an explosion or they find something which is even more useful to us all. There is never any middle ground here. Same goes for us fairy godmothers with spells.

Happened to me last week. I looked up my spells, made sure I had all the ingredients to hand, and then what should have been a pumpkin turned into a coach, let’s just say she turned up to the royal ball smelling of squash! I don’t know what I crossed to get that.

Still I must say the pumpkin style coach did have something about it. My critics say yes, it had a strong pong and the rats, which had been turned into footmen, remembered their original form and started eating away at the coach before it reached the Palace.

I had cast the right spell. Miranda, my best friend at fairy college, tells me I mispronounced one word and hence the desired effect was crossed with the basic ingredient and it all went horribly wrong.

Still the girl got there. Neither she nor His Nibs seemed to care and they’re getting wed next week. So no great harm done. But it has had the effect of whenever I go out and about, people point at me and chuckle. Some wag keeps leaving pumpkins on my doorstep too.

Miranda swears it wasn’t her but why did she stink of squash recently? She tells me she’s taken up gardening. Well if she has, she has the cleanest hands of any gardener I’ve known!

On the plus side, I have been invited to give the annual address to the Pumpkin Growers’ Society this year and I get paid for it too. I just hope the payment isn’t my weight in pumpkins though!

Ends
Allison Symes – 21st February 2024

Hope you enjoyed that. One of my favourite forms of writing is taking a well known fairytale and coming at the story from another angle. It works best when kept short and, I hope, funny and flash fiction is ideal for this.

Here I took the idea of a well meaning fairy godmother not getting things quite right and seeing what would come from that. So start with your character. Who are you using and why have you chosen them? What could you get them to do to bring something different to the tale?

And have fun writing the tale up!

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This World and Others – What We Know as Science

What we know as science covers a wide field, of course, but what would it be thought of in your setting. Would science be seen as that or as a kind of magic?

I went to a medieval fair some time ago and spoke to the herbalist there. She was brilliant but told me that in medieval times, women who were renowned for their use of herbs were okay if things went well for their village because of that herb usage. If anything went wrong, they were likely to face accusations of witchcraft and a horrible death usually followed.

Yet in discovering you could cure headaches with the bark of a certain plant (which we now know led to the development of aspirin), that would have been seen as some kind of magic. What the herbalists had done was simply observe the effects of this bark. This had been observed repeatedly too as one or two spotting this would have just been dismissed. The fact that this was a known remedy meant this has had been tested and found to be true many, many times.

Observation and testing are core skills in any and every science.

So with this in mind, what would your characters make of what we call science? Are they accepting of it or suspicious? Has the practice of science (magic in your setting) gone wrong and led to suspicion of it? How could that be overcome?

Story ideas there I think.

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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