Tag: drafts

New Season, New Books and Blog Tour News

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All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. BLOG TOUR POSTER FOR SEEING THE OTHER SIDE FROM LYNSEY ADAMS OF READING BETWEEN THE LINES BOOK VLOG. TOUR STARTS NEXT WEEK, 7TH SEPTEMBER 2026. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you’ve had a good weekend. Finally had some proper rain. Already the grass and plants are looking better. Looking forward to my book event for Seeing The Other Side at Salisbury URC on 5th September. Am hoping the weather stays dry for that one because while I’ll be indoors, footfall is better when it isn’t wet!

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Not bad here. Had the best swim in terms of distance since my fall. Really enjoyable. Okay, I’m not going to break any speed records right now but that wasn’t the idea and recovery continues to go well, I’m relieved to say. Being in the water has helped too.

Am delighted to share the poster for the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side. Many thanks to Lynsey Adams of Reading Between The Lines Book Vlog for this and to the lovely folks who will be hosting me soon. Am so looking forward to sharing the links.

Meantime I’ve a book event to prepare for on Saturday at Salisbury URC. Am looking forward to that too.

Also author newsletter out this morning. It’s a good reminder of how fast the year is going!
Hope to submit a story for potential broadcast later this week too.

Have enjoyed a bank holiday Monday (most of the UK bar Scotland has had one today, scary thought is the next one is Christmas!) enjoying the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame.

Delighted to hear The Lord of the Rings soundtrack came in at No. 1 again. I voted for it but do feel it has everything – classical, choral, opera, Enya and Annie Lennox. What more could you want?!

Today has been a treat for the ears and Lady had a treat too – she played with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal for the first time in a while today. Both dogs so excited to see each other. It is so sweet to see.

Author newsletter out again tomorrow. Will share some details about my blog tour for Seeing The Other Side tomorrow. Lots going on. See above.

Meantime, and as it is Monday, it’s time to share the story I put on my Substack platform yesterday. Hope you enjoy my Menace.

Who will you sympathise with – Mrs Wilkins, Mrs Lake or my narrator?

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Hope the weekend has been a good one. Good to see some rain. Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly.

Am making good progress on some proofreading work too. So looking forward to next Saturday’s book event for Seeing The Other Side at Salisbury URC. Will be writing about that for Chandler’s Ford Today this week too.

Have also got a couple of places where I’d like to submit some flash fiction so hope to start some drafts later today.

Character Tip: What makes you want to write about the character you’ve got in mind for a story? What is it about them that intrigues you? Are they “strong” enough to deliver the impact you’d like your story to have on potential readers?

I’ve mentioned before the first person the characters have to grip is you, their creator, but it is worth repeating. Usually with me I can hear a character’s voice in my head and something about their attitude/what they say is enough to make me think yes, this character has got sparkle, this one is definitely worth writing up.

Am delighted to be back on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, with my latest post, Summer Writing. Do you find your writing winds down during the summer months? I find it is a season of peaks and troughs.

I find I need to take some time out to calm the buzz I have on returning from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. A day or two later and I’m raring to go again. I don’t think the heatwave this year has helped either despite my following all the advice on hydration. There are times you need to step back and be kind to yourself. For me, summer is one of them.

I’ve always found lots of “little bits” of writing keep my creative mind “ticking over” until I’m ready for the full writing work schedule again. Writing flash helps here. I know I can get something written in, say, fifteen minutes. I feel better for having written something.

My post goes on to share ways in which you can use summer in your writing. I also associate summer with “light” so want “light” reading. Light reading I think is misnamed. Lighter reads can still look at issues but they are primarily there to entertain and I’ve never seen anything wrong with that.

Hope you enjoy the post.

Summer Writing

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Had some late news come in yesterday but am thrilled to say my Truth Hurts will be on CafeLit on Sunday, 6th September. It has been a while since I last had something on there so am pleased about this. Will share the link later this week.

Meantime why not check out the CafeLit website? Link here takes you to the Read Our Stories page. There is a great mixture here of flash fiction and short stories, across a wealth of genres, from newbie to more experienced writers. A new story appears at 4pm just in time to enjoy with tea/coffee and cake of course!

Had a lovely productive weekend writing. Have a draft ready for some polishing and then submitting later this week. Also received some good news about a CafeLit submission of mine – more on that tomorrow.

But as it is Monday, a busy one as always, it is time for my latest YouTube story. Hope you enjoy Plausible Deniability.

To be told you should master plausible deniability is one thing but does my character manage it? What cause could they have to want to do so? Find out here.

 

Have selected a competition to have a go at for some flash fiction. It’s the first time in a while I’m getting some stories out there but it has been so lovely to be focused on having a new book out and all that needs to be done around that. Thankfully, there is no use by date here though I hope to set up events relating to Seeing The Other Side later on.

Sometimes the competition theme will indicate a likely mood of a story, sometimes it is wide open, as is the case for the one I’m shortly going to be trying. So I will take a little time out to think about the mood of the story I want to write for that theme. I like to mix up writing lighter and darker stories. Suits my style and reflects my reading tastes too.

Flash Tip: It’s fun to mix up using first, second and third person for flash. I use all three, though the second is the one I use the least often. It can be highly effective though. Depends on how well your narrator comes across here so you do want a strong, interesting character to stand out here.

I found when I was writing more and more flash, I was falling into the habit of using the first person so have deliberately rebalanced to make sure I get plenty of the third person in too. Now when I’m thinking of a story, I will also convince what “voice” the story would work best in – first, second, or third. Some ideas naturally lend themselves to one so I will go with that.

How can it be almost September already? Well, that reminds me my next author newsletter will be out again next week. To sign up head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I hope to report back on how my Salisbury event goes for the October issue but plenty going on for the September one, along with my usual story links etc. The newsletter is always a joy to put together and if I have one top tip for marketing it is to enjoy what you do. It makes it more sustainable for you in the longer run. It also means it doesn’t feel like a chore.

Flash is wonderful for sharing as part of an overall marketing schedule which is why I put stories regularly on Substack and YouTube. More to come on both of those platforms tomorrow and Monday.

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GOODREADS AUTHOR BLOG – New Season, New Books

September is just around the corner as I write this and is very much the start of a new season. I have a soft spot for autumn. I love the changing colours of the leaves and the one good thing about the darker, longer evenings is they do give you the perfect excuse to read and/or write more! (And if you can do that while drinking scrumptious hot chocolate even better!).

September in many ways is the kick off point for new books coming out. There will be lots of events in the run up to Christmas (and I’ll be holding some too for Seeing The Other Side, which is lovely. My last launch for Tripping The Flash Fantastic was in 2020 when everything had to be online. I’ve been enjoying getting out and about in person again and hope to do more of this over the next few months).

I also can’t think of a better way to welcome in a new season than to do so with new books or with books new to you, whether you buy them or borrow them. I’ve sometimes done the latter and then loved the borrowed book so much then went on to buy my own copy.

There is never a wrong time for new books and to treasurer the older ones.

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ALLISON SYMES ON SUBSTACK 

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Top Ten Author Newsletter Tips

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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 few days. Lady has had a wonderful time catching up with many of her friends and I did the same when I went to our local theatre company’s excellent pantomime. Will be reviewing that for Chandler’s Ford Today in due course. The week has had its ups and downs so will not be sorry to get to the end of this one.

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Delighted to share Top Ten Author Newsletter Tips for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. It’s apt given my next author newsletter is out soon (1st February). I’m also using this post to update a couple of earlier ones I wrote for CFT on the topic. I do hope you find this useful if you are considering having your own newsletter or already have one.

Top Ten Author Newsletter Tips

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It’s my turn on More Than Writers, the blog spot of the Association of Christian Writers. This time I look at Pressing On Towards The End of the Longest Month Ever. I suspect this will remain my longest title for the ACW blog spot! Mind you, it is apt given January does seem to drag on forever.

I look at the thought of pressing on and being patient being crucial parts of both our writing and Christian lives. I also look at the advantages of pressing on. (Success cannot come if you give up. Changing direction is another matter and I’ve done that myself but giving up, no). Also it helps I think to know you’re not alone in the ups and downs of the writing life.

I hope you find the post to be encouraging in what can be a dark and dreary month.

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Hope today has gone well. Lady saw her two best friends, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback, today and Daisy, who we see every so often, who is such a sweet spaniel. Not as muddy as I thought it would be over the park after yesterday’s awful weather (Storm Chandra). Still boot weather, mind you.

Am looking forward to exploring the theme of Ways and Paths with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group this evening. It will be nice to see everyone again. It was too and the evening went well.

Am off to see Camelot The Pantomime tomorrow so it is proving to be a varied week. Am getting to grips with Substack as Writers’ Narrative is moving over to that platform. More on this soon. My first two posts here will be appearing in early February.

Finding topics for the Flash Group, my Chandler’s Ford Today posts etc is an ongoing task but a fun one. Proverbs and sayings can give excellent themes to write around plus the writing and editing worlds as a whole also throw up timeless topics to write about. What matters is asking myself what can I bring to the table here which will be useful to someone else. I do love the challenge of this and it stretches me as a writer too. No bad thing that.

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Hope your Friday has gone well. My next author newsletter will be out on 1st February and I include an exclusive 100 word story in it. To sign up for this, other story links, tips and prompts, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Will be having a busy weekend with flash and short story drafts but those are the kind of weekends I like!

There are a few standard and well known competitions I have a go at during the year so will be starting to think about drafting something for those before long. I like to give myself plenty of time for these.

I’ll also be co-judging a flash fiction competition soon and am looking forward to this. It’s an enjoyable and enlightening thing to do.

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Hope today has gone well. Lady caught up with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler friends again today and we also caught up with Daisy the lovely spaniel again. Lady has done very well with her “socials” this week. I will be getting on with my “socials” this evening as I head off to the pantomime.

Flash fiction wise, I have a story in draft for a competition which I hope to sort out and send at the weekend. I have other “stories in stock” I want to get out there so hope to get back to having a look at those at the weekend too. Plus I have a longer short story to read through and hopefully submit so plenty going on here.

But for tonight though I am going to sit back and enjoy the story of Camelot The Pantomime.
Oh yes I am! And I did – great fun too. More to come on Chandler’s Ford Today in due course.

Hope to get some flash fiction drafted tonight as I join in with the exercises I set for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group this evening. I love “writing live”. It gives me a real buzz and I hope it does for the other members of the group.

Later, much later, I’ll look back at my drafts and then see what I can do to improve them. There will be room for improvement, there always is, but the idea of a first draft is to just get those initial ideas down. Once I’ve worked on the pieces more, I do send some out for competitions, save others for a future collection, and still others for use on my newsletter. Nothing goes to waste. Even the ones I decide to not take any further, I can find something in them (such as the character or a good line of dialogue) I can use elsewhere. I have gone on to have pieces published which started life as my response to a writing exercise. It can be done!

Fairytales with Bite – Looking Ahead to Brighter Times

Much as I love the classic fairytales, I’ve never gone along with the “twee” school of thought which is where some folk think they’re just sweet tales for the kiddies. Errr…. No. That tells me someone hasn’t read the original stories for one thing.

Fairytales are anything but twee and they do show darker sides to aspects of our behaviour. A wave of the magic wand does not solve all problems and generally characters have to earn their “right” to have help in that manner from a friendly magical being.

It isn’t unreasonable then to have characters, magical or otherwise, in situations where they are looking ahead to brighter times. This theme can give a great outline.

What grim situation is your character in? How did this happen (and that can very much include things which are their fault)? How do they think they can get out of it again and what brighter times are they looking forward to experiencing? Does that happen for them? You can get several stories from answering those questions. The characters and their situations change which is why you could get several stories out of this idea.

Happy writing! (And I hope your characters do earn, in some way, their brighter times. I think there should be something they do or are to contribute to them getting their happy ever after).

This World and Others – The Rough and The Smooth

Life is full of the rough and the smooth, of course, so our stories should reflect this too, I think, no matter how fantastical our settings. Indeed, showing the rough and the smooth will help make those fantastical settings more believable.

Also a character’s journey is far more interesting as we read how they cope with the rough times, overcome them or manage them well enough so they’re not destroyed by them. I know I always want to see characters do something to deserve an appropriate positive ending to their story.

The rough times shouldn’t just come out of nowhere though. Even though I love dropping my characters in the mire and finding out how they get out again, those rough times are hinted at as being possibilities earlier on in my stories. It is then a question of whether those rough times will happen and, if so as I would expect to what degree, and again a little foreshadowing means readers are more likely to accept the story premise.

For example, if I have an arrogant character, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for them to upset someone who then goes on to do something to cause grief to the arrogant character. You can see this being likely to happen. For any story to work for me, there has to be a “believability” factor.

When life becomes smoother again, I want to see the character, with or without help, contributing to that. In the example given above, I’d want my arrogant character to realise how they’ve come across and to want to put things right as much as they can. Even if things don’t quite work out by the end of the story (the other character may still be too angry to accept the “being put right” factor), I want to see my character is trying to make things better.

Stories reflect life here I think. There is a wish to see things put right and we can explore that ideas in our stories. But for that to happen successfully, there have to be the rough times for your characters to experience. The smoother times mean nothing without that.

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The Darkest Hour and Themed Anthologies

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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. Wild weather. Lovely church service with a special presentation for a long standing member/elder. Cake followed. That went down well with all. Lady is making the most of being out and about. Am thankful she dries quickly and doesn’t mind being tried. She sees it as cuddle time with Mum, which helps. Writing going well. Hope to submit competition entries this week, the last for the year I suspect.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady had a lovely time with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals today. It was so nice not getting soaked!

Writing wise, I’m sharing a fabulous interview with fellow Swanwicker, Heather Beveridge (who writes as Hetty Waite), about her new novel, Evolve. Amongst other topics, she’ll be sharing what she loves about dystopian fiction. Be sure not to miss. Plenty of tips and useful thoughts in this interview too. Link up on Friday.

Hope to submit my final story competitions for the year later this week. Hope to review and send tomorrow if I can. Busy editing at the moment too.

Writing Tip: Never be afraid to write rubbish. In all first drafts, you will find something of value and plenty to discard! This is the way of it but unless you get something written, you will never find that something of value to work on further.

Hope you have had a good day. Ghastly weather but Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler friend so that was a big plus. Mind you, we weren’t out for long! Even Lady wasn’t sorry to get home.

Writing wise, my last author newsletter of the year went out earlier today. Where has the year gone? Theme this time was on festive flash fiction.

Had a good writing weekend in that for the three story competitions I want to enter, I now have three pieces prepared. Handy that! Am just now resting them for a couple of days before I review and hopefully send in but that will be it for competitions for me for 2025.

Am so looking forward to the Bridge House Publishing Celebration Event on Saturday. It will be lovely catching up with everyone again. I also get to meet up with friends from Swanwick and the Association of Christian Writers here so I see that as even more of a win!

Hope the weekend has gone well. Crisp, cold, and dry here unlike yesterday which was milder, wet and soggy! Mind you, Lady goes out in all weathers and has her humans to clear up after her so she never worries about the weather.

Writing wise, I am looking forward to introducing Heather Beveridge, who writes as Hetty Waite, to Chandler’s Ford Today next week to discuss her new book, Evolve. This interview is part of a blog tour organised by Lynsey Adams of Reading Between The Lines Book Vlog.

Heather/Hetty and I have a friend in common – Val Penny – and The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Interview is a fabulous in depth look of Hetty’s writing journey to date, the blurb for Evolve is intriguing, and I look forward to sharing the interview on Friday.

After that I will be looking back at my writing year – yes, it is almost that time again.

As ever, am looking forward to commencing flash fiction Sunday afternoon soon. Last ever Flash NANO prompt though – boo hoo! Still, I’ll enjoy the challenge of that later today.

Delighted to be back on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, with my latest post, The Darkest Hour.

I look at the topic from the viewpoint of characters facing their darkest hour. They all do. It is at that moment the pivot of change in any story usually occurs as the characters have to find a way of dealing with that darkest hour. Will it overcome them or will they overcome it? We read on to find out of course.

Hope you find the post useful.

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Have three final flash stories to submit for competitions and hope to get them in tomorrow. I suspect I will end up drafting new material for competitions in the New Year. I try to get as much written as I can before Christmas, then have a few days off, then back to writing again.

But it is useful to me to have something drafted to come back to and it has also proved useful to set myself a deadline by which time I will have submitted my final competition entries for the year. I do dislike last-minute-dot-com-itis when it comes to sending any written work in. Mind you, this isn’t new. I was like this with my school and college work too!

It’s Monday. It has been a dark, windy and very wet Monday. So glad to be indoors. It’s definitely time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The Toy Snowman.

Some things always have meaning. Find out what a toy snowman means to my character and what is on its scarf to give it even deeper meaning.

 

Flash fiction gives you a glimpse into a character and their world, shows you a moment in their time, but it should leave you feeling as if there was nothing more to be shared. The impact of any story is crucial. It shows it “lives” and is resonating with readers, whether it is to make them laugh, cry, scream, or what have you.

This is another reason for me why, in the character -v- plot debate, character always wins out because unless they make me care enough to want to read their story, I’m not going to get to the plot at all. It always pays to ask yourself honestly how does your story make you feel as it is likely to be the response a reader will have.

I can hardly believe we’re at the penultimate day of the last ever Flash NANO already. Am looking forward to having a crack at today’s prompt later on.

I’ve picked out two stories for one competition (where you are allowed to send in two entries for one fee) and another longer piece. All ready for editing and I hope to submit them maybe towards the end of next week.

Will be having an informal chat and sharing of stories at the December meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. That is always fun and it makes for a lovely way to end the year.

Pleased to say I will be a competition judge again in the New Year for a flash competition. Looking forward to that.

So there’s plenty going on I’m glad to say. Also my next author newsletter will be out very soon indeed.

Do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com if you would like to sign up for flash tips, stories and more.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Themed Anthologies

I love anthologies. Okay, I’m biased because I have short stories and/or flash fiction in many of them over many years. My latest, The Family Legend, is in the recently published Magi (Bridge House Publishing).

But I love anthologies because they’re not only great to write for, they are wonderful to read. You get to read the styles of many different authors. I always find it fascinating to read how many writers come up with so many different takes on the same theme (and practically every anthology does have a set theme).

I find anthologies useful for discovering authors new to me. If I like their short work, I’m highly likely to love their longer tomes. Also, naturally at this time of year as we think of Christmas presents, they can be great gifts for the readers in your life, especially if you don’t know what they’ve got already in terms of novels etc. They’re also superb ways of supporting many authors in one go too.

Why not give them a try? You are bound to find many with themes which appeal.

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Returning To The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick For 2025

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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. Huge thanks to Penny Blackburn, Joy Wood, and Julia Pattison for supplying some images connected to my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. Two images of Lady were taken by Adrian Symes. She missed me when I was away! Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week. Have spent my time slowly resuming normal routines, including the writing one, after my return from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Think I am getting there now. Have loved getting back to the park with Lady. The weather’s cooler at the moment and much pleasanter for us both.


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Have been looking forward to sharing my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. Well, when I tell you it is Returning To The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick For 2025, you’ll know why.

I share some highlights from what was an amazing few days in Derbyshire and discuss the courses and workshops I went to – it will give you a good idea of the range on offer here. Plus it was marvellous catching up with friends I only see online the rest of the year.

Hope you enjoy the post and maybe see you there next year.

Returning to The Writers’ Summer School Swanwick for 2025

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Looking forward to sharing Returning to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick For 2025 for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Have yet to go through my Swanwick notebook to look up all of the drafts I did in response to exercises set but I hope to do this soon and then rework the pieces concerned. Hope to get at least some of them out somewhere once I’ve had chance to go through them and work on them. It pays too. Once piece I wrote up after a previous Swanwick has made it into my third book, Seeing The Other Side, out next May.

The writing journey is never the same for any two authors. When I started out I was just writing for my own pleasure, just to see if I could get a story down, and doing that kept me going for a long time. But then I felt I should have a go at the writing competitions to see if I could get anywhere there.

Took time but I did get there and in turn that led on to my first story being published in an anthology. That breakthrough moment was A Helping Hand in Bridge House Publishing’s Alternative Renditions which came out in 2009. I can’t believe where the last 16 years have gone either!

Lady had a fabulous time in the park today as she got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal again but also ran around with Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. Lady came home oh so tired but so happy with it. I managed to sneak in a short swim and found that refreshing. Murphy’s Law has struck again by the way. I swear the centre has turned down the temperature of the showers which would have made sense last week when things were so hot. This week it’s cooler…

Writing wise, am slowly catching up with some things I didn’t get chance to look at while at Swanwick.

Author newsletter will be out again before too long so if you’d like to sign up for writing tips (especially on flash fiction), story links, news and more, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

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You can now see the six shortlisted stories for the competition Friday Flash Fiction runs to tie in with the Edinburgh Festival. See the link for that.

Plus the screenshot will tell you more about FFF if you are new to them. It’s a great place for flash fiction writers, especially if you like the 100 word form. Just follow the submission guidelines to the letter and give them a go.

I’d just like to say a huge thank you to all who give me feedback on my stories here. It is much appreciated. 

Looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction Group next week. Zoom comes into its own here given the members live hundreds of miles apart (though I am hoping to catch up with some of them in person at the next ACW in person event in October). Will be looking at prompts next week too, which is always a useful topic and one of my favourites. You know you can always get something useful out of a prompt!

Flash Tip: It pays to have a wide range of prompt types you know you can use. It keeps things interesting for you (I always like a flash fiction challenge) and it means you will rarely be stuck for ideas because you know you have all of these different kinds of prompt to try out. And you will know you can do them, which is a real confidence booster.

When I take part in Open Prose Mic Nights I narrow down my selection of pieces to read to one or two. I have a third in reserve. That is usually plenty to cover any time slot you are given. I mix up the moods of the stories as well when I know I can read at least two.

I also practice the ones I know I would like to read. I record my stories on Zoom and play them back so I know my timing is right and I can hear how I come across. I know I have to make myself slow down. It is too easy to race through a piece – that’s the adrenalin pumping of course, but it is then too easy to stumble or garble your words.

So playing a recording back is the single biggest tip I’ve found useful here. I’ve also found it to be a confidence booster because I know I’ve rehearsed. It does pay.

If you get the chance to take part in such nights, have fun. It is a great experience.

Many thanks to Penny Blackburn for the photo.

I was reading Time For A Change from my forthcoming Seeing The Other Side here.

Fairytales with Bite – Story Time

I was blessed to have a mother who loved books and stories and my kid sister and I were read to at bedtime regularly. It is a wonderful way to instill a love of stories in children and that is a gift for life.

So I was wondering which of your characters would have a special story time with their young ones? What forms would those stories take? What stories would they tell?

If they told “scary” stories, who would they be warning their youngsters about? Humans, possibly? What would be the basis of their fairytales and legends?

Naturally, you would invent those fairytales and legends yourself as part of your overall story. (Could be separate interesting material to publish later for one thing).

But no matter how fantastical your setting, your invented stories will still have to have that believability factor. Readers as outsiders should be able to understand the stories your characters tell their youngsters. We should be able to understand their monsters, their “goodies”, their “villains” and so on.

If your work is long form inventing those shorter stories could be a fun side line.

This World and Others – Who Tells The Tales?

Who does tell the tales in your setting? Which tales are allowed to be shared and which are definitely kept under wraps? Are there nominated storytellers in your setting with a specific role to play in your society?

Are the storytellers valued or is their job saved for those who could literally do little else? Not everyone appreciates stories, sadly, no matter what world you’re in.

How are the stories told aside from the obvious oral tradition with bards going from village to village? For example, is what we would know as technology used to create “virtual storytellers”? Perhaps your characters must have credits to access that virtual world. How would they get their credits? How many credits would you need for a story? Are all stories priced the same way or are there special ones which need a great deal more in the way of credits?

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