Tag: Fitting In by Allison Symes

Author Interview – Introducing Hannah Retallick

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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. A huge thank you to Hannah Retallick for supplying many of the images in my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week and to Wendy H Jones for creating some fabulous images for the December 2024 edition of Writers Narrative, which I’ve incorporated into a Book Brush collage below. Do check out the magazine itself – link below.
Hope you have had a good week to date. Storm Connell early in the week followed by bitterly cold days – it has been a mixed bag of a week here, weather wise. Lady has been running around so the cold doesn’t worry her. Writing wise, am thrilled to announce Writers’ Narrative is back – see more below on this. Written by writers for writers, it is well worth checking out. And it’s double blog day given my Chandler’s Ford Today and More than Writers posts are both out on the Friday.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

29th November 2024 – Post 1 – CFT

Quick bit of news just before I share double blog posts – lots going on today.. Am pleased to say I sent in a prompt for Flash NANO and Nancy Stohlman has chosen mine to be today’s one. I haven’t written up the prompt myself yet but do plan to do so later on and see what I can do with it!

Double blog day once more and this time I start with a stunning interview with Hannah Retallick on Chandler’s Ford Today. We celebrate her new (debut) short story collection, Something Very Human.

Hannah shares with me so many useful thoughts and tips any writer will find useful so do check the post out. Hope you find it useful and entertaining – I did!

Hannah and I are both short story and flash fiction writers. We’re also both published by Bridge House Publishing. We discuss the joys of writing in the short form, fiction wise, and look at marketing and writing routines amongst other topics.

Author Interview: Introducing Hannah Retallick

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29th November 2024 – Post 2 – More than Writers

Double blog day part 2! I’m delighted to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers with a timely piece called Light in the Darkness. Timely, of course, since we go into Advent at the weekend. Hope you find the piece encouraging and inspiring.

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Two pieces of great news to share tonight:-

1. Am sharing a fabulous interview with Hannah Retallick about her debut story collection, Something Very Human (Bridge House Publishing), on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. Hannah shares so much useful information, tips, and thoughts useful to writers so do check this out. See above.

2. Am thrilled to say Writers Narrative is back with the theme of cozy marketing and writing. My piece is about festive flash fiction which, given its nature is fun and lighthearted, is a very cozy read indeed! Check out the magazine below (and there’s a free to subscribe link within the magazine itself).

 

Brrr… a cold one today. Storm Connell has done some damage – most evident in the afternoon and evening walks I take with Lady. Flooding, parts of tracks swept away etc. Had to do a detour tonight. Having said that, she did get to have a good time with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal this morning. The park just gets soggy. Think I’ll be living in my boots now until next March (if early 2025 proves to be good), next May (if it doesn’t!).

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom later this evening.

Will be sharing a fabulous interview with Hannah Retallick on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Be sure not to miss it – lots of useful and interesting thoughts for all writers. See above.

Will be a double blog day on Friday given my post on More Than Writers will also be out and I will be looking at Light in the Darkness for that one. Apt as we go into Advent. Again see above. Has been a busy week!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale here Fitting In. This one I would describe as a fairytale in reverse. Just what does happen to the Fairy Kingdom’s clumsiest fairy ever? Find out here.
Screenshot 2024-11-29 at 09-48-00 Fitting In by Allison Symes - Friday Flash Fiction

Many thanks to all who came to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom last night. The theme was festive flash fiction. I talk about the same topic for Writers’ Narrative this month which I am so glad to say is back. Its focus this issue is on cozy marketing and writing. Festive flash fiction fits in perfectly here given it is the ultimate, I think, in lighthearted reads – short, often funny, and definitely light, something I think is needed at that this time of the year. Link given up above.Screenshot 2024-11-28 at 16-32-08 Writers' Narrative Magazine December 2024 by scottandlawson - Issuu
As well as providing an interesting varIety of prompts, taking part in Flash NANO does mean you end up drafting stories in varying moods and genres. What will I do with these later? I hope some will go into a future collection. Others I will reserve for competitions.

Word count length has varied for the month – most have come in at the 500 words or fewer count. I have had a couple at the 100 word mark or so. None of this surprises me but I do find Flash NANO invaluable for (a) getting more flash written and (b) taking me out of my comfort zone with some of the prompts. The latter is good because it makes me “up my game”. No bad thing that.

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Fairytales with Bite – Mix Up by Allison Symes

Mix Up
It never pays to be in too much of a hurry.
It will only lead to trouble and worry.
As one fairy godmother, once of such great renown,
Found to her utter chagrin, it got her down.
Picking up the wrong wand by such a clumsy mistake
She turned a client into a fancy cake
Which was then scoffed by a so hungry and fast young elf
The fairy godmother was besides herself
With tremendous grief, ridicule, and later, with pain.
She became the Fairy Queen’s appointed bane.
She was then banished to Earth, speedily, just like that.
Now she can’t magic a rabbit from a hat.

Ends
Allison Symes – 27th November 2024

Hope you enjoyed that one.

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This World and Others – Borrowing From Other Worlds

How advanced is your setting? Does it have technology to travel to other worlds (openly or otherwise)? If so, does it like what it sees and does it “borrow” anything? The other world may not have anything taken from it but copying is an ancient business. So is the outright theft of a good idea!

So what would your characters bring back to their home world and how would these things be put to use? Does everyone back at home welcome the new “things” or are they fearful of them? Could they have good cause to be? There is potential for a humorous story in having a character bringing back all sorts of things, which never work out properly when he/she/it gets back home again.

Also give some thought if the world they’ve pinched ideas from get to travel across universes themselves, could they ever come to your character’s home world and discover what they’ve done? Could make for interesting clashes (and even more so if both worlds are trying to improve relations. Something like this could scupper that. What would the consequences be?).

Could other worlds borrow from what your setting has to offer and how could this come about? Who discovers your character’s home world in the first place and was it something they were deliberately seeking to do or something which they stumbled on accidentally?

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Am so pleased Writers’ Narrative is back. Do see the link further up the post.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Regular Writing and What Makes a Good Read

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Hope you had a good weekend. Starting to get rain, thunder etc here. Lady okay with it but does not like being woken up by it. Can’t say I blame her.

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Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day. Not bad here and I managed to get some swimming in as well so that’s good. Managed to duck most of the showers as well – definitely a good day. Lady and I have had plenty of soakings in our time so any time we miss out on that, we feel we have won!

Just to flag up there’s an offer on the paperback on Tripping the Flash Fantastic. See the link at https://mybook.to/TrippingFlashFantastic

Writing Tip 9002.5 or thereabouts: Regular writing is important. So is life. If life does get in the way, don’t feel bad about what you can’t do. Focus on what you can.

If it means you need to have another writing session some when else, then fine, so be it. The writing journey is a marathon and not a sprint. Pacing yourself helps a lot.

I must admit I know there are some nights of the week I know I’m not going to get a lot done so I focus on blogging (just adding a few paragraphs sometimes) or I draft a flash story. It gives me something to work on when I do have more time.

 

Am grateful Lady isn’t fazed by thunder and lightning as we had some in my part of the world at about 11 last night. Her policy here is the same as mine – the sensible one of sleeping through it and letting the weather carry on without you. It’s not as if it needs our help!

My Chandler’s Ford Today post this week will be about Good Interviews. I’ll be looking at what writers can do to help themselves prepare for these as well as looking at interviewing your characters to find out more about them ahead of writing their stories up. Link up on Friday. (And I’m interviewing two great writers for CFT before long – more news nearer the time – so I plan to be practicing what I preach here!).

Chandler's Ford Today post reminder picture(1)Comments welcome for CFT


Changeable weather today with rain forecast this week. Won’t be that sorry, though it will mean Lady and I will probably get a bit wet. The trees here are shedding leaves early to conserve water so the rain is needed. And Lady and I are used to being “drips” anyway so that’s okay!

Many thanks for the comments in on Fitting In, my latest Friday Flash Fiction tale. In case you missed it, you can find it here.

Now this story is loosely based on fact. I did have a dog called Gracie and I did fall for her immediately. Inspiration for story ideas can and does come from incidents in life but also from what I read and sometimes an overheard bit of conversation which intrigues me. (Train journeys are great for that by the way).

It’s being open to the possibility you might get a story from something that is important I think. The more you read, the more you are open to being inspired too.Screenshot 2022-09-02 at 09-11-55 The Arrangement by Allison Symes

Hope you have a happy weekend.

Any autumn plans you’re looking forward to? Any books you’re planning on reading this season? I mentioned the other day I’m currently reading Churchill’s Wizards on Kindle (having just finished the excellent Regal Retribution by Jennifer C Wilson).

It’s a lovely contrast in reading material – non-fiction -v- contemporary fiction (historical crossed with ghost). But I love to mix up my reading and ideas for stories come from both sides of my reading diet. I’ll read something and the cogs get whirring and I jot down ideas for another flash story or blog post. Reading feeds the imagination and it pays all writers to keep theirs topped up.

Best of all, it is fun to do!

And talking of reading, why not check out the latest edition of Mom’s Favorite Reads? It is free to download, has a wealth of articles, photos, stories and, of course, my flash fiction column.

This time I’m talking about Questions and Answers in Flash Fiction. I love questions as they give you a great story structure from the word go. Your story has to answer the question set. Your question draws the reader in – they know there will have to be an answer by the end of the story. Do also check out the flash fiction pieces that came in as a result of my challenge – there are wonderful stories here.

Screenshot 2022-09-03 at 20-32-31 Mom’s Favorite Reads eMagazine September 2022

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Don’t forget I often post flash fiction videos to my YouTube channel. New subscribers are always welcome (and the current ones treasured!). You can find my channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPCiePD4p_vWp4bz2d80SJA

Screenshot 2022-09-06 at 20-23-13 Allison Symes

 

It’s Monday. It’s time for a story I think. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – The Right Number. No prizes for guessing which random generator I used to trigger the idea for this one!

 

Does geography come into your fiction at all? It sometimes ventures into mine. For example in A Day Out from Tripping the Flash Fantastic, I refer to Earth Mark Two. I didn’t have the room in this story to say more than that but you immediately know you’re in an alien environment loosely based on what we know here.

More importantly, I didn’t need to say more than that. As ever it is the telling detail which matters here. You can bring the senses in here too.

For example, if you say Character X was standing by the blood red waterfall, you can deduce they must be on a foreign planet even if you don’t give the name of it.

Also think about how geography might impact your story (the quest tale is the obvious one here but it can be done for the smaller flash stories). If your character is on a mission to deliver cakes, (quite possibly to Grandma’s house), how could the geography get in their way and what do they do to bypass that? There’s the story. Readers will want to know if those cakes did get delivered. There’s your structure.

The geography is what causes conflict and challenge for your character and they will have to resolve it as best as they can to be able to do what they are meant to do. Usually failure is not an option (and you can increase the hazards for your character here by making it clear what will happen if they do fail).

May be an image of ‎tree and ‎text that says "‎Just give your readers what they need to know to picture your world. Everything else they will هll in from what they have read/seen on film.‎"‎‎

I often refer to some of my stories as “fairytales with bite” because they often have a twist and they’re not aimed at children. They often see characters getting their comeuppance. I also like to look at stories from the viewpoint of alternative characters to the well known ones.

Indeed my first story in print was A Helping Hand in Bridge House Publishing’s Alternative Renditions. My story looked at an aspect of the Cinderella story from the youngest step-sister’s viewpoint. Great fun to do.

The original fairytales are anything but twee as I’ve mentioned before. They can work so well as in flash fiction format, especially if you want a succinct story focusing on one incident in a character’s life.

My The Poison Pen from From Light to Dark and Back Again looks at the Snow White story from the viewpoint of the crone before the King marries Snow White’s mother and shows early indications of what the crone is like.

This kind of tale can add to the world of the well known fairytales I think. But you need to think about what character you’re going to use for this and work out what you can do with them. In this story’s case, I am showing the crone was like this years prior to the original Snow White story. In other words, she’s got form!

My flash collections are available in Kindle and paperback

Goodreads Author Blog – What Makes You Read?

Leading question, hmm? What makes me read is curiosity first and foremost. I have to find out what happens to the characters in the story. Or I have to find out what an expert is imparting to me via their non-fiction work. I read to escape worries and cares for while. I read because I love stories and finding out things. I read because it is a privilege and pleasure to be able to do so.

Reading fuels the imagination and that is why I think all writers should read widely and regularly, inside and outside of their chosen genre. I’ve had story ideas come to me from reading non-fiction. Occasionally a blog idea will occur to me from reading something in a story. I also see reading as supporting the industry I am part of – makes great sense to me.

Besides, as we go into autumn in my part of the world, what is better than curling up with a hot chocolate and a good book or something fascinating on your Kindle?

Screenshot 2022-09-03 at 20-47-58 What Makes You Read

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Looking Back at Swanwick 2022

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Most images from the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School for my Chandler’s Ford Today post were taken by me, Allison Symes, as were any screenshots (and photos of Lady naturally).
A big thank you to Jennifer C Wilson and Penny Blackburn for images they took of me that I’ve used in my CFT post. Tricky to take pics of yourself when about to give a writing session! Hope you have had a good week. Not bad here and thankfully much cooler. Lady is pleased about that too.

 

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Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

I’m thrilled to share Looking Back at Swanwick 2022 for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. This post was a sheer joy to write. It was also lovely not having to worry about sourcing the photos – I took most of them and friends shared the rest. Many thanks to #ValPenny and #JenniferCWilson here!

(I generally do use Pixabay and then enhance images via Book Brush as you know but it is also nice to share pics I’ve taken from time to time).

This post shares a little of what it is like to be at the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School. I look at taking part in workshops and fun events such as the Open Prose Mic Night and share a little of the joys of being immersed in the world of writing for a week, especially when you are always made so welcome whether it is is your first visit or your 50th.

Hope you enjoy the post and maybe see you there for Swanwick 2023.

Looking Back at Swanwick 2022

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Hope you had a good Thursday. Many thanks to those who came to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group on Zoom last night. It was great fun and lovely to see familiar names popping up on online magazines who welcome flash fiction. Keep writing!

I’m so looking forward to sharing my Chandler’s Ford Today post tomorrow. I’ll be Looking Back at Swanwick 2022 and this post was a real labour of love to write. I love writing all of my posts but some always stand out as special and writing about Swanwick does that for me. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Have, after a bit of a break, got back to reading on Kindle again. Good to be back to that. Am so glad electronic book shelves can’t give way under the weight of all I’ve got on that!

My flash collections are available in Kindle and paperback

Strange day weather wise here in Hampshire – drizzle, cloudy etc and then boy did it warm up!

One of the joys of writing is you do have two interests in one here. Every writer I know has a serious addiction to books and stories of all kinds and loves to read in and out of their genre. I try to keep my reading “diet” mixed and interesting.

I catch up with things like Writing Magazine over lunch but I read books to help me with my writing, novels, ebooks, collections etc (using paperback and the Kindle for this) most nights before settling to sleep. It is only if I am already too tired I don’t do that. I make up for it the next night instead.

I love stories. I love writing them. I love reading them. Win-win here. And in making writer friends, I get to ensure I read contemporary fiction as well as the classics. I like to find out what friends are bringing out after all and I have a lovely collection of their signed books to me on my book shelves. I treasure that.

And the great thing about flash fiction in all of this? It proves an entertaining story can be 100 words long as well as the novels proving it at 100,000! I like that. To me there is a pleasing symmetry going on here.

May be an image of text that says "Regardless of genre and setting, all stories need a proper beginning, middle and ending."

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It is lovely to be back on Friday Flash Fiction after my break at Swanwick last week. Hope you enjoy my tale, Fitting In, which has a book-related theme. It also shows you can never be always sure of who your audience might be.

Screenshot 2022-08-26 at 09-20-17 Fitting In by Allison Symes

I like open titles for my stories, ones that have to provoke curiosity in a reader. Sometimes I subvert a title or phrase (as in my Punish the Innocent from From Light to Dark and Back Again).

Titles are your first hook to draw a reader in and I have judged competitions where there are no titles. I do think writers are missing a trick here. It pays to have a good title. I jot down an initial idea and then change if it I need to. I know what my story line is going to be (because I know who my character is) and that usually gives me a starting point for a title. Doesn’t mean I necessarily have to stick with it though. Again as with my story itself, I just need something to get me started.

I like alliterative titles but try to avoid using them all the time. They’re memorable but you don’t want to get sidelined into using only one kind of title. I’ve used proverbs. I’ve used phrases. I’ve used ideas thrown up by random generators. I like keeping my options, as well as my titles, open!

Questions are useful for themes and titles

Writing tip 7008 or thereabouts: Don’t worry about your flash word count immediately. Get your story written. Then rest it. Then look at it again with fresh eyes and get rid of wasted words, look at ways to improving your phrasing and so on.

I then find a story will be “settling” at the circa 100, 200 or 300 words mark. I then and only then think will I try to reduce the story down to the lower word count or leave it as it is? If I feel a reduction will take something away from the story as such how it flows, characterisation that adds depth to the tale, I leave the story at, say, 224 words and then find a market or competition looking for pieces under 250 or 300 words.

I ask myself questions during the editing process mainly along the lines of do I need this and, if so, why? That helps enormously in helping me to judge what really should stay in. You don’t want to lose the soul of the tale. Editing should always enhance this and bring the best out in your story.

The only thing to cut out is waffle – now if only politicians took the same view, yes?!

Simple writing equals no waffle

Fairytales With Bite – Character Profiling

I often use random generators to trigger story ideas but you can also use the random question one to help you get to know your characters better. I use https://faculty.washington.edu/ejslager/random-generator/index.html mainly because I have a soft spot for the duck on their page (go on, check it out, you know you want to!).

I generated the question What is your theme song? You could apply that to your character and find out more about them by then asking yourself why they chose that one. In a fantasy setting, you could also work out what kind of music they would have. Is it comparable with what we have here?

I find I have to know what my character traits are (because actions, thoughts, capabilities all stem from that) but the generators are a great way of getting into profiling your character quickly. No reason why you can’t use them for fairytale characters or others of a fantasy/magical ilk.

Screenshot 2022-08-21 at 20-35-24 Random Qs

This World and Others – Character Roles

What roles do your characters play in your stories? What roles are available to them? Are roles assigned by gender, ancestral heritage or anything like that? Do your characters like or resent their roles?

The role of women has changed considerably over time here – what would be the equivalent for your characters? Do things like war change what people are expected to do? How does technology change roles? Doles your world have the equivalent of the Luddites who went around smashing machinery to try to save their own jobs?

If your world has androids or any other kind of robot, what are their roles and could they break their programming? Do humanoid characters resent the role the robots do or are they relieved they don’t have to do this kind of work?

Characters can have roles they didn’t expect thrust on to them (Frodo Baggins, anyone?). So how do your people handle this? Is their new role the making of them?

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