Tag: flash fiction and writing time

Ending A Piece of Fiction

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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. Many thanks to Janet Williams for the picture of me at the HIltingbury Book Fair a year or so ago. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week. Lady has had a fabulous time with most of her pals this week. Am busy on editing and writing but good progress being made so am reasonably happy with that!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you’ve had a good Friday. Lady had a good run around with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal and a lovely time was had by both dogs. Also met a cute puppy.

Writing wise, I’m pleased to share Ending A Piece of Fiction on Chandler’s Ford Today and hope you find it useful.

I share thoughts on those occasions when you do know the ending first, about themes in competitions where what they give you may well suggest an ending, and how knowing what you like in story endings can help you with creating your own plus much more.

Ending A Piece of Fiction

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Hope today has been good. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler pal today and a lovely time was had in the park. Nice to see the autumn colours too. Getting out with the dog gives me more opportunities to appreciate things like that. There’s a lot of Virginia Creeper where I am – all a blaze of red right now.

Don’t forget my next Chandler’s Ford Today post is out tomorrow, I’ll be sharing Ending A Piece of Fiction which I hope will prove useful. See above.

Looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group which will be next week. Looking forward to catching up with some of the group in person at the ACW in-person event at Egham not long after that.

And now back to the writing and editing…

Hope you’ve had a good Wednesday. Lady had a lovely time. It was puppy party time at the park as she saw all of her best chums – the Hungarian Vizler, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, and Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. Lady has been rather tired the rest of the day!

Writing wise, I’m sharing Ending A Piece of Fiction on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above. Also it won’t be that long before my next author newsletter is due. To sign up for news, tips, stories, and more, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

For a long time, I wrote only for my own pleasure and to prove to myself I could put a story together. It took me some time to be confident enough to try to submit work anywhere. Naturally for a long time after that I received plenty of rejections but when the acceptances did start coming, that was the boost I needed to keep going and to realise the importance of learning how to improve my writing.

There are no shortcuts to learning your craft and the rejections are all part of the learning curve here. The positive thing is it does toughen up up a bit so later you really do take these things in your stride and focus on improving your story and trying again with it elsewhere. I’ve gone on to have work published thanks to doing that so it is worth doing.

Persistence and willingness to learn go hand in hand here.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble, Comforts. Two fairies argue about the benefits of enjoying certain human treats. Find our more here. Hope you enjoy it.

I was talking yesterday about flash being great when you haven’t much writing time but it is also fabulous for when you haven’t much reading time. Flash collections are wonderful for dipping into. I know I‘m biased with two of my own collections out there and another one to come next year but it is true.

I often dip into collections. This is partly reading in my field which all writers should do but I love the form so why wouldn’t I want to read it as well as write it? I want to enjoy and be inspired by what is out there from other flash authors as well as hope my stories do the same for someone else.

Quiet day today which has been welcome. Still haven’t got as much done as I’d have liked. Always the way though! Mind you, I did get my flu jab done so good to have that out of the way.

Flash is great for those days when you haven’t got much writing time. I find I can at least draft a story in the time I do have. Polishing comes later when I do have more time. Yes, I often do find it takes at least as twice as long to polish a story to get it right than it does to come up with the first draft but I think this is a good ratio. Editing shouldn’t be rushed. It will guarantee you will miss something doing that!

Fairytales with Bite – Adjusting to a New Role

Over the years, I’ve adjusted to several new roles – changes of job, changes of marital status, becoming a mum and later a doggy mum plus I’ve become a writer and editor. All wonderful new roles which I was (and remain) only too happy to have embraced. But other new roles in life aren’t welcome – such as getting used to loss. (Doesn’t mean you have to like it even though you adjust as much as you can).

So thinking about your characters, how do you think they would react to a new role they would welcome and one which wasn’t but which they had no choice but to undergo? What would this tell you about them? Could you feed that into your story?

When it comes to magical practices, are new roles developed in that as new and “better” forms of magic are found and used in your world? (There would always be the magical equivalent of the Luddites who wouldn’t see anything as “better” – could be story ideas there too).

Do some of your characters adjust better than others and, if so as is likely, why would that be? Have they had to adjust before? What had that taught them so they adjust well again? If the other characters didn’t know, why was their past kept quiet? Does that come back to haunt your character now?

This World and Others – Rivers and Seas

I am fond of rivers, seas, and all sorts of water features in the natural world. They seem to speak to me of timelessness, beauty, calm (when the weather’s right!), and of worlds beneath them, a lot of which we still don’t know much about. This is especially true for the seas.

So can any of that apply to your magical world? What water features does it have? If it isn’t dependent on water to be able to sustain life, what does it rely on instead? What does your setting know about what lives in the rivers and seas (or equivalent)? What does it need to know? Does it take good care of its natural environment?

Would your water (or equivalent) features look like what we have on Earth? Would they “behave” in the same way (e.g. are there tides?). The later would be vital to know if your characters are dependent on water (or equivalent) to make their living (e.g. they have to sail)?

Which of your characters live near water features (or equivalent)? Have they learned over time to “manage” them? What natural conditions would they dread these things having (e.g. certain tides always cause mass flooding etc)?

Story ideas there!

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Motivation, Characters, and Magazines

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

Facebook – General

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

Goodreads Author Blog – Magazines

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

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

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

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