Author Update – Allison Symes November 2024 – Book Fairs, Autumn Gatherings, Flash NANO, and More

November 15, 2024Leave a comment

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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, my lovely editor at Chandler’s Ford Today, for taking some of the photos I include in this week’s post.

Hope you have had good few days. Lady has had a fabulous time with her two best dog friends. Writing wise, I share an update on what I’ve been up to recently. Am continuing to make good progress with Flash NANO 2024 and, as ever, am enjoying the wide variety of prompts from that. It is a good challenge!

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Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal again today and has had a good time all week with her chums, bar Tuesday when she just had to put up with me.

Pleased to share Allison Symes – Author Update November 2024 – Book Fairs, Autumn Gatherings, Flash NANO and More for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I do love a title which does, to quote the old Ronseal wood treatment advert, “what it says on the tin”!

Every now and again I like to write an author update of what I’ve been up to – easiest to do this in one summary post. Next week I’ll be sharing writing tips and after that there will be more author interviews so plenty to look forward to here. If you want to know more about Flash NANO (and it still isn’t too late to join in by the way), I do share more information and the link in this CFT post so do check it out.

I also look back at the Book Fair, the ACW Autumn Gathering (briefly as I did write a separate post about that) and look ahead to the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event next month. I also celebrate local authors in my look back at the Book Fair.

Allison Symes – Author Update November 2024 – Book Fairs, Autumn Gatherings, Flash NANO and More

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Lady has had a super day. Got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal this morning and later this afternoon got to do her usual second walk with her best buddie, the Rhodesian Ridgeback. They even came off the lead for a bonus play time in the green area on that walk. The dogs loved it and it was sweet to watch them play. Dogs keep things simple. This all came as a nice surprise and was one of those cheer you up moments. And that was just for the Ridgeback’s owner and me!

Will be sharing a round up of what I’ve been up to lately, as well as looking ahead to the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event next month, for my post on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. Has been a busy but enjoyable time. See above.

Character Tip: You know your character. You’ve got your set up. All great stuff. Now throw something into the mix you know will throw your character and see what they do. Have fun here. It will reveal aspects to their character you haven’t already worked out or suspected.

And it is fun finding out just what your characters will do to get themselves out of the mire. To me, it’s one of the best bits of story writing – drop my characters in it and find out what they do!

Hope you have had a lovely day. Nice cold but sunny autumn day here. Lady did get to see and play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. All is right in her world.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing an author update for me on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above. There will be more author interviews to come at the end of the month/early December. I’ll also be making a guest appearance on another writing blog later this month – more details nearer the time.

Loving the Flash NANO prompts so far and looking forward to having a go at today’s one shortly. A huge thank you to all who have commented on the stories I’ve shared on the private Facebook page here. Much appreciated.

Author newsletter will be out again on 1st December. I share tips, news, story links and more there. If you would like to sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com and thank you to all of my subscribers for your ongoing support. Again much appreciated.

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Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale The Last Memory. Hope you enjoy it. It’s a different take on a famous fairytale.

Happy birthday to His Majesty.

Now birthdays in themselves can be a useful theme for a flash fiction story or several. Why?

Firstly, you can look at what your characters think about birthdays and theirs in particular. Do they bring back good or painful memories? Is their birthday a chance to put things right or to move on from whatever has been holding them back?

Secondly, what do other characters in your story think about your lead? Would they celebrate their birthday with them or not? There could be a lot of interesting material here, especially if they would never celebrate the lead’s special event.

If your setting is in a fantasy or sci-fi world, are birthdays commemorated at all? If not, what is celebrated instead? Would we recognise any elements of them?

Also does a birthday coincide with another event – the start of a quest (it did with The Lord of the Rings with Gandalf turning up to celebrate Bilbo’s 111th birthday) – or with a national event. If the latter, are good or bad things associated with that and what does your character make of it being their birthday too? Does it change how they celebrate?

Plenty of story ideas to come from a birthday then!

Three quick flash fiction tips I hope you find useful:-

1. Focus on the lead character and what the reader needs to know about them (including of course what the character wants).

2. Cut out anything which doesn’t help with the above point unless it does move the story on in some way. Ask yourself if it is necessary. If it is, fine, you’ll easily justify it. If not, out it comes. No word count room to waste so you do need to be ruthless with cutting things like that out. It is a good writing discipline if it is any comfort. Learning to tighten up your writing will help with the other forms of writing you do. I’ve found this to be the case.

3. Once you’ve got the draft done and have rested it, read it out loud. The good thing with flash is this doesn’t take long. In reading it out loud, you will hear the rhythm of your story, you will hear if the dialogue works or it it makes you stumble and so on.

Fairytales with Bite – Spells Acrostic

S = Spells are not all they are cracked up to be at times.
P = Princess at risk of death is sent to sleep for a century instead.
E = Even godmothers can get things wrong – glass slippers to dance in? Really!
L = Life forms are not all they seem – just ask The Beast – magic was not his favourite thing when he was transformed.
L = Luckless apprentices realise too late they need to know how to make a spell stop, what a pity he missed that bit!
S = Spells have their downside!

This World and Others – Literature and Its Role In Your Setting

Does your setting appreciate its literature? If your setting doesn’t have written records or anything like that at all, what would it have instead? How are these things valued by your characters?

If there are books, stories etc., are they similar to the format in which we have ours or is everything, say, in an audio format only? What kind of devices would your world have to store them? Technological advances can make some forms of recording information obsolete so anything stored the “old school” way might be hard to recover and/or transfer to modern ways. How would your setting overcome this issue?

Would your world have favoured authors, past and present? Would they have banned ones? Would your world import literature from other settings, including Earth? What would they make of our books and stories?

Especially in the sci-fi and fantasy sections, has anything our writers have come up with any bearing to your character’s setting? If so, does it worry your authorities Earth writers have got some things right here ore are they relieved we are far from the truth?

Do your characters appreciate books and what do they prefer to read? Is that something most would like or do they dare to be different?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the April 2024 edition of the magazine which looks at a topic I adore – editing. My article asks Editing: Do You Love It or Loathe It? Well… what answer would you give to that?

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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The Last Memory, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/mgcOH6xu8J Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale The Last Memory. Hope you enjoy it. It’s a different take on a famous fairytale. pic.twitter.com/k2dhTuM5Ib
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 15, 2024

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Allison Symes – Author Update November 2024 – Book Fairs, Autumn Gatherings, Flash NANO and More https://t.co/pudgVY2G2i Pleased to share my CFT post – an author update for yours truly. I look back at the Book Fair and ahead to the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 15, 2024

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

November 8, 2024Leave a comment

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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!

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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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.

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.

Now 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?!

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.

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?

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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Review – The Chameleon Theatre Company – I'll Be Back Before Midnight https://t.co/6dNoaq8W9M I review The Chameleons' recent fantastic performance of a cracking thriller. They build their sets. This one was amazing, as were their lighting/sound crew. It added much to the play.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 8, 2024

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Okay, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/gakXsXhcY4 Pleased to be back on FFF with my new tale, Okay. When a friend rings to ask how you are after a divorce, what answer would you give? Find out what Beth says to Jenny – and that all is not as it might seem. pic.twitter.com/bZ4vvCiTtI
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 8, 2024

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Author Interview Part 2 – Debz Hobbs-Wyatt – If Crows Could Talk and Flash NANO 2024

November 1, 2024Leave a comment

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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, as is one of the photos from the Book Fair. The image of me signing books there was taken by my lovely CFT editor, Janet Williams.

Hope you have had a good few days. Looking forward to listening to Pet Classics on Classic FM soon – it does help against the noise of the fireworks. Lady isn’t so much scared, more annoyed by fireworks especially the louder ones though the pain there is it means she finds it hard to settle. I wish people would use the silent ones and have done.

Writing wise, it is a joy to welcome back Debz Hobbs-Wyatt to Chandler’s Ford Today and I’m glad to say I will have more author interviews coming up too. Plenty to look forward to then. And Flash NANO 2024 has started too!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am so pleased to welcome back Debz Hobbs-Wyatt to Chandler’s Ford Today for the second half of a superb interview re her If Crows Could Talk. As well as discussing her novel, Debz shares so much useful advice which will be of use to all writers so do have a good read!

Tonight, Debz discusses drafts, editing, marketing, her favourite aspects of storytelling and so much more. Hope you enjoy the post (and if you missed Part 1, fear not, there is a link to it at the bottom of this interview).

Separately, Flash NANO has started – hooray – and I look forward to having a crack at the first prompt later this evening. Also author newsletter went out earlier. Busy but productive day and Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal and the lovely Coco, the Labradoodle, so Lady feels her day has been a good one too.

Author Interview – Debz Hobbs-Wyatt – If Crows Could Talk – Part 2

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Don’t forget I’ll be sharing the second half of a superb interview with Debs Hobbs-Wyatt on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. She’ll be discussing her If Crows Could Talk but shares so much useful advice, it doesn’t matter where you are on your writing journey you will find it useful. Be sure to check it out – link up tomorrow. See above.

Author newsletter also out tomorrow and Flash NANO begins, hooray! Looking forward also to the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event in December. Writers’ Narrative will be back soon too so plenty to look forward to as the year winds down. Where has the time gone?

Character Tip: I sometimes find it useful to work out a character’s negative traits. If someone is honest, my character will be so to the point of rudeness and a story idea will begin to form from that. If they tend to be pessimistic I may throw them in a situation where they have to find reasons to be more optimistic for once – that being the only way to get out of their situation. What will my character do to achieve this? I want to have fun finding that out and I would hope a reader would too.

Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. Good time had by all. It’s their rule to always have a good time and to be fair they do stick to it!

Don’t forget Part 2 of a wonderful interview with Debz Hobbs-Wyatt about her If Crows Could Talk is on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Be sure to not miss it as Debz shares much useful advice which will benefit so many writers. See above.

The following week is when I am planning to review the recently performed I’ll Be Back Before Midnight so wonderfully staged by The Chameleon Theatre Group. One joy of going to their shows is it introduces me to a whole wealth of stories (as plays) I would not otherwise have come across.

There will be more author interviews to come before the year’s out on Chandler’s Ford Today and I am looking forward to sharing these as and when.

Writing Prompt: You can ask one of your characters one question only which they must answer truthfully (nor can they leave anything out). What would be your question? Find out what the answer reveals. I strongly suspect you’ll end up with a good story outline at the least answering this one. Happy writing!

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It’s Friday. Somehow it is November. Time for a story then. Glad to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest Random Objects. Even magical parents have issues with their offspring human parents will understand only too well. Find out one of those issues here. Hope you enjoy it.

Hope you have had a good day. No pals out for Lady to play with today so she had to put up with me!

Author newsletter out again tomorrow and, of course, Flash NANO kicks off. Good luck if you’re taking part. Unless the prompt is to a specific word count, I don’t worry about this aspect at all. Some of my stories end up at 100 words or fewer, some at 250 words or more and most somewhere in between. All will need polishing up later. But that’s fine. I will hopefully have 30 new drafts to look at in December!

What I am hoping for will be the kinds of prompts I know and love and others which are new to me but which I find to be great fun! Will keep you posted.

Two days to go until Flash NANO starts. Yes, I am keen, fancy you noticing!

What I especially like here is not knowing what prompts will come up and then just seeing what I can do with them. I know I’ll get something from them. The polishing can happen later. I am hoping to use at least two of these prompts for competitions I’ve got in mind.

Those will be the two stories I won’t share on the supportive Flash NANO Facebook page! Some places don’t allow you to send in anything which has been published elsewhere, even on your own website, so I play safe here and ensure anything I want to submit anywhere does not go elsewhere at all. Easiest thing to do. Can’t go wrong with that.

Fairytales with Bite – Magical Fireworks

I’m not keen on fireworks, being a dog owner, but have enjoyed them when they turn up in fantasy fiction. My two favourite examples are:-

The Lord of the Rings – Gandalf has a supreme talent for fireworks, does he not? The book conjured up wonderful images in my head. The films brought those images to life spectacularly.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – I always was fond of Fred and George Weasley but my favourite scene of theirs for me has to be when they unleash their fireworks and the dragon one goes after the odious Dolores Umbridge. (Played almost too well by Imelda Staunton, I thought). And I loved that bit where Professor Flitwick shows his approval of the Weasleys’s antics and then realises he shouldn’t. Very funny. Suspect Warwick Davis enjoyed that bit, it certainly come across that way.

But there can be metaphorical fireworks of course. So what kind of magical metaphorical fireworks would your characters (a) set off or (b) do their best to avoid setting off but somehow don’t manage it? What are the consequences of these things? There would be consequences! Funny ones maybe or deadly serious? The choice is yours.

This World and Others – Intelligent Beings

I suspect if we had a group discussion on what counted as intelligent beings, there would be many who would put a question mark against humans. They would point to what we’ve done to the planet, our warlike tendencies and so on. As a dog owner, I know when dogs squabble, it is over something specific and usually easily dealt with. Dogs generally don’t hold grudges either. Hmm…

But then there would be others who would point out to our amazing creative skills ranging across a huge range of disciplines. I’ve got every sympathy here. It does take intelligence to want to create something lovely such as a painting, piece of music, or a story.

Okay, let’s move that group discussion out of our own solar system. If others from worlds way beyond us were to look down on us, would they consider we were intelligent beings or not?

And if we went exploring, what kinds of being would we come across? How would we evaluate their intelligence? What would happen if we got this wrong? We could get it wrong in two different ways here. What would the consequences be and what intelligence would we use to rectify matters?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Back to the September 2023 edition of the magazine this time with its ever timely topic – marketing. I have two pieces in this one – Marketing Your Books and Writing For Online Magazines.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Random Objects, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/h5wGWeye5E It’s Friday. Somehow it's November. Time for a story. Glad to be on FFF with Random Objects. Even magical parents have issues with their offspring humans understand. Find out one such issue here. pic.twitter.com/P9nPFYzyD4
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 1, 2024

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Author Interview – Debz Hobbs-Wyatt – If Crows Could Talk – Part 2 https://t.co/c19jR3rRp3 Thrilled to welcome back Debz Hobbs-Wyatt to CFT for Part 2 of a fab interview. She discusses editing, marketing, storytelling and more. There's a link to Part 1 in this interview too.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 1, 2024

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Author Interview: Debz Hobbs-Wyatt – If Crows Could Talk Part 1

October 25, 2024Leave a comment

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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, as were the photos from the Book Fair at The Hilt. Many thanks go to Debz Hobbs-Wyatt for supplying book and author shots for her Chandler’s Ford Today post with me this week. Also in that is a lovely shot of Debz, myself and Paula Readman, which was taken on Paula’s phone. Lovely to see that one again.

Hope the week has been a good one. Mixed bag here between fun things such as going to see The Chameleons, feeling unwell and perking up again, and getting to do more writing than I normally would, thanks to having to be at home for a bit rather than be out and about. Lady has had a smashing week, including a proper puppy party on Wednesday. It was a sight for sore eyes!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Delighted to share Part 1 of a a super interview with Debz Hobbs-Wyatt who joins me on Chandler‘s Ford Today to discuss her new novel, If Crows Could Talk (Walela Books). She also shares wonderful thoughts on writing short stories to hone your craft and about writing for joy. This makes a huge amount of sense given nobody can know for sure how things will turn out with their works. You do have to enjoy the process and what you write. You are your own first reader.

She also shares what inspired her to write If Crows Could Talk and the need to outline so you know your story arc. Do check out the interview. Link below and congratulations, Debz, on the new book!

Part 2 next week (and after that a review of The Chameleons’ I’ll Be Back Before Midnight. Lots going on at CFT at the moment with more to come too).

Author Interview: Debz Hobbs-Wyatt – If Crows Could Talk – Part 1

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Off to the theatre later to see The Chameleons perform I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, a thriller. Plan to review later. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal again today. Has had a good week – it’ll only be tomorrow when she won’t see any chums.

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again soon. If you want to sign up to receive tips, news, story links etc , do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Had a lovely session at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group yesterday. We were looking at tips on how to make the best of Flash NANO and writing prompts generally. If you’re taking part in Flash NANO or NaNoWriMo, both of which start on 1st November, good luck and I hope you get a lot done. What I love most about Flash NANO is having 30 new stories to edit and polish after the month is up. I can take my time doing that.

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady had a smashing one at the park – a real puppy party, She played with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals but the lovely Coco, the Labradoodle, came out as well. The dogs were so pleased to see each other and a good run around was had by all.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting this evening. Will be looking at tips on Flash NANO and writing prompts generally. Always a useful topic.

And I’ll be sharing Part 1 of a super interview with Debz Hobbs-Wyatt about her book, If Crows Could Talk, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above.

Meantime, talking of CFT, many thanks to my lovely editor, Janet Willams, for taking the snaps of me at the Book Fair at The Hilt last weekend. Always tricky trying to get his kind of shot yourself!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to share my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Awkward Questions. You should be able to spot the influences in this one! It was great fun to write. Hope you enjoy it.

I’m a huge fan of writing prompts and like to mix up the types I use. It means I don’t stick to my favourites all of the time. It would be easy to do that. As I write a lot of flash, I need ideas all of the time so am always looking for ways in to finding said ideas. Prompts are enormously helpful here, I use them as a way in to creating characters and situations I can put them in, and they give you practice in writing to a topic set by someone else. That’s handy if you enter competitions.

While it is still a little way of yet, I am pleased I’ve booked my train tickets for the Bridge House Publishing Celebration Event in London in December. Always good fun and it is lovely hearing people read their stories Hope to read some of mine too. Always good to have something to look forward to at the close of the year!

I also need to start drafting some festive flash but I hope to make a start on that from next week. Also looking forward to Flash NANO which starts on 1st November. Had 30 new draft pieces from it last year and hope to achieve the same again this time.

Fairytales With Bite – Nights Out

What would count as a good night out in your setting? Which of your characters would love that kind of thing? Which would dread it? What would they be prepared to do to get out of having a night out? Could be some humorous tales there.

What would your average fairy godmother or wizard do when they want a night off from the magic?

What would be the equivalent of the cinema? What would they listen to if they went to a concert? Do they visit other worlds, including ours, when they want an evening of entertainment and what do they do to ensure they’re not spotted by said inhabitants of those worlds? (You just know there’d be fallout, though it might be easier for them to blend in better around Halloween!).

Does your world have celebrations everyone is expected to take part in and, if so, what forms would these take? What similarities would they have to our national events? Where would these be alien to what we know here? And if visitors from other worlds, including ours, could see these things, what would they make of them?

Story ideas there!

This World and Others -The Entertainment Business

Our entertainment business is vast taking in film to music to writing and much more besides. What would it look like in your setting? Are there similarities with ours? Are there things which could only exist on the world you’ve set up? Is the entertainment business regulated and who does the regulating? Did anything happen to make these regulations necessary?

Who works in the business? Is it considered an honourable profession or is it only for those who couldn’t make their magical abilities work properly and they’ve had to fall back on show business?

What would your fantasy setting make or our pantomimes and things like that? Would they see them as insulting the magical world or a humorous spoof?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the September 2023 edition, which looked at marketing. I had two articles in here – Marketing Your Books and Writing For Online Magazines.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Awkward Questions, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/TrtArRPAm4 Delighted to share my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Awkward Questions. You should be able to spot the influences in this one! It was great fun to write. Hope you enjoy it. pic.twitter.com/x4Xz853sku
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 25, 2024

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Author Interview: Debz Hobbs-Wyatt – If Crows Could Talk – Part 1 https://t.co/lPMHJ2zpor Delighted to share Part 1 of a fab interview with Debz Hobbs-Wyatt about her If Crows Could Talk (Walela Books). She discusses writing short stories to hone craft and what inspired her.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 25, 2024

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Double Blog Day: ACW Autumn Gathering and Supportive Writing Groups and Writing Prompts

October 18, 2024Leave a comment

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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, as were the photos for my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. Many thanks to Paula Readman for taking the image of me reading at another book event – the Bridge House Publishing one back in December 2023. (Looking forward to going to this year’s one too. Am hoping for much better luck with the trains this time!).

Hope the week to date has been a good one for you. Am looking forward to taking part in the Book Fair on Saturday 19th October. It made its debut last year and I am so pleased it has come back again. Will look forward to meeting the other authors taking part too. Lady has spent most of the week playing with her two closest pals so she’s had a good week too.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

18th October 2024 – Chandler’s Ford Today

Every so often I have a double blog day and today is one of them. I will shortly share the link to my Authors Electric post on Writing Prompts but first and foremost, it’s time to share my latest on Chandler’s Ford Today. This week I talk about the ACW Autumn Gathering and Supportive Writing Groups.

I share some of the experience of last Saturday’s ACW writing day but also useful tips if you’re thinking of joining a writing group. Hope you find the post useful here.

Oh and if you are in the Chandler’s Ford area tomorrow, do come along to The Hilt at the Hiltingbury Recreation Ground. The Book Fair is back and is from 1 pm to 5pm, it is free entry, and there is a wide range of authors taking part, including yours truly. Hope to see you there.

ACW Autumn Gathering and Supportive Writing Groups

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18th October 2024 – Authors Electric

Second post tonight as it is double blog today for me today! I’m back on Authors Electric today talking about Writing Prompts, a favourite topic of mine. I use a wide variety of prompts and find them invaluable. I discuss some of the prompt types I use as well as how to make the most of the random generators. Hope you find the post useful.

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One happy Lady today as she got to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals once again. All of us happy as it stayed dry today, unlike yesterday when it poured down. Managed to avoid a lot of it but not all – it is amazing how wet you can get in a three minutes shower!

Will be discussing the ACW Autumn Gathering and Supportive Writing Groups for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I’ll be sharing tips and thoughts on what to look for if you’re thinking of joining a writing group, as well as celebrating a marvellous ACW event last Saturday in Rugby. Link up tomorrow. See above.

It will be double blog day tomorrow incidentally as my Authors Electric post on Writing Prompts is also out on 18th October. Plenty to look forward to reading and I hope you will find both blogs useful and entertaining. Again see above.

16th October – bonus CFT post

Delighted to share a bonus post on Chandler’s Ford Today advertising the Book Fair at The Hilt on Saturday, 19th October between 1 pm and 5 pm. All welcome. Entry is free. Come and support your local authors (and get some book buying done early for You Know What coming up in December!).
Am so pleased to be taking part in this again – hope to see you there!

BOOK FAIR AT THE HILT – SATURDAY 19TH OCTOBER 2024

In separate news, I’m delighted to say I will have a super duper two part interview with Debz Hobbs-Wyatt about her new novel, If Crows Could Talk, coming up on CFT at the end of the month/early November. More details nearer the time.

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It’s good to wrap up the week with a story and I hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Getting There. See how my character coped with her unfaithful Ron, but is all as she would wish it to be now? Find out here.

Hope you have had a good day. I’ve now sent in the results to the flash fiction competition I was judging. Good fun to do. Looking forward to the Book Fair on Saturday too, It will be nice to catch up with the other authors too, some of whom I met for the first time last year. This time I’m on the list to give a short talk about who I am, what I write, and naturally I will share some flash fiction as part of that.

A busy week coming up next week too with the next Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom on Wednesday and I’m off to our wonderful local theatre on Thursday too. As the year starts to wind down, the writing life winds up! But it gives me more opportunities to spread the word about flash and I’m always happy to do that.

Looking forward to spreading the word about flash fiction at the Book Fair at The Hilt on Saturday. See link to bonus Chandler’s Ford Today post which shares more info.

I’ve often found at events like this demonstrating what flash fiction (a) entertains, (b) shows what flash is so effectively and (c) can lead to sales! Nothing to dislike there! Hope to see you there if you’re in the area. And there will be plenty of other authors represented too. Last year, there was a good selection ranging from YA fantasy, flash (of course), non-fiction, women’s fiction and much else, and that should be the case again this time.

If you’re not in my area, do support your local author events. There will be plenty coming up in the next couple of months (can’t imagine why!).We always appreciate the support, regardless of what we write.

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Fairytales with Bite – Special Books

I still have two very special books – The Reader’s Digest Collection of Fairytales, a two volume set given to me by my late father. The fairytales are the originals collected and written by Hans Christen Andersen, the Brothers Grimm, Perrault and so on. One of those books has its spine bound up by tape, I read it so much!

But recalling these led me to wondering what books would your magical creations consider special to them?

Would it be their study books? Would it be what we call fairytales but which they would see as their history, maybe? Would it be a book which was especially helpful to them in developing their craft?

Do any of your magical creations write their own books? Have they contributed to your world’s literature, magical arts etc?

Just what would be their special books and how have they helped your characters develop? There are story ideas there.

This World and Others – Ways of Researching

Often when I’m drafting a story, I may need to do a quick bit of research to check something. I once needed to find out what poisonous plants I could reasonably expect to find in a garden. Honest, guv, it was for a story and nothing else. I suspect most crime and horror writers internet search histories would not beat too much scrutiny!

Where would your characters go when they needed to research something to help with their work, quest etc? Do they find materials easy to access? Are there libraries and archives as we understand the terms or, if not, what would be the nearest equivalent to these things? Records are kept everywhere after all!

How would they research? As well as books and scrolls, could they interview people/beings? Would there be something along the lines of the web so all could easily research? Are there areas they would be stopped from researching and, if so, what and why and who does the stopping? All ideas there.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the October 2023 edition of the magazine. The focus was on horror. My article is Writing Horror: The Telling Details. Often it is specific details which will give your readers “the chill factor”. Select them well!

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Delighted to share a bonus post on Chandler’s Ford Today advertising the Book Fair at The Hilt on Saturday, 19th October between 1 pm and 5 pm. Entry is free. Come and support your local authors. Am pleased to be taking part in this again – see you there!https://t.co/OHxkf42rua
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 16, 2024

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It’s good to wrap up the week with a story and I hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Getting There. See how my character coped with her unfaithful Ron, but is all as she would wish it to be now? Find out here.https://t.co/1WkBnpJzSc pic.twitter.com/P2Wa6RomQk
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 18, 2024

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Authors Electric: Writing Prompts by Allison Symes https://t.co/rzoCxjehvL I’m back on AE discussing Writing Prompts. I use a variety of prompts and find them invaluable. I discuss some types I use and how to make the most of the random generators. Hope you find this useful. pic.twitter.com/fTfwl48PfN
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 18, 2024

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ACW Autumn Gathering and Supportive Writing Groups https://t.co/fY3FsiBe8e Pleased to share my latest on CFT – ACW Autumn Gathering and Supportive Writing Groups. I share some of the experience of the recent ACW writing day AND tips if you’re thinking of joining a writing group.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 18, 2024

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Author Interview: Miriam Drori – Loyalty and the Learner

October 11, 2024Leave a comment

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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 big thank you to Miriam Drori and Lynsey Adams (Reading Between the Lines Book Vlog) for photos supplied for my interview with Miriam on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Miriam also sent pictures of her setting with captions so do check those out. Settings add so much to a story.

Hope you have had a good week. Lady has seen her friends most of the time so she’s happy. Am off to Rugby on 12th October to go to the Association of Christian Writers Autumn Gathering event. Looking forward to catching up with friends, making new ones, and enjoying the workshops. Also looking forward to Flash NANO which starts soon too. Hope I can get another 30 draft stories out of it this year! (Have also been playing with Book Brush for my flash fiction collections – see below!).

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Delighted to welcome Miriam Drori to Chandler’s Ford Today this week to discuss her new novel, Loyalty and the Learner. She also shares her views on titles (especially as she has used alliterative titles for her other book in the Jerusalem Murder Mystery series, Style and the Solitary) and what led her into creative writing at all, given her career was in a very different direction. Even her other writing has been in a different direction as Miriam has also written on social anxiety.

Miriam also discusses writing blurbs and writing guides with me. Plenty to enjoy here and lots of useful thoughts. Do enjoy!

Many thanks for joining me on CFT, Miriam, and good luck with the book.

Meeting Miriam Drori: Loyalty and the Learner

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Don’t forget to check out a superb interview with Miriam Drori on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Miriam discusses her new book, Loyalty and the Learner. The interview is part of a blog tour organised by Lynsey Adams of Reading Between the Lines Book Vlog. See above.

It was lovely to meet Miriam in person at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick back in August and both of us took part in the Open Prose Mic Night there.

Miriam shares wonderful tips on book launches and her approach to marketing. She shares what led her into writing crime at all and her favourite aspect of storytelling. She also discusses how she handles the inevitable ups and downs of the writing life and there is much more besides. Do look out for it. Looking forward to sharing this tomorrow. Do look out for the link.

Hope you have had a good day. Lady did. She got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals – all three so pleased to see each other. Off to have my flu jab later.

More author interviews coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today in the run up to that famous event in December (it is too early to mention it by name yet, though I note that thought clearly hasn’t occurred to the supermarkets). Am looking forward to sharing those.

Am a fair way through a first draft of a fourth flash fiction collection and am preparing a submission for something else which I hope to get out in the next few weeks. I’m at that stage where I’m resting it as I want to judge it again before I send it off. Time away from any piece of work is the only way I know to be able to judge a piece objectively enough.

Am also happily judging a flash fiction competition at the moment too. Love doing this kind of thing and I always critique. I’ve been on the receiving end of critiques myself and have always found them useful. They do have to be constructive though.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale, Put That Light Out. Fans of Dad’s Army should recognise that phrase and who said it in the series. It directly inspires this story. Hope you enjoy it.

Have another train trip over the weekend so hope to use some of that travelling time in drafting blog posts, flash fiction etc. Am delighted the notes app on my relatively new phone replaces Evernote for me. I didn’t need a paid for subscription with them given I use this kind of note program only when travelling like this and Evernote have been pushing towards subscriptions, which I think is a shame. Never used to do that but I understand they were taken over by someone else a while back so that probably explains the change of viewpoint!

Paid for subscriptions are not for everyone. I only ever pay for something I know I will use. I use graphics a lot so having a paid for plan with Book Brush makes a great deal of sense for me. Likewise I have a paid subscription for my website and I am always keen to renew my subs with the Society of Authors as I have long found their advice useful. There is a huge business in services fur authors. Just know what you’re getting into and always check things out before committing to anything.

I am looking forward to getting on with some drafts on the train on Saturday though. It’s amazing how much I can get done and I like making good use of time like that.

So looking forward to taking part in Flash NANO again. Not long to go now. Have enjoyed taking part over the last couple of years and some of those pieces have gone on to be published. If you want to take a look at what it is all about, do follow the link below.

A huge thanks to those members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group who put me on to this. I just love the whole idea of having something for the short form writers while the novelists crack on with NaNoWriMo (and if you are taking part in that, good luck!).

Fairytales With Bite – How Do You Know When Your Wand Needs Servicing?

Time for some lighthearted nonsense I think.

You know it’s time to get your wand serviced when fur slippers become glass ones.

You know it’s time to get your wand serviced when the three bears have to call in carpenters to sort out the ruined furniture because your wand decides it doesn’t “do wood”. The one comfort you have here is in knowing a certain time travelling alien with two hearts has s sonic screwdriver which also doesn’t “do wood”. On the plus side again, you are unlikely to upset the Ents from The Lord of the Rings precisely because your wand doesn’t “do wood”.

You know it’s time to get your wand serviced when it misfires and what would normally emerge as sweet little tweeting birds turn out to be huge vultures who don’t look that pleased to see you. They’re even less pleased when you aim your wand again and they become those sweet little tweeting birds with feathers missing. Somewhere in their brains they will recall they had been much bigger and more threatening and they liked that role. They also begrudge the missing feathers.

You know it’s time to get your wand serviced when, despite all magical attempts to get spinning wheels out of the magical kingdom, one still manages to turn up.

You know it’s time to get your wand serviced when despite using it for help with your baking, your cake still has a soggy bottom and despite using fabulous ingredients it still tastes like fairy dust (which is dry and bitter).

This World and Others – Equipment – Servicing and Manufacturing

Hope you enjoyed Fairytales with Bite. Now for story ideas.

Fairy godmothers and the like will need to have somewhere to go to get their wands etc serviced, replaced (if damaged in the call of duty or because they simply fancy the latest model). The Harry Potter series famously had Diagon Alley for this.

What would your world have or does your setting import this kind of service and manufacturing from other places? If so, why? What set the tradition for importing skills and services? Does that have a downside? There is one obvious one – they better not be at war ever with the world which supplies them!

Story ideas could also come from following the tale of a craftsman here. What do they produce? How did they get into the trade? Is their reputation a good one? What would they do if made to make equipment for someone they really don’t want having it? Good tension raising drama there!

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the November 2023 edition of the magazine which was on the theme of novels. Timely too given November each year sees both NaNoWriMo and Flash NANO. My piece in here looked at writing novels and shares what I learned from writing my, as yet, unpublished one.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Meeting Miriam Drori: Loyalty and the Learner https://t.co/wZDMSV6YPQ Delighted to welcome Miriam Drori to CFT to discuss her novel, Loyalty and the Learner. She discusses titles, what led her into creative writing, blurbs and writing guides amongst other topics. Do enjoy!
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 11, 2024

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Put That Light Out, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/k32DYbeaGK Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my new tale, Put That Light Out. Fans of Dad’s Army should recognise that phrase and who said it! It directly inspires this tale. Hope you like it. pic.twitter.com/AJqJ5nhXMa
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 11, 2024

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Story Inspiring TV and Its Music

October 4, 2024Leave a comment

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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 my lovely CFT editor, Janet Williams, for the shot of me at the 2023 Book Fair. Looking forward to the 2024 one coming up soon! Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good few days. The autumn evenings are drawing in rapidly and, yes, the heating has come on. Lady had a great start to her week, getting to play with her two best doggie girlfriends. After recovering from a cold, I was pleased to be back in the swimming pool on Thursday and Friday. Just felt so good to be back in there again.

Writing wise, do look out for a super interview with crime author Miriam Drori next week on Chander’s Ford Today. Later in the month I’m off to see the latest production from The Chameleon Theatre Group so a review will follow in due course. And I’ll also be interviewing Debz Hobbs-Wyatt about her new novel so October is going to be busy but fun, just how I like things to be.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Delighted to share Story Inspiring TV and Its Music on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I look at how books have led to many fabulous TV series with equally wonderful themes for them. So if you enjoy books, TV series, and TV themes, this post is for you!

I look at classic detective series (think about a certain crime Dame’s greatest characters), take a trip to Oxford, and look at how a certain renowned time traveling alien (clue: has two hearts) has inspired so many novels to be written. I also take a peek at sagas and famous children’s TV series based on books.

Much to enjoy here and I hope you enjoy the post. I loved writing it.

Story Inspiring TV and Its Music

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My recent post on Books, Movies, and Music on Chandler’s Ford Today was a joy to write and inspired me to write another in a similar vein. Tomorrow, I’ll be sharing Story Inspiring TV and Its Music. It is amazing how many books have led to super television series. There has also been some wonderful themes to go with them. I’ll be discussing and sharing some of these. If you fancy a trip down Memory Lane, tomorrow’s CFT post is especially for you. See above.

My only regret here was not being able to include one of my all time favourite TV tunes, The Thunderbirds March, given it isn’t based on a book! Lady Penelope was an early heroine of mine and I was sorry to hear recently of the death of David Graham who voiced her sidekick, Parker, amongst many other characters.

However, I have found the following gem on YouTube. Do enjoy. I thought it was wonderful.

Hope you have had a good day. Lady has had a smashing one. She got to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. All three dogs went home tired but happy. They do enjoy seeing each other. It is lovely to see.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Story Inspiring TV and Its Music for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above. More writer interviews to come later in the month too.

Many thanks for the congratulations on my competition news yesterday (re my third place award). Much appreciated.

Character Creation Tip: I often start with major traits and then work out what could come from those for my creations. For example, courage could lead to recklessness. I could have two different characters from that thought alone and two different stories.

I find traits useful as they are a powerful source of motivation for a character too and readers understand this. My underlying belief is for any story to work readers must get where a character is coming from. Doesn’t mean the reader has to like the character necessarily.

Confession time: I don’t like all of mine. Indeed, I can think of some I wouldn’t want to meet on a dark night! But that’s fine. For the purpose of the stories they’re in, all I needed was to understand why they are the way they are and then I took things from there.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday. It’s the end of the working week for many. Its getting darker earlier on in the evenings. It’s time for a story and I hope this one puts a smile on your face.

See what happens in my latest on Friday Flash Fiction, The Birthday Cake, when a mum, finally decides she is going to fix her lack of food presentational skills, no matter what she has to do to achieve this.

I occasionally write what I call “two-handers” for my flash fiction. This is where I get my narrator specifically addressing another unseen character who is “off stage”.

One of these is my You Never Know (From Light to Dark and Back Again) where I have an irate magical tour guide pointing out the downside of her job to someone who clearly thinks she has an easy, cushy life. Not so! Great fun to write.

The secret with these stories, I think, is to have a strong central character who has a strong premise or idea to share with the unseen character which should lead to a change of attitude on the part of the latter. So even in this kind of story there has to be a point of change or something where it is likely there would be one after the story ends. Readers should be able to see that coming, so to speak.

Here I outlined what my main character would have cause to whinge about at the other character but I wanted them to do it with humour so it didn’t just come across as a rant. My favourite lines from this read, “One further tip to the wise – never eat anything glowing red as it’s unlikely to be healthy. I must thank Snow White for telling me that.”.

Well, in a magical world, that’s wise advice, yes?

But for this story working out my characters first helped me to write the tale. I saw it as laying my foundations here but sometimes it does work best for me when I know the characters first, then I figure out the storyline. Sometimes when I know the storyline, that will give me the characters best placed so suit it. But it helps being open to both approaches here.

From Light to Dark and Back Again - by night

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Flash fiction has a powerful impact because the form is so short. Knowing this, I can decide what impact I want my stories to have, whether it is to make readers laugh, cry, scream, or what have you.

Depending on what I choose here (and sometimes that choice is confirmed quickly if a competition I’m entering has a set theme which is likely to lead to certain types of character being needed), I can then work out what my character needs to be to be able to produce that impact.

This is where knowing the major traits helps. If I know my character is judgemental, say, I can set them up in situations where that attribute will backfire on them. I could write that as a tragedy or as a humorous story. I like having the choice!

I’ve found with flash it has paid to play to its strengths and having a more powerful impact due to its precision is one of them.

Fairytales with Bite – The Tooth Fairy’s Lament

Hope you enjoy the following. Time and changing attitudes can lead to redundancies in the most unexpected places!

The Tooth Fairy’s Lament
That poet lady who said “I wish I’d looked after me teeth”,
Should see life from the other side of the white enamelled fence.
I’ve no problem with her but I want you all to know my beef.
I’ve no training for other work and it’s not as if I’m dense.

I want pity for a Tooth Fairy with a P45.
In the old days, her well honoured role was a job for her life.
Not now so it seems, I now need to work out how to survive.
I don’t need my life’s work being dumped; I so don’t need the strife.

So why has my respected job gone? Why have I got the sack?
I could say it was due to belief but I wouldn’t be right.
Belief isn’t the problem far from it but it is the lack
Of it which has made my work vanish, my finances so tight.

And don’t get me wrong either, I am all for healthy eating.
Better dental health, not before time, is a great idea too.
But when these things come together, my work takes such a beating.
Now where do I find myself? I’m in the magical dole queue.

Ends
Allison Symes – written 2nd October 2024

This World and Others – The Magical Jobs Nobody Wants to Do

It doesn’t matter which universe you’re in (as a resident or a visitor or someone who does a bit of both), but there will be magical jobs nobody wants to do.

Clearing up after a trainee wizard for instance – goodness knows what you’ll find from what they’ve been experimenting with in their bid to create the best spell ever. All you know is you’re the cleaner and you’re not paid enough but hey there was nothing else and it is a secure post. Oh and you’ve been warned time and again not to use magic to help with the cleaning. Some apprentice did it years ago and there was no end of trouble and you don’t want to happen to you, do you?

Likewise, would you want to be the one who sources ingredients for a witch? You wouldn’t dare get it wrong, would you? It might not be kids in the oven next time.

How about being a proofreader for a new spell book? You know these things have been tested in the field but they are not yet established in your lore. What if you make a mistake here? What if you don’t pick up on mistakes on the manuscript? What would the consequences be?

Scope for humorous stories I think here.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Back to the first issue of Writers’ Narrative this time – the August 2023 edition. In this one I write about Boost Your Writing with Flash Fiction. Talk about write what you know!

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Story Inspiring TV and Its Music https://t.co/AEnihTZycV Delighted to share this on CFT this week. I look at how books have led to great TV series with wonderful themes. I look at classic detective and children's shows and more. Hope you enjoy the post. I loved writing it.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 4, 2024

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The Birthday Cake, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/FvzP5IGYf1 It’s Friday. Tale time. See what happens in my latest on Friday Flash Fiction, The Birthday Cake, when a mum decides to fix her lack of food presentational skills, no matter what she has to do. pic.twitter.com/TVNeYeFLAE
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 4, 2024

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Author Interview: Behind The Curtain with Anita D Hunt

September 27, 2024Leave a comment

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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 Anita D Hunt and Lynsey Adams for pictures supplied for the Chandler’s Ford Today post this week.

Hope you have had a good few days. Torrential rain and brief spells of sunshine here. Hoping it brightens up for the weekend as have a family event. Writing wise, have more superb author interviews coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today in October. Will say more nearer the time though I find it hard to believe we’re almost at the tenth month of the year already! Where has the time gone?

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

As part of her blog tour, I am delighted to welcome fellow Swanwicker, Anita D Hunt, to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her new domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain.

Anita shares many useful tips and plenty of great advice in this in depth interview, in which she also discusses how it can be painful getting inside your characters’ heads at times and what to look for in a writing group.

She looks at what she likes about creating characters and how Cornwall, her home county, plays a major part in her work. She discusses themes and shares an invaluable tip about writing blurbs. Do check out the interview and settle down for a riveting read.

Behind The Curtain with Anita D Hunt

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Glad to say the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom last night went well. The theme was marketing (many thanks to Rosemary Johnson for suggesting it) and I shared a few ways flash fiction can help with this.

If nothing else, sharing flash fiction stories every now and again can act as a marvellous advert for the rest of what you do. It doesn’t take long to read, it entertains potential/actual readers, and it showcases you/your work. Nothing to dislike there, I think.

And talking of marketing, it’s time for me to put in my usual end of month reminder about my author newsletter. The next one goes out on 1st October and I share stories, tips, advice (based on what I’ve found useful myself), news etc. If interested do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com where you can sign up. A huge thank you too to all of my subscribers here and on my YouTube channel.

Thought for Today: Every writer has their fair share of rejections, not doing well in competitions etc, but there’s nothing to stop you revisiting your old work, seeing if you can polish it up and get it out somewhere else. I’ve had work published that way.

Sometimes I will review a piece and with the benefit of time and that useless aid, hindsight (I would far rather have the ability to spot something wrong at the time I’m working on a piece and see my mistakes before I send anything out!), I can see why a piece failed but even that can be useful because I’ve learned from it.

So maybe hindsight isn’t so useless after all. I would still prefer foresight or at the time sight though! Suspect most of us would.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady has had a smashing one given she got to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. I’ve managed to avoid most of the rain today too so will take that as a win.

Don’t forget I’ll be talking to Anita D Hunt about her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. The interview is packed full of useful tips and advice too so do look out for it. See above. Glad to say there will be more author interviews to come on CFT in October too.

Writing Tip: I know some writers dread marketing and would far rather focus on writing. I understand that but there are creative aspects to marketing your stories too. After all the challenge here is to make what you have to say here about your work interesting and appealing to readers and not switch them off. (Saying buy my book all the time does do precisely that).

I’ve found if I can make the marketing fun for me to do it is more likely to be appealing to a reader. Sharing something of interest and/or value to readers/writers as I discuss what I’m up to writing wise is also marketing. I think it is more likely I can keep this kind of marketing going too.

My aim with posts like this one then is to have a chatty informative style, while sharing useful tips and something like oh by the way my newsletter is out soon, if you want to sign up head over to etc etc. I take the view if it is something I wouldn’t mind reading if I were on the receiving end, other readers (or at least some) will take the same view.

So work out then what you like to see in marketing you receive. Figuring out what works for you as a reader will help you come up with material based on your work you won’t mind sharing with your readers (and they won’t mind it either). The focus has to be on engagement, I think. Stories about your writing life work well too.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday, end of the week time, weather iffy so definitely time for a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – The Old Bat and The Cookie Tin. Think I’ve found a contender for one of my all time favourite titles!

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady didn’t get to see any of her pals today though she hopefully will tomorrow. Have a family event at the weekend. Lady loves these because (a) she loves people, (b) she loves getting extra food and getting to be an outside Hoover, and (c) she loves playing with the visiting dog, with whom she gets on brilliantly. Am expecting Lady to be shattered on Saturday night. She was last time but happily so!

Looking forward to the local Book Fair in October and literally the week before the Association of Christian Writers Autumn Gathering event. I shall be off to Rugby for that one and will be back to London in December for the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event. Lots going on all connected with writing and I plan to enjoy every minute! I also get to spread the word about flash fiction of course.

Prompt Idea: Events mean different things to different people so why not invent one for a character of yours and show what they make of it? Do they organise it? Do they love it? Do they dread it? What happens at this event which changes things for them?

I’ve mentioned before the importance of using the right telling details to help your readers picture your world/setting/character/any combination of those. In my The Terrified Dragon (Tripping The Flash Fantastic), I start with the line The dragon was surrounded by angry humans with weapons and realised to his dismay he was supposed to blast them all away.

Note I haven’t told you what those weapons were as that isn’t the important thing. What you need to know is the main character is a dragon who has got into trouble (which is odd in itself given dragons are usually the cause of fire-related trouble!). You need to know about the angry humans (and you don’t need telling why they’re angry given a dragon turning up is seldom good news).

But you also see something of the dragon’s attitude. He knows what he is meant to do but is strangely reluctant to do it. There is something strange about this creature. Only way to find out what is to read on. Job done.

I’ve always found it useful to figure out what a reader has to know and then decide how I am going to plant those things in the story. When I’ve outlined my character well enough, I can see how the story will develop and where those things should go. It will arise naturally, which is what you want.

Fairytales with Bite – Flying Around

Now I know I moan about traffic in my area – I suspect most of us do – but what would this traffic look like in a magical world? How is the Eye in the Sky supposed to work when all around them are flying on broomsticks and other magical craft?

Would there be speed limits? Would there be corridors magical flying beings are supposed to stick to (if only to give the wildlife a half decent chance of being able to fly anywhere in safety? I feel sorry for birds in magical worlds. In any other kind of world the skies would be theirs. Not in this kind of environment it isn’t!).

Now we all know there are certain kinds of car driver (usually with specific brands of vehicle too) who are notorious for tailgating, jumping traffic lights, being awful at junctions etc. What would the magical equivalent of these things be in your setting? How is flying traffic controlled or is it a free for all and it is assumed the fittest/fastest/strongest survive and it’s tough luck on the others? What are the accident rates?

Are the state of the skies in your setting better than they used to be or worse? Can any magical being fly? Are the “vehicles” restricted to certain speeds?

You could have some funny stories here about the magical traffic cop and how they rein in anyone who breaks the rules here. I once wrote a festive flash piece where such a character tried to pull Santa over for speeding! Great fun to write.

This World and Others – Policing the Skies

Linking in with Fairytales with Bite, who does police the skies? How seriously or otherwise is this role taken? Does it get the support of the general public or it is looked down on? Are there any perceptions that certain flyers (e.g. witches and wizards) get away with traffic faults and other more lowly kinds (such as the trainee fairies etc) do not?

Who does control the skies in your setting and how do they do it? We consider keeping control of our own air space as vital to our defences (as proven by the Battle of Britain in World War Two) so I would assume your setting’s government would take the same view.

Who would they need to defend their skies against? What is the history behind that? What is the history behind how your government does police the skies? What have they found works well and what less so?

I quite like the idea of a traffic cop on a broomstick with a flashing blue light pulling over other magical beings for speeding etc. What punishments can be given? How are other magical beings stopped from avoiding these and/or giving the cop a hard time?

Story ideas here (and possibly funny ones too).

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Since marketing has come into this round up tonight, I thought I’d share the link to the September 2023 edition of the magazine given it has marketing as its theme. I have two pieces in here – Marketing Your Books and Writing For Online Magazines.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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It’s Friday, end of the week time, weather iffy so definitely time for a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – The Old Bat and The Cookie Tin. Think I’ve found a contender for one of my all time favourite titles!https://t.co/SoNEdSo8GF pic.twitter.com/nDyb07y3CB
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) September 27, 2024

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Behind The Curtain with Anita D Hunt https://t.co/kiOYshPN53 As part of her blog tour, I'm delighted to welcome fellow Swanwicker, Anita D Hunt, to CFT to discuss her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain. She shares useful tips and great advice in this in depth interview.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) September 27, 2024

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Author Interview: Catching Up With Ruth Leigh – The Further Adventures of Ruth Leigh

September 20, 2024Leave a comment

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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 Ruth Leigh and Social Shapes for some of the images in my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week.

Hope you have had a good few days. Continuing to enjoy lovely autumn weather here. Lady continuing to have a riot with her pals in the park. All is well! On the writing front, I’m delighted to say my story, Spade Work, will be broadcast by Hannah Kate on North Manchester FM on 21st September (between 2 and 4 pm). Hope to share the link later.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

I’m so pleased to welcome back Ruth Leigh to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her new book, The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge. Isabella is one of those unforgettable, touching, and funny characters, it was clear from the outset she would need more than one book!

In this in depth interview, Ruth and I discuss what she loves about Isabella and who Ruth would pick to play the role should Isabella ever come to the screen. Ruth also shares some wonderful tips about book launches. If you’re thinking of having a launch, do check these out.

Ruth also discusses what inspired her to write A Great Deal of Ingenuity and The Little Unexpected Book of Poetry which came out since the last CFT interview and we both celebrate being Jane Austen nerds.

Ruth also shares how her writing life has taken off in other directions with Resolute Books and the British Christian Writing Conference. There are also valuable tips on websites and the challenge of managing both writing and marketing time.

Plenty to enjoy then and lots of useful advice and tips for other writers. Do enjoy. And congratulations, Ruth, on the fourth installment centred on your wonderful heroine.

Catching Up with Ruth Leigh – The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge

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Lovely start to my day as I found out my story, Spade Work, will be broadcast on Hannah Kate’s Autumn Equinox show on North Manchester FM on Saturday, 21st September. I hope to share a link later. Many thanks to Jenny Sanders for flagging this one up.

Am looking forward to listening in as there is always a lovely mix of stories on these shows. Will be interesting to find out how the autumn theme has been taken by the other contributors.

Flash works well on radio and/or Open Prose Mic Nights precisely because you have a contained story which doesn’t take too much time to read out/listen to.

Am also looking forward to taking part in Flash NANO again in November. Hope to get thirty more draft stories out of that!

Another lovely autumn day here and Lady had a fabulous puppy party with her chums, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, and Coco, the Labradoodle. Tired but oh so happy dogs went home. Lovely to watch them at play.

Am pleased to be back on Authors Electric with my post Directions. I look at how my writing life has been an upside down one and why I’ve learned not to worry about my writing life changing direction. I hadn’t started out writing the short form at all but when I did get around to that, it twisted again when I discovered flash fiction and from that the joys of learning to write tight and to never fear editing or being edited again. The latter alone has proved useful to me.

Wherever you are on your writing journey, I hope the “ride” is a good one and the turns you take prove to be useful to you. Hope you enjoy the post.

WORD OF WARNING: Annoyingly there are two useless comments on my Authors Electric post, one of which is potentially dodgy. I have flagged them up to the admins of Authors Electric. These comments weren’t there when I published the post.

One is advertising how to hire a hacker. PLEASE DO NOT RESPOND TO THAT COMMENT OR CLICK ON THE PERSON’S ICON. I dread to think where that would take you.

The other is about recipes, irrelevant to a writing post. It is the bane of all website owners to have to deal with this kind of thing. Please DO enjoy my post though. I hope you find it useful.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday, the end of the working week for many. Time for a story then. Hope you enjoy The Case. If there is a moral to this one, it is to take a hint seriously when you are given one. Find out what happens given my character David didn’t do that.

Hope you have had a good day. Lovely autumn weather continuing here. Delighted to say I’ll be on Hannah Kate’s show on Saturday afternoon on North Manchester FM. The theme for the show in the Autumn Equinox. Will share a link when I get one. Next seasonal theme I will write something for will be, dare I say it so early, a festive one. Festive flash is so enjoyable to write. I do think the aim there is to make the stories fun. At least that’s the take I try to use for it!

A lovely review for From Light to Dark and Back Again describes the book as From Light to Dark and Back Again is indeed, as the subtitle states, ‘a collection very short stories to suit every mood’ – be it mournful, pithy or murderous.

Many thanks to Book Reader for that one. Please note though Amazon say the book isn’t available in paperback that isn’t the case. All Chapeltown Books are print on demand so it isn’t a question of unavailability. Print on demand doesn’t have a use by date!

Also you can order directly from me. Just contact me via my website (https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com/contact/) or you can go to my publisher’s bookshop, The Bridgetown Cafe Bookshop. See link.

Fairytales with Bite – Professional Practices

Think about the professions in your magical setting. Think about the obvious ones like witch, wizard, fairy godmother etc. Behind any profession there is usually a service industry. Within the profession there is usually a set of professional practices or some sort of Code of Practice.

So what would make up the service industries here? Someone has to supply the magical equipment and test it so it is good to be used on a wider scale. Someone else would write the spell books (and those would have been tested and proved to work at some point, else why include them?).

Then there would be whoever supplied the ingredients or someone who brought out the latest model of wand etc. Also who taught those who work in the professions? What rigorous standards do they have to teach to? Do you have the magical equivalent of Ofsted here?

So all sorts of things then go on behind any job in our world and the same would apply in a magical one.

Fairies may be born but they would have to be trained. They will need to know how to use their equipment and so on, They will be expected to stick to what most accept as a reasonable code of conduct (noting there would always be some who defy these things).

As for the professional practices/Code, who wrote these? Who approved them? What led to there being a need for them in the first place? What would happen to anyone who went against these things?

Story ideas there for sure!

This World and Others – Unions/Guilds

Given the need for professions in any world, who cares for the workers in those professions? Would there be the magical equivalent of trade unions? Are there guilds ensuring professional practices, as referred to in Fairytales with Bite, are adhered to? Who runs these things and how did they get into those roles?

Who would they answer to and do the workers have the right to hold their union officials, as well as their bosses, to account where necessary? How does the employment world work in your setting? Story ideas there too!

On a lighter note, as for possible magical trade unions how about the following:-

The FGTU – The Fairy Godmother Trade Union. Motto: Clocking off is always at midnight, not a moment sooner or later.

NRG – Nursery Rhyme Guild. Motto: There for the talking bears to ensure they always get their furniture and porridge replaced.

MCWU – Mouse Clock Winders’ Union. Motto: Ensuring the clocks always read 1 am or 1 pm – nothing else. Members here cannot be a member of the FGTU as well due to an obvious conflict of interests.

COBBLERS Guild – Collective of Brave Blue-collar Leather-working Elves Restoring Shoes Guild – Motto: Always proud to help the small businessman who is kind but has fallen on hard times.

Hope you enjoyed those. For story purposes though the world of employment (on both sides of the fence) could be a good source for ideas.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the April 2024 edition of the magazine which is on a theme close to my heart, editing. I ask the big question – Editing: Do You Love It or Loathe It?

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Authors Electric: Directions by Allison Symes https://t.co/Ti371hxuSl Pleased to be on AE. I look at why my writing life has been upside down and how I’ve learned not to worry about my writing changing direction. I hope your writing journey is good and its turns prove useful. pic.twitter.com/jdlxwXL7ZN
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) September 18, 2024

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🍂 Coming up on Sat at 2pm, it's the Hannah's Bookshelf Autumn Equinox Special on @normanfm1066, featuring flash fiction from Jess Richards, Carmen Walton, @mariascohut, @noodleBubble, Peter Barnes, Julian Edge, @R_J_Ren, @AllisonSymes1 & @bridiebreen1! 🍂 https://t.co/oN9uwm68Pr
— Hannah Kate (@HannahKateish) September 18, 2024

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The Case, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/DReqQMgA3w It’s Friday, end of the working week. Time for a tale. Hope you enjoy The Case. If there is a moral here, it is to take a hint seriously when given one. Find out what happens when my character David didn’t. pic.twitter.com/vndhmoqc3d
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) September 20, 2024

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Catching Up with Ruth Leigh – The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge https://t.co/RI6O8lFyHI In this in-depth interview, Ruth discusses Isabella, Resolute Books, and the British Christian Writing Conference amongst other topics. Lots of tips on launches and websites too.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) September 20, 2024

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Books, Movies, and Music

September 13, 2024September 13, 2024Leave a comment

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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. Nice to see some autumn sunshine emerge. Lady has continued to have riotous times with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal so she is is having a cracking week. Writing wise, am happily busy editing and preparing author interviews to share. Also looking forward to judging flash fiction again soon and the Association of of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later in the month. Plenty going on and with more to come. On a sadder note, another link with my childhood passed away this week.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to share Books, Movies, and Music for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. This post was inspired by the recent Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame. I look at the links between movie music and books/plays (there were SO many on the chart). Where there wasn’t a link with a book or play, there sometimes was with an author (e.g. Wilde by Debbie Wiseman).

I also look at earworms and suggest a couple of them. You may or may not thank me for that! I also ask if strong stories automatically means strong films.

Hope you enjoy the post and do share your favourite movie themes based on books in the comments box on CFT. There are fewer pictures in the slideshow below because I did share a few YouTube clips in the CFT post itself. Go on. Check out the Pink Panther YouTube clip in the post. The orchestra is having a fabulous time playing this. And it remains the only film series I know of which inspired an equally wonderful cartoon series.

Books, Movies, and Music

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I was sorry to hear of the death of Kenneth Cope today. Had a good innings (he was 93) but I remember him well from that fabulous show, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). Entertaining show with a wonderful theme tune. Have shared the link to the latter. See below.

There are certain shows where the theme tune so matches the characters and stories. This was one. Doctor Who is another. (I recall Kenneth Cope from Carry On At Your Convenience too).

My Books, Movies, and Music will be on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above. This was a joy to write given it combines several of my favourite things. If I could’ve found a way to mention chocolate in this, I would have had a set of favourite things but alas the chocolate will have to wait for another more suitable post.

11th September
To all who mourn today, I send my deepest condolences.

Lady saw her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal again today and the pair of them had a lovely time. Dogs, unlike humans, keep it simple.

Will be discussing Books, Movies, and Music for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Looking forward to sharing that. See above. After that will come the first of two super author interviews. Those will be a great way to wrap up the month.

I love putting questions together for my guests on CFT. It’s a good challenge for me and I hope proves to be so for them! What I aim to do is to ask questions which encourage the author to “open up” with the result being seen as a written, in depth conversation. I think it makes for a good read. More to come on both author interviews nearer the time.

Coming soon - more author interviews in my CFT column

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday. It’s time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Appearances. This will ring a bell for fans of certain cartoons. See the story for more.

There are many advantages to writing flash fiction but two of the major ones, at least for me, are the way it shows up your wasted words and it encourages you to write tighter, leaner prose. It has led to me asking myself whether I do need a certain phrase or, even if so, can I express it better? Most of the time the answer to that question is yes and so I rewrite.

It also encourages you to think of the right detail to include so your readers can get a good picture of your character and situation in a few words. The right image can add depth to a story.

I ask myself what detail would help do that. What is it a reader would find helpful here? Answering that helps me with focus. Sometimes I use colours, one of the senses, an item of clothing etc. Using those details flags up they matter to the character in some way but it also helps “fix” a picture of the character in a reader’s mind better, I think.

11th September
To all who find today difficult, I send my deepest sympathies.

Flash by its nature has to capture a moment in time but it has to be a significant one for your character. What is it about them and their situation we have to know? What is the point of change by the end of the flash piece?

Less is more could be said to be the flash fiction writer’s anthem but the right telling detail can add depth to even the shortest of stories. So think about what would make your character stand out. Would it be something they wear? Is it their attitude as shown in their thoughts and dialogue?

Why is it this character who is facing Situation X? What do they seek to gain or lose by dealing with that situation? Answer those questions and you’ve got a good outline and be well on the way to a first draft.

Fairytales with Bite – Time

When time crops up in fairytales, it usually is midnight. No other time. Just that one. See Cinderella for more on that.

I’m also very fond of the quote from Terry Pratchett’s magnificent Reaper Man (which I must re-read soon given it does have a harvest theme and it is September as I write this) – The kind of Death who poses against the skyline and gets lit up by lightning flashes doesn’t turn up at five-and-twenty past eleven if he can possibly turn up at midnight.

That wonderful quote shows a great deal about the character of the “real” Discworld Death and the one who was meant to replace him all in just one line. Brilliantly done.

Midnight then has a great deal of resonance but for your own characters why not pick a time which has meaning to them? If your character has a reason for loathing or loving a particular time, show that in your story. You can then get them to face having to do something at your chosen time and their attitude towards the time in question will have a bearing on how well or otherwise they do handle that situation. It should increase tension nicely!

There is also the possibility of using Time as a character. Would you show Time as cruel or kind? (Bear in mind the answer to that could depend on the attitude of your other characters. Time might be kind but the characters may have good reason not to see it that way).

What would you get Time to do? Can magic challenge Time or is there always a payback for trying to chat Time? (Someone usually does try as they try to cheat Death in Discworld. Never works but there can be fun stories as we, as readers, watch the characters try and fail!).

Also give some thought as to how time works in your setting. Would it be the same as here or does your setting have a 48 hour day or, come to that, a 4.8 hour day? How would this work? How would your characters manage it (given for them it would be normal)?

This World and Others – Sense of Place

In your setting is there a sense of place? Can people conjure up what your setting looks like? Can they visualise your characters living in that setting? Do you focus on one place or a whole world?

What can be useful here is deciding on your focus. If you are having stories set in one place, think about whether that place is a city, a village, or what have you. You can then research cities and villages here (and ideally visit some) to get a feel for what would be in these places and then have the fun of inventing the equivalent for your world.

Give some thought as to what your characters would hear, smell, see etc (and what they would consider as “normal” noises, smells etc so they barely notice them but an outsider would do).

If you are using a whole world setting, focus on what a reader needs to know and experience. If your story is mainly set in and around a desert, the reader won’t need to know about riverside villages etc. They will need to know how your characters manage in that desert setting.

But there is plenty of research you can do here which will help to bring a sense of place to your fantastical settings. We do have to base the latter on what we know here and then change things but you know what you are changing and why. You will write from a position of strength/background knowledge then.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the September 2023 edition of the magazine which focuses on the topic of marketing. Always useful that one! I have two articles in here – Marketing Your Books and Writing for Online Magazines. And remember the magazine will be back soon!

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Looking forward to going to the ACW Autumn Gathering next month. What I love about writing events is meeting other writers who understand the wish to write. I’m encouraged by this and wonder if we need that more often than we might think. Zoom is a lifeline here too. pic.twitter.com/HBrSjz1VO4
— ACW (@ACW1971) September 11, 2024

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I find the good old notebook and pen is the most useful aid at any writing event. It pleases me “old school” technology still has a part to play in the writing world and also like to think of this as writers doing their best to support the stationery industry! Good for us! pic.twitter.com/PklczOl1vL
— ACW (@ACW1971) September 12, 2024

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Appearances, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/y43VXQuy0M It’s Friday. It’s time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Appearances. This will ring a bell for fans of certain cartoons. See the story for more. pic.twitter.com/ML5i7QIICp
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) September 13, 2024

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Books, Movies, and Music https://t.co/U8j9Vd98WR
This CFT post was inspired by the recent Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame. I look at the links between movie music and books/plays (there were SO many on the chart). Still others had links with authors. Hope you enjoy the post.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) September 13, 2024

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