Caring for Characters

February 27, 20242 Comments

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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 was the photo of a frog. Find out below why I needed one!

Hope you have had a good few days. The heavy rains have stopped but we now have strong gale force winds! Lady has got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal so all is well in her world. Am busy working on what will be author interviews for Chandler’s Ford Today (to go live a little later on in the year). I love the behind the scenes work on these. I’ve always loved research especially when it comes to writers and their works.

Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day. Enjoyed my swim earlier. I did think when I took up swimming seriously I would use the time in the pool to think about stories, blogs, work out ideas etc. Not a bit of it! I do find my mind goes blank so when I come out I feel refreshed physically and mentally. Maybe that is the point of swimming!

Having said that, I do get ideas at odd times. I just write them down as soon as I can. It can’t always be immediately. I am thankful though I am never woken up by potential ideas. I’d be too grumpy for having woken up early for anything I then wrote down to make any sense!

I do have notebooks/post it notes all over the place. It pays. I’ve been known to email myself with ideas too. Smart phones are handy there. I wish I could train my brain to come up with ideas at times which are convenient to me but I suspect most writers wish for that.

Not a bad start to the working week though we have had gale force winds in my part of the world today. Not that this stopped Lady having a riotous time with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal today. Dogs like to keep things simple!

Don’t forget my author newsletter is out again on Friday. How are we nearly at March already? If you’d like to sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

The joy of author newsletters (and I subscribe to several) is finding out what is going on writing wise with your favourite authors and I always learn from the tips shared. I hope folk learn from the tips I share in mine. The goal is always to improve our own writing and newsletters are a great way to share useful information like this.

Hope you’ve had a good weekend. Weather up and down though Lady got to see Coco again today. Both dogs pleased with that.

Reading Tip: I like to mix up reading novels and short story/flash collections. I also like to mix up moods of both kinds of book. I feel doing this immerses me in a wonderful world of books. Also I don’t want grim/dark all the time. Neither do I want light frothy fare all the time. Life is a mixture of things so I like my reading to reflect this. Taking this forward….

Writing Tip: I also like to mix up the mood of my flash and short stories. So, yes, there are darker ones but I make sure there are also plenty of lighter ones. I know what I like to read in terms of mood and try to reflect that in what I produce. Again I think it is a reasonably accurate reflection of life. I want my writing to move people and to entertain.

Lady got to see her pal, Coco, today and the dogs had a good run around before the heavens opened.

Will be looking at Light Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Hard to believe we’ll be into March for that one. Still it does mean spring is getting ever closer, always a good thing! I’ll be looking at what I think light writing actually is and share my thoughts on it. I will say now though I don’t think it should be underrated. Link up on Friday.

I occasionally look up the random theme generators. Sometimes these trigger ideas for stories, occasionally for blog posts. I did so for this post but had to smile. The theme that came up? Well, I doubt if I’ll be writing on the theme of vampires for Chandler’s Ford Today or Writers’ Narrative any time soon!

Logically I could do so. I would look at the history of vampire stories etc., but it is not a topic I’m especially keen on and that is the reason why I wouldn’t do it. You do have to like the topic you’re writing about, I think.

For stories, you do need to care for the characters, even if you do want to see them fail and for me the sign of a “good” villain is where you don’t want them to win but have a sneaking sorrow they didn’t. Top notch villain here? The Sheriff of Nottingham as played by the much missed Alan Rickman in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

And I guess I have got a post out of vampires – this one!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

What do I look for first and foremost in a flash fiction piece, whether I’ve written it or not? Impact is the simple answer. I want the story, whether it is six words, fifty words, or the full one thousand allowed in flash, to make me react, whether it is to make me laugh, cry, wince, or feel fear. (The theme for Jaws is excellent for the latter incidentally. Have never watched the film. Have no wish to do so. The music is scary enough but it is brilliant – also has made me react!).

For stories, I absolutely have to care about the lead character. If not, why read on to find out what happens to them? (Oh and I know they needed a bigger boat for Jaws. Assume they got one!).

It’s Monday. The rain has stopped. There are gale force winds where I am and it’s still Monday. Time for a story then. Hope you enjoy Stranger in Town, my latest on my YouTube channel. Moral of this one: be nice. Find out why here.

I like to mix up the way I open a story of whatever length. I do this to keep things interesting for me and hope it will prove to do the same for readers. Sometimes I will give you a scene setting first line. Sometimes I ask a question (which you know the story will have to answer). At other times, I use dialogue or internal thoughts.

But all are designed to hook the reader in and get them to keep reading until the end of the story. I’ll be talking about this in more depth for a future Chandler’s Ford Today post, but the opening line is so important when you consider if people don’t get past that, they’re not reading any further. No pressure then!

Many thanks for the comments coming in on Facing the Frog, my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction. Good fun to write.

Not quite an alliterative title but almost there! I try not to use these too often as I think it can look gimmicky but every now and again they can have a great effect.

For this story, I came up with the title first, knowing someone was going to be at the rough end of a spell against them, but I wanted a character who was determined to just cope with the temporary curse as best as they could. They would face up to being a frog for a bit. You can find out how they did at the link.

Let’s just say I came up with a character who is even more slippery than I first envisaged and I wouldn’t trust them either in frog or human form!

Image of frog below taken by me a while back!

Goodreads Author Blog – Non-Fiction and Fiction – Where Worlds Combine

I love reading history, fiction and non-fiction. Just sometimes the worlds cross. The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey is one of my favourite books and is the only novel to have made me change my opinion about a historical figure – Richard III. The fictional story of Tey’s Inspector Alan Grant is woven with history beautifully but it is still fiction.

I’ve read Philippa Langley’s books on her search for Richard III’s remains and, her current book, The Princes in the Tower. I am sure Josephine Tey would’ve loved both of them.

But in this case it was a fictional work which got me interested in the actual history here. Fiction has led into greater non-fiction interest here and this is a good thing.

I love it when different types of book feed into each other. Fiction and non-fiction are equally wonderful things.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Non-Fiction and Fiction – Where Worlds Combine https://t.co/XLksgMn1TF via @goodreads I look at how fiction and non-fiction can feed into each other. It happened for me with, of all people, Richard III. Find out how here. pic.twitter.com/4lzKhQk8ZM
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 24, 2024

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It’s Monday. The rain has stopped. There are gale force winds where I am and it’s still Monday. Time for a story then. Hope you enjoy Stranger in Town. Moral of this one: be nice. Find out why here.https://t.co/o7EgviSpkB
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 26, 2024

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Handling Rejections and Book Recommendations – Yay or Nay?

February 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. Image of me at the Book Fair was taken by Richard Hardie. Makes an excellent publicity shot!

Hope you have had a good weekend. Not bad here. Writing going well and looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting next week. Love preparing material for that. Love meeting up with everyone on line. There is a great creative buzz. Hope your own creative buzz is going well!

Facebook – General

Many thanks for the wonderful comments on my post yesterday when I talked about having a story turned down and then what I plan to do as a result. See below.

One good thing – the rejection has led to a positive and, I hope, helpful post on Facebook so I count that as a win! I have often had stories turned down – it does indeed happen to all writers – but again have often reworked a piece and had it accepted later on.

I’ve also got on and written more stories, many of which are published now, some still not. It is very much a case of onwards and upwards and can I make this story better and get it out somewhere else? The important thing is not giving up.

As I write in the short form, I always have to invent characters. I’ll be looking at some ways of doing this in my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week called Ways into Creating Characters. I do love self explanatory titles! I’ll be discussing why stories are character led and why a writer needs to know their characters well. Link up on Friday.

Make things happen to your characters in fiction

Had a story turned down today. Will look at it again (probably over the weekend), see if I can improve it, and try and find another home for it. Sometimes I’ve gone on to have work published that way.

This is all part and parcel of the writing life and it doesn’t bother me now the way it would’ve done when I started writing seriously. This is because I know now, in a way I didn’t way back when, this happens to all writers, you have to be submitting material to have any chance of acceptances, and there is nothing to stop me trying again with the turned down piece. Waste not, want not.

Do bear in mind there are all sorts of reasons for a piece to be turned down. Sometimes it is because a market (including things like the online story websites) have just had stories in and accepted on a similar theme to yours. You can’t know this. But you can get your story out again to somewhere suitable that hasn’t been inundated with stories on said similar theme.

Sometimes your story doesn’t suit the mood an editor/publisher is looking for at the time you submit the piece. That happens too.

Best thing is to carry on writing, review your turned down piece and see if you can find another home for it. It is very satisfying when you can.

It’s my turn once again on Authors Electric. This time my topic is Book Recommendations – Yay or Nay?

I discuss my policies on reviewing books and what I do with books on writing I’ve found especially useful. I also look at getting into a book after hearing it read on radio, adapted for TV etc., as these can be great means to introduce the original books to people.

Hope you enjoy the post.

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Hope you are having a good weekend. Don’t forget the next issue of Writers’ Narrative will be out before long. Meantime, you can catch up with the current issue below.

Reading quality writing magazines is a huge help to your own writing. I’ve learned so many tips over the years doing this and every single one has helped my writing in some way. I also love finding things out about other areas of writing I’m not involved in at all.

This is partly because I love everything to do with creative writing but also because you never know when those areas of writing might become relevant to you after all.

I hadn’t heard of flash fiction when I started writing seriously for publication. I found out about it, gave it a go, two books later (and with a third in the pipeline), I am glad I discovered it!

But this is where a good quality writing magazine comes into its own. It can show you these aspects of writing. It’s then up to you whether you explore them further or not. Even if you don’t do so immediately, you may come back to these later but you have to know about them first.

And from a reader’s viewpoint, you get to discover authors new to you too.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

One of the most overlooked jobs when putting a flash fiction/short story collection together is sorting out the index. It is a vital job though and worth taking your time over.

I was changing my running order for both of my flash collections (From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic) so this was the last thing I did before sending my manuscript off. There were further changes after that but thankfully mainly on the text. But having the index worked out meant it was easier to change things around when I still needed to work on that. The art of indexing is much underrated I think!

With the books published, those indexes are still handy to me to remind me of what I’ve had published where. The indexes were also useful for helping me ensure my story titles weren’t sounding all the same. I didn’t want them all starting with the magic word “the”! It is easy to do that. I like variety in my titles in how they sound, word count length, and the kind of hook I hope they deliver.

It has been a long tiring Monday. The forecast isn’t great. It’s still Monday. Time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – A Good Margin. Never cross old ladies is the motto of this one – find out why here.

After a very wet start to the day, Sunday has brightened up nicely. Many thanks for the comments coming in on Wrong Turn, my latest story on Friday Flash Fiction. Much appreciated.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom later in the month. Always good fun. Coming up with topics is a great brain stretcher for me and, yes, I do have a go at the prompts I set. Sometimes I will do the odd one or two in advance and use as examples. I’ve found, when I’ve been on the receiving end, I’ve appreciated examples being set. It encourages my imagination to get going.

Many of the prompts I prepare for these meetings, though, I write on the night with the others. I love live writing exercises and want to join in myself. I find it gets the adrenalin and the imagination flowing. Nothing to dislike here! Tidying the draft up etc can happen much later (and does).

Raw writing if you like but there is a joy and energy to just creating something like that and knowing the other work can be returned to later on. Right now I am just letting my imagination play and I love that.

Flash fiction takes away one reason people can give for not reading – they don’t have the time! Hmm…

I would hope the development of flash fiction encourages more reading in fact. Why? Simply because the authors, including yours truly, are not asking people to commit to too much in one go. I would hope that would encourage people to read more flash fiction across the word count ranges, go on to read short stories, novellas, novels etc.

From a writing viewpoint, flash has taught me the meaning of show, don’t tell. I can’t waffle on either because I’d use up my word count too fast. So it is an excellent discipline to practice writing flash even if it is never your main form of writing.

Goodreads Author Blog – Series Books or Stand Alones?

Do you prefer series books or stand alones? Naturally, I am sure most of us would say we love both of these forms of novel. I certainly do. But both have their own advantages.

In series books, you have the advantage of following characters over the course of several novels and see them develop. My favourite example is the Discworld series by the much missed Terry Pratchett. The Vimes books within this show him going from a drunk to a phenomenally brave man with a wife (the brilliant Lady Sybil, who is a great role model) and child and how he transforms the City Watch into a decent police unit.

But there are some books where a writer says all they have to say about a character in one gripping story and they’re right not to carry that on.

I don’t know if this series/stand alone debate particularly refers to crime fiction (as the Vimes books are crime novels set in a fantasy world so cross crime/fantasy/humour and to fabulous effect). Certainly if an author is new to me, I will only read one book of theirs, see how I get on, and then go on to read the others in their series or not as the case may be.

If you have series or stand alone recommendations, do share!

Meantime I carry on very happily reading both kinds.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Series Books or Stand Alones? https://t.co/wtO5zNQoeC via @goodreads I look at the advantages of series books and stand alone volumes for this week's Goodreads post. Do you have a preference? pic.twitter.com/bXfIEFdXNA
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 17, 2024

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Authors Electric: Book Recommendations – Yay or Nay? by Allison Symes https://t.co/KhoUQFtbri I discuss my policies on reviewing books and what I do with books on writing I’ve found useful. I also look at getting into a book after hearing it on radio, adapted for TV etc. pic.twitter.com/tkpjzmk6VI
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 18, 2024

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It has been a long tiring Monday. The forecast isn’t great. It’s still Monday. Time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – A Good Margin. Never cross old ladies is the motto of this one – find out why here.https://t.co/iFlbOluo9T
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 19, 2024

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Resting Stories and What ARE your characters like?

February 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 weekend. Had one of those lovely weekends where I was out in the garden and managed to get lots of writing done. Lady has had a good start to her week, seeing her two closest girlfriends on Monday. It is smashing to see them get on so well. When we’re leaving the park, it does look a bit like “the girls are back in town” as the three dogs walk together!

Facebook – General

Drizzly all day. Never worries Lady though she didn’t get to see her chums today.

In happier news (Lady misses her pals when they’re not in the park), I’ll be running a two part course on editing at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick in August. So looking forward to that but I will also be offering 1:1 sessions during that week too. My topics are flash fiction and editing (general tips). See screenshot for more information. Looking forward to this too.

My attitudes to editing became far more positive on realising good edits make all the difference to being published or not. Prior to that, I’d just seen it as a chore. Now I see it as part of the overall creative process but do find I have to get the story written (or blog post) and then edit later. I can’t do the two tasks at the same time. That just doesn’t work for me.

Screenshot 2024-02-13 at 16-54-38 Tutor 1 1 Sessions Swanwick School

Screenshot 2024-02-13 at 16-54-12 Tutor 1 1 Sessions Swanwick School

Hope you have had a good start to your week. Lady got to see and play with her two best buddies, so she has had a good start to her week. Crocuses are starting to spring up. Lovely to see that.

Writing Tip: Think about what your characters like in terms of what they like to eat and drink, do they appreciate the natural world, what kind of music do they like etc. Also think about what they loathe.

Now put them in a situation where they have to put up with what they loathe, they have no choice. How do they handle this? How do they get out the situation which has landed them in it? Good story possibilities there. Could also take this in a humorous way or a more serious one so give some thought as to what mood you want to convey here.

Today has been lovely. Nice church service. Sunny, a bit warmer than recently, and more signs of spring on the way. Love days like this. Lady does too.

Don’t forget my next author newsletter will be out on 1st March. How quickly February whizzes by! To sign up for news, tips, links to stories etc., do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com and I will just say many thanks to all of my subscribers. Support much appreciated!

Writing Tip: I’ve talked before about resting stories before editing them but how long should a rest period be? There is no one straight answer to this but I’ve found a couple of days is another for a flash fiction piece.

I tend to rest a longer short story (1500 words upwards) for a week or so. The advice I’ve come across for novelists is to leave your work for at least a month. The reason for resting any kind of story is so you can “escape its world” for a while and when you come back to you will see the tale with fresh eyes, as if coming to it for the first time. That is the way to be objective about your stories.

Hope you have had a good weekend so far. At least it’s dry today in my part of the world. Managed to get out and do some gardening. Had a lovely task today – to proofread my three stories which will be in The Best of CafeLit 13. That was a joy to do!

I’m looking at Writing Themes and Saints’ Days for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. What on earth is the link there and how can writers make use of it? I will share all on Friday. Looking forward to sharing that. Ideas come from a wide range of sources and this post is an example of one that came as a surprise to me but I trust the post will prove useful to other writers.

Have had a good week. I’ve submitted another story to a different market. Will say more assuming I hear more though this may not be for some time. I followed my own advice and, having checked things out and being happy with what I found, I figured I had nothing to lose. Didn’t cost anything either. There are good reputable free to enter competitions and markets out there. It is just a question of finding them.

In this case, it was from a tweet I saw and I then followed it up. Have done this kind of thing before but previously, on checking things out, I found something I wasn’t comfortable with so didn’t go further with it.

Never be afraid to walk away from a market or competition if you are not entirely happy with it. There are others out there with which you will be happy. You need to think a little longer term here and think along the lines of would I be happy with my work appearing here. If the answer is not an emphatic yes, do walk away.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Many thanks for the views coming in on Likely Story, my latest YouTube story which I posted yesterday. (See below). Much appreciated. Subscribers to my channel are always welcome.

I love creating the flash tales here. I use Book Brush to help with creating the video itself and then use YouTube’s own vast library of audio tracks (free to use etc) to add music. But I create and edit the story itself first. Sometimes I have to think laterally to come up with a suitable video background but that is always a good challenge!

Screenshot 2024-02-13 at 20-06-47 Allison Symes - YouTube

It’s Monday. It’s slowly getting lighter in the evenings where I am. Hooray! More spring flowers emerging. Double hooray! Still Monday though. Still time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Likely Story.

I’ve occasionally started two flash fiction pieces with a similar opening line. See Mishaps and Jumping Time in Tripping the Flash Fantastic. These stories were written together, are meant to follow on from one another, and were fun to do. It meant I could take the character I created for Mishaps, the first story, and get even more use out of him for the second story!

As both of these are humorous tales, there was more fun to be had with two tales rather than just the one. They also worked better as two stories rather than one, there was a natural end point for the first story, which gave me a good start for the second one.

I had in mind from the start how these two stories would look on the printed page later, naturally hoping they would make it into print! It is no coincidence one is on the left page and the other on the right either. Layout can sometimes help your stories have more of an impact too.

So this is another aspect to flash fiction you could use. If you have a character you love, put them in more than one story. Use that to help you sort out your running order for your book in due course. It will flag up to a publisher and future readers this is a deliberate use of the same character.

Also to get the most impact from two or more stories with one “star”, that impact will be the greater for keeping the tales together.

One of the things I love about writing for Friday Flash Fiction is that I am effectively given a weekly challenge to produce new writing to a 100 word count. So I do! The themes I can set, it is just the word count which is fixed, and I know now, after a lot of experience, 100 words looks like two to three short paragraphs. You can see what I mean via the link.

I find being able to visualise what the word count looks like enormously helpful. I know I’ve got two paragraphs and the second one of those has to wrap the story up. The first one, of course, reveals what the story is so there, straight away, I have a story structure in place. Love that too.

Screenshot 2024-02-13 at 09-59-30 Search Results

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Screenshot 2024-02-09 at 09-56-05 Horizons by Allison Symes

Goodreads Author Blog – Themes in Stories

Do you have favourite themes for stories? I think mostly this is an unconscious thing. I know I like to see justice done, to name one example of a theme, so this is one reason why I love the classic fairytales, where it generally is done.

I also like crime novels where justice is done. (It is one reason why I love the Agatha Christie books).I don’t like the ones where justice is perverted. But I pick the fairytale or crime novel to read based on what I can read of the plot outline and then decide whether it is for me or not. It is funny though how favourite themes do come out time and again in what I choose to read.

As for themes I like to write to, I do like the character who turns out to be more than what others expected. Again I’ve got fairytales to thank for that one, especially The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christen Andersen. It is a good lesson in not judging by appearances, another theme I love reading about/writing for.

The best stories do have timeless themes behind them. Writers will always have something to say about these things. These themes will always have resonance with readers. Certain things about us as a species will not change which is why these themes resonate and why they make such great stories.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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In the run up to St. Valentine’s Day, I thought looking at the theme of love for our stories, blog posts etc would be apt. Love takes many forms – romantic, sacrificial, love for an ideal and so on. What will your take be on the theme? pic.twitter.com/qjaoM1RiHk
— ACW (@ACW1971) February 10, 2024

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Themes In Stories https://t.co/KO81XkcCnq via @goodreads For Goodreads this week, I look at why themes are such an important part of the stories we love reading and often they come through unconsciously. pic.twitter.com/HCoRmI1Lrx
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 10, 2024

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Love can also lead to second chances for characters who have made mistakes. Interesting stories could come from showing what those mistakes are, what your characters learn from them, and how they go on to do better. pic.twitter.com/2EDrBFKhxn
— ACW (@ACW1971) February 11, 2024

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For non-fiction, you could always write blogs on the stories surrounding St. Valentine. Then how about the factual stories of those who invent things to benefit mankind and they do that out of love for humanity? pic.twitter.com/EWfwRfY8uX
— ACW (@ACW1971) February 12, 2024

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It’s Monday. It’s slowly getting lighter in the evenings where I am. Hooray! More spring flowers emerging. Double hooray! Still Monday though. Still time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube -Likely Story.https://t.co/YmznGTpiks
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 12, 2024

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Thanks for the views on Likely Story, my new YouTube story. Subscribers to my channel are always welcome. I use Book Brush to create the video and use YouTube’s library of audio tracks (free to use) to add music. I create and edit the story itself first.https://t.co/UABhvVRjC1
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 13, 2024

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Publication and Course News

February 6, 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.

Great start to week with publication news.

On the other hand I was sad to hear of the deaths of Ian Lavender and Michael Jayston (Pike in Dad’s Army and young Gwillam in Tinker Tailor Solider Spy respectively, the 1970s’ TV version with Alec Guinness). Both did much else besides but these are probably what they will best be remembered for. Wishing the King well too after his cancer diagnosis (but believe it is a good thing he has been open about it).

Lady has had a good start to her week too, getting to play with her best girlfriends.

Facebook – General

Firstly, may I just a huge thank you to the wonderful response to my post yesterday about The Best of CafeLit 13. See below. The response was fantastic. Will share details later on in the summer when the book is out. Looking forward to that. The CafeLit anthologies are a fabulous read and I would say even if I wasn’t published in many of them, honest! If you want to find out more do head over to The Bridgetown Cafe Bookshop.

Secondly, I’ll be looking at Planning Out Your Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I share thoughts and tips and hope this will prove useful. Link up on Friday.

Screenshot 2024-02-06 at 16-56-54 The Bridgetown Café Bookshop

Publication News (and a personal best!)

So delighted to hear I will have not one, not two, but three stories in The Best of CafeLit 13, which will be out in the summer. This is a personal best for me. I have sometimes had two pieces in one book but never three before. Thrilled to see many familiar names in the list of acceptances here. Congratulations to all!

The lovely thing with the CafeLit books is that the stories are voted on by readers of the website so nobody can know their work will get in, yet alone how many pieces might make it into the books. Every reader on CafeLit who has had a story on there in the past twelve months has a voting right and I was pleased to vote. Naturally nobody is allowed to vote for their own work.

Pleased to say what I voted for made it in the book too. Am looking forward to a great read! And in the meantime, why not check out the fabulous stories available at the website.

Course News

Pleased to say the details of my two part course for The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick are now up on their website. So looking forward to Swanwick in August (and do check out the other courses and workshops. There is a wealth of wonderful information on offer here!).

Have been busy sending in stories for competitions. Have another ready to look at later today. Have ideas for where to submit that. Will be working my way through the Writing Magazine competition guide from next week as there were several possibilities of places so send in work. Some are charging a reasonable fee and others are charging no fee at all, but, as a rule of thumb, I always check out the background of a competition (and the organisers) first.

If happy, I go ahead. The reputable ones make it easy for you to find out their background, their terms and conditions and so on. Most of the competitions I’ve highlighted for myself I have already heard of, a few are new to me, but all are worth my checking them out.

Hope you are having a good weekend. Looking forward to sharing Planning Out Your Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Planning out writing is one of those topics which has huge resonance for me as my writing has progressed considerably since I started doing this.

Will be sharing thoughts and tips on how to make this work for you as each writer will need to figure out what works best for them to make the most of the time they have available to write. A bit of forethought here pays off considerably or so I’ve found.

Writing Tip: Give some thought to themes you like to write to and then work out what could come from those. For example, with St. Valentine’s Day coming up soon, an obvious topic would be love. But there is more than one kind of love to write about. It doesn’t just have to be about romantic love, though obviously that can be written up into stories too (and will be for always given it has such meaning for us).

So if I was thinking about writing a story based on love, I would then work out whether it would be romantic love, the love between friends which can lead to incredible acts of courage, sacrificial love, which can lead to a character going well out of their way to support a loved one, and so on. It pays to jot down what can come from strong themes like love. Doing that can throw up interesting angles to write about.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good day. Lady and I didn’t see any pals today but she had a great time (give her a toy and she’s well away) and hopes to see her friends tomorrow. Don’t know why it is but there seems to be roadworks everywhere right now in my area.

Talking of which, how about this for a writing prompt? Put your character in unexpected roadworks. How do they react? What difficulties does it cause them? Does it show something of their character to another character and are they impressed, or not, by what they discover here? Have fun but this is not one to write up if you’re stuck in roadworks!

Oh and bear in mind if you write fantasy, you can still use this prompt. What would their equivalent of roadworks be? Does magic help them get out of their traffic hold up or does it make things worse? Good possibilities for humour here.

It’s Monday. It’s time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Being In A Hurry. Suspect this may ring true for some of you! I know it does for me, the title alone has resonance for me.

When I write a humorous flash tale, I often know the ending first and then work out what led to it. Sometimes I know the kind of humorous scrape a character of mine would land themselves in and the humour arises naturally from how they get out of the situation I’ve dumped them in.

Sink or swim – my characters do have a choice, albeit a limited one! Both kinds of tale are great fun to write and I happily wave the flag for all humorous fiction. I do think it is underrated. I wish it wasn’t.

I like a mixture of story moods when reading and writing. I don’t want everything to be grim all the time. We get enough of that in the news!

One lovely review I had for Tripping the Flash Fantastic referred to the varied collection of characters and settings in the book. This is one of the things I love most about flash fiction, in terms of reading and writing it. I love being able to set characters wherever and whenever I want.

I get to focus on the single most important thing in the character’s life and hone in on that. It can deliver a powerful impact whether it is to make a reader laugh or cry or think. I like to think of it as undiluted fiction! I get straight to the point and that’s it. From a writing viewpoint, flash has shown me how to work out what is the most important thing to focus on and to get rid of waffle.

The advantage of the longer forms of writing is you can show more, all of which is relevant to the story. I love reading novels and discovering their layers. In series such as the Discworld one by Terry Pratchett, I love reading how established characters develop over the course of several books.

In flash fiction, there can only be one immediate layer but a good short piece will leave a reader thinking.

My The Pink Rose shows a relationship between mother and daughter and while there are not many words in this story, each one shows the depth of the relationship between these two. Little snippets of detail give information such as the mother not remembering teaching the daughter to read but the latter being so grateful she did. I like to think of that as layers within layers.

Goodreads Author Blog – Stories in Other Forms

No huge surprises here, folks, when I reveal my favourite forms of story are always in the pages of a book! That goes for ebooks too as that is a case of electronic pages! However, I love taking in stories in other forms too.

As well as audio books, I love taking in stories through the radio. My favourite here was a broadcast unabridged reading of Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time. Having heard the story, I then went and got the book.

Film can be another way of getting stories across (and is how other members of my family discovered the wonders of The Lord of the Rings. They would not have sat and read the trilogy but adored the Peter Jackson movies).

Recently I’ve reviewed a performance of The Sleeping Beauty, staged by my local excellent amateur dramatic company, for my weekly column on an online magazine (Chandler’s Ford Today). Naturally I know the fairy story well. I love pantomime, a wonderful British theatrical tradition which is thought to date back to the 16th century. Pantomime is brilliant in bringing the fairytales to life literally in front of your eyes. It is fun, produces huge laughs, and is a superb way of getting the stories to people. People remember these too.

Acting out stories is wonderful when done well. It keeps the stories alive. I would hope it would encourage people to go and check out the original tales in their written form too.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Stories in Other Forms https://t.co/G9Jy8MFxa4 via @goodreads I adore books. Always have. Always will. But there are other ways in which to take in stories. I discuss this for Goodreads this week. pic.twitter.com/r3hVsZVw8m
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 3, 2024

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Pleased to say the details of my two part course for The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick are now up on their website. So looking forward to Swanwick in August.https://t.co/CmVvuBORxm
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 4, 2024

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It’s Monday. It’s time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Being In A Hurry. Suspect this may ring true for some of you! I know it does for me, the title alone has resonance for me.https://t.co/aC4CdKRRmw
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 5, 2024

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Thrilled to hear I will have not 1, not 2, but 3 stories in The Best of CafeLit 13, due out in the summer. I have had 2 pieces in 1 book but never 3 before. Pleased to see familiar names in the acceptances. Congratulations, all! Do check out the website.https://t.co/bZ4jcAaXx4
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 5, 2024

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Writing Difficulties and Favourite Openings

January 30, 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. Had a marvellous time at the pantomime last week, review to follow in Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. Good to see more signs of spring emerging too – the snowdrops are out and the birds are busy nest building. Writing wise, have got a draft of a story down for another competition so will come back to that in a few days and work on it again.

Facebook – General

Chilly today but Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal this morning and happily showed off (I.e. racing around with her ball) in front of said pal (who looks on vaguely amused or so it seems to me. The Vizler is older than Lady).

Looking forward to sharing my review of The Sleeping Beauty as performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Do check out your own local amateur dramatic companies by the way – you are bound to find gems. I have! And going to the theatre is another way of taking in stories, when all is said and done.

Amused to see I have another one star review for Tripping the Flash Fantastic over on Amazon but no comments to go with it. Every author gets these so I guess it is a sign I am part of the “club” here then!

When I review books myself, I always pick out something I have liked to comment about. I don’t review books I dislike. Don’t think that’s fair to the author simply because no one author or book is going to please everybody. Things don’t work like that. And that’s fair enough. Tastes differ.

I have varied tastes in books but some things are just not for me so I give them a wide berth. But I’ve long believed the hatchet jobs say more about the reviewer than whoever is on the receiving end. That doesn’t just apply to books of course.

Don’t forget my author newsletter is out this coming Thursday. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Pleased to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, for my first post here of the New Year. I talk about Writing Difficulties this time. We all get them. We start a piece of work full of enthusiasm and then get bogged down.

My post looks at what I find can trigger struggling with writing for me (being overtired really does not help) and how I handle that. Being aware of what can trigger writing difficulties is so helpful because you can work out how to overcome these. It isn’t always possible to avoid them but it helps a lot as well to know you’re not alone here.

Hope you find the post useful.

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Hope the weekend has gone well. Spotted first snowdrops today.

When I’ve got odd moments of time when I can write something, but not necessarily enough time for a flash piece or short story, I jot down ideas for titles, promising opening lines etc.

I also start drafting blog posts, perhaps an opening paragraph or so. It is great to have something to come back to later. Those pockets of time do mount up as I’ve mentioned before. I also make a point of starting the next blog posts as soon as I can after publication of others.

So for the monthly Authors Electric and More than Writers I am starting to draft the following month’s posts as soon as the current ones have been published. I can then add to these pieces throughout the month. I usually find I have a post finished, edited, and pictures selected for it about ten days before my posts are due for these two places. I like that.

What I try not to do is leave writing a post until almost the last minute. That doesn’t work for me. I find drafting my newsletters over the course of a month also works well. It means I just have to send myself a test email a few days before it is due out. I can spot anything I need to add in or change, do so, and then I know the newsletter is good to go on the first of the month.

I am a big believer in taking pressure off myself. Knowing I have something drafted helps with that a lot. For fiction, I do similarly with competition entries and use my diary to ensure I get things off in good time. It may be old school using a diary but as I mentioned recently it works.

Hope you have had a good day. Great to see some signs of spring appearing. Am spotting daffodils beginning to emerge.

Looking forward to sharing my review of The Sleeping Beauty performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company this week. Pantomime is a great tradition in the UK and long may it continue.

It is amazing how long admin tasks connected with writing can take. I’ve had to change my email over the Christmas period and getting everything updated has taken longer than I thought. I am there now though (or at least I believe I am, time will tell!).

On a much more fun note, I’m glad to say the flash fiction group meeting (for ACW) went well on Wednesday. I’m also going through the Writing Magazine competition guide and marking up several possibilities for flash fiction and short story competitions. Am looking forward to checking these out and giving them a try.

Next issue of Writers’ Narrative magazine will be out soon. Watch this space. Will share the link once I have it.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

One of my favourite openings to a story of mine comes from Decisions from Tripping the Flash Fantastic. It reads He could watch the world end or jump on to the alien spaceship that encouraged visitors.

You’ve got to read on and find out what happens, right?

That’s the whole point of having a strong, intriguing opening line. You want to draw those readers in but you do need then to deliver on the promise given by that opening line.

This is why I outline. I work things first out and then write my draft. It helps me ensure I do deliver on that promise.

It’s Monday. It’s slowly getting lighter in the evenings. It’s still Monday and time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Sunset.

Inspiration for this came from a random phrase generator which I then adapted further. I often use these things as a starting point. I also will take phrases and proverbs and change one word – that can affect the mood of the story I then write. It’s good fun to do – why not give it a go?

One aspect to Flash NANO I loved was the variety of prompts but this included those I wasn’t so keen on. I thought this was a good thing.

It made me go outside of my comfort zone for one thing. For another, it encouraged me to think laterally as to how I would tackle those prompts. And I did produce something to these, as well as for those I knew I could do having done those kinds of prompts before.

It does pay you to try different kinds of writing prompt because it will prepare well for writing to different themes for competitions. It’s also not a bad idea to mix up the word counts you write to for flash as mentioned yesterday. See further down.

I try to think along the lines of what can I do with this rather than have not done this before, can’t do this. You can. This is where I think jotting down your prompt and then working out what could come from it helps. Think along the lines of flowcharts and spider diagrams here. There is something about the act of writing something down which helps me to kick start the imagination.

For example one prompt I hadn’t done before last year was the one sentence only/stream of consciousness writing one. I wouldn’t usually write like that. I did do something for it. I won’t use this prompt directly but what came out of that prompt may form the basis for a longer flash piece at a later date. What I came up with was part of an early memory of mine.

Now I could take that and apply it to a character. Or I could get a character to tell me “their” early memory. But there are ideas I could work up here. That is the point of any writing prompt – to make you see what you can do and there will be something, even if it takes you longer than normal to think of something.

I like to mix up the word counts I write to when writing flash stories. For some sites like Friday Flash Fiction, I stick to the 100 worder (aka the drabble) but elsewhere most of my stories end up at between the 100 and 500 words mark. A lot of flash fiction competitions are based around the 100 to 500 words mark so it is not a bad idea to practice writing to these word counts. I’ve found it pays!

But sometimes when I have a character who has more to show us, then I will write to the 750 to 1000 words mark. Sometimes I do need the full extent of flash fiction to show the full depth of a character because a reader needs to see that to make sense of the tale. So I get the story written first, edit it, and then and only then think about what the word count should be.

For Friday Flash Fiction, where I know what I am writing to word count wise, that tells me just how much I can show via my characters. It has to be short and sharp – so my works are. I can show one incident and one character.

Goodreads Author Blog – What Books Do For Us

Aptly, I could write chapter and verse on this one but I will limit it. Books are one of the best inventions we’ve come up with as a species. Books entertain us and take us away from our cares for a while. Books educate us. Books inspire us.

Reading encourages empathy as we follow what characters do and root for them to succeed. In the case of villains where we’re normally rooting for them to fail, there is still some empathy here usually for what the hero has to overcome. Sometimes you can see where the villains are coming from but still don’t agree with their actions. So again there is some empathy. Encouraging empathy is good for us per se.

And then there are the stories of the writers who bring us the books we love. The stories of how they overcame difficulties and became published authors inspire so many and do continue to inspire me though I am now published myself.

In writing books, authors have to think about their characters, what they’re going to do, what the plot line is going to be and so on. Working all of that out has to be beneficial for the brain, I would have thought. Certainly I know writing inspires me to try and write more and better. The striving behind writing and bringing books out is a good thing too.

I’ve loved the rise of the indie press, partly because I am published by them, but mainly because they are bringing more books to more people and giving more authors a voice.

Last but definitely not least, there is a genre and format of book to suit everyone – ebooks, audio books, crime fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, and all manner of other genres and formats.

Books are meant to be enjoyed. Long live the book!

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: What Books Do For Us https://t.co/8JXBSEcQcq via @goodreads This post was a real joy to write. I celebrate books and what they do for us in this post. Hope you enjoy it. pic.twitter.com/e9gSj37GSU
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 27, 2024

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It’s Monday. It’s slowly getting lighter in the evenings. It’s still Monday and time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Sunset.https://t.co/sYodNtOWXn
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 29, 2024

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More than Writers: Writing Difficulties by Allison Symes https://t.co/xLEoXLyv2A Am talking about Writing Difficulties this time for MTW. Being aware of what can trigger writing difficulties is useful because you can work out how to handle them. Hope you find the post useful. pic.twitter.com/De0FmVvXBd
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 29, 2024

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CafeLit, Resting Stories, and the Influence of Music

January 23, 2024Leave a comment

As well as my own books, I was pleased to see a book I edited here too, The City of Stories

Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good weekend. Also hope the storms have not caused too much damage – feel so sorry for those who’ve lost power. Hope all is restored soon. Glad to report publication news and Lady having a great time with her best friends – a good start to this week anyway.

Facebook – General

How long should you rest a story before coming back to edit it? There is no definite answer to this as far as I know though the longer the work, the longer the rest period. You really do need to come back to a piece and read it with fresh eyes.

I find with my flash fiction and short stories a week to ten days is enough but a novelist will need considerably longer than that. After all you have immersed yourself in the world of your novel and it will take you a while to come out of that world so you can then assess it objectively. With short stories and flash fiction, you enter the story world quickly. You come out of it again quickly.

I have always found though that the time away is invaluable in spotting errors. I have no idea why I don’t see them after immediately writing the story but the fact is I don’t. I need that break away to spot things like typos, grammatical errors, but also where I’ve missed words out. That is so easily done. Your brain fills in what you mean to say and you can assume you’ve typed it. Err…. No. Not necessarily. Only coming back to the story after a break makes this kind of error stand out – and we all do it.

So don’t see the rest period as a waste of time. It’s far from that. It can help you get your story right and give it a better chance of being published. Besides which, I get on and draft more stories or blogs during that rest period. Well, there’s always something to write up, which is how I like things to be.

Hope your week has got off to a reasonable start, despite the storms raging in the UK at the moment. Monday night is story night. Coming up on my book page shortly will be my YouTube video for this week (see further down) but right here and now I’m pleased to say I have another story published on CafeLit.

Hope you enjoy An Unexpected Alliance. CafeLit like writers to assign a drink to their stories. I’ve selected raspberry tea for mine – can be sweet, can be tart! I thought it apt for this story. See what you think.

Hope your weekend is going well. Busy week coming up. Am looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom on Wednesday. And I’m off to the panto, Sleeping Beauty, on Thursday – oh yes I am! In between that I’m also off to a meeting on one evening and then the dentists for the usual checkup on another afternoon. Nobody wins it all, do they?!

Have a story to submit this week so will be working on the finishing touches to that later today. Plus there is another competition I’ve got my eye on – and an idea for – so need to get on with a first draft. But these are fun things to do and I can stay out of the wild winds doing them!

(Lady doesn’t respond that much to bad weather, she just gets on with it, though I have noted she can be more skittish when there are strong winds about. I understand toddlers are much the same. There’s a link here).

Hope you have had a good day. Glad to say it’s warmed up a bit here but I stress it is only by a bit!

Will be looking at Fairytales and Pantomime for Chandler’s Ford Today next week, ahead of my review of the performance of Sleeping Beauty, which I hope to put up the week afterwards. I am due to go and see this show with my lovely editor at CFT, Janet Williams, on Thursday. The Chameleon Theatre Group always put on a good show and their pantomimes are always a great laugh so am looking forward to this a lot.

Have been sorting out my bookshelves today. Pleased to say I’ve now got all of my books, including the anthologies I’ve been in over the years, all in one place. Next to them are books written (and signed for me) by friends. Have wanted to get these in one place for some time. So job now done and a perfect task to do on a chilly day. Still want to see more books by me up there though! (Am working on it before you ask…!).

The next edition of Writers’ Narrative will be out soon. Don’t forget you can subscribe for free. See the link.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope today has been okay. Am also hoping the forecast storm tonight isn’t as bad as the last one (Sunday night).

Writing Tip: Do make the most of a good old fashioned diary to help you plan out what you’ll write when. I find mine invaluable. I used the A4 ones but I find committing myself to getting something done by such and such a date means I am more likely to do it. It is like making an appointment with myself.

Notebooks are brilliant for writing exercises but you can’t beat a diary for scheduling. I also find the act of writing something down with old school pens again commits me to getting done what I would like to get done. I am also old school enough to want pens to come into the writing process somewhere!

Do check out my author page on Facebook where I share my latest tale on CafeLit but you know what the drill is here on my book page on a Monday night.

It is indeed Monday. It’s stormy. It’s dark. There are signs of spring on the way (I’ve spotted daffodil shoots in my garden, hope the storms don’t blast them away!). But it is definitely time for another story.
My latest on my YouTube channel is Other Options Are Available. Hope you enjoy it.

Looking forward to the first ACW Flash Fiction Group meeting of the year on Wednesday night. Will be lovely to talk flash again! We’ll be looking at the topic of newness, apt for the first month of a new year.

It is worth exploring open topics such as newness for story ideas, by the way. You could take this in a few directions. For example, what is new in your character’s life and do they welcome that or not? Plus you can put your character in a situation new to them.

Other good topics could include breaking the rut (just how does your character do that?), opportunities (which and does your character take them?), and so on. A broad topic can be split down into separate threads, any one of which could be a story trigger.

Pleased to say Amazon have a very good offer on the paperback of my From Light to Dark and Back Again. See link for more details.

Does music influence what you write? I find classical doesn’t. What it does do is relax me and when I’m relaxed, I just get on and write. I find I write more too.

I haven’t yet used music in a story but it is always an option! I do like adding audio tracks to my flash stories on YouTube though. It is fun finding what I think will be an appropriate choice from the vast options YouTube give you (and no need to worry about copyright here either. Some pieces you do have to put an acknowledgement in your description of the video but there are so many where you don’t even have to do that).

If you haven’t come across my channel here, please check it out at the link. I’ll be adding another story to this on Monday. See above.

Goodreads Author Blog – The Value of Story Collections

I write for story collections as well as having my own flash fiction books out with Chapeltown Books. So I appreciate story collections and have a number on my shelves, including those I have not written for.

I love novels. I love short stories. I love mixing up reading longer work with shorter work. I think short story and flash fiction collections are invaluable additions to my book shelves. Story collections are perfect for dipping into, especially when you don’t have as much time to read as you would like. It happens.

From my viewpoint as a writer, I have found at book events, it is easy to share a little bit from my collections to show what flash fiction is and can be. I’ve made sales that way! People love being read to and indeed I love this myself.

So when you are wondering what your next book should be, why not turn to the shorter form and try out a collection or two? They are also excellent for introducing you to other writers. I’ve come across great writers, whose works I’ve loved, this way.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Do you use writing prompts and, if so, which are your favourites? I love the opening line kind because I can work out what could come from them. I go with what I like best, which is the one that makes the most impact on me. A reader is likely to experience the same impact here. pic.twitter.com/WKuV3CfV6h
— ACW (@ACW1971) January 20, 2024

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: The Value of Story Collections https://t.co/vau5gWaNGc via @goodreads I celebrate short story/flash collections this week. Okay, I'm biased. I'm published in both but I share why I think reading short forms, as well as longer ones, is a fab idea. pic.twitter.com/BJbi9DI52d
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 20, 2024

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I like to mix up the writing prompts I use as I find it helpful to challenge myself this way. I use random generators to trigger ideas but also use story cubes, my book of proverbs, and books of prompts (I’ve contributed to some too). Mix things up and have fun is my motto here. pic.twitter.com/p43dC8yuhr
— ACW (@ACW1971) January 21, 2024

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Writing prompts can be a good warm up exercise ahead of your main writing session because they are a great in getting you started. Once I start writing, I keep going. Sometimes it can be the getting started which is the tricky bit. Try different prompts and see which suits you. pic.twitter.com/ypnWcXodnq
— ACW (@ACW1971) January 22, 2024

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It is Monday. It’s stormy. It’s dark. There are signs of spring (I’ve spotted daffodil shoots in my garden, hope storms don’t blast them away!). But it is definitely time for another story. My latest on my YouTube channel is Other Options Are Available.https://t.co/KQTzacoocQ
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 22, 2024

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CafeLitMagazine: An Unexpected Alliance by Allison Symes, raspberr… https://t.co/lj6tcOIpWc Thrilled to be back on CafeLit. Hope you enjoy An Unexpected Alliance. CafeLit like writers to assign a drink to their stories. I’ve selected raspberry tea – it's sweet and tart! pic.twitter.com/FuCVkl5Igt
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 22, 2024

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Writing Tips, Course News, and Finding Blog Ideas

January 16, 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 Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick (taken in much warmer times – last August!). Many thanks to Julia Pattison for taking the publicity shot of me at my editing workshop at August 2023’s Swanwick too.

Hope you have had a good few days. Good weekend writing wise and one of my stories submitted over it will be published soon. More details in a future post. Plus I do have news to share of a two part course I will be running later this year. Good start to 2024! Lady continuing to have fabulous times with her best friends so she thinks she’s got off to a good start for 2024 as well.

Facebook – General

Brrr… it has been a tad on the nippy side today. Wearing enough layers to act as my own buoyancy aid should the need arise. Hope you have had a good day (and do keep safe. No snow here. Know it has fallen heavily elsewhere).

Will be sharing advice and tips in Newsletter Tips for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Talking of which my next one will be out on 1st February. To sign up please head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

A huge thank you for the kind comments on my post yesterday where I shared news about the course I’ll be running at Swanwick later this year. Much appreciated. Looking forward to August already – mind you, the cold snap here encourages that feeling!

Writing Tip: Finding ideas for blogs such as Chandler’s Ford Today, Authors Electric, More than Writers etc is something I have to do a lot obviously but a good way in to this is to look at what interests you as a reader and as a writer because you won’t be the only one interested in those themes.

Some of the topics I write about are based on what I have found out on my writing journey and would be useful to share. My Newsletter Tips post this week comes into that category. Sometimes I write about books. Sometimes I use seasonal topics (for example, I always write something about the importance of remembering in November).

Occasionally I will use the random generators – especially the question one – to trigger ideas. I looked up one for this post and what came up was Who inspires you to be better? Now that’s a fabulous question and the answer to it would make for a great blog (Allison, do note this one for yourself at some point!).

Screenshot 2024-01-01 at 19-36-05 Allison Symes - January 2024 - A New Writing Year

Course News

Thrilled to say I will be running a two part course at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, in August. My topic will be Hints and Tips on Editing. So looking forward to this and to being at Swanwick once more. For me, if there is a home for writers so to speak, Swanwick is it. Lovely start to 2024 too.

For more details on Swanwick, see the link. Writing Magazine, in conjunction with the School, are running a Win Your Way to Swanwick competition. You have to the end of March 2024 on this one and there are three categories – short stories, poetry, and writing for children. See the Writing Magazine link for more information.

Nice start to the week and pleased to say another story of mine will be on CafeLit next week. Heard today on that one. More details and link to come in due course.

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A good writing exercise is to take a character and put them in different word count stories – for example, 100 words, 200 words, 300 words etc. You can either take the same basic story and extend it (without padding of course) or, as I prefer to do, put the character in a short sharp 100-worder, then put them in different situations for the longer flashes. Three different stories but with one character. Well worth a go and is an interesting challenge especially if you go for the different situations scenario.

And of course you choose how many you do. I’ve prepared something recently on this for the next Association of Christian Writers Flash Group meeting and I went for one character, two different stories but you can do as many as you like. So if you have a character you really want to spend more time with then this is a way to do so.

Hope you have had a good day. Still pretty cold. Will be looking at Newsletter Tips for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Link up on Friday.

It was a joy to welcome back Val Penny on yesterday’s post New Year New Writing Format for Val Penny. Always glad to welcome someone to the short story and flash fiction worlds!

Writing Tip: Think about what it is you love about stories and characters. Is it the way the author has used select details to reveal more about them or the way they speak? Is it the way the story “comes together” for a satisfying resolution?

Look at how the story starts, look out for the tipping point roughly in the middle, heading to the resolution/conclusion. (The latter are often combined). Look at how the writer has ended their story in what is the right place (or what you think, because you love the story, is the right place).

Working out when to end a story can be tricky. It can be tempting to add in just that bit more, especially if you adore the characters, but you want to look for an ending which leaves the reader feeling no more could be said or should be. And a great way to work out what that could be is to see what other authors have done – yet another great reason to get more reading done!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have kept warm today. Brrr… it’s bitter out there. Lady ran around as normal. No problems with her keeping warm.

What is it you like most about stories of any length or genre? For me, the characters have to interest me enough to make me want to read to find out what they get up to and that usually happens if they’re facing dilemmas that have to be solved, one way or another.

I have a soft spot for humorous works where the resolution to the dilemmas faced by the characters usually provide a good laugh. Would love to see humorous fiction and non-fiction appreciated more than it is. We could do with more to laugh about, yes?

Flash can come into its own for humorous stories. I often end a humorous flash with a punchline ending. The form’s brevity makes this the perfect way to end a story. You leave the reader on a high note. Nothing to dislike there!

It’s Monday. It’s January. It’s freezing. Time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Toppings. Find out what happens when a trainee fairy loses a magical duel and where hats come into it all.

I usually write a flash fiction story for Friday Flash Fiction and then another for my YouTube channel afterwards. Sometimes I take the same topic but take it in contrasting directions. So if one story is a “dark” one, the other will be lighter. I like doing that.

Most topics/themes are suitable for working with like that. I don’t write on the topics/themes which, for good reason, can only be grim. I see my role as writer to be one of someone trying to entertain so there are some topics I don’t touch. But there are plenty of other ideas to write up and that is where I focus.

Sometimes I keep the mood for my flash pieces the same but go for two different topics/themes. All good fun to do! And I like to mix up how I approach writing the stories. Sometimes I use random generators (and there are so many of these to choose from you are not going to run out, honestly!), or pick a proverb to use as a theme/title. Sometimes a film or book I like inspires me.

It is the getting started on ideas for stories that can be tricky at times so it pays to have a variety of methods to play with.

Reviews are what every author would like and find difficult to get but please consider giving a review. They don’t have to be long. And an author can use a review or parts of it to help with their marketing, which in turn can help with book sales and visibility on Amazon etc. Also a bit of encouragement goes a long way when you’re at your desk writing away.

For example, part of a lovely review I had for Tripping the Flash Fantastic reads The storytelling was beautiful in so few words which takes the talent and skill of a practiced author.

Lovely and unexpected and a real boost to yours truly.

I do give reviews myself – mainly on books though I do sometimes on groceries etc. I find you can get a good “feel” for whether something is likely to suit you or not by reading the reviews. If the majority are favourable, they’re likely to be right.

Same goes other way round (and am glad to say I’ve never come across this one with books. I have come across it with grocery items at times – what do I do here? Avoid said product!).

Goodreads Author Blog – Making History Gripping

Making history gripping is something that applies to fiction and non-fiction. Given a writer is telling the story of something that has happened or a biography of a historical figure, it should be gripping to read. History is so full of drama and vivid characters, it should catch the reader’s attention and hold it until we get to the end.

Am currently reading historical non-fiction and loving it. Hope to review in due course but what I love about this particular book is the way in which evidence is presented for the case the author is making. It shows the facts and resources used and you just have to read on to find out what will be uncovered next.

I also love creative non-fiction here as history often comes up in this. Creative non-fiction can give a kind of licence to fill in the gaps where facts are not known but it has to be done in context with what is known. A reader has to feel that this is plausible given what is known.

I enjoy history in hardback, paperback, and the Kindle and am glad to see there are so many ways to approach what, for me at least, is an engrossing topic. I’ve also enjoyed historical romance (The Warrior’s Prize by Jennifer C Wilson because this showed me aspects of history for an era I didn’t know much about as well as having a great romance story with it. I will declare I do know the author but I liked the book because it showed me aspects of border life back in medieval times which was an area of history I haven’t really explored).

So even if you like “just stories”, history can meet a need here too. Why not check out historical fiction? It will show you history as you’ve not seen it before. I learned a lot about King John from reading The Lady of Hay.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Making History Gripping https://t.co/Q5jgTKetCF via @goodreads I discuss Making History Gripping for Goodreads this week. I love history in fiction, non-fiction, paperback, hardback, and ebook. Historical fiction can help bring eras to life too. pic.twitter.com/T348bkrDi3
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 13, 2024

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It’s Monday. It’s January. It’s freezing. Time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Toppings. Find out what happens when a trainee fairy loses a magical duel and where hats come into it all.https://t.co/cjB1ND6tBg
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 15, 2024

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Characters and Lost In A Bad Book

January 9, 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 had a good weekend. Had first snow in my part of the world but it didn’t settle. Big coat time! Mind you, Lady takes the view her coat suits all weathers and all occasions! Was pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction last week and have managed to get in my first competition entry of the year so a good start.

Facebook – General

Brrr…bitterly cold in my part of the world today, not that Lady noticed. I did though!

Delighted to say I’ll be welcoming back Val Penny to Chandler’s Ford Today this week to discuss her new short story collection, Hunter’s Christmas and Other Stories.

Naturally I was intrigued by the challenges a novelist like Val faced when writing the much shorter form of story. Writing short stories and flash is a challenge anyway but when you are used to writing the longer works, perhaps they are even more so!

Look out for interesting thoughts and tips on writing the short form and what led Val to go down this particular writing route. I’ll be sharing the interview on Friday and it will be part of Val’s blog tour this week.

Hope you have had a good Monday. Had some snow here but ground still so wet from the horrendous rain late last week it wasn’t going to settle. Lady got off to a cracking start to her week by getting to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals.

Pleased with my writing weekend. I finished a story I’d been working on and got that sent off to a competition I had my eye on so nice to get the ball rolling with this one. Also working on various blogs and a couple of PowerPoints for future use.

It is one of those things that I do tend to write a fair bit over the weekend and less so on a Monday (too many other domestic things going on which even I can’t put off) but I take the view as long as over the week as a whole I’ve got certain things done, that’s fine.

I don’t set myself a word count target per day because I know life can get in the way of that. I do set myself a task I’d like to get done each day (and for longer works to get to a next stage on them). Most of the time I do it and that’s fine because when I can’t, it’s because I’m away, ill etc. Learning not to beat yourself up as a writer helps a lot! A relaxed writer is (usually) a reasonably happy one!

Hope you are having a good weekend. Weather has dried out but it has become bitterly cold. Still, it is January. Lady doesn’t mind the weather but when the rain is especially heavy she’s not sorry to get home either.

Characters are the bedrock of any story in any format because they are what readers/listeners/viewers get behind. We like Character X. We hope Character Y gets their overdue comeuppance etc. This is why I start with working out characters and then figuring out the kind of story they would star in to be at their best or worst (depending on whether they’re the villain or not. A “good” villain will be at their worst after all).

So understanding what makes us tick is key to understanding what could make your characters tick. This is where reading widely comes in because it gives you the chance to work out the kind of characters you like reading about. From that, you can work out what it is you like and then how you can apply that to your own creations. There will always be a need for good and bad characters in fiction – what matters is how we portray them.

Many thanks for the great comments coming in on A New Start, my first story on Friday Flash Fiction for 2024. Hopefully, many more stories to come and do check out the website – there are marvellous tales here.

Why do I love the drabble/100-worder?

Firstly, it was my introduction to the world of flash fiction so it will always have a special place in my heart just due to that.

Secondly, I just adore the tightness of this word count limit. You have enough words to give enough detail but nothing more.

Thirdly, these are great for twist endings and/or humorous ones. These work well in the longer forms of flash fiction too but I think there is something more direct about the 100-worder. Impact isn’t diluted because the word count here is so tight.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Writing for online sites such as CafeLit and Friday Flash Fiction is a great way to hone your writing skills and, in the case of the latter, to get useful feedback on your stories.

In the case of CafeLit you have the chance to end up in their annual print anthology too. CafeLit takes stories from 100 words up to 3000 words so there is plenty of scope there for the flash fiction and short story writers. Why not give both websites a try?

With Friday Flash Fiction, you need to send in one x 100 word story. If they like it, that goes on their site on the following Friday. Then you can do the same again. After that they will be open to you sending in longer flash pieces but you do have to have two x 100 word stories on site with them over two weeks before you send in longer work. The idea with them is you create a new piece of flash for one Friday and then another one for another week. You don’t get to send in two stories in one week. See the link for further information.

Have fun here. I do!

It’s Monday. It has been snowing. Being a dog owner, am used to having to put a big coat on! It’s dark. It’s cold. It’s story time then. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Lost in a Bad Book.

One of the challenges of writing flash fiction is in continuing to come up with interesting characters. Thankfully, it is a challenge I love!

I mentioned over on my Facebook author page that characters are the bedrock of any story. See above. This is especially true for flash fiction. There isn’t the word count room for lots of description so I make sure I focus on the telling details which will reveal something of the setting and/or the character, leaving readers to fill in the gaps and they do.

It is one of the charms of the form. Readers do have to work things out. This is also true for crime fiction. Who doesn’t like trying to guess who the murderer is after all?

My job is to make sure I have put the right clues in place so readers can do this. The idea is at the end of the story, people can go back and think, yes, this clue should have made me realise this could be the outcome here. Twists must come from within the plot and character. Even in a fantasy setting, it all has to make sense.

Hope you are having a a great weekend, the first “proper” one back after Christmas. I see Amazon have updated the look of the Author Central pages. I like the new look. You can check mine out at the link.

With their update, I took the opportunity to update my author bio on here so it now includes what I write/do for Writers’ Narrative. Periodically it pays to have a look at this and update accordingly. It is too easy to forget to do it though!

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Goodreads Author Blog – The World of Books

I can’t imagine a world without books. I don’t want to either. But that does not mean I need my stories (whether I write them or read them) to be solely set in this world, a planet we know. I love fantasy, fairytales, and sci-fi. These story worlds can show us something of what we are like. Stories set in the future show us what we could be.

I love the way books can take us anywhere – past, present, future – and any setting – known or fantastical. While some fantasy worlds are easier to understand than others, I find I’ve got to salute the imagination behind them all. What is a book without imagination behind it? Blank!

Yes, there has to be imagination behind non-fiction works too. How does the author conjure up, say, a historical world which will intrigue present day readers? They have to think of the details which will draw us into this world.

I love historical fiction and non-fiction. I remain thankful I live in the era I do, for all its faults, but I can explore past worlds via books. Safest way to to do it too. I really would not fancy being at the court of Henry VIII, say, but I can explore that world thanks to books.

The world of books is an amazing one – any time, any place, anywhere. There is also room for more worlds to be invented in fantasy and sci-fi too. The only limit is our imagination. Books encourage us to develop that imagination.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

liked Allison Symes's blog post: The World of Books https://t.co/z1nAQBiBzM via @goodreads I celebrate the world of books for Goodreads this week. For me this includes fantasy/fairytale, sci-fi, and history. Books enable me to explore settings past, present, and invented. Fun! pic.twitter.com/DghWrKrUv5
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 6, 2024

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It’s Monday. It has been snowing. Being a dog owner, am used to having to put a big coat on! It’s dark. It’s cold. It’s story time then. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Lost in a Bad Book. https://t.co/bpzEcVARLK
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 8, 2024

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Delighted to say I’ll be welcoming back Val Penny to Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday to discuss her new short story collection, Hunter’s Christmas and Other Stories. Naturally I was intrigued by the challenges a novelist like Val faced when writing the much shorter form of story. pic.twitter.com/OO64pkIvUJ
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 9, 2024

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Happy New Year!

January 2, 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.

Happy New Year! Hope it includes lots of lovely reading/writing. I’d like to find authors new to me this year as well as get more things published and have a go at more flash fiction competitions. Not exactly New Year resolutions but good things to aim for. (Lady loved Christmas by the way and, yes, Santa Paws did visit).

Facebook – General

Lady and I got a good soaking so I guess we have got back into routine well enough! Mind you, I did manage to have a far more pleasant soaking when I went swimming today. Now I’d like to say dry for the rest of the day – not a big ask I think!

Good to resume submitting flash pieces to Friday Flash Fiction.

Have got a couple of other pieces drafted for potential competitions so am pleased with that (though I will ‘fess up and say one of them is a draft based on one of my Flash NANO 2023 stories. Having said that, this is the whole idea of Flash NANO – to prepare work at the time and then edit and submit it somewhere at a time of my choosing!

I’ll be looking at The Joys of Writing Dialogue for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday.

1st January 2024 – New Year’s Day

Happy New Year! Happy new writing/reading year too.

Author newsletter went out earlier today. One good thing about January being such a long month is I have plenty of time to think about the next one! I will be doing something a bit different for the February edition, more details much later on in the month.

Was pleased with efforts at the writing desk over the weekend – short story drafted, blog posts drafted – feels good to be back in the saddle again.

Do you review your writing year on New Year’s Eve? I do look to have had work published during the year, made progress (running more workshops is a good example of that), and got on with my longer term project. Am pleased I have made good progress on all three of these things. As for the coming year, would like more of the same and even more stories out there.

Glad to see my author newsletter is growing steadily. Next one will be out tomorrow, New Year’s Day. (The 1st is a handy date to remember!). If you’d like to sign up for tips, news, story links etc, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I enjoy various newsletters from other writers too. We learn and inspire from one another. That’s one aspect to the writing life/community I adore. Let’s hope for more of that in 2024 for us all! It is such a pity you can’t store inspiration for those times when we flag a bit. It would be lovely to drag that store of inspiration out for those times.

Mind you, I do go with the P.G. Wodehouse principle of applying the seat of the pants to the seat of the chair regularly. It gets my brain into “it’s writing time then” mode and I find that useful. I also find it helpful to just free write sometimes. I inevitably won’t ever do anything with those pieces of writing but they can be excellent warm up writing exercises.

Hope you have had a good day. I must admit it doesn’t feel like the weekend. I couldn’t tell you what day of the week it does feel like though!

I’ll be looking at The Joys of Writing Dialogue for Chandler’s Ford Today as my first post there for 2024. Link up on Friday. You’ll get to find out what conversational ping-pong has to do with it too.

Looking forward to resuming what I know as flash fiction writing day (aka Sunday afternoon). Do have longer short stories to draft for later on in the year but this time of year is great for brewing ideas and then going with the ones I like best.

Am slowly getting back to my writing routine and am adoring my Christmas books.

What do I hope for in 2024 writing wise? Hmm… well would love to have more stories published but this is an ongoing wish. One good thing about that one is there is no use by date on it! Would like to do more workshops etc. Looking forward to usual writing events.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good day. I’ve spent a lot of It getting wet (walking with the dog – unavoidable – and then swimming, which was fine!).

Have spotted a flash competition I want to have a go at, which I’ve not tried before. I do want to enter more new competitions this year so see this as a promising start. Deadline is mid-February. Am also drafting a longer short story for submission elsewhere. So getting off to a good start!

I love mixing my story moods when writing flash (which is how From Light to Dark and Back Again got its title). Flash encourages focus on the character(s) and I can set them wherever and whenever I want to – and I do.

Writing Prompt: Take any well known proverb and see if you can write (1) a sad story based on it and (2) a funny one based on it. Proverbs are great sources for themes and most themes can be taken in more than one direction.

1st January 2024 – New Year’s Day

Happy New Year! It’s Monday, it’s dark, it’s chucking it down with rain where I am, it’s still Monday but it is the start of a brand new year. Definitely calls for a story and what else could my latest on YouTube be called but Happy New Year! Hope you enjoy (and find out if Mary is too late for a late romance after all).

The days of my staying up to see the New Year in ended when I realised I really do appreciate my sleep more! And, funnily enough, after a great writing session, I usually do feel shattered. Time to wind down with a good book then before snoozing. It is lovely to switch from writing stories to reading them. It is such a lovely way to relax.

Sunday afternoon is usually when I get a fair bit of flash written (or I’m drafting a longer short story for a competition). I don’t tend to measure my writing output by word count which may seem odd for me to say given flash focuses on a limited word count.

What I look to have achieved by the end of a writing session is to focus on what have I got done. Have I completed a draft? Have I edited a draft? Am I working out ideas for future blog posts etc? As long as I can think yes, got this done, got that done, or am well on my way to getting it done (for longer works) then I’m happy. I take the view the word counts will mount up as I press on.

It doesn’t really feel like almost the end of another year to me. This odd time between Christmas and New Year almost feels unreal. But it is lovely getting back to the writing again. Will be back on with my flash fiction writing tomorrow afternoon I hope as I often do use Sunday afternoons to get a fair bit done here.

Do have an interim goal of trying to get more flash submitted to more places this year (and I suspect my drafts for Flash NANO 2023 may well prove handy here!).

Talking of the passing of time, what do your characters make of it? Do you ever use Time as a character?

I’ve used the phrase Time Waits For No Man as a title (in fact, I’ve used it twice but the stories are totally different. The title was apt for each story though!). And in my The Pink Rose I use time as a thread throughout the story as we see one character go through something witnessed by her daughter. The latter also fears time given what she has witnessed.

So maybe this is a good time to think about using time in our stories then.

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Goodreads Author Blog – New Year, New Books, New Authors

Well, this had to be the topic for my final Goodreads post for 2023. I’ve had a great reading (and writing) year. Hope you have too. Delighted with my Christmas book presents.

Am reading three of them together – as you do. They’re a great mix too – one is crime, one is history non-fiction, and the other is biography (the late great Terry Pratchett’s A Life In Footnotes). Loving all three books so far. Hope to review later.

So for the new year, what would I like which is book related?

Naturally, I would like to discover authors new to me this year. I often find going to writing events is a fabulous way to do this. I also like using the Kindle to try out authors new to me. If I like what I’ve read, I may well then go on to buy other books from that author in paperback.

Naturally also, I will be on the look out for new books by authors I already love reading. On a personal note, I’m keeping my fingers crossed my own third book will be out in 2024 but will keep you posted on that one.

I do hope 2024 gives us all plenty of excellent reading material. To fellow writers out there, may your pens/laptops etc be blessed by inspiration! We always need stories.

Happy New (Reading and Writing) Year!

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: New Year, New Books, New Authors https://t.co/y3C9UhU1vg via @goodreads I celebrate the thought of a new year meaning discovering new books and authors new to me. Hope you have a very happy New Reading (and Writing) Year! pic.twitter.com/WQ3NjiYEss
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 30, 2023

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Happy New Year! It’s Monday, dark, chucking it down with rain, but it is the start of a brand new year. Calls for a story and what else could my latest on YouTube be called but Happy New Year! Find out if Mary is too late for a late romance after all.https://t.co/uURby7HwXf
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 1, 2024

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Happy New Year! Happy new writing/reading year too.
Author newsletter went out earlier today. I will be doing something a bit different for the February edition, more details much later on in the month.https://t.co/cL069RBQLf
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 1, 2024

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Approaching a New Year/Reviewing Your Writing Year

December 29, 2023Leave 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 Richard Hardie and Julia Pattison for images of me in my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week.

I hope you had a lovely Christmas and hope you go on to have a Happy New Year. It was nice having a break and catching up with family. Lady was spoiled rotten. And I have several new books to read so am very happy about that! This post is a round up one covering the Christmas period. Back to my normal twice weekly routine here from next year (but then that’s only a few days away now!).

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

29th December – CFT
Second post and it is my usual weekly one for Chandler’s Ford Today. I look at Approaching a New Year. There is a theme emerging from my posts tonight! I ask if you approach a new year with anticipation or apprehension. Well, I recall the hopes for 2020 and we all know how that turned out!

But this is a good opportunity for writers because we’re about to enter a new writing year too. This is a great chance to look at your writing goals and see where you are with them. Do they need adjusting? Sometimes they do and that’s fine but taking the time out to think about this is a good way to help propel your writing forward.

Why? Because you will make necessary tweaks and other changes to help you towards your writing goals or, if they’re not working out for whatever reason, to re-evaluate what you want to do with these. I changed direction to the shorter forms of writing as a result of one of my re-evaluations. It has proved to be a good move! Hope you find the post helpful.

Approaching A New Year

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29th December – More Than Writers
It’s double post time! First one up tonight is my post for More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This time I look at Reviewing Your Writing Year. I share why I think taking time out to review your writing for the past year and what you would like to do over the next twelve months is a good idea.

And I stress why it is vital to focus on the positives. There will be some. Those positives can be built on too. I also take a look at reviewing your reading too given what we read is a great source of inspiration for our own stories. Certainly in my case if I didn’t have a love of reading, would I have wanted to write? Probably not!

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Am enjoying my additions to my reading pile. Good to get back to some writing yesterday. Not doing much today as seeing family. Back to full on writing from tomorrow. Will be looking at Approaching a New Year for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Am off for further family celebrations tomorrow so may post early or not at all but I wanted to pop by now and say (a) hello, (b) hope you had a lovely Christmas and (c) to say my Chandler’s Ford Today post on Friday will be about Approaching a New Year. Will be back to normal writing routine from Friday but must admit I have enjoyed the break and am looking forward to catching up with family tomorrow. I also hope you had lots of lovely books as presents. Have added to my TBR pile!

And last but not least, though nobody really knows what day of the week it is now (there is something odd between Christmas and New Year that does this to people I think), it is time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Down Time. It does seem apt!

NO POSTS Christmas Day or Boxing Day (I wonder why! Hope you had a fabulous time).

Have a lovely Christmas. I hope you get plenty of lovely books amongst your presents! Have ticked off The Muppet Christmas Carol from my viewing. Will be watching Hogfather later. And there’ll be other favourites to enjoy over the next couple of days – a favourite here is The Great Escape, which I remember always being on at Christmas.

I do have a soft spot for films based on true stories (though I admit The Lord of the Rings is a notable exception!). I expect I’ll be watching some of my favourite Morecambe and Wise sketches too.

Back in a few days, folks. Have a great time.

Hope you have had a good day. Lovely to have a brief chat with my great editor at Chandler’s Ford Today earlier this afternoon. Will be catching up with her more when we next go to see The Chameleon Theatre Group perform. That will be in January – for the pantomime which is always a good laugh. Oh yes, it is!

Will be discussing Approaching a New Year for Chandler’s Ford Today next Friday. I won’t be posting for a few days over Christmas and my next round up of what I write where won’t appear until the 29th too (you will still get a bumper read though!). Think I am delivering on this promise!

Hope to get plenty of reading done over the Christmas break too. I definitely put books on my wish list. Now you can’t say you’re surprised by that, eh? Hope you too get plenty of lovely books. When I’m not writing, I want to be reading.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I do hope you had a lovely Christmas. I loved catching up with favourite films, many festive, some not. All of the films had something in common though – they all had fabulous storylines and fantastic characters. Those are the two most important ingredients to any story, no matter what format it is in.

Hope to get back to submitting work to Friday Flash Fiction from next week.

And I hope having a break has inspired you with your reading and writing. I know mine has. I loved the break. I am happy to be writing again. Win-win. (And I am loving my Christmas reading!).

Naturally I hope to write more flash in the coming year. It would be nice to have a go at more competitions too.

F = Flash makes you focus.
L = Limitations on word count encourages creative thinking.
A = Always use specific details to create strong images in your readers’ minds.
S = Specific images also help you make the most of your word count.
H = Have fun with your characters as they are the stars of your flash tales.

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Just to say I hope you had a lovely Christmas. Will be back to normal writing routine on Friday but wanted to say hello now and to flag up Amazon still have a good offer on my From Light to Dark and Back Again flash fiction collection on the paperback. See link below for more. Over 40 stories for under £4.00 – bargain!

In other news, my newsletter will be going out again on New Year’s Day. To sign up for that, please head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I use my newsletter to share tips, news, story links and so on. Many thanks to all who have subscribed – it is much appreciated.

NO POSTS Christmas Day or Boxing Day (had a great time. Hope you did too. Lots of lovely new books to read. One very happy writer here!).

Happy Christmas. Will be back online next week. Hope you get to enjoy plenty of stories and down time. There will be a Chandler’s Ford Today post on Friday where I’ll be looking at Approaching a New Year. It literally will be timely! In the meantime, have a lovely time over the festive season.

Glad to be able to share the Mixcloud link to the Three Minutes Santa show hosted by Hannah Kate on North Manchester FM last weekend. One easy link to click! Do have a listen. I loved the variety of stories and music. Enjoy!

Goodreads Author Blog – Story Time!

I know it’s not quite pantomime time. For those not in the know, pantomime happens after Christmas and goes on to late January/early February. It is a fabulous way of getting people into the theatre as it is aimed at all the family with a lot of audience participation, adlibs, and much humour. The stories used for pantomime are based on the classic fairytales. Pantomime is an old tradition too). I do know it is story time though.

I love the story of the Nativity, poems such as Twas the Night Before Christmas (also known as A Visit from Saint Nicholas), and the carols. In the Bleak Midwinter is my favourite and Christina Rossetti, like Charles Dickens, have added to Christmas related literature. Not many can claim to have done that. I also love stories in film (The Muppet Christmas Carol, The Polar Express, Hogfather).

I also love to write festive flash fiction and was privileged to have one of mine, This Is The Partnership, broadcast on internet radio recently. My tale looks at how Santa deals with a dodgy salesman. Good fun to do.

But as I mentioned in a recent post here, I am looking forward to that lovely time just after Christmas where I will get to read more, the normal routines are suspended, and I get to enjoy those presents which just happened to be books. I always have a request list here. No surprises there.

I hope you have a lovely Christmas and you get to listen to/watch/read some wonderful stories.

Fairytales With Bite – A New Beginning

A new beginning is what comes after the happy ever after ending in the classic fairytales when you think about it. Cinders and Prince Charming had to get used to their new beginning of a married life. The woodcutter in Little Red Riding Hood may well have gathered extra business in terms of removing threats after what he did to the Big Bad Wolf. If so, it would have meant an entire new career.

Major events can often trigger new beginnings. Not everyone responds to these well. (Just ask the evil fairy godmother in Sleeping Beauty. She didn’t welcome the christening. Okay it was because she wasn’t invited but there would have been a reason for that).

So think about what a new beginning would mean for your characters. Would they welcome or fear such things? When the new beginning has been forced on them, how do they handle that? Does something good come out of their situation? Can they see the point of the new beginning later on?

If your setting has to start again – new government, new way of ruling etc- how does that come about? Why? What are the consequences of the change? Does anyone resist the new beginning and do they have good cause? Are they successful?

Good story ideas there!

This World and Others – Time Measurement

I write this as we approach a New Year – 2024 – which is the one time everyone is focused on time. We measure our time by seconds, minutes, hours, days etc but how would your world do it? Would time be based on the rising and setting of any sun like star?

If your world has an industry, how would they measure working time? In the UK, time became standardised thanks to the coming of the railways. Time needed to be standardised for the railway system to work at all (no good having one time in one place and another time in the train’s destination, say) so does your setting face anything like that? Does anyone resist the change to timing systems?

What devices are used to measure time in your setting? Who invented these?

If you have Time as a character in a story, how are they recognised? How would “they” prefer to be measured?! (Would be good to ask Time directly, yes?).

No system for measuring anything can ever be infallible so what would be the failings with the system your world has and how would these impact on your characters? Here in the UK we have to adjust our clocks by an hour twice a year to adjust to daylight hours available. So what would your world do when “corrections” were needed?

Also give some thought to the downsides of being able to measure time? Are your characters’ lives dictated by the clock or other measuring device and how would this show in their behaviour and attitudes?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Glad to be able to share the Mixcloud link to the Three Minutes Santa show hosted by Hannah Kate on North Manchester FM last weekend. One easy link to click! Do have a listen. I loved the variety of stories and music. Enjoy!https://t.co/j3iYysQqPa
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 23, 2023

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Story Time https://t.co/2b8oK6keWO via @goodreads I celebrate stories at this time of year including carols (which tell the Nativity in song), pantomime and fairytales, as well as fab books. Hope you enjoy many wonderful tales this Christmas. pic.twitter.com/iO1BzlLoLA
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 23, 2023

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Although nobody really knows what day of the week it is now (there is something odd between Christmas and New Year that does this to people I think), it is time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Down Time. It does seem apt!https://t.co/3CB3DeI66S
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 27, 2023

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More than Writers: Reviewing Your Writing Year by Allison Symes https://t.co/SCtrOtmbrF I share why I think taking time out to review your writing in 2023 and what you would like to write in 2024 is a good idea. There will be positives in your review, which can be built on too. pic.twitter.com/13kO0mh0bG
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 29, 2023

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Approaching A New Year https://t.co/hq1iEsA8zq Do you approach a new year with anticipation? I recall the hopes for 2020. Look at how that turned out! But this is an opportunity for writers because this will also be a new writing year, making it a good time to re-assess goals.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 29, 2023

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