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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.

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

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

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