Tag: learning

Workshops, Courses and Being at Swanwick

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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. Photos from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick were also taken by me. 
Many thanks to Julia Pattison for taking the one of me at my editing workshop. Have had a wonderful time here. And will continue to do so for the next couple of days. I will be sharing more about this in my Chandler’s Ford Today post later this week.

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Thoroughly enjoyed the final two sessions of Val Penny’s Perfect Plotting. Packed full of useful information. Enjoyed Whose (Story) Line Is It Anyway? after lunch. This was led by Zana Lamont. Then it was time for my workshop – Editing – The View From Both Sides of the Fence.

It is lovely catching up with friends I only “see” online the rest of the year and to have a good natter over breakfast, tea breaks, lunch, dinner etc, I also appreciate not having to cook anything or clear up. Many of us here feel that way!

It was especially nice to catch up with a fellow member of the History Writers group, Linda Brown, in person, something which meets online once a month. And it is good there is a contingent from the Association of Christian Writers here as well.


Many thanks for the support at the Lift Up Your Hearts session this morning. This is a short reflective session for all denominations and it was lovely. We were in good voice!

Thoroughly enjoyed the Rediscovering Your Writing Mojo sessions this morning led by Esther Chilton. Am off to the Author Business Foundations sessions led by Kate McCormick (aka Elizabeth Ducie). Sadly, I won’t be taking part in the Open Prose Mic Night session tonight as it clashes with The Big Quiz. The quiz is such fun and I can’t miss that.

Mind you, at the end of the Mojo course, we all got to write a piece of flash fiction so I shared my draft when we were asked if anyone wanted to read out so I did get a little bit of flash fiction prose reading done! I hope to polish this story up and submit it somewhere later.

First full day at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Went to Perfect Plotting by Val Penny – always a useful topic and the course is led by someone who is expert here. There is always something to learn here. Am then off to Amazon and Kindle Publishing and later still Comedy – a Whistle Stop Tour. This is just on the first full day, mind you!

And for a while it stopped raining too. Win-win all round!

Am back at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. It is the highlight of my writing year. It will be lovely to catch up with old friends and hopefully make new ones. I love the range of courses and workshops. I suppose the real treat for me here is being able to have a few days fully immersed in the writing world.

All writers need to know there is support out there. All of us have had and continue to have rejections and setbacks. But there is nobody like another writer to understand the joys of the writing life. It is a case of finding your tribe here, I think.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It was sunny Derbyshire when I rang home this morning. It is less so now but it has stayed dry at least. Wouldn’t place on any bets how long that will last, mind you.

I gave my workshop – Editing – The View From Both Sides of the Fence – this afternoon. Writing flash fiction regularly has taught me so much about editing. And I discuss being on both sides of the fence because I have been edited as well as having carried out editing work at one and the same time. I can see where editors come from. I can understand the authors’ viewpoint too.

Was thrilled at the turnout for my workshop. Thanks, everyone. Many thanks to Julia Pattison for the photo.
I was set an interesting writing challenge at the Write on Cue session led by Anita Belli last night at Swanwick. We had to select objects to write a story around and mine was a Monopoly piece. The result is my latest story on YouTube – The Silver Boot. Hope you enjoy.

 

So good to be back at Swanwick. The grounds, as ever, are glorious, and it has been wonderful catching up with so many friends already. Looking forward to the courses today. Always a feast to choose from. And with any topic, pretty much, I can find something to apply to either my flash fiction writing or my blogging, sometimes both.

Sometimes information proves to be useful much later on but what I do know for sure is the world of writing is a fascinating one, there is always something to learn, and that is good for us all – to keep on learning.

Will naturally be waving the flag for flash fiction and short stories at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick over the next few days. Will be a joy to do so too.

There is usually an Open Prose Mic night here and it is a fabulous platform for the short form. You do only have a few minutes and the golden rule here is you can come in under time but not over it. Flash fits so well here and people do get to hear complete stories. Win-win here!

Goodreads Author Blog – Stories In Other Formats

I recently had the great joy of watching Lilies on The Land, which was staged by our local excellent amateur theatre company, The Chameleon Theatre Group. I then reviewed it for online magazine, Chandler’s Ford Today.

Lilies was an interesting play because it is a story made up of stories, all based on the real life experiences of the Women’s Land Army (aka the land girls). The stories were collected via letters, interviews etc and The Lions wrote Lilies based on this information.

It is a great case of non-fiction inspiring fictional work. The Lilies characters were invented but based on solid fact. Some fictional liberty was taken in enabling the characters to communicate with each other. But it all worked so well. It was believable. All stories must have that believability even if set in the most fantastical settings.

Let’s hear it for stories in all formats inspired by non-fiction!

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

 

 

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Further Thoughts On The Writing Game

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Image Credit:  Pexels/Pixabay unless stated. A huge thanks to my guest authors on this week’s Chandler’s Ford Today post for their author and book cover pics.

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Am thrilled to share the second part of my CFT series on The Writing Game – and What to Watch For Part 2. Plenty of advice and tips here, Hope you enjoy. A big thanks to all of my guest authors. This week I feature guests from Bridge House Publishing, Cafelit, and Chapeltown Books. Topics include handling professional jealousy and checking contracts.

This series is the kind of one I would have welcomed when I was a new writer especially. Why?

Because you don’t realise at the outset how much there is to learn. You don’t know what the pitfalls and hazards are. You’re not aware, to begin with at least, of the difference between vanity publishing and real self-publishing.

It is only when you’ve been writing for a while and you make author friends that you pick up tips and good advice from them, as well as from organisations like the Society of Authors.

If there is only ONE reason to go to writing conferences and events (when such things are possible again), the learning from others is, for me, the most important one. No one author can know it all.

Mind you, there are LOADS of other excellent reasons to go to writing events when you can and via Zoom etc in the meantime.

The nice thing about all of this? Later on, you can share what you have learned with others who, in turn, will share it later. What goes around literally comes around in writing circles – and it should always be to the benefit of the writer!

Hope you enjoy.

Many thanks for my guests this week – #DawnKentishKnox, #GillJames, #AmandaJones, #PaulaCReadman, and #AmandaHuggins.

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Have gone from walking the dog before it became too hot, creosoting fence panels, to editing to about to have a lovely Zoom chat with writer pals.

Am looking forward to sharing Part 2 of my new CFT series – The Writing Game – and What to Watch For. Full of top tips, this week’s installment shares advice from writers from Bridge House Publishing, Cafelit, and Chapeltown Books. Link up tomorrow.

Need to get back to flash fiction writing but hope to do that over the weekend. Am also enjoying preparing material for a blog where I will be a guest. Now off to chat!

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Facebook – General – and the Association of Christian Writers – More Than Writers – The Reading Challenge

I talk about The Reading Challenge in my monthly spot on More Than Writers. This is the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers.

This month I ask if writers SHOULD find reading a challenge.

So over to you. What do you read that challenges you? What benefits do you find from that? Do you read outside of your usual genres and how do you find that works? Has it inspired your own imagination and, if so, how?

 

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Many thanks to my lovely guests for their advice and tips in Part 2 of The Writing Game – and What to Watch For, my new CFT series.

As well as avoiding the scams (as we all must), the writing game does have a fun side to it! There are so many kinds of writing to explore so if you’re not sure which is for you, try different ones out. You’ll soon know which you are likely to stay with, which you might write occasionally, and those you loathe!

Exploring different forms of writing led me to discovering the wonderful world of flash fiction and blogging. I have no regrets about either!

Whatever you’re working on this weekend, I hope you have a splendid time writing.

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Mixing up how you find ideas for stories is always a good thing to do. It’s fun too. I think that was the major thing that I took from the Zoom creative writing workshop I was on recently.

I’ve mentioned before that I will sometimes start my flash fiction with what I know will be the closing line and work backwards to get to the starting point. At some point I ought to try a line that would work best in the middle of a story and see what I can do with that. To work forwards and backwards would be a good challenge!

Stretching yourself in writing in different ways helps you discover what you like and, best of all, find new ways of writing stories you also develop a liking for – and it keeps you on your toes.

 

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What have been the differences for me in writing FLTDBA and my new book, Tripping the Flash Fantastic, which is due soon?

I’ve had more fun with TTFF in terms of where and when I set my characters. I’ve also written some linked flash fiction for this one, which is a first for me, and I hope to do more of that. I strongly suspect some haiku flash fiction tales might make it into my next one!

Again themes have emerged as I put the collection together but I hope to talk more about that later. I am planning to have a cyberlaunch in due course and am looking forward to that.

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Fairytales with Bite – Reasons to Love Fairytales

Nobody really needs a reason to love fairytales, of course, but for the less convinced I offer the following:-

1. They are often the first stories youngsters come across and are a gateway into the wonderful world of reading. Once that spark is lit, there should be no turning back. It is no coincidence that those who read more develop a larger and more wide ranging vocabulary.

2. There is a clear sense of right and wrong in fairytales. (That appeals to children and those who decided growing up was overrated).

3. Some stories can act as warnings.

4. The stories can reflect injustice and cruelty but also usually have those things stopped by the end. (In life so often these things are not stopped. It is good to have stories where matters are rectified, justice is done etc. This is something shared with good crime stories too).

5. They’re great stories (reason enough!).

In fairytales the dragon does not win. (Shrek inverts that concept but there the dragon is one of the good guys. Love that idea).

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This World and Others –

What Every Piece of Writing Needs

While every genre has specific requirements, what every good story needs can be summarised as follows. (A lot of this can apply to non-fiction too).

  1. Memorable characters with distinctive voices. For non-fiction, this equates to a memorable narrative style and voice. Think of documentaries you have loved. What made them stand out? A lot of that will be down to the narrative voice.
  2. A plot that keeps the reader enthralled and has plenty of ups and downs. For non-fiction, it is a case of setting out what you want to share with the reader in an entertaining and informative way. No dull list of facts etc. You want to engage with your reader and draw them into the world you’re trying to show them.
  3. To meet the needs of the reader whether it is to entertain them with a story or show them something they hadn’t known with non-fiction. You really do need to know your audience.
  4. A powerful ending that delivers on a promising start.
  5. No sagging middles!
  6. A good, memorable title which hooks the reader.
  7. To be a good advert for the other writing you do!

 

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CELEBRATIONS AND LEARNING

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Both of my website posts tonight were inspired by my cyber launch of From Light to Dark and Back Again from yesterday.  Had a wonderful time, thanks to all who supported it in any way and also thanks to my publishers, Chapeltown Books and Cafelit, for hosting the event (with me as co-host) and for guiding me through this.  A fun and interesting day and I know I’ve learned from it.  I hope to write about this for a future Chandler’s Ford Today post but in the meantime:-

SPECIAL OFFER

The Kindle version of From Light to Dark and Back Again is currently on offer at 99 pence (UK).  Many thanks to all who have reviewed so far.

FAIRYTALES WITH BITE

In Celebrations I refer to the launch (naturally!) but I also discuss what kind of celebrations your fictional world would have.  Are there compulsory celebrations everyone must attend on pain of death?  Who organises and pays for celebrations? Is there a literary world in your setting and so do “your authors” have their launches?  Are there celebrations which are banned and how do people find ways round that to keep their traditions going?

THIS WORLD AND OTHERS

Learning asks if your characters keep on doing so (they should – the characters that appeal most are the ones who develop and they must learn from their mistakes, or those they know about, to be able to develop at all).  I also refer to learning a lot from my launch and I hope to write about that later.  I also discuss one great thing about writing – writers have to learn all the time to develop the craft and hopefully improve our chances of being published.

FACEBOOK PAGE

I loved picking music to go with my launch yesterday (all You Tube based).  I am really fond of stories in song and one of my favourite album tracks comes from Dave Edmunds and is a classic example of this.  It is also a great example of a twist in the tale in song. The perspective taken in it is not the usual one!

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Two FB posts tonight!  My main post looks at the launch, I talk about my writing prompt challenge and share my thoughts on bringing out a book.  You have got to go into this with your eyes wide open and for the love of writing.  Nothing else will steer you through the rejections and bad reviews etc.

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Cyberlaunch Image

A huge thank you to all who supported this and took part in the discussions.  It was great fun and simply would not have been the same without you!  Maybe same time next  year, who knows?!