Tag: memories

The Point of Fiction

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Many thanks to Janet Williams for taking the image of me at the Book Fair.
Glad to say it has cooled down a bit since last week. Lady isn’t sorry about that either. Pleased to say I’m running a flash fiction workshop again on Saturday courtesy of Zoom. Looking forward to that.

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Lady got to show off in front of her Hungarian Vizler friend today. The latter doesn’t mind. Lady loves it of course. It is a bit like showing off to Mum given the Vizler is older than Lady. But both went home feeling all had been put right with their worlds at least!

There is an Amazon offer on From Light to Dark and Back Again at the moment. See the link for more details.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover recently my short stories have appeared in almost 20 different anthologies (and when the Bridge House Publishing anthology comes out later this year it will be 20!). Yes, they are on my ALCS listing. I add new books to which I’ve contributed to this listing as soon as I can. It’s easy to do and it helps boost the money I receive from ALCS every March. Win-win there and if you are a published writer not on the ALCS system, do look into it.

11th September 2023
To all who mourn those killed or injured in the dreadful events of twenty-two years ago, my deepest sympathies. We will remember them.

Memories, of whatever kind, can make a wonderful theme for stories, whether these are thoughtful pieces or more humorous ones. Think about why your character remembers what they do (or who of course). Why are they recalling this (or them) now? Is it something they have learned to come to terms with, as best as anyone can? Are their memories reliable? What do other characters in the story think?

Memories are something any reader can identify with – we all have our own so will identify with a character recalling theirs. Great empathy can come from stories like this. The world needs much more empathy. Maybe in a way story writers can play their part here.

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Cooler today. Have had some rain so the air is a little fresher. Lady and I are not sorry about that.
I’ll be looking at Getting Lines Right for Chandler’s Ford Today next Friday. I will take a close look at opening lines especially. Looking forward to sharing that. Will be running a workshop next Saturday morning too. All good fun!

Many thanks for the comments coming in on Heaven Sent, my most recent story on Friday Flash Fiction. See link in case you missed it.

The 100 word story (also known as a drabble) was my introduction to flash fiction many moons ago and it is lovely returning to writing them regularly for Friday Flash Fiction. Am so enjoying doing this. Screenshot 2023-09-08 at 10-04-53 Heaven Sent by Allison Symes

Another hot day here. This was on 9th September. Weather changed the next day! We’re all staying as cool as possible. Lady got to see her best friend, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, when it was cooler. Both dogs happy about that. Friends matter!

Looking forward to sharing a workshop next Saturday morning. The beauty of Zoom? No travel on hot sticky days! One blessing for the Bridge House Publishing celebration event being in December is that hot sticky days will not be an issue!

I know now my story for a literal festival competition didn’t make the cut but I will take another look at this tale at some point and see what else can be done with it before submitting it elsewhere. Sometimes I find I need to make amendments. Sometimes I don’t.

Having been a competition judge, I know how difficult it can be to produce a short list. So take heart if your story doesn’t do anything in a competition. See it as another opportunity to refresh it and re-submit it. A turn down doesn’t necessarily mean there was anything wrong with your story but taking the chance to have a second look at it may well help you see where you could strengthen it here, strengthen it there. That has been my experience.

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My favourite sort of flash fiction is the drabble – the 100-worder – and it has been fantastic getting back to these for Friday Flash Fiction in particular. But I am also very fond of the sub-500 words kind. It is worth practicing writing to this kind of word count as it is a common format for competitions.

Also easy to share (if you wish) on your website, newsletter etc as they don’t up too much space and are quick and easy to read. I save some of mine for this but also put others towards a future collection. Marketing and a first draft for another book in one go here!

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It has been a hectic Monday (though thankfully cooler than last week. Given I’ve been batch cooking today, I appreciated that!). Definitely time for a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – One Day My Spell Will Come.

 

One of the things I look for in an opening line (which is something I’ll talk more about for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday) is whether it hooks me enough to make me want to read on. It has to provoke the “have got to find out what happens next” moment.

This can be done via something intriguing about the character, setting up a dilemma which has to be resolved, or even setting a question the story would have to answer by the end. In Being Yourself from Tripping the Flash Fantastic, I start with Jane Stephens suppressed the urge to scream. I would hope that would make people want to read on to find out why!

I do know if I’m not intrigued by an opening line of mine, others won’t be either. It is a great motivator to come up with something good!

 

Occasionally I write a flash piece which could be termed as horror. For me, the best horror isn’t all guts and gore but implied menace. The reader can then imagine what that menace looks like etc and does a grand job of this. I do it too when I watch a suspense film. Sometimes at least what I imagine is going to happen next is more scary than what does happen in the movie!

In my story Pressing the Flesh in From Light to Dark and Back Again, I imply references to Burke and Hare (bodysnatchers) and my character being inspired by that. Yet I do not use anything gory here. To my character their actions make sense and maybe that is the scariest thing of all. Maybe that is where true horror does lie. Certainly we can learn from our own history here when someone believes themselves to be so right they can do anything so go on to do so. You could argue we are seeing it again.

The point of fiction, including horror, is to entertain, helps us escape our cares for a while, but it can also show us something of our human nature. Horror can be brutally honest here. But it doesn’t need to be guts and gore to make us think about what we as a species can be capable of.

After all there are some horrific moments, when you stop and think about it, in the nursery rhymes and fairytales most of us would have grown up with, which most consider would and should act as warnings.
Would still like to know though why Little Red Riding Hood didn’t spot that wasn’t her granny in the dress and cap. Did she honestly think her granny was that hairy? Maybe LRH should have gone and got her eyesight checked at Specsavers! (Other opticians are available, as they say! Probably best known ones here in the UK though).

Advantage to flash is setting characters anywhere

Goodreads Author Blog –

Writing and Reading – The Inseparable Joys

I have long felt writers have two joys in life – writing and reading. Most writers are inspired to write because of the books they have loved reading. Ideas for stories have sparked from what we have read and you develop this urge to write your own. Sometimes that urge can come from reading a “duff” book and wanting to do better. Better though is when an inspried story encourages you to write.

My first venture into print was with a reworked fairytale told from the viewpoint of Cinderella’s youngest step-sister. That came out in Alternative Renditions (Bridge House Publishing) in 2009 – my story in there is A Helping Hand.

But without the original faurytale I loved (and still do), I couldn’t have written my tale. We do stand on the shoulders of giants here. We build on what has gone before. And that means we have to read more. Don’t have a problem with that!

What I have found in recent years is that inspiration for stories can come from something I’ve read in non-fiction too. I have welcomed that development as I love reading fiction and non-fiction.

 

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
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Remembering

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. It has been a busy week starting with a podcast appearance and ending with a solemn day of remembrance. Hope your week has been a good one. Weather has ranged from stormy to sunshine and sudden rain and back to sunshine again! It is very mild for the time of year too. Writing wise, Flash NANO continues to go well and I will have lots of lovely interviews to share on Chandler’s Ford Today over the next few weeks.

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11th November 2022 – Armistice Day

There could only be one topic for this week’s post on Chandler’s Ford Today and I have called my post Remembering. This is a tribute to the fallen and those who gave up loved ones so we don’t have to and I also look at why remembering is an act of will. It’s a phenomenally important one at that too.

Remembering

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Hope you have had a good day. It’s been a busy week so far but fun. Am looking forward to sharing interviews with some wonderful authors on Chandler’s Ford Today over the next few weeks.

But there could only be one topic for tomorrow’s post – I’ll share the link for Remembering tomorrow. See above.

On the fiction front, you could use the thought of what your characters think important enough to remember as a basis for stories. Why have they chosen to remember what they have and how does that bring them into conflict with others? (And there will be bound to be conflict given people can often remember the same event differently. Characters can do likewise). Also do your characters act on those memories and what are the consequences?

Will be working on the latest Flash NANO prompt shortly. Am so loving these. Got that prompt written up. Am already thinking of future homes for some of these.

9th November 2022 – two posts

FIRST POST

You know you get one of those days where lots is going on – well, today is one of mine. This is the first of two posts from me tonight.

First up, a huge thank you to the lovely #ValPenny for sharing my post about Looking Back at Swanwick 2022 on her website today.

Looking back is an apt topic for me because, not only is my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week about Remembering (linking in with Armistice Day on Friday), today is the seventh anniversary of my mother’s passing. Mum read widely and passed on her love of the written word to me. She did get to see my first short story in print (and my late Dad got to see my first book, From Light to Dark and Back Again, in print – there is a kind of symmetry here).

For the lifelong love of books and stories I’ve inherited from you, thanks Mum!

Screenshot 2022-11-09 at 09-04-41 Looking Back at The Writers’ Summer School at Swanwick 2022 by Allison Symes


9th November 2022

SECOND POST

SECOND post from me tonight and I’d like to say a huge thank you to #WendyHJones for hosting me on her podcast, The Writing and Marketing Show. We discuss Flash NANO, which I’m happily taking part in at the moment. And I always welcome a chance to celebrate the joys of flash fiction writing.

Hope you enjoy the podcast. I loved taking part in this and to my fellow Flash NANO writers, more power to your pens and laptops! I’ll be working on the latest challenge a little later on this evening. Hope all is going well for you.

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My latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction is called In The Blink of an Eye. Hope you enjoy it. Find out if my character’s story about an accident rings true for you as she thinks about what she is going to tell the police officer who has come to see her as a result of said “accident”.

Screenshot 2022-11-11 at 08-57-23 In The Blink Of An Eye by Allison Symes

Am starting work on some festive flash fiction (Flash NANO has helped here too!) and have an idea as to where it will go in due course. Festive flash is about the only seasonal writing I do and it is great fun. This kind of quirky humorous fiction, I think, works best when kept short so flash is the ideal form for it.

I hope to so some more for Chandler’s Ford Today in due course too. I usually have a pre-Christmas post on this. It’s a nice way to sign off for a Christmas break too. The nice thing here is you can create these at any time and just save them up for the apt time of year. I have done that in the past. Not had the chance this year. Making up for it now though!

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It was a joy to talk to #WendyHJones about Flash NANO for her podcast, The Writing and Marketing Show. I share what Flash NANO is about, look at the joys and challenges of it, and where it differs from the main NaNoWriMo event. Not least of which is hopefully by the end of November I’ll have 30 more flash fiction stories to polish and work on further – more than I would’ve done. I don’t usually write a flash fiction piece a day – I do write a few over the course of a week. And “hon mentions” go to members of the ACW Flash Fiction Group too for telling me about Flash NANO in the first place.

 

Fairytales with Bite – Memories

This is an apt topic given Friday, 11th November will be Armistice Day/Veterans Day. We cherish memories we rightly dare not forget.

In your fictional setting, what would be your community’s collective memories, the things everyone shares? How are these things remembered? Are there rituals people must follow? (I use the word people loosely here!). On an individual level, what memories does your character cherish or go out of their way to try and forget? What does that say about them? And can memories come back to haunt them?

Perspective is important too. People can be at an event and have differing views of what happened when despite being in the same place and the same time.

I once took part in an interesting writing exercise to prove this point. Fellow writers and I had to recall something that had happened after having just been shown the event in question. This was interesting, We recalled a lot of things in common but by no means everything. There were differences too. Yet all of us could’ve sworn we’d remembered “correctly”.

How could that play out for your characters and how would it affect the actions they then take?

Remembering helps us to be grateful for sacrifices made

This World and Others – Remembrance Ceremonies

The Armistice Day ceremonies are always deeply moving. For those of us in the UK this year’s ceremonies will have an added poignancy given one very familiar figure will not be laying the wreath at The Centoaph in London, as Her Late Majesty the Queen had done for so many years.

In your fictional setting, what is “officially” remembered and why? What ceremonies are used to commemorate these events/people? Does everyone join in with these things and, if so, is that by choice? Where it is, what would happen to those who disagree and refuse to take part?

Are there events in your world’s history which nobody remembers because they don’t want to do so? Where this reflects badly on them, what happens when someone uncovers this and exposes it?

Who leads any ceremonies and are these kept simple or is there a lot of pomp and circumstance? What are the traditions leading to the ceremonies being carried out the way they are? Do other countries (or equivalent) in your setting share the same ceremonies?

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Memories and Collections

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What memories are special for your characters and why? Are they shared memories with other family/tribe members or individual ones or both? Does your created world have special events where certain memories are officially recalled? Is the past a good place for your characters to visit or do they block out all memories to avoid inflicting more pain on themselves?

This post came about because I was showing some lovely photos of my maternal grandparents’ wedding (set in the grounds of Chiswick House) to other members of my family today. I only came across these photos after I cleared out my late parents’ house. My only regret is had I known of their existence before, I would have quizzed my mother in particular over one photo where she and her younger sister were bridesmaids. There were people in this photo I didn’t know and the family and I took intelligent guesses at who they were.

I guess this shows the importance of maintaining memories and cherishing what is vital from the past, your past. So how do your characters do that?

It always is! Reflecting first helps a lot! Pixabay image
Glorious autumn. Time to take stock briefly and then move on. Pixabay image.
How pics used to be taken. Pexels image.
A good reading pile! Pexels image.
Part of my church’s 200th anniversary exhibition. Image by Allison Symes
It has been a while since I last saw one of these! Image via Pixabay
Very old school writing. Pixabay image.
I recall using a manual typewriter and manually copying and pasting. Pixabay image.
Everyone loved flipping through the photo albums. Image by Allison Symes

When you read a book outside of the genre you write in, what are you looking for?

I’m looking for a world I can identify with (though almost inevitably I wouldn’t want to live there!) and characters whose motivations I understand (and usually sympathise with).

I like a fast pace to the story and other background information to help me make sense of the setting. I also want there to be gaps that I have to fill in with my imagination. I want the dialogue to hook me so that I have to read on and not notice the “he said/she said” tags. Well written dialogue does make me skip over these tags as if they weren’t there.

And when I’ve finished the story, I want to feel as if not one word could be added. I also want to regret coming to the end of the story because I enjoyed it so much.

And the challenge here is to write this way myself so hopefully people will feel the same way about MY stories!

A truly beautiful book. Pixabay image.
What journeys are your characters going on? Image via Pixabay
I’ve never read a book in these conditions, have you? Pixabay image.
Writing is rewriting. Image via Pixabay.
Love the bike. Pexels image.
The ultimate book tunnel? Image via Pexels
For jotting down those initial ideas. Image via Pixabay.
I try NOT to chain down my creativity! Pexels image.
Remembering… image via Pixabay

I have collections by several of my favourite authors on my shelves – Agatha Christie, P.G. Wodehouse, Terry Pratchett to name a few. Love all that they wrote. Tremendously difficult to pick a favourite book by any of them.

What I especially adore though is when they take their major characters and put them into situations they would never have anticipated encountering. For example, Murder on the Orient Express gives Poirot a moral dilemma (and I won’t say more than that – no spoilers here). It’s not the kind of moral dilemma he would have anticipated facing. And it is how he handles that which, for me, makes this story fascinating. (The TV version with David Suchet is particularly good on this aspect).

So can you take the usual situations your lead characters would reasonably expect to face and subvert them? That what has worked for your lead characters before cannot possibly work in this new situation so they are forced to come out of their comfort zone and “go for broke” because they have to solve this new condundrum, no matter what?

One thing is for sure: do this and there will be no lack of drama/conflict in your story!

Lost in time, thanks to a good book. Pexels image.
Lovely place to browse. Image via Pixabay.
Fiction is strengthened when backed by fact. Image via Pixabay
Something I’ve yet to see happen! Pixabay image.
Pictures in text the old fashioned way. Image via Pixabay.
Use what you know of our world and your imagination to create something really special. Image via Pixabay
Nice selection of books here! Image via Pixabay
What writing triggers will help you create your new worlds? Image via Pixabay

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One of the biggest issues facing writers is getting their book out there and, once that has been achieved, how to market it without annoying everyone! One simple thing is just to let people know where it can be found and leave it at that. So taking my own advice then…!

I’m glad to say FLTDBA is available via the Book Depository.

FLTDBA in the Swanwick Book Room

FLTDBA for sale in the Swanwick Book Room. Image by Allison Symes

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Chapeltown Books have a distinctive central image in a frame such as with mine. Image by Allison Symes

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Back cover of FLTDBA. Image by Allison Symes

I was enjoying an old Doctor Who episode earlier this evening when Catherine Tate came in as companion, Donna Noble, to David Tennant’s Doctor. Great episode. What I liked about the character of Donna was her feistiness, her abilty to think on her feet, and the fact she wasn’t letting the Doctor get away with ANYTHING. Her character claimed that the Doctor needed someone to stop him sometimes. I think it’s a fair assessment too.

But this highlighted for me the fact well written characters shine through whatever story they’re in and make themselves and the tale memorable. Something to always aspire to when writing my own characters I think.

Charging up for new ideas, maybe? Pixabay image.
Signing books for a friend. Image by Adrian Symes
Books invite you into their world. Go! Image via Pixabay.
This made me smile! Pixabay image.
Good reading – and writing to be done – here. Pixabay image.
Whenever and whatever you read, enjoy. Image via Pixabay.
Great characters = great books. Image via Pixabay.
Indeed! Pixabay image.

The joy of coming up with one line stories is you can either leave them like that and perhaps enter them into 25-word flash fiction competitions OR you can expand them.

From there of course, you can either have a longer flash fiction story or go to 1500-2000 words (standard short story competition word count). I think if you were to go much beyond that, you would be changing your initial idea as you would need more characters, at least one decent subplot and so on for the story to be able to “stand up” over that greater “distance” and still make sense.

I don’t revisit my one-liners that often but it did occur to me perhaps I should do so more regularly! A case of double whammy for the writer here I think!

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