Tag: mixing up flash fiction word counts

What Is In Your Writing For A Reader?

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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. It was a Bank Holiday weekend in the UK and yes we got the rain – traditions continue to be upheld there! Looking forward to a Scottish holiday coming up soon but I hope to still post as am taking laptop with me. Writing is a joy. Where I do take a break is in getting to do more reading than I would usually do at home – love that aspect of holidays.

BookBrushImage-2024-5-7-19-5846

Facebook – General

Lovely to see some spring sunshine today and Lady got to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback so we both count that as a win-win.

Every so often I write slice of life flash pieces, one of which is They Don’t Understand from From Light to Dark and Back Again. It also counts as a monologue where my character unveils more of his life – and you find out what a life it was. These kinds of stories work best when kept short. The emotional impact of them is more keenly felt by doing that. Besides one huge advantage of writing any kind of flash fiction is it teaches you fast to get rid of the waffle.

Looking forward to sharing Questions and Answers in Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. These make a useful structure and I use them a lot. There will be more author interviews coming up later in May and early part of June and I am hoping to conduct more after that.

I love talking with other authors here. Always something of interest to learn. You never known when it might become useful for you. What I love about writing is you are always learning – great brain exercise.

 

Am delighted to say the May edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out. The theme for this month is memoir. My piece is on Using Memoir Techniques for Character Creation and that can be found on Page 14 but do check the whole magazine out. There is an excellent range of pieces on why people should read memoir, 21 tips for writing memoir, and much else besides. Remember it is free to subscribe. There is a link to do so inside the magazine itself.

Screenshot 2024-05-06 at 17-13-52 Writers' Narrative eMagazine May 2024

Changeable day weather wise here. Not that Lady worries.

Will shortly be working on my Sunday flash fiction writing. Always look forward to this. I read a lot of flash fiction as well as write it and it is a good idea to read well in your chosen field as well as doing so outside of it. All good writing inspires and what writer doesn’t welcome an inspiration boost every now and then? Reading is the way to get said boost!

I love reading the flash pieces on Friday Flash Fiction and it is a great way to see what 100 word stories look like on screen as well as seeing just what range of tales emerge. It is seriously impressive. It also helps you see where your work could fit in. What’s not to like there?
Screenshot 2024-05-05 at 15-16-33 100-Word Stories

May 4th 2024 – Hope you have had a good day, especially if you’re a Star Wars fan! (Well, today is your day, is it not?).

Pleased to say I have had a a good response to my review of Waiting for Gateaux, my Chandler’s Ford Today post from yesterday. My next one on there will be all about Questions and Answers in Writing and how writers, fiction or non-fiction, can make use of these. Link up on Friday.

Writing Tip: Always ask yourself what is in your writing for your reader. It will help you focus. It also means you do know your intended audience (or likely one anyway) and it makes editing simpler in that you will cut out what doesn’t benefit the reader in some way.

Just doing the latter will improve your writing so much. I’ve forgotten who said it but there is a lovely quote about not writing the boring bits readers skip. It is useful to have that side of the coin in mind as well for those drafts. If it is useful to the reader in some way, it won’t be boring.

439078431_10161864764357053_5979252546101381643_n

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

As well as mixing up the kind of flash tales I write in terms of genre, I like to mix up the word counts I write to as well. For Friday Flash Fiction, it is nearly always the 100 word count I work to though I do occasionally send them in a longer piece.

But for my stories for my YouTube channel, I like to write across a range of about 50 words to 300 or so. And every so often I will come across a competition I like the look of so I stick to their word count requirements. It is good practice to regularly write across the word count range. It’s fun too.

442416163_10161870583042053_894451554736704088_n 
Following on from my post yesterday (see below), I DID do something with my haunted teapot story idea, which came about as a way of showing how you could use Kipling’s famous six honest serving men (and my What If additional question) to outline a story idea.

So then it’s a wet Bank Holiday Monday here in the UK and it is time for a story. Just what can I do with a haunted teapot? Find out here with my latest on YouTube – Time For Tea.

 

Kipling’s six honest serving men give all writers a classic outline, these being What, Why, When, How, Where, and Who. I’d also add in What If – now there’s a classic question for you. The nice thing with these is a brief one liner for each of these will spark possibilities for a story. For example:-

What – Author needs an idea.
Why – For her daily Facebook post to share something useful to other writers in particular.
When – Right now!
How – By using a well known writing tip from Kipling to show how that tip works in practice.
Where – To be shared on Facebook.
Who – By author.
What If – She adds in a question of her own and uses that to expand the outline.

Now apply that to a potential character and situation.

What – Haunted teapot.
Why – Previous owner renowned for drinking tea by the gallon, tea was her life, can’t quite let go.
When – New owner finds previous owner haunting that teapot when they move in.
How – New owner was going to use the teapot for making their own tea and discovers the ghost as she lifts the lid on it.
Where – In the kitchen.
Who – New owner and previous owner – new owner flees one way screaming, the previous one flees the other way, nobody else was ever meant to use that teapot.
What If – That teapot haunts anyone who ever uses it. Someone has to smash it to break the curse on it. New owner comes back and does so. Sets ghost of previous owner free and vanishes.

Get the idea? And I may well do something with that story outline. Watch this space. Will let you know if anything comes from it. I did do something with it – see my YouTube story above.

440850615_10161866734042053_7188670677307541117_n

One thing you can do with flash fiction is to write linked flashes where the same character(s) appear in more than one story. I’ve done this with my third flash collection (which has been given the nod by my publishers but I don’t have a publication date yet). It was fun to do and I would like to do more of this.

It means you can develop the character(s) a bit more over the course of two or more stories without exceeding your word count limit. You can also have Character A in one tale, Character B as the lead in the second one where Character A is either referred to or effectively plays a cameo role, and then have Character A lead again in a third story.

Linked flashes also lend themselves well to novellas in flash too where you have a 20,000 words + book where each chapter is it is own flash fiction tale but there is an overriding arc developing throughout the stories leading to a conclusion, as you would have in a novel. Not something I’ve tried. Is something I wouldn’t mind trying at a later date though.

438161287_10161864768472053_8144724975456389869_n

Goodreads Author Blog – Fiction Acrostic

F = Fantastic for the range of genres to choose from.
I = Imagination let loose in history, crime, fantasy, sci-fi, and so many more.
C = Characters whose journeys you follow, willing them on to succeed or fail, as appropriate.
T = Timeless truths are often conveyed in stories and books and are more easily remembered too.
I = Inspiration from so many fields of fiction to current writers and to those yet to come.
O = Opening up so many worlds, there will be at least one fiction genre to suit you.
N = Never ever be stuck for something to read – the world of fiction is an expanding and wonderful one.

Screenshot 2024-05-04 at 17-27-04 Fiction Acrostic

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.


Twitter Corner with hashtag, Scrabble tiles, and the blue bird

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Writing Tips and Writing Progress

Leave a comment
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 great weekend. Pleased with how mine went – lots of writing and some gardening done (prefer it that way round!). More signs of spring in my garden and elsewhere – do find it cheering. More submissions sent out (in one case recorded and sent out). Good to see signs the daylight is lasting that bit longer. Makes it nicer for Lady’s evening walk.

BookBrushImage-2024-3-5-19-5456

Facebook – General

Hope you managed to avoid the heavy rain earlier today. Lady and I didn’t! Got a good soaking. March has come in like a lion, as the old proverb says. Can only hope it does go out like a lamb. Mind you, am seeing more spring flowers about so something has got the benefit of all of that rain!

I’m looking at The Task of the Opening Lines for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I like to hit the ground running with my stories and posts and will be sharing my thoughts and tips on opening lines in this post. Hope it will prove useful.

Opening lines don’t necessarily have to be the ones you started with in your first draft either. I often change mine once I’ve had chance to judge my piece objectively. I will often spot a stronger opening line further down so just move things around. Much easier to do this day and age and, yes, I did use to have to literally cut and paste. I really don’t miss that!

Writing Tip: When you’ve got a few minutes and you want to write something but don’t know what and time is short etc., why not grab a notebook and jot down some potential opening lines? What you need is a character, an action, maybe a sense of setting.

For example one of mine is ‘What gave me away?’ Maisie scowled. This is the first line from Visitor Expected (Friday Flash Fiction). You can come back at a later date and work out what could come from your draft opening lines. I like the idea of having something to come back to like this and I get to use up pockets of time for some useful writing after all.

430085170_10161765165057053_271253412308704820_nHope you have had a good day. Lady got to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback girlfriends. All three dogs very happy about that.

Am making progress (finally!) on my long term project and am investigating possible homes for it when I’m ready to submit it.

Making very good progress on a fourth flash fiction book too. A lot of what I do here goes on around the backdrop of my blogging, regular story submissions etc. It means I always have something of interest to work on (I don’t like being bored, life is too short for that). There are certain things I would like to get done by the summer and am on track so far.

I also love writing the short forms of fiction because they give me a lovely imaginative “break” from the longer work I’m doing. Plus I can get those shorter pieces out and submitted and hopefully receive publication credits in the meantime too.

Nothing to dislike here but it does mean planning out my writing time. I have found that pays off. Some days I do write more than others. That’s the way of it but what I want to do is make the most of whatever time I’ve got whether it is ten minutes or four hours.

430034332_10161763489227053_427225652607989573_nHope today is going well for you. Lovely to see some sunshine after the frost this morning.

Looking forward to sharing some smashing author interviews on Chandler’s Ford Today in the next couple of months. More details nearer the time. It’s always a joy to host these as I find I learn so much from what other writers do. I’ve picked up lots of tips on time management for one thing – and these have paid off for me too.

Writing Tip: Put yourself inside your character’s head. What can they see and hear? Why do they feel the way they do? When you know what your character is doing and why, it simplifies writing their stories up. You will know what they would do. You will also know what they wouldn’t. Their reactions will seem like second nature to you too. All useful.

431141358_10161761796432053_2620119523481667258_nHope you are having a good weekend. Good to see some sunshine. A huge thank you for the lovely comments coming in on my latest Friday Flash Fiction story, Visitor Expected. Am thrilled even more comments have come in since yesterday. If you haven’t had chance to check the tale out, see the link. I like the Mrs Harrises of this world. Think you will too.

My Chandler’s Ford Today post for next week is on a topic close to my heart – The Task of the Opening Lines. Especially for flash fiction, the opening line is so important. I like to hit the ground running with my openings because that helps me to make the most of my word count and it also helps to hook the reader in immediately. Link up on Friday.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I like to mix up the flash fiction word counts I write to because (a) it’s fun, (b) it’s a good challenge, and (c) there are a wide range of competitions out there, all of which want differing word counts. So it pays to be able to turn your hand to several of them!

Have just submitted a flash piece and am working on a sub-300 words piece for another competition. Mind you compared with what I write for Friday Flash Fiction 300 words seems a huge amount!

You do get better, over time, at judging word counts when you see something written (on paper or in screen). When I guess, I am usually within 30 words or so. But being able to visualise what different word counts look like is handy as it helps me to gauge for this story I might need three paragraphs, for another I might only need the one. So just knowing that gives me a rough story structure immediately.

429761854_10161765175692053_6716777998577770161_nIt’s Monday. The heavy rain’s back. It’s Monday. It’s time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube -We’re Off.

 

Motivation is vital to the success of character portrayal in any story. In Tripping the Flash Fantastic, I have a character who is out for revenge because their boss put them on a duty they really did not want (Camping It Up). I ended the tale with their revenge carried out but if I had decided to write a longer piece here, I could have had the consequences of that revenge come home to roost for my character. That would have been as understandable and believable as the character’s initial wish for revenge.

When I do use revenge as a motive, regardless of length of story, I always ensure there is a good reason behind it. You have got to understand where your characters are coming from. You don’t have to agree with them though and I often don’t agree with mine!

431237964_841544844652045_7168468588543625191_nI occasionally write flash in poetic form. It’s good fun to do and an interesting challenge. One example of this is Choices in Tripping the Flash Fantastic. The key point is I always work out what the story will be first and then decide whether it would suit a poetic form and, if so, which kind.

I usually go for four or five line stanzas with a simple rhyme scheme as I have a soft spot for rhyme. (I’ve read some spectacular free verse by the way but my preference always has been for rhymes).

The editing challenge here is interesting too as I have to ensure my syllable count is consistent. Where I need to change words to fit that, I still need to ensure it makes sense for the story. Basically the joins shouldn’t show!

Writing a flash piece in poetic form is an interesting writing challenge too. Why not give it a go?

Forms by Allison Symes
This writer says give poetic flash a go.
But do remember you will still need to show
A proper tale with a start, middle and end.
Check all is well with your words before you send
Your story out there into the big, bad world.

Allison Symes – 2nd March 2024

Tripping The Flash Fantastic - by night

Goodreads Author Blog – Taking In Stories

One of the things I love most about stories is there are so many ways to take them in. My favourite will always be the paperback, followed by the hardback, followed jointly by ebooks and audio. I especially love audio books for long journeys and will look forward to hearing some old favourites again when I go on holiday later in the year.

But don’t forget audio itself comes in more than one medium. Stories on radio work astonishingly well, whether they are readings from books or plays (which are scripted stories). Also film and TV can share stories amazingly well.

The Lord of the Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson got members of my family into that terrific story. They would never have read the book. I had read it, loved it, and thought the film trilogy did the original justice. (Though I must admit I would have liked the films to have included what really happened to Saruman after Sauron’s fall).

I also love the fact adaptations to help breathe new life into classic books. Win-win for the written word there I think.

Screenshot 2024-03-02 at 17-15-32 Taking In Stories

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Twitter Corner with hashtag, Scrabble tiles, and the blue bird

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Writing Difficulties and Favourite Openings

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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.

BookBrushImage-2024-1-30-20-1331

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

Newsletter with envelope imagePleased 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.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

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.

421848716_818824020257461_2386484313653792362_n

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.

423133829_818223670317496_1884089815796508718_n

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.

TTFF with social media iconsIt’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.

421926213_818829376923592_262626763854245788_n

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.

423062287_818224753650721_3561424750403055658_n

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!

Screenshot 2024-01-27 at 18-45-51 What Books Do For Us

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Twitter Corner with hashtag, Scrabble tiles, and the blue bird

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.