Stories Based On Other Stories

November 3, 2023Leave 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 have had a good week. Very stormy on Wednesday night/Thursday. Glad things are settling down now. But on the fabulous news front (and there so needs to be one!), I’ve started my Flash NANO 2023 “campaign”, my copies of Gifted (the Bridge House Publishing anthology) have arrived, and the fantastic November issue of Writers’ Narrative is now out. Its theme is writing novels. More details below.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good day. Am talking about one of my favourite topics – stories – for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I discuss Stories Based on Stories.

So many wonderful tales (book, plays, adaptations etc) have come into being thanks to inspiration from previous ones. We build on what has gone before. Writers need to be inspired and it is our own love of books and stories which does this. I also look at the advantages and disadvantages of stories based on other stories.

Hope you enjoy the post. All of my posts here are a joy to write but some are just that little bit more joyous. This is one of those.

Stories Based On Stories

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sympathies to all affected by the horrendous weather in the UK today. Have seen some horrible pictures from places I know well in Dorset.

On a much happier note, I’ll be sharing Stories Based on Other Stories for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above. It’s always a joy to talk about stories and so many wonderful ones have been inspired by previous ones. I like to think of that as building on solid foundations.

Talking of books, don’t forget reviews are a great way to help authors. Reviews don’t have to be long either so if there is a writer whose work you have loved, do send a review in. It’s encouraging for one thing. Given writers spend so much time at their desks, encouragement like that is always welcome!

Part of a lovely review for From Light to Dark and Back Again reads ‘A thoroughly enjoyable read that kept me turning the pages’ but that does make a complete review in and of itself. It also encourages me a lot!

Chandler's Ford Today post reminder picture(1)

Am pleased to say the November edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out. Link below. The theme this month is novels (appropriately given November is NaNoWriMo time).

My article is on page 58 and I discuss what I learned when writing my first novel, though to date that remains unpublished. It was a fabulous learning experience though and what I learned has gone on to help me with my other forms of writing. If you are willing to learn, little is wasted in writing. I speak from experience there. And do check out the whole magazine for a wonderful range of in depth articles packed full of advice. It is a joy to be part of the team working on this.

For those of you who receive my monthly newsletter which went out earlier today, I hope to share a double link in my next one (out on 1st December) to cover the November and December issues of Writers’ Narrative. In the meantime, do check out a fabulous read below.

In other news, as they say, I’ve received my first Flash NANO challenge for 2023. Looking forward to working on that! Good luck and happy writing to all who are taking part in this and NaNoWriMo.

Screenshot 2023-11-01 at 16-23-41 Writers' Narrative eMagazine November 2023

Screenshot 2023-11-01 at 16-24-16 Writers' Narrative eMagazine November 2023

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with Manners Maketh The Fairy. Hope you enjoy this. It is one of what I call my fairytales with bite. This one has an environmental theme to it as well.

Will be cracking on with the Day 2 challenge of Flash NANO 2023 shortly. Now since done and good fun it was too! I love the variety of prompts. Good way to kickstart the old imagination. Some of last year’s flash pieces will form part of my third flash fiction collection in due course.

I’ve always enjoyed those moments in stories (especially in film) where I know I’m going to be able to recall it years later. The great thing with flash stories is they are those complete moments. Short form writing can have far more of an impact due to its limited word count and flash fiction writers especially can use that to work out what kind of impact they want their latest tale to have. Then it’s a case of making the most of the word count you’ve got to play with.

There are some days when I have a quiet writing day. There are other days when loads of things happen at once. Today is one of the latter.

Firstly, the November issue of Writers’ Narrative is out and focuses on novels. Link shared on my main Facebook page (and above!).

Secondly, my author newsletter went out today. The subscribe link to Writers’ Narrative is in this. If you’re not already a subscriber, I highly recommend signing up and it is free!

Thirdly, my copies of Gifted, the latest anthology from Bridge House Publishing arrived today. My story, Desperately Seeking Talent, is in there. The joy of opening a box of books from your publisher never diminishes!

Does it make the hard work, the years of rejections and learning the craft (which is an ongoing process), all worth it?

Oh yes!

Fairytales With Bite – The Environment

Whatever your setting, there will be an environment. Some will be much nicer than others! What is the attitude of your characters to their environment? Do they care about it? Has damage been done to it they’re trying to rectify?

If the environment is generally sound, how do your characters contribute to it being so good? Are there laws in place banning certain activities or insisting certain ones are carried out?

In a magical setting, think about the energy your magical characters have. Where do they get this from? Even if it is from within themselves, what affect does their using it have on the outside world? Do they have to be careful with how much of it they use and/or where?

What creatures would live in your setting’s environment and what would be your characters’ relationship to these? If magic has done damage to certain parts of your setting, how did that happen (presumably magical wars/industrial kind of accidents are two ideas that occur to me here)? What is being done to correct that damage? Or are those areas left alone and is that the right thing to do? What would what passes for nature on your world do to correct things if left alone to get on with it?

How does the environment, which includes all manner of things from air quality to transportation, have a bearing on what your characters can and cannot do?

This World and Others – Agencies

What kind of agencies exist in your setting? These can include environmental agencies (see Fairytales with Bite above) to agencies who care for elderly magical beings who need looking after in their latter days. And who almost certainly are grateful to be still alive to be looked after given most magical worlds are not exactly friendly to their inhabitants. Well, you can hardly call a place friendly when dealing with dragons is a daily, hazardous, occupation, yes?

Also you could think here of stories involving magic which went wrong and damage had to be undone somehow. There would be stories here. This might explain why you have elderly magical beings. They would have to be phenomenally good at their craft to survive, yes?

Every world will need some sort of government and even if you focus on one area, who would be in charge of that and how did they come to power? Do they rule well or badly? What agencies do they use to help their peoples (or to suppress them)? What kind of characters would work in these things?

I think in a magical setting there would have to be some agreement as to what was allowed and what was not to avoid chaos. So which agencies would set these rules and how do they ensure they are adhered to by everyone? The risk of not having rules is any powerful wizard worthy of the name would almost certainly ensure they became your setting’s dictator. See Sauron in The Lord of the Rings for more on this!

Also on a more peaceful setting, how do the agencies work with each other as there would inevitably be some overlap? There always is with any kind of agency. An environmental one would have to work with other agencies responsible for caring for specific aspects of the environment.

We in the UK for example have a Forestry Commission. We have water boards. Both are responsible for the environment but in different ways. When the water agencies need trees clearing to clear waterways, they would have to work with the forestry body. And that’s just one example. Where you have the need for co-operation, the prospect of conflict of interest arises and there would be interesting stories there in working out how to resolve these and what your characters do.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Pleased to say November's edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out. The theme is novels (apt as November is NaNoWriMo time). Do check out the magazine for a wonderful range of in depth articles packed with advice. It is a joy to be part of the WN team.https://t.co/WzHUWtRkz8
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 1, 2023

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

Manners Maketh The Fairy, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/ii2fndztvh Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with Manners Maketh The Fairy. Hope you enjoy this. It is one of what I call my fairytales with bite. This has an environmental theme to it too. pic.twitter.com/uolJHfAALo
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 3, 2023

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

Stories Based On Stories https://t.co/PdQ5xyaGxA I discuss a favourite topic – stories – for CFT this week. Many wonderful tales have come into being thanks to inspiration from previous ones. All of my posts here are a joy to write but some are more joyous. This is one of those.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 3, 2023

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

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

Moments in Stories

October 31, 20232 Comments

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. Weather still a mixture of torrential rain, sunshine, cloud, and high winds. More to come too. I am so thankful that writing is something which is usually done indoors in the warm!

Facebook – General

Next author newsletter due out tomorrow but there’s still time to sign up. Please head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com for tips, news, story links etc.

Also due tomorrow is the start of Flash NANO where I’ll receive 30 flash fiction prompts for the whole of November. I took part for the first time last year and had a wonderful time with this. I am looking forward to more of the same! It’s a fabulous way to get some drafting done.

I think that’s the secret, if you can call it that, to this and NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). See these as ways to get first drafts done. Editing can come in later. But getting those stories down is vital and these ideas can help you get off to a cracking start. You can’t edit a blank page now, can you?

AE - January 2023 - Flash Nano was a new challenge in late 2022

AE - January 2023 - 30 New Stories thanks to Flash NANO

Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to show off in front of her Hungarian Vizler pal, who she treats like a mother figure (and the Vizler loves it too, she loves being “boss dog” here). Managed to avoid most of the rain. Always see that as a bonus. Lady and I don’t always manage it so see it as a win when we do.

How do your characters react to the weather? Equally how does the weather affect the story? It is often used to make life more difficult for the characters (see The Lord of the Rings for more on this!) but could you use it to help your characters instead?

For example, bright sunshine will make any journey more pleasant for most of your characters but if they’re facing threats from vampires, guess who the sunshine isn’t going to help!

Perspective is an issue here too. What some characters see as helpful, others won’t though it can be interesting to explore why the latter take a negative attitude as that may well have a bearing on how well or otherwise they “do” in the story. Outcomes could change too.

Am pleased to be back on More than Writers with my post Moments in Stories. I look at some of the memorable moments in fiction I love but also discuss whether, as a writer, you can know what these are for your stories before you’ve gone through at least one edit. I also ask why do you care about your characters enough to write their stories up at all. Hope you enjoy the post

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Hope you have had a good day. Very changeable weather today. Still the rain did make me get round to one job I often put off doing – the ritual tidying up of the desk!

Will be looking at Stories Based On Other Stories for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Looking forward to sharing that. I love stories full stop. I have even more love for a story which is based on or inspired by another, stays true to the character/setting portrayal of the original or is upfront enough to say it is Tale X based in the Year ZZZ, but is its own tale too.

Not an easy balance to get right but it can be done. So many tales have been inspired by Pride and Prejudice, for example. Not all are set in the Regency period. Must admit though I don’t like the zombie cross one though. That just seems wrong to me. I dread to think what Jane Austen would have made of that.

Author newsletter due out again next week. I compile this during the month as news and story links come in and is great fun to put it together. I had hesitated about having one but am now glad I have gone ahead. I think it is vital to enjoy what marketing you do here. It is that enjoyment which will help keep you going.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good day. I don’t “do” Halloween (much prefer All Souls’ Day) but I have written the odd ghost story in flash fiction. Like any other character, I give good thought to the motivation behind a ghost turning up. There has to be a good reason for it.

In Tripping the Flash Fantastic, in my story Getting It Right, I write from the viewpoint of the recently murdered Richard III who is lamenting how he has been misrepresented. It gave him a chance to have his say to a modern audience! That was my motivation there.

For almost all of my historical pieces, I “allow” my characters to speak in relatively modern English so they can make themselves understood to us in the present day. Olde worlde English can be tiresome to read in huge quantities. As with accents, slang etc, a little goes a long way and I have always felt the most important thing is to get the character and their situation across in a way readers will want to follow. So the use of modern English is my one conceit here.

I have written from the viewpoint of Anne Boleyn too and it was, again, much more important to get her as my character to show you how she is feeling on the eve of her execution and to hopefully encourage sympathy for her and her plight. The Tudor English would get in the way of that, I think.

It’s Monday. The clocks have gone back in the UK. It’s darker earlier. There has been more heavy rain. It’s Monday. You know where I’m going with this – it’s definitely time for a story.

Hope you enjoy Numbers, my latest on YouTube, and see how my postie characters deals with the stuck up folk in Wisteria Crescent.

Many thanks for the comments coming in on Musical Neighbours, my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction. If you missed it, you can check it out at the link below. I love coming up with the 100-word stories (aka drabbles) for FFF. Great fun to do. And do check out the website for great reads. (My problem here is tearing myself away from the stories but that’s a good problem to have!).

Am looking forward to Flash NANO which starts on 1st November. Had a great time with this last year and out of the 30 prompts, I was able to get stories I was happy with out of most of them which is fair enough. Not every prompt will suit every writer but I had a great time responding to the challenge.

A huge thank you for the wonderful comments coming in on my news about Gifted, the latest Bridge House Publishing anthology. Much appreciated. Am so looking forward to the BHP celebration event in December.

One of the things I love about writing flash stories is I can give the characters who deserve it their well earned comeuppance quickly! I tell you writing can be so therapeutic at times – for the author at least! But whatever kind of flash tale I write, I do have to know my character well enough to know they are going to deserve to have me drop them right in it. Then it is great fun delivering on that!

Flash works so well for twist stories and humour too. My ideal story is a flash one where a character gets their comeuppance and it is a funny one. Love reading that kind of tale too. Probably says a lot about me but one of the joys of fiction is in knowing that a lot of the time justice is done (especially in crime stories) when in life it sometimes isn’t.

Goodreads Author Blog – Anthologies and Collections

I’ve had the lovely news this week that another story of mine is out in the latest anthology by Bridge House Publishing called Gifted. My story in there is called Desperately Seeking Talent. I often submit work for anthologies and it has been a great joy many of my stories have appeared in these over the years.

But I love reading anthologies and collections as well as contributing to them. I love discovering the different styles of the writers. I was one of the winners of the Waterloo Arts Festival Writing Competition where the writers had to write to 1000 words all on the same theme. Fifteen different writers came up with fifteen varying stories and it was amazing to see the creativity here and a joy to be part of it.

Reading anthologies and collections is also a great way to discover writers new to you. Why not use what you like about their short form work to check out their longer stories and books?

I see books like this as “mixed assortments” of stories. What is there not to like about that? I also read these books in between novels as I like to mix up reading the long form with the short form. There is so much to enjoy about both kinds of writing and I want to make sure I get plenty of reading done in both forms.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Screenshot 2023-10-17 at 19-53-12 Writers' Narrative eMagazine October 2023

Screenshot 2023-10-17 at 19-53-46 Writers' Narrative eMagazine October 2023

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

liked Allison Symes's blog post: Anthologies and Collections https://t.co/xT713d3ILd via @goodreads This post is nice to write given I have a story in another anthology this week. I look at the joys of reading and writing for collections and anthologies for Goodreads this week. pic.twitter.com/a4u5cRrxzK
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 28, 2023

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

How do you plan for memorable moments in your writing? @AllisonSymes1 on the More Than Writers blog. https://t.co/ae13PKuVzb
— ACW (@ACW1971) October 29, 2023

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

More than Writers: Moments in Stories by Allison Symes https://t.co/rif9msEm0F I look at some memorable moments in fiction but also discuss whether, as a writer, you can know what these are for your stories before you’ve gone through at least one edit. Hope you enjoy the post. pic.twitter.com/6HJZum6Eiu
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 29, 2023

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

It’s Monday. The clocks have gone back in the UK. It’s darker earlier. There has been more heavy rain. It’s Monday. You know where I’m going with this – it’s definitely time for a story. Hope you enjoy Numbers, my latest on YouTube. https://t.co/iSD6Rm0Hya
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 30, 2023

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

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

Fears, Flash Fiction, and Keeping It Simple

October 30, 2018October 30, 2018Leave a comment

Facebook – General

Pleased to say a new flash fiction story of mine is now up on Cafelit. Story below but am sharing the link to Cafelit too. Do explore the wide range of stories on there. Hope you enjoy Jack of All Trades.

This is influenced by an old Bob Newhart sketch (where a new employee has to report to his boss that King Kong is climbing up the side of the Empire State Building! Newhart is fab – I have a CD of his very best material including The Driving Instructor and highly recommend him).

Jack of All Trades by Allison Symes

chocolate milkshake

Nothing was said about this in the manual. Jack blinked. He hadn’t been mistaken. The purple dinosaur was there and it didn’t look happy. Still, Jack knew he had to report these things so he tapped his supervisor’s number out on his mobile.

It took several minutes for Jack to stop repeating his description of the beast and longer still for the supervisor to stop swearing. The purple dinosaur was munching its way through what had been the supermarket.

At least demolishing the contents of the butcher’s counter was keeping the creature occupied and its attention away from Jack. He felt this was good news. Jack’s supervisor felt differently – his cousin was the butcher at that supermarket. It was made clear Jack was disposable.

Jack hung up. If he didn’t resolve this, he’d be eaten or, if he survived, sacked. If he did resolve it, the supervisor wouldn’t mind having the call cut off.

He saw the dinosaur had finished the meat. The next aisle contained the veg.

It won’t want that, Jack thought. I never do. Still, if a creature comes through from the next world, it can jolly well go back there again and at speed. We don’t want his sort here.

‘Come here, boy,’ Jack did a quick check, ‘sorry, girl. This world is no place for you.’

Jack took a flare out from his tool belt and fired it above the dinosaur. It roared and ran back through the gaping hole in dimensions its body had blocked from Jack’s view.

Jack sighed. He’d have to fix that too.

About the author

Allison Symes is published by Chapeltown Books, Cafe Lit, and Bridge House Publishing amongst others. She is a member of the Society of Authors and Association of Christian Writers. Her website is www.allisonsymescollectedworks.wordpress.com and she blogs for Chandler’s Ford Today – http://chandlersfordtoday.co.uk/author/allison-symes/

Let the creativity spill out. PIxabay image.

Lost in a world of books. Pixabay image.

The lights fantastic. Pixabay image.

How does gravity and time work in your settings? Pixabay image.

Knowledge of how our solar system works can inspire creating your fictional one. Pixabay image.

What world will you conjure up for us in your stories? Pixabay image.

A good read means you ARE in a world of your own. Pixabay image

How is your fantastic world governed? Pixabay image

Just how fantastic is your setting? Pixabay image.

Am enjoying Doctor Who though admittedly tonight’s episode was not for the arachnophobes amongst us. Scary though, as DW is meant to be. I always did sympathise with Ron Weasley in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets over his reaction to the giant spiders in that.

Character fears can be a good area to explore to:-

a. Find out whether or not they overcome them
b. How the fears developed
c. What happens when forced to face up to them.

Fears can be the making of a character if, to use the modern phrase, “they feel the fear and do it anyway”. There have got to be some great stories there!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Facebook – General – and More than Writers, ACW blog

Time for my monthly spot on More Than Writers, the Association of Christian Writers’ blog. This time, I look at KISS and why Keeping It Simple really isn’t a stupid thing to do.

The irony is that effortless reading (which is a joy) has almost certainly been subject to many an edit to get it to that point. Writing directly can be harder than you think. Fighting the urge to embellish what doesn’t need it is an ongoing thing.

Anyway, hope you enjoy.

Keeping It Simple Is Definitely Not Stupid

I’m not fond of the acronym, KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid), as there’s nothing stupid about “direct” writing. Keeping it simple is much harder to do than whoever invented that acronym supposed. I guess it is meant to imply the other person IS stupid for not keeping it simple but the reality is you have to edit hard to get your prose to the state where it reads as if it has been written effortlessly.

In my honest opinion, keeping your writing simple is never a stupid thing to do. Pixabay image.

You then repeat the process until you reach the point where you cannot improve the work. Sometimes you reach the point of being heartily sick of it but that’s another story. It shows it’s time to take a break and come back to it later and look at it again with a fresh perspective. The distance away from it does help.

Some editing is definitely needed here! Pixabay image!

I learned a long time ago when someone makes something look easy, whether it is writing or any other creative art, you can bet that same someone has worked their socks off for years, perfecting their craft, to achieve this. (And, as they say, other hosiery items are available!).

Just how much hard work has gone into getting to this stage? Pixabay image

I start my editing of a story or a blog post by looking for what I know are my wasted words – “very”, “actually” and “that”. The first two contribute little to a piece, you do need “that” sometimes but not nearly as often as you might think, and I have found by focusing on removing these words first, I enter straight into “editor mode”. It is easier when in that mindset to cut what has to be cut. (I can justify the “that” there!).

I overwrite, which I used to hate, but now I accept it is part of how I write and there is little a good edit or several can’t fix! Rarely have I written a piece where I’ve needed to “fill” and I hated it when I did. It felt artificial and was one of those rare instances where I binned the whole idea (and that is needed sometimes if, no matter what you do, it isn’t working).

If an idea isn’t working, despite time away from it, binning it can be the right thing to do. Pixabay image.

The other good thing was this instance made me brainstorm for better ideas, which is what I should have done in the first place. Lesson learned there. I don’t mind effort, indeed I expect it as we all should with our work, but I loathe it when it seems to be wasted. Still, I’m not planning on making that mistake again so I think some good has come out of it.

Also when editing, I look for how the sentences flow. Do they read easily? Do they convey the exact meaning I wanted? Could I express things better? (The answer to that one is nearly always yes).

No matter how fantastic your fictional world, it still pays to keep the writing simple. Pixabay image.

Simple writing then is not lazy writing. It is hard work but well worth the effort. Simple writing pulls the reader in. Look at Jesus’s parables. Straightforward storytelling. Not a wasted word. No waffle. Now there’s a challenge to us all!

Jesus’s stories are the work of the master storyteller. Pixabay image.

My CFT post this week will be a review of The Chameleon Theatre Company’s latest production, Blackadder Goes Forth. Link up on Friday though I will say now that final scene of the last episode is incredibly moving and the way it was performed on stage was excellent.

Generally I find it is moments in books, TV shows etc that stand out (and in a really good series, say, helps recall the rest of the show. The chandelier scene in Only Fools and Horses is another classic here, as is Del Boy falling “through” the bar).

I suppose the challenge here for any writer is to ensure we put plenty of stand out moments in our stories!

A good writing group will help you discover this. Pixabay image.

Reach for those ideas. Pixabay image.

Edit, edit, edit! Pixabay image.

What wonderful worlds we can creat! Image via Pixabay.

Your blog, your topic, your theme – just be sensible on copyright and libel issues. Image via Pixabay.

Which number draft is this? Pixabay image

Can’t have too many notebooks and pens. Image via Pexels

What we all strive for in writing. Pixabay

Love writing, love reading, love books. Pixabay image.

Assemble your characters, assemble your world. Image via Pixabay

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

The writer’s way is strewn with words
Chittering away like the birds.
The issue is how to edit
Would the dialogue really be said
Or does it seem not real somehow?
Does your piece make your reader go “wow”?
Is the tale all action, does it flow?
Is the pace fast enough or, eek, slow?
The advantage to writing flash fiction
Is it teaches writing with precision.

Allison Symes – 30th October 2018

Good reading – and writing to be done – here. Pixabay image.

I’ve never read a book in these conditions, have you? Pixabay image.

Whenever and whatever you read, enjoy. Image via Pixabay.

What galaxy is your world set in? Pixabay image

Books should keep you gripped and that is down to the characters. Image via Pixabay

Where will your characters take you? Image via Pixabay

Fiction should show you new ways of looking at the world. Image via Pixabay.

How does gravity and time work in your settings? Pixabay image.

What light will your world shed on how ours “behaves”? Pixabay image.

What populates your fictional world? Pixabay image

Great characters will engross you. You will lose time reading their stories. Image via Pixabay.

To finish my alphabetical look at flash fiction (in particular attributes useful for writing it), I finish with Y and Z. Now there’s a challenge but at least I know it’s been coming!

Y = Young. Can be taken to mean having a mixture of character ages in your stories or what a character will do to defend their young. Interesting tales to be had from both of these. Also if you tend to write from the viewpoint of older characters, why not switch and see if you can write from the viewpoint of someone, say, 20 or 30 years younger? Mixing things up helps to keep your writing fresh and you will enjoy it far more.

Z = Zealous. Firstly, are your characters zealous enough for their cause to see it through no matter what? They should be. If not, is their cause strong enough? If it is, why isn’t the character engaging with it fully? Look again at what your character wants. Do they want this enough? Secondly, are you zealous about editing your work well, as well as enjoying the more obviously fun creative side of writing? You need both to get work out there and it makes sense then to relish both the writing and the editing.

Aids research whether it is tea, coffee, hot chocolate etc! Image via Pixabay

Can’t beat a good book or several. Image via Pixabay.

Always good advice this. Image via Pexels

Imagine the wealth of fairytales and other stories in here. Image via Pixabay.

Creating great characters does mean hard work. Image via Pexels.

Let the ideas flow and let journeys encourage that! Image via Pixabay

Books are the keys to knowledge. Image via Pixabay

One way through to the magical world but is it all sunshine and flowers? I doubt it! Image via Pixabay

Fairies are definitely not twee and you do not want to come across one that has had a bad day due to Murphy’s Law affecting her. She will take it out on someone. Image via Pixabay.

Love what you write. Image via Pixabay.

Now at the tail end of the alphabet for my flash fiction listing.

V = Variation. As with any fiction, vary the pace of your flash fiction tales. There is room for reflective, thought provoking pieces, as well as the action story. Vary how you tell the tale – first person, second etc. Vary the settings. Above all have fun. The first person to enjoy your writing should be you.

W = Writing. What else? Write regularly. Write first, edit later. The lovely thing about flash fiction is you can use it as a warm up exercise ahead of major writing (e.g. a novel) but there’s nothing to stop you editing those exercises and getting them out into the flash fiction markets and competitions.

X = Xerox! I was determined not to use X-rated for this one but Xerox does have a serious point to it. The great joy of writing is inventing something you have created (albeit inspired by what you have read over time). Never ever xerox/copy another writer’s work. Create your own work always. That IS the whole point.

Will have a go at Y and Z tomorrow!

Good advice. Image via Pixabay.

What every author would like to achieve or set, yes? Image via Pixabay

What an upgrade from Shakespeare’s quill! Image via Pixabay

Always good advice! Pixabay image.

A huge but lovely library. Image via Pexels

Blog on and enjoy! Image via Pixabay.

Let one creative idea spark another. Pixabay image.

Not arguing with this! Image via Pixabay

The art of the flash (fiction). Image via Pixabay

Escape with a good book. Image via Pixabay.

Good advice – and it applies to our characters too. Image via Pixabay

Getting nearer to the end of the alphabet with my flash fiction “requisites”.

S = Story. Has to be really. It is all about the story and that is dictated by the characters. Without memorable characters there is no story. A story is about conflict and resolution in most cases and the characters “carry that”.

T = Turning Point. In flash fiction you obviously reach this point quicker than in standard length short stories. Sometimes the turning point can be revealed in the last line (often via the classic twist in the tale ending). Sometimes you can start with it. In my George Changes His Mind, I start with “He refused to kill the dragon”. There’s the turning point immediately. It is clearly expected George SHOULD kill the beast. The story then hinges on finding out why he didn’t and what the outcome was.

U = Universe. Each flash fiction has to be its own complete universe. By the end of it, a reader should have a sense of your setting, been mesmerised by your character(s), and the conclusion to the tale should be appropriate to the story (and satisfactory as a result, even if the ending is not a happy one). The nice thing is your story universe can be set in a fantastic world or this one in amongst the mundane! Your call but we should be wanting to find out what happens in the world you show us.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Goodreads Author Programme – Blog – Music and Stories

As I’m typing this, I’m listening to a concert of John Williams’ music being broadcast on Classic FM. (I do love the Listen Again feature!).

Every piece of music conjures up memories of films (often Spielberg ones) and with those memories come stories. Stories of when I discovered the film, the story contained within the movie itself etc. Of course so many movies are based on novels too.

So do you find a certain piece of music always conjures up stories for you? I’ve only to hear the opening notes of the Harry Potter film to be whisked away to recalling the books and movies (loved both).

I sometimes use music as a guide to help me create characters for my own writing. Character X would love this, Y would love that, etc.

I also love stories set to music. Up the Junction by Squeeze is a wonderful example of this – and a great ballad in the old tradition too.

When reading I have to read in silence but music is fab for when I can’t just drop everything to pick up a book. I still have the stories and the memories of stories as I work on other matters and that has to be a good thing.