Tag: My writing week

Author Interview – Introducing Heather Beveridge/Hetty Waite – Evolve

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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. Many thanks to Heather Beveridge (who writes as Hetty Waite) and Lynsey Adams of Reading Between The Lines Book Vlog for supplying author, book cover and other photos. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have a good week. Mixed bag weather wise though Lady has seen all of her chums this week, including a couple we haven’t seen for a while. Have sent in my final competition entries for the year so glad to have that done. Other writing going well. Am so looking forward to the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event on Saturday, 6th December too.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Had a lovely day out with other half to celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary. Lady loved the trip out too. And that was despite the weather. We had a lovely lunch in the aptly named Windy Corner Cafe, where dogs are welcome, and Lady loved it. As well as being spoiled rotten, she also enjoyed looking around at the other diners, probably hopeful for titibits, but she does love people in general and loves being nosy. Can’t think where she gets that from!

Writing wise, I’m delighted to welcome fellow Swanwicker Heather Beveridge, who writes as Hetty Waite, to discuss her new book, Evolve. This is book two in her The Chromosone Trilogy, a YA dystopian series.
Plenty to enjoy here.

Heather/Hetty discussed what led her to write her trilogy, the joys and challenges of doing that, plus she looks at the usefulness of writing events, especially The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick.

Hope you enjoy the interview.

Author Interview – Introducing Heather Beveridge/Hetty Waite – Evolve

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Hope the day has gone well. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals again and all three had a lovely time.

In writing news, I was sorry to hear of the death of Jonathan Telfer, former editor of Writing Magazine. This was announced in the current issue, which reached me yesterday.

In other writing news, I’m sharing a fabulous in-depth interview with fellow Swanwicker, Heather Beveridge, who writes as Hetty Waite, about her new novel, Evolve. This is Book 2 in her The Chromosone Trilogy and follows her first book, Mutate.

Heather/Hetty shares her writing journey to date, the role The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick has played in this so far, writing and marketing thoughts/tips, and discusses what she loves about dystopian fiction. There’s much more in the interview too. Link up tomorrow. Looking forward to sharing that. See above.

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Hope you have had a good day. Cold but dry and bright here. Lady had a fabulous puppy party this morning with her Hungarian Vizler, Rhodesian Ridgeback and Labradoodle pals (the ever lovely Coco there). Also got to see the sweetest Jack Russell around, a lovely dog called Willow, whom we haven’t seen for a while. All of the dogs love her. Lady came home tired and happy. Dogs do get something positive out of socialising with each other. It always seems to give Lady a good buzz.

Mind you, I’m like that when I get together with other writers which I’m looking forward to doing again at the weekend! So I expect to be “buzzing” on my way home!

Busy editing and writing. Looking forward to going to an ACW genre group tonight. Always good chat and a lovely way to unwind. Have got my final stories in for competitions. Will probably look out other competitions to have a crack at early in the New Year, hopefully, but glad to get these ones sent in. As ever I took time off the official deadline to give me the time to check all is as it should be and to still send my stories in good time. It is amazingly (and horrifyingly) easy to miss something on a submission. Have made that mistake and I do my utmost not to do it again.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Friday Flash Fiction are currently running their Christmas competition so you will see no names or comments on the stories. I have sent in a story and hope to do so again next week as you can submit one story a week for two weeks for this.

Do check the wonderful range of stories already in. Have had a good read already.

Festive flash is great fun to write. I alway go for the lighthearted angle – well, we need plenty of lightheartedness in winter, I think. It is about the only seasonal writing I do but always look forward to getting around to it for another year. Occasionally I have had great ideas for this in mid-summer so yes, I write them then. At other times, it is closer to October/November. But all great fun.

In my time, I’ve had Santa pulled over for speeding and, in a separate story, Santa facing disaster as the elves go on strike.

Do you think that would put me on the naughty list?

Have just sent in final flash fiction competition entries for this year. At the beginning of 2025, I did want to enter more competitions than in 2024 and I have done that. I’ve written more overall too so am very happy about that. Okay, I would have liked better results but you do have to be in it to even stand a chance of winning it so I am pleased I’ve given myself more chances this year at least.

Hopefully in the New Year, Writing Magazine will be issuing their competitions guide. I have found that useful, as ever, this year. I think as well as trying more competitions in 2026 than I have this year, I would like to try more competitions with different word count requirements. I would see that as a good challenge.

Fairytales With Bite – Wishing On a Star

I remember the old Rose Royce hit of Wishing On A Star and When You Wish Upon a Star from Disney’s Pinocchio. Don’t mind the songs but have always felt the concept of wishing on a star to be somewhat wishy-washy. I’d far rather admire the beauty of the stars in the night sky.

But what about our characters? If they could wish on a star (or other astronomical object), what would they wish for and why?

If they are magical characters, why are they not granting their own wishes or getting others to do it for them? I can understand there being rules to stop folk abusing their own magical powers but how effective are these and can your characters find a way around them? What would the consequences be? As I’ve said before, there are always consequences but that is where our stories take off.

If your characters aren’t magical but their world setting is, who could they turn to for magical assistance when they need it? What would they need to be able to do or prove to show what they are after isn’t unreasonable and magical assistance would be justified? Rather than wishing on a star, to quote Ghostbusters, “who are they gonna call?”

Also are your characters of a practical nature and how would they handle things when they do need to turn to magic to help them, rather than rely on their own skills? Not everybody would handle this well but whatever they’re facing has to be dire enough for them to turn to this avenue of help.

Good story thoughts there, I think.

This World and Others – Astronomy

Now I admit I love the stars. They look stunning against the night sky. But my knowledge about them is limited. I can just about recognise The Plough!

In your setting, what stars or other astronomical bodies would your characters regularly see? Would they study astronomy as we know it? Would it be compulsory for them to study it? Would they get to travel to other stars/worlds and how would this be done? Could they possibly come into our universe and Milky Way?

What technology would they have to be able to study the stars “properly”? Would they have anything like our space telescopes or would they have something far beyond that? Who would be behind the technology? How did they develop it?

Also your setting’s literature about its own universe – what are the theories behind it? Do they believe in a Creator? What do they think is behind the creation of the stars? Do they treat the stars and their own environment with respect?

Am sure there are story ideas to develop further here.

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Reviews, Transformations, and Publication News

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Image Credit:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. I also took the images from inside CafeLit 10.

Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Images relating to Creativity Matters: Find Your Passion for Writing were kindly supplied by Wendy H Jones, some were created by me in Book Brush, and the proud contributing author pics were taken by Adrian Symes. Always tricky trying to take those kind of photos yourself. If your other half needs to know how they can support the author in their life, taking their author pics (and doing a good job of it) is a great place to start!

Hope you have a good start to the working week. Not a bad start here with publication news for next week and reviews coming in for Creativity Matters: Find Your Passion for Writing.

BookBrushImage-2021-9-14-20-2856

Facebook – General

Pleased to say I’ll be having another story on CafeLit next week (found out today). Will share more details nearer the time but that kind of news cheers up any Tuesday!

I submitted another story about my hapless magical being, Sarah, to Friday Flash Fiction and hope that will appear later this week. I usually create a video for my Youtube channel on a Sunday and schedule it to appear on the Monday. If you would like to check out the videos I’ve created so far, see the link below which will take you to my YT “home page”.

Over the course of a week, I aim to have a good balance of fiction and non-fiction writing completed (or in the case of longer projects to have made progress on them). It keeps my writing life interesting and means I’m never short of things to do.

Youtube channel – Allison Symes

Youtube iconScreenshot 2021-09-14 at 20-33-09 Allison Symes

Busy old day as it usually is for me on a Monday. Was pleased with my productivity yesterday though. I wrote a couple of flash stories (one of which I’ll share on my book page in a moment as I turned that into a Youtube video). I used a random word generator to trigger ideas for one of them. The other story I’ve submitted to Friday Flash Fiction. And I’ve created a second, exclusive Youtube video with a new story, which will go out as part of my newsletter on 1st October.

I’ve also drafted various presentation materials too and am looking forward to delivering them in due course! Am looking forward to a nice break with better half and the dog later in the year and I plan to edit my non-fiction project during that time.

(I can’t NOT write. Sad muppet? Maybe but I am a productive one! And the dog, my better half and I will be getting in lots of lovely walking during the day so by the time we get back to where we’ll be staying, we’ll all be glad of a sit down. For me that’s a trigger to get the red editing pen out!). Am pleased with it generally but I know I can sharpen it up further so that will be my focus in the latter half of the autumn.

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Hope you have had a good weekend.

I look forward to sharing Part 2 of my interview with #MaressaMortimer on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. (And many thanks for the great responses to the share of Part 1 last Friday).

Busy preparing workshop and other material including blogs at the moment. All good fun.

And it was lovely to catch up with some Swanwick friends on Zoom yesterday.

Don’t forget if you want to sign up to my author newsletter (packed full of tips, flash stories, news etc), then please head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

And Amazon have an offer on the paperback of Tripping the Flash Fantastic at the moment. See link for more.

 

Delighted to see some wonderful reviews coming in for Creativity Matters: Find Your Passion for Writing. (There is a blog tour going on right now which Wendy H Jones organised). I am going to share the link for this one though – and a huge thanks to Val Penny for this. It’s the kind of post that will put a smile on any author’s face.

In separate news, I’m making good progress on workshop and other materials for events later in the year (the Brechin/Angus Book Fest) so am well pleased with that too!

 

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Funny old weather today – started gloomy, rain threatening, thunder predicted. Ended up warm and sunny and no clouds in sight. A complete transformation in what was expected.

Now it is possible to get a character transformation across in a flash fiction piece but it has to be a convincing transformation. You also need to be specific about what kind of transformation is likely as you don’t have the word count room to let your readers guess too much. And there has to be clues early on that transformation of some sort is going to be possible and will happen.

In my Seeing Is Believing from Tripping The Flash Fantastic, I open with “When Ben was unwell, strange signs appeared in the sky above his house.”.

That tells you immediately there has to be something special about Ben to make those strange signs happen. You can also reasonably expect to see some of those signs in the course of his story (otherwise why mention it?) and you have an idea of location.

House indicates an ordinary every day setting yet something is unusual here and that is the hook to draw the reader in with. You have the sense that something is going to happen either because of Ben or to Ben because of those strange signs. And that is how it should be. There is the sense something or someone is going to be transformed and the likelihood is that it has to involve Ben. It will be a question then of finding out what happens and how he handles it.

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Story time again. Hope you enjoy Being Bettered. Who will come off best – the witch or the fairy godmother?


I’ve mentioned before I need to have a way into a story but those ways can vary. Sometimes I am responding to a set prompt. Sometimes I use a proverb or well known saying as a theme. Sometimes I use an issue that means something to me.

My story Enough is Enough in Tripping the Flash Fantastic is a good example of this as it shows my character’s response to being body-shamed. (Yet another form of bullying, which is something I’ve always loathed). What I do with this story is get my character doing something positive (though whether you would necessarily agree with her idea of positive is another matter). What she doesn’t do is feel sorry for herself. She does get up and do something.

Stories hinge on the “what happens” question and the role of the character/story is to answer that question in some way. Sometimes the answer will be a good one (e.g. the traditional fairytale happily ever after ending is an example of this). Sometimes it won’t be (e.g. the character doesn’t win through despite their best efforts) but the ending will be appropriate for the character and story. And we as readers find out what happens isn’t necessarily what we would have liked to have seen happen. But then that is another way fiction mirrors life.

 

Pleased to say a fab review has come in for Creativity Matters: Find Your Passion for Writing on Amazon. See link for more. My chapter in the book is called Why Write Flash Fiction and Short Stories. Let’s just say I say (and in some depth!). The nice thing with this book as a whole is if you would like to write but don’t know where to start, Creativity Matters will give you plenty of ideas. It also shows you how much variety is out there too in terms of what to write.

And don’t forget to check out Friday Flash Fiction for a wonderful batch of 100-word and other flash tales. My Almost Right is my contribution for this week.
Screenshot 2021-09-10 at 19-06-14 Almost Right, by Allison Symes


Goodreads Author Blog – Anthologies

Now I must put my hand up here and confess to being biased. I’ve had stories published in a number of anthologies over many years (mainly CafeLit and Bridge House Publishing). As well as the joy of being published, I love reading the other stories and discovering what my fellow writers have come out with for their contributions to the books.

As a reader, I love reading anthologies in between reading novels. Often an anthology will help me decide which novel is going to come off my To Be Read list next. A short story in an anthology might put me in the mood for a good crime novel or a fantasy one etc. I also like mixing up the kinds of things I read so I like to have anthologies in between the novels and novellas.

In celebrating the written word, I definitely want to include the short stories as well as the longer works.

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On Characters and Being a “Proper” Writer

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Image Credit:  Unless otherwise stated, all images are from Pixabay.

Facebook – General

What I look for in a great character:-

1. I totally understand why they’re acting the way they are. It doesn’t mean I have to approve though!

2. You can see how they got into the situation they’ve got to overcome and are keen to see if/how they get out of it again. You believe the character has the potential to get out of it and it’s a case of seeing whether you were right about that or not.

3. I love characters who come out with great one-liners but only as long as they arise naturally out of the situation and the character. It must never feel forced.

4. They stay with you in your imagination long after you’ve finished reading the story!

Examples of great characters for me:-

1. Elizabeth Bennett and Fitzwilliam Darcy

2. Jeeves and Wooster

3. Sam Vimes and Lady Sybil Ramkin – Discworld

4. Frodo Baggins and Sam Gamgee

5. Aslan – Narnia

6. Ebenezer Scrooge (though I prefer him AFTER the visitations! Am very fond of the Muppet Christmas Carol. Thought that was the best Muppet film too).

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I’m delighted to share Part 3 of Peter Russell’s local history series on The Hutments for Chandler’s Ford Today. If you have any memories to share of a part of the community that has now gone, do comment via the comments box. I know Peter would be pleased to hear from you.

Feature Image - Hook Road Hutments and My Family

It has been a good writing week. There has been plenty of progress on the novel. I’m enjoying it ! (That HAS to be a good sign, right? 😊😉).

Short story and flash fiction submitted. Am fleshing out another standard length short story for a competition and have got another “resting” for me to have a look at again, hopefully later this week.

Almost done on next week’s CFT post too. Continuing to add to my website and working on a non-fiction project.

So, no, I’m never short of things to do but that’s how I like things to be!

I’ll be talking about progress and success and how to judge them in the CFT post for Friday.

Am really looking forward to the Bridge House celebration event. Not far away now. It’s a great chance to catch up with friends and to make new ones!

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Word association can be a great way of triggering words to use in a story. You can play the standard way by setting a word and then finding others to link to it – e.g. play, toys, games etc.

Equally you can play the I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue version where there should be no connection at all to the chosen start word – e.g. play, universe, green.

Whichever version you go for, I suggest setting a limit of how many words you are going to use – I find that helps me focus. But of course you can raise or lower that limit for future stories.

 

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How do you know if you’re a “proper” writer?

1. You scorn the very idea you have too many notebooks.
2. You develop a thing for collecting nice pens too, some of which you will actually use.
3. You dread power cuts as they always seem to happen in the middle of a writing session.
4. You have the great joy of having a number of books written by friends on your shelves.
5. You are even more thrilled when your works are on the same shelves!
6. You can’t wait to tell everyone your latest publication news.
7. You open the latest copy of Writing Magazine and look for people you know in the letters page and the Subscribers’ sections in particular.
8. You feel a little miffed when you come across an issue when there isn’t someone you know in it. (It’s a kind of something’s not quite right with the world feeling).
9. Launches, especially online ones, are a regular part of your life and you love them all.
10. Your TBR and TBW piles never diminish but that’s the way you like them.
11. There is no such thing as having too many books. What you CAN have is not enough shelving.
12. You just feel SO at home in book shops and libraries.

Okay, guilty as charged on all those. How about you?

 

Books are their own world. Pixabay
Another gorgeous library. I love pics like this.
Well… Pixabay
Looks a nice cosy set up to me.
What we all need… Pixabay
The writing life. Pixabay
This is lovely too!
Always good advice. Pixabay
Lost in a good book.
Plenty to choose from here. Pixabay

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I always consider impact to be the most important aspect to my flash fiction writing, but do you go about creating the impact you want to achieve?

Some of it is out of your hands. You may write a funny story but a reader doesn’t find it amusing – this is why humorous writing is so hard to do. It is subjective after all but what can you do to level the playing field a bit?

Having decided what the impact of my story is going to be, I look at what would make ME feel that impact. For example, if the tale is going to be a sad one, what would trigger that feeling of sadness in me?

Then it’s a question of picking the most appropriate trigger for your story. I prefer to go for understated emotional impact too. A story that tips overs into melodrama can put people off. I know it would do so for me. But sadness that is shown through the character without laying it on with a trowel will always make me want to read more if only to find out if the character “overcomes” the sadness or is beginning the process of adapting to the sitution by the end of the story.

For example if your story is about a fairy godmother rapidly approaching retirement and she really doesn’t want to retire, you could take that in a humorous or sad direction. So decide what you want it to be first.

If funny, what would make you laugh? Would setting your character into a ridiculous situation do it or are you better off having a wise cracking character who comes out with tremendous one liners?

Think about what you would like to read here as if the story was being written by someone else. I’ve found this to be really useful and hope you do too.

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Have you tried writing a piece of flash fiction to, say, 25 words, and then separately, writing it out to, say, 250 words?

It’s all perfectly legitimate but there will be different markets and competitions for the two stories.

I sometimes do this as a writing exercise (it’s a good way to get into a session of writing).

Not all stories or characters will be capable of being expanded. If the impact you are seeking to make on a reader is over and done with in 25 words then leave it at that. Never ever pad out a tale.

But if you CAN expand the story because the character is capable of so much more (and that’s the key way to judge whether a story IS capable of being expanded), explore what else you can do with that character and then you can either submit the two stories to two DIFFERENT places or pick the one you like the best and just submit that.

Ideas, ideas, ideas! Pixabay.
I read some of my flash fiction from FLTDBA and Cafelit. Image by Dawn Kentish Knox
Ah! The joy of the edit! Pixabay.
Pixabay
Set goals for the short, medium and long terms. Pixabay image
My smartphone has not yet managed this! Pixabay image.
Love reading in both formats! Pixabay image.
Barbara Large has done so much to support and encourage writers for many years. Pixabay image.

I like my titles to give a flavour of what is to come in the story without giving away too much. I like the title to lead people into wanting to read the rest. Of course, the challenge for me is to make sure I deliver on that promising title!

I occasionally use questions as story titles but prefer the statement, though I try to keep this as open as possible. Most of my titles could be taken in a humorous or serious direction.

I’ve mentioned before I have to have a title to work to as I draft my story but I am more than happy to change it if something better comes along as I am writing. It does sometimes and it is best to go with the flow here. Again, as with the story itself, I am looking for the likely impact of the title on the reader. The stronger impact title always wins.

 

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Do you ever think of music to suit your flash fiction stories?

The main time I have was coming up with ideas for the music for the book trailer for From Light to Dark and Back Again. I plumped for Saint-Saens Danse Macabre – quirky music to suit quirky fiction.

One of the things I love about music (and especially classical) is that, like flash fiction, there is something to suit every mood. I’m not going to be at any risk of running out of ideas for suitable musical themes any time soon either!

I’ve not yet used a piece of music to influence a story idea but may well give it a go and see what happens. The potential is there!

Books are fabulous, whatever the format. Image via Pixabay.
Online writing -v- on a line writing! Image via Pixabay
So true. Pixabay image.
What worlds will emerge from your writing? Pixabay image
Image taken by Adrian Symes
Words have power, whether funny or tragic. Pixabay image.
Fiction can take you anywhere. Image via Pixabay.
I’ve never read a book in these conditions, have you? Pixabay image.
Good reading – and writing to be done – here. Pixabay image.
Words are the power source of so much creativity. Pixabay iamge.
Notes about your characters can help you portray them more accurately. Not every note has to make it into the story itself. Pixabay image.
A great new idea makes me smile, as does this image. Pixabay image.
Something I’ve yet to see happen! Pixabay image.
Another gorgeous library. I love pics like this.
Let your writing sparkle. Image via Pexels.
Whenever and whatever you read, enjoy. Image via Pixabay.

Goodreads Author Blog – Juggling the TBR Pile

I must admit I couldn’t physically juggle my TBR pile. There would be an almighty crash and some inventive language on my part, I think, if I tried that.

I love reading a mixture of fiction across many genres, non-fiction, short stories, novels, articles etc. I also like to mix up reading on the Kindle with reading “real” books but I also want to put magazine reading into the overall mixture too.

Over the course of a week, I try to cover most of those bases. I’m currently reading historical fiction, true crime, short stories, flash fiction, and my own novel (on Kindle. I’m reading it as a reader would. It has been illuminating!).

Over the course of a week, I have been thoroughly entertained too!

And yes I have a TBR pile on my Kindle too. One of the reasons I don’t put a Kindle app on my phone is so I don’t have a TBR pile on there as well.

It is true – too many books, too little time!

Still I’ll press on and have a fab time doing so.

Happy reading!

A beautiful home for lovely books. Image via Pixabay.
The To Be Read pile. Image via Pixabay
Books are wonderful. Pixabay image.
Where will your reading take you? Pixabay image.
Lost in a world of books. Pixabay image.
Even in the heart of a city, books can provide escapism. Image via Pixabay.
I don’t understand those who dislike books, in whatever format. Image via Pixabay.
Books should show you other worlds. Image via Pixabay.
Books invite you into their world. Image via Pixabay.
A stunning library. Image via Pixabay
Flash fiction should sparkle! Image via Pixabay.
Nice selection of books here! Image via Pixabay