Tag: New video on Youtube channel

Book Fair and Cake Story

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Many thanks to Vie Portland for the Book Fair poster.
Hope you have had a good few days. Am looking forward to the Book Fair in my area later this week. Will be nice doing events like this again. Also running another flash workshop on Zoom before that so will be a busy end to this week but a fun one. And it all advertises the joys of books and flash fiction so win-win there!

 

Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day. Rain welcome. Will clear the air. The grass over the park should look less like straw too! One lovely thing about the Book Fair on Saturday is it is an indoors event – always a wise move, that!

Writing Tip: Think about what you need to know before you write your story. I have to know who the character is and their major trait. Other writers may need to be able to work out the setting first and then figure out who would be in it. What works best for you? You can play to your strengths here. There is no one right way to “do” an outline. It is a question of working out what suits you and then going with that.

May be an image of glasses and text that says "I see an outline as a road map. can veer off it if| want to. I've got it to return to when needed."

Many thanks to Francesca Tyer for sharing the recent two part interview I conducted with her on Chandler’s Ford Today on her own website – you can check things out at the link. Also there are links to other interviews with her and Richard Hardie on the Authors Reach website – see separate link for that.
Lady had a fabulous time with her her best girlfriends in the park today. So nice to have cooler air. The dogs appreciate it. I find it easier for concentrating on my writing too!

Now for my monthly blog spots, I draft these in advance and, as with story competitions, I take time off from when these should be in by and use that as my personal deadline instead. It pays. It means I don’t miss a deadline and being able to schedule blogs is so useful.

 

Hope you have had a pleasant weekend. Was putting wood preservative on one of my fence panels yesterday (a big one – took some time). Back to writing today. The glamorous life has passed me by I think!

I’ll be writing a little bit more about the Book Fair for Friday’s Chandler’s Ford Today post. I do hope this becomes the annual event the organisers hope for. Our nearest bookshops are in two cities a few miles either side of where I am. I think it is lovely having an event which brings books to the doorstep so to speak.

I also hope to be writing more about Writers’ Narrative, the new online magazine for writers, which will be out in August. Do watch this space.

Am looking forward to running a flash fiction workshop on Friday afternoon. Zoom has proven so beneficial.

May be an image of text that says "Ups and downs happen in the writing life then but supportive writing friends are invaluable for coping with this."

Unusually, I have a second post from Chandler’s Ford Today to share with you. This one is a mini post all about the forthcoming Book Fair on Saturday 8th July. If you can get to the event, every author there would love to see you. It is great to be back doing events like this once again. So looking forward to this.

And if you’re outside the area, do support your own local book events. Authors and organisers appreciate the support and you can find many a great discovery amongst local authors you might not have found about about another way.

Event News: The Book Fair, The Hilt, Chandler’s Ford

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Many thanks for the wonderful comments coming in on Your Time Your Cake, my most recent tale on Friday Flash Fiction. The feedback (so apt for this story!) is much appreciated. I do enjoy coming up with older characters, especially, who know their own mind and are not afraid to show that is so. Think you’ll like my Gran character here. Do check out the story – hope you enjoy it.

Screenshot 2023-06-30 at 09-58-56 Your Time Your Cake by Allison Symes

3rd July
It’s Monday. The weather has been changeable (though the rain has been welcome -well, it was the moment I got my washing in anyway!). It’s time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube -New Holiday. This story was written in response to a challenge prompt I was set recently. Hope you enjoy it.

 

Sometimes in my flash fiction, I can get across something which I feel strongly about via my characters. For example, I am anti-bullying. Most people are. But in Enough is Enough from Tripping the Flash Fantastic I get my character to reveal “she was not going to be mistaken for a giant tomato on legs again by anyone”. I don’t need to say she’s been bullied for her weight here, do I? I’ve shown you this via that character.

This kind of thing has helped me to grasp what show, don’t tell really means. (Just one of the many benefits of writing flash fiction). Sometimes showing does take up more words than straight telling but it has so much more impact on a reader. They will see what your character does. They will feel what your character does.

You can’t get any of that just by telling them things. Readers are more likely to stick with your story if they are “feeling” what your character does (or at least have empathy) and readers are more likely to do this if they can see for themselves what your character is.

May be a graphic of text that says "H Character needs are everything."

Looking forward to spreading the word about flash fiction at the Book Fair at The Hilt on 8th July. Good to be back doing this kind of event again. Newsletter went out this morning. Always a joy to put those together and a big hello to those who have signed up since last time and just as big a hello to those who have been signed up for longer. All welcome!

So looking forward to The Writers’ Summer School in August. Not so long to go now. I’m running a short course on editing (a one hour workshop) and will also be running an early morning session as part of their Lift Up Your Pens sessions. These are great fun and a fabulous way to get some writing done before breakfast (which is not something I can usually manage!).

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Goodreads Author Blog – Light Reading

I have a soft spot for what could be considered “light” reading. By this I mean humorous fiction (Wodehouse, Pratchett), short story and flash fiction collections (though I should add some of those can be dark in tone though they are not especially my cup of tea), and the kind of non-fiction which entertains me and helps me learn something new at the same time.

I definitely don’t want academic works. My experience of those is they don’t read well, at least to me, and there is often far too much jargon in them.

Novel wise, I’m not after the dark, grim ones. Am not a huge fan of dystopian fiction. (Especially since you could argue we are seeing so much of those themes on our news bulletins!). I do love crime fiction (and the ones that can combine humour tick a second box for me).

I like feel good literature. For me. It is one major point to reading. Books and stories should take you into their worlds. They don’t necessarily have to be dark ones.

Screenshot 2023-07-01 at 20-34-41 Light Reading

 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Surprises, Titles, Barnes and Noble, and Youtube

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Nice combination for a title I think!

Image Credit

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated.

Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing.

Facebook – General

Had a nice surprise today. Discovered I’m on Barnes and Noble. See link and screenshot further down.

Why the surprise? Well, I guess it is because I hadn’t really thought I could be on there! Nice way to finish a Tuesday having said that! Also note to self: you really should check these things out sooner!

Very happy with progress on my kind of NaNoWriMo project too. So not a bad start to the writing week.

One thing I find about my Chandler’s Ford Today posts at times is picture finding. All hail the mighty Pixabay and all of that because they are brilliant but sometimes I will write a post where I think I will find loads of excellent images to go with it.

What do I find? Precious few.

Using Pixabay has taught me to think laterally and that will often resolve my problem but not always. For example my post on board and card games proved surprisingly difficult to find the right images for and I did think I would have a surfeit of richness there.

Still no such problem this week when I chat to #LizHurst! (Another advantage to interviewing authors – as well as being huge fun to do, you can always rely on them for book cover images, author pics etc!!).

Screenshot_2020-11-10 Tripping the Flash Fantastic PaperbackHope you have had a good start to your week. Lady and I had a wet start to the week…not that she worried. Mind you, she was pleased to see her best buddy, who is the sweetest Rhodesian Ridgeback ever. And the news about a possible Covid vaccine is fantastic news. Definitely need a lift right now.

Looking forward to sharing an interview with #LizHurst later this week on Chandler’s Ford Today. Liz and I are big fans of the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School. So looking forward to being back there hopefully in August 2021.

One of the biggest things about the lockdown is missing being able to meet up with people in the way we used to do. Mind you, I love Zoom and like the way that has made events accessible. We want the best of both worlds here.

Had the delightful task yesterday of going through a proof of a short story that will be appearing later in the year in an anthology. More news later of course but this kind of writing work I’m always going to enjoy!

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As promised yesterday, here’s the link to the video for Being Yourself from Tripping The Flash Fantastic, which I uploaded to Youtube yesterday. Hope you enjoy.

I also talk a little about what inspired me to write this story. I love this kind of thing when other authors do this as I always learn something useful that I can apply to my own writing.

In other news, I’m making good progress on my non-fiction book which is my “kind of” NaNoWriMo project so am happy with that. Looking forward to getting back on to that shortly. And for another story here is the book trailer for Tripping The Flash Fantastic.

Have just scheduled another video to go up on my Youtube channel. I’ll be putting up my story, Being Yourself, which I created a video for as part of my cyberlaunch for Tripping The Flash Fantastic. Link in above post!

The story is due to go live a little later on this evening (and I will share the specific link tomorrow) but I am impressed at how easy it is to upload videos on to Youtube.

I’ve been creating videos for the first time this year for both my website and things like the launch so it makes sense for me to develop this side of things further.

Flash fiction works very well for this as it isn’t too long (so download times etc are also good). Hope to have more fun with this and create new stories specifically for the Youtube channel in due course.

Screenshot_2020-10-31 Allison Symes - YouTube

From Light to Dark and Back Again

I tend to keep my titles short for my flash stories. This is partly because some markets/competitions do include the title as part of their word count so that’s all the incentive I need to keep the title short!

But it also pays to do so simply because shorter titles are easier to remember. That in turn makes it easier for that title to impact on the reader.

It is also important for a writer to be able to keep tabs of what they wrote and where it was (hopefully) published so again make your life easier here and keep the titles short!

Most of my titles are from one to five words, though I occasionally use a six or seven worder. In Tripping The Flash Fantastic, my story Time Is For Others To Worry About is deliberately at that length as it intrigues (I hope!). If I’m using a proverb or well known saying as my title, then I will use it in full but again that phrase will be designed to spark curiosity in the reader as to what the story is all about.

So as well as outlining my lead character and story line, I do give thought to the impact I want my titles to have. It pays.

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Had a wonderful catch-up chat with Swanwick pals on Friday night via Zoom. I don’t know if this is just me but I do find Zoom easier to use than Skype.

Good to also catch up with listening to a couple of writer pals who’ve been on Chat and Spin Radio recently too. And one thing that came out of a good old chat on Friday night was the joy of flipping through the latest copy of Writing Magazine and spotting the names of writers you know in there. What is lovely is these days I feel a bit disappointed if I don’t spot the names of at least three people I know in there!

And do bear in mind that some of the magazine’s competitions would count as flash fiction. I’ve seen a 750-word competition in there, a 500 words one and so on. They may not be labelled flash fiction but they are all the same!

And online magazines like Cafelit have a lovely mixture of flash fiction and standard length short stories so bear them in mind too.

My story page on Cafelit can be found here and I deliberately have a mixture of flash and standard length short stories on there.

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Both of my book titles have reflected either the mood of the stories within them (From Light to Dark and Back Again) or the overall genre, flash fiction (Tripping The Flash Fantastic).

A good book title should draw potential readers in and the best way of doing that is for the title to spark their curiosity. Otherwise known as the “I’ve got to find out what that’s about” effect!

I didn’t know either of the titles for my collections until late in the writing stage. I DID have working titles (I do need to have something to “peg” my stories to) but also knew these would not be the final versions (but that was okay as I still had my “security blanket peg” so to speak).

It also pays to jot down ideas for titles as they come to you (and it’s often when you’re not expecting them!). Having a shortlist of possibles is reassuring and there is bound to be at least one that really grabs you (and hopefully would also grab other readers).

Photo by Craig Adderley on Pexels.com
Photo by Lum3n on Pexels.com
Photo by bongkarn thanyakij on Pexels.com
Photo by David Gonzales on Pexels.com
Photo by Zichuan Han on Pexels.com

 

One good exercise to do is to give yourself five minutes to come up with opening lines. Don’t edit what you’ve come up with either.

Just jot down the ideas and work with those.

I have fun here with coming up with seemingly impossible scenarios that I am going to have to find a way for my character(s) to overcome. The best kind of opening line is open to interpretation and can be taken in different directions. See what you can do with these.

1. The postman may have rung twice but he wasn’t going to do so again.

2. When your living room lights up with blue sparkling fairy lights even though it is nowhere near Christmas, you know you’ve got a problem.

3. The dog was never wrong.

Allison Symes – 7th November 2020

 

Goodreads Author Blog – Favourite Non-Fiction Books

I must admit my favourite non-fiction books tend to be the writing guides. I’m especially fond of Stephen King’s On Writing (which is also a great memoir. There aren’t many writing books which can claim that).

I also like How Not to Write a Novel by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman is packed with great advice and is very funny.

I also like the Jane Wenham-Jones books Wanna Be a Writer? and Wanna Be a Writer We’ve Heard Of? Again lots of useful information given in a chatty and funny way. I adore that kind of thing.

I suspect I’m not the only one here but I do take information in better (and retain it) if I’ve enjoyed the books said information is in!

No pressure on the non-fiction writers then!

I also love the Ben Macintyre books – again history presented in an entertaining way. I am glad the days of non-fiction being confined to serious and literally heavy tomes have now gone.

And it is a good idea for any writer to mix up their reading material. Inspiration for our own stories can come from a variety of places so it makes sense to read widely and to include non-fiction in that. You just need to read one fascinating fact and ideas for working that into a story can come.

I’m currently reading on my Kindle Spike Milligan’s Adolf Hitler: My Part In His Downfall and loving it. It is non-fiction because Milligan did serve in the war. It is humorous (as you would expect from him) and it draws you in and is a real pleasure to read.

And that’s what a good read should be after all!

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