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 Julia Pattison for the image of me at Swanwick 2023 above.
Hope you have had a good weekend. It was the last summer bank holiday in most of the UK. Weather got better as it went on, which was nice. Lady doesn’t understand bank holidays though. Misses her friends given normal routines tend to get dropped including by us. Writing wise, I was glad to have received a commended for my story, Demanded, in the recent Friday Flash Fiction competition. Am resting another story for another competition. Hope to submit that over this weekend.
Facebook – General
Hope you have a good day. Bank holiday weeks always feel a bit odd, as if you’re missing a day or are a day out somehow.
Pleased to say Friday Flash Fiction is now open again for submissions. Have just send a story in. Have another story I want to send in for a competition later this week. Plus Hannah Kate is putting out calls for stories for her Autumn Equinox show on North Manchester FM again. Many thanks to Jenny Sanders for flagging that one up. Do follow the link for more details.
Now this is one area where I do always use Zoom to record my stories because I want to make sure my tales do come in at under Hannah’s timing limit and it is the best way I know of doing just that. Good luck if you are having a go at sending something in. Hope to have a crack at this myself later in the week.
Autumn Equinox Stories Wanted for Hannah’s Bookshelf on North Manchester FM
Hope you’ve had a good Monday (and made the most of the bank holiday if that applied). I’ve enjoyed listening to Classic FM’s Movie Hall of Fame today (26th August 2024) where they counted down the top 100 film themes voted for by listeners.
I voted for The Lord of the Rings soundtrack and was pleased that hit the top spot again. Epic book, epic film, epic soundtrack. Classic stories stay with you, as does classic music. I can’t say a specific piece of music has ever inspired me to write a story but maybe I should try that sometime. It would be a sound prompt!
Character Tip: What kind of music does your character like most and why? Is it something they’ve always loved or something they developed a taste for (the latter is the case for me with classical)? Do they find music helps them to unwind and what would they need to unwind from? I’m sure there are story ideas there!
Hope you’re having a good Sunday. Lovely service this morning. Quiet day the rest of the day. Just what the doctor ordered etc.
Don’t forget my author newsletter is out again next week. I share news, tips, story links and much else. If that is of interest please head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com
Also, many thanks to those who signed up to the newsletter at Swanwick recently.
I outline my characters but never use all of the information I trigger doing this in the story itself. What it does do is give me enough information to be able to write my characters with conviction. I know what they’re going to be doing and why, so away I go on my first draft. I know I need to know my characters well enough to be able to drop them right in it in whatever situation I choose and that is so much fun!
Many congratulations to Tom Baldwin who won the Friday Flash Fiction competition with his story, Wedding Day. Congratulations also to the runners-up and those who were Highly Commended and Commended. I was delighted to find my tale, Demanded, is one of the Commended ones. Nice start to the long weekend!
I’ll be discussing Random Generators for Chandler’s Ford Today on 30th August. I use these often because I am always looking for ways into creating story and/or character ideas. I use a variety of these things and have found them all useful. Link up on Friday.
A huge thanks for the great response to yesterday’s CFT post about Swanwick. (Am already looking forward to Swanwick 2025).
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
May I welcome all who have subscribed to my YouTube channel, especially since I see the numbers have gone up. Welcome aboard and I hope you enjoy the stories I share here. If you’re interested in subscribing, just follow the link.
I usually put a new story up on Mondays. It’s good fun to do. I use Book Brush for creating the video – lovely and easy to do too. Having my own channel makes for a nice, visual media addition to my marketing and I also use it to advertise flash fiction and all it can be.
It’s Monday. Okay for a lot of the UK it is the summer bank holiday but it is still Monday when all is said and done. Time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Perfect Timing.
F= Fun format to write for and it helps you to learn to write tightly and to not fear editing.
L = Less is more is the anthem for flash fiction writers – you have to be selective as to what you show a reader.
A = And if you like creating characters, as I do, this is the form for you as you need loads of them!
S = Succinct storytelling, giving readers only what they need to know and allowing them to infer plenty for themselves.
H = Has various divisions – the dribble (50 worders), the drabble (100 words), micro (usually under 300 words), plus the 500 and 750 word forms – there will be at least one to suit you.
Not a great day to be out and about here – has chucked it down for most of the day. Not that this worries Lady. She dries quickly. It is a good day to be indoors writing and reading though!
I like to be inside my characters’ heads for all of my fictional work. I have got to understand where they’re coming from, even though often I don’t approve of their actions and attitudes at all. One huge advantage to outlining a character is you do get to understand them. I’ve found it helps me to portray them realistically, even if they’re a fantasy creature.
In my Time for Some Peace (Tripping the Flash Fantastic) I write this from a mother dragon’s viewpoint and her actions are understandable based on what I’ve shown you about her. But I outlined that bit in a line or two before I wrote the story up.
Goodreads Author Blog – Next on the TBR Pile
Working out what to read next is probably the reader’s most difficult dilemma though it is a lovely one to have. I mix up reading novels with short story and flash fiction collections. I also mix up the genres I read. I also like to mix up the mood of what I read. I also mix up reading classic and contemporary.
At the moment I’m happily reading some of P.G.Wodehouse’s works as I want a lighthearted read. Am loving getting into the stories of Jeeves and Wooster again. Am currently reading Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen and I was delighted to come across a reference to Blandings Castle, the scene of some of my favourite Wodehouse stories with the lovely Lord Emsworth and the wonderful Uncle Fred.
Not just here but in series books, I love those little “nods” to other places the author writes about. I see this a lot in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld too. In the fabulous Maskerade (a spoof of opera and The Phantom of the Opera especially), the Lancre witches come to Ankh-Morpork where so many of the other Discworld novels are set. I love links like that and often I will find my dilemma about what to read next is solved because having read Maskerade again, for example, I wold probably go on to re-read one of the Sam Vimes books, the common link here being that fabulous fantasy city.
WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK
This time, I share the first edition of the magazine – the August 2024 one. I talked about Boost Your Writing With Flash Fiction. Now that will be a topic which will always be close to my heart, pen, laptop etc!
AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsliked Allison Symes's blog post: Next on the TBR Pile https://t.co/UfZS7PhMy8 via @goodreads I share how I often work out what to read next from my TBR pile for Goodreads this week. pic.twitter.com/Vapsevikbc
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) August 24, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsIt’s Monday. Okay for a lot of the UK it is the summer bank holiday but it is still Monday when all is said and done. Time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Perfect Timing.https://t.co/ilHnw7sSjk
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) August 26, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsWelcome to all who have subscribed to my YouTube channel. I hope you enjoy my tales here. I put new tales up on Mondays. I use Book Brush for creating the video. My channel is a visual media addition to my marketing and I use it to advertise flash fiction.https://t.co/UABhvVRjC1
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) August 27, 2024
Allison Symes: Collected Works 