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.
A MASSIVE THANK YOU TO THE CHAMELEON THEATRE COMPANY FOR KIND PERMISSION TO USE THEIR PHOTOS FOR MY CHANDLER’S FORD TODAY POST THIS WEEK.
Hope you have had a good week. Odd one here. Have been under the weather but now okay. Weather a mixed bag but improving. So I guess things are on the up! Lady doing well too. Hope to have news soon about the online launch for Seeing The Other Side. Watch this space. SEE BELOW AS NEWS CAME IN ON THIS AFTER I PREPARED THIS!
Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today
Am delighted to share The Chameleon Theatre Company – Review – Curtain Up for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. It’s always a delight to have an evening out to watch my local amateur theatre company at work.
Loved this play – hadn’t heard of it before I went to see it but then theatre is a good way of showing you new stories told in a new way. Hope you enjoy the review, do support your own local amateur theatre company (there are loads of excellent ones out there), and I am looking forward to The Chameleons’ next show, which will be their pantomime, Dick Whittington, next year. Oh yes I am!
Hope you’ve had a great day. Lady caught up with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today and a good time was had by all. Nippy out today though.
Thoroughly enjoyed the conversations from the ACW online group I host – we discuss things related to science fiction and fantasy. It was good fun.
Am going to a couple of online launches, one later this month and the other in November. I’ll be going to Hannah Ruth Retallick’s launch for her new flash fiction collection, Falling Woman, later this month. That is being published by Chapeltown Books.
Link for that is https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/online-book-launch-falling-woman-by-hannah-retallick-tickets-2001712907190
And the second online launch?
That will be on 19th November for Seeing The Other Side by yours truly!
Both events give a great opportunity to celebrate flash fiction. Hope to catch up with you at either or both of these. Link to my launch below.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/seeing-the-other-side-by-allison-symes-tickets-2003146968506?af=
Am delighted to share my latest article on Writers’ Narrative, Darkness In A Flash. As we go into October and head towards Halloween, it is natural thoughts turn to stories about ghosts and the darker side of fiction. But can this be done successfully in the short fiction forms?
I say it can, my article explains how, and why you don’t need the gory to make your readers feel the appropriate chills. I also look at the “purpose” of darker fiction too. Fiction does reflect life and that comes in many shades.
Hope you enjoy the post and find it useful. Many thanks for the likes received so far too.
https://writersnarrative.substack.com/p/darkness-in-a-flash
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
Hope you’ve had a good week. Lady had a fabulous puppy party this morning with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals and then Coco, the lovely Labradoodle, came and joined in too. All four dogs went home tired and happy.
Hope to resume flash fiction writing over the weekend, especially on Sunday. Have got a story in draft which might be suitable for a competition. All I know at this point is it needs work but that’s okay.
It’s being aware of the need for work to be done which matters and then doing it. As ever, the time I’ve had away from it will help me see what needs doing more easily. You do then read the piece with fresh eyes, almost as if someone else had written it, which is the mindset you need to get into for successful and productive editing work.
The advantage of flash is you don’t need nearly so much time away from a piece as a novelist does to be able to see the work clearly enough to see the faults and virtues of your draft (and there will be virtues, honestly).
Happy writing and editing this weekend!
My big news is I now know my online launch for Seeing The Other Side will be on 19th November. Looking forward to that already. Have shared the link over on my author page on Facebook (see above here) but will share again in due course.
Am also looking forward to going to Hannah Ruth Retallick’s launch for Falling Woman which is on later this month. I just love the thought of celebrating not one but two new flash fiction collections coming out from Chapeltown Books.
Flash is the perfect format for when you don’t have much time to read or if you like to be able to dip into stories as and when. Equally what I love about it is having a feast of short fiction to enjoy across a book format. I make a point of mixing up what I read in terms of length and having flash and short story collections about means it is easier to make sure I get my short fiction “fix”.
And if you’re not sure what to buy someone book wise, a flash or short story collection gives them plenty to “dip into” as and when. I’ve always seen my books as a literary equivalent of the mixed assortment! Why should that just be confined to chocolates…!
Quiet one in the park but at least the heavy rain had eased and Lady and I managed not to get a complete soaking. We were mildly damp and given how heavy the rain was first thing, we appreciated this!
Writing wise, I’m hosting an ACW online group this evening so that should be fun. I’m just putting the finishing touches to some blog questions regarding Seeing The Other Side and hope to get those sent off either today or tomorrow. Do plan to get back to competition writing from the weekend onwards. Have a presentation to write for later this month (and am looking forward to presenting another one I’ve already got prepared for an online group I go to on a Monday once a month).
I hope to get a fourth flash collection together but need time to sit down and work on that but I hope to get to that in November. So plenty going on and that’s how I like it.
Flash Fiction Tip: Every so often I draft lines which could work well as opening or closing lines. I decide how I’m going to use it and then draft the story but I often put the line at the end and work backwards to get to a logical starting point.
When I do use it as the opening line, I need a series of “events” which follow from that line to get to a good conclusion, good in terms of serving the story and character well.
But whichever way round I do this, I have to focus on what matters for the character and the story. I have to keep to the point of the story. This is the chief reason I think flash is such a brilliant writing exercise, even if your main writing work is in something else.
Fairytales with Bite – Sparkling Conversations
I love reading and writing sparkling conversations between characters. It is like overhearing an interesting conversation (and you can’t get into trouble for this one either!). You also find out more about the characters from what they say, how they say it and also what is implied. Do they answer a question directly or are they keen to switch topics, say?
Now in the magical world where mind reading could be a “standard” thing, what kind of sparking conversations can your characters have, knowing they won’t be able to hide their real thoughts (at least not easily anyway)? Does it lead to more honesty because they can’t easily hide their thoughts and what kind of troubles could that honesty lead to? Honesty isn’t always welcome, especially by the reigning powers.
When conversations refer to magic itself, are there words or phrases your characters dare not use and how do they stop themselves from doing so (given I would imagine the consequences of saying those things would be severe)?
What kinds of conversations could lead to sparks flying? Who would want to set those sparks flying at all?
Story ideas there for sure. Happy writing!
This World and Others – Languages
Now when I write what I call my fairytales with bite, my humorous fantasy pieces, I get my characters to speak in English. It’s kind of convenient!
If I did need to make up words for, say, a spell, I would probably go back to Old English for inspiration here and ensure the meaning of the word was clear from context. I once judged a competition for the Scottish Association of Writers and many writers used Scots as part of their prose but it was fine – I learned from this and the meaning was clear from context.
Now in your setting there will be different species, different countries (as we understand the term), different cultures, languages etc. Do you focus on one area, one language or do you get the different species and languages to interact with each other? Is there a kind of universal translator (the Tardis on Doctor Who could translate almost anything and I’m sure Star Trek had something of this nature) or do you get your characters to speak one common language and save their native one for when amongst their own kind?
All of that works but it is a question of picking the one which works best for your creations and then being consistent with it.
I’ve often said clarity is king and it is for writing but what leads to clarity working so well is consistency. The two feed into each other.
Am posting early as busy but enjoyable weekend this time. Hope the weekend is going well for you. Weather forecast for next week looks almost summery which will be nice. Touching to see such a wonderful turnout in Rome for Pope Francis’s funeral. TV figures etc will be even higher of course. He will be much missed.
Hope Monday hasn’t been too bad. Weather frightful. Caught in hail though thankfully it didn’t last long. Lady did manage to play with her pal Coco, the lovely Labradoodle, so that made the world all right for both of those two.
It’s Monday. It’s stormy. There has been hail. There has been a soggy dog walker (me!). Definitely time for a story then Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube -Being Careful Enough. 
Sometimes with a flash piece, I start with a title (often having picked one to work up from my notes. I use pockets of time to brainstorm ideas for titles, opening lines etc. It pays. It also means I know I can always find something I am likely to want to write up). The title often gives me clues as to the kind of character needed to fit it.
Hope 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.
Hope today is going well for you. Lovely to see some sunshine after the frost this morning.
Hope 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, 
It’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.
I 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.
