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, as was the photo of my books in the Swanwick Book Room. Almost every author does this! Many thanks to Julia Pattison and Janet Williams for pictures of me at Swanwick and the Book Fair respectively.
Hope you have had a good week. Mine has got better as the week has gone on. Nice to be back out walking the dog and she has been glad to be seeing her dog friends again. Our wildflower meadow is looking especially nice right now – see photo below taken by me. (Oh and it’s double blog time as well as both my CFT and Authors Electric posts came out on Friday, 18th August 2023).
Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today
Authors Electric
Double blog post Friday today! First up, it’s my turn on Authors Electric. I’m discussing Book Fairs and Writing Retreats. The last month has seen me happily busy with both! I share some thoughts on editing too given I was running a workshop on that for the writing retreat I was on.
Hope you find the thoughts there useful especially as I discuss how to give the Procrastination Monster and the Imposter Fiend a very hard time indeed.
Chandler’s Ford Today
The second of my two blogs out today is my usual weekly one for Chandler’s Ford Today. This time I look at Getting the Most from an In Person Workshop and I hope you find the thoughts here useful. I share what I look for in a workshop like this whether I run or go to them.
Getting the Most From An In Person Workshop
It’s been a week since I returned home from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Fabulous time. Glad to be home but also miss Swanwick dreadfully! Will be looking at Getting the Most from an In Person Workshop for Chandler’s Ford Today – link up tomorrow. See above.
Am also looking forward to the return of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week. Will be glad to see you good people! Am sure we will get some useful writing done too.
Writing Tip: Plan ahead for markets you’ve got in mind. Entering competitions is good practice for this (and if you get listed or win, even better!). They get you used to deadlines for a start.
But many markets, especially those that are seasonally based, will be thinking months ahead of the season in question. One positive thing here is these seasons come round, literally time and again, so you can always plan a story for another year if you miss the current one.
I do write, for example, festive flash fiction as and when throughout the year. Sometimes I find a home for it in the same year. Sometimes it waits for another year but I do know I’ve got something. I also try to build up a small stock of stories for seasonal use given I know the season will come around again. (Doesn’t have to be the obvious calendar based seasons either. Bear in mind there are holiday seasons for winter and summer. There are seasons in sport etc.).
Pleased to say the September issue of Writers’ Narrative magazine will be out in the last week of August. Do watch out for it. Am pleased to share tasters in the photos below. Be sure not to miss out. The topic this time will be marketing and the magazine is packed full of useful information for any and every writer.
Am practicing what I preach here too. My Chandler’s Ford Today post will be about Getting the Most from an In Person Workshop. Having just run one at Swanwick now I am marketing the idea of going to them and running them. I’ll be sharing useful tips for getting the most out of workshops whatever side of the desk you are on (and always giving self explanatory post titles is a good marketing start!). Link up on Friday. See above.
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
Nothing from me on Friday Flash Fiction this time though I hope to rectify it soon but why not treat yourself to a read of some wonderful stories here. Also please note there is a change of deadline for submissions here – see top of page on link and screenshot.
It’s worth keeping an eye out on the writing competitions for ideas for themes, even if you don’t enter the competitions themselves. I’ve done this a few times when I’ve spotted the competition too late to enter it but like the look of the theme and think I can use that. I do too.
Proverbs can make great themes and often the topic they suggest will come up time and again so is worth writing stories about. For example, take the proverb a stitch in time saves nine. You can have various characters in situations and settings showing that to be true. (I used this as a a title for a story in Tripping the Flash Fantastic. Proverbs are versatile like this). You could use that proverb as the basis for a love story, a crime one and so on.
Just to flag up there’s an offer on Amazon at the moment on the paperback of From Light to Dark and Back Again. Check out the link below.
When writing flash pieces, I focus on my character as I’ve got to know where they’re coming from (and what is behind that. This is where knowing their major trait and likely attitudes coming from it is so helpful). It is then a question of working out whether I will then use the first person or the third.
I try to mix this up. I have used first person more with flash as it is so immediate but I don’t want to use it all the time. It is not always the best option. I have to figure out what would work best for my character and their situation. But this is good fun!
And for my collections, I had a fabulous time putting the stories together. I hope that comes through in the tales themselves.
Fairytales with Bite – Magical Services For Hire
In your setting, is everyone magical? If not, are there services which people can buy in as and when they need them? Who would run these services? Are there any standards services have to stick to (and what would be the consequences if they didn’t?). What kind of character would need to buy in a service? Is it easy to get the services needed?
If the services doesn’t deliver, is there room for redress? How could a non-magical character get justice here against someone who has conned them? How did your setting develop the need to be able to hire services out? Can the government use these services for their own ends – or is this a way of controlling who can access these things?
Name an industry and you can name a con artist connected with it. There is even more scope for this with a magical industry! But this could form the basis of humorous stories, especially if the con artist is forced to change their ways. If a customer turns out to be someone they know or someone they would like to get to know better, could they still con them?
Where you have things like magical shops, what would they stock? How do they obtain their products? Are products tried and tested? And think about your customers. Why is someone in need of these things? Does the services they buy in make a difference to their mission and if so how? If not, was it a question of bringing in these things as a kind of confidence boost? Also, did it work?
This World and Others – Guilds and Commercial Bodies
If you have a magical industry, are there guilds and other commercial bodies which control the running of these things? (Best fantasy guilds of all time are the ones Terry Pratchett has in his Discworld series incidentally!). Who would run these things? Are they answerable to the government or do they control the politicians?
Who set the guilds/commercial bodies up in the first place? Did they come into being by consent or were there unpleasant historical episodes which led to them being formed? Did those who control them have to fight their way to the top? Do they still have to fight to stay at the top?
How can people join the builds/commercial bodies? Do they offer apprenticeships? Are there preferred organisations here? Are there ones which people only go for because they literally have no choice? Are the guilds/commercial bodies the same as they they started or have they had to adapt? Were changes welcomed? What rules do they have to stand by? What rules do they find are useful (even if not legally enforceable?).
How does commerce come into the lives of your characters? Does it help them or get in their way?
Thinking about these things can help you picture your world as all settings will need to have employers and employees. Where you have got those you have a financial system of sorts behind them. This is where the guilds could come in and there could be good stories to be written about what goes on within their organisations.
WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK
September issue due out in last week of August.
AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsAuthors Electric: Book Fairs and Writing Retreats by Allison Symes https://t.co/2cz6l45geh While discussing Book Fairs/Writing Retreats, I talk about editing as I recently ran a workshop on it. I share how to give the Procrastination Monster and Imposter Fiend a hard time too. pic.twitter.com/d8By28fk8f
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) August 18, 2023
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsGetting the Most From An In Person Workshop https://t.co/N4y9F3ZEkM The second of my two blogs today is my usual weekly one for Chandler’s Ford Today. I look at Getting the Most from an In Person Workshop. I share what I look for in a workshop whether I run or go to them.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) August 18, 2023
Allison Symes: Collected Works 