Tag: planning

Reviews, Time, and Appearances

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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. Busy start to the week, the spring flowers continue to come up, but still no sign of proper spring weather yet. Lady continues to enjoy the mud! She has got used to the clock change in the UK quicker than I have!

BookBrushImage-2023-3-28-17-357

Facebook – General

Posting a bit earlier tonight (and again tomorrow) as I’ve got a couple of busy evenings coming up (though one of them is for the Flash Fiction Group I lead for the Association of Christian Writers. Always fun, always good writing produced from it. Can’t wait to see the usual members there tomorrow. Zoom is fantastic for this kind of thing).

Writing tip: I know I’ve mentioned this before but it bears repeating. When time is short, just do what you can. I am in that situation at the moment and will be for a while.

What matters is getting some writing done and I get to my desk relieved and happy to get on with some writing even if, right now, it is not quite as much as I would like to do. There will be time to make up for that later on hopefully.

Ironically this is where I find deadlines especially helpful. They give me something to work to and ensure I focus.

May be an image of text that says "I've found it pays to take time off an official deadline and use that as the date I get stories in by instead. This is the date ー use to go through my script for the last time. If| need to correct mistakes, still can.lfit's it's fine, off it goes. can."

Hope you’ve had a good start to your week. Not bad here and Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback bestie today so all well there. Still feeling a bit of “jetlag” after losing an hour yesterday. The day after a clock change is always the worst for that!

Pleased to say I’ll be interviewing Gill James about a very special idea in April. A bit more on that nearer the time – am looking forward to sharing this on Chandler’s Ford Today. It is going to make an apt tie in with my Anthologies post which will be up this Friday. There are times you just can’t plan these things. Serendipity can be fabulous!

 

I’ll be discussing Anthologies for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Well, they do say write what you know! I’ll also share some tips on how to make the most of the theme you’re set (as so many anthologies will want you to write to one).

Talking of which, it is great to see some fabulous reviews coming in for The Best of CafeLit 11 on Amazon. The wonderful thing about writing a review for an anthology is you can help many authors in one review (!) so so write one. Doesn’t have to be long either.

Allison Symes: books, biography, latest update

CafeLit11 3D

Hope you have had a good day. It actually felt like spring here today. Just in time for the clocks to go forward in my part of the world tonight.

I’ve often used time in stories. Sometimes I’ve used Time as a character. Sometimes I’ve used time travelling characters. Sometimes I’ve written historical flash fiction where the setting of the story acts like a character (and again is a time frame). But time could be used as a countdown in a story too. That would be a great way of ensuing a good pace. Equally you can have an inciting incident happen at a particular time in a story and the tale takes off from there.

I use time to work out my writing week. Certain days of the week I have more time to write than others so I save my longer pieces of work for those days. I use pockets of time to jot down notes, opening lines, title ideas etc. It all mounts up and helps me to be more productive. Time is to be used!

May be an image of text that says "Never Neverworry worry about how much time you have to write. Five minutes of writing builds up over time and is perfect for drafting short pieces. V"

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Flash fiction can cover any mood and any genre. It’s just the word count you need to watch. But the word count for your flash story has to be appropriate for the tale you are sharing with us. Some of my stories genuinely work out better at 500 words rather than 100 and so I leave them at the upper limit.

May be an image of sky and text that says "One advantage to flash fiction writing is I can set my characters anywhere. I do too!"


It’s Monday and time for a story. Hope you enjoy Appearances. Be ware who you mock!


One of the toughest writing exercises I’ve tried is writing to a middle line. You’re usually told where exactly in the story, word count wise, it has to be be too. It’s not an exercise I come across often and I suspect that is because everyone finds it tough! But this is where forward planning is the writer’s friend.

What I have found useful here was having a spider diagram with the middle line slap bang in the middle and then work out, firstly, what could lead to that line from the start of the story. I then work out what could lead from it to get to a suitable ending (and I usually work out that ending too). I just jot down possibilities and then go with what I like best but the “two way” planning here has worked well for me in the past.

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Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom. Exercises will be set. I know. I’ll be setting them but I do make it a policy not to do the exercises myself until the night of the meeting. I love taking part in live writing exercises myself. It’s fun, a good discipline, and I get to draft some stories for later polishing and submitting somewhere. Win-win there!

May be a cartoon of text that says "Have fun with writing exercises. They give you new ways to create stories."

Goodreads Author Blog – Reviews

R = Reading is one of the great joys of life, along with writing the stories in the first place!
E = Entertainment between the covers and can be educational too.
V = Varying between light reading, serious reading, humorous reading and all kinds of genres, is it too much to ask for a review?
I = Imagine the author hard at work – a review is of enormous help to them.
E = Easy to write too – often the best reviews are fairly short.
W = Will the review influence others to buy the book – hopefully – authors appreciate their sales!
S = Support your authors – buy the books and review them. Thanks!

Screenshot 2023-03-25 at 20-48-09 Reviews

 

 

ALLISON SYMES – BOOK BRUSH READER HUB

MOM’S FAVORITE READS LINK – CHECK OUT THE MAGAZINE INCLUDING MY FLASH FICTION COLUMN HERE –

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Swanwick Report 2 (This Time It’s Personal!)

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Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

I was on way home from Swanwick as I drafted this earlier this afternoon. Not sure I’m ready to face the real world yet but the weekend will help.

Mind, it was lovely getting home to the family again, and I was mugged by Lady in a totally good way as well! One happy dog…

My CFT post this week is Making Space Part 2 and here I share thoughts and tips on this for writers. Hope you find at least some of them helpful.

Planning is key to my getting writing done at all and it pays to make space for that planning. It really does help you be more productive. Try it and see!

Image Credit:  Pixabay.  Captions on CFT.

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Publication News:  Cafelit

Busy night for me! I forgot to share this earlier this week but better late than never…

Am pleased to say my story, Life is What You Make It, went up on Cafelit on 12th August. Hope you enjoy.

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Why does Swanwick week always speed by? Glad to see sun come out in time for the Dregs Party held on the main lawn though.

Really encouraged on the non-fiction front and have written flash fiction stories too. Plenty to be getting on with when I get back home (and not just my laundry!).

The joy of writing is in being creative and discovering and enjoying new forms in which to write.

The joy of Swanwick is you know there are close to 300 people there with you who totally understand that.

Image Credit:  Swanwick pictures taken by me but a huge thank  you to Penny Blackburn for the one of me reading at the Open Prose Mic Night.

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I picked Getting Lost, Mirrored, and Test Pilot to read at the Swanwick Prose Open Mic night. Many thanks to Penny Blackburn for the pic (above).

Another full day of inspiring courses and workshops. It takes a while after you get home to process all you know will be useful to you but that’s fine. Knowing what you want to do is key and coming to Swanwick can and has been helping me hone in on that.

So true. Pixabay.
Read widely to inspire these. Pixabay
Warning: Writer at Work. Pixabay
What we all need… Pixabay
Indeed! Pixabay image.
What worlds can you explore in flash fiction? Pixabay
Most writers will know how this feels… Pixabay
Flash fiction illuminates briefly. Pixabay

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Have three flash stories drafted as a result of Swanwick. All need polishing though. I never get as much writing done as I think I will at Swanwick, because your head (and notebooks) are full of ideas to follow up when you get back.

I also want to cherish time spent with other writers, most of whom I won’t see for another year. This is where social media is such a blessing in that it makes you able to stay in touch that way.

What was great was coming across a number of other flash fiction writers. The form is growing and that will lead to more fantastic stories. Win-win there!

Even a world populated with dragons has to make sense. Pixabay
Getting the balance right in adapting work is never easy. Pixabay image.
Any resemblance to me when my printer cartridge has run out at an awkward moment MAY be coincidental. Pixabay.
Ah, the bliss of reading! Pixabay image.
Never stop… Pixabay
The writing life. Pixabay
Always good questions to ask. Pixabay.
Most writers will know how this feels… Pixabay
It’s amazing what characters can emerge from your time at a writing desk! Pixabay image.

The nice thing with writing for competitions is if a place doesn’t get placed, you have a story you can look at again and rework and submit elsewhere.

Most of the time you won’t be placed. Does that sound depressing? Perhaps but on the assumption there’s nothing wrong with your story, other factors happen such as:-

  1. The judge has already read a story very similar to yours and, for whatever reason, the other has the edge. There’s not much you can do here other than make your work as polished as possible and try not to go for the too obvious interpretation of a theme.

  2. For open competitions especially, judges may genuinely have a preference for a particular story type or genre and yours doesn’t float their boat. Just get the work out somewhere else appropriate.

Good luck!

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I love it when flashes of inspiration strike though nobody says they have to come at convenient times, unfortunately.

My awkward-to-get-to-a-pen moments include:-

Being in the shower when a real cracker of an idea turns up.

Being on the loo when etc etc.

Being stuck in traffic and I’m driving.

Longing to write when on a train but you’re packed in so tight even an exceptionally skinny ant would have trouble finding space. {Anyone come across an obese ant? Just thought I’d ask!).

Oh well…

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Fairytales with Bite – Making Space

My CFT post this week discusses why Making Space is a great idea for writers. See http://chandlersfordtoday.co.uk/making-space-part-2-the-writing-view/

I believe fairytales and fantasy fills the spaces between reality and chaos. Why? Because so many tales in these genres reflect what we can be like, while others give strong moral messages. Why do we need such things?

  1. To guide us as to what our behaviour should/should not be;
  2. To show us what life could be like without kindness, gratitude etc. Would you really not want things to come right for Cinderella, for example?

As writers, we also need to give our characters space to develop in themselves and as part of the plot development. A character who doesn’t change will be of little interest to readers.

The first draft is never perfect. Pixabay image.
Changing direction is fine for writing too. Pixabay
The lightbulb moment is not so easy to capture as drawing it! Pixabay
Pixabay image.
Feedback can vary in scale! Pixabay image.
And have fun! Pixabay image.
No shortcuts to editing! Pixabay image.
The writing journey isn’t necessarily in a straight line. Pixabay
Whatever you write, enjoy it! Pixabay image

This World and Others – Entering Another World

You do feel as if you enter another world when you go to Swanwick Writers’ Summer School. For a week, I do! Coming out of that world again can be a wrench too.

Image Credit:  Photos of Swanwick taken by me with the exception of my reading at the Open Prose Mic Night. Many thanks to Penny Blackburn for that. ALREADY SHARED ABOVE.

But going home with ideas to work on will take me back into the fantastic world of the imagination in no time. So that’s all right then!😀 The really nice thing about this?

It applies whether you write flash or other fiction and non-fiction.

When you want to escape this world for a bit, write!

Your title needs to make an impact quickly and especially if writing flash fiction as it can set mood and save you word count - PixabayThe first title idea you have may need to change later but that's okay - PixabayAnd the first thing people will want to know is the title - Pixabay918521_S.jpg

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Still room for pen and paper drafts. Pixabay