Tag: Prompts

Writing Difficulties and Favourite Openings

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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.
Hope you have had a good few days. Had a marvellous time at the pantomime last week, review to follow in Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. Good to see more signs of spring emerging too – the snowdrops are out and the birds are busy nest building. Writing wise, have got a draft of a story down for another competition so will come back to that in a few days and work on it again.

BookBrushImage-2024-1-30-20-1331

Facebook – General

Chilly today but Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal this morning and happily showed off (I.e. racing around with her ball) in front of said pal (who looks on vaguely amused or so it seems to me. The Vizler is older than Lady).

Looking forward to sharing my review of The Sleeping Beauty as performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Do check out your own local amateur dramatic companies by the way – you are bound to find gems. I have! And going to the theatre is another way of taking in stories, when all is said and done.

Amused to see I have another one star review for Tripping the Flash Fantastic over on Amazon but no comments to go with it. Every author gets these so I guess it is a sign I am part of the “club” here then!

When I review books myself, I always pick out something I have liked to comment about. I don’t review books I dislike. Don’t think that’s fair to the author simply because no one author or book is going to please everybody. Things don’t work like that. And that’s fair enough. Tastes differ.

I have varied tastes in books but some things are just not for me so I give them a wide berth. But I’ve long believed the hatchet jobs say more about the reviewer than whoever is on the receiving end. That doesn’t just apply to books of course.

Don’t forget my author newsletter is out this coming Thursday. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Newsletter with envelope imagePleased to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, for my first post here of the New Year. I talk about Writing Difficulties this time. We all get them. We start a piece of work full of enthusiasm and then get bogged down.

My post looks at what I find can trigger struggling with writing for me (being overtired really does not help) and how I handle that. Being aware of what can trigger writing difficulties is so helpful because you can work out how to overcome these. It isn’t always possible to avoid them but it helps a lot as well to know you’re not alone here.

Hope you find the post useful.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Hope the weekend has gone well. Spotted first snowdrops today.

When I’ve got odd moments of time when I can write something, but not necessarily enough time for a flash piece or short story, I jot down ideas for titles, promising opening lines etc.

I also start drafting blog posts, perhaps an opening paragraph or so. It is great to have something to come back to later. Those pockets of time do mount up as I’ve mentioned before. I also make a point of starting the next blog posts as soon as I can after publication of others.

So for the monthly Authors Electric and More than Writers I am starting to draft the following month’s posts as soon as the current ones have been published. I can then add to these pieces throughout the month. I usually find I have a post finished, edited, and pictures selected for it about ten days before my posts are due for these two places. I like that.

What I try not to do is leave writing a post until almost the last minute. That doesn’t work for me. I find drafting my newsletters over the course of a month also works well. It means I just have to send myself a test email a few days before it is due out. I can spot anything I need to add in or change, do so, and then I know the newsletter is good to go on the first of the month.

I am a big believer in taking pressure off myself. Knowing I have something drafted helps with that a lot. For fiction, I do similarly with competition entries and use my diary to ensure I get things off in good time. It may be old school using a diary but as I mentioned recently it works.

421848716_818824020257461_2386484313653792362_n

Hope you have had a good day. Great to see some signs of spring appearing. Am spotting daffodils beginning to emerge.

Looking forward to sharing my review of The Sleeping Beauty performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company this week. Pantomime is a great tradition in the UK and long may it continue.

It is amazing how long admin tasks connected with writing can take. I’ve had to change my email over the Christmas period and getting everything updated has taken longer than I thought. I am there now though (or at least I believe I am, time will tell!).

On a much more fun note, I’m glad to say the flash fiction group meeting (for ACW) went well on Wednesday. I’m also going through the Writing Magazine competition guide and marking up several possibilities for flash fiction and short story competitions. Am looking forward to checking these out and giving them a try.

Next issue of Writers’ Narrative magazine will be out soon. Watch this space. Will share the link once I have it.

423133829_818223670317496_1884089815796508718_n

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

One of my favourite openings to a story of mine comes from Decisions from Tripping the Flash Fantastic. It reads He could watch the world end or jump on to the alien spaceship that encouraged visitors.

You’ve got to read on and find out what happens, right?

That’s the whole point of having a strong, intriguing opening line. You want to draw those readers in but you do need then to deliver on the promise given by that opening line.

This is why I outline. I work things first out and then write my draft. It helps me ensure I do deliver on that promise.

TTFF with social media iconsIt’s Monday. It’s slowly getting lighter in the evenings. It’s still Monday and time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Sunset.

Inspiration for this came from a random phrase generator which I then adapted further. I often use these things as a starting point. I also will take phrases and proverbs and change one word – that can affect the mood of the story I then write. It’s good fun to do – why not give it a go?

One aspect to Flash NANO I loved was the variety of prompts but this included those I wasn’t so keen on. I thought this was a good thing.

It made me go outside of my comfort zone for one thing. For another, it encouraged me to think laterally as to how I would tackle those prompts. And I did produce something to these, as well as for those I knew I could do having done those kinds of prompts before.

It does pay you to try different kinds of writing prompt because it will prepare well for writing to different themes for competitions. It’s also not a bad idea to mix up the word counts you write to for flash as mentioned yesterday. See further down.

I try to think along the lines of what can I do with this rather than have not done this before, can’t do this. You can. This is where I think jotting down your prompt and then working out what could come from it helps. Think along the lines of flowcharts and spider diagrams here. There is something about the act of writing something down which helps me to kick start the imagination.

For example one prompt I hadn’t done before last year was the one sentence only/stream of consciousness writing one. I wouldn’t usually write like that. I did do something for it. I won’t use this prompt directly but what came out of that prompt may form the basis for a longer flash piece at a later date. What I came up with was part of an early memory of mine.

Now I could take that and apply it to a character. Or I could get a character to tell me “their” early memory. But there are ideas I could work up here. That is the point of any writing prompt – to make you see what you can do and there will be something, even if it takes you longer than normal to think of something.

421926213_818829376923592_262626763854245788_n

I like to mix up the word counts I write to when writing flash stories. For some sites like Friday Flash Fiction, I stick to the 100 worder (aka the drabble) but elsewhere most of my stories end up at between the 100 and 500 words mark. A lot of flash fiction competitions are based around the 100 to 500 words mark so it is not a bad idea to practice writing to these word counts. I’ve found it pays!

But sometimes when I have a character who has more to show us, then I will write to the 750 to 1000 words mark. Sometimes I do need the full extent of flash fiction to show the full depth of a character because a reader needs to see that to make sense of the tale. So I get the story written first, edit it, and then and only then think about what the word count should be.

For Friday Flash Fiction, where I know what I am writing to word count wise, that tells me just how much I can show via my characters. It has to be short and sharp – so my works are. I can show one incident and one character.

423062287_818224753650721_3561424750403055658_n

Goodreads Author Blog – What Books Do For Us

Aptly, I could write chapter and verse on this one but I will limit it. Books are one of the best inventions we’ve come up with as a species. Books entertain us and take us away from our cares for a while. Books educate us. Books inspire us.

Reading encourages empathy as we follow what characters do and root for them to succeed. In the case of villains where we’re normally rooting for them to fail, there is still some empathy here usually for what the hero has to overcome. Sometimes you can see where the villains are coming from but still don’t agree with their actions. So again there is some empathy. Encouraging empathy is good for us per se.

And then there are the stories of the writers who bring us the books we love. The stories of how they overcame difficulties and became published authors inspire so many and do continue to inspire me though I am now published myself.

In writing books, authors have to think about their characters, what they’re going to do, what the plot line is going to be and so on. Working all of that out has to be beneficial for the brain, I would have thought. Certainly I know writing inspires me to try and write more and better. The striving behind writing and bringing books out is a good thing too.

I’ve loved the rise of the indie press, partly because I am published by them, but mainly because they are bringing more books to more people and giving more authors a voice.

Last but definitely not least, there is a genre and format of book to suit everyone – ebooks, audio books, crime fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, and all manner of other genres and formats.

Books are meant to be enjoyed. Long live the book!

Screenshot 2024-01-27 at 18-45-51 What Books Do For Us

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Twitter Corner with hashtag, Scrabble tiles, and the blue bird

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Review – Spring Trio – The Chameleon Theatre Group

Leave a comment
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 huge thank you to The Chameleon Theatre Group for sharing their pictures for my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week.
Hope you have had a good week. Am looking forward to watching the Coronation on 6th May. I discuss below how pictures, including those of crowd scenes, can be used to inspire ideas for stories. I expect some tales may well emerge from this weekend’s events! Hope you find the tips useful.

BookBrushImage-2023-5-5-20-149

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

It is a real joy to share Review – Spring Trio – The Chameleon Theatre Group as my Chandler’s Ford Today post for this week. My lovely editor, Janet Williams, and I went to see the trio of plays just over a week ago and were thoroughly entertained by the mixture of comedy and drama on offer. This is one of the pleasures of live theatre – you get to see some real gems. I also look at twists in this post as these came up a lot in these plays. Hope you enjoy the flavour of the evening I’ve shared here. It was lovely to write it!

Review: Spring Trio – The Chameleon Theatre Group

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Had a nice surprise today in that I was given a nice plug on Write On, Rosemary Johnson’s blog. Rosemary and I know each other though the Association of Christian Writers but this plug came out of the blue. Thanks, Rosemary. Am so glad the writing prompts are proving useful.

I use prompts all the time (and have contributed to some books of prompts published by Bridge House Publishing) and find them to be a great way to trigger story ideas. Occasionally I’ve used things like the random question or theme generator to trigger an idea for a blog post.

What I do find pays is mixing up the type I use. It keeps me on my toes (never a bad thing that!) and it makes you think in different ways too. When I took part in Flash NANO last year, one prompt I’d not tried before was writing a story in the form of a police report. What happened? I had great fun writing the story and it ended up being broadcast on Hannah Kate’s Three Minutes Santas show on North Manchester FM last December. I call that a win!

Screenshot 2023-05-05 at 20-09-42 Inspiration When Working on a Story

It has been a gloriously sunny day here today. Lady and I appreciated it. Lady appreciated playing with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal too. Good time had by all.

Looking forward to sharing my review of Spring Trio on Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. Always enjoy seeing The Chameleon Theatre Group at work. Like the mixture of comedies and dramas. More on Friday. See above.

Talking of reviews, don’t forget these help authors so if there is a book you’ve loved, do drop a quick line to say so in the usual places.

Had a nice surprise yesterday. I receive the Bridge House Publishing newsletter and in that is a link to CafeLit. I discovered my story, Untaken, was the fourth most read on CafeLit in April. Well done to those above and below me here! Very nice viewing figures. That was lovely to know so many thanks, #GillJames, for sharing that.

Chandler's Ford Today post reminder picture(1)

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale, Starting Conversation. The Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group may well recognise this as my response to a prompt I set them recently! A huge thank you also for the wonderful comments coming in on this tale already.
Screenshot 2023-05-05 at 10-07-28 Starting Conversation by Allison Symes

One kind of prompt I should try and use more often is the picture one. You can do this with objects and put them in a story. You can also use pictures of landscapes and wonder who would live there. Crowd scenes are good too as you can pick an individual out to base your character on and then write about them or write a story about why the crowd are gathered. (I suspect there may be Coronation stories coming up here!).

You can use your own photos too and set your character in the scene they show. What would your character be doing? What are they trying to achieve? Is the scene they’re in a help or a hindrance? Two characters could see a scene in opposite ways. What conflict could that lead to and how is is resolved?

May be an image of text that says "There's nothing to stop you taking a prompt and putting your own spin on it to generate still more story or article ideas."

Looking forward to giving a flash fiction workshop in a couple of weeks time to a writing group. Always fun to do! And it’s another example of Zoom making things possible. Where transport/distance means in person isn’t viable, Zoom is the answer! I’ve loved the fact that this has got me back into using PowerPoint again. I hadn’t used it in years until Zoom transformed things here. Given PowerPoint and bullet points go hand in hand, it’s ideal for flash. Well, I’ve got to write to a short word count, yes?

May be a graphic of text that says "Powerpoint with its ClipArt and charts has come back with a vengeance for use with Zoom. So easy to share ơη screen. Makes presentations more interactive. 1"

Fairytales with Bite – Job Hunting

How do your characters find jobs in your magical setting? Or it is literally a question of stepping into a dead fairy godmother’s shoes here? Not even fairy godmothers go on for ever (magical accidents and dragons can happen to the best of them) so I assume your setting would allow for training to happen to bring up the next generation. Would employment automatically follow that training?

For other roles, consider who else might work in a training establishment. Someone would need to cook, clean, prepare magical ingredients etc. How would these people get their work? Is it a question of who you know here?

For the non-magical beings in your story, what work would they do? How easy or otherwise would it be for them to find gainful employment?

Equally is your character being hunted for a job they really don’t want to do? Can they get out of it? If not, how do they manage?
Story idea potential there I think. (This is where we can use our knowledge of the working world to flesh out our story world and that can be useful. Dreadful bosses/colleagues can occur in fiction as well as in life – as can good ones).

BookBrushImage-2023-5-5-20-3214

This World and Others – Employment Types

What kind of employment can your world offer your characters? Is it similar to what we have here or something specific that could only happen in your setting? What kind of tools/equipment /technology would your characters be expected to be able to use? What are these things for? And are jobs allocated on merit or on status?

So could there be a character who would love to do Job X but knows they can’t because they’re from a certain social class which never does a job like that. Could they be the one to break the mould here?

Is employment divided between, say, magical and non-magical or is it just down to the job itself? For the latter, you could have, say, clerks working for the government who do have magical skills and those who do not. How would they get on? Would the magical abilities come in useful at work at all and that is why they are employed here? Do the non-magical lot have special qualities/skills which compensate here and are useful in another way?

What would count as manual labour? What would be considered “high end” employment? Do employment types change over time? (Not much call for abacus makers in our day and age, for example. Technology changes employment so much).

BookBrushImage-2023-5-5-20-3659

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

BookBrushImage-2023-4-21-20-227

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

By clicking submit, you agree to share your email address with the site owner and Mailchimp to receive marketing, updates, and other emails from the site owner. Use the unsubscribe link in those emails to opt out at any time.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Living Up To A Name and Writing Challenges

Leave a comment

Image Credit:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated.

Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing.

Image of The Writer’s Diary taken by me, Allison Symes, as this fab book was one of my Christmas presents!

Facebook – General

Brrr…. Another chilly day today, not that Lady seemed to notice.

My writing diary has a wonderful template for outlining characters and one aspect to that is talking about a character’s needs. These range from the basic needs (food, drink, shelter etc) to psychological needs (needing to be loved etc). But there is another aspect to this.

What does the character think they need? This will often not be the same as actual needs (basic, psychological or otherwise). The character may or may not be right to think they need these things. But what makes them think that they do?

This is a useful thing to consider when outlining your villains especially. Why does a villain think they need to dominate the world (and generally they so do!), for example? What drives them? Yes, the obvious reason will be the drive for power but what’s the reason behind that? That will colour how you outline your character so well worth giving further thought about.

If they honestly believe their actions are the only way to secure their own safety, that will drive them to keep going no matter what. It would also make their attitude understandable to a reader.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.


Just to flag up Amazon have the paperback of Tripping The Flash Fantastic on offer right now. See http://author.to/AllisonSymesAuthorCent for more.

Have also just sent off a blog piece where I’ll be the guest sometime in March. Have another one to prepare. All great fun.

Am drafting a short story for submission later this month/early February. I have totally fallen for my lead character. It is a wonderful moment when you know you’ve got right under the skin of your character so accurately. It’s also nice this character is someone I wouldn’t mind having coffee with if they were for real. I can’t say that for all of my “people”. Some are definitely meant to chill you! Some are historical figures and long gone…!

Chilly one over at the park today though at least Lady got to have a good run around with her best buddie, the loveliest Ridgeback in these parts. Another doggy pal of them both came over and the three were very happy and above all warm, unlike their owners! Stamping life back into your feet can take a while…


I always find the time between Christmas and just after New Year a strange one. For a start, it can be tricky working out which day of the week it is (and not helped at all by the pandemic with most people being at home and again losing track of the days of the week). I guess this shows I need structure and I’m not surprised by that.

I have a structure to my writing after all, not just in terms of outlining my stories and characters, but also in terms of what I’ll be doing and when. For example, my CFT post for this coming Friday is already up and scheduled but I am working on the one after that and hope to get that sorted out probably by Wednesday or so.

I finish my day’s writing either by writing flash fiction, working on my non-fiction book or another longer term project. By the time I look back at the week that has just gone, I will have wriitten several thousand words and made good progress on my project. You build up on what you do. And I find that structure works for me.

I just can’t wing it though I have no problem doing that when I am set writing exercises say at places like Swanwick, I guess I know I’m going to be set those so subconsciously I’m ready for them even though I won’t know the topic.

The tricky thing is finding time to do the “housekeeping” (for example, updating the website and so on). These tasks I try to do at least once every couple of weeks (though with my twice weekly round up, I am adding fresh material to the website all the time).

Does a structure work for you? I find I do get more done than if I didn’t have one. Why? Simply because I tick things off my list as I go and it always makes me feel better to see that list go down a bit.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Hope your Saturday has been okay. Nice quiet one here though appreciating the central heating right now! One good thing about the cold, dark nights is that it does mean an evening at the desk writing is even more appealing than it usually is!

Writing challenges that always need to be met:-

1. Getting started!

2. Committing time to write. (And if you only do have 10 minutes, commit to that. Over the course of a week, a month etc, those pockets of 10 minutes build up. And it’s a good time slot for drafting a piece of flash fiction say or trying out a writing exercise you’ve come across. I hope to be talking about writing exercises in a future CFT post. Watch this space!).

3. Silencing your inner editor. There is a time for your inner editor to get on and do some decent work but it’s never while you’re trying to get the first draft down. Just get your ideas and thoughts down. What needs to come out will come out in the edit later on. Don’t let your inner editor stump your efforts to get any work down at all. It can happen.

4. Convincing yourself you can write. Confidence is an issue for most writers. And most of us have had to fight (and keep fighting) Imposter Syndrome regularly. See that as part of the writing life. Rejections are part of the writing life too. These things are obstacles to be overcome. You can write. You can improve what you write (and therefore up your chances of being published). This takes time. It is not a race. Willingness to learn and improve what you do is what matters here. You can write. Nobody but nobody writes perfect prose at the first go. You do get better over time at avoiding the basic mistakes (as you’ve learned what to look for and avoid!).

5. Avoiding the scammers and vanity presses. There is always someone out there waiting to trip up the unwary writer. Always ask for advice from the Society of Authors and/or Alliance of Independent Authors.

Happy writing! (I appreciate happy editing is possibly not for everyone though I like editing, as you would hope!).

Photo by Suzy Hazelwood on Pexels.com
Photo by Ekaterina Bolovtsova on Pexels.com
Photo by Diva Plavalaguna on Pexels.com
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com


Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Many thanks for the great response to my story video yesterday (see post below). One/two line stories like Living Up To A Name, my story from yesterday, work wonderfully for this kind of thing.

Writing such stories is also great practice for writing a blurb for books etc given they usually have to be one to two lines only. The more I write flash fiction, the more I appreciate (a) the beauty of the short form and (b) the shorter the form, the more difficult it is to do well (so a big shout out to all poets here as well by the way!).

Flash fiction to my mind is precision writing. You do have to think about whether each word is really punching its weight in your piece or whether a better word would have more impact. (This is something that all poets do too).

But it is huge fun to do – and a good challenge. Challenges keep you as a writer on your toes and that’s no bad thing.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.



Story time – and a timely one too given it has been so cold throughout most of the UK. Hope you enjoy.

Living Up To A Name
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BHYEO8Cv98


My new writing diary comes with plenty of prompts and I hope to get around to do at least some of this year. Flash fiction is perfect for this kind of writing because often you’re asked to write 500 words on this or that or you find the topic given is best suited to a short piece. So using prompts as a way of practicing your flash fiction writing is a good idea. And if you can polish those prompts up and get work submitted and accepted as a result even better! Definitely worth a go!

Photo by Anthony Shkraba on Pexels.com
Photo by Dom J on Pexels.com
Photo by Ricardo Esquivel on Pexels.com


One of my goals for this year is to get a third flash fiction collection together. I’ve written a reasonable amount on this already but it will be what I return to when I’m resting my other big project, a non-fiction one.

Getting a collection together is an interesting process. As well as looking at the individual stories I’m looking at how well the collection will work as a whole. Does every one of my selected stories help enhance that theme in some way? If they don’t, well those are stories I save for another collection and another time.

What has been fascinating is seeing what my editors have picked up on for both of my books and it has always been a lightbulb moment for me of “oh yes”. That’s a good sign. It means the editors have picked up on things I’m too close to see as the author. You need an editor to point these things out. Do see your editor as your best ally in helping you to get your work as good as possible. It is what we are here for!

Oh and I am probably going to leave the name of this page as it is because (a) I like it and it’s a nice nod to my first book, (b), it is different, and (c) the link to flash fiction is apparent as you read through a post or two!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Goodreads Author Blog – BOOKS Acrostic

B = Beautiful, bindings to suit (paperback or hardback or chapbook, brilliant at taking you into other worlds.

O = Original thoughts from writers and can make you look at our own world in a different light while reading fantasy and science fiction

O = Overdosing on books is fine. The worst you will be is well read and short on book shelf space.

K = Kindle. One way around the shelf storage problem and you don’t have to limit books to take away with you on holiday, when we can do such things again.

S = Stories in so many forms including non-fiction because that tells factual stories.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Twitter Corner

 

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Mixing Things Up

Leave a comment

Image Credit:  As ever, the images are from the fabulous Pixabay.

Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

My latest post for Chandler’s Ford Today looks at why mixing things up is so important for writers. I share some thoughts and tips as to how to do so too. Hope you find it useful and enjoyable. I also look at the advantages and disadvantages of writing to set and open themes for competitions. (And good luck if you’re entering any soon!).

Mixing Things Up is the theme and title for my latest CFT post of course but it would also make a great theme for stories!

How would your characters mix things up? Would they do this out of maliciousness or from a sense of mischief? What would the consequences be for them and for others?

Asking what the consequences would be is a great way of developing your story outline! To quote Isaac Newton: “To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction: or the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts.”

Good thought for story writing too (though I doubt if he would have thought of it that way!).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Am loving listening to Danse Macabre on Classic FM as I type this (on 19th March 2020). This is the theme used on my book trailer for From Light to Dark and Back Again. I think of it as “my song”! 😆😆 See below!

I write with classical music on and find it relaxing. When I’m relaxed I find I write more. So that’s added reason to relax then! I don’t know quite what it is about classical music for it to have this effect. I do know other types of music simply don’t do the same thing – for me at least.

My post on CFT tomorrow will be Mixing Things Up and I will share some thoughts as to how a writer can do that and, just as importantly, why it matters.

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I’m glad the one-liner post the other day went well! The films were:-

The Italian Job (with the wonderful Michael Caine).

Carry On Cleo (with the wonderful Kenneth Williams. He had a marvellous narrative voice too).

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (With the wonderful Bob Hoskins). Bear in mind this film was made before CGI and he was acting to “air”. The cartoon figures were added in later including the anatomically impossible Jessica Rabbit!

It was great rediscovering The Great Escape a few months ago. Fabulous and true story, well acted, and a great score to it too.

Favourite film adaptation of a book for me is and remains The Lord of The Rings. No surprises there…

And my own favourite one liner from a story?

Probably “Still as I told Mother, if this is what I can do when I’m honest, just think of the possibilities when I’m not!”

For the rest see my Making The Grade in From Light to Dark and Back Again!

Allison Symes and published works

Allison Symes and some of her published works. Image by Adrian Symes

Facebook – From Light To Dark And Back Again

Used one of the prompts in the Prompts book by Gill James to write a flash tale that I have now submitted. It was good fun to write.

My week so far has mainly been on non-fiction work so it was good to get some fiction writing in. That should be my main focus for the rest of this week now.

Will have more news on another book but will save that for tomorrow night’s FB posts. (Well, we all need something to look forward to at the moment, right?!).

Read widely to inspire these. Pixabay
Pixabay image.
So true. Pixabay image.
What populates your fictional world? Pixabay image
How does gravity and time work in your settings? Pixabay image.
Words are the power source of so much creativity. Pixabay iamge.
This made me smile! Pixabay image.
Indeed! Pixabay image.

 

The one thing I hope to come out of the current crisis is that people read more and keep the love of reading going when things eventually calm down again.

Reading is a wonderful way to relax and for writers it is the flip side of what we do. To write well, you need to read well. (It’s also a bit daft to say the least NOT to support the industry you want to be in so go on get those books in, you know you want to!).

I love flash for its immediate impact, the longer short story for being able to expand on characterisation, and the novel for depth of plot etc. And the great thing with reading? There’s no limit on what you can read in terms of genre, length, topic etc. So go on, get stuck in!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Do you find it easier to write the ending of a story or its beginning?

I usually know when I’m brainstorming ideas whether a line I jot down is going to make a superb opening (I hope!) or a stunning finish. I then work out ideas from there and often use a spider diagram to help me get to the better storyline. (It is very rarely the first one I come up with!).

Sometimes the line can be open to being placed at either end of the story (and I love those). On my To Do list is to try to write two consecutive stories where the finishing line of one becomes the opening line of another. That could be fun to try (and good luck if you get to do that before I do! More than ever especially at the moment, it is important to still have fun and enjoy life as much as possible. Enjoying your story writing can be a key part of that).

 

Writing to screen. Image via Pixabay
Stepping into another world.. Pixbay
Good reading – and writing to be done – here. Pixabay image.
A truly beautiful book. Pixabay image.
There be dragons. Pixabay
A familiar sight to many of us. Image via Pixabay.
I’ve never read a book in these conditions, have you? Pixabay image.
Photo by Mark Cruzat on Pexels.com
Content is indeed king. Image via Pixabay.
Preparing the blog. Image via Pixabay.
Diary keeping as I recall it but I skipped the gingham! Image via Pixabay
Photo by Bruno Bueno on Pexels.com

Fairytales with Bite – The Downside of Magic

I’ve mentioned before that I like stories which show the downside of magic.

Firstly, something that powerful has to have disadvantages and would be prone to misuse/abuse (as with any kind of political power etc), though great stories come from exploring that.

Secondly, I love characters who use their wit and intelligence to get out of trouble in any genre and I want to see that in fairytales and fantasy too. Where magic is used, I want it to be appropriate.

I also believe there should be a downside to using it even when the intention is good. Something that powerful ought to have an effect on the user. For me, that’s realistic. I’ve always loved the section in The Lord of the Rings where Frodo offers Galadriel the Ring of Power because he clearly thinks the wretched thing would be best in the hands of someone good who would only use it for good (that’s my interpretation) and she reveals what that could mean.

What you don’t want is a wave of the wand getting characters out of trouble. Well, it’s not very interesting is it? Where a wave of the wand gets the character out of trouble but lands them right in it again in a different way because magic was used, now that is a lot more interesting to follow.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

This World and Others – Hobbies and Interests

So you’ve created an interesting world for your characters to inhabit. You’ve creating fascinating characters that will keep us glued to your book. Excellent!

Now think of rounding out your characters that bit more. What are their interests and hobbies? Why are they interested in these?

If your characters are on a quest, what interests have they had to give up so they can go on the quest? Is there any chance of them being able to resume that old life again? What are their attitudes to having to give anything up? What do they do in their down time?

I’ve always found when reading series novels that a character with interests is going to attract me more for the good simple reason that the character concerned has a rounded life and that’s what I want to read about. What they do about their main work in the story adds depth to them.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.