Tag: reading

Writing the first drafts! Image via Pixabay.

GOING BACK IN TIME

Leave a comment

One of my heroes, Doctor Who, is of course renowned for this but my posts tonight are on the topic of the past and how this could affect your characters and plot.

FAIRYTALES WITH BITE

I talk about a magical education in tonight’s post and how that affects your characters.  Are they getting an education now to make up for lost time in their past?  What happened to make them need to do this?  How does the education they’ve had affect the decisions they’re making now?  After all someone who is illiterate would be very dependent on someone else for interpreting any written documents they come across.  Can they trust the ones helping them?

THIS WORLD AND OTHERS

Going Back is tonight’s post and looks at how revisiting places can affect your characters.  I love visiting places of historical interest and always come away from them having learned something new.  I also come away with a deeper appreciation I can read and write.  This has not always been universal, especially for women.  The past has a deep impact on now and at least in terms of general education in the developed world this has been a major improvement.  (And yes I wish this was true everywhere).

FACEBOOK PAGE

I talk about revisiting the past and education again here.  This topic came to mind as I reblogged a post (first time ever!) from Tales From the Notepad’s Sunday Sojourn series where their post was about Fotheringay Castle.  I would love to visit what remains here given it is the birthplace of Richard III (and I must try and get to Leicester at some point too).

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FAllison.Symes.FairytaleLady%2Fposts%2F791728314263483&width=500

OTHER NEWS

Have sent off a new fairytale for a writing competition.  I’m currently developing a flash fiction tale into a longer piece of work given the initial idea has sparked other ideas.  I love that when it happens and of course I can hopefully place the flash fiction piece in one place and the longer work somewhere else should it all work out okay.

Am also currently working my way through some fantastic interview questions put to me by short story author, Jacci Gooding, who I met at Winchester Writers’ Festival.  Will post details of when the interview will appear when I know more but am enjoying being on the other side of the fence.  I love carrying out writer interviews and indeed reading them, as I always learn something (one of the great joys of writing at all for me), but it has felt a bit odd having questions put to me!  It is a very good “odd” though!!

Blogging via diaries and tablets - ancient and modern technology! Image via Pixabay.

Blogging via diaries and tablets – ancient and modern technology! Image via Pixabay.

What a Library. Image via Pixabay.

BEING TAKEN OUT OF YOURSELF

Leave a comment

FAIRYTALES WITH BITE

In tonight’s post Developments I ask how your characters react to the big changes in life.  I also ask how development in general takes place in your fictional world.  Can big business dictate to government or is there one central power controlling everything?

THIS WORLD AND OTHERS

In Being Taken Out of Yourself, I ask what triggers enable your characters to escape their humdrum lives for a while.  I also ask what happens when characters that need to escape for a while find they can’t do so.  Just how long can they keep going before they crack.

FACEBOOK PAGE

I discuss what I hope will become a mini series for Chandler’s Ford Today and wonder why it is I have days, like today, when I can catch up with my reading, yet on other days I barely have time to read at all!

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FAllison.Symes.FairytaleLady%2Fposts%2F781335338636114&width=500

Books help you wind down, can be a trigger to escape life. Image via Pixabay.

Books help you wind down, can be a trigger to escape life. Image via Pixabay.

 

 

 

 

A bookshelf of beautiful books. A joy to look at, but a greater one to read! Image via Pixabay.

IS THERE A MAGIC WAND IN WRITING?

Leave a comment

FAIRYTALES WITH BITE

You shouldn’t be too surprised that the answer to “Is there a Magic Wand in Writing?” is a resounding “no” but I discuss how you can help “beef up” the imaginative muscle.  And the best way of all is to indulge in the flip side of writing, which is to read.  Is there a writer who doesn’t love to read?  I don’t think so and my attitude here is go for it – prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction – indulge, knowing it will help your own writing no end!

THIS WORLD AND OTHERS

On a similar theme, my post Flexing the Imaginative Muscle shares three writing exercises.  Writing exercises are, of course, the other great way to fire up your imagination.  Some have given me opening lines, which I’ve then used to write flash fiction or longer short stories, though a play, a novella or longer piece of fiction could also start from something like this.

FACEBOOK PAGE/CHANDLER’S FORD TODAY POST

I use my FB author page tonight to discuss my Chandler’s Ford Today post called Why I Use Scrivener Writing Software.  This is likely to remain the most technical piece of writing I ever produce but I hope it might be useful to those writers considering using this software.  I have, however, put in links to some of my favourite authors for whom writing technology consisted of the quill and the typewriter!  And those sites are worth exploring if you are a fan of Roald Dahl, P.G.Wodehouse and/or Shakespeare!  At the end of the day it is the imagination that is the most important writing tool of all.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FAllison.Symes.FairytaleLady%2Fposts%2F780703978699250&width=500

Feature image for my Chandler's Ford Today post. Image via Pixabay.

Feature image for my Chandler’s Ford Today post. Image via Pixabay.

The light on the sea at Dunbeath

CHANGE IS IN THE AIR…

Leave a comment

FAIRYTALES WITH BITE

Tonight’s post looks at enforced changes and gives story prompt ideas as to what changes are enforced on your characters, who by and why?  There has got to be at least a short story in that!  I also look at how the darker evenings can affect characters – for example in terms of health (sunshine lamps etc are used to combat the increasing effects of the lack of light as we go further into autumn and then winter). That would be an enforced and unavoidable change on a character’s well being, even if it is only for a brief period each year relatively speaking.  So how would your characters cope with that?  And how would it affect their behaviour?

THIS WORLD AND OTHERS

The dark theme continues with a look at the dark side in tonight’s post for This World and Others. I look at the seasons briefly but also discuss monsters and wonder what dark side of the personality your characters might be trying to suppress.  Do they succeed?  Who decides who is the monster?  (They’re not always the ugly brute – see Shrek for more on this!).

FACEBOOK PAGE

I discuss the Proms (as broadcast by Radio 3) and that the Last Night of the Proms is rapidly approaching, a sure sign autumn is here.  I also discuss the effects the darker evenings have on me – I tend to read more!  I like to escape into my fictional and non-fictional worlds and block out the fact the nights are drawing in far earlier than I would like.

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FAllison.Symes.FairytaleLady%2Fposts%2F773409036095411&width=500

I loved the long, light evenings in the Far North of Scotland. Image by me.

I loved the long, light evenings in the Far North of Scotland. Image by me.