Tag: Rivalry by Allison Symes

What Do I Love About Writing?

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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. Photos of me with Creativity Matters were taken by Adrian Symes.  One promo image of Creativity Matters was kindly supplied by Wendy H Jones. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, as was the photo of Lady having a wonderful time at Druridge Bay.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Had a fabulous holiday in Northumberland last week. We all enjoyed it. Lady had a wonderful time. All those walkies! Now back to the normal routine – the common thread here? I kept writing in the evenings. Writing is work but it is also a great joy. I have to be ill not to want to do it!

Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day. It was good to get back to swimming again today. Mind you, it was hard work!

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again before too long. To sign up for news, tips, story links and more, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Writing/Editing Tip: I’ve always found it helpful to get that first draft down, warts and all, before doing any editing on the story or article. I’ve got to see the whole thing written down before I can judge it objectively enough to deal with the inevitable faults. But this is what the first draft is for – get those warts out of your system by writing them out and then stamp on them during the editing process!

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Hope Monday has been kind to you. Lady was overjoyed to see her two best friends, the Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler, in the park today, especially after a lovely week’s break away in Northumberland last week. It was sweet to see.

Writing wise, am slowly getting back to my usual routines. Was pleased to get plenty of story writing done yesterday, including a submission. Another is fleshing out an idea I’ve had for a while and beginning work on it. Was pleased with how that has gone but plenty still to do. Will be back on this later this week, I hope.

Pleased to be back on Authors Electric with my Out and About – Inspiring Ideas. Sometimes ideas for blogs feed in to each other and my recent Chandler’s Ford Today article (which is longer) explored this theme too. The Authors Electric post gives a good summary though of things which can help inspire your writing when out and about, even if you don’t wander far from home. Hope you find it useful.

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Hope the weekend has got off to a great start. Am on way home from a fabulous week in Northumberland. Great time had by all.

Writing wise, I’ll be welcoming Val Penny back to Chandler’s Ford Today about a short story collection she is contributing to and on something different for her. This anthology is called The Ring which follows what happens to a Roman ring over time. The book will be raising funds for The Reading Agency too. More on this next week.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

What do I love most about writing? Hard to pinpoint exactly but a huge part of this is the sheer joy of meeting the challenge of creating something new which will hopefully resonate with readers.

For flash fiction, my initial thought was to see if I could write 100 word tales. Then the challenge went to could I write 50 worders? Could I write right across the spectrum for flash? Then could I get a collection together?

There are always new things to try in writing, whatever your field. Each article and story I write is a new challenge in and of itself. I do love this. What helps is knowing I can write short stories, flash, articles etc.

The challenge always is can I do something with this topic, this story idea – will they work this time? It keeps you on your creative toes (which I think is beneficial, if only because you don’t rest on your laurels. You also don’t take anything for granted).

It’s a lovely sunny Monday but still a Monday and time for a tale. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Breaking the Chain.

The opening line to this one is based on an exercise I set the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group recently. I only changed one word – the starting one to give my character a name. The name occurred to me as I was drafting the story. That happens.

Sometimes I don’t name a character deliberately (usually when I feel it would have more of an impact keeping a sense of the unknown going usually though that wasn’t the case here).

Why does Louise know her grandson, Mark, smashed the last thing her late husband, Tom, gave her? What will she do about it?

 

Sometimes I link flash stories. For example, my recent one on Friday Flash Fiction, Rivalry, links to my YouTube tale, The List. You can check them both out below. Mind you, I don’t think I would trust Shirabelle any further than I could throw her. See what you think!

Why link stories? Sometimes it is because I can think of a further idea which the 100 word limit in Friday Flash Fiction (the one I prefer to adhere to) won’t allow me to include so I get another longer tale out of it for my YouTube channel (and another post to share like this one!).

Best reason of all though? Simply because it is fun to do this sometimes. I like to mix things up and reusing a character or two is one way I do this.

Just got back from a lovely break in Northumberland. Have followed my own advice in yesterday’s Chandler’s Ford Today on Inspiration Ideas as I have taken lots of photos. Plan to use some of these to inspire flash stories later. Landscape ones will be especially useful I think.

Hope to look up more flash competitions to have a go at soon too.

Goodreads Author Blog – Holiday Reading

I recently had a lovely holiday in gorgeous Northumberland and naturally took plenty to read with me.
Equally naturally, lots of walking and fresh air in forests and on beaches meant I didn’t get to read as much as I’d planned! But there is no way I wouldn’t pack plenty of reading material. You just do, right?

I like to take my Kindle, one or two books, and magazines. All easy to pack, of course.

Mind you, when I could read, I made the most of it. Comfy chair, gorgeous outlook, drink to hand – perfect reading conditions.

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Inspiration Ideas

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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.
Hope you have had a good week. Lovely time had here – made the most of the glorious weather. Writing wise, am busy preparing the next author newsletter and a fabulous author interview for Chandler’s Ford Today. More details on that next week. Meantime, I write on (and that is just how how I like things to be).

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to share Inspiration Ideas on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Hope you will find it useful.

I share tips on making the most of being out and about over the next few lovely weather months (well, they usually are most of the time, can’t say fairer than that!). The best thing of all is the tips I share here apply just as well if you’re not venturing far from home this summer. The idea behind all of the tips shared here is to spark your inspiration and that is always useful.

Inspiration Ideas

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Lady and I again spent plenty of time in the glorious fresh air and sunshine today. Had a fabulous time. Not too hot, pleasantly warm – just how we both like things. Has tired us both out nicely too.

Writing Tip: Think about how you can use how the good weather makes you feel for characters in your stories. Also could the weather get in their way at all?

Could good weather (dry, pleasantly warm, lots of light etc) be a disadvantage to them? Are they of a species sensitive to light levels for instance? How do they manage their “condition” here? Light isn’t always avoidable! How can your characters here get on with other species for whom light isn’t an issue?

Lady and I were out and about enjoying another glorious day. Hope you have had a good day too. Spring is at its finest right now, I think.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Inspiration Ideas for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. This post will include hints and tips for making the most of being out and about this spring and summer too. See above.

Next author newsletter will be out before we know it. To sign up for writing tips, news, story links and more, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Newsletter Writing Tip: I find it a great help to write sections of my newsletter during the month. It avoids a last minute rush (and forgetting to do one at all). I also find it useful to think of a rough theme for the month as that will give me ideas for the different sections I write. I also love newsletters which have a theme running through it and find these grip me more when reading them.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my new tale, Rivalry. Two fairies are up for a top godmother job. One of them has a wand which keeps backfiring but she knows this is no coincidence. Who will prevail and get the top job here? Are more dirty tricks involved? Find out here.

Hope today has been a positive one for you.

I like to mix up themes for those places where I submit flash fiction regularly. I deliberately write lighter pieces, darker ones and then go back to light again. I like a good mixture in which I read here, as well as what I write myself.

When I am deciding on the mood of a piece, I start by outlining my character because I need to find out why they would be best suited for a light or dark piece. There should be good reasons behind your character’s approach to life (and therefore what they are likely to do and say).

Hope you have had a good day.

Don’t forget my two flash collections (From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic) are available via Amazon but you can also get them from The Bridgetown Cafe Bookshop. This is the online shop for my publishers and this link (see below) also means you can buy from independent booksellers such as The HIve (UK) and Barnes and Noble (US).

Wherever you buy from, and not just for me, do leave a review. Brief is fine (and for flash collections suitably appropriate I’d say!).

Fairytales with Bite – Getting Away From It All

One of the joys of getting away from it all is to have a break from the normal routine. So what would your magical characters do to get away from their normal routine? Where would they go? Can they really escape their magical work? Or would it be a case of reducing their magical usage to the bare minimum so they recharge that way? At least they wouldn’t be on call all of the time…

Are there special places the magically inclined can go to recharge? How would these places be protected from those who would want to take advantage of magical characters being on their “down time”?

Also how eager or otherwise are your magical characters about returning to their normal lives again? Did the down time do them good, make them more efficient than before etc? How would that impact on their usual roles?

This World and Others – Exploring Other Worlds – Encouraged or Not?

Does your alien (sci-fi or fantasy) world encourage the exploration of other words or is this strongly discouraged? What are the reasons for the attitude here? Has exploration ever taken place and did it go well or otherwise? Sure to be story ideas there!

What similarities does your setting have with Earth? Could humans ever reach your setting (via time travel, portals, or extending our current scientific abilities for space travel?). Or has your world taken steps to ensure that cannot happen?

How have they encountered humans before to make them want to take those steps – or are they relying on things they have heard about us? We may not be considered the best species everywhere! Mind you, many of us here don’t believe that either or at least feel we could do a lot better than we are!

Where exploring other worlds does happen, which are considered worth exploring by your home setting and why? What is your setting hoping to achieve or gain from this? Again, sure to be story ideas there.

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