Facebook – General
Possible writing acronyms coming up… see what you think.
ABC = A Biro, Candidly (when asked what the best thing to write with is!).
DEF = Definitely Edit Flash. It may be a very short story but editing is still required! No short cuts. No matter what its length, a story still has to be fine tuned and honed. I don’t think there has ever been anyone who can turn out the perfect short story in one go and leave it that AND keep on doing this for short story after short story etc etc. I know I’m not going to be the one to break that rule of thumb.
GHI = Get Huge Imagination. Best way of doing that? Read widely. Read lots. Read books. Read magazines. Listen to audio books. Watch films. Absorb stories no matter what their format. Think about what the writers here have done and then work out how you’d do it and why especially where you think something doesn’t work. (Or at least doesn’t work for you. Have a look at what that is – what can you learn from this that you can apply to your own writing).
Next installment tomorrow!
Some more writing acronyms then…
JKL = Just Kill Lines. Lines that aren’t working. Lines that don’t flow as well as you thought they would. (Reading work out loud is a good test for this, you will literally hear the words flow well or not). Whatever doesn’t move your character or your story forward (or shows something the reader needs to know but STILL takes the story forward) has to go!
MNO = Manage Named Objectives. What are your character’s objectives? What must they achieve? Know what these are in your own mind before putting pen to paper or writing to screen. The idea is for your readers to discover what the objectives are through your characters rather than telling them directly. It is also a good idea to keep objectives straightforward and having them based on a need is useful foo. LOTR – need to destroy Sauron’s ring of power. Straightforward, to the point, and “simple”. How the objective is then achieved (or not!) is where the story really kicks off.
PQR = Practice Quality Reading! (Confession time: I did look up literary words beginning with Q and could only find Quatrain! The poets amongst you can make far better use of that than I can!). What do I mean by quality reading? I think of it as reading widely, often, across genres, non-fiction as well as differing types of fiction. See this as feeding your imagination. Ideas spark from other stories. You will see how an author wrote a story. You think to yourself well I’d do it this way… So go on and do so! But the more you read, the more you can kick start your own imagination and that has got to be a good thing.
More on writing acronyms then…
STU – Setting, Tense, Understanding.
Your reader should have a sense of the setting very quickly. You can share more details later, especially in a longer story. In my Job Satisfaction, I start with “Thud! The fairy returned to what she’d wrongly sworn was an open window”. I don’t need to tell you it is a fantasy story – the two words “the fairy” do that for me. “The window” tells you she’s making house calls too!
Tense – I use a lot of present tense in flash fiction as it quickens the pace but whichever you go for be consistent with it.
Understanding – A reader should have a real understanding of what your story is likely to be about by the end of the first line or so.
VWX (hmm… two challenges here)! Viewpoint, Worldview, and X-Ray Vision
Viewpoint – Whose story is it? Are you telling the tale from the viewpoint of the lead character or someone close to them observing what is going on? Again, be consistent.
Worldview – Your characters should reveal this in their attitudes and thoughts about things. Are they going with the prevailing worldview or rebelling against it? Again their attitude should make that clear.
X-Ray Vision = Confession time: am cheating a bit here. Will you be using an omnipresent narrator who really can see and comment on everything (hence the X-ray vision tag!)? Or will you be seeing everything through the eyes of one character so we only see what they can see? Again, be consistent.
My CFT post this week will be a look at the importance of memories, an apt topic as we approach 11th November. Link up on Friday. Memories are such a huge part of we are (which is why dementia is so tragic) and this should apply to our characters too. Their past may not BE the story but it should be hinted at they do actually have one!
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
How about some autumnal flash fiction stories? Some even go up to three lines!
1. The falling leaves were suffocating her.
2. You know they call that cold wind the Beast from the East? Well, it devoured three workmen, two posties and a milkman on its way through our villages last night.
3. The creature liked the nights drawing in so early. Hunting time was extended and there was always someone slowly trudging home to pick off at leisure. The creature called it Happy Hour.
Hmm… there’s a theme developing here! Hope you enjoy.
Allison Symes – 3rd November 2018
The challenges with writing flash fiction are:-
1. Ensuring every line grips your reader.
2. Ensuring the tantalising opening line is backed up with a powerful closing one. No damp squibs here, thank you!
I have brainstorming sessions every so often where I jot down lines. Some are obvious opening lines (to me anyway!). Others look as if they could finish a story. So I either work out ideas that could come from an opening line OR work backwards from a closing one and see how I could have got to that point. All good fun.
I think it a good idea to mix up your writing methods like this. It keeps you on your imaginative toes for one thing.
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- How they USED to put pictures into books! Image via Pixabay.
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- Notes about your characters can help you portray them more accurately. Not every note has to make it into the story itself. Pixabay image.
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- Editing is vital. Nobody gets it right first go. Pixabay image.
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- Plugging in for new ideas? Pixabay image
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- Your blog, your topic, your theme – just be sensible on copyright and libel issues. Image via Pixabay.
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- Making the most of the writing time. Pixabay image
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- All writers feel this way sometimes. Pixabay image.
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- A truly beautiful diary. Image via Pixabay
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- The joy of writing is you never stop learning. Pixabay image.
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- Let the creativity spill out. PIxabay image.
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- A beautiful woodland walk. Pixabay image
We’re in fireworks season here in the UK at the moment. (Fortunately my dog, Lady, is not at all phased by them). So if you are setting your story in a fantasy world of some sort, what would they use to mark occasions? I always did love Gandalf’s fireworks in The Lord of the Rings (and the film really did do justice to these in the opening scenes).
What sort of music would your world have? Is music banned? Do only the privileged elite celebrate anything or does everyone join in? Some story ideas there I think!
Favourite themes of mine for flash fiction include rough justice, alien life being as intelligent as ours (and usually more so!), and crime (often showing the criminal’s justification, if only to themselves, as to their course of action). It is perhaps ironic that the really big themes – love, justice etc – can be summed up in one word but the amount of variety of stories you can get from these is vast.
I believe the simpler the theme, the better. It comes across well too. You don’t need your readers scratching their heads trying to work out what the theme is.
Goodreads Author Programme – Blog – Seasonal Reading
Do you worry about reading according to the seasons?
I generally don’t, though will concede I read more during the autumn and winter. There is just something about the longer dark evenings that encourage getting the Kindle out or raiding the To Be Read pile. For me, it is one of the joys of the colder times of year. (The other is hot chocolate!).
But what I read doesn’t change much during the year. I read according to mood. So if I fancy crime, I read that. If I want historical I go for that. (Sometimes I fancy historical crime!!). The great thing about reading and writing flash fiction is one collection can cover a lot of moods in one volume! Mine falls into that category.
I will put my hands up to re-reading Terry Pratchett’s Reaper Man around Harvest Festival Time and his Hogfather in the run up to Christmas though but that is about it for me for seasonal reading.
What I would like to do more of though is read more poetry. I know what I like in that line when I come across it but it is remembering to do so. For me it is the easiest thing in the world to reach for prose to suit my moods. And of course the majority of the time that is exactly what I do.
I do have what I call “comfort reading” books and these are generally humorous like Pratchett or Wodehouse. When I want a sure fire bet to entertain and amuse me, these are where I head first.
So what do you read seasonally?
Allison Symes: Collected Works 