Tag: short story

Inspiring Books and Flash NANO 2024

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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 had a good weekend. Nice one here. Lady turned 8 years old on 4th November – yes, she was spoiled! Writing wise, am looking forward to sharing my review of I’ll Be Back Before Midnight on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Am also loving Flash NANO so far. Plenty going on and more author interviews to come on CFT in due course too.

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Facebook – General

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady was delighted to get to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals again. It’s been a cracking start to her birthday week for her!

Books are so inspiring in so many ways. Especially for series books like Discworld, I love the way familiar characters develop over the course of several novels plus I love the one-liners. With Wodehouse, I love the elegance of language and the wonderful good humour emerging from the characters themselves and the situations poor Bertie Wooster gets dumped in.

Reading widely shows me what I like about characters and how their creators have brought them to the page. That alone is inspiration for what I want to do with my own creations. Those authors ensure their characters’ dialogue, attitudes, and behaviours are spot on for them and I aim to do the same with mine. Their creators knew their characters inside out and I aim to do the same with mine, though for 100 word stories I don’t need to know as much.

But you do take in what works with stories as you read them and if that is not a great advert to read more, I don’t know what is! It really does help with your own writing.

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4th November 2024
Special day today – it’s Lady’s 8th birthday. Hard to believe where the seven years since we brought her home from the Dogs Trust have gone. Yes, she has been spoiled rotten. And she got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback chums today so Lady has had a great day.

Incidentally Lady’s actual birth date is the same as the day we brought her home, the only one of our three collies for whom this has happened. She’ll probably wonder why she isn’t spoiled quite so much tomorrow!

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to sharing my review of I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, an excellent thriller recently staged by The Chameleon Theatre Company. Review will be up on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. More author interviews to come on CFT too.

Am thoroughly enjoying Flash NANO so far and will be tackling Day 4’s prompt shortly. Did so and loved writing it up!

465668816_1016007040539157_240577107499276068_nHope you are having a good weekend. Quiet one here. Not sorry about that.

About to crack on with flash fiction Sunday afternoon, a highlight of my week. Takes my mind off the fact it is dull and gloomy at 2.30 in the afternoon! I do wish they’d leave the clocks alone. Confuses the dog a bit too.

Writing Tip: If you’re taking part in Flash NANO, don’t worry if you can’t do the prompt on the day it is issued. It isn’t always possible. Life can and does get in the way. But don’t give up! What I do and have found helpful is get back to the prompts as soon as I can but I do them in the order in which they are issued. That way I still have the surprise of what is to come and it ensures I do give each one a go.

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Hope you have had a good day. Managed to get the lawn cut – probably for the last time until the spring.
Writing wise, I will be sharing my review of I’ll Be Back Before Midnight recently staged by The Chameleon Theatre Company for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Link up on Friday. Looking forward to sharing that.

Enjoyed the first Flash NANO prompt yesterday and looking forward to writing up today’s one later. First story came in at 94 words excluding the title. I found for previous years the story word counts will vary. Most I’ve ever gone up to on this is a 750 worder. Most of my tales end up between 50 and 500 words my natural flash fiction habitat so can’t say I’m surprised by this. If you’re taking part in this, have fun and good luck.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Dog is wondering why she can’t have a second birthday as she enjoyed being spoiled rotten yesterday!

Am loving Flash NANO and will be having a crack at Day 5’s prompt later. Done! The variety of prompt is incredible already and so good for keeping you on your creative toes.

Am preparing a couple of flashes separate to this for a competition I’ve got in mine. One is drafted and probably won’t need much work to it but the other one does! This is the way of it!

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4th November 2024

It’s Monday. (It’s also my dog’s 8th birthday so she and I have had a lovely time today – I spoiled her, she lapped it up!). It’s still time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Going Out With Mum. What could possibly go wrong taking dear old Mum out to an art exhibition? Find out here.

 

Lady has been enjoying Pet Classics on Classic FM over the weekend. This is basically calming music designed to drown out the noise of fireworks etc. Found it useful over the last couple of years.

Now taking the idea of music and flash fiction, let’s put them together and have a writing prompt of a character influenced by one piece of classical music only. What is it? Why have they chosen it? What difference does it make to them hearing it as they go about the business of the story? Does it help them to succeed in what they are trying to do? What does it reveal about their personality?

Am sure answering those questions can throw up some story ideas!

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So good to be taking part in Flash NANO again. Will be writing up Day 2’s prompt later. Have ideas brewing!

Plus I’m looking forward to my usual flash fiction Sunday afternoon tomorrow. I get a fair bit of flash written then. I expect by the end of the year I will have a rough draft for a potential further collection. (Will let you know when I hear more about my third one).

Flash Writing Tip: Focus on your lead character. Do you know how they would speak, what kind of language they would use, what kind of things they are likely to come out up with? If not, why not free write some conversation between them and you as their creator? See what comes out. By the end of that session, you will have ideas forming. For example:-

Me: Tell me a bit about yourself then.
Character: Why? It’s for you tell me, isn’t it?
Me: Okay, okay, I think I’ve got a bolshy one here. Now I wonder what kind of awkward situations I can dump you in. Be awkward with me, would you?
Character: See if I care. I will find a way.

Just writing that has told me a lot about this character already – as well as being defiant, they’re prepared to struggle, prepared to find ways of working things out so they’re a good thinker and likely to be creative with it. Yes, I can have fun with this one.

But I hope you see the point Just writing a couple of lines like this has already put some images of this potential character in my head.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Stand Out Characters

I’ve always thought characters make or break a story. If a character grips me, whether it’s due to my being sympathetic to their cause or because I want to see them fail, then I will read on and find out what happens. The challenge for me as a writer, of course, is to create stand out characters of my own but given I’ve always loved inventing fictional characters, this is a joy.

It doesn’t matter either what format the story is in. I’ve recently seen my local excellent amateur theatre company stage a thriller where, throughout, I was routing for one character to succeed but didn’t know until the last minute whether I was right to think that way or not. Kept me glued to my seat and I wasn’t the only one. You couldn’t hear a pin drop in that hall. Now that is wonderful characterisation and acting for you.

But it’s true for books too. The classics are the classics because we remember their characters (and thus their stories). I don’t need to add anything if I say Oliver, Jeeves, Frodo, Hamlet, the Bennets, Harry, Aslan, and so many more I couldn’t list them all here, do I? You will recall their stories immediately and maybe think it’s time for a re-read!

Screenshot 2024-11-02 at 17-48-33 Allison Symes's Blog - Stand Out Characters - November 02 2024 10 48 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the March 2024 edition of the magazine, which focused on writing for children. I have two pieces in here – Writing for Children and Writing for Anthologies. Not long to go now before the magazine is back.

 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Seasonal Stories, Publication News, and a Lady With a Grudge

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. It is always great fun to come up with titles for my posts here. All of the above apparently unrelated topics are covered below! Hope you enjoy.BookBrushImage-2022-11-29-20-3957

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It’s my turn once again on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. Aptly, now we are in Advent, I talk about Seasonal Stories. I talk about writing festive flash fiction and also the importance of planning well ahead for writing for the seasonal markets. I also look at what I love to read over the Christmas period.

Hope you enjoy your seasonal writing and reading.

 

Has been a very busy Monday. Am hoping for a less hectic Tuesday!

One nice task today though was to put in my order for my copies of Evergreen, the latest Bridge House Publishing book. More news on this below. I’m going to be picking up my copies at their celebration event in London on Saturday and am so looking forward to that. These events are always great fun. The event will also be celebrating The Best of CafeLit 11 which was out a little earlier this year.

Looking forward also to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Wednesday this week.

And on Thursday, I send out my latest author newsletter.

Writing Tip: If you use the random generators to trigger story ideas, as I often do, make sure you mix up the ones you use. Firstly it’s not so much fun if you just stick to one or two. Secondly, other generators will stretch you. I didn’t think I could get stories out of the random number generator, for example, until I gave it a go.

 

Hope you have had a lovely Sunday. It’s Advent Sunday today and it was lovely to see the Christmas tree up in our church this morning.

Many thanks for the congratulations coming in on my story Never Old – Ever Green and Good To Go (a title which in many ways is my motto!) appearing in the new Bridge House Publishing anthology, Evergreen. Much appreciated, folks. Now you know what the publication news is in the title of this post!

Also thanks for the great response to my two part interview with Jenny Sanders on Chandler’s Ford Today recently.

Am glad to report I have another super author interview coming up this coming Friday, when I get to talk again to Scottish crime writer, Val Penny. Looking forward to sharing that on Friday. The theme will be “seconds” – it’s an interesting tag for this one.

Hope all who are taking part in Flash NANO are having a great time with it – I am. Can hardly believe we’re almost at the end of the month and the prompts.#

 

Am thrilled to say I am back in print again with a short story, Never Old – Ever Green and Good To Go, in the brand new anthology from Bridge House Publishing. This is called Evergreen – an Anthology and I am pleased to be between the covers again with familiar names and new authors. For more details see The Bridgetowncafe Bookshop link.

And well done, everyone, who has a story in here – the buzz of being published never diminishes. Nor should it!

Screenshot 2022-11-27 at 15-12-29 Evergreen eBook Multiple Hobbs-Wyatt Debz James Gill Amazon.co.uk Kindle Store

Screenshot 2022-11-26 at 17-10-44 Evergreen

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Many thanks for the views coming in on Judith, my latest YouTube story. It seems my lady with a grudge has some fans!

Don’t forget my author newsletter goes out on Thursday. My monthly newsletter is a great reminder of how quickly the year is flying.

Will be tackling another interesting challenge from Flash NANO later on. Am so pleased with how things have worked out here.

While my stories need further editing and polishing, to have 30 new stories in a month is great. Would I take part in this again? Oh yes.

May be an image of text that says "What I love about flash is, ike the camera, it makes you focus. WOOZ SN3T SIN"

28th November 2022 – Second post
Almost forgot to mention my new YouTube tale is now out there. See what you make of Judith – a lady with a grudge against… well I’ll leave you to find out! Hope you enjoy it!

28th November
Have selected the pieces I hope to read from From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic for my London trip on Saturday. This is always a fun task!

Am working on a flash piece I hope to enter for a competition (deadline is the end of the year. I will aim to have it sorted and submitted in the next week or two as I always take time off any official deadline to give me time to make sure I haven’t missed anything and still get the story in on good time.

Good rule of thumb to remember here is it is okay for them to be late. It isn’t all right for you to be late! This is probably a hangover from my pre-driving days when I took the same view with buses – and rightly so too!).

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Looking forward to a trip to London on Saturday when I go to the Bridge House Publishing event. Part of the celebrations here include reading stories and I hope to read two or three of my flash pieces here. The nice thing with flash is each story doesn’t take long and I like to mix up story length and mood. Also had fun packing my book bag ready for Saturday (well, I like to be ready for these things!).

Almost at the end of Flash NANO – hard to believe where the time has gone. I’ve got something for each of the challenges set and plenty of editing to do in December but that’s fine.

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Hope you have a good day. Am so pleased to have another publication credit (Never Old – Ever Green and Good To Go is my short story in Evergreen an Anthology published by Bridge House Publishing).

I am making good progress on the Flash NANO challenges – can’t believe the month has almost gone.

And am so looking forward to the Bridge House Publishing celebration event next Saturday. Will be good to see people again. Especially since this event has had to be cancelled due to Covid in the past, it will be so nice to meet up.

I’m getting my next author newsletter ready to go out on 1st December. I share flash information and tips here as well as my news. To sign up head over to the landing page at my website – https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Have also spent time today preparing a certain wish list for a certain festive event – books are included – surprise, surprise, not!

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Goodreads Author Blog – ‘Tis The Season To Buy Books!

The 27th November 2022 is Advent Sunday, the day the Church begins the countdown to Christmas. Certainly it is at about this time of year I get present lists up together and books are very much included here! It is a joy to select books for others as well as giving my family a wish list for books I’d like to have.

Okay, you can always tell a book-shaped present for what it is under the Christmas tree but there is joy in spotting those there too!

I like a mixture of books as presents to me. This year I’ve opted for a couple of crime novels and a humorous book which is part of a series I love. Kindle books I tend to get as and when I want them and I often try out authors new to me by downloading their ebooks first. If I really like their work, I will often to go for the next book in paperback.

One thing the pandemic has changed for me is that I haven’t been in to the big shopping centres (and therefore the big bookshops) for a while. I don’t know yet if that will change for this year but I do, whenever possible, support a variety of online retailers, including those who support the independent bookshops. Do look out for those. I also support smaller bookshops when I can. They all have a lovely ambience to them and that’s reason enough to go in and support those!

I hope you have a lovely season buying books and then the great joy of having several to unwrap on Christmas Day!

Screenshot 2022-11-26 at 19-53-57 'Tis The Season To Buy Books!

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PERSPECTIVE AND PUBLICATION NEWS

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Hope it has cooled down where you are. I prefer a temperate climate, as does the dog. I also find it easier to focus.

Does the time of year affect what you write? I can’t say it does for me as I write a mixture of light and darker pieces throughout the year.

If the seasons do affect what you write, how can you play to the strengths of this? I would’ve thought it is probably better to work with it rather than to try to fight it, if only because you’ll feel less frustrated that way.

Analysing how you work is a good idea, whether you’re affected by the seasons or not. For me, the amount of time I have per writing session is more important and I aim to make the most of each slot. My goal is to be able to look back and feel it was a good writing session, regardless of whether I had ten minutes or three hours.

Happy writing!😊

 

Image Credit:  Generally Pixabay as usual but the Scottish beach and loch pictures were taken by me earlier this year.

It pays to set your own deadlines. I set some at least a week ahead of any competition deadline to ensure I don’t miss the real date. Pixabay
Warning: Writer at Work. Pixabay
Image by Allison Symes
Image by Allison Symes
A writer’s life. Pixabay,
Stories link us. Pixabay.
Dunnet Beach by Allison Symes

Glad to be home from a very busy day in London yesterday. Loved visiting the Sky Gardens. They were great and the views incredible. I’d never seen the Tower of London look like it was a Lego sized kit before! I guess it just goes to show perspective is everything.

Perspective is everything for your characters too and indeed for you as you write the story. Just who is your lead and why have you chosen them? Why does it matter to show their perspective and not another character‘s view of the world instead?

What is fun is to write from the perspective of a character you know you wouldn’t sympathise with in any kind of life yet alone the real one. The challenge here is to write about them convincingly despite your own antipathy to them.

Working out how to get into their head to show their reasons for being the way they are will push you into exploring how they got to be at this point in the first place. That will make for interesting characterisation for one thing. It will almost certainly increase the drama in your story too.

Images below taken by me as at 27th July 2019. It isn’t often I get to take a shot with the caption already on it! Also have fun spotting the landmarks.

Publication News

A busy day on the writing front. Glad to share the links for my ACW More Than Writers’ blog which discusses whether or not it is easier to write during the summer.

Also glad to share the link to Stolen, my latest story on Cafelit. This is the nearest I’ve got to an autobiographical story (and probably the nearest I will get I think. I identify with Sarah in this one).

The nature of this story meant I knew it wasn’t going to be a flash piece but that’s fine. The story has to be what it is. If it’s over 1000 words then so be it.

http://cafelitcreativecafe.blogspot.com/2019/07/stolen.html

http://morethanwriters.blogspot.com/…/summertime-and-writin…

 

Am sharing an extract from both More than Writers and Stolen here as a taster. Hope you enjoy.

Summertime and the Writing Is Easy…

Or not maybe… Apologies to George Gershwin for misquoting his classic (though I still prefer Rhapsody in Blue).

Do you find writing in summer easier than during the winter? The jury’s out for me here. I try to keep a consistent writing level up for most of the year because, regardless of season, there are always distractions. But there are times when I write less and I’ve learned to come to terms with that…..

Stolen

by Allison Symes

cranberry juice


I’m not going to the bloody doctors.  I couldn’t tell you how often Sarah goes on about it.  When will she take the hint?  I do know my own mind.  I swear she thinks I’m going loopy.  She says not but why else would she want me to go to the doctors when there’s nothing wrong with me?

It’s perfectly normal for older people to forget things sometimes.  Hell, she’s done so herself.  She forgot my birthday last week.  I was really hurt by that.  I was bloody annoyed when she told me my birthday is next month.  I should know my own birthday.

Oh my cup of tea has gone cold.  Did I forget to drink it?  Did I forget to put the kettle on at all and just poured cold water into my mug?  I did do that last Wednesday but I’d had a stressful time of it arguing with Sarah again and well that kind of thing is bound to make you forget odd things, isn’t it?  I didn’t tell Sarah I did this.  She’d have seen it as proof I do need to go and see Dr. Page.

Sarah keeps telling me I shouldn’t be afraid to go to the doctors.  Dr. Page is sympathetic, is bound to have treated patients with memory loss before and there is more awareness now of “mind” issues.  Sarah says this covers everything from depression to dementia.  Sarah is right on all of this but how it applies to me I couldn’t tell you.  I am perfectly healthy.  Sarah says I’m in denial.  There is something wrong when your own daughter tries to tell you what to do.

And I’m simply not having that.  Sarah ought to be pleased.  If ever there was proof I do know my own mind, this is it, surely……

Facebook – General

The challenge of writing stories like Stolen, when they pack an emotional punch, is keeping your own emotions out of it while you’re writing it. You have to put some distance between yourself and the voice of your lead character(s) so it is THEIR story coming through and not yours as the author. You also want the emotion to be authentic and not spill over into melodrama.

This is why it is crucial to put a story aside for a while before revisiting it to edit it. I’ve found it is the only way to get the necessary distance so I can judge what I’ve still got to do on the story objectively (and there is always something!).

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

What is your favourite form of flash fiction? The 100-worder? The 500-worder? Funny? Darker? I love them all of course but if there is one kind that sneaks its way to the top of my list, it is the 100-worder with a humorous twist. So here goes…

Late Running

The ghost train ran straight through the station. It must make up time.

If you thought fines issued to late running train companies on earth were inadequate, you wouldn’t be disappointed here.

Miscreants were treated according to species. Ghosts were obliterated. Vampires were drained down. The rumours tonight were not good.The controllers were more foul than usual. The Boss was due to visit to check all was well…or as bad as this service was meant to be. He wouldn’t be let down by sloppy staff.

Bonemeal was mentioned.

After all, the train was run by a skeleton crew.

Ends.

Allison Symes – 27th July 2019

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Image may contain: night

If there’s anything odd going on tonight, the cat will not spill the beans.  Pixabay

Image may contain: outdoor

Speeding restrictions apply to all but there are always some who ignore the rules. Pixabay

Must ‘fess up and say I’ve got a few writing prompts to catch up with in my diary but all have the potential to make promising flash fiction stories. Will probably have a go at some of these later in the week. (I tend to get my CFT post sorted first, then resume work on fiction).

Was pleased with my Late Running story I wrote on the train yesterday. Hope you enjoyed it. I am partial to puns and they can be used in flash fiction effectively. You can’t go on at length in flash as you’d defeat the whole object of it so a short pun as a twist ending or as part of a character’s thoughts can work well.

I love writing as well as reading these but, as with most things I guess, puns etc work best when not overdone.

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My latest story on Cafelit, Stolen, isn’t a flash fiction piece, far from it. The nature of the story meant it had to go well over 1000 words but that’s fine. Not only do I keep my hand in writing a mixture of fiction, it kind of proves the point the story has to be what it has to be.

It never pays to try to cut a story so you can get it to count as flash somewhere.

The stories that work best as flash fiction are those where you want to focus on one intense moment in a character’s life and nothing else. Where there is more than one, you are better off writing a longer story to begin with, otherwise you will sell it short (and reduce your publication chances too).

http://cafelitcreativecafe.blogspot.com/2019/07/stolen.html

So true. Pixabay.
How can you show your readers your world? Pixabay image.
What kind of landscapes exist in your fictional world? Pixabay image
The writing journey is more likely to be full of twists and turns. Pixabay
The writing journey has to be taken a step at a time. Pixabay
Even a world populated with dragons has to make sense. Pixabay
Use weather, climate etc to reflect moods in your story but don’t overdo it. Pixabay image.

Time can be an awkward thing to write into flash fiction stories. Most will consist of one vital moment to a character and so the span of time where the action takes place is very short. I’ve found I’ve needed stories towards the upper limit of flash (1000 words) to be able to show action taking place across a longer time span.

For example my Rewards has a time span of one evening and the next morning while my Expecting refers to time as a character realises they haven’t heard from someone for a while.

Flash I think does work best when it is for the moment. Even when I write historical flash, I’m looking at one incident in one character’s life. Time comes into the setting I’ve chosen to use and acts as a backdrop.

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Goodreads Author Blog –

What a Good Book Can Lead To

Have you known a good book to change you?

For me, The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey has led to a huge interest in Richard III and conviction he is not guilty of the murder of The Princes in the Tower, assuming they were killed.

There is no evidence they were killed and my own view is at least one was smuggled out of the country. Richard himself was smuggled out as a boy so it would’ve been known it could be done and Henry Tudor was never able to prove where the boys were, else he would’ve done. That really would have damned Richard.

That aside, good books have expanded my view of how irony works thanks to Austen, Wodehouse, and Pratchett. Now there’s a trio for you!

Good books have expanded my ideas of what can be done in fiction, especially in fantasy. There’s a reason The Lord of the Rings is considered an epic. It is! The sheer scale and scope of the trilogy will always amaze me.

Good books open your mind and imagination.

Happy reading!

Ah! The joy of the edit! Pixabay.
Make the most of your writing time. Pixabay
Warning: Writer at Work. Pixabay
Well? Pixabay
So many lovely forms of writing… Pixabay
Pixabay image.
Pixabay.
Read widely to inspire these. Pixabay
I prefer tea generally and NOT hanging over the edge of a cup. Pixabay.