Tag: Starting Conversation by Allison Symes

Starting Conversation and Events as Backdrops

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.
Loved watching the Coronation of King Charles III over the weekend. Loved the Concert too. Liked the balance of music – old and new. Now I write with classical music on in the background. I find it relaxes me and when I am relaxed I write more. Do you write/read with music on in the background or not?

BookBrushImage-2023-5-9-20-2023

Facebook – General

Lady had a lovely run around with her Aussie Shepherd gentlemen friend today – before the rain hit I’m glad to say. Good time had by both.

Looking forward to sharing History In Stories for Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. It’s a lovely topic to write about. A huge thanks to for all the lovely comments which have come in so far on Starting Conversation, my latest on Friday Flash Fiction. This one clearly hit a chord with people!

Doing anything creative is good for the mind and soul. I think, and it is a joy to come up with stories and blogs. Am almost there on my competition entry. Am currently resting it. Will look at it again in a few days for my final check and then submit it I hope.

Screenshot 2023-05-05 at 10-07-28 Starting Conversation by Allison Symes

Lady got to see her pal, the lovely Hungarian Vizler. Got out at the right time too. The rain was heavier later. Am now watching the Coronation Concert on catch up. Enjoying what I’ve seen so far. Loved the Coronation Choir. And the combination of the Royal Ballet, Royal Opera, The Royal Colleges of Music and Art for the sonnet from Romeo and Juliet was wonderful. Certain things are timeless – Shakespeare is one of them. My late mother would have wondered why it took me so long to find that out. I got into Shakespeare late but at all thanks to National Theatre Live. Must try and get to some more of those.

Writing Tip: Give yourself more time than you think you need to get a story ready for submission to a competition. There is always something last minute you need to change. I get around that last minute business by making my last minute about a week to ten days ahead of the official deadline. Works for me. Am practicing what I preach here as I hope to get my entry in for a well known competition soon.

Pleased to say I’ve had the joy of proofreading my entry for The Best of CafeLit 12 and getting that back to Bridge House Publishing. That is always a joyous job to do!

May be a graphic of lighting and text that says "Like these three points but I would also add in a reminder that editing takes longer than you think at times. 1) Dream 2) Set goal 3) Action"

Hope you have had a good day. Nice to see the sun come out. Mind you, it was raining for the last Coronation so maybe this is a British tradition being upheld again.

Looking forward to giving another flash fiction workshop in just over a week’s time. Zoom is a blessing here (though I am happy to do in person workshops too as long as the distance is “do-able” for me). I love going to workshops too and always learn something useful from them. Sometimes it can be a case of you getting to see something from a new angle and that can help transform your writing or take it to another level. Have had direct experience of that.

It’s difficult to say what the single most important piece of writing advice is but the one I’ve consistently found to be the most helpful is to write first, then edit later. I did try editing my work as I went along when I first started out but quickly realised I was boxing myself in. It’s when someone else said about editing later and it’s okay for the first draft to be rubbish that I changed my approach here. I have never regretted doing so. The nice thing with this tip is it is useful whether you’re a planner or a pantser. Just get that story down. Tidying up can happen later.

May be a graphic of text that says "W riting Advice"

Loved watching the Coronation. Found the service deeply moving. Pity about the weather but I guess the rain does make this a peculiarly British event! Not going to let rain get in the way. Favourite moment: other than the crowning in itself, I loved the conductor of the orchestra in the Abbey. He was almost throwing himself into his work. Reminded me of the late Sir Patrick Moore’s exuberance when playing the xylophone (younger readers may need to look that one up). I love people who clearly love their job!

I’ll be chatting about history in another way for my post for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll be looking at History in Stories and it is amazing how often this comes up and not just in the obvious historical fiction category either. Looking forward to sharing that next Friday.

Many thanks for more wonderful comments coming in on Starting Conversation, my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction. In case you missed it, do check out the link below (and the other stories on that site – it’s a great read).
BookBrushImage-2023-5-9-20-3213

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Strange day weather wise here – sun, rain, thunder, sun again. I don’t use the weather a lot in my stories. Just as well really. If I used a British day in my flash stories, after a day like today, I’d probably be using up a lot of my word count limit!

I am also wary of anything that could read like boring description. The art of description is for it to come alive in your reader’s mind so, for me, showing how a character is effected by weather conditions is far more interesting than writing about the weather itself.

May be a graphic of text that says "H Character needs are everything."

It’s Monday. Okay, it’s a special Bank Holiday Monday after the Coronation of King Charles III. Still time for a story though (and aptly too given he wrote The Old Man of Lochnagar, which I remember being read by HRH as he was then on Jackanory, a UK children’s story programme).

Hope you enjoy One Go. Would you do what my character does here?

 

I’ve always loathed any kind of bullying and sometimes my stories can reflect that. In Tripping the Flash Fantastic, I had a great deal of fun with my story Enough is Enough which shows someone who has struggled with her weight taking matters into her own hands and finding her own way of responding to those who’d made her life a misery. Am not necessarily endorsing my character’s actions by the way but I do understand where she is coming from and that is crucial for whatever kind of character you write. You’ve got to know where they come from. Then your readers will.

May be an image of text that says "Flash with a Dash of History, Crime, Fantasy, and Dragons Tripping the Flash Fantastic by Allison Symes carefully crafted collection story worlds"

It wouldn’t surprise me if the Coronation of King Charles III today turns up in stories as a kind of historical backdrop. Certainly readers will be able to date the timing of the story accurately! And yes historical events themselves can be written up as fiction or can be referred to by characters as part of their stories. None of us live in a vacuum. Character don’t either so referring to their past events or what may be for them current events makes sense.

For flash fiction writers, using a historical event makes an excellent shortcut for staging your story. There is so much you wouldn’t have to say. Think of the word count saved!

I could refer to today’s events without having to tell you all that went on or what my characters were likely to be wearing etc. I could pick specific moments to show you through my characters but you would work out what was going on around them without me having to spell it out. You’d have an idea of the era/event already. One of the tricks of flash, if I can call it that, is to tap into what can be inferred and use that to save the word count for what a reader cannot work out.

May be a graphic of text that says "With flash fiction, you have to focus on THE single most important aspect of your character's life"

Goodreads Author Blog – Commemorative Reading

I thought this was an apt topic for the week of the Coronation of King Charles III. I read commemorative reading every now and then. For example, I enjoyed Andrew Marr’s book Diamond Queen, which was brought out to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of the late Queen Elizabeth.

I enjoyed the commemorative programme for the Coronation of King Charles. Lots of interesting historical pieces in there but then I am a fan of historical works, fiction and non-fiction.

The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey is the only novel that has ever made me change my mind about a real historical figure – in this case Richard III. It’s a short volume. The narrative is based on a detective confined to hospital and he does a “theoretical investigation”. Well worth checking out. Triggered my reading more about Richard III too.

Commemorative reading places you in time and can act as research material. I can use this for inventing characters for my own stories. I can set them against a particular time period and have some of the reading material to hand to help me flesh out details my readers would need to know.

Screenshot 2023-05-06 at 20-48-47 Commemorative Reading

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
Flash with Amazon and Barnes and Noble

BookBrushImage-2023-4-21-20-227

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.