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. Very stormy on Wednesday night/Thursday. Glad things are settling down now. But on the fabulous news front (and there so needs to be one!), I’ve started my Flash NANO 2023 “campaign”, my copies of Gifted (the Bridge House Publishing anthology) have arrived, and the fantastic November issue of Writers’ Narrative is now out. Its theme is writing novels. More details below.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good day. Am talking about one of my favourite topics – stories – for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I discuss Stories Based on Stories.

So many wonderful tales (book, plays, adaptations etc) have come into being thanks to inspiration from previous ones. We build on what has gone before. Writers need to be inspired and it is our own love of books and stories which does this. I also look at the advantages and disadvantages of stories based on other stories.

Hope you enjoy the post. All of my posts here are a joy to write but some are just that little bit more joyous. This is one of those.

Stories Based On Stories

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Sympathies to all affected by the horrendous weather in the UK today. Have seen some horrible pictures from places I know well in Dorset.

On a much happier note, I’ll be sharing Stories Based on Other Stories for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above. It’s always a joy to talk about stories and so many wonderful ones have been inspired by previous ones. I like to think of that as building on solid foundations.

Talking of books, don’t forget reviews are a great way to help authors. Reviews don’t have to be long either so if there is a writer whose work you have loved, do send a review in. It’s encouraging for one thing. Given writers spend so much time at their desks, encouragement like that is always welcome!

Part of a lovely review for From Light to Dark and Back Again reads ‘A thoroughly enjoyable read that kept me turning the pages’ but that does make a complete review in and of itself. It also encourages me a lot!

Am pleased to say the November edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out. Link below. The theme this month is novels (appropriately given November is NaNoWriMo time).

My article is on page 58 and I discuss what I learned when writing my first novel, though to date that remains unpublished. It was a fabulous learning experience though and what I learned has gone on to help me with my other forms of writing. If you are willing to learn, little is wasted in writing. I speak from experience there. And do check out the whole magazine for a wonderful range of in depth articles packed full of advice. It is a joy to be part of the team working on this.

For those of you who receive my monthly newsletter which went out earlier today, I hope to share a double link in my next one (out on 1st December) to cover the November and December issues of Writers’ Narrative. In the meantime, do check out a fabulous read below.

In other news, as they say, I’ve received my first Flash NANO challenge for 2023. Looking forward to working on that! Good luck and happy writing to all who are taking part in this and NaNoWriMo.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with Manners Maketh The Fairy. Hope you enjoy this. It is one of what I call my fairytales with bite. This one has an environmental theme to it as well.

Will be cracking on with the Day 2 challenge of Flash NANO 2023 shortly. Now since done and good fun it was too! I love the variety of prompts. Good way to kickstart the old imagination. Some of last year’s flash pieces will form part of my third flash fiction collection in due course.

I’ve always enjoyed those moments in stories (especially in film) where I know I’m going to be able to recall it years later. The great thing with flash stories is they are those complete moments. Short form writing can have far more of an impact due to its limited word count and flash fiction writers especially can use that to work out what kind of impact they want their latest tale to have. Then it’s a case of making the most of the word count you’ve got to play with.

There are some days when I have a quiet writing day. There are other days when loads of things happen at once. Today is one of the latter.

Firstly, the November issue of Writers’ Narrative is out and focuses on novels. Link shared on my main Facebook page (and above!).

Secondly, my author newsletter went out today. The subscribe link to Writers’ Narrative is in this. If you’re not already a subscriber, I highly recommend signing up and it is free!

Thirdly, my copies of Gifted, the latest anthology from Bridge House Publishing arrived today. My story, Desperately Seeking Talent, is in there. The joy of opening a box of books from your publisher never diminishes!

Does it make the hard work, the years of rejections and learning the craft (which is an ongoing process), all worth it?

Oh yes!

Fairytales With Bite – The Environment

Whatever your setting, there will be an environment. Some will be much nicer than others! What is the attitude of your characters to their environment? Do they care about it? Has damage been done to it they’re trying to rectify?

If the environment is generally sound, how do your characters contribute to it being so good? Are there laws in place banning certain activities or insisting certain ones are carried out?

In a magical setting, think about the energy your magical characters have. Where do they get this from? Even if it is from within themselves, what affect does their using it have on the outside world? Do they have to be careful with how much of it they use and/or where?

What creatures would live in your setting’s environment and what would be your characters’ relationship to these? If magic has done damage to certain parts of your setting, how did that happen (presumably magical wars/industrial kind of accidents are two ideas that occur to me here)? What is being done to correct that damage? Or are those areas left alone and is that the right thing to do? What would what passes for nature on your world do to correct things if left alone to get on with it?

How does the environment, which includes all manner of things from air quality to transportation, have a bearing on what your characters can and cannot do?

This World and Others – Agencies

What kind of agencies exist in your setting? These can include environmental agencies (see Fairytales with Bite above) to agencies who care for elderly magical beings who need looking after in their latter days. And who almost certainly are grateful to be still alive to be looked after given most magical worlds are not exactly friendly to their inhabitants. Well, you can hardly call a place friendly when dealing with dragons is a daily, hazardous, occupation, yes?

Also you could think here of stories involving magic which went wrong and damage had to be undone somehow. There would be stories here. This might explain why you have elderly magical beings. They would have to be phenomenally good at their craft to survive, yes?

Every world will need some sort of government and even if you focus on one area, who would be in charge of that and how did they come to power? Do they rule well or badly? What agencies do they use to help their peoples (or to suppress them)? What kind of characters would work in these things?

I think in a magical setting there would have to be some agreement as to what was allowed and what was not to avoid chaos. So which agencies would set these rules and how do they ensure they are adhered to by everyone? The risk of not having rules is any powerful wizard worthy of the name would almost certainly ensure they became your setting’s dictator. See Sauron in The Lord of the Rings for more on this!

Also on a more peaceful setting, how do the agencies work with each other as there would inevitably be some overlap? There always is with any kind of agency. An environmental one would have to work with other agencies responsible for caring for specific aspects of the environment.

We in the UK for example have a Forestry Commission. We have water boards. Both are responsible for the environment but in different ways. When the water agencies need trees clearing to clear waterways, they would have to work with the forestry body. And that’s just one example. Where you have the need for co-operation, the prospect of conflict of interest arises and there would be interesting stories there in working out how to resolve these and what your characters do.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Pleased to say November's edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out. The theme is novels (apt as November is NaNoWriMo time). Do check out the magazine for a wonderful range of in depth articles packed with advice. It is a joy to be part of the WN team.https://t.co/WzHUWtRkz8

— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 1, 2023

Manners Maketh The Fairy, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/ii2fndztvh Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with Manners Maketh The Fairy. Hope you enjoy this. It is one of what I call my fairytales with bite. This has an environmental theme to it too. pic.twitter.com/uolJHfAALo

— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 3, 2023

Stories Based On Stories https://t.co/PdQ5xyaGxA I discuss a favourite topic – stories – for CFT this week. Many wonderful tales have come into being thanks to inspiration from previous ones. All of my posts here are a joy to write but some are more joyous. This is one of those.

— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 3, 2023