Be fair, that is quite a mix, isn’t it?! I share links to three new stories of mine on Cafelit this week as well and discuss them in my Facebook posts throughout the week too. Hope you like the stories. I loved writing them.
Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today
Busy night tonight. My latest CFT post is live and looks at favourite views, literal and metaphorical. I also discuss how to develop “the writer’s eye”.
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
Delighted to have three new stories due to appear on Cafelit over the next few days. Will share links as and when. But back to the idea of using the same word to start the sentences of a flash piece with. My word for tonight is Restless and I will ‘fess up and admit I have given this one more thought though I did like the environmental theme that came through with Habitat.
RESTLESS
‘Restless, you are, Wilma, that’s what you are – always have been, always will be.‘
‘Restless, surely not, I just can’t get comfortable, that’s all’.
‘Restless, I said, and restless I meant.’
‘Restless, that’s the last thing I should be in here, George; I always thought I’d have peace HERE.’
‘Restless spirit, restless grave – I did think I’d have a break from your fidgeting when I joined you in here!’
ENDS.
Allison Symes – 18th September 2018
Hope you enjoy.
I do enjoy reading and writing flash stories told from the viewpoint of a minor character looking at the “main action”. Tonight’s story on Cafelit by me, The Balcony Seen, takes this approach. I don’t even name the character in this one. What matters is showing you what they observed and what they felt.
As ever, with flash, it is vital to focus on sharing what the reader needs to know. It is likely you will need to know a lot more before you put pen to paper or write directly to screen but that is what outlines are for. Outlines are fun to write. The difficult bit can be selecting what it is the reader DOES need to know and leaving out all those lovely pieces of information that are good to know but not crucial to the story. What is crucial for you as writer to know isn’t necessarily the same as what the reader needs to know!
I love writing throw away lines in a story which tell you something about the character and move the tale on. In my Leaving Home (on Cafelit tonight), there is an example of this. But the crucial thing is it moves the story on. Anything that doesn’t is cut. And that’s the way it should be!
Facebook – Publication News – Cafelit
The first of my three stories appearing on Cafelit is The Balcony Seen (I make no apologies for the pun!). This story is based on an exercise set by Simon Hall as part of his A-Z of Novel Writing at this year’s Swanwick Writers’ Summer School. Hope you enjoy. Most of the images below were taken by me at a Hampshire Medieval Fair a year or two ago and shows the scrivener’s wares and his accommodation, which was good by the standards of the time.
A beautiful woodland walk. Pixabay image
The medieval scrivener’s wares. Image by Allison Symes
The Scrivener’s tent. Image by Allison Symes
The scrivener had good accommodation compared to most! Image by Allison Symes
As promised, story number two from me on Cafelit this week is now live. Leaving Home shows that the problems of kids pinching parents’ transport is nothing new (or necessarily confined to this world!). Hope you enjoy.
As promised, the third of my three Cafelit stories is now on site. Dignity and Injustice looks at the death of Anne Boleyn from a very different perspective. Hope you enjoy.
The Tower. Pixabay image.
The Tower at night. Pixabay image.
Fairytales with Bite – Fairytales A to Z Part 7
Marching on towards the end of the alphabet then, this post looks at letters S, T and U.
S = Stereotypes.
It could be argued fairytales have a lot of stereotypes in them. The Big Bad Wolf represents villainy and indeed the saying has passed into the language. We say someone is known to be “a big, bad wolf”. The downtrodden types that have their lives turned around for the better are known as Cinderella types. I think what any fairytale writer should do is use the tropes wisely but not be confined by them. What does your Cinderella type do to try to help herself/himself out of the situation that they’re in? Maybe it is that which attracts the attention of the fairy godmother to help them in the first place. Stereotypes can also be spoofed or reversed as in the Shrek series. So use stereotypes, they can be a useful shorthand, but put your own stamp on the characters you are creating so they are clearly “their own people”.
T = Tricks
It is fine to use stereotypes to create shorthands for your characters, who should then still go on to be characters that are uniquely your creation, and other writing techniques to improve what you do, but those should be the only “tricks” played in your stories. Indeed they shouldn’t even show! Your stories should read “naturally” with nothing drawn to the reader’s attention any “artificial devices” have been used in the making of that story. As for tricks played by characters on others, there should be ground rules set out early on in your story as to magical capabilities so readers know that character A could be reasonably expected to play such a trick on character B.
U = Unicorns (and other mythical beasts)
Use sparingly if at all! For me a story is all about the characters. Unless you are writing a story from the viewpoint of the unicorn or other strange creature, there seems to be little use for these, other than as transport, possibly, or to set the scene for how your world works and looks.
This World and Others – Story Moods
I’m pleased to say I have three new flash stories on Cafelit. I share the link to my author page here.
The Balcony Seen started life as an exercise at Swanwick Writers’ Summer School this year. Leaving Home and Dignity and Injustice are new to me in that they share a common character. But these stories remind me of one of the reasons I really love flash fiction. They all vary in mood and it is easy to switch from one mood to another and back again.
I also think really short stories can carry the most impact at times. Yes, there are exceptions (the sadness of Hamlet goes beyond saying) but I generally find the shorter the story the more powerful the reaction. I suppose part of the reason for that is there is no room to dilute that impact with sub-plots etc. In a novel, you would need those sub-plots to give a proper ebb and flow to the overall story and avoid having a monotone. No need to worry about that for flash fiction!
Anyway, hope you enjoy these.
Goodreads Author Programme Blog – Opening Lines
What is it about an opening line that makes you want to read on?
For me, that opening line has to intrigue me, show me something of the fictional world to come, or show me something about the lead character. The very best opening lines combine at least two of these.
I’m thinking especially of Orwell’s 1984 “It was a bright, cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.”. I’m immediately intrigued by the thirteen and I want to know about what kind of world it could be to have clocks capable of doing this. The opening line has definitely fulfilled its role there!
The challenge then for the writer is to make sure that everything which follows lives up to the promise of that opening line and delivers on it! And some people think writing is easy…hmm… I learned a long time ago that when someone makes something look easy, that same someone has almost certainly worked their socks off for years to get to that point.
So what are your favourite lines and why?
I also love the opening to Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities. Very different in style but they intrigue and set the tone for what is to come.
Happy reading, and writing!
Allison Symes: Collected Works 