Tag: The Bridport Prize

Swanwick 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. A huge thanks to all who contributed to the pictures for my Chandler’s Ford Today post about Swanwick this week. I especially appreciate those of me taking part in events. Always tricky to do those shots yourself!
Hope you have had a good few days. Weather all over the place once again. My Chandler’s Ford Today post this week was a particular joy to write – well, it was on Swanwick 2024 a subject close to my heart. I hope the post gives you a good flavour of what makes Swanwick special for so many writers, including this one.

Swanwick 2024 - Open Prose Mic Night and Lift Up Your Pens

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good day. For those of us having a bank holiday this weekend, hope it proves to be a good one.

I’m delighted to share Swanwick 2024 as my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. This one was a labour of love! I review my week there, share something about what makes The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick so special, and celebrate its 75th anniversary.

I also got to have an almost red carpet moment with fellow Swanwicker, Dave Bromley, but find out more about that in the post. Link below.

Swanwick 2024

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Not great weather today though it didn’t stop Lady having a lovely time with her Hungarian Vizler chum this morning. Mind you, I got to reprise my excellent impersonation of a bedraggled rat! Wasn’t quite enough rain to be a fully fledged drowned rat!

My Swanwick 2024 post is up on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. If you want to know something about why The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick is so special, do check my post out. See above.

My next events will be the Association of Christian Writers’ Autumn Gathering In October and the Bridge House Publishing event in December, both of which I’m looking forward to already.

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again soon. I know. It’s hard to believe we’re so close to September, one of my favourite months, (and only one more Bank Holiday to go in the UK before…. Best left there I think).

Oh and a sneak peak at a lovely moment from Swanwick. I was delighted to get to present a Swannie to Dave Bromley this year. To find out more about Swannies and what this was all about see my CFT post tomorrow.


Hope your Wednesday has gone well. Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later this evening. Also looking forward to sharing Swanwick 2024, my post for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link for that up on Friday. See above. The next best thing to being at Swanwick is to write about it!

Character Tips: Especially for my flash fiction, I need to know the character well. They are my way into the story. It doesn’t mean I have to know every last detail though. I just need to know enough to help me picture them and envisage the sorts of situations they would end up in and how they would react to these.

So often working out answers to a couple of pertinent questions such as what would you never do and why will reveal a great deal about my character’s attitudes and assumptions and I can make good use of those. I can, of course, make them have to face the thing they don’t want to do but I will know their reasons for this and I think that helps me create a more believable character.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Friday Flash Fiction is currently closed for submissions, understandably taking a break after their recent competition. I look forward to sending pieces in again to them soon but what I am especially grateful to them for is helping me rediscover the joys of the drabble, the 100 words flash fiction type.

I started in flash fiction writing 100 worders (for CafeLit) but then branched out into writing the longer forms of flash and short stories (which I still write). The discovery of Friday Flash Fiction led me back into writing the 100 worders regularly and I am loving doing this.

I like the discipline of creating a brand new 100 word story for them most weeks of the year. I also appreciate the feedback and support from other writers on the site plus I get to enjoy a thoroughly good read every week. What’s not to like about that? If you would like to check out my stories here do follow the link.
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One of my favourite comments about flash fiction comes from the good people at The Bridport Prize who refer to it as “the art of just enough”. I think that’s a great summary of it.

I have it in mind when I’m drafting my stories. I think about what the reader needs to know and give them that and nothing else. They do get the “just enough” so they can make inferences needed, where appropriate.

I know when I’m reading I don’t want the author to spell out everything. I want them to give me enough, regardless of the length of story, so I can figure some things out too. It is always fun going on to find out whether I’m right or not.

Allison Symes - Flash Fiction Collections

Hope you have had a good day – has been trying here. But knowing how I feel when days are trying is something I can transfer to my characters when I put them in trying situations. (I make sure I do of course!).

Drawing on what you know in terms of how you feel when things go wrong or disappointment hits is something you can transfer to your characterisation. It makes for believable characters readers will identify with because they know where the character is coming from and why they are feeling the way they do. We’ve all been there. Our characters can go there too!

One of the great comforts about reading, I think, is when we read characters going through hell and high water and think well at least it isn’t us or we know how the characters feel. Stories are fabulous for encouraging empathy like that.

Do I find it relaxing when I put my characters through the mill? It can be amazingly therapeutic at times but my goal is to ensure it all works out and becomes a good story a reader will enjoy. That’s the challenge and I love rising to it.

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Fairytales With Bite – Accountability

With my writing, I find having deadlines makes me accountable. I have to get columns done by a certain date, stories off to competitions and/or markets by a certain date and so on.

Leading on from that thought, in your world, when a task (magical or otherwise) has to be done, who makes sure it gets done and in the right way? Who follows through? Who reports back X has been done in the right way? Who reports back when it hasn’t been?

What you are looking for here are story possibilities from the chain of command which must exist. Even in the most democratic of fantasy settings, someone does have to give the orders, there will be others below them and so on.

There would be room for humorous stories here too. It doesn’t have to be deadly serious. As ever, I will flag up Discworld here where there is no doubt about who is in charge of Ankh-Morpork but so much humour does come from those wonderful novels. I’m especially fond of the Sam Vimes books here. He knows he’s accountable to Lord Vetinari. Doesn’t mean he has to like it though! When Moist von Lipwig comes into the stories, he finds himself accountable to His Lordship and to an extent Vimes as well (see Raising Steam).

So who would you have accountable to whom? How does this work?

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This World and Others – Record Keepers

Every society has its history and archives. Some treasure these more than others. Every society has its good and bad history. Some acknowledge this. Others definitely don’t.

In your setting, which records are kept and why? Who can access them? Are there any secret records only a privileged few can ever access? Have any records been destroyed and, if so, which ones and on whose orders?

Are the record keepers treated well or are they kept under the thumb by dictatorial bosses? How did the record keepers get to hold that position in the first place? I would envisage connections working here – the old boys’ network perhaps – especially if there is anything which has to be kept secret from the general public. You would want someone you could trust in positions like that.

Also give some thought as to how far the records go back and in which manner they’re kept? Is technology used or is it all kept on scrolls? When you have a character needing to look something up, how easy or otherwise would they find doing this? Do they find the information they’re after?

Records matter. They’re used for all sorts of things including family history research. Would your characters need to look up some of their ancestors and, if so, why? Would they be pleased or horrified at what they find out?

Story ideas there!

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Well, given my editing course at Swanwick recently, I thought the April 2024 edition of Writers’ Narrative on that theme was the best one to share this time! In the magazine my article asks Editing: Do You Love It or Loathe It? Always a timely question!

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Headed North

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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 and Scottish photos taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good few days since the last post. Other half, Lady, and I are having a wonderful time in the far north of Scotland. Glorious weather. Equally glorious scenery. My writing desk this week looks across to a stunning view of a pine forest with a huge hill behind it. Seeing red deer and birds of prey around the cottage and there is a lonely cuckoo out there who could really do with shutting up but isn’t.

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Facebook – General

Lovely day at Golspie today. Walked through the town along the coast path, into a magnificent bluebell wood, which came out by Dunrobin Castle, and then back along the coast path back to where we’d parked. Enjoyable walk and the castle does look a bit like something Disney came out with – check out those turrets!

Writing wise, am happily enjoying a fabulous view as I write my posts. Won’t be getting so much done this week but I am one of those writers who have to write something most days. Decided my postcard writing yesterday evening counted as some non-fiction flash!

Am enjoying the change of scenery immensely. It is glorious out there. I don’t have a bad outlook at home, to be fair, but there is little which could beat the scenery here.

Am looking forward to running an editing workshop on Zoom for an Association of Christian Writers group shortly after I get back home again. Will be running a longer two part course on editing for The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick in August.

Don’t forget there is still time to enter The Bridport Prize competition for flash fiction and short stories. I’ve entered the flash fiction one again. Deadline is 31st May so still time to polish your stories and get submissions in.

Dunrobin Castle

Late post tonight. Had a fabulous day today. Went to the top end of Scotland today with a wonderful day spent at the glorious Dunnet beach. See the photo for Lady’s beach ready look. Have seen red deer opposite where I’m staying and plenty of birds of prey.

Don’t forget to add in non-fiction to your reading lists. Not only are there many fabulous books here, I’ve often found something in a non-fiction book then goes on to spark off an idea for a story. You read of an invention here, say, and then an idea occurs as to what could be invented in a similar or better line in your magical setting, for example, and would your characters welcome this development. What would the clashes be here? Not everyone welcomes “improvements” or sees them as such.

Writing Tip: Do you understand what drives your characters? I find knowing motivation is vital. I can see where my people are coming from. I can see from this what they would do and what they would not. The whole story for me hangs on this.

This is Lady's beach ready look

Am having a lovely time in the far north of Scotland. Lady is having a great time too – see the photo! Lots and lots of walkies going on for all three of us.

Aptly, I’ll be talking about Journeys for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I look at how these “work” in fiction and non-fiction and talk about how every story is a journey in and of itself. Link up later this week.

Am hoping to use some of my holiday snaps to inspire story ideas. I do sometimes use landscapes to trigger story ideas. I work out who would live in these landscapes and from there deduce what crisis they might face. The landscape itself may also worsen the crisis faced.

Lady having a lovely time at LairgWhen this goes out, I shall be heading north on my holidays. Looking forward to a much needed break with hubby and Lady. Hoping the weather stays good (not that it worries us much. Being dog owners does get you used to being out and about in most weathers).

Appropriately I’ll be talking about Journeys for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll be looking at fictional journeys and the fact every story is its own complete journey. For one thing there has to be a starting point and an ending, same as any journey. More on that on Friday.

Don’t forget the May issue of Writers’ Narrative is now out. The theme is memoir and I often use some memoir techniques when it comes to creating characters. For example, I interview my characters to find out what their response would be to the questions I throw at them. This can be enlightening. Attitudes will emerge from what I think those responses would be and it shows me more of what that character is likely to do and say.

I also read memoir in the form of diaries and letters from various people and find these fascinating. Am currently re-reading the wonderful P.G. Wodehouse: A Life In Letters. Lovely book and many insights into his writing craft. Highly recommend.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am getting so much gorgeous Scottish fresh air I’m not doing so much reading as I thought I would. Head hits the pillow and away I go. But I am enjoying the reading I am doing and blessing the Kindle for saving on packing. Am getting in plenty of stories despite all that though as am listening to a lot of audio books as we tour the far north of Scotland. You can get a lot of listening done when on the A9!

Pleased to still get my flash fiction writing done on Sunday. Am hoping some of my holiday photos will inspire ideas for stories when I have time to go through them on my return home. Landscapes can inspire ideas for characters who live in them. Certainly when I outline a character first, I may well have images of my photos in my head if I want to “place” my character somewhere specific.

Also note to self: check out more flash fiction competitions when I get home and see if I can some stories submitted. Have sent something in for The Bridport Prize. Have something I want to work on when I get back which I hope to send into CafeLit. But it is time to go through the Writing Magazine competition guide again on my return as there are loads of flash competitions out there and I know some of them will take my fancy. If you don’t know about them, you can’t enter them.

I also like to try new competitions (having checked their background out first of course) as I find this stretches me and I end up writing stories I wouldn’t have otherwise written.

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Whenever I’m on holiday, I like to have a good nose at the visitor books. (Self catering is the option for us with a dog). I also do put comments in myself. But you get glimpses of where people enjoyed visiting while they were at the cottage or what have you before you went in and it can give you ideas of where you might like to explore whilst you’re away too.

Flash fiction is all about glimpses too. Due to its word count restriction, you can only give a glimpse of what a character is like as you unveil their stories. But glimpses can be powerful things. The challenge for the flash fiction writer is to give the right kind of glimpses so readers can form their own conclusions about the characters and how the story plays out.

Oh and I almost forgot it is Monday but it still time for a YouTube story. Hope you like my latest on here – Something Funny About Her Next Door. Hope you enjoy it.

 

Flash moments can happen in life. On my way up to Scotland, I met a couple with their lovely and distinctive looking dog twice at two different service stations a good one hundred miles plus apart. Lady was happy to meet them too.

Now we know coincidences like that happen in life. But, unfair though it may seem, they can’t happen in the stories we write. If there is a chance a character will meet another one again, there has to be something hinted early on that this is a possibility. You can’t just “throw it” at a reader. Readers have to accept this could happen because you have laid out the tracks to show it could happen.

424905627_10161880024617053_3122651101340406517_nWill enjoy writing my flash fiction stories this week while “on location” on holiday with my other half and Lady. Have laptop, will travel. There is WIFI at the other end!

I do sometimes use the random picture generators to trigger ideas for stories but have also used my own photos. I prefer to use landscapes when I do this. I can visualise them when I am trying to visualise a setting for a character.

Having a sense of place can be useful even if it doesn’t end up in the finished story. It just helps me to picture everything I need to be able to “see” and then I can write away. I will occasionally use some description from a photo when I need a reader to know something specific. So I am hoping I will take lots of lovely photos this week which I can use to inspire story ideas once I’m back home again.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Rooting for Characters

A successful work of fiction has me rooting for its characters throughout the book. I have got to care about what happens to them or be eager to see some deserving character get their long overdue comeuppance. Either works!

So to root for characters then I have to be able to get behind them and to understand at least something of what makes them tick. I don’t have to agree with all they do or say but I must be able to see why they are the way they are.

Be honest now. When someone asks you about your favourite books, you will recall the author (most of the time anyway), the title (most of the time), but,most importantly of it all, it will be the characters which linger longest in the mind. Just say Pride and Prejudice to me and I immediately think of Elizabeth Bennet. (Okay I may have certain images of a certain actor emerging from the lake thanks to a BBC adaptation but I know I’m not alone in that one!).

The best characters in any books are the ones we understand. Sometimes they’re the characters we would like to be. After all Sam Gamgee is honourable and brave and so, so loyal in The Lord of the Rings, all excellent qualities to aspire to, yes?

I honestly feel characters make or break a story.

Screenshot 2024-05-11 at 21-18-59 Rooting For Characters

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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A Day in the Life of an Author and Being an Indie Author Part 2 with Maressa Mortimer

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Image Credit:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Author images and book covers kindly provided by Maressa Mortimer for the CFT interview.

Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing.

Hope you have had a good week. It’s been a busy but interesting one on Zoom for me this time.

 

Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

It’s a pleasure to welcome back to Chandler’s Ford Today #MaressaMortimer, who balances a busy writing life with an even busier homeschooling life for her family. So you know I’ve said before it is important to make time to write even if that time is only ten minutes or so but you can still achieve a great deal as long as you’re consistent, well Maressa is living proof that is true! Those pockets of time do mount up. Perseverance does count – and makes a great deal of difference.

I know Maressa via the Association of Christian Writers (indeed it was my privilege to enrol her given I’m the Membership Secretary). We both took part in the Share Your Story Writing summit earlier this year and, in November, we will meet up in person again at the Brechin/Angus Book Festival.

Meanwhile, Maressa chats with me about how she feels her writing has developed and shares what she would like to try writing wise in the future amongst other topics.

Mind you, we do disagree about what constitutes flash fiction. It definitely isn’t 3000 words, Maressa, though I appreciate that is on the short side for a novelist!

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Looking forward to sharing the link for Part 2 of my interview with #MaressaMortimer on Chandler’s Ford Today. Link up tomorrow. See above. This week Maressa shares with me her views on marketing, Facebook Live, book tours, and outlining amongst other topics. Plenty of useful insights here.

And that is the great thing with author interviews. There is always something useful to pick up from them. Even if you can’t use a nugget of information now, it may well prove to be useful to you later on. I’ve lost count of how many times that has happened to me. When the need for the information arises, your subconscious will remind you “hang on, I found out something about that” and you will go and look it up. I always check out author interviews regularly, even when I don’t host them, as they are entertaining and precisely to pick up those nuggets of information I know I may well find handy at some point.

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Day in the life of a writer Part 108. Email in from The Bridport Prize. No joy with my story this time but I will at some point have another look at it, polish it up further if I can, and re-submit it somewhere else.

Email in from CafeLit telling me my story with them will be on the website next week! More details and a link on that nearer the time.

When I was first starting writing seriously, any rejection etc would hit me hard. Now it doesn’t so much. Yes, obviously, I’d like every piece of mine accepted but I am realistic enough to know that rarely happens to anyone. Also it is an opportunity to look at the story again, correct any flaws, and get it out somewhere else. I’ve gone on to have work accepted somewhere else, having done that. So I like to see rejections as a “not here but could go somewhere else” kind of thing. It is a more positive approach to take – and it can kind of work like a self-fulfilling prophecy too.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good week. Am thrilled that my Making Amends is now up on #FridayFlashFiction. I continue the (mis)adventures of my hapless magical being, Sarah. Can she make things up to her neighbour, Tina, after unwittingly letting loose a box of frogs in the latter’s house last time? Or will Sarah unleash something worse?
Screenshot 2021-09-17 at 19-12-46 Making Amends, by Allison SymesAs well as having a story accepted yesterday, I had another turned down. That is the way of things! So at some point I will dig out that story again and see if I can improve it and somewhere else. I’ve had work accepted elsewhere doing exactly that.

Sometimes I’ve edited the rejected piece further, sometimes I can’t honestly see what else to edit but pick a market where I think it is in with a reasonable chance. And you do get better with time and plenty of practice in submitting work in working out which markets are most likely to suit you and your writing style.

The important thing is not to give up (though changing direction is fine. I did that with flash fiction and look where that has led!).

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Delighted to say I’ll have a story on CafeLit next week. Will be one of my longer flashes too. Well, I say longer. It’ll come in at just under the 600 words mark. Be fair, that is a long story by my standards compared with many I write!

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting next week. Great exchange of ideas and information and groups like this push (in a nice way) everyone along with their writing. Sometimes you need that kind of push. A good group will encourage and help you develop your writing and get you to try writing techniques you might not have thought of before, as well as helping you to polish up those with which you are familiar.

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Fairytales with Bite – Cause and Consequence

Fairytales are full of examples of cause and consequence. (It is one of the things I love most about them). Annoy a wizened old man or lady and you can bet you are going to be turned into something unpleasant until, usually, true love redeems you. You do just know there is going to be some sort of comeuppance for those less pleasant characters.

Maybe that is why fairytales so often appeal to much older readers than kids. We know life isn’t like that (and kids sense this too, I know I did) so we get some comfort from reading about justice being done in the stories we read.

And if we write stories as well, we can have a lot of fun ensuring causes do have consequences. The bad guys don’t get away with it etc.

But the consequence has to be in proportion to the cause. In the fairytales, there is always a chance of redemption (usually by the caring actions of another character, usually unseen at the start of the story). And that I think is the aspect I like best. I like the possibility of redemption even if a character in need of it turns it down or doesn’t realise they have this chance. You have to be open to the possibility and not every character will be.

So what consequences will your characters face in relation to their causes? Is their cause just in any way? How do they handle the consequences which result? The answer to that will also reveal a great deal of their personality too.

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This World and Others – The Basics

The basics of world building for me must mean looking at what characters need to be able to survive. How do they breathe? How is food grown? What do they drink?

Then it is a question of looking at how the societies here organise themselves. Who governs whom? Do your societies live in peace with each other and/or within themselves? Thinking about what we need here can help you visualise what your fictional world needs to make it seem real to a reader.

While it is true you will need more description to help a reader, it doesn’t necessarily mean you need pages and pages of it. What are the telling details people need to know? Characters chatting about the latest atrocities carried out by Lord XXX of YYY will show a reader your creations are living under a tyranny without you needing to spell out each and every detail of that tyranny.

The golden rule here is to include only that which is directly relevant to your story and will move it on in some way. Characters can reveal information but ensure they don’t talk about things that, logically, they should already know. That will come across as the info-dump that is it is and switch a reader off. Getting characters to talk about latest developments will show a reader what is going on and you would expect characters to talk about that kind of thing and how it is likely to affect them.

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