Tag: The Heights of Equals by Allison Symes

Zooming Around and Being Kind to Yourself

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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.
Hope you’ve had a good few days. Weather changeable here. Hope it brightens up for Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee (mind you, we are used to changeable weather here so prepare for it). I plan to raise a glass or two while I’m away at the Association of Christian Writers’ Golden Jubilee this weekend. I know – no jubilees for ages and then two at once!

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Hope you’ve had a good day. You know I said Lady and I received a bit of a soaking yesterday? Well, today we “copped the lot” in a cloudburst that drenched us in minutes. It was a relief to get home and change. Lady is pretty good at being towelled down – she sees it as a chance for a cuddle.

Don’t forget I send out my author newsletter on the first of the month. I share tips, prompts news etc here and if you would like to sign up, just head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

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Looking forward to my trip to Derbyshire at the weekend. So nice being able to do in person events again. Mind you, I’ve taken to Zoom well too. It has been lovely to be able to make the most of both worlds here. Long may that continue!

Is there a particular day of the week when writing just seems tougher to do than usual? I hope it is some comfort to know every writer has those days. On those days, I focus on writing short things or accept I will write something towards a longer piece (say one of my blog posts). Writing is writing, whether you manage 50 words in a day or 5000. It accumulates.

And on those tough days, you will still have got something written. I find that cheers me up knowing I’ve got something to develop later. On those days when I can’t write at all, I try to ensure I “up” my reading as that helps with my writing too.

Writing is hard work but most of the time it should be a joy too.

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Changeable weather here in Hampshire – Lady and I did get a bit of a soaking. (Have known worse, mind you).

Many thanks to everyone for the lovely comments in on my Getting the Most from a Writing Workshop post for More Than Writers yesterday.  Link further down.

I’ll be looking at Settings and Simplicity In Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday, just ahead of my heading off to the ACW Golden Jubilee weekend in lovely Derbyshire. I hope to write about that event and my recent workshop for the London Jesuit Centre in a CFT post after that. And I’ll be setting another flash challenge for Mom’s Favorite Reads soon too – so it’s all go in a good way.

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Writing Tip 10008 or thereabouts: Be kind to yourself.
What has that got to do with writing, I hear you ask. A lot! I find I write more (and enjoy what I do more) when I am relaxed. So having classical music on in the background helps me a lot there but so do things like ensuring I get enough sleep, make time for reading, etc.

I’ve learned over time to realize on those days when the writing is slow or I am especially tired to just write what I can and have done. (Mondays for me is often a day like that). I’ve found being kind to myself, especially in not beating myself up over what I haven’t got done, helps me on those days when I do have more time to write. Away I go again and it’s fine.

I also look at my writing over the course of a week so I never judge my progress (or lack of it) by what I managed to do (or couldn’t do) as a result of one good or bad day. I’ve found that helps a lot. I think my productivity has increased due to this too – it certainly feels like I get more done now than I used to do.

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It’s my turn on the More Than Writers blog (Association of Christian Writers blog spot). I’m talking this time about Getting The Most from a Writing Workshop. I share some thoughts and tips which I have found useful over the years when going to these. Hope you find it helpful).

Looking forward to running my flash fiction workshop at the ACW Golden Jubilee weekend from 3rd to 5th June too.

Oh and the most important tip (well it is to me, anyway)?

Go – and have fun!

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Many thanks for the great comments coming in on my The Heights of Equals, my latest story on Friday Flash Fiction. All much appreciated.

I’m back on the ACW blog tomorrow with my post about Getting the Most Out of a Writing Workshop. Timely since I’ve recently run one and am about to do so so again. Link up tomorrow on that. See above.

Don’t forget I send out my author newsletter on the first of the month. I share tips, news, prompts, writing advice etc and if this sounds of interest please do sign up at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Am enjoying using the various random generators to trigger ideas for stories and hope to resume more work on those tomorrow. I’m finding I am producing more stories as a result so I like that aspect too.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I do a dry run of my workshop material and record myself on Zoom. As well as listening to see how it sounds (and therefore how the material is likely to come across to someone else), I can get a sense of the timing of my workshop and adjust things as I need to.

I do love that facility within Zoom to automatically convert your files to mp4 for you. So useful.

I like to leave enough time for questions too. Knowing the timing means it is easy to do that. At workshops I’ve attended, I love the question section. Interesting topics come up and I inevitably learn something useful from that.

I often read a story or two of mine and break down how I wrote them. (I’ve found this useful when other writers do it). So I get to practice that too.

It helps (I find just knowing I have had a read through helps with nerves. I can remind myself I have read the stories, it was fine etc., now all I need to do is do it again – and that’s fine). With flash, the huge advantage is the readings don’t take long (leaving plenty of time for question time later!)

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How come it is almost the end of May already? I don’t know the answer to that one but I do know it’s Monday and time for a story. Hope you like my latest YouTube story, Surprise.

I’m running my flash fiction workshop as part of the Association of Christian Writers Golden Jubilee weekend (3rd to 5th June – yes, we’ll raise a glass or two to the Queen while there !). Very much looking forward to it as it is always a pleasure to spread the word about the joys of writing flash fiction.

I look at how it can benefit all forms of writing and share a couple of stories and break down how I wrote them amongst many other tips and advice and yes I set writing exercises too. All good fun. Did I imagine I would ever do something like this when I started out as a writer? Absolutely not! It’s another reason to be grateful for the flash fiction though!

 

I often read my stories aloud, as you know, sometimes for things like Open Prose Mic Nights. I also do this as I prepare workshop material so I can hear that my chosen tales do fit in as well as I thought. I also do this when I get a collection together. I see that as part of my editing.

Reading work out loud does confirm if the story flows as well as you think or not. If you stumble over reading the story, a reader will do but you can adjust that before the story sees the light of day. I’ve done this several times. It can be strange sometimes when you see dialogue written down, say, it looks fine. Reading it out loud shows otherwise!

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Goodreads Author Blog – Other Worlds in Books

All books take us to other worlds. Yes, even non-fiction, given that can enlighten us to aspects of life in this world and increase our knowledge, making us see this world in new lights.

But for fantasy and sci-fi especially, what is it about their settings which convinces you to “suspend disbelief” while reading the story? For The Lord of the Rings (though this applies to many other stories too) it was the portrayal of the characters which made me believe in the settings.

Hobbits are small so it makes sense for them to live in something like hobbit holes. I was also convinced by the peaceful tranquil setting of The Shire especially when contrasted with the dark world of Mordor. To have both of these elements in the book made sense to me. One represents good, the other evil. No world is perfect, even in fiction. Contrasts work for me.

And we can all understand the wish to defend one’s home, even more so with world events right now. So again I get the setting and the wish to defend that. I don’t need to know every little thing about the setting but I do need to know enough to understand why the characters love it.

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Reading, Rhythms, and Resolutions In Fiction

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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.
Hope you have had a good week. Am looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Golden Jubilee weekend at the end of next week. I’ll be running my flash fiction workshop at that. Good to have some gloriously sunny weather in my part of the UK. The dog and I have been making the most of it!

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Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

I’m pleased to share Reading, Rhythms and Resolutions in Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Must admit I’m enjoying writing the In Fiction series. Only one more tricky letter to think about – X! Wish me luck!

In this week’s post I look at the reasons why writers should read widely. It’s something writers are often told to do but here I look at specific reasons why it is such a good idea. I also look at why making writer friends also helps with your reading “diet” – doing so myself has done wonders for mine!

I go on to look at rhythms in stories. Now these can vary depending on genre. Crime ones for example tend to have a fast rhythm to them, a reflective piece has a slower one, but all have to follow an internal rhythm we as readers subconsciously pick up on.

Occasionally I have read a story which hasn’t felt right to me and on looking back at it, this is because the rhythm of the story is wrong for the type of story that it is. Something feels out of kilter and it is nearly always the rhythm.

As for the resolution side of things, again a story has to have a resolution which works for it. Sounds obvious, doesn’t it? But it doesn’t always work out in practice. A resolution shouldn’t be based on chance. It should also be apt to the character and type of story. My post looks at this aspect of things too. Hope you enjoy the post.

Reading, Rhythms, and Resolutions in Fiction

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Reading, Rhythms, and Resolutions In Fiction is my Chandler’s Ford Today post for this week – link up tomorrow. See above.

I’ll be looking at why reading is so important for a writer, how stories should have a natural rhythm to them (though the rhythm can vary on genre – crime fiction will always be faster paced than reflective tales, say), and why resolutions should tie in with and make sense for your character and setting.

Just over a week to go to the Association of Christian Writers Golden Jubilee weekend. Am so looking forward to going and catching up with people. I’ll be running my flash fiction workshop and I hope people will leave it either with a draft story completed and read out later in the day or with something for them to take home and work on further (and then submit somewhere. I would love to hear of publishing success as a result of this). Looking forward to the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School later on in the year too.

Writing Niggle Number 1890 – why is it I can never find a pen when I want one? I know I’ve got them. I’ve got loads in fact. But are they ever to hand when I need to jot something down quickly? Of course they’re not! For almost any other profession, this would be one of those things but for a writer? We’re supposed to have pens on us!

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Blustery day today, more like autumn out there. Not impressed! Am grateful writing is generally done indoors.

Do you have any writing niggles? If you’ve got loads, which ones particularly bug you? Mine are:-

1. Phone going just as I am completing an edit and I lose my train of thought. Okay, I can ignore the phone, but that train of thought has been derailed and nothing is bringing that back quickly. It is as if I have to step right back to just before that wretched phone rang…

2. Manage to do that and am settling down to editing the next bit when guess what… the phone goes again. Worse, it’s one of those fake Amazon/Inland Revenue calls designed to part you from your money. I’m usually thinking unpleasant thoughts at this point. May ask one of my crime writer pals (you know who you are) to arrange something to deal with these people in their next novel so the scammers never bother anyone again. How about it, girls? You would be doing the world a service here, honestly.

3. Getting off to a slow start with my writing session, then the spark really gets going and I can’t type fast enough. Okay it’s great the spark gets going but I prefer an even pace throughout and would like that spark to turn up sooner! I’m good to go, it’s just that my brain isn’t! Have learned to accept you do just get days like this. What matters is I am writing something which can be improved at a later date but it is frustrating at the time.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am pleased to share my latest story on Friday Flash Fiction. This one is called The Heights of Equals and is based on a random generator which came up with “pet peeves” as a theme.

I chose one pet peeve for one character and created the story from that. It is also one where I have immense sympathy with my heroine here given I am also under five feet tall. Is it a coincidence I gave my heroine the same name as myself given this information? Err.. No! Hope you enjoy it.

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Really enjoyed the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Group meeting on Zoom last night. I set everyone a challenge too which I will also have a go at. Groups like this are great for encouraging you to write (a) more – if I do the challenge, I will have an extra story to my credit and (b) encourage people to write something short.

The nice thing with flash is you have a market now for small pieces. If time is tight as it so often is for most of us, five minutes is enough to draft something towards a complete flash story. You’ve then got something to carry on with the next time you’ve got five minutes spare. You can build up a story like that.

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I was chatting about writing niggles over on my Facebook author page and one that bugs me from time to time over flash fiction writing is when I’ve got an idea for a 100-word story and a competition/market to sent it to, but try as I might, the tale will end up at 150 words or so. I know now to leave it as it is and write something else for the 100 word market but it can be frustrating at times!

Having said that, this happens and it means I end up writing two stories so you could argue it increases my productivity.

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Fairytales with Bite – Using Minor Characters

I’ve used minor fairytale characters in stories. Indeed my first published story in print was about the youngest stepsister to Cinderella and appeared in Bridge House Publishing’s Alternative Renditions anthology back in 2009. It is great fun to write fairytales from the viewpoint of other characters.

Minor characters should have a vital role to play in your story, even though they’re not on the “stage” for long. This could be anything from providing key information to unwittingly getting in the way and having to be “removed” in some way so the lead character can get on with the job they’re meant to do. It should be clear to the reader why they’re in the story. The story should feel as if something was missing if they weren’t in it.

A good way of flagging up whether a character is important to a story is to name them. Unnamed characters are generally seen as “walk-ons”.

In longer works, minor characters can have sub-plots of their own which should add something to the overall plot. Think about The Lord of the Rings. The lead story there is Frodo’s quest to destroy the Ring of Power but there are many sub-plots including the role of Pippin and Merry. They’re not major in their own right (not compared with Frodo and Sam anyway) but their story adds something vital to the overall depth of that book.

Could your minor characters do the same for your story?

Always ask yourself what their role is to ensure there really is a place for them in the tale.

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This World and Others – Layers

What layers does your fictional world have? I think of layers as dimensions to the fictional world created. For example. Do you focus on the political side of things with layers of government etc. Or do you focus on the creative side of your world with the layers being the various arts and industries supported by those arts?

What is the most important thing about your fictional world and how does that impact on your characters?

What layers are there to your characters themselves? What hidden depths do they have (or are they strictly shallow)?

I focus on characters for my stories so I want to know what drives those people. I need to know what their major trait is as that will give me a rough picture of what they are like.

Minor traits tend to back up the major one. For example, if a character is brave, are they also honest, direct in their speech and actions etc? Answering those questions helps me build up a composite picture of my characters and then I get on with the draft.

Working out what you need to know, what layers your world/characters needs to have for you to write convincingly about them, pays off. It can can save you a lot of grief in the editing.

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