Tag: The Joy of Writing Groups and Workshops

Author Interview: Jennifer C Wilson – The Joy of Writing Groups and Workshops

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Image Credits:-
Many thanks to Jennifer C Wilson for her great author/writing group/book images for my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. Other 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, as were images from The Hayes, Swanwick as part of my CFT post.
Hope you have had a good week. Got back to the normal routine relatively easily though I have missed my holiday lie-ins! Hope everyone keeps safe in the stormy weather. Autumn is here with a vengeance.

Prefer my autumns like this

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am delighted to welcome back Jennifer C Wilson to Chandler’s Ford Today. We discuss The Joy of Writing Groups and Workshops, a subject close to both of us. Jennifer leads the North Tyneside Writers’ Circle. They have recently released their debut anthology, Black Coals, White Sands.

Jennifer shares wonderful advice on writing groups so if you are thinking about joining one, do check this out. She also discusses how to get the balance right when writers in a group are, inevitably, at different stages of their writing journey and write different things.

Jennifer, for example, has to balance the needs of poets and novelists in her group, just to name two. But it can be done and done well and North Tyneside Writers’ Group is a great example of this. Check out the post for useful information on writing exercises too.

The right writing community can do wonders for a writer’s self belief, confidence and, as a result, their writing skills.

Author Interview: Jennifer C Wilson – The Joy of Writing Groups and Workshops

 

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Apologies, folks. Meant to share my Authors Electric post yesterday and forgot. But good news – I shall share it now instead. I talk about Books on the Radio this month and discuss what I think about adaptations as well as what my favourite book on the radio is and remains. Hope you enjoy the post. Books are meant to be read or listened to and I do think radio/audio books are fabulous ways of continuing the oral storytelling tradition.

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Hope you have had a good day (albeit it a soggy one here in Hampshire, though Lady still got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal so both of them were happy at least!).

I love writing with classical music on in the background. I find the music relaxes me and when I’m relaxed, I write more. But I don’t bring music into my stories, funnily enough, at least to date. Haven’t felt the need to do so but it is something you could use as a character question if you want to find out more about your “people”. I put people in inverted commas simply because I have written from the viewpoint of a mother dragon so my characters are not necessarily human!

If your character prefers Beethoven to Mozart, you could look at why that was and if any particular piece by the former “hits the spot”. Likewise if there is a piece which they loathe, you could look at why that was. Could hearing it cause them to do something they might not otherwise have done, especially if they hear it repeatedly? (That could be something done deliberately by another character too).

Music may be the food of love but it could drive your characters round the bend if you have the right characters and plot!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

My latest story on Friday Flash Fiction, On the Beach, was inspired by my recent week’s break in glorious Northumberland. Hope you enjoy it. It’s a lighter tale which I hope puts a smile on your face.

Screenshot 2023-10-20 at 09-56-39 On The Beach by Allison Symes

Many a writing exercise can be turned into a publishable piece of flash fiction. Writing groups/conferences etc always set these things and I find it fun practising writing to different types of exercise. This gives me more ways of producing more stories. Nothing to dislike there!

Talking of writing groups, I will be talking with Jennifer C Wilson (who leads the North Tyneside Writers’ Circle) about The Joy of Writing Groups and Workshops for Chandler’s Ford Today. Link for that up tomorrow. See above. Jennifer shares some great tips about finding the group which is right for you so be sure to not miss the post.

Meantime, back to the writing exercises!

 

Sometimes I use a well known phrase as part of a story. In my The Power of Suggestion (Tripping The Flash Fantastic), I use the phrase there’s a sucker born every minute. I used that to help me picture my character. Who could this saying apply to and why? Then having ideas for that, I got on with my draft. I’ve mentioned before I use phrases and well known sayings as themes and/or title but this is another way of using them.

Every so often I will refer to my old book of proverbs for ideas here. Themes are the most obvious use, I think, but there is plenty of stories to be told based on things like don’t count your chickens before they’re hatched. You can show examples of where characters did count them too early and the results of that – a lesson learned the hard way, perhaps.

TTFF with social media icons

Fairytales With Bite – Tips to the Beginner Fairy

Fairy godmothers are not born. They are made. They are trained. So what tips would an experienced fairy godmother give to someone new to fairy college? My thoughts are:-

  1. Do read your spell books properly. Many a mishap has happened when someone read out the wrong word or got things in the wrong order. You must be sure of what you are saying before you say it.
  2. Don’t use the magic wand just because you can. You should only use these because you need to (and settling a score with a fellow student doesn’t count. Neither does showing off what you’ve learned. It would serve you right if someone else showed off and proved they are better than you).
  3. Do use natural ingredients for spells where appropriate. They’re easier to source and it’s kinder on the environment. Yes, we too have to worry about that. Nobody should waste energy. Better still, grow your own natural ingredients. Time in the garden is good for all. You can also work out which creatures you have around you that might be useful for transformation purposes (briefly only) later on.
  4. Beware of suspiciously shiny red apples. There is history here.
  5. Where magic doesn’t have to be used, save your powers. You may as well and if getting around a table with a decent cup of tea, a slab of cake, and talking sorts out the problem, who wouldn’t prefer that?
  6. Revise. Practice. Accept you will get things wrong.
  7. Don’t upset the birds when you’re flying. Stick to your own flight path.
  8. Remember people aren’t always what they appear to be. In our world, the animals might not be either. Approach with caution and politeness. You do not want to upset some powerful witch/wizard in disguise.
  9. Your profession is a noble one so don’t let the side down. No dodgy magic. No cheating with magic. No use of magic to enable cheating in other ways. Magic is not meant to be used to help you get rich quickly, for example.
  10. The humans have a saying discretion is the better part of valour. Applies to us too. We don’t want to draw attention to the existence of the magical world, do we? Humans are too inquisitive for their own good. We don’t want that here.

Listen to the more experienced fairy godmother

This World and Others – Learning the Trade

What trades exist in your fictional world, magical or otherwise? How did they come into being? What kind of training happens? Certain trades, such as agriculture/farming, will always be around. It will be a question of how it works in your setting. What would your world’s farmers grow, for example? Is water (or an equivalent substance) easily available?

Are there schools/colleges to enable people to learn their craft? Nobody just picks up a trade, even if it is a family tradition. In the case of the latter, do your characters carry on with the family business or do they want to do their own thing? How well or otherwise does that go down with their relatives?

Does your setting develop new technologies and, therefore, new trades? If your setting trades with other worlds, what are they looking to buy in? What would they exchange? How does the actual trading happen?

Lots of ideas for stories here. Don’t forget the creative arts too. There are plenty of trades here too.

Fantasy trades

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Questioning Characters and Flash NANO

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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, as was the photo from the lovely Kielder Viaduct in Northumberland.
Why is the first week after a holiday so tough to get through?! Has been lovely catching up with friends again (and Lady would say the same if she could). Autumn well and truly here now as the temperature plummets. I like crisp autumn days though. It’s the cold, wet ones I could do without!

Resized Kielder Viaduct view image

Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day. Managed to get a good weight loss after my week away thanks to plenty of good fresh Northumberland air and loads of walking. Temperature has plummeted at home but I guess I am already acclimatised to it!

When do you know a story is special to you? For me, it is when the characters stand out and I can easily quote lines from the tale. I’ll be talking more about this in my More than Writers post for the Association of Christian Writers later this month.

Meantime, I’ll be talking about Books on the Radio for Authors Electric tomorrow and will share the link then. Books are meant to be read and listened to, I think. I cherish memories of being read to as a child.

My love of books started right there (and is one reason why I was thrilled my late mother got to see my first story in print and, later, my late father got to see From Light to Dark and Back Again). Radio is a fabulous way of keeping the oral storytelling tradition going too.

Don’t forget to check out the October issue of Writers’ Narrative. As the nights draw in earlier, what more encouragement do you need to settle in for a great read?

 

I’m pleased to say Jennifer C Wilson will be back on Chandler’s Ford Today this week talking about The Joy of Writing Groups and Workshops. She leads the North Tyneside Writers’ Circle and their anthology, Black Coal, White Sands, has recently been released. More about this on Friday but she will be sharing lots of wonderful advice on what to look for in a writing group if you are considering joining one. Am looking forward to sharing this – I know it will be useful to many.

I mentioned yesterday I’d be writing about Scene Setting as well for CFT. (See post below). That I hope to post on 27th October. So plenty of good things coming up!

I must admit that writing regular columns, whether they’re weekly or monthly, soon shows me how quickly the year is passing!

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Have spent the day catching up with various things after our break. Nice to get Lady back to her usual park walk and play. She loved it too. Managed to get some writing done too last night though back to normal routine today.

I plan to look at Scene Setting for Chandler’s Ford Today soon. One bit of sad news is that The Chameleon Theatre Group have had to cancel their production of Wyrd Sisters. I do hope they can come back to this at another time as I know they’d perform it brilliantly (and the story itself is so good). Their next production will be the pantomime in January. My wait to see a Discworld play goes on a bit longer then!

Anyone watching their weight may well sympathise with my character, Shelley, in Lucky Thirteen, my most recent tale on Friday Flash Fiction. If my Slimming World consultant is reading this, I was not guilty of this on my recent holiday, honest!
Screenshot 2023-10-13 at 15-50-30 Lucky Thirteen by Allison SymesNow home from a great holiday in Northumberland. Very grateful for good weather too. Loved all the walking. Lady loved it too though was very tired each night. Mind you, we averaged a 5-6 miles walk each day. It is good to be home again though too.

Do you send your characters on holiday or enjoy reading works by other writers who do? I must admit I don’t do this myself but my favourite book along these lines is probably Nemesis by Agatha Christie. It’s amazing what Miss Marple can ferret out when sent on a coach trip!

Many thanks to those who took part in my recent poll over a topic for the next Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction group meeting later this month. Votes noted and will be honoured! Next topic will be Marketing Your Flash Fiction.

Always a joy to talk or write about flash fiction

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I’ll be taking part again in Flash NANO which starts on 1st November. I did this last year and ended up with thirty new stories, some of which I have since worked on and submitted to online websites and to Hannah Kate’s festive flash fiction show. Find out more about Flash NANO at Nancy Stohlman’s website below.

I had a ball drafting my thirty stories last year and am looking forward to repeating that experience this time! Unlike NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where you write 50,000 words over the month of November, with Flash NANO you are given a prompt for each day of the month.

I found it useful to draft something each day and then I came back later when I had more time to finish pieces off. Sometimes I completed the first draft on the same day but what matters here is getting something down. I also found the range of prompts interesting too, some of which I had done before, others I had not.

If you’re interested in flash fiction, I strongly recommend giving this a try because even if you can’t do it for the whole of November, you will still get more stories written.

 

It’s Monday. It’s my first Monday back after a much appreciated holiday. It’s cold. It’s still Monday. Time for a story then. My latest on YouTube is The View and is loosely inspired by my recent break. Hope you enjoy it.

 

I mentioned yesterday (see below) I ask questions about/of my characters but I also quiz myself when I’m outlining a story. I want to ensure I am committed to the idea and that it is as strong as I first thought. So I ask myself what mood I want the story to be, which character would serve that best and why, and whether it is going to be a 100 word story, such as I write for Friday Flash Fiction) or a longer flash piece/short story.

I look at why I want to write the story too. For example, if I want to write a funny one, is it because an idea has come to me that would work well humorously or do I want to write something to cheer myself (and hopefully others) up. Both views are fine but I need to be clear in my own mind as to why I am writing the story this way.

Then, with my characters quizzed too, off I go with the first draft. One joy of flash writing though is this process doesn’t take long but I have found, once done, I get that first draft done more quickly too.

Where will your fiction take your readers
Some questions I ask about/of my characters as I outline them include:-

1. What is your major trait and, more importantly, why? What kind of trouble could this lead you into?
2. What would you never do and why?
3. What do you want from life and why?
4. What drives you?

For a flash piece, my answers to these are kept short. If I was writing a longer piece, I would extend those answers as I would need further information. The joy of questions like these are their adaptability to whatever you’re writing. I find it is a question of working out what you need to know.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Kindle

My favourite book format is the paperback but must admit you can’t beat the Kindle for when going on holiday. No more worries about how many books I can take with me. Also takes less room in the suitcase.

I recently finished Churchill’s Wizards on Kindle. Great read. Interesting look at trickery used against Nazi Germany.

Books like this (and non-fiction generally) often work brilliantly as ebooks, thanks to indexes acting as hyperlinks, making looking something up a doddle.

I also like being able to adjust fonts and font sizes and display on ebooks. What I need to remember to do when at home is mix up my reading to include the Kindle more so I don’t just use it when away.

Screenshot 2023-10-14 at 20-30-19 Kindle

My flash collections are available in Kindle and paperback

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
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