A Strange Few Days…

Many apologies this is a day late due to very unexpected circumstances.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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 photos from Scotland were taken by me, Allison Symes.
Had a lovely time in Scotland last week. Good to be back home again and Lady was thrilled to catch up with her two best friends early on in the week so she’s not sorry to be back home either. Looking forward to running an editing workshop on Zoom on Saturday and the ACW Flash Fiction Group next week. Did take PC with me while away. Enjoyed doing some writing but also enjoyed not doing as much as I normally would have done. It was good to slow down for a while.
Separately, it has not been a great start to my week back though. Burgled on Tuesday. Everyone, take care. It has been a very strange few days.

BookBrushImage-2024-5-22-20-3255

Facebook – General

A huge thank you for all the kind comments, caring emojis etc following my brief post yesterday. Glad to say after the Scene of Crime Officers finished here today, I was able to get on and start clearing up properly. Still got plenty to do but have made a good start and just that is making me feel much better, along with your lovely thoughts and comments.

It is also great to be back to the writing desk again. Especially in stressful times, writing is a creative release. I’ll be sharing my latest website round up a little later on and then I should be “caught up”, writing wise.

I’ll also be looking at Decisions for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday and that in turn will be followed by a superb two part interview with Jenny Sanders, whose new book, Polished Arrows, is now out.

Just occasionally I write “two handers” flash tales where two characters interact back and forth. Sometimes these are all dialogue stories but not always. One example of a non-dialogue one is The Pink Rose from Tripping the Flash Fantastic. Here I don’t even name the two characters but you do find out they are mother and daughter, the latter battling for the former for as long as she can.

This kind of tale can be moving and I like to write these kinds of tales in between my lighter humorous stories and my darker ones. I think it makes for a good balance.

BookBrushImage-2024-5-22-19-5754

21st May 2024

Apologies, folks, for the lack of a “proper” post tonight. Also for the lack of my usual website round up. Will be back to normal tomorrow, I hope. Have had to deal with family emergency (burglary). It has NOT been a good day. Take care, everyone, and will hopefully be back online properly tomorrow.

Lady was thrilled to see her two closest friends today, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback. Lovely time had by all. Just every now and then Lady will show affection by licking her friends on the top of their heads. (Neither of my other collies would have done this but then they both preferred just to focus on their humans – us). Lady did so today so I knew she was so glad to see her pals.

Nothing will ever beat the view I had last week when I was writing my Facebook posts but the view out of my office isn’t bad. Am surrounded by trees. Have had some noisy rooks arguing over the water in the bird bath. Goodness knows why. There is plenty in there.

Writing wise, this week will mainly be spent, I suspect, in catching up with blog posts, my newsletter etc. It was great to be away for a bit. It is good to be back too.

Writing Tip: When you’ve had a break from your normal writing routine, take the chance to look at what you missed doing, what you’re keen to get back to etc. Is there anything you didn’t miss? (Am glad to say not in my case).

If the latter gave you pause for thought, maybe it is time to re-evaluate whether that project is worth continuing with. You need enthusiasm to keep going with writing and while there will always be peaks and troughs, taking the time out to think again will help you establish whether you just need a longer break from the project or whether your heart really isn’t in it any more. (Nothing to stop you coming back to it at a later date either but be kind to yourself here).

Writing Advice

Lovely to be back at home, church etc. Lady was glad to get back to “her” park too.

I’ll be looking at Decisions for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I’ll be looking at the topic from the viewpoints of character decisions, writing decisions, career decisions etc. Plenty to be thinking about then! Link up on Friday.

Was thrilled to discover I was an Editor’s Choice on Friday Flash Fiction with my most recent story, A Break Does You Good. If you missed it, do check out the link. Many thanks to all for the wonderful comments on this one so far too.

Screenshot 2024-05-19 at 17-16-04 A Break Does You Good by Allison Symes

Am on my way home from a fabulous Scottish holiday. Glorious weather all week. Magnificent scenery.

Delighted to be back on Authors Electric with PowerPoint and Zoom Workshops. I discuss how I rediscovered the former thanks to running and going to the latter!

I also look at the benefits of both of these for where I attend webinars on topics of interest which I could never get to in person. I often register for these things even if I’m not sure if I can get to them at the time allocated as many of those running these will send you a link so you can play a recording back at a more convenient time to you. I’ve found that so useful.

Hope you find the post useful. There are many benefits to these things.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Many thanks for all the kind responses to my post yesterday after my burglary experience. Very much appreciated and it is such a relief to get back to writing again.

Am looking forward also to the next Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting next week. Plus I’m running an editing workshop for another ACW group this coming Saturday. Good to be busy on something which is fun, writing related, and productive!

I’ve occasionally used a time as an opening line. I used 3 am in my creepy tale, Pressing the Flesh from From Light to Dark and Back Again. The time itself indicates this story is likely to be dark. If I’d set the time at midday, say, the mood of the story would have been entirely different. The darkness of night was needed for this one.

Now this is something you could use to great effect in your own tales. Time can almost be used as a setting in itself here.

Allison Symes - Flash Fiction CollectionsIt’s Monday. My first day back at home after a lovely holiday. Am feeling tired! Definitely time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Going Out. (Not that I was today!).

 

One of the reasons I love opening lines as a writing exercise is they give me two ways in which to operate.

If a character is mentioned, I can then flesh them out more and work out what kind of situation they’re going to deal with.

If the situation is mentioned (but no character as such, often just a name and not always that), I can work out what kind of character would best suit the situation. Win-win either way here as far as I’m concerned. I regularly use both methods to create stories. What I do know is character and situation have to marry up well though.

Will be running an editing workshop for an Association of Christian Writers group on Saturday. Looking forward to that. Until I have the story down, no matter how I create it, the editing waits. I’ve got to know what I’m working with first.

445077013_10161893686732053_3555458543989737404_n

Going home after a fabulous week away in the beautiful north-east of Scotland. What does going home mean to your characters? Is it something they look forward to doing or something they fear will never happen or something they dread?

There are so many connotations here. What could you use? What does the reaction show about your characters? Could their reaction get better if it is not a good one to start with and what/whom would make that better?

Will miss the marvellous view across to a huge hill (often with red deer on it, we’ve seen a fair few this week) from my temporary home but will take back happy memories and photos. What would your characters bring back with them when they go home?

441674020_892951292844733_7781810009900070182_n

Goodreads Author Blog – When A Story Fails

I’m glad to say a story doesn’t fail for me often. When it does, it is always due to me being unconvinced by the characterisation. Something about the characters doesn’t ring true for me or they manage to aggravate me (Miss Price of Mansfield Park is a prime example of this for me yet I love all of Jane Austen’s other heroines, including the supposedly unlikeable Emma).

There is a positive to this though. Knowing what I dislike in character portrayal means I make sure I don’t write this kind of thing for my own creations. I like to know my characters well enough to know what drives them and how they would act/react in any circumstance.

If I understand motivation, I am far more likely to read on to find out what the characters go on and do. It doesn’t mean I have to agree or like what they do but I do have to see where they are coming from.
For me, a story works when the character convinces me. The story is nothing without a convincing character as far as I am concerned.
Screenshot 2024-05-22 at 20-59-18 When A Story Fails

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Twitter Corner with hashtag, Scrabble tiles, and the blue bird

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Publication and Course News

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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.
Great start to week with publication news.
On the other hand I was sad to hear of the deaths of Ian Lavender and Michael Jayston (Pike in Dad’s Army and young Gwillam in Tinker Tailor Solider Spy respectively, the 1970s’ TV version with Alec Guinness). Both did much else besides but these are probably what they will best be remembered for. Wishing the King well too after his cancer diagnosis (but believe it is a good thing he has been open about it).
Lady has had a good start to her week too, getting to play with her best girlfriends.

BookBrushImage-2024-2-6-20-434

Facebook – General

Firstly, may I just a huge thank you to the wonderful response to my post yesterday about The Best of CafeLit 13. See below. The response was fantastic. Will share details later on in the summer when the book is out. Looking forward to that. The CafeLit anthologies are a fabulous read and I would say even if I wasn’t published in many of them, honest! If you want to find out more do head over to The Bridgetown Cafe Bookshop.

Secondly, I’ll be looking at Planning Out Your Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I share thoughts and tips and hope this will prove useful. Link up on Friday.

 

Publication News (and a personal best!)

So delighted to hear I will have not one, not two, but three stories in The Best of CafeLit 13, which will be out in the summer. This is a personal best for me. I have sometimes had two pieces in one book but never three before. Thrilled to see many familiar names in the list of acceptances here. Congratulations to all!

The lovely thing with the CafeLit books is that the stories are voted on by readers of the website so nobody can know their work will get in, yet alone how many pieces might make it into the books. Every reader on CafeLit who has had a story on there in the past twelve months has a voting right and I was pleased to vote. Naturally nobody is allowed to vote for their own work.

Pleased to say what I voted for made it in the book too. Am looking forward to a great read! And in the meantime, why not check out the fabulous stories available at the website.
Screenshot 2024-02-05 at 19-35-10 Read our Stories

Course News

Pleased to say the details of my two part course for The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick are now up on their website. So looking forward to Swanwick in August (and do check out the other courses and workshops. There is a wealth of wonderful information on offer here!).

Have been busy sending in stories for competitions. Have another ready to look at later today. Have ideas for where to submit that. Will be working my way through the Writing Magazine competition guide from next week as there were several possibilities of places so send in work. Some are charging a reasonable fee and others are charging no fee at all, but, as a rule of thumb, I always check out the background of a competition (and the organisers) first.

If happy, I go ahead. The reputable ones make it easy for you to find out their background, their terms and conditions and so on. Most of the competitions I’ve highlighted for myself I have already heard of, a few are new to me, but all are worth my checking them out.

Screenshot 2024-02-06 at 20-14-10 Short Two-Part Courses Swanwick School

Hope you are having a good weekend. Looking forward to sharing Planning Out Your Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Planning out writing is one of those topics which has huge resonance for me as my writing has progressed considerably since I started doing this.

Will be sharing thoughts and tips on how to make this work for you as each writer will need to figure out what works best for them to make the most of the time they have available to write. A bit of forethought here pays off considerably or so I’ve found.

Writing Tip: Give some thought to themes you like to write to and then work out what could come from those. For example, with St. Valentine’s Day coming up soon, an obvious topic would be love. But there is more than one kind of love to write about. It doesn’t just have to be about romantic love, though obviously that can be written up into stories too (and will be for always given it has such meaning for us).

So if I was thinking about writing a story based on love, I would then work out whether it would be romantic love, the love between friends which can lead to incredible acts of courage, sacrificial love, which can lead to a character going well out of their way to support a loved one, and so on. It pays to jot down what can come from strong themes like love. Doing that can throw up interesting angles to write about.

 

424637603_822732396533290_6052459776540343429_n

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good day. Lady and I didn’t see any pals today but she had a great time (give her a toy and she’s well away) and hopes to see her friends tomorrow. Don’t know why it is but there seems to be roadworks everywhere right now in my area.

Talking of which, how about this for a writing prompt? Put your character in unexpected roadworks. How do they react? What difficulties does it cause them? Does it show something of their character to another character and are they impressed, or not, by what they discover here? Have fun but this is not one to write up if you’re stuck in roadworks!

Oh and bear in mind if you write fantasy, you can still use this prompt. What would their equivalent of roadworks be? Does magic help them get out of their traffic hold up or does it make things worse? Good possibilities for humour here.
The best writing prompts of all
It’s Monday. It’s time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Being In A Hurry. Suspect this may ring true for some of you! I know it does for me, the title alone has resonance for me.

 

When I write a humorous flash tale, I often know the ending first and then work out what led to it. Sometimes I know the kind of humorous scrape a character of mine would land themselves in and the humour arises naturally from how they get out of the situation I’ve dumped them in.

Sink or swim – my characters do have a choice, albeit a limited one! Both kinds of tale are great fun to write and I happily wave the flag for all humorous fiction. I do think it is underrated. I wish it wasn’t.

I like a mixture of story moods when reading and writing. I don’t want everything to be grim all the time. We get enough of that in the news!

421978905_823380589801804_7777162819593090925_nOne lovely review I had for Tripping the Flash Fantastic referred to the varied collection of characters and settings in the book. This is one of the things I love most about flash fiction, in terms of reading and writing it. I love being able to set characters wherever and whenever I want.

I get to focus on the single most important thing in the character’s life and hone in on that. It can deliver a powerful impact whether it is to make a reader laugh or cry or think. I like to think of it as undiluted fiction! I get straight to the point and that’s it. From a writing viewpoint, flash has shown me how to work out what is the most important thing to focus on and to get rid of waffle.

The advantage of the longer forms of writing is you can show more, all of which is relevant to the story. I love reading novels and discovering their layers. In series such as the Discworld one by Terry Pratchett, I love reading how established characters develop over the course of several books.

In flash fiction, there can only be one immediate layer but a good short piece will leave a reader thinking.

My The Pink Rose shows a relationship between mother and daughter and while there are not many words in this story, each one shows the depth of the relationship between these two. Little snippets of detail give information such as the mother not remembering teaching the daughter to read but the latter being so grateful she did. I like to think of that as layers within layers.


Screenshot 2024-02-06 at 20-26-43 Tripping the Flash Fantastic Amazon.co.uk Symes Allison 9781910542583 Books

 

Goodreads Author Blog – Stories in Other Forms

No huge surprises here, folks, when I reveal my favourite forms of story are always in the pages of a book! That goes for ebooks too as that is a case of electronic pages! However, I love taking in stories in other forms too.

As well as audio books, I love taking in stories through the radio. My favourite here was a broadcast unabridged reading of Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time. Having heard the story, I then went and got the book.

Film can be another way of getting stories across (and is how other members of my family discovered the wonders of The Lord of the Rings. They would not have sat and read the trilogy but adored the Peter Jackson movies).

Recently I’ve reviewed a performance of The Sleeping Beauty, staged by my local excellent amateur dramatic company, for my weekly column on an online magazine (Chandler’s Ford Today). Naturally I know the fairy story well. I love pantomime, a wonderful British theatrical tradition which is thought to date back to the 16th century. Pantomime is brilliant in bringing the fairytales to life literally in front of your eyes. It is fun, produces huge laughs, and is a superb way of getting the stories to people. People remember these too.

Acting out stories is wonderful when done well. It keeps the stories alive. I would hope it would encourage people to go and check out the original tales in their written form too.

Screenshot 2024-02-03 at 17-15-33 Stories in Other Forms

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Screenshot 2024-01-31 at 14-34-15 Writers'Narrative eMagazine January_February 2024 Issue

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Twitter - phone and blue bird image

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.

Broadcast News, Writers’ Narrative, and Dates

SOA_Member_rgb

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 had a good weekend. It was lovely being back on Hannah Kate’s Bookshelf show on North Manchester FM on Saturday. Flash and radio/audio formats work so well together. And if you like horror, do check out the latest issue of Writers’ Narrative – link further down. Lady has had a good start to her week too, getting to play with her best girlfriends.

BookBrushImage-2023-9-25-21-170

Facebook – General

Another meeting this evening so another early post from me. Trust you have had a good day. I’m talking about Quizzing Your Characters for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Find out why I do this and why it has paid me to do it then. Will also be talking about Autumnal Writing for More than Writers (the Association of Christian Writers blog spot) on the same day. Plenty of tips in both blogs.

Why are blogs like London buses? None for a while and then two come along at once!

Looking forward to the Flash Fiction group meeting on Wednesday for the Association of Christian Writers. We’ll be looking at opening and closing lines, vital for any form of writing. For flash fiction, because of the form’s brevity, these lines carry even more weight. So well worth looking at what makes these work and practicing writing them then.

Often when I edit, I realise a better opening line than the one I first put down is a little further on in the text. That’s fine. I change the opening line accordingly. And, as ever, I am thinking about the impact on the reader here.

Easy to miss things editing on screen though there are things you can do to help mitigate that

Pleased to say the latest issue (the October 2023 edition) of Writers’ Narrative is out and given Halloween is not too far away, this magazine focuses on horror as a topic. There is a wealth of information and tips here plus author interviews.

I talk about The Telling Details here. I look at why it pays to work out what is going to be scary in your story and why. Also I discuss why your “star” here should be as fully thought out and rounded as the “good guys”. Horror takes many forms and it doesn’t have to be all guts and gore.

One of the scariest films I’ve watched is Duel which doesn’t show the “enemy”, there is a complete lack of guts and gore, but builds up the tension as the film goes on. It always keep me riveted to the edge of my seat and I know the film! There is a lot to learn from films for writers in any genre.

Hope you enjoy the magazine. Do check it out (and details of how to sign up for it – for free – are in the magazine itself – see Page 40).

Today would have been the 63rd wedding anniversary for my late parents and yesterday would have been the 94th birthday of my late mother-in-law so a strange weekend in some senses. All much missed, along with many others.

Occasionally a story idea will occur to me which is loosely based on truth. One of these is The Pink Rose in Tripping the Flash Fantastic. I do have artificial pink roses on my desk which had been originally given to my mother on behalf of various members of the family. They had been kept in her care home in a place she could see them.

Don’t forget symbolism can have a powerful impact in stories too. So if you have a character with a special fondness for roses, for example, why not explore why that is and what do other characters make of it? Could that special fondness be used to help the character or against them (and who would want to do the latter)? Food for thought there.

Roses remain one of my favourite flowers

Delighted to be taking part in the Autumn Equinox special on Hannah’s Bookshelf on North Manchester FM today. My story, The Natural Look, is on during Part 2 of the two hour show but do check out the whole programme. It is a joy for those who love the written word and stories work so well on radio/audio formats.

Part 1 – https://podcast.canstream.co.uk/manchesterfm/index.php?id=49866

Part 2 – https://podcast.canstream.co.uk/manchesterfm/index.php?id=49867

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Well, you can tell it is autumn here in the UK because my central heating came on over the weekend and, with it, comes that unmistakable aroma of hot dust! Thankfully that soon goes and you will gather from this I don’t like dusting.

I have every sympathy with the poem Dust If You Must by Rose Milligan. Do look it up. It’s a great read. (I totally get why you need to keep kitchen, bathroom clean etc. I even don’t mind hoovering but dusting…argh! Also Lady is scared of the cobweb brush I use. She runs away whenever I get that out. Mind you, she doesn’t like spiders much. My first dog ate them, my second one considered them beneath her notice, and Lady decides to take herself out of any room a spider happens to be in!).

What do your characters dislike so much they would go out of their way to avoid? What led them to develop that dislike? Do other characters mock them or are they sympathetic?

Now being the kindly soul I am I would be unable to resist the temptation here to ensure my character does have to face up to their dislike in the story I put them in, even if that’s not the main part of the tale. I’d use this as something they’d have to overcome on the way to their final goal. It would be fun finding out how they would manage.

You can then decide if your character overcomes that dislike so it doesn’t bother them again or they just cope with it for the story because they have no choice (naturally you would ensure that being the kindly soul you are!) but resume their dislike once the story is over. Here I would imply that is the case.

Oh and apologies for forgetting to do this yesterday. Despite it being Tuesday, we can still have a story, can we not? Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The Anniversary.

BookBrushImage-2023-9-25-21-3015

Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to play with her two best girlfriends today. All three dogs went home tired but happy.

Will be talking about Quizzing Your Characters for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Yes, I do quiz my characters for my flash fiction. I have to know where my characters are coming from and why (and this is where knowing their major trait is useful because that reveals so much.

If I know someone is honest, I can put them into a situation where they have to face up to being dishonest – how would they cope with that?). I share thoughts and tips. It is a question of working out what you need to know before you write your stories up.

Given my focus on reading stories is always on the character, when it comes to writing tales, my focus is again on the characters. I have to care about them to want to read on to find out what they do.
Link up on Friday (and it will be a double blog post as well this week given I am also on More Than Writers, the Association of Christian Writers blog spot on the same day. For them, I will be talking about Autumnal Writing. Plenty of tips in both blogs. Looking forward to sharing them both).

I have interviewed characters before now

Do dates have any meaning for your characters? It doesn’t necessarily need to be an anniversary or a birthday. Such a date could be linked to a historical event they care about.

For many of us 22nd August 1485 has meaning given it is the date of the Battle of Bosworth where Richard III was killed, the last English monarch to be slain in battle. But in a fantasy or sci-fi story, does your setting have dates in the way we understand them and, if so (or your setting has something similar), what dates would have meaning there and why?

How do your characters respond to such dates and can it change the outcome of their stories?

The most important anniversary - 11th November

So pleased to be sharing the joys of flash fiction again on Hannah’s Bookshelf (hosted by Hannah Kate) on North Manchester FM. Links shared over on my Facebook author page

Flash works brilliantly on radio (and audio generally) because it is so short. As well as being an ideal bus stop read, it is a great quick listen as well. Flash is great as a discipline for a writer, not only because you learn to write tight and edit ruthlessly, but because you have to find ideas and keep on coming up with ideas. I will be sharing some tips on how I keep on finding ideas in my author newsletter (due out on 1st October). You can sign up to that at my website landing page

Newsletter with envelope image

Goodreads Author Blog – Young Adult Books

Just to show how old I am, Young Adult books weren’t really a thing as I grew up. Honest. There were children’s books. Then you went straight into adult fiction. I would’ve loved the YA category when I was growing up.

Mind you, I’ve made up for this since. I have read YA books and loved them. Some of the children’s books I read at the time (or could have read if I had got around to it then!) may well count as YA now. Where would you put Watership Down or The Hobbit for example?

So I think having this category is a great idea. It makes sense to have a natural progression from younger age range books to YA to adult and, as I say, I still like reading YA books now and again. Great books can always be re-read. The Tiffany Aching books from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld would count as YA. I’ve read them as part of the overall Discworld canon and while I will always prefer characters like Sam Vimes, I did enjoy these books too. Certainly wasn’t going to let my ripe age stop me reading them!

Screenshot 2023-09-23 at 18-01-45 Young Adult Books

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

Allison Symes - advertising books and services resized 640

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
Framed Flash Collections

Twitter - phone and blue bird image

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.