Tag: Tripping the Flash Fantastic

Short Story Collections

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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 all is well. How can it be almost December already? Lady has had a good time this week with her two closest chums and we’ve managed to avoid some of the wet weather. (Nobody avoids it all!). Writing is going well and I have just sent in a piece for the Hannah Kate Three Minute Santas show coming up soon. Whether it’s picked or not, I know Christmas has begun when I send that in and also at church when we light the first Advent candle.

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Am pleased to share Short Story Collections on Chandler’s Ford Today this week.

I look at the advantages of these from the viewpoints of both readers and writers plus share tips on writing to set themes. Most anthologies I’ve come across do set themes and writing to these is also useful competition for story competitions anyway.

I also (naturally) take the chance to flag up Magi, the latest anthology from Bridge House Publishing. My story, The Family Legend, is in there. Hope you find the post useful.

Short Story Collections

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Despite it being a grey, drizzly day today, Lady had a lovely time in the park with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Short Story Collections for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. As well as discussing the many advantages to reading such things, I share tips on making the most of set themes as most anthologies do set themes. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Bridge House Publishing always set one in keeping for the time of the year their annual anthology comes out (now basically!). Am looking forward to their annual celebration event which is coming up in early December.

Talking of stories, I’ve just had a turn down so will have another look at that story and see if I can work on it and send it somewhere else. I’ve also picked two stories for another competition (where I can send in two pieces for one fee, these are worth looking out for as you get two bites of the cherry) and have started editing those. Am looking to submit these in a week or so I think.

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Hope today has gone well. Pretty cold here – the frost was crisp and deep and even! (No sign of King Wenceslas yet though). Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today – nice time had by both.

Writing wise, am looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later tonight. Am also hoping to go over my draft story as well so I’m ready to submit that by the end of this week, sooner if possible. Done!

Plus I’m looking forward to having a go at today’s Flash NANO challenge. Am also working on a super author interview I’m looking forward to sharing on Chandler’s Ford Today soon.

Character Tip: You know all of those little niggles we all have and which are far more annoying than they ought to be? Why not write them out of your system and get your characters to have them! How would your characters handle them – like you do, better than you, worse than you? Whatever you go for here, there will be story ideas.


Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I finish the week with a light, delicious story on Friday Flash Fiction – Cakes. Hope you enjoy it. Many thanks for the comments coming in on this one already. I think folk like my choices of cakes in this story! See what you think.

What does every published author want other than people to buy and read their books? Why, reviews of course! I treasure mine and a lovely quote from a review of Tripping The Flash Fantastic reads:-

The storytelling was beautiful in so few words which takes the talent and skill of a practiced author.

Many thanks to my reviewer there but I mention this because with Christmas coming up and most of us are going to have some book related presents (we are, aren’t we?), then another present you can give the author is to put a review up. They don’t have to be long but help us all a lot. So please do consider doing this.

I should add I read reviews myself regularly and not just for books so they do make an impact.

Meantime if you want to find a copy of Tripping the Flash Fantastic (and why wouldn’t you!), do check out the link below.


Flash fiction is wonderful for those moments which are complete stories in themselves but too short to be part of anything else. So if you have scenes that cannot form part of your longer work but which you are reluctant to discard, can you turn them into short, sharp flash pieces instead?

The challenge of flash is always to still have a complete story in and of itself within a restricted word count. I love that challenge. I often start with my ending and then work out where the pivot point has to be and from where what at the start would lead to that pivot point. It means I have a structure in place and it makes it far more likely my story will “work”.

I also like the challenge of writing to different word counts within flash. It’s also good practice for entering flash competitions given these come in at different word counts.

I think what you get better at, over time, is working out this story would work best at 100 words while another needs 500 or more.

Fairytales with Bite – Seasonal Magic

Every season, I think, has a kind of magic of its own. For spring, it is the new growth. For summer it is the lovely weather (usually!) and seeing the trees in full bloom. For autumn it is the changing colour of the leaves. For winter, I do enjoy seeing the silhouettes of the trees against the sunset. This often looks magnificent.

But I suppose if we were to pick one season and associate something special with it, it is now in the run up to Christmas and the end of the year. For me, as a Christian, Christmas obviously has a lot of significance but I do appreciate the other side of the festivities too. I love the Christmas films for example (and The Muppet Christmas Carol is the best retelling of Dickens’ classic in my view).

When it comes to your magical setting, what would count as magic, seasonal or otherwise, for them? What would stand out as special for your characters? Also is certain types of magic only used at certain times of year and, if so, what is it and why the restriction on its use? There will be stories behind those thoughts.

Would your setting’s natural world encourage the use (or disuse) of certain types of magic? Would geography/geology directly impact on what kind of magic could be used and when (and possibly how much as well)?

How do your characters adjust to being able to use certain powers only at certain times of the year (or other time period you use)? Does anyone try to cheat this and, if so, what would the consequences be? There are always consequences!

This World and Others – Waters

I love waters in all their varieties – peaceful streams, lakes and rivers, as well as the sea. I think there is a sense of eternity to be felt when I walk along a beach and look at the sea. I guess there is a sense of timelessness here. Is there anything like this in your magical setting?

What kinds of waters would your world have? Would they be anything like we have here? If not, what would your characters drink (I can’t imagine any character not needing to at some point)? Are the waters or equivalent in your world treasured or have they become polluted (perhaps by too much magic entering it)?

Is water supply an issue? If it is, how does your setting overcome this? Has climate change (or the equivalent in your setting) been responsible for this and can it be reversed? Or is water treasured so much its uses are protected and nobody dares goes against this?

Who would manage the waters on behalf of the overall population? Would this be a government managed resource or otherwise? Could your characters be “held to ransom” by whoever does control the waters? Could that be used to restrict the use of magic against whoever does the controlling?

Good story thoughts there, I think.

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Weather and Reading Moods and Book Orders

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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.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Had busy weekend getting plenty of writing and editing done, which always pleases me. Also managed to wood treat another two fence panels – it’s all go here! Lady enjoyed her weekend walks too.

Facebook – General

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today. I had a lovely swim and my book order for topping up my supply of From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping The Flash Fantastic arrived today. So pleased with that. I only ordered them on Saturday. Print on demand works, folks!

Don’t forget you can order from me (as well as through Amazon and The Bridgetown Cafe Bookshop – see link below).

Just contact me via my website 

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Hope you’ve had a good start to the week. Lady and I had a lovely time in the park and hope to catch up with pals, doggy and human, later in the week.

Writing wise, I’ve had a busy weekend. Am almost there with my story for a competition. It just needs a final read through and then I’ll sent it out, probably mid-week. Looking forward to going to an online group meeting later tonight and there is an online book launch by an ACW connection I hope to get to on Thursday. So plenty going on.

As well as a fabulous author interview with Joan Livingston on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday, I plan to have further author interviews with one pencilled in for the end of October. It’s always great to chat to other authors and I always learn a great deal from what they share in such things. I hope you do too.

Plus I’m being interviewed soon and will share more details on that nearer the time. It is lovely to be on the other side of the fence too.

Lovely church service this morning. Nice quiet afternoon ahead working on flash fiction. Great way to spend a Sunday. Happy to have booked my train tickets for the in person Association of Christian Writers event in Egham at the end of October (booked the actual event ages ago). Looking forward to going to this and catching up with folk again.

Also put in a book order for my two flash fiction collections from my publisher. Will look forward to when that box comes in the post. Naturally, I’m looking forward to putting in my first order for Seeing The Other Side next year too. Update:  Book order arrived on the Tuesday. See above. Very pleased.

Writing Tip: Even if you don’t enter competitions, do make a note of themes some of them set. There’s nothing to stop you using these as prompts for your own use at a later date. I’ve sometimes come across a competition too late to enter it but I can use the theme as a prompt later so I still get something from this.

Do read winning entries in writing magazines etc as much as you can and try to figure out what makes that story work well enough to win the competition. It pays. If you think it is down to, say, wonderful dialogue, look at what makes that seem wonderful for you. What was it that grabbed you about it?

Hope the weekend has got off to a good start. I managed to paint another two fence panels with wood treatment. It’s all glamour here, I’ll have you know!

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing a fabulous interview with Joan Livingston of the Isabel Long Mystery series on Chandler’s Ford Today next week. She’ll be discussing her latest book in the series, Finding the Source, as part of a blog tour set up by Reading Between the Lines Book Vlog. Looking forward to sharing this. Plenty of fabulous information and a great read. Link up on Friday.

Am busy editing a story I hope to submit for a competition towards the end of next week too.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I like to have fun playing with genre when I write flash so I mix up the genres I write in for the form. I love humorous fantasy but I do have a soft spot for some work on the darker side. I also love crime fiction so some of my flash pieces are crime stories. It’s a challenge writing to the word count limit but hey that’s the fun of the form!

Of course the focus with flash has, for me at least, to be on the character so where I set them and what I get them to face is up to me and that is so much fun to do. Naturally I get to drop them in the proverbial mire a lot and that is fun too!

Writing isn’t always fun. It is hard work but I do think it is important to enjoy as much of the process as possible. (That goes for marketing and editing too). I think having fun with your writing – most of the time anyway – matters. You need to be able to love what you do writing wise to keep going with it.

It’s Monday and you know what that means. It means it’s time for a start the week story. My latest on YouTube is Leaf In The Puddle. Think this one will have resonance for many but why not see what you think.

Memories can be triggered by simple things such as a toddler dragging a leaf through a puddle, as my character finds out here.

 

As ever, am enjoying flash fiction Sunday afternoon. Plus I’m pleased to share the latest installment of my serialisation of Seeing The Other Side on CafeLit. Hope you enjoy the latest batch of stories.

As ever, I am looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow. Lovely way to spend the afternoon. (And if you want to read a lot of flash fiction, and why wouldn’t you, do go and check out the Friday Flash Fiction website).

Don’t forget the wonderful CafeLit also shares flash fiction, along with the longer short stories, so plenty to read there. I plan to share the latest installment of my Seeing The Other Side from CafeLit tomorrow. Done. See above.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Weather and Reading Moods

Does the weather change what you choose to read at all? I must admit as we go into autumn here in the UK with the longer darker evenings drawing in so rapidly, I do find myself more drawn to the lighter side of fiction. P.G Wodehouse comes into his own here – his works always put a smile on my face. There is a wonderful book of letters from him edited by Sophie Ratcliffe which is also a fantastic read. This is aptly titled P.G. Wodehouse – A Life In Letters. It does do what it says on the cover, folks!

I guess it is the light levels with me, As the light drops, I want fiction to amuse me. I don’t have a lot of time for dystopian fiction as it is (and even less so now, the news is grim enough) but I want books to lift my mood, cheer me, up, entertain me, so the weather and the seasons can have a bearing on what I read when.

One thing I am liking right now is I play some word related games on my phone and naturally there are adverts, which I generally ignore. Having said that, Amazon are showing some really good adverts about encouraging reading by showing how books bring stories to life. They did this last year in the run up to Christmas. Between now and then is the biggest market for book sales. Wish Amazon did these adverts all year around though as this is always true – books do bring stories to life.

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Quizzing Your Characters

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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. One photo of me holding Creativity Matters and my flash fiction collections (to date anyway!) was taken by Adrian Symes. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week so far. Lady has seen some of her friends and I’m making good progress with writing and editing. Will have news of something else soon I’m helping with. Looking forward to sharing about that. Plus there will be another great author interview on Chandler’s Ford Today soon.

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Pleased to be back on Chandler’s Ford Today with my latest post, Quizzing Your Characters. I’ve long believed if you know your characters well enough, ideas for stories to put them in will occur.

For this post, I look at outlining your characters and using templates and/or traits into coming up with new creations time and time again (which is something I need as I write a lot of flash fiction and short stories).

Hope you find the post useful and do see the templates I share here as guides because there is nothing to stop you coming up with your own.

Indeed, I often mix up the types I use because I won’t necessarily need to know the same thing each and every time about characters I am creating. In certain settings, for example, I will need to ask specific questions relating to that setting and how it effects my character, for example.

Quizzing Your Characters

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Lady and her Hungarian Vizler pal had a nice time in the park this morning before it became too hot. I loved my swim today, as you can imagine. Did not want to get out of the pool.

Don’t forget Quizzing Your Characters will be up on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above.

Less than a month to go now until The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. (Okay only just but I am so looking forward to this).

How do I get ideas for my CFT and Writers’ Narrative articles? Well, our lovely editor at Writers’ Narrative does set a theme, which is always useful, but for CFT, I know I’m writing to fellow writers in my area so I try to focus on aspects of our craft which I hope they will find interesting.

Whatever I write, and this goes for fiction too, I am always asking myself what is in this for the reader. It is a good approach to take because it makes you focus on their needs and what you come up with, as a result, should be more useful to them.

Lady had a lovely time in the park today with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals. Will need to watch the weather in the next couple of days as it is due to get very hot again but I’ve found the mornings have been okay.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Quizzing Your Characters on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. It may seem like an odd thing to do but I’ve found it has paid dividends in being able to continually create characters. Best thing of all – you work out which questions suit your style of writing best. More in the post later this week.

Flash Tip: My favourite form of flash fiction has to be the drabble, the 100 worder. A short sharp story and punchlines/twist endings work well for this word count.

I find it helps to have an idea of the ending first for these. Then I work out what leads to it. It also means I know my punchline or twist ending will have a solid foundation behind it because I know what will lead up to it. It will seem natural, as if there could be no other ending, which is what you want here.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday again and another hot one where I am. Definitely time for an end of the working week story then. My latest on Friday Flash Fiction is called Dates. Hope you enjoy it. Just what will Dawn do about her date dilemma? Find out here. 
With the exception of Friday Flash Fiction where I know I will be writing to 100 words, I focus on getting the story down.

I then edit it after a break away from it, and then and only then do I worry about the word count. Sometimes the solution will be an obvious one. If my finished story comes in at 105 words I will edit it again to get to 100. If say, it comes in at 145 words, I will find a 150 words competition for it instead.

What matters is I am happy with the story in terms of its character portrayal and I’ve ensured I’ve delivered on the premise of the story. So if I am I will leave a story at a higher word count and find alternative homes for it rather than try to force it to fit the original home I had in mind for it.

A lovely review for my Tripping The Flash Fantastic included the line “A lovely little collection of quirky and often surprising stories and poems. Fairy godmothers who aren’t what they first appear.”.

Many thanks to my reviewer for that, but seeing it again reminded me characters who aren’t what they seem are (a) a common trait of fairytales and (b) need to be worked out carefully because the reader should have the hint there is more to this character than meets the the eye.

The surprise mustn’t come out of nowhere. Readers should be able to look back at the story and see “aah, I should’ve spotted that.” I love this when authors do it to me (especially in crime novels). It’s great fun to do as a writer too.

Book Trailer for Tripping The Flash Fantastic – thought it would be nice to share it again.

Fairytales with Bite – Problem Solving

How do your characters solve their problems? Do they instantly turn to magic (or other form of powers we don’t have here) to help them out or do they save that? Does using this kind of power drain them so much it isn’t worth doing unless you absolutely must use it?

If they’re not using magical or other artificial aids, what can they use without causing them further problems? Would they use logic, ask others for help etc as we would do? Are your creations able to ask others from outside their own species for assistance or is this frowned on? What would be the consequences if they did ask for that help when they shouldn’t? Could it lead to positive changes in your setting?

Are some of the problems your characters and/or setting face due to not being willing to interact with others when they could do so usefully? What gets in the way here?past history? Prejudice? Both? How can that be broken?

Problems can be useful for writers – you can get some cracking stories out of them!

This World and Others – Developments

Which developments have been welcomed in your magical/sci-fi setting and which weren’t? What problems did the latter cause and how were they stopped? Has your world copied inventions/developments from other worlds, including ours? How did these go down at home? Not everyone welcomes imports!

In terms of magical energy or other forms of energy your world has, how were these discovered? How have they developed? What new things have been added to them and why was this done?

Thinking about the different species in your setting, how did they develop their societies? Do all of them have the same opportunities for employment, education etc? If species were made to develop in different ways, who imposed that and why? Doesn’t necessarily have to be for evil reasons.

One good reason to keep them apart would be if they could never get along and separating them so they developed in their own way was the only way to stop the fighting. (That does sound a depressingly familiar tale, does it not?).

Story ideas for sure here! Happy writing.


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Inspiration Ideas

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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.
Hope you have had a good week. Lovely time had here – made the most of the glorious weather. Writing wise, am busy preparing the next author newsletter and a fabulous author interview for Chandler’s Ford Today. More details on that next week. Meantime, I write on (and that is just how how I like things to be).

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Pleased to share Inspiration Ideas on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Hope you will find it useful.

I share tips on making the most of being out and about over the next few lovely weather months (well, they usually are most of the time, can’t say fairer than that!). The best thing of all is the tips I share here apply just as well if you’re not venturing far from home this summer. The idea behind all of the tips shared here is to spark your inspiration and that is always useful.

Inspiration Ideas

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Lady and I again spent plenty of time in the glorious fresh air and sunshine today. Had a fabulous time. Not too hot, pleasantly warm – just how we both like things. Has tired us both out nicely too.

Writing Tip: Think about how you can use how the good weather makes you feel for characters in your stories. Also could the weather get in their way at all?

Could good weather (dry, pleasantly warm, lots of light etc) be a disadvantage to them? Are they of a species sensitive to light levels for instance? How do they manage their “condition” here? Light isn’t always avoidable! How can your characters here get on with other species for whom light isn’t an issue?

Lady and I were out and about enjoying another glorious day. Hope you have had a good day too. Spring is at its finest right now, I think.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Inspiration Ideas for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. This post will include hints and tips for making the most of being out and about this spring and summer too. See above.

Next author newsletter will be out before we know it. To sign up for writing tips, news, story links and more, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Newsletter Writing Tip: I find it a great help to write sections of my newsletter during the month. It avoids a last minute rush (and forgetting to do one at all). I also find it useful to think of a rough theme for the month as that will give me ideas for the different sections I write. I also love newsletters which have a theme running through it and find these grip me more when reading them.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my new tale, Rivalry. Two fairies are up for a top godmother job. One of them has a wand which keeps backfiring but she knows this is no coincidence. Who will prevail and get the top job here? Are more dirty tricks involved? Find out here.

Hope today has been a positive one for you.

I like to mix up themes for those places where I submit flash fiction regularly. I deliberately write lighter pieces, darker ones and then go back to light again. I like a good mixture in which I read here, as well as what I write myself.

When I am deciding on the mood of a piece, I start by outlining my character because I need to find out why they would be best suited for a light or dark piece. There should be good reasons behind your character’s approach to life (and therefore what they are likely to do and say).

Hope you have had a good day.

Don’t forget my two flash collections (From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic) are available via Amazon but you can also get them from The Bridgetown Cafe Bookshop. This is the online shop for my publishers and this link (see below) also means you can buy from independent booksellers such as The HIve (UK) and Barnes and Noble (US).

Wherever you buy from, and not just for me, do leave a review. Brief is fine (and for flash collections suitably appropriate I’d say!).

Fairytales with Bite – Getting Away From It All

One of the joys of getting away from it all is to have a break from the normal routine. So what would your magical characters do to get away from their normal routine? Where would they go? Can they really escape their magical work? Or would it be a case of reducing their magical usage to the bare minimum so they recharge that way? At least they wouldn’t be on call all of the time…

Are there special places the magically inclined can go to recharge? How would these places be protected from those who would want to take advantage of magical characters being on their “down time”?

Also how eager or otherwise are your magical characters about returning to their normal lives again? Did the down time do them good, make them more efficient than before etc? How would that impact on their usual roles?

This World and Others – Exploring Other Worlds – Encouraged or Not?

Does your alien (sci-fi or fantasy) world encourage the exploration of other words or is this strongly discouraged? What are the reasons for the attitude here? Has exploration ever taken place and did it go well or otherwise? Sure to be story ideas there!

What similarities does your setting have with Earth? Could humans ever reach your setting (via time travel, portals, or extending our current scientific abilities for space travel?). Or has your world taken steps to ensure that cannot happen?

How have they encountered humans before to make them want to take those steps – or are they relying on things they have heard about us? We may not be considered the best species everywhere! Mind you, many of us here don’t believe that either or at least feel we could do a lot better than we are!

Where exploring other worlds does happen, which are considered worth exploring by your home setting and why? What is your setting hoping to achieve or gain from this? Again, sure to be story ideas there.

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Motivation, Characters, and Magazines

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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.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Lady and I are enjoying the glorious weather at the moment. Writing wise, am busy preparing a splendid author interview I look forward to sharing on Chandler’s Ford Today soon. Am beginning to think about The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. So looking forward to that in August. And it’s business as usual with the flash tales and the blogging so all well here. Hope your writing is going well too.

Facebook – General

Another glorious day to be out and about in the lovely weather. Lady and I have made the most of that.

How do your characters react to unexpected news (good or bad)? Are they the type which like surprises or loathes them? What do their reactions show you about them? This is all useful stuff to help you portray your characters with more depth.

If I know my character hates surprises because they once got caught out by a nasty one, that attitude will come into the story in some way and will have a direct bearing on its outcome. I’m showing this trait for a reason. Whatever I put into a story there has to be a good reason for its inclusion.

Lady and I busy being out and about enjoying the lovely weather. I have a wonderful doggy flask which makes it easy to carry water with me. Her friends seems to like the flask as well. I am sure it is because it is easy for them to use the “lid” to drink from – will fit any snout!

I can’t remember when I first realised it was the characters which were the most important part of any story for me, whether I read them or write them, but I do know it to be true for me. If I can’t be gripped by the characters, the rest of the story will fall apart for me.

I don’t want splendid descriptions or marvellous dialogue unless they are relevant to the characters in some way. Mind you, knowing this helps me to keep on track for my own writing which is no bad thing.

Another gorgeous day today. Am making the most of it, as is Lady.

Writing Tip: It can be hard to motivate yourself to write anything when feeling tired, unwell or anything like that.

So firstly take it easy. The writing will be there for you again once things are back to normal. Trust the process.

Secondly, if you can do any writing at all, do “little bits and pieces”. It’s what I do especially on those hectic days when I know from the start I won’t get a lot of writing done. I focus on what I can do and am always pleased to have written something, even if it is literally just a few lines. I can build on this later.

Hope you’re having a good start to your weekend. Another lovely day weather wise. Delighted to say my lilac is out – has wonderful flowers and a heavenly scent. It us worth the hay-fever, put it that way!

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Inspiration Ideas for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. After that I’ll be sharing a great author interview.

Did get my competition story off this week, well ahead of the deadline. Will be researching others to have a go at in due course.

I make a point of checking out competition backgrounds to ensure all is as it should be. I also check fees are reasonable compared to the prizes on offer. I don’t enter any competitions which insist I sign away all of my rights either. Saves a lot of grief later!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I am fond of writing what I call fairytales with bite which are tales set in a magical world, and where there is usually a twist in the tale. I often use irony in these too so they’re not aimed at the younger end of the market.

I would say these stories are aimed at young adult upwards and for anyone who appreciates the quirky. Often these tales work best when kept short so it is a good match for flash fiction writing. I like this, as you can imagine.

The mood of these can range from lighthearted to dark and that thought inspired the title for my first collection with Chapeltown Books, From Light to Dark and Back Again. Gives a good idea of what to expect!

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It’s Monday. It’s gorgeous and sunny where I am but it is still Monday and time for a tale. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The List.

Shirabelle’s life is full of lists but this week has good news and bad news. The good news is there is only one item on it. The bad news is should Shirabelle go ahead and do this task? Find out what that is here.

 

One nice thing about flash fiction is it is useful for those times when you would like to write more but don’t have the time to do more or other circumstances are getting in your way. That happens to us all. Even fifty words gives you a story (and you can write less than that in flash to have a complete tale).

Hope to research more flash competitions soon. I have been entering more short story ones so far.
Most popular categories I’ve come across are the 100, 300, and 500 words kinds. Worth practicing these then!

Often with these things you can enter two flash pieces for one fee, especially at the lower word count ranges. I do take advantage of this. May as well!

Goodreads Author Blog – Magazines

I will admit to being biased here but I do see a good quality magazine as being every bit of a good read as a collection, novella, or a novel. The fact I write and copy edit for one (Writers’ Narrative) is the reason for the bias!

I love good magazines because they’re a great, portable read. The very best ones encourage further (book) reading too.

They can also be a fabulous introduction to a topic (and there will always be books on that topic. What reader wouldn’t welcome that? The magazine is a relatively cheap way of working out whether the topic is for you or not but if it is think of all the books you can go on to enjoy).

MailerLite – Allison Symes – Newsletter Sign Up

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Favourite Kinds of Story

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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. Images of me with books taken by Adrian Symes. Handy having that facility!
Hope you have had a good weekend. Weather continues to be lovely here. Good writing weekend. Will have news soon of a change. More to come later.

Facebook – General

Hope you have had a nice day. Gorgeous weather again and Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal. Lovely time had by both dogs (and their owners, as we appreciate the lovely walking weather as opposed to getting soaked during the winter months!).

Will be looking at Writers and Stationery – A Match Made in Heaven for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Looking forward to sharing that. (I could’ve titled this one Stationery Addicts Anonymous!).

Looking forward to going to a storytelling webinar tomorrow night. Plus I have an editing forum meeting during the day. Another busy week on Zoom!

7th April – Guest Blog Appearance

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lovely weather here and Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today so had a lovely time at the park with her chum.

Delighted to say my Tripping the Flash Fantastic is part of a feature over on Sandra’s Book Club today. Check out the details on the link. Nice start to the week (and don’t forget you can buy copies of both of my flash fiction collections from me via my website and also via The Bridgetown Cafe Bookshop, which is Bridge House Publishing’s online book shop. Naturally you can get them from Amazon too).

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Hope your Sunday has been a lovely, restful one. Not bad here. Lovely church service and lunch, now an afternoon of writing – all very much what this doctor orders! Will be getting on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. Incidentally even when I have some down time words still come into it – have a lovely couple of word games on my phone!

Character Creation Tip: I like to know main traits when thinking up characters because behaviours and attitudes come from those things but I do use both the negative and positive aspects of these traits. There is always a flip side to a trait regardless of which way around you start!

For example, if you have a character who is honest, are they honest to the point of being brusque? Who could they upset that way? Definitely story ideas there.

So take a trait and “flip it”. See what you can get from these things by taking both the positive and negative views of it. It mixes things up, is a better balance (given nobody is perfect) and you can get your other characters to react to whichever aspect of that trait you show.

Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. Lovely weather again here. So nice being out in the garden today.

Writing wise, I am looking forward to sharing next week’s Chandler’s Ford Today post especially as it is on a topic I really should have written about before! And what could that possibly be?

Simple! I’ll be talking about Writers and Stationery – A Match Made In Heaven – and it so is! I can’t think of any writer I know who could tell me exactly how many books they have or how many notebooks and pens etc they have. I know I can’t do that either! Fun piece to write. Link up next Friday.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Plan to explore how we can use genres in flash fiction for the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this month.

Especially if you lead with characters, as I do, you can set those characters anywhere. I’ve written crime flash, historical flash, fantasy flash and much more.

It is one of the joys of the shorter fiction forms that it is easier to do this, plus you have different places to submit to, including competitions so you can have a great deal of fun playing with genres like this. Yes, you do have to “obey the rules” for each genre bit it is do-able.

It’s Monday but it is a lovely sunny one so that’s good. Still Monday though and time for another YouTube story from me. Hope you like my latest on here – Wake Up Call.

When you know you’ve messed up, you know why you messed up, and it doesn’t help at all you’re a fairy godmother.

 

I’ve mentioned before because I write a lot of flash fiction, I need to have various ways by which I can create characters and trigger story ideas. It’s not a bad idea to mix up the way you do things here because I find it keeps my fiction writing life interesting for me and, I hope, readers.

There are a huge variety of random generators to choose from, plus well known proverbs and phrases, but how about this for another way into creating stories?

There seems to be a National day for almost anything. Today, 6th April, is the day for, amongst other things, National Carbonara Day, (which sounds wonderful), National Teflon day (will that stick, I ask myself), and, in the UK, today is the start of the new taxation year. It isn’t widely celebrated that one!

But how about using these things in stories? Could your character be creating a carbonara for someone special or doing to to cheer themselves up after a horrendous day? Could romance bloom in amongst the tax ledgers! You could also set stories using the national day event as a backdrop. Could it complicate things for your characters in some way or make life easier? Your call but story ideas for sure here.

Congratulations to all who won or were listed in the Andrew Siderius competitions recently run by Friday Flash Fiction. Enjoyed reading these.

Looking forward to my usual flash fiction Sunday afternoon tomorrow. I find it a lovely way to create after church, walking the dog, and lunch. Should be getting back to the 100-worders tomorrow too. I sent in a longer flash for the above competition which was fun to do but anything over 100 words wise now story wise seems ever so long to me! Flash fiction does do this to a writer.

Having said that, I have written at the other end of the spectrum too. The one category I’ve not yet had a go at is the “mid-range”, the novella. Wouldn’t rule it out though. And it is possible to have novellas told via flash fiction with each story (acting as its own chapter) up to 1000 words, each story standing alone, but there also being an overriding arc you can follow through to the end, just as you would for a longer work.

Goodreads Author Blog – Favourite Kinds of Story

I love a whole range of stories and books so it is hard to pick just one overall favourite but we all have those we turn to time and again, especially if life is grim. Right now I know I can’t bring myself to read dystopian fiction. If I want dystopian I’ll watch the news!

I’m a great believer in books being a wonderful source of entertainment. This doesn’t stop them from being thought provoking as well, far from it, but at the end of the day, I want a rattling good yarn I know I can enjoy again and again if I so wish. So where do I turn to for these?

My picks are the classic fairytales, anything from Discworld by the much missed Sir Terry Pratchett, anything by Agatha Christie and P.G. Wodehouse. Always worth re-reading! Then there are the classic works of Jane Austen, crime novels generally, historical fiction geenrally, and The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey.

What I look for and find in all of these and many others are stories which take me away from my troubles for a while. Books shouldn’t be underrated for their capacity for this. I do think right now they can be wonderful escape for so many of us.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Author Interviews

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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. Book Fair images taken by Janet Williams. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a great weekend. Nice one here. Making good progress on the writing. Significant editing done too. Hope the week ahead continues to go well for us all. There are more signs of spring appearing all the time too, which always cheers me up.

Facebook – General

Pleased to share my latest post on Authors Electric. This time I look at Author Interviews. It is a great joy to be on both the receiving and setting end of these, given I’ve appeared on other writers’ blogs, have been on podcasts, and, of course, I set many writers questions over at Chandler’s Ford Today.

I discuss how I’ve used author interviews to help me on my own journey to becoming a published writer and how I continue to find such interviews engaging and informative. Hope you find the post useful and thought provoking.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Hectic here but it was good to see Lady playing with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals earlier this morning.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing a fabulous interview with Joy Wood on Chandler’s Ford Today post on Friday. Tomorrow I’ll be sharing my Authors Electric post about Author Interviews. See above. Not a coincidence this one!

Hoping to get an article finished and sent off later this evening plus I hope to work on my presentation for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this month. Am almost there on it.

Had a productive weekend but Mondays are always one of those days when I don’t get so much writing done due to commitments elsewhere so I use Mondays to do little bits and pieces. These things mount up.

Hope the weekend has been a good one. Nice to see more sunshine.

Writing wise I’ll be getting on with Flash Fiction Sunday shortly. Later I have editing to crack on with and a presentation to add more to so I will be happily out of mischief for the rest of the day, no problem!

Also have just heard will be off to a murder mystery my local amateur theatre group is performing in April. Will be going to this with my lovely editor from Chandler’s Ford Today. Looking forward to that already. Plus I will have a writing Zoom to go to in early April as well as so plenty going on.

Character Tip: This is where writing what you know can help you in the creation of your characters. We know what we like and dislike in other people so let’s put that to good use as we invent our own people/beings of choice.

We understand what can make people angry, for example, so how can you tap into that when writing an angry character of your own? Look at the reasons why people have the attitudes they do.

There will be something you can use for your fictional creations from that. Understanding motivation helps so much here I think.

Hope you have had a good start to the weekend. Managed to get washing out and dried on the line today – yes, I know it’s sad but it is a win, honestly! Also lots of daffodils now out in one of my borders – daffodils always make me smile as I see them as pretty cheery plants, and they also remind me of Wordsworth.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing a fabulous interview with Joy Wood on Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Do look out for that on Friday. The interview is packed full of useful thoughts and tips and you can also find out how and why competition slogans had an impact on her writing life. Looking forward to sharing that and hopefully catching up with Joy again in person at Swanwick later this year.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Lady had a fabulous time in the park today with her Rhodesian Ridgeback chum and Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. Great time had by all. Hopefully more of the same will take place tomorrow!

I haven’t used dogs much in my flash fiction tales and short stories. I tend to focus on characters who are human or fantastical in some way though my YouTube story this week, Temptation, is one for dog owners to enjoy especially.

But there is nothing to stop us using the qualities most dog owners appreciate in their pets (loyalty, love, faithfulness, mischief making, just being fun to be around etc!) in other types of character for our stories. Just a thought.

To quote The Bangles, it has indeed been a Manic Monday and it is time to share another story of mine on YouTube. Hope you like the short but sweet Temptation. Dogs and their owners will especially appreciate this one.

Temptation can attack anyone or anything but especially, in some cases, where cooked chicken is involved.

 

Both of my flash fiction collections with Chapeltown Books have titles which indicate something of their genre and/or mood. From Light to Dark and Back Again very much flags up the mood of the stories. Tripping the Flash Fantastic indicates the genre (flash and fantastic tales/fantasy).

Did I have either of those titles when I began compiling my books for submission? No! Both had alternative working titles. The titles I ended up with came to mind as I was drafting and editing. This happens so I no longer worry about it. I find I have to have a working title for anything I write but am not worried if it ends up changing. I think I just need a placeholder and I work with that.

Most of the time when ideas for alternative titles come up, they are better than the original but it doesn’t always work out that way. When it doesn’t I simply stay with what I first came up with. I always ask myself what kind of impact the title has on me (and therefore on a likely reader) and the strongest impact is always the one I go with.

Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday afternoon tomorrow. Friday Flash Fiction is about to run their annual Andrew Siderius competition so do look out for this. I hope to have a go.

Also looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later in the month. Will be looking at editing flash fiction for this one. One massive benefit to flash fiction writing is you do learn to improve your editing skills considerably and that can then filter across to other forms of writing you do. I’ve found this to be the case.

Goodreads Author Blog – Books and Their Moods

Now it’s no secret the books I read often depend on what mood I’m in. When life is grim (and the news even more so), then I will usually go for humorous reads such as works by Wodehouse, Pratchett, and Austen, something I know will make me smile basically. I see it as having something lighter to counterbalance the darker side of life.

But books too have their moods and certain genres play on this to good effect – horror, crime, and thrillers, all indicate the moods of their stories to name but a few.

Now I’m one of those readers where I don’t want the mood the book to match my mood. I like that counterbalance though there are books I will always read regardless of what mood I’m in. For example, I will always find time to re-read Agatha Christie or Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time (which is a fabulous book and the only novel to make me change my view on a historical person, in this case Richard III).

So which books do you use to lighten your mood? Which ones do you read regardless of mood of book or your own mood?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Newsletters and Competition News

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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. Lovely to catch up with family and friends and relieved the weather held. It was bucketing down again on the Sunday! There are times my gutters do a credible impersonation of the Niagara Falls! Writing wise, am busy judging a flash fiction competition at the moment and editing, as well as writing my usual materials. Plenty going on but that’s the way I like things. Also have had some exciting competition news of my own – see below.

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Facebook – General

How come it is October already? Having said that, I like October. It can be a lovely month, weather wise, though today it has been changeable in my part of the world.

Still the first of the month always reminds me to get my author newsletter out and accordingly my latest went out earlier today. I guess producing one of these a month makes it easier for me to spot how quickly the year is passing!

Writing Tip: I know it’s an oldie but this tip is a goldie and one I use a lot. The moment you get an idea jot it down as soon as you can. Don’t rely on yourself to remember. You don’t. I know I’ve lost ideas this way. I try never to do so now.

Now what do you do when said idea strikes at an awkward moment? Often does for me – the shower is a favourite location for my brain to decide it is suddenly going to show up with some inspiration. Goodness knows why, though I am grateful it never happens just as I’m trying to sleep. I know that would irritate me no end.

Anyhow, I have notebooks in different places to allow for this. Alternatively, I grab my phone and use the note feature on that to jot things down. Sometimes I’ve just jotted down key words but have found that is enough to get the idea “back”.

Have been known to mutter words to myself re the idea until I can get to that notebook or my phone. It may sound odd but it works, honest! Just helps to have an understanding family though!

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Screenshot 2024-10-01 at 16-21-40 Allison Symes - October 2024 - Writing Events

Hope you have had a good start to the week. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals this morning. A good time had by all despite the dodgy weather.

Glad my Newsletters post on More than Writers (I shared the link yesterday – see below) has triggered questions. I have now responded to those for those of you who commented on the post itself. I will add in that I was a late comer to having an author newsletter but am now glad I have one. It is an easy way to engage with readers and I find them fun to put together too. I believe in keeping it simple and being consistent, two good qualities for any writer!

And talking of which, my next newsletter is out tomorrow, 1st October. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com – and many thanks to all who have subscribed.

 

It’s my turn again on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This time, I talk about Author Newsletters and share tips as to what I’ve found helpful in setting up and running mine. Hope you find the post useful.

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Hope you have had a good day.

Will be looking at Story Inspiring TV and Its Music for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Am sure it will bring back many happy memories for many of you. Looking forward to sharing that on Friday. Then it will be back to author interviews again. More details to come nearer the time.

You often hear the advice to treasure the moments (and we should do too) but you can make this true for your characters too. Think about what moments they would treasure and why. Sure to be a story or two behind answering those points.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Competition News:  Had a lovely email in this morning saying one of my stories has come third in a competition, I can’t say any more than that yet but will share more when I have a link to share as the story will be published. Could do with more emails like that!

Mind you, while I have been on both sides of the editing fence at the same time before, this is the first time I’ve been on both sides of the competition judging fence at the same time as I am currently judging flash pieces for a Scottish writing group. Lovely position to be in though.

 

It’s Monday. The weather here has been iffy to say the least. It’s time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Cake and Candles, a timely theme as I was celebrating a family birthday over the weekend. Well, they say write what you know, do they not?

 

I’ve always had a soft spot for characters who can see beyond the obvious and who are not necessarily prepared to go along with the crowed (especially if they can see said crowd is being foolish).

One of my characters like this is from The Terrified Dragon (Tripping the Flash Fantastic) where the local butcher can see a way of putting an unexpected dragon to use (well, be fair, it is never good news when one turns up in the neighbourhood), instead of just trying to kill the thing. Great fun to write and I always find characters like this more interesting to write for. I start by working out what it is about them which makes them different to the rest.

Another example of mine is from The Circle of Life (From Light to Dark and Back Again) where my character finds a novel way to stop animal cruelty. Funnily enough, I didn’t name either of these two characters (for longer stories I would’ve done) but they’re memorable because they stood out against the crowd.

Allison Symes - Flash Fiction CollectionsI used the random object generator recently and used what came up, a cookie tin, as inspiration for my stories on Friday Flash Fiction (The Old Bat and the Cookie Tin) and on my YouTube channel (Appreciation) this week. Two different characters, two different story lines, two stories full stop and all from one object idea! I like this! Hope to play again with the random object generator soon.

You can make even better use of the generators by changing the parameters you use for them but I’ve found not generating too much in one go is a good idea. I limit myself to two or three things at a time.

By the time I’ve clicked a couple of times something will have rung my inspiration bell and off I go with an outline and first draft. Having too much in one go I’ve found tends to swamp me. I have got to see the wood for the trees!

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Goodreads Author Blog – Encouraging Reading

It is no surprise all authors are always huge fans of reading. It is usually a case of having loved stories all of our lives, we then want to write some of our own. I’m all for things like World Book Day which encourages children to engage with books. Would like to find ways of encouraging adults to read more though!

I do think one of the most important things about children’s literature is in its role in engaging kids to read at all and then to keep them reading, Every writer of stories for adults owes a debt to the children’s writers given they grown our audience for us.

It is not unheard of for someone to discover books as a an adult but it is far more often the case someone has developed a love of reading which started when they were children. It is said the best way parents can encourage children to read to let their children see them read for pleasure.

I can vouch this approach works. My late mother encouraged my love of reading this way and also by ensuring, when very young, I was read to every night. The oral tradition of storytelling is an ancient one and must never die! It does lead on to reading for yourself.

So let’s hear it for the children’s writers and also get on with our own reading. In doing the latter we support other writers and I would hope encourage those around us to read for pleasure too if only by setting a good example here ourselves.

Screenshot 2024-09-28 at 14-00-03 Allison Symes's Blog - Encouraging Reading - September 28 2024 05 59 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the November 2023 issue which had novels as its theme. My article is on Writing Novels and is based on what I learned from writing mine. That book is still unpublished though I hope to return to it soon.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Author Interview: Behind The Curtain with Anita D Hunt

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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. Many thanks to Anita D Hunt and Lynsey Adams for pictures supplied for the Chandler’s Ford Today post this week.
Hope you have had a good few days. Torrential rain and brief spells of sunshine here. Hoping it brightens up for the weekend as have a family event. Writing wise, have more superb author interviews coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today in October. Will say more nearer the time though I find it hard to believe we’re almost at the tenth month of the year already! Where has the time gone?

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

As part of her blog tour, I am delighted to welcome fellow Swanwicker, Anita D Hunt, to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her new domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain.

Anita shares many useful tips and plenty of great advice in this in depth interview, in which she also discusses how it can be painful getting inside your characters’ heads at times and what to look for in a writing group.

She looks at what she likes about creating characters and how Cornwall, her home county, plays a major part in her work. She discusses themes and shares an invaluable tip about writing blurbs. Do check out the interview and settle down for a riveting read.

Behind The Curtain with Anita D Hunt

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Glad to say the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom last night went well. The theme was marketing (many thanks to Rosemary Johnson for suggesting it) and I shared a few ways flash fiction can help with this.

If nothing else, sharing flash fiction stories every now and again can act as a marvellous advert for the rest of what you do. It doesn’t take long to read, it entertains potential/actual readers, and it showcases you/your work. Nothing to dislike there, I think.

And talking of marketing, it’s time for me to put in my usual end of month reminder about my author newsletter. The next one goes out on 1st October and I share stories, tips, advice (based on what I’ve found useful myself), news etc. If interested do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com where you can sign up. A huge thank you too to all of my subscribers here and on my YouTube channel.

Thought for Today: Every writer has their fair share of rejections, not doing well in competitions etc, but there’s nothing to stop you revisiting your old work, seeing if you can polish it up and get it out somewhere else. I’ve had work published that way.

Sometimes I will review a piece and with the benefit of time and that useless aid, hindsight (I would far rather have the ability to spot something wrong at the time I’m working on a piece and see my mistakes before I send anything out!), I can see why a piece failed but even that can be useful because I’ve learned from it.

So maybe hindsight isn’t so useless after all. I would still prefer foresight or at the time sight though! Suspect most of us would.

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady has had a smashing one given she got to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. I’ve managed to avoid most of the rain today too so will take that as a win.

Don’t forget I’ll be talking to Anita D Hunt about her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. The interview is packed full of useful tips and advice too so do look out for it. See above. Glad to say there will be more author interviews to come on CFT in October too.

Writing Tip: I know some writers dread marketing and would far rather focus on writing. I understand that but there are creative aspects to marketing your stories too. After all the challenge here is to make what you have to say here about your work interesting and appealing to readers and not switch them off. (Saying buy my book all the time does do precisely that).

I’ve found if I can make the marketing fun for me to do it is more likely to be appealing to a reader. Sharing something of interest and/or value to readers/writers as I discuss what I’m up to writing wise is also marketing. I think it is more likely I can keep this kind of marketing going too.

My aim with posts like this one then is to have a chatty informative style, while sharing useful tips and something like oh by the way my newsletter is out soon, if you want to sign up head over to etc etc. I take the view if it is something I wouldn’t mind reading if I were on the receiving end, other readers (or at least some) will take the same view.

So work out then what you like to see in marketing you receive. Figuring out what works for you as a reader will help you come up with material based on your work you won’t mind sharing with your readers (and they won’t mind it either). The focus has to be on engagement, I think. Stories about your writing life work well too.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday, end of the week time, weather iffy so definitely time for a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – The Old Bat and The Cookie Tin. Think I’ve found a contender for one of my all time favourite titles!

Screenshot 2024-09-27 at 10-09-12 The Old Bat and The Cookie Tin by Allison Symes - Friday Flash FictionHope you’ve had a good day. Lady didn’t get to see any of her pals today though she hopefully will tomorrow. Have a family event at the weekend. Lady loves these because (a) she loves people, (b) she loves getting extra food and getting to be an outside Hoover, and (c) she loves playing with the visiting dog, with whom she gets on brilliantly. Am expecting Lady to be shattered on Saturday night. She was last time but happily so!

Looking forward to the local Book Fair in October and literally the week before the Association of Christian Writers Autumn Gathering event. I shall be off to Rugby for that one and will be back to London in December for the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event. Lots going on all connected with writing and I plan to enjoy every minute! I also get to spread the word about flash fiction of course.

Prompt Idea: Events mean different things to different people so why not invent one for a character of yours and show what they make of it? Do they organise it? Do they love it? Do they dread it? What happens at this event which changes things for them?

461332721_10162283069397053_7196259478840081979_nI’ve mentioned before the importance of using the right telling details to help your readers picture your world/setting/character/any combination of those. In my The Terrified Dragon (Tripping The Flash Fantastic), I start with the line The dragon was surrounded by angry humans with weapons and realised to his dismay he was supposed to blast them all away.

Note I haven’t told you what those weapons were as that isn’t the important thing. What you need to know is the main character is a dragon who has got into trouble (which is odd in itself given dragons are usually the cause of fire-related trouble!). You need to know about the angry humans (and you don’t need telling why they’re angry given a dragon turning up is seldom good news).

But you also see something of the dragon’s attitude. He knows what he is meant to do but is strangely reluctant to do it. There is something strange about this creature. Only way to find out what is to read on. Job done.

I’ve always found it useful to figure out what a reader has to know and then decide how I am going to plant those things in the story. When I’ve outlined my character well enough, I can see how the story will develop and where those things should go. It will arise naturally, which is what you want.

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Fairytales with Bite – Flying Around

Now I know I moan about traffic in my area – I suspect most of us do – but what would this traffic look like in a magical world? How is the Eye in the Sky supposed to work when all around them are flying on broomsticks and other magical craft?

Would there be speed limits? Would there be corridors magical flying beings are supposed to stick to (if only to give the wildlife a half decent chance of being able to fly anywhere in safety? I feel sorry for birds in magical worlds. In any other kind of world the skies would be theirs. Not in this kind of environment it isn’t!).

Now we all know there are certain kinds of car driver (usually with specific brands of vehicle too) who are notorious for tailgating, jumping traffic lights, being awful at junctions etc. What would the magical equivalent of these things be in your setting? How is flying traffic controlled or is it a free for all and it is assumed the fittest/fastest/strongest survive and it’s tough luck on the others? What are the accident rates?

Are the state of the skies in your setting better than they used to be or worse? Can any magical being fly? Are the “vehicles” restricted to certain speeds?

You could have some funny stories here about the magical traffic cop and how they rein in anyone who breaks the rules here. I once wrote a festive flash piece where such a character tried to pull Santa over for speeding! Great fun to write.

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This World and Others – Policing the Skies

Linking in with Fairytales with Bite, who does police the skies? How seriously or otherwise is this role taken? Does it get the support of the general public or it is looked down on? Are there any perceptions that certain flyers (e.g. witches and wizards) get away with traffic faults and other more lowly kinds (such as the trainee fairies etc) do not?

Who does control the skies in your setting and how do they do it? We consider keeping control of our own air space as vital to our defences (as proven by the Battle of Britain in World War Two) so I would assume your setting’s government would take the same view.

Who would they need to defend their skies against? What is the history behind that? What is the history behind how your government does police the skies? What have they found works well and what less so?

I quite like the idea of a traffic cop on a broomstick with a flashing blue light pulling over other magical beings for speeding etc. What punishments can be given? How are other magical beings stopped from avoiding these and/or giving the cop a hard time?

Story ideas here (and possibly funny ones too).

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Since marketing has come into this round up tonight, I thought I’d share the link to the September 2023 edition of the magazine given it has marketing as its theme. I have two pieces in here – Marketing Your Books and Writing For Online Magazines.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Broadcast News and Knowing Your Characters

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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.
Hope you have had a good few days. Weather now stormy and wet. Delighted to have been on North Manchester FM over the weekend. Looking forward to taking part in Flash NANO again in November. Also have a fabulous interview coming up with Anita D Hunt to discuss her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Do look out for it. Plenty of useful tips and advice. This is one of the great things about author interviews You learn so much from them.

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Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day. Drier today, thankfully. Am also thankful Lady drives off quickly and doesn’t mind my towelling her down. Not all dogs like this. Lady sees it as a chance to get another cuddle in!

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom tomorrow night. Always good fun. Theme this time is marketing. Talking of which, I’ve been busy preparing pitches, one of which I’ve just submitted, the other is almost complete ready for reviewing.

Writing Tip: Consistency helps a lot with (a) getting your writing done and (b) with your marketing. I’m not on every social media platform. I am on the ones I know I can keep posting to on a regular basis.

Being consistent helps you build up your brand

Delighted to be able to share a single link now to Hannah Kate’s Autumn Equinox show on North Manchester FM on Saturday afternoon. Do check out the stories on there – I found them to be a great mix. It was lovely listening to it on Saturday afternoon.

Don’t forget I’ll be chatting to Anita D Hunt about her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Plenty of advice and tips shared, this is one of the great strengths of author interviews, I find. You learn so much from other writers’ experiences.

Screenshot 2024-09-23 at 17-36-41 Hannah’s Bookshelf Autumn Equinox Special - 21_09_2024 by Hannah's Bookshelf Mixcloud

The storm hit Hampshire today. So much water on the road. Glad to get back home. Much as I love autumn, torrential rain does nothing for me save get me wet (and Lady dries off quicker than I do).

Writing Tip: I sometimes know what mood of story I want to write – funny, sad, scary, etc. Sometimes that mood is set by the theme of a writing competition too. What I do here is work out the kind of character who would suit that mood and as I outline them, I find myself discovering ideas for the situations they’d be likely to face. Put all that together and I have an outline for my first draft.

Knowing my character well enough for whatever length of story I write to works for me. Asking a few questions helps me to get to know that character well enough. Obviously the longer the story the more I need to know but even for flash I have to know what drives them and why.

There are often hints as I outline them as to where that drive has come from. If their drive is to make money and plenty of it, are they being greedy or are they fearful of debt because they’ve know what it is to face that?

I could write two different stories depending on how I answer that question. There is nothing to stop me either from writing two stories with two characters who answer that question differently and this is just one example of the benefit of some forward planning.

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Broadcast News: Enjoyed listening to the stories on Hannah Kate’s Autumn Equinox special show on North Manchester FM this afternoon. Lovely mix of styles. I’ve shared the links – link one above, link two below. My story, Spade Work, is on the second half of the show coming in at about the 22 minutes mark but do listen to all of the tales. You will be in for a treat. Do note I now have a single link to the whole show above and it may be easier to use that one.

Many thanks for the kind comments coming in on the Ruth Leigh interview I shared on Chandler’s Ford Today yesterday. Much appreciated. I think this interview proves a point I’ve made before about learning from author interviews. You can pick up all sorts of tips which will be useful to you.

Am pleased to say there is another super interview coming up next week with Anita D Hunt, who will be discussing her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain. Looking forward to sharing that. I’ve loved author interviews since I started writing seriously. I know I’ve picked up so much useful help and advice from them and it is a great joy and privilege to conduct them for CFT.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Anniversaries can make a useful theme to write about. Not only are there the obvious anniversaries, which you could show in relation to your characters and what they make of them, bear in mind your characters might also have specific dates they commemorate, which would be meaningless to anyone else.

So what would your character commemorate that nobody else would? How do they do this? What made them start doing this? A magical character could commemorate the day they “graduated”, for example. How do they celebrate – crate a new spell for the occasion, say?

Room for humour in stories like that, I think.

Fiction reflects on our lived experiences so certain themes are bound to occur regularlyIt’s Monday. It’s been raining heavily all day. And it’s a darker than usual Monday due to the weather. Time for a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Appreciation.

Has been a busy and soggy weekend. Hope things have been okay for you. Don’t forget my author newsletter is coming out again soon. To sign up just head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I’ll be talking about author newsletters for my More than Writers post for the Association of Christian Writers later this month too. I write a few monthly blogs and, as with my newsletter, I do plan out when in the month I will have these ready by. I’ve found this pays. Doing this frees up other writing time which I use for marketing and writing more flash stories. Win-win as far as I’m concerned.

Talking of flash, I’ve also found it useful to hit the ground running with my tales. I want to set up curiosity in the reader immediately and I can do this by setting a question you know the story has to answer or by giving an intriguing opening and you have to find out where it goes from there.

In my Enough Is Enough (Tripping the Flash Fantastic), I start with the opening line of She knew she had to stop it. What I hope that line does is set up immediate questions for the reader – who is she, what has she got to stop and why, and is she successful? The story does have to answer all of that. (It does, of course!).

I’ve found it helpful to think along the lines if it intrigues me, it should intrigue someone else. It can be a useful place to start, regardless of what length of fiction you’re writing.

It was a joy this afternoon to listen to wonderful autumnal flash on Hannah Kate’s show on North Manchester FM. It was a joy to be part of the show too. Autumn is a wonderful theme to write about because you can take it in many directions. You can look at a character’s attitude to it. You can bring in the changes in nature. You can bring in the sense of things winding down.

My maternal grandmother hated the season because she saw it as the time when everything died. I’ve used that thought in my story, Spade Work, which was broadcast this afternoon. I also used my own attitude to the season where I don’t agree with my grandmother’s view. My character, Holly, shares my view autumn is the time of beautiful changes and sees this in her Virginia Creeper where its leaves change from green to a fabulous shade of red.

But thinking about what your character makes of autumn or indeed any of the seasons can give you great insight to your creation. Their attitudes will also have a direct impact on their behaviour too and there will be story ideas there.

If they hate autumn, what would they do to get out of having to go any seasonal events? How would characters around them react to their behaviour here, especially if they love the season and the events?

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Goodreads Author Blog – Books I Could Not Do Without

With a title like this, I know I could go on at some length but decided to limit my choices to ten but have included some collections. So what ten books could I not do without then?

  1. The Bible – I especially love the Psalms (wonderful poetry) and Jesus’s stories (especially The Good Samaritan always a challenging one that).
  2. The Lord of the Rings – THE fantasy book in my view.
  3. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – loved the story. Cried when I first read what happened to Aslan at the hands of the White Witch.
  4. The classic fairytales – I am especially fond of Cinderella.
  5. Men at Arms – Terry Pratchett. A classic whodunnit as well as a wonderful addition to the Discworld canon.
  6. Nemesis – Agatha Christie. Her best Miss Marple novel I think.
  7. The ABC Murders – Agatha Christie. Her best Hercule Poirot book (though I was torn between this and Murder on the Orient Express).
  8. Jeeves and Wooster – P.G. Wodehouse. Can’t pick any single one. They are all brilliant and never fail to make me smile.
  9. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens. The ultimate ghost/redemption story. Simply wonderful.
  10. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen. Her best book, I think. Wonderful characters and Elizabeth Bennet is ahead of her time.

Which ten books would you choose?

Screenshot 2024-09-21 at 18-00-25 Allison Symes's Blog - Books I Could Not Do Without - September 21 2024 10 00 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the October 2023 edition, which had horror as its theme. My article is on Writing Horror: The Telling Details.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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