Tag: Tripping the Flash Fantastic

Author Interview Questions and Ghost Stories

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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. Many thanks to my lovely editor at Chandler’s Ford Today, Janet Williams, for taking the image of me at the 2023 Hiltingbury Book Fair.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Glad to see some wonderful autumn weather with plenty of sun and a nice temperature. Lady off to a great start this week having a riotous time with her best pal, the Rhodesian Ridgeback.
Writing wise, am looking forward to sharing a wonderful interview with Ruth Leigh on Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. There will be another great interview with Anita D Hunt the week after. Plenty to look forward to and lots of useful information for any writer.
And I can confirm I will be going to the Hiltingbury Book Fair next month.

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Facebook – General

Lady was delighted to see her Hungarian Vizler pal this morning. Lovely time had by both dogs. Another lovely autumn day too here.

Don’t forget I’ll be talking with Ruth Leigh about her new book, The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge, on Friday on Chandler’s Ford Today. There will be plenty of useful tips too – so be sure not to miss it.

Looking forward also to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting next week. Always good fun and it has been wonderful to hear how group members have had work published and/or broadcast on North Manchester FM when Hannah Kate puts out the call for theme related flash fiction to be sent in.

Well done, everyone, and keep up the good work!

 

Lady has had a fabulous start to her week having a wonderful time with her best pal, the Rhodesian Ridgeback. As well as running around and play fighting like the overgrown pups they are, they gave each other cuddles too. Very sweet to see.

Writing wise, I’m busy preparing various interviews for Chandler’s Ford Today and there will be more to come in October, I’m glad to say. There is always plenty to learn from these, I find, and they’re great fun to conduct.

Writing Tip: Whether you’re published singly or a number of times, or even if you’re not published yet, look at the questions posted in author interviews and work out how you would answer them if someone posed them to you. It will make you think in more depth about what you write and get you used to talking about what you do.

I did this early on in my career and worked out what I would say. I found that enormously helpful especially in overcoming nerves. I knew I had something I could say and that helped a lot. Plus you learn a lot from the tips and advice writers share in these things. I always ask authors to name three top marketing tips as we can all learn from that and no one writer can know them all.

460226249_10162248915762053_570811761049776159_nHope the weekend has gone well. Lovely autumnal weather here. I enjoy days like these. Lady does too. Pleasant, not too hot etc.

Many thanks for the lovely responses to my post the other day about my taking part in the Hiltingbury Book Fair. Much appreciated. More on the event nearer the time.

My author newsletter will be out again before you know it. If you’d like to sign up for news, tips, story links etc, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Writing Tip: Know your character. Know them well enough for whatever length of story you write. For flash, I need to know less than, say, a novelist would need to know but I still need to know enough. Above all, I do need to know what drives them and makes them tick. That underpins their attitudes and actions/reactions.

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Hope you have had a good start to your weekend. Not bad here. Got the lawn cut. Always looks good for it.

Am delighted to say I’ll be interviewing the lovely Ruth Leigh for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. My post, Catching Up with Ruth Leigh: The Further Adventures of Isabella M Smugge, goes out on Friday.
Since we last talked on CFT, Ruth has had two other books out (A Great Deal of Ingenuity and The Unexpected Book of Poetry) and we’ll be discussing how those came about, as well as celebrating Ruth’s new Isabella book. Isabella is one of those characters for whom it is true once you’ve met them you don’t forget them. That’s always a sign of a great character in my view. More to come nearer the time and I’m looking forward to sharing the interview.

And if you love author interviews, as I do, I’ll have another fabulous chat the week after, this time with Anita D Hunt where we’ll talk about her domestic noir novel, Behind The Curtain. Much to look forward to in both interviews.

Last but not least, I’m delighted to say I’ll be taking part in the Hiltingbury Book Fair again. The date is 19th October and I will share more news on this as and when I get it. It was a huge success last year and naturally everyone will hope it is again this time.

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Facebook – From Light To Dark and Back Again

Many thanks to all who have subscribed to my YouTube channel. I create flash fiction videos (using Book Brush for the video element and my imagination for the rest!) and usually put a new tale up every Monday. New subscribers are always welcome.

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It’s that day of the week again. The day Garfield the cat hates with a passion – Monday. I’ve not yet met anyone who is especially keen on it. By my reckoning, it’s time for a story then.

Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – First Trip Out. If there’s a moral to this one it is to be wary of Granny’s recipes especially when she can’t recall where she got them! But does my character, Bill, follow that advice? Umm… no. Find out what happens here.

 

One of the joys of being published with Chapeltown Books was having some input into the covers for From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic. All of the flash fiction books published by Chapeltown are square books (ideal for gifts!) but there is a central image to the front cover.

For my first book, I deliberately went for a ripples picture. I think this apt for flash fiction as a whole given flash infers so much and there are ripples coming out from the stories as a result. It is one of the aspects to flash I adore because I like to work things out when I am reading stories by other authors. I just need the right clues to be able to do that.

With flash, I don’t have a lot of time and space in which to plant said clues (often I only get to plant one but it is key as you would expect). Readers don’t get much time in which to work things out but I love the challenge of that myself when I am reading flash by other writers. It is a good challenge!

 

I’m going to be taking part in the Hiltingbury Book Fair again next month as I mentioned over on my author page. This time I’ve opted to give a short talk and a reading or two from my books as part of this event. I have found before demonstrating what flash fiction is by reading some out is a great way to encourage sales. Naturally I hope it will do that again this time!

There was a good range of authors and genres at last year’s event. I hope that will be the case again. Certainly I happily enjoyed representing the short story and flash fiction forms last time and am looking forward to doing so again.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Ghost Stories

Earlier this week, I was sorry to hear about the death of Kenneth Cope who famously played the role of the ghost detective, Marty Hopkirk, in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). It was known as My Partner The Ghost in the USA. It was a great series.

This led me to thinking about ghost stories generally. Now I know next month (October) would probably be a more appropriate time for this post but I would like this one to be a kind of tribute to a great show. It was quirky, it was different, and I loved it. I still love quirky and different stories and shows. I write quirky fiction too.

For me the ultimate ghost story does have to the classic A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. What I love most of all I think about this is the ghosts, while scary (especially the Ghost of Christmas Still To Come), have a positive role. They are on a redemption mission and I feel it is appropriate to be reminded of that at Christmas. As a Christian I see the link to the redemption story of Jesus whose birthday I celebrate then. But I like the fact the ghosts aren’t just there to scare. They do have something to do. The story wouldn’t work without them.

For any story to work well, the characters have to be believable. One way of doing that, of course, is to ensure they have every reason to be in the story and no reason NOT to be in it. Dickens does this brilliantly here. (I’d also argue the hardhearted Scrooge is far scarier than the ghosts by the way).

So, yes, even ghosts have to have a reason to be in a story and I like the fact it isn’t always about scaring people. Sometimes it is to help them. I’ve written the odd short story on this theme myself and loved doing so.

Screenshot 2024-09-14 at 17-55-23 Allison Symes's Blog - Ghost Stories - September 14 2024 09 55 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the June 2024 edition of the magazine which had poetry as its theme. My article here looked at The Links Between Poetry and Flash Fiction Writing.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Story Judging

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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. Autumn coming in rapidly here and Lady and I have had our first soakings of the month! Looking forward to sharing two fabulous author interviews on Chandler’s Ford Today towards the end of the month plus I hope to have news of another writing event in October before long. Meantime, keeping busy writing and editing here. Huge advantage to this is I keep dry!

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Lady and I had another soaking this morning. We may have been marginally less wet than yesterday but there wasn’t much in it!

On a much happier note, I’m pleased to share Story Judging for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I look at where competition judges can tell how much (or little) editing has been done on the pieces they get to read and I share what I think story judges are looking for. I also share handy tips.

Hope you find the post useful and good luck if you are entering competitions. I find they’re a great discipline for helping you to get used to writing to deadlines.

Story Judging

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Lady and I had a real soaking this morning! Hope it wasn’t too bad where you are. Only time I was pleased to get wet today was when I went swimming!

Don’t forget Story Judging is up on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above. Will be back to see The Chameleon Theatre Group’s latest production in October so will review that in due course for CFT too.

I’ve mentioned before I often use Zoom to record stories and play them back. Well, I was glad I did last night. A story I’ve got in mind for submission has to come in at under the three minutes mark. Discovered mine was over four! Have already edited the piece so hope it will now be to the right time length but I will re-record later and make sure. I’ve found it is the only sure way to make sure my timings are right.

 

Hope you have had a good day. Lady had a cracking time in the park with her pal, Coco, and then got to see two other rescue dog pals she sees every now and then. Grand time had by all. Rain held off too so will count that as a win.

I’ve been thinking of music and books a lot recently, partly inspired by the recent Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame chart which they played on Bank Holiday Monday. Wonderful music and many of the pieces relate to books or plays. Shakespeare turned up a few times for that chart. Would like to think he would be pleased about that. (Jane Austen and Charles Dickens were represented in there too).

Character Tip: Why not see what your character’s musical tastes are and why they have them? This could reveal something about their background and/or personality. Also think about a piece of music which would suit your character and think about why it would be that one. (If you pick Jaws, you are either writing about a shark or your character is of the kind I am likely to avoid!).

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday. It’s the end of the working week for many of us. Weather here has been frightful too. So definitely time for a story then and I hope you like my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – The Clock.

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Names can reveal a lot about characters such as age and social status. Sometimes I know the character’s job before I know the name but sometimes that occupation inspires my name choice. In Being Yourself (Tripping the Flash Fantastic), I knew my character was a librarian and then worked out a name to suit (I came up with Jane Stephens for this one).

Sometimes I don’t need to worry about names at all as I know the story will work best in the first person but even there I can show a character referring to or talking to someone else by name. What they call someone can be enlightening too. Do they use the full name? Do they use a contraction? When they speak the name is it with affection or contempt?

 

I’ve mentioned before you can have a lot of fun writing flash because, despite the limited word count, there is much you can do with it.

For example, I write across the whole spectrum from 50 words to the full 1000 and pretty much everything in between. I also mix up the genres I write in here and also the moods of the stories. I mix up writing in first and third person. I’ve occasionally used second person too.

But I also mix up the formats I use so sometimes I use acrostics (especially on Facebook and my blog round up). I have also written flash pieces in diary format, as letters, and in poetic form too. At some point I may have a go at flash in tweets because that is do-able.

The important thing in all of this? Having fun with it! You have to enjoy what you write/the process of writing and accept you are in for the long haul.

But the joy of creating something you hope others will enjoy I think is a great thing and feedback from sites like Friday Flash Fiction is enormously encouraging too. You can’t assume anything in the writing life but you can give it your best shot and have fun as you do that.

Being open to improving your craft matters too but that is fun in itself when you have the support of fellow writers. It is my experience the writing community is a tremendously supportive one and it is lovely being part of that.

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Fairytales with Bite – Rough Justice

Justice can be very rough indeed in the fairytale world. The prince didn’t expect to be turned into a beast in Beauty and the Beast, did he?

But for a wider fantasy setting, what would count as rough justice? Would it be the misuse of magic for aggressive purposes or would it be the withholding of magic when it could be used to help a character?

Who determines the usage of magic and when that usage spills over into abuse of power? Someone has to set the rules. There would have to be some rules given the lack of them would lead to anarchy, though you could give some thought to who would want to stir that up in your setting.

If someone is after power, which is what characters so often want (just so like us, eh?), how would they stir up that anarchy and then bring it under control again so they could rule?

Often when there is a power struggle, justice and truth are trampled on. Who would bring these things back and how would they do it? Who would ensure justice was just that only without any rough bits?

Story ideas there I think!

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This World and Others – Good -v- Evil

One of the things I love about fairytales is they call out evil for what it is. There is a clear divide between good and evil.

It doesn’t mean good characters are flawless – they’re not, any more than we are. It does mean they know what is right and wrong at least at the basic levels and the heroes here, to my mind, are those who are prepared to stand up for what is right, regardless. (See The Lord of the Rings, the Narnia series and so much more for more on that).

In your setting, is the divide clear? Would your readers know who they should be rooting for to succeed? Yes, sometimes you can have a “good villain”. The Sheriff of Nottingham, as played by the much missed Alan Rickman, in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves is one such but it was still right he did not succeed in the end.

The problem with evil winning is it is so depressing. The brute forces win, characters are oppressed, where is the hope in that kind of story? Indeed, where is the story? Frankly, we also see enough of all of that in the news!

So we need characters then who are prepared to stand up against evil. They’re not always going to get it right. Many of them will die. (To paraphrase Lord Farquaad in Shrek, that is a sacrifice the bad guys are prepared to make!).

But the interesting story is when those on the side of good do take up a stand against evil. We want to see what they do and whether it succeeds or not. If they face setbacks, which I would expect, do they overcome those? How do they overcome them? Is the cause of good upheld successfully?

One of the joys of fantasy and fairytales is when good is upheld. It gives hope. Yes, it may be escapism but I’ve never seen the problem with that. I want characters in conflict with each other and the right ones succeeding in the end. I guess I have wanted that ever since I first read the classic fairytales. I’ve seen no reason to change that view!

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I’m sharing the November 2023 edition of the magazine which focused on novels. My article is on Writing Novels and I shared what I learned from writing my (as yet) unpublished novel.

 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Best Invention Ever – Books!

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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, though photos of me with The Best of CafeLit 13 were taken by other half, Adrian Symes. Thanks also to Julia Pattison for taking the image of me about to run a workshop at Swanwick 2023.
Hope you’ve had a good weekend. Back to hot sunny weather here. Getting ever nearer to the wonderful Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick – so looking forward to that. Lady has been catching up with her pals and having a great time in the park with them. Dogs keep things simple. I like the simple approach myself when it comes to drafting a story. I ask myself whose story is it and then work out the character and away I go from there.

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Facebook – General

A hot one day but Lady keeping nice and cool, I’m glad to say. I have a flask of water with me for her which is a blessing.

Will be reviewing Bleak Expectations recently performed by the excellent The Chameleon Theatre Group for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. If you love a Dickens spoof and your own local theatre company put this show on, do go! Locals to my area, if you’ve not seen The Chameleons in performance, you should. You’re missing a treat otherwise. More to come in my post this week.

Don’t forget my author newsletter is out again on Thursday. Yes, I know, how did we get to August already, but there is no getting away with it. But plenty to share in my newsletter so do look out for it. If you’ve not signed up you can at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

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Pleased to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This month I’m talking about Best Invention Ever – Books! Well, it’s hard to argue with that one, isn’t it?

Regardless of what you like to read, life would be so much poorer without books in it. Hope you enjoy the post. I do ask how can we persuade people there are books out there for them, especially if they don’t come from a background of having always read. I do come from that background and am mindful I shouldn’t take that for granted.

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Lovely sunny day and Lady got to see her Jack Russell pal, Willow, today. Very sweet dog. Lady always pleased to see friends.

Had a lovely Zoom session with Swanwick friends last night but what is nice is the next time we meet up it will be in person at Swanwick. So looking forward to that.

Writing Tip: I draft my various posts in advance, I’ve found it pays. When I have any spare writing time, I jot down ideas and then start writing those up even if I don’t have a definite date in mind for using said posts. It does mean I always have something “on the go”. It also gives me more time to finish these pieces off. I’ve found that pays too.

Same applies for story writing. Even if I don’t have a definite market or competition in mind, I will draft away because I know I will find a home for these tales later on.

453212528_940839758055886_1379820348304126146_nHope you have had a good weekend so far. Nice to have lunch out in the garden with other half and the dog. Just as well we did, Is clouding over ominously as I write this!

Next week’s Chandler’s Ford Today post will be a review of Bleak Expectations, recently staged by our excellent local amateur dramatic company, The Chameleon Theatre Group. Their last performance of this is tonight, 27th July. Those with fond memories of the Radio 4 show of the same name (which includes me) will love this show as it is based on that and written by the same chap, Mark Evans.

Looking forward to flash fiction afternoon which is a highlight of most of my Sundays. Have a competition entry to finish and send in too this time as well as preparing my usual stories. Am making good progress towards a potential fourth collection too. During the week my writing consists of a mixture of blogging, story writing, and marketing items (such as getting my newsletter ready etc). Never short of things to be writing and that is how I like it.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Have used one of the prompts I worked on during the recent Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting from my most recent YouTube video which I shared yesterday. I love joining in with the live writing exercises. It keeps me on my toes and I get more flash written – win-win.

All of us share what we prepare on the night. I like to encourage this because it is a good idea to get used to talking about what you write. Helps overcome the nerves in doing so too I find.

Youtube image 2It’s Monday. It’s a hot Monday. It’s still Monday. Time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – All Going Swimmingly. Those from the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group may recognise this one from our recent meeting. Knew I’d do something with this tale and here it is!

 

Always look forward to Sunday afternoons. I always write a lot of flash fiction then. I know it sounds almost too horrible to contemplate but it won’t be that long before I am drafting my festive flash pieces. Yes, I know. Not even out of summer yet and I’ve hinted at a certain season coming along!

I bear in mind the women’s magazines will already know what will be in their seasonal specials later this year already so I tend to draft my festive pieces as and when the mood strikes me. I often do this in late summer/early autumn so I know I have pieces to look at and polish before sending them in anywhere. I like having time on my side as much as possible.

453042414_10162062645657053_8222404052672727223_nI sometimes have fun with my flash tales in that I use films I’ve loved as inspiration. For example, my Where The Wild Wind Blows (Tripping the Flash Fantastic) is based on The Wizard of Oz and I use one of the witches for the viewpoint character. It was great fun to do and a different slant on the tale I think.

I have a soft spot for this kind of story writing given my first story in print, A Helping Hand (Alternative Renditions – Bridge House Publishing) is a take on the Cinderella story. Hard to believe that was way back in 2009 – where has the time gone?

The tip I would give here though is always pick a story or film you know almost “inside out”. You need to understand the characters in the, if you like, “authorised” version before you can work out how to write a story suing a different angle based on it.

If you know Cinderella well, you will know the cast of other characters in that fairytale as well, giving you the opportunity to write something from their point of view. As you will know the characters well, your sharing of their viewpoint will come across as plausible to other readers who also know the story well, which is what you are after here.

Goodreads Author Blog – Spoofs

I’ve recently watched a wonderful play (Bleak Expectations) based on the works on Dickens, of course. The show itself was based on a Radio 4 comedy from many years ago and that and the play are written by the same man. There were many wonderful references to lines by Dickens, book titles etc in the play, which I loved. It was great fun spotting them!

But this led to me thinking about spoofs in general. Many are based on books – Bored of the Rings, anyone? (There is also A Midsummer Nightmare out there).

What I hope is the case here is the spoof comes about as a result of a genuine love for the author/books being spoofed. That is definitely the case with Bleak Expectations and if you get the chance to hear the radio series or go and see the play I heartily recommend it. Loads of laughs too! I wonder if any of these spoofs have led to people discovering the authors of the original works? I would like to think so.

One of my favourite moments from the long running Radio Four series, I‘m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, is when they have a books round and usually the players have to add a word to the title or take a word away to come up with a totally different book. I’ve often thought some of the titles they come up with for this would make excellent spoofs.

A well done spoof then, I think, can add to the pleasure of reading in general. Certainly Bleak Expectations has reminded me of Dickens’ titles I need to check out again!

Screenshot 2024-07-27 at 17-20-28 Allison Symes's Blog - Spoofs - July 27 2024 09 20 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the link to the November 2023 edition of the magazine. The theme this time was Novels and my article is called Writing Novels. I share what I learned from writing my first novel. Do check the excellent advice throughout the magazine out.

 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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The Writing Life, Writing Blurbs, and Killing the Mood

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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.
What a soggy start to a new week! Oh well at least Lady dries quickly. Writing wise, I’m looking at Making the Most of a Writing Event for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday and it won’t be long before I am their arts correspondence once again as I’ll be off to see The Chameleon Theatre Group’s latest production, Bleak Expectations, soon. Well, the weather is certainly bleak at the moment but I am expecting plenty of laughs as the show as it is based on the radio show of the same name which went out on air some years ago. Should be fun.

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Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day. Lady and I didn’t get soaked today so we’ll take that as a win.
Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting next week. Maybe summer, my theme for this, will be back by then? I can but hope!

Writing Tip: I draft presentations such as the one for the ACW group well in advance and then go through it nearer the time, having rested it for a bit. As with my story writing, that gap gives me time to see if I’ve missed anything and/or if there’s anything useful I could add in and so on. It pays off.

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Lady did get to see one of her chums, the Hungarian Vizler, today despite the awful weather. We all hope it is better tomorrow. Has anyone got Noah on speed dial?

Am preparing drafts for future flash fiction competitions. Deadline – end of August so I will aim to have something submitted by just before I go to Swanwick or shortly after I get back again. Will ensure I have time to spare and I always like that.

Then I will look out for autumn deadlines for flash competitions. After that, it will indeed be time for the festive flash season again. Yes I know. (Have not spotted anything to do with that particular season yet. It is a matter of time though! I remember always getting fed up when I was a kid when I spotted the Back to School signs in the shops and I’d only just broken up for the six weeks break. I swear this is worse now).

Will be interviewing the lovely Val Penny for Chandler’s Ford Today again soon. More details nearer the time.

Am also busy editing at the moment but the great thing with all of this? I stay in the warm and dry to do it!

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Saw a lovely kite in the shape of a US plane flown in our park today. Looked fabulous when in flight. Lady doesn’t know what to make of kites so stays well clear which is no bad thing. We also get red kites in our area. You can tell when they’re about. The smaller birds disappear!

Writing wise, will be enjoying flash fiction Sunday today. I always start a story with the question who am I going to write about because for me a story is all about the character, who they are, and what happens to them/because of them. Even when I’m given or I generate a potential opening line, I am thinking who would be the best character to “serve” that line.

When it comes to my Chandler’s Ford Today or Writers’ Narrative posts, I think along the lines of what would serve a reader best. So, whatever I write, I have the reader in mind all the time and that’s good. I’ve found it helps me focus on only those things the reader needs to know or would find useful to know.

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Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. Mixture of sunshine and soggy here.

Will be looking at Making the Most of a Writing Event for Chandler’s Ford Today next week and share useful tips on this. A lot of those tips will also apply to online events. Timely one to write about given in August I’ll be at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. I also hope to get to an Association of Christian Writers day event in October too.

I remember – too many years ago to count now! – going to my first ever writing event and being so nervous about it. But I had a lovely time, learned loads, met my now publisher there too (and neither of us could have foreseen that one). Have not looked back since. If there is a writing event of use to me I can get to I’ll go!

As well as being a delegate at Swanwick, I am also one of the course tutors. I’m running a two part course on Editing as an Author, Editing as a Competition Judge. Looking forward to this and every aspect of Swanwick week. I come home refreshed, reinvigorated, and absolutely shattered. Now that is a sign of a great writing event!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Happy with a draft flash for a competition I’ve got in mind to enter next month but have already seen where I can sharpen it. A bit more of a gap resting it and I will see more to sharpen but that is the nature of the beast.

Where I’m happy with the draft is knowing I’ve got the character voice right and am always happy when I’ve got that nailed down. Everything else is then looking at whether I’ve expressed things as well/as tightly as I can and there is always something I can tweak usefully. But the first draft is exactly that.

Shakespeare didn’t write a perfect first draft. I know I won’t either! It is all in the edit, folks!

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It’s Monday. It’s a wet Monday. So wet even Noah is wondering whether it’s time to set sail again. Definitely time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Killing the Mood.

 

Despite being used to write to tight word counts, writing the blurb (say for my Tripping the Flash Fantastic page on Amazon) still took time to craft.

I focused on what led me into writing flash fiction at all, then picked some highlights from the book to share, and flagged up it was a follow up to From Light to Dark and Back Again. I did this in under 70 words but it took ages to hone it down that tightly.

Was worth doing though. It sums up everything a potential reader has to know and having that in the back of my mind helped a lot.


Allison Symes loves reading and writing quirky fiction. She discovered flash fiction thanks to a Cafélit challenge and has been hooked on the form ever since. In this follow-up to her “From Light to Dark and Back Again”, Allison will take you back in time, into some truly criminal minds, into fantasy worlds, and show you how motherhood looks from the viewpoint of a dragon. Enjoy the journey!

Once you’ve got a potential line or two like this down for your own books, read them out loud. Hear how they flow. Can you simplify your lines without losing anything important? Editing comes into this too!

 

Given the weather is so changeable again – yes, I know it’s July, someone needs to tell the weather systems this – why not take the chance to catch up with your reading? At least that’s not weather dependent!

I love reading flash fiction as well as writing it and am often inspired by the wonderful stories I come across. Every writer needs to feed their own imagination and the best way of doing that is to read widely, in and out of your genre, and do include non-fiction.

Sparks for story ideas have come from non-fiction articles for me before now. Keep your imagination pool wide and deep and always topped up is my motto!

The other huge advantage to being a writer who reads well is you know what works well for you when you read something by someone else. You can work out why that is too. You can then apply that to your own writing. Win-win there I’d say.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Reading Acrostic

R = Read widely and well – every writer is advised to do this but why leave it just to writers?
E = Enjoy a wide range of genres and discover the wonderful world of non-fiction.
A= Authors cross all ages and genres in their work so why not discover their crated worlds?
D = Discovering a genre and/or writer new to you, whose work you like, is a great joy.
I = Imagination, inspiration, intricate plots, immense and amazing characters – what’s not to like?
N = Novels, novellas, short story and flash fiction collections – why not try them all?
G = Gives you good opportunities to read contemporary works as well as the classics.

Screenshot 2024-07-13 at 17-14-03 Allison Symes's Blog - Reading - An Acrostic - July 13 2024 09 13 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

The link below this time is to the October 2023 edition of the magazine which had a horror theme to it (well, it was Halloween month!). My article here was on Writing Horror: The Telling Details.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Questions To Ask Your Characters and Using The Weather

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, as were the photos of my lovely dog, Lady, and pictures from the local wildflower meadow which is always stunning.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Lovely family meal out here. The calendar may say July but outside it is definitely saying autumn! Hope things are better with you. Not that Lady minds. She’s pretty good about accepting the need to have paws wiped etc after a rainy walk out. I must admit though I am a bit put out I am back in my walking boots though – in July!

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Another soggy day but Lady got to meet and play with a lovely Golden Retriever called Winston. Good time had by both.

Had a lovely Zoom meeting last night on a topic I love – history. Looking forward to the next ACW Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom later in the month. Can’t help but think I may have been optimistic in choosing summer as a theme!

Need to look up some writing competitions to have a crack at – these are good for making you write to a deadline and often to a theme as well. They’re also good for getting you into the habit of submitting work to someone who will truly evaluate it independently.

How do I know the latter? That’s because I have been (and still am) a competition judge. All entries are submitted to the judges anonymously so we really can’t tell who has written what. I’m looking forward to putting my judge’s hat on again in the summer and autumn for flash fiction in both cases. Will be fun.

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Hope you have had a less soggy day than Lady and I. She dries off better and quicker than I do. No danger of a suntan here – rust might be a possibility though!

Writing Tip: If you are going to use the weather in your stories, be specific about it. Let us know your character has got a drenching rather than became slightly damp. You can show us how that drenching changed the character’s mood.

I would be specially interested to know if they were happy about it given that is not most people’s reaction to getting soaked. Has the character got other troubles which put the drenching into perspective, for example? Could the drenching help them in some way (it gives them a good excuse to get out of something, say)?

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Anyone would think it was autumn around here – strong winds, heavy rain etc. Still on the plus side the wildflower meadow is in full bloom at our park – it’s a joy to see. Lady approved too!

Good questions to ask your characters when you’re trying to discover more about them could include the following:-

What would you like to do if you could get away with it and why?
What would you never do even if circumstances allowed you to do so?
Who would you consider to be a hero and why?
What do you think is the most important thing in life and why?

Answering those would give you a good outline. It’s often the reasons why which reveal much about a character.

If my character decided they would love to rob a bank but, only because they know they could get with it, because they were once sacked by a bank, then you’ve got a clear, understandable motivation of revenge (doesn’t mean you have to approve!), and you could write a great story based on this. Knowing the likelihood of getting away with it is remote, do they find other outlets for their need for revenge instead?

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Has been a strange blustery day where I am. Hope it has been much better with you. Managed to get the lawn cut before the rain came in – will take that as a win.

I’m looking at the topic of Writing Fitness for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. More details nearer the time but I will touch on issues such as screen and other breaks and being ready for the ups and downs of the writing life. (Oh and another author interview to come towards the end of the month).

Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow as I get a fair amount of flash written then. Lovely way to spend the afternoon.

Just over a month away to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick – so looking forward to that.

Writing Tip: Do, as part of your editing, check there are no plot holes. Is everything tied up which should be? It is easy to over look something so make sure all marries up as it should. All should make sense, even in the most fantastic of settings.

What you are after here is to avoid anything which might make readers think “but…”. What you want them doing is rooting for your characters to succeed or fail. That way they will keep reading with nothing to jar their reading enjoyment.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

More rain. Should have guessed. Wimbledon’s on! If anything is guaranteed to bring out the rain, it is the tennis.

My favourite all time moment from SW19? There could only be one. It is when Andy Murray won the title for the first time. Had the great joy of ringing my Dad, who was a life long tennis fan and had been waiting for a British champion all his life, who was all over the moon about it.

Now how do I link that to writing flash fiction? Easy peasy! Flash focuses on the important moment of a character’s life. Nothing more. Nothing less. It is the figuring out of what is the most important moment which can be tricky so I ask myself questions here. What does my character have to achieve by the end of the story and why? Get that sorted and I have my outline. I have what I know I’ve got to focus on.

Flash Fiction focuses on THE important aspect of a character's life

It’s Monday. It’s more like October than July at the moment out there. It’s definitely time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Routine. When all is change and turmoil around him, can Larry keep his job? Will his routine ever be the same again? Find out here.

 

Hope you have had a good weekend. Will be looking at the theme of summer for the next Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later this month. I hope summer will be back by then! It’s more like autumn where I am at the moment.

If you are ever stuck for a theme to write to, do check out the random theme generators. These can be useful for getting you started on something. I’ve found the broader the theme, the more I can do with it.

A theme like summer I can take in all sorts of directions from holidays to someone hating summer because they have the world’s worst case of hayfever to stories which focus on legends and/or sports associated with the summer season.

Another good place to start with themes is looking at what interests you. I love music of a wide variety but classical is my favourite. So I could base a story on a character who loves or hates classical. I could use a classical concert as the backdrop to a story.

So often it is getting started on a story which is the issue so having a wide variety of “methods in” is useful. This is why I use the random generators, story cubes, books or prompts, my own photo, all sorts of things. Sometimes I will look for the theme or something which is an intriguing opening line so I can work out how I would follow on from said line.

Mixing things up is fun and keeps you on your toes. That in turn encourages further creativity.

AE - July 2024 - Writing something down helps trigger further creativity for me

A favourite theme of mine for flash stories is someone not being all they appear to be. Sometimes the character is a magical one who has absconded from their old life to live somewhere else, usually here on Earth. (The Past – Ready Or Not? is one example from Tripping the Flash Fantastic. And yes I did have the old “coming, ready or not” phrase used in childhood games of Hide and Seek in mind for the title here).

What I do is give small details to indicate to the reader my character is hiding something. Those small details add up so the reader can work things out.

Sometimes my character is as human as you and I are but they know someone who isn’t. That can cause issues because they don’t want the neighbours finding out about their dodgy connections – see my What The Neighbours Think as an example of this and how my character handles this.

Again it is the small telling detail which packs a great deal of punch here. My character wonders what it is about her that attracts the oddballs. From that you know said oddball is going to turn up/has just turned up and my character has to handle it/keep things quiet as they see fit.

What I don’t do is give lots of details about the hidden past/dodgy connection. The reader doesn’t need to know all of that. They do need to know how my character is going to deal with it and an idea of what it is they have to handle at all.

Allison Symes - Flash Fiction Collections

Goodreads Author Blog – Books of Letters

I love books of letters. I have books of letters by Evelyn Waugh (his own and those he exchanged with Nancy Mitford) and P.G. Wodehouse on my shelves (real and electronic). Yes, the letters do shed insights into the writing life which are fascinating and useful. I also have a book of letters by Jane Austen and I must finish reading that so this post has proved useful in reminding me to do so!

I do so wish Agatha Christie had done this though. Am sure her letters would have been insightful. Having said that, her The Moving Finger does have its plot focus around a string of poison pen letters so she brought them into her fiction at least!

What I like about letters are they do show something of the writer and the recipient. I’ve made use of this as a wiring technique in my Punish The Innocent (From Light to Dark and Back Again). Good fun to do and it makes for a freshing change of story format but one I think best done sparingly. You do have to have strong characters to carry this off successfully.

Maybe that is why more writers haven’t produced books of their letters. They would rather get their characters to show you something of themselves rather than of the writers themselves. What do you think?

Screenshot 2024-07-06 at 16-05-01 Allison Symes's Blog - Books Of Letters - July 06 2024 08 04 Goodreads

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Am sharing the bumper January/February 2024 issue of the magazine this time which looked at new beginnings AND romance writing. I looked at New Beginnings for Characters and asked Flash Fiction Romance:  Is It Possible? for this edition.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Employing Kipling’s Serving Men

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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. Summer weather continuing at a nice temperature for Lady and me. Swimming sessions have been especially nice this week! Delighted to discover a useful notes program on my new smartphone. Am sure I will make good use of this when out and about. Writing wise, am keeping busy with blogs, flash fiction, and editing work – loving it all!

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to share Employing Kipling’s Serving Men on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I look at what these serving men are and why they are so useful to any form of writing. I also add in a “serving man” of my own – I use this particular one a lot in my own writing.

I share an example of a non-fiction and fictional use of the serving men and discuss frameworks, which is essentially what the serving men give you. Hope you find the post and the serving men useful for your own work.

Employing Kipling’s Serving Men

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Hope the day has been good. Lady accompanied me at the polling booth this morning. Only one in there who didn’t need photo ID.

Will be sharing Employing Kipling’s Serving Men on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. Just who are these serving men and why can every writer benefit from them? Details in the CFT post tomorrow. See above.

Have had to change smartphone recently. Delighted to find it comes with its own useful note program. Have used it for both of my Facebook posts today (4th July 2024). Am sure I will be making good use of this. I did use another but have not liked them wanting everyone to have a paid subscription. Not worth it for me.

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Hope the day has been a good one. Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal and a lovely Nova Scotia Tolling Retriever called Charlie. Fantastic time had by all. Three tired dogs went home.

Will be looking at Employing Kipling’s Serving Men on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Said serving men make for an excellent structure for any piece of writing. More later in the week. See above. There will be more author interviews to come on CFT too plus a review to come for the next Chameleon Theatre Group show, Bleak Expectations, so plenty happening.

I see in this month’s Writing Magazine there is a feature about The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Will look forward to reading that soon. Can’t wait to be at Swanwick again – it is a major highlight of my writing year. Also hoping to get to a day writing event in the autumn and a book fair but I hope say more on both of those nearer the time.

Writing Tip: Always give yourself more time than you think for editing and polishing stories especially those for competitions. You get one shot at these things so taking that bit of extra time and care gives you the best chance. (Will be talking more on that in the editing course I’m running at Swanwick this year too but I’ve found it pays off).

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble (100 worder), Blockage Removed. The word “bar” came up as a prompt I set for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group recently and this is how I put the word to work for me. Hope you enjoy the tale.
Screenshot 2024-07-05 at 10-07-53 Blockage Removed by Allison Symes - Friday Flash Fiction

Ideas for stories can pop up anywhere. I’ve sometimes used overheard snippets of conversation, colourful hats etc I’ve spotted when out and about, and other observations for character portrayal. All out of original contexts too so nobody would recognise themselves.

I’ve heard it said writers have magpie minds – they collect this and that and it ends up in a story. Still I take comfort from the thought this has gone on from the dawn of time. Most storytellers want their audience to relate to their tales and that is done by crafted observations.

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Just a quick reminder to say I do take direct sales of my books via my website as well as at events of course. I am always happy to sign copies of From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic for people. Just contact me via my website – link below. I can also supply copies of the various anthologies I’ve had work in – just contact me for more details.

Flash Writing Tip: Get the story down first and then worry about the word count. Once I’ve got a first draft down, I rest it for a while and then come back and look at it again. It’s at that point I spot things I can strengthen and/or cut. If the story works well at 150 words, I leave it there and find a suitable home for it at a later date. The story does have to suit the word count rather than the other way around.

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Fairytales with Bite – A Letter From a Fairy Godmother to a Novice

Hope you enjoy the following. I suspect a letter of this type could be sent out to all magical beings about to graduate.

Learning The Ropes

Dear Novice

As a senior fairy godmother of many decades’ standing, and I am still standing, do take heed of the following. I was grateful for these tips when I was about to complete my final exams and continue to be. They are literally life savers.

Keep your wand fully charged. There is never a convenient time for it to lose power. It may be boring but get into a routine of looking after your equipment properly. Then when you need it, it will look after you.

Make sure your books are fully legible. Some of the ancient ones are easy to misread. You don’t want to find out what the consequences of a misreading will be. (It is still not clear, after all these centuries, what did happen to Fairy Mexatonia. All that was left of her were her smoking boots and a spell book with steam coming off its pages. No chance of reading anything on that now).

Dragons are best avoided. Left to themselves, they are seldom any trouble. They only cause trouble when they feel under threat so don’t go there. Yes, you get the odd rogue one who decides it wants to dine out on roasted fairy godmother but then you discover the joys of having a fully charged wand and zap the thing, right?

Treat all with respect. Many of our more powerful colleagues do look as if a strong gust of wind might blow them over. Not a bit of it. They’re the ones who’ve turned arrogant humans into hairy creatures. You don’t want that happening to you.

If something seems too good to be true, it is. Run away fast. This is a universal principle for all beings.

Best of luck with the practical and theory exams.

Senior Fairy Godmother Artexia

Allison Symes – 3rd July 2024

BookBrushImage-2024-7-5-19-455This World and Others – Getting Through

I would hope that any novice fairy, on receipt of the letter, Learning the Ropes, outlined in Fairytales with Bite, would realise they’ve got to take this seriously. Getting through to others though isn’t always easy though. Prejudices, pride, arrogance etc can all get in the way of someone learning something invaluable. That applies to our characters as well to ourselves!

So you have a story where an older character needs to get information through to a younger colleague, whom they know won’t want to listen. How do they get around this and get the vital information through to the one needing it? Give some thought as to why the younger one won’t listen – it is just youthful impatience or has the younger character got good reasons to be wary of taking seriously anything their older colleague tells them?

There would be some interesting conflicts there. Also does the younger character have to learn their lesson the hard way? Does the older character need to learn how to get things across in a better way so people will listen?

What worked back in the day may not be so effective now given times and technologies change. A younger character could be unwilling to study old magical text books when they could access material via whatever their equivalent of a computer would be. The older one to know perhaps there is information in these old books which shouldn’t be lost and not everything transfers to technology well.

Generational cross-purposes form the basis of many stories in different genres, but especially sagas. There is no reason why this couldn’t come into fantasy stories too. The same issues of being willing or unwilling to listen occur regardless of where your world setting might be.

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

The magazine is back in 2025 after a hiatus but in the meantime do check out the back issues. This time I share the March 2024 edition with its theme of Writing For Children. Plenty of wonderful articles here. I had two pieces in here – Writing for Children and, separately, Writing for Anthologies.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Author Interview: Maressa Mortimer – Going Downsteam

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From Light to Dark and Back Again - by night
Tripping The Flash Fantastic - by night
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. Lady and I are not sorry it has cooled down a bit – much easier to manage! It is a delight to welcome Maressa Mortimer back to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her new book, Downstream. She also shares wonderful advice about world building and much more. Do check out the interview. Link below.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

I’m delighted to welcome back Maressa Mortimer to Chandler’s Ford Today this week to discuss her fabulous new book, Downstream. Maressa is the author of The Elabi Chronicles and Downstream is book three in that series, (the other two being Walled City and Beyond the Hills).

Maressa shares wonderful tips about world building and writing series books and also discusses the importance of supportive writing groups amongst other topics. Hope you enjoy the interview. Much to enjoy here and good luck with Downstream, Maressa.

Author Interview: Maressa Mortimer – Going Downstream

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Do check out my interview with Maressa Mortimer about her gripping novel, Downstream, which will be on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above.

As well as sharing details about the book, Maressa and I discuss writing series books (including sharing useful tips on this), having a writing routine, favourite characters, world building and so much more. Looking forward to sharing this. Oh and I know writers aren’t supposed to have favourite characters from their own works but I suspect we all do.

Writing Tip: If you have an author newsletter, plan out when you want to have your draft for the month finished by. I do this and usually have a draft completed by the 20th or thereabouts. I find this useful because it still gives me time to add things in (especially news which can come in at any time) and I have then time to review it all well ahead of when I press send.

When I have ten minutes or so to write with, I will sometimes use that to add something in to the newsletter. I like to build up the content as the month progesses so there is no last minute rush.

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Today would have been my father’s 87th birthday. I can’t believe it’s eight years since we lost him.
Lady and I are focused on keeping as cool as possible. Am thankful she likes water. At least I know I can rely on Lady to drink plenty. (She has been too. Is keeping well and is being sensible. When it is hot is about the only time she is sensible!).

Am so grateful writing is something to be done wherever I like and right now I like cool!

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting tonight. We’ll be looking at writing 50 and 100 word stories. If you ever want an interesting challenge, have a go at these. The 100 worders were my first introduction to flash fiction. Have never regretted discovering it!

FLASH - Flash fiction encourages focus but you can apply that to other forms of writing

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday. It’s time for a story. And I’m delighted to be Lisa’s Choice on Friday Flash Fiction this week. Hope you enjoy my latest here – I Remember You.

Screenshot 2024-06-28 at 10-14-49 I Remember You by Allison Symes - Friday Flash Fiction

Don’t forget my author newsletter is out again soon. I especially focus on flash fiction so if this sounds of interest do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

This time I will also have news relating to The Best of CafeLit 13 so do look out for that if you already subscribe.

Had a lovely time at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group last night. We were looking at writing to 50 and 100 words. Have got a couple of drafts from that. Will be looking at these in a few days (I like to think of this as my cooling off period!) but think I know what I will end up doing with these stories.

Back to flash fiction writing over the weekend. Catching up with some blogs in the meantime. All wonderful things to write! (Oh and Lady and I are not sorry it has cooled down a bit. Is helping us both a lot!).

 

I’ve mentioned using questions in stories before. The reason I love them is they give you an instant structure to your piece because you and the reader know there will have to be some sort of answer before the end of said tale.

In my What the Neighbours Think (Tripping the Flash Fantastic), I use a question to make a character reflect on themselves as something odd happens and another one towards the end of the story to show a resolution to the tale. Nobody says you have to ask just one question but no matter how many you have there has to be an answer somewhere in the story to each and every one.

Metaphorical questions are fine by the way. It should be clear from context that a question is of that type and therefore no direct answer may be appropriate though in the case of this story of mine, even that one is answered by the way the story plays out.

BB - Flash with a Dash for TTFF

Fairytales with Bite – Accidents

No prizes for guessing what inspired this little tale.

A = A crafty but lazy apprentice
C = Conceited and sure of himself
C = Concocted a plan to get out of cleaning.
I = Imagination was wonderful, he thought.
D = Daring him to go further still.
E = Except things went wrong.
N = Now he had no control over the broomsticks and buckets.
T = Terrible things awaited him, he felt, when his boss got home.
S = Sadly, he was right, and he never meddled with spell books again.

Ends
Allison Symes – 26th June 2024

Image connected with The Sorcerer's Apprentice

This World and Others – Upholding the Law

How is the law upheld in your setting? Do most characters find this easy enough to do? Are the laws fair?
If your lead character could bring in one law, what would they choose and why? What does this reveal about them to you? If there was one law they could abolish, what would they choose and why? Again what does that choice reveal about their personality?

Who is responsible for bringing laws in? Can they or the laws be challenged? How far back in time do the laws go? Is the government a democracy or a dictatorship? The answer to that would reveal the kind of laws your society will have and how they are upheld. In the case of the latter, I would suspect with brutality where needed, given what happens here.

If you could think of a funny law, which is apt for your characters, what would you bring in and why? Story thoughts there, I hope.

BookBrushImage-2024-6-28-19-5821WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Screenshot 2024-05-31 at 16-55-29 Writers' Narrative June 2024Screenshot 2024-05-31 at 16-55-58 Writers' Narrative June 2024

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

 

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A Strange Few Days…

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

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots and 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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?

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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

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Questions and Answers In Writing

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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 have had a good week. Lovely to have the temperatures matching the spring weather at last. Posts will be out at different times next week but am looking forward to my Scottish break. Will do hubby, dog, and I the world of good, as it always does.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Delighted to share Questions and Answers in Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I look at the value of a simple but timeless structure for writing, which works just as well for non-fiction as it does for fiction. I also share specific examples of good questions to ask for use in fiction and non-fiction respectively. Hope you find the post useful.

Questions and Answers In Writing

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The spring sunshine has finally turned up with a lovely temperature to go with it. Lady and I are loving this.

Will be looking at Questions and Answers in Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above. Post will look at how these work for fiction and non-fiction. They do make a useful structure for your writing.

Writing Tip: Mix up how you find prompts for your writing. It keeps things interesting for you by keeping you on your creative toes. No bad thing that. I like to use a mixture of the random generators, story cubes, books of prompts, proverbs and phrases etc. I have written stories, many of which went on to be published, from all of these methods.

442385796_10161874238522053_2352573593092291139_nHope you have had a good day. Proper spring weather at last – Lady and I loved it.

I’ve mentioned before I use random generators of various types to help trigger ideas. They are the modern equivalent of story cubes (and I use those too!). I had a quick look at the random question generator tonight and came up with What is one of the great values that guides your life?

Now that could make an interesting blog post or non-fiction article but it would have uses in fiction too. You could use this as a theme, deciding on the value in advance and showing that being played out through your story. You could get your character to answer the question directly and then backing it up with their actions. You could also have fun here by showing them failing to live up to what they said. What would be the fallout there? There would be some.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest 100-worder, Artistic Inspiration. Talking of inspiration, this one is inspired by the old Tom and Jerry cartoons (which are always worth watching). Find out why via the link. Hope you enjoy the story.

Screenshot 2024-05-10 at 10-16-39 Artistic Inspiration by Allison Symes

Another great way to have fun with flash is to write what I call a “two-hander”. This is where one character is directly addressing another one who is reading what the first one has sent to them which is in the style of a letter, minus the usual greetings and yours sincerely bits etc.

My example of this is You Never Know from From Light to Dark and Back Again where my lead character is berating the unseen other character for envying them a luxurious life as a magical tour guide.

The story shows exactly why it is any thing but that. Would you fancy the Gollum special (the raw fish diet), for example, which my lead character has to have? Doesn’t matter if they get tired of it. Would you listen to Snow White’s advice to never eat anything red and glowing? (I can’t help but feel that is good advice outside of fiction as well!).

Fun to write but you need a strong lead character who has enough to say on the theme of the story and ideally does so with wit. (Nobody likes a whiner). You want your readers to end up sympathising with what the lead character is putting up with here. So think about who your two characters would be and how the second one would give the first one something to write to them about.

Allison Symes - Flash Fiction Collections

If you have a character with special powers or abilities, you do need to let readers know about this before any demonstration of those things.

In my Being Yourself (Tripping the Flash Fantastic), my character reveals what her special gift is, then demonstrates it, leading to a satisfying conclusion as she…. Well no spoilers here as ever but the point is I do set that special gift up ahead of showing it in action. To do anything else won’t ring true for a reader.

A reader will also need to understand why your character wants to use these gifts/powers. Doesn’t necessarily have to agree with the course of action being taken by the character but there has to be what I call good follow through in that a reader sees what is happening, understands why, and so the story will work for them.

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Fairytales With Bite – Travels

How do your characters get around in your setting? Do they rely on broomsticks or do they have more sophisticated forms of travel? Do your characters regularly travel or is it something they only do out of necessity (such as with the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings)?

Are certain species banned from travelling and how did that come about? Is travel easy for most or only the reserve of the privileged few? Is magic used to power transport or is that saved for other more important things? You could have a combination of machines as we would know them with magical power saved for what cannot be done mechanically.

Which characters can fly directly? Which need to use a broomstick or other device? Can animals fly in your setting and would that be restricted to those who would normally be renowned for running such as the horse? (You could argue their flying would equal their running on the ground, they would just be “running” in the sky effectively).

Are there places in your setting where everyone loves to go? Where would they avoid and why?

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This World and Others – Wonders

There are so many wonders on our planet, despite the ever grim news, it can be easy to miss them. From the glories of nature to the wonders of the universe above us (and getting to see even more of these thanks to the space telescopes) to the tiniest flower, there is much to wonder at and admire. But you do have to have an open mind and an appreciative heart to see this, I think.

So in your setting, do your characters see the wonders around them or do they take these for granted because they are always here? Would they suddenly realise how much these things mattered if they were taken away for some reason?

Wonders also span the scientific world in terms of discoveries in so many fields, including medicine. What would be the equivalent in your setting?

What is the view of your Joe Public here? Do they appreciate the wonders around them or do they need these pointing out? Who benefits the most from wonders where discoveries happen and new inventions occur? Do the benefits get down to the ordinary people?

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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My Top Five Writing Exercises

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Hope you have had a good week. I’ve had a busy one with the ACW Flash Fiction Group and a lovely trip to see the latest production from my local excellent amateur theatre company. Review to follow on CFT in due course. All I will say is with the title being Waiting For Gateaux I was expecting some laughs. Lady got to see her friend Coco the other day for the first time in ages and both dogs were very happy to see each other. Dogs are lovely like that.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Had a lovely time at Ritchie Hall for Waiting For Gateaux last night. Review to follow for Chandler’s Ford Today in due course.

Meantime, I’m pleased to share My Top Five Writing Exercises as my CFT post this week. If you would like to try writing exercises to help with your story creations etc but don’t know where to start, why not try out the five I list here? I use them all regularly. There are many other exercises available but these are the ones I use most often.

My post also looks at how writing exercises encourage you to think in different ways (and therefore stretch your imagination). I also share further top tips for making the most of writing exercises. Hope you find the post useful.

My Top Five Writing Exercises

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Am off to see Waiting For Gateaux, the latest production to be staged by The Chameleon Theatre Group at Ritchie Hall tonight. Should be fun. Will be reviewing for Chandler’s Ford Today in due course. I also get to meet up with my lovely CFT editor at these productions so we do kind of consider these to be a CFT works outing!

Will be sharing My Top Five Writing Exercises for CFT tomorrow and evaluating what I find helpful about each of these. There are many more I could have mentioned as I use far more than five but I thought the ones I picked for this post would be useful for any writer to use. See above.

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Every so often I receive reviews directly rather than via Amazon etc. Delighted to say one came in for me today for Tripping the Flash Fantastic. A huge thank you to the reviewer concerned.

I like how Allison Symes managed to put together a book of short stories, flash fiction, and poetry that intrigued me here and there. Tripping the Flash Fantastic is also very easy to read through because the stories are short—before long, I found myself already having devoured more stories than I thought I could in a short amount of time. The stories are also creative and while not all stories resonate, it is inspiring and quite original. I like simple books like these. From KO.

I’ve mentioned before all authors appreciate reviews. They help make our books more visible and all writers welcome validation of their work (and we get that from reviews and other feedback from readers of course).

Reviews don’t have to be long either. Nor is there a use by date by which you need to get reviews in by. Yes, they are especially useful shortly after publication but I’ve reviewed books by other authors which I came to years after those books originally came out. You can’t know when someone is going to see your books.

But do review. It doesn’t take long. And it gives the author something to share as part of their marketing via posts like this one, mentions on their website etc.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to share my latest story on Friday Flash Fiction – Deception. The opening line for this one started life as an exercise I set for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group which I run once a month on Zoom.

I always have a go at the exercises (I don’t want to miss out on the fun of creating stories from them!) and knew this one had potential. This story, I think, will have resonance for many. Many thanks to those who have already commented on this.

Screenshot 2024-04-26 at 10-12-54 Deception by Allison Symes

One of the delights of going to see a live production, as I will be doing this evening, is watching for those lovely moments which add to the characterisation of the play in question. These will be those “flash moments” which help you understand a character better and can be funny, moving, tragic etc. Mind you I am off to see Waiting For Gateaux so I am expecting humour with a title like that!

Glad to say last night’s Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Zoom went well last night. I hope everyone gets something positive from the exercises I set. I have a go at these myself after the meeting and I think I can do something with at least two of what I drafted last night. Hope to start drafting something over the weekend when I have more time.

Sometimes for these meetings, I will prepare an answer to an exercise in advance to give an example but I do love joining in with live writing exercises myself. Does wonders for the old brain cells!

I often set and AM set writing exercisesLooking forward to tonight’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. Always good to see everyone and we usually draft flash pieces in response to prompts (or have the starts of stories to finish off later) by the end of the evening.

I join in with these exercises and indeed, from the meeting in March, I’ve used a couple of opening lines I drafted then for YouTube and Friday Flash Fiction stories this month. That’s a result as far as I’m concerned.

Pleased to have received a review of Tripping the Flash Fantastic directly (see my author timeline on Facebook for more on that). See above. But I will sneak in another plea for reviews for all authors. Thanks.

I like to mix up how I open my flash tales but the one thing I try to do for all of them is to hit the ground running. I want to engage readers immediately. Sometimes I do that by setting up an interesting premise. Other times I’m showing a character in the middle of something and you have to read on to find what happens.

Sometimes I’m using thoughts, dialogue, or questions. But whatever I use, I always ask myself what is in this for the reader? That matters. Keeping your audience in mind all the time helps with focus. It makes editing easier too. With that question in mind, it is easier to spot what would be useful to a reader and what could be cut.

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Fairytales with Bite – Magical Equipment

In your setting, what exists in the way of magical equipment? Who makes it? Where do they get their “components” and do they have to meet safety standards?

(I’m married to an electronics engineer. Safety standards come into his world a lot and rightly so but I see no reason why they can’t come into a fictional world too. Indeed, a good story idea would be about someone trying to enforce safety standards for the greater good and the struggle they have to get everyone else in their society to accept that point. How many accidents would have to happen before the need for change is recognised and your character is the one to lead the way here?).

Can all of your characters access the magical equipment they need or are these reserved for certain species and/or for those at a certain level of magical ability? Your governing authority could of course control who can gain that magical ability to limit what powers can be used by whom that way but there would be an interesting story in why they are doing this.

Also does magical equipment go wrong? Can it be fixed? Who would carry out repairs and “servicing”? Is there the equivalent of an MOT for a witch’s broom? (If not, why not! Would love to see a queue of witches lining up to get their vehicles through statutory checks. What would happen to any unfortunate service engineer telling an annoyed witch her bristles need replacing? Could see some funny stories coming out here!). How can wands be checked to ensure they are doing what they’re supposed to do? Who cares enough to ensure magical equipment does work properly?

What controls do your governing authority have to ensure shoddy equipment doesn’t make it out into the open? Where has your world come from in terms of equipment development to get to where they are now?

Who has invented the equipment? What was done to improve the original models (almost inevitably improvements would either be necessary or become desirable when technology changes)?

Give some thought too as to how well or otherwise your characters use magical equipment available to them. That could make a huge difference as to whether they complete their “mission” successfully or not. Tools/equipment matter!

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This World and Others – Manufacturers

Linking in with Fairytales with Bite above, who are the manufacturers who make the products your characters will use? (The best known one of course is Ollivander the wand maker from the Harry Potter series but I liked that character. I liked the way it was realised someone had to make the things the main characters need to use).

How do the manufacturers access the ingredients and materials they need? What difficulties do they face here? Do they ever find materials they could always access before become rarer due to reasons of natural disasters/magical wars/other events in your setting or other manufacturers effectively buying up the lot?
Do magical manufacturers trade knowledge and materials with each other? Are there trade bodies? Do governments agree standards manufacturers have to meet and enforce that?

How did manufacturers get into the business? Is it a question of following the family business? How did those businesses begin? What made characters realise their talents lay in making equipment rather than using it directly?

How do they balance selling their equipment to those they would far rather not have these things with being able to survive? (Well, would you want to sell equipment to Sauron or Voldemort but what choice would you give your manufacturers for your own cast of villains here?).

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 15-23-10 Writers' Narrative April 2024Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 15-24-20 Writers' Narrative April 2024

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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