A Creative Life Part 2 – Sophie Neville – Author Interview

April 12, 2024Leave a comment

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Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good week. Weather has slowly improved as the week has gone on. Writing wise, am delighted to share Part 2 of a fabulous interview with actress/writer/scriptwriter/artist, Sophie Neville, on Chandler’s Ford Today. Do check it out. (Have had some wonderful comments in on Part 1 too).

Lady has had a good week, getting to see her friends for most of the past few days. She always gets a real buzz from being with her buddies which is lovely to see.

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Am thrilled to share Part 2 of a wonderful interview with Sophie Neville on Chandler’s Ford Today. This week, Sophie shares, amongst other things, how she came to write about chronic fatigue, her love of travelling (especially by horseback), and what she’d like to take to a desert island if I let her have the Bible, Shakespeare and, because I’m a fan, Jane Austen. Hope you enjoy the post. Many thanks for the lovely comments which have come in on Part 1 (especially on Facebook).

Author Interview – Sophie Neville – A Creative Life on Water, In Film, and In Writing – Part 2

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Lovely day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler this morning and I was at the top of the queue to pick up a prescription at the chemists, which for me is about as common a happening as a solar eclipse. I’ll take this as a win!

Part 2 of my interview with Sophie Neville is up on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow, don’t miss. See above. Both parts of the interview have been a joy to prepare and there is so much inspiration here for anyone interested in the creative life in whatever way (as Sophie is also a very talented artist and scriptwriter).

Writing Tip: It’s easy to forget your old notebooks from writing conferences, events etc, but every now and again dig them out and have a look through. I’ve found work in these I’ve gone on to polish up and have published on CafeLit etc.

Equally you may come across something you want to explore further and which you’d forgotten about so it is well worth having a flick through your books. It’s also cheering to look back at your earlier works and then see where you are now, writing wise. You will have made progress.

I can look back through my books and spot more easily whether something written back then could be developed or not. Just knowing that means I know now what could work and what absolutely won’t. It saves time! But unless you do look back through your books, you really won’t find that nugget where you could do something.

Nice day today despite the weather. Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and I’ve had my hair done. (I know. There is a Murphy’s Law for Having Your Hair Cut – that will be when the wind gets up and the rain comes down but never mind).

Looking forward to sharing Part 2 of a great interview with the lovely Sophie Neville on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Again see above. So inspired by this interview – it is a fabulous celebration of creativity I think.

Meantime, if you’re looking for a fabulous read, do check out the latest issue of Writers’ Narrative. Plenty to enjoy here. The theme this time is editing, a subject dear to my heart of course, given I’m an editor (freelance) and copy editor (WN), as well as an author. If you don’t receive the magazine regularly, you can subscribe for free and the link is given in the magazine itself.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s lovely to start the working week with a story. It’s just as lovely to end the working week with a story! Am pleased to share my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Time For A Change. What will Maisy do when her household objects go on strike? Find out here. Hope you enjoy the story.

Flash collections are joy to put together. I like to mix up the genres and the moods of my stories in mine. I like to think of this as giving a demonstration of what flash is and can be. I also don’t want to write or read “doom and gloom” tales all of the time, though they do have their place, which is why I like to ensure there is a good mix of humorous flashes, as well as darker ones in my books. Life is made up of humour and darker stuff so I think it apt my stories and books reflect that.

The one thing I have found I haven’t been able to write about at the time or now is the pandemic. I just wanted to escape all of that in my fiction, whether I was reading or writing it. That has remained the case. My publishers did bring out a couple of Covid related anthologies but I just couldn’t write anything on that. I suppose everyone has their blind spots.

If I have got to choose one overall favourite form of fiction, it is humorous writing, whether it is Austen, Pratchett, or Wodehouse (and there’s a trio to conjure with!). Never fails to cheer me up and I will always prefer that kind of fiction rather than the “more worthy” kind. Nothing wrong with humorous writing. Phenomenally difficult to get right.

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I do have fun with my titles. I like to keep them as open as possible so readers have to find out which way I’ve taken them and that can only be done by reading the story. But I especially love “innocent” sounding titles like my Time for Tea in From Light to Dark and Back Again. My lead character in this thinks they’re being clever, but are they right to think it? Do check it out via my Amazon Author Central Page.

Give some thought as to what you want your titles to convey to a reader. Proverbs/sayings can make for excellent titles, as well as themes, and I’ve sometimes changed one word in these to “subvert” them for my own purposes. (Punish the Innocent from FLTDBA is an example of this).

Every so often, I do jot down potential title ideas and come back to them later. If they still seem good, I’ll get a draft done. But time away from possible ideas is just as important as time away from the first draft of a stale. You need that break to judge them objectively.

Fairytales with Bite – Openings Don’t Have to Be All Once Upon A Time

Many of my flash fiction tales are what I call fairytales with bite. They involve a magical character (fairy godmother, witch etc) and I dump them in a situation they have to get out of quickly. Sometimes they call on their powers. Sometimes doing that would make things worse and they have to find another way of resolving their issues. Often there is a humorous twist to my fairytales with bite and I love writing them.

The classic opening for fairytales from childhood stories of course remains as Once upon a time and I remember just hearing those four words meant it was time to settle back and enjoy having another fairytale read to me as a child. Many happy memories there! (And when I could read the books for myself as an older child, I still appreciated that opening. I knew what was to come by then but it didn’t spoil the story, far from it in fact. It was time to eagerly anticipate enjoying a favourite tale).

For my own stories though, I like to show a character in action (and this can include showing their thoughts indicating the attitude of the character immediately) or their setting.

I like to establish it is a magical environment quickly so readers know what to expect. Sometimes I do that by just revealing the character is a dragon, fairy godmother, so if magic is then used to help resolve the problem, readers aren’t surprised by it and it doesn’t seem coincidental. That matters. Coincidences never ring true in any kind of fiction.

So think about what you want your opening to convey to your readers. What do they need to know quickly? How will you show your setting is a magical one?

This World and Others – The Stories Your World Treasures or Fears

Every culture has its stories. Some will be stories they treasure. There will also be those that “are buried” and there can be various reasons for that. For example, there are some violent stories in most countries’ histories. Some of those will be remembered (at events like Armistice/Veterans’ Day). Others will be “not talked about”, often because they’re frankly embarrassing and, rightly, the countries concerned have moved on – rightly so too.

So when it comes to your stories and your sci-fi/fantasy/fairytale settings, which stories would be recognised and acknowledged by your characters and those who rule over them? Which stories would be ignored or deliberately suppressed and why? What would happen to anyone uncovering those tales (and it is inevitable someone would! When there is a secret in fiction, someone is bound to reveal it!).

Think about who told those stories. Did they know what the consequences would be? Did they suffer for their art? Or were those stories not approved of at the time of your setting looked on very differently going further back into your setting’s past?

Attitudes can change over time and that can also apply to stories. What would have been approved of years ago may well be condemned now (and vice versa).

Are there stories your world fears because they could so do much damage if these were more widely known? What do the authorities do to keep those stories restricted to limit the risk of that damage ever happening and are they right to take this action?

Stories can convey truth. Not everyone welcomes that. So definite ideas for your own tales could emerge from that thought.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Author Interview – Sophie Neville – A Creative Life on Water, In Film, and In Writing – Part 2 https://t.co/T22L8IUjzR This week, Sophie shares how she came to write about chronic fatigue, her love of travelling, and what she’d take to a desert island, amongst other topics.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 12, 2024

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Time For A Change, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/tDF8ez2wWz It’s lovely to start AND end the working week with a story. My latest on FFF is Time For A Change. What will Maisy do when her household objects go on strike?
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— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 12, 2024

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Marketing On The Move and A Commendation

April 9, 2024Leave a comment

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Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, as was the photo of Lady posing on our last holiday.

Hope you have had a good weekend. Have been on the tail end of Storm Kathleen here. Writing wise, I’m looking forward to sharing Part 2 of a fabulous interview with actress/writer, Sophie Neville, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Be sure not to miss. It is an inspiring interview with someone who is so immersed in the creative life it is an encouragement to all.

In other news, Lady had some fun spotting some pals at a local fun dog show over the weekend, one of whom came second in their category. If ever there was a category “dog who is the best at being daft”, Lady would be a shoe-in for that, or should that be a paw in?

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Lady had a great start to her Tuesday by playing with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals.

Did get my story sent off to Friday Flash Fiction yesterday – they opened up to submissions again yesterday evening. Sent in a 100 worder. Good to get back to those again.

Managed to do some marketing “on the move” today. I was giving blood and part of the process is to confirm who you are, address etc. Usually you’re asked what you do too. Gets a nice chat going before you donate. So I mentioned I’m a writer, with two flash collections out and another in the pipeline, to which the NHS Blood lady made a note of my name and said she’d look me up online. Marketing doesn’t have to be scary! Some of the best marketing can come from conversations.

Has been a nice day today with lovely comments in on my recent interview with Sophie Neville on Chandler’s Ford Today. See screenshot and Part 2 of a fabulous conversation will be up on site on Friday.

Hope you have had a good start to your week. Not bad here but blustery again as I write this.

Am busy preparing blog posts and articles at the moment. Have a story I want to submit to Friday Flash Fiction when they reopen to submissions so hope to do that later this week but ahead of Friday of course!

Looking forward to taking part in a history group Zoom session this evening. I do write some historical flash but have always loved the subject of history since school days long before I took up creative writing.

Finding out what happens is a key component to writing in itself. It is what draws the readers in. It comes into history (and science) but I love things which shed light on the past. Sometimes a spark of inspiration for a story can come from that. I’ve found that to be the case for my historical flashes.

I totally understand the point of historical fiction though I only dabble in it myself. And I want the historical non-fiction I read to be gripping, entertaining, as well as informative. History should never be boring. It wasn’t for real for those going through it. It shouldn’t be in book form either!

Do I hope to write more historical pieces? Yes. As with my other flash work, I focus on the character and look at what I could say through them in my tale. I hope my portrayal of them shows a side to them which encourages empathy. Understanding what motivates people, real of fictional, is a powerful and good thing when it encourages that empathy (and a deeper appreciation for what we do have now).

Hope you have had a good weekend. Blustery but dry here. Think we’re getting the tail end of Storm Kathleen.

Looking forward to sharing Part 2 of a fabulous interview with Sophie Neville (of Swallows and Amazons fame, though she has done and continues to do so much in the creative spheres), for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Do look out for that.

A huge thank you for the congratulations coming in on my story Doing Right being Commended in the Friday Flash Fiction competition. Nice way to end the week.

Writing Tip: You’ve got to your desk, eager to write. Nothing comes to you. Don’t panic. Free write literally anything for a few minutes and/or brain storm title ideas, opening line/closing line ideas etc.

I’ve found that once I’ve started writing something other ideas, better ideas, come to me, but you do just need something to start with. The idea of just writing anything, no matter how rubbish it may seem to you, is just to warm your creative “muscles” up so those other better ideas come through. You’ve nothing to lose by trying this either.

Another good tip here is to go back through your notebooks etc where you have previously jotted down ideas. Now is the time you might put one or two these to use. The idea here is you have already jotted this idea down, now flesh it out and see what you can do with it. Again, it is to get you started on something.

Good luck and happy drafting.

Lovely surprise today (6th April 2024). Discovered my 100 word story, Doing Right, was commended in the Andrew Siderius competition recently held by Friday Flash Fiction. Many thanks to Dawn Knox for flagging that, congratulations to her too, and well done to the winners and all who where shortlisted as I mentioned yesterday over on my Facebook book page.

First time I have had a commendation here. Feeling chuffed!

Link to story here. All pet owners will get this one.

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Busy day today so am later posting than normal but good to be back at the desk and writing. Need to give some thought to the Bridport Prize soon. (Closing date is end of May). Do have a story ready I feel would be suitable so I will try and take a look at that again this weekend. I will want to submit anything by early to mid May at the latest.

I don’t believe in leaving it to the last minute for one excellent reason. You’re more likely to make mistakes in your entry if you do.

Second reason – technology can go wrong so if there is an internet “blip” you want it to “not matter”. You will want to be able to try later or next day once things are fixed. If you have something like that right at the last minute to submit your story, there’s no time to have another go at submitting the same. I do believe in a safety net here.

It’s Monday. It’s time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube, which has an apt title for Mondays – One of Those Days. Hope you enjoy it.

If you have a flash fiction story which revolves around a secret, do play fair with your readers and ensure the secret is revealed by the end of the tale. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a “big reveal”.

In my The Past – Ready or Not? (Tripping the Flash Fantastic), I reveal my character’s secret in three words towards the end of the story (which is a sub 150 worder).

I see this as akin to Chekov’s Gun rule in that if you have a gun in the story, at some point it must go off. If you have set up any kind of expectation in your tale, you do need to follow through on it. But that follow through is huge fun to write and can create some tremendous closing lines.

Have fun with this, I do!

I enjoyed writing The Writers’ Wish List for the recently published Spring 2024 edition of Christian Writer, the journal of the Association of Christian Writers (and only available to paid up members of ACW).

One element I applied directly to flash fiction and short story writers is that, every now and again, I will come across someone who is “stuffy” about the shorter forms of fiction. Naturally my wish was people wouldn’t be like that!

I have never understood this attitude. Yes, novels are difficult to write and obviously take far more time but the short forms still need drafting, editing, crafting, and a lot of time and care still goes into doing that. Also, why restrict what you read and/or write? I love reading novels and short stories/flash fiction. Plenty of room in the world for both forms!

When I’m reading I will deliberately read a novel or work of non-fiction, then a short story or flash collection, then back to a longer form of writing again. Why restrict yourself?!

When I’m writing, my main work is in the short form but I do have longer projects on the go. Why restrict yourself here either? Yes, you will over time find what is your natural “home” but it doesn’t mean you can’t give something else a try writing wise. I find it’s fun.

Sometimes, just sometimes, a short story or flash fiction piece will pack a powerful emotional punch in ways the longer forms wouldn’t do because everything that needs to be said is said in, say, 500 words.

The great novels show you a whole world and you need the time and space to show that. That’s something the short forms can’t do.

But this is why we need all of the writing forms!

Goodreads Author Blog – What Reading Teaches You

As a writer, I’ve learned so much from what I’ve read over the years. You take in how stories work by reading loads of them.

I picked up on the Rule of Three from reading the classic fairytales, for example. I came to realise something would happen, then happen again, but on the third time there would be a different outcome.

You also get to see how stories are laid out (paragraphs, dialogue, how scene breaks work etc) just by reading how others have done this before you.

I’ve long thought writers effectively have two great joys here – their own writing and reading. The love of reading triggers the desire to write. It is also why it pays writers to read widely – classic and contemporary, fiction and non-fiction.

Ideas for your own stories are often triggered by something else you’ve read so it pays to have an “imagination pool” to fish from which is as wide and deep as possible. Reading widely, and in varied forms, does that for you.

I’ve found the Kindle has encouraged further reading in that I use it to try out books by authors new to me. I will take a “punt” on a £2.99 ebook. If I like the author’s work, I often go on to buy further paperbacks from them later. But this is all because the Kindle makes it easy to read even more works. I like that. I make a point of reading both ebooks and paperbacks in my main reading session. Love them all.

Books are wonderful things.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Lovely surprise. Found my 100 word story, Doing Right, was commended in the Andrew Siderius competition recently held by Friday Flash Fiction. Many thanks to @SunriseCalls for flagging that. First time I've had a commendation here. Feeling chuffed!https://t.co/oU1M24ONsy pic.twitter.com/6DLVi6mUcT
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 6, 2024

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: What Reading Teaches You https://t.co/FM6NDWr6J5 via @goodreads I share my thoughts on what I've learned about writing when I've read works by others. It's more than you might think too. pic.twitter.com/1WYeTTnl3z
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 6, 2024

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Read contemporary as well as classic fiction. Both will inspire you but you do need to know what is out there in the here and now. That information will be even more useful to you when you are ready to pitch something. pic.twitter.com/38sCInNUdj
— ACW (@ACW1971) April 6, 2024

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I’ve often found inspiration for a story by reading an interesting non-fiction book or article. I will come across a useful nugget and realise it could apply to a character or I could use it to make things worse for that character. So keep non-fiction in your reading diet too. pic.twitter.com/6rQ3EH6KjX
— ACW (@ACW1971) April 7, 2024

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I mix up reading genres and formats. l go from paperbacks to Kindle and from reading crime to fantasy. I combine those via Terry Pratchett’s Vimes books. Inspiration for your stories comes deep down from what you love reading. Read on. It is fun and will help your own writing. pic.twitter.com/1AA7Wk6dVY
— ACW (@ACW1971) April 8, 2024

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It’s Monday. It’s time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube, which has an apt title for Mondays – One of Those Days. Hope you enjoy it.https://t.co/jy57mtRatK
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 8, 2024

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Author Interview: Sophie Neville – A Creative Life Part 1

April 5, 2024Leave a comment

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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 since the last post. Weather still all over the place but Lady running all over the place with her closest chums so they’re happy at least!

Am so thrilled to welcome Sophie Neville to Chandler’s Ford Today – she is a very talented actress (best known for Swallows and Amazons), has written many books, and is an award winning scriptwriter as well. This interview is a two parter, with the next stage coming out on 12th April. Don’t miss either parts – there is so much to inspire here.

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Hope you have had a good Friday. Lady and her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal rounded off their “working week” with a superb playing, good zoomies (you stand out of the way!), and who then went home tired and happy. I was happy to dodge the rain. That counts as a win this week.

For Chandler’s Ford Today this week, I am delighted to share Part 1 of a wonderful interview with actress and writer (and much else besides), Sophie Neville, who is best known for her role as Titty in Swallows and Amazons, a classic children’s film. She went on to do much more in front of and behind the camera plus her writing, especially her scripts, has won her awards too.

This week we look at how the different aspects of Sophie’s work have fed into each other, her thoughts on preparing for talks (useful tips shared too), and her involvement with the Wild Otter Trust and much more.

Do enjoy! Part 2 this time next week. Don’t miss!

Author Interview: Sophie Neville – A Creative Life on Water, in Film, and in Writing – Part 1

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Lady has had a super duper week in that she has got to see her friends for most of it! Had a lovely time again earlier today with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal. It is quite something to see the pair of them running.

Don’t miss tomorrow’s Chandler’s Ford Today post. I will be sharing Part 1 of a splendid two part interview with the hugely creative and talented Sophie Neville of Swallows and Amazons fame and much else besides. The whole interview is so inspiring to anyone with any interest in the creative life so do look out for it. More tomorrow on this. See above.

Writing Tip: When writing flash fiction, don’t worry about the word count. I know that seems an odd thing to say but focus on getting the story right first. Once you’ve got that sorted, then figure out what the word count should be.

If my draft ends up coming in at, say, 120 words, I will then and only then see if I can genuinely get it down to a 100 word count. Sometimes I can. That’s great. Sometimes I can’t (because it would spoil the story in some way) so in that case I leave it alone and I send it in to a category which is over 100 words instead.

How can I judge what would spoil the story in some way? Simply by asking myself would cuts take away from the characterisation I am trying to show. If it does, I don’t do it.

The star of any flash fiction story is the character. The reader needs to know who they are (in some cases in my stories, what they are too!) so if my cutting takes something away from their enjoyment of the character, that’s when I leave the story alone.

But if I can genuinely cut something to tighten up pace, give my characters a sharper focus, then I will do that.

Hope you have had a good day. Strange weather though thankfully Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals again today. Came home tired but happy. She always gets a buzz from being with her chums.

I was talking earlier today about non-fiction books via a Facebook group I am part of and I mentioned I’m currently reading Double Cross by Ben Macintyre, the true stories of the double agents used to fool Hitler. Fascinating reading. Highly recommend. I love the development of non-fiction told in narrative style, as this book is, as it almost seems like a novel (and a page turning one at that). Great way to take in history, I think.

I do sometimes write historical flash fiction though I do use standard modern English for my characters here. Why? Old English is not that easy to read so my one conceit is to allow past characters to talk in a way we would understand now. My historical flash pieces are all based on fact and/or reasonable supposition on the basis of known facts. Fun to do.

By using the flash format for this, I do have to hone in on what really matters to my characters. (And that applies to every other flash piece I write too, regardless of genre. Flash is a great writing discipline for this).

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No story on Friday Flash Fiction this week as they’re closed to submissions at the moment after the Andrew Siderius competition. Many congratulations to the winners and all who where shortlisted. It was great fun to take part. I submitted a story in the 100 words category and then a longer flash (151 to 500 words) over the two weeks the competition was running.

If you need to look at what 100 word stories look like on screen (or the longer up to 500 words category), do check out the website. I’ve found doing this useful in the past because it gives me a visual aid for what to “aim for” when drafting my story.

If I know a 100 word story could be three short paragraphs, I’ve already got a kind of structure in place. First paragraph – set up, meet character, know problem. Second paragraph – things worsen, character has to do something. Third paragraph – Character has done something and this is the resolution. Visual aids like that can be handy at times.

Also check out the wide range of stories on here. You’ll be in for a great read. The link takes you to a page full of useful tips for writing flash fiction. Do check them out.

One great thing about the opening line writing exercise is it challenges you to come up with excellent prose to follow on from it. I find I want to deliver on that cracking opening line and not let it down. So I need a strong character, one I know well and whose reactions and actions make sense based on my portrayal of them.

Do I like all of my own characters? Not necessarily! I can think of some of mine who make my skin crawl but the way I’ve portrayed them, their actions and attitudes would make sense if only to them. I don’t write too many of this kind of character because they’re not my favourite type but sometimes I have an idea for a plot where that kind of character has to be the one to “star” in it for it to make sense.

I do love my witty characters though and have a very soft spot for them. I especially love the ones who come up with wonderful one liners. What I need to watch there is to ensure I don’t write those lines just for the sake of it. Any and every line does need to move the character and the story on.

Any and every line has to earn its place in my stories. If there’s any doubt, then that tells me this line isn’t strong enough. Equally it tells me it doesn’t stand out enough to justify staying in the tale so out it comes.

Sometimes I’m inspired by films I like and take the viewpoint of another character for my flash piece. In my Where The Wild Wind Blows (Tripping the Flash Fantastic) I take the viewpoint of the witch from The Wizard of Oz who was unfortunate enough to have a farmhouse land on her. Just what are the odds of that happening, even in a magical world, I wonder! Good fun to do as it is interesting to explore what another character would make of the situation that has happened to them.

When Cinders got married, not all considered this to be good news – the stepmother and her daughters for a start. You can have fun playing with that kind of idea (and indeed I did with my A Helping Hand from Alternative Renditions (Bridge House Publishing), which was my first story in print back in 2009).

I’ve mentioned about using proverbs and sayings for inspiration (and they are fabulous sources) but why not the fairytales too? Whose story hasn’t been told? Who thinks they’ve been treated unfairly? A lot of fun stories could be told here (and I love the way the Shrek films covers this idea too).

From Light to Dark and Back Again - by night

Fairytales with Bite – Magical Studying

The best known magical school is, of course, J.K. Rowling’s Hogwarts. (Love those books and films). But when it comes to your own stories and settings, how would your characters be educated? Would there be formal education such as Hogwarts or would there something akin to learning from the “elders” of the people in a more traditional, oral manner? Would your characters have access to any education at all? If not, why not?

You can show a great deal about your society by showing who is allowed to be educated and who is not. Equally for your stories where education doesn’t come directly into the plot lines, your characters would still have needed to learn some skills in a magical world so they could survive. Do they ever talk about what they learned and how?

Good teachers have a positive influence on you for life. I recall with great fondness my English teacher, Miss Mackenzie, who introduced me to Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice). I learned irony was a thing in fiction from that one book!

After that, we went on to The Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham), a book I was sure I would hate given it was science fiction. I was wrong. I was pleased to be wrong. Miss Mackenzie gave me an invaluable lesson here in mixing up your reading and not being afraid to try genres new to you, something that remains with me (and I am sure has had a positive influence on my own fiction writing).

So what teachers would have had an influence, good or bad, on your characters and how does that play out in your story? How does your characters’ magical studying, no matter how they did this, affect what they can do in your plot line? When they are in trouble, as all characters will be at some point (!), do the lessons they studied earlier in their lives come to their aid now?

Studying has a life long impact. So it would make sense for that to apply to characters too. It could make a huge difference to whether they survive or not. Story ideas a plenty there, I think!

This World and Others – Discoveries

I’m always pleased to hear of discoveries which will be useful to mankind (medicine perhaps being the obvious one here). I also love to hear of discoveries which are simply amazing. I love seeing the photos from the various space telescopes, for example. The images are amazing (and that in turn gives me a renewed appreciation for the wonders of the human eye, for colour, and for photography).

So think about your characters. Which discoveries do they value and why? Do any of these come to their aid in the course of the story? Development in transport, for example, could make a huge difference as to whether your characters succeed in their quest or not.

What does your fictional world think about science or do they equate their magic with our science? In terms of the ruling powers, do they encourage new discoveries or try to suppress them? Not all would welcome people being able to find out more because that, in turn, could well lead to said people questioning how they are governed, especially if their discoveries are in things like finding out other places have democracy and they themselves do not.

Discoveries can take many forms. Which would your world/characters appreciate? Which would they not want and why? Who is behind making the discoveries and are they on their own here or do they have support?

If the ruling powers support discoveries, is that only for specialized fields such as military applications?
Give some thought too as to which discoveries would turn your fictional world upside down and is that a good thing or a bad one? Not all would see it as good. Not all would see it as bad. What could that split in opinion lead to?

Which discoveries could your fictional world/characters really do with having? Is your setting anywhere near obtaining these?

One single discovery could change so much too. Think about the discovery of pencillin for us. How many lives has that saved? So what would your world’s equivalent of the “game changer” be?

Again, plenty of story ideas there, I think.

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

Author Interview: Sophie Neville – A Creative Life on Water, in Film, and in Writing – Part 1 https://t.co/TmpInlj1oR Delighted to share a fab interview with actress/writer, Sophie Neville. We look at how aspects of her work have fed into each other, discuss talks, and more.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 5, 2024

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FFF are currently closed to submissions after the Andrew Siderius competition. Congratulations to the winners/shortlisted writers. If you need to see what 100 word stories look like, see the website. It's a great visual aid.https://t.co/g0LE7gTfct pic.twitter.com/ofTr5KpD0w
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 5, 2024

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Caring for Characters and Story Twists

April 2, 2024Leave a comment

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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 lovely Easter weekend. I’ve loved the church services and, separately, listening to the Classic FM Hall of Fame for 2024. (When will Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Ralph Vaughan Williams make it to No. 1? So deserves it. You feel like you’re going back in time listening to that!).

Am so looking forward to sharing Part 1 of a very special two part interview with Sophie Neville for Chandler’s Ford Today. Sophie is best known for her role as Titty in the classic children’s film Swallows and Amazons but she has done so much else too. More to come in the interviews. Part 1 up on Friday.

Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day. Shorter swimming sessions for the next couple of weeks due to the Easter holidays. Lady may well be getting longer walks in the afternoon, not that she’ll mind. She loved seeing her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback buddies today. Lady came back from that tired but happy (which is my standard look when I come back from a swimming session!).

Writing Tip: What is it about your characters which appeal to you the most? What makes you care about what happens to them? Sorting that out so you know will help you create characters which appeal to readers too.

Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Labradoodle pals this morning. Bank Holiday Mondays (as today is in the UK) always feel like a strange kind of Sunday to me. It was nice to see some spring weather though.

Newsletter went out this morning. No April Fool’s about that! Link to the current edition here but if you like the look of this and would like to sign up do head over to my landing page at my website. Separate link for that here.

Managed to get a fair bit of writing done over the weekend and am going through PowerPoints I’m due to present (one next week!). Am so looking forward to sharing Part 1 of a wonderful two part interview with Sophie Neville (Swallows and Amazons) for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Be sure not to miss. Sophie discusses her incredible creative life. Very inspiring.

Happy Easter! Nice to have some spring weather to go with it, though I understand the rain is due back again later, alas. Lady had a nice surprise today as she got to see her Hungarian Vizler chum at lunchtime.

When do I know a character will “work”? There’s no one single thing, to be honest, but when I can know how and why they would react in any given circumstance, that is a good sign. It shows me I’ve outlined them deeply enough.

Sometimes I will come across or think of something which will make me think Character X in Story Y would say exactly that, and this is another good sign. Sometimes I can come across something a character of mine in a story would not say and that, funnily enough, is useful as well because it then makes me think of what they would come up with instead. (I’d also know why here).

Knowing my characters well enough has been an enormous help to me. Having different ways to create characters (crucial as I am inventing characters a lot!) is invaluable. And knowing the characters gets me a long way to knowing what their stories will be and why. Story structure is not a glamorous thing but, for me, it underpins all the fiction I write.

It’s the small victories in life which really make you want to cheer at times. Today (30th March 2024) is the first day this year I’ve had my washing out on the line and got it dry! Yippee! Also happy to see my bluebells are beginning to emerge.

Many thanks to all who have subscribed to my author newsletter since last time. Welcome aboard and many thanks to the longer term subscribers too. Your support is much appreciated. (Next letter due out on 1st April – not an April Fool’s, honest!).

Writing wise, I am so looking forward to sharing Part 1 of a very special two-part interview with the lovely Sophie Neville on Chandler’s Ford Today. Sophie is still very well known for her role as Titty in the children’s classic film, Swallows and Amazons. She has gone on to have a superb career in TV (in front of and behind the camera) and in writing and has recently won awards for her scripts too.

There is so much to discuss with her (if anyone could be said to have immersed themselves in the creative life, it is Sophie) and I am so looking forward to sharing the first part next Friday, 5th April. Link up on Friday. Don’t miss!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

The joy of flash fiction and story collections is in having “bite size” reads which are so easy to dip into. I often mention using pockets of time for writing and that is a great and useful thing to do. I’ve found it has made me more productive because I’ve got ideas waiting for me to assess and then write up.

But why not use pockets of time for your reading too? I tend to use my lunch break for this but it helps me to read more and that is never going to be a bad idea!

What I like about the CafeLit and Bridge House Publishing anthologies especially is getting to read other authors in one book. That shows me whether I like their style or not and, assuming I do, it makes it far more likely I will check out their own longer works of fiction.

If you would like to know where to start, why not check out the Bridgetown Cafe Bookshop which covers the works of authors writing for Chapeltown Books too. So am not unbiased here but well produced story anthologies are a joy to read so why not check them out?

It’s Monday. Okay it’s a Bank Holiday Monday in my part of the world and we’ve even had some sunshine, hooray! Still time for a story though. Hope you enjoy Unfair, my latest on YouTube. (Short and sweet this one).

Happy Easter! Don’t forget my author newsletter is out again tomorrow. Not too late to sign up. Just head on over to https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com for that.

What I find useful in compiling my newsletter is adding bits and pieces to it throughout the month as thoughts occur to me and then editing appropriately a few days before it goes out. I also do a couple of test runs to make sure all is okay.

Flash is great to share on a newsletter too. Doesn’t take up much room(and this is another reason why I also add links to my stories on Friday Flash Fiction here as well. Easy enough to click on a story title that takes your fancy and have a quick read over a cuppa. Challenge to me? Coming up with intriguing story titles but it is good to be kept on the old writing toes here!

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My flash fiction collections, From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic, are square books. The design makes them stand out and they are ideal gift books, as someone rightly pointed out in a wonderful review for the latter.

Fabulous collection of poems and flash fiction. Some made me giggle, some made me gasp, all surprised me! I found it a real page turner, as the stories had such unexpected twists and turns! Some were actually quite moving. Highly recommend this! Makes a lovely present as well, with its (to me) unusual shape.

All of the Chapeltown flash collections are in this shape as part of an overall branding style. I think it works well though I accept I am biased (and bound to be so) here! The paperbacks are a great size to fit into pockets, bags etc so again are ideal for a train/bus ride read. Very easy to take with you (and even easier still if you go for the Kindle version of them!).

Goodreads Author Blog – Story Twists

I love twists in stories as long as they suit the character and situation. An early one I came across was in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, whom I understand received complaints about what she did here. Can’t say more without giving things away but it is a great book and I highly recommend it especially if you like twists.

I use twists a lot in my own flash fiction. For a very short tale like this, often my closing line is the twist. I have done this with the “standard” twist but have also written humorous twist endings. All good fun to do.

The tricky bit is ensuring that the twist does come across as “natural”. It must fit in with what has been revealed about the character and their situation, otherwise it will look like a “fix” to get the author out of a tight corner. My favourite twists are when I look back through the story, having read it through, and then spot the clues to the twist which is about to be revealed. Naturally I learn a good deal for my own writing studying things like that.

This is where I think writers are so lucky. To write well, we need to read well and widely. So if we ever did need an excuse to have a book in our hands, that’s it, right there, regardless of whether there is a twist or not!

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Story Twists https://t.co/5HUyAaAUsU via @goodreads I look at story twists for Goodreads this week. An early favourite was in an Agatha Christie novel. For a twist to work it must fit in with the characters and situation. Hope you enjoy the post. pic.twitter.com/YUGuyoQGMn
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 30, 2024

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It’s Monday. Okay it’s a Bank Holiday Monday in my part of the world and we’ve even had some sunshine, hooray! Still time for a story though. Hope you enjoy Unfair, my latest on YouTube. (Short and sweet this one).https://t.co/y68QSxdFan
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 1, 2024

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Newsletter went out this morning. No April Fool’s about that! Link to current edition below but if you like the look of this and would like to sign up do head over to my landing page at my website. Separate link for that below.https://t.co/SAMeT8yz7k https://t.co/4PWkpgevt3
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 1, 2024

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Questions and Answers For Characters

March 29, 2024Leave a comment

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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. Unbelievable weather here – heavy rain, gale force winds etc. March is supposed to come in like a lion and go out like a lamb. No sign of the lamb yet! (I also know parts of the country have had snow too). Am always grateful writing is something to be done indoors! Writing wise, will have a very special interview coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today in early April. Looking forward to sharing more about that a bit nearer the time.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

29th March 2024 – CFT
Second blog from me today and it is my usual weekly post for Chandler’s Ford Today. This time I talk about Questions and Answers for Characters. This ties in nicely with my More than Writers post for ACW (see further down) too given I look at how little details can make a story seem more believable to readers.

Well, getting little details right about your characters will help make them more believable to readers too. For this post, I share what I think are five useful questions to ask of your characters which would, I’m sure, inspire story ideas for them to “serve in”. I’ve long found outlining my characters does then trigger story ideas and I think is well worth doing. Hope you find the same.

Questions and Answers for Characters

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29th March 2024 – MTW
It’s double blog day for me today. First up is my post for More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. (Well, it was first up when I put my posts on Facebook!). This time I talk about Easter Stories and Little Details. I share how the little details in the biblical accounts make them more real for me.

I also go on to discuss how getting the little details right in your stories will help make your characters and tales seem more believable to readers too. This ties in nicely with my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. More on that in a moment. (See above). Hope you enjoy the MTW post.

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Can’t believe the weather today – heavy rain and gale force winds! I was walking Lady earlier when another local commented it feels more like November. It does too. For those of you who have had snow, I’m sorry!!

On to happier matters. I’ll be looking at Questions and Answers for Characters for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above. Some of what I share in here could make a useful template if you’re not sure where to start in finding out what you need to know about your potential creations.

It will be a double post from me tomorrow as I’ll also be sharing my More than Writers post tomorrow for the Association of Christian Writers where I’ll discuss Easter Stories and Little Details. Again see above! Blogs can be like buses – none for ages then two or three at once!

I often find little details make a character/story for me because it helps to make them seem more real and believable, no matter how fantastical or otherwise the setting is.

Also had a lovely time at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting last night. Lots of great ideas were shared. I take part in the writing exercises I set on the night of the meeting. I love live writing exercises. They fire up the old imagination and I now have some promising opening and closing lines to investigate further in due course. That will be fun!

Strange weather again today though Lady did see her Hungarian Vizler chum and we managed to get damp rather than have a thorough soaking. I guess that counts as a win.

Looking forward to tonight’s Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom. Will be looking at Endings and Beginnings. Apt as we head into Easter.

Will be looking at Questions and Answers for Characters on Chandler’s Ford Today on Good Friday. See above. I’ll be sharing tips on what I’ve found useful in getting to know characters before I write their stories up. Hope it will prove useful. Also pleased my copy of Christian Writer arrived yesterday. I have a humorous piece in there this time which I hope ACW members will enjoy.

And don’t forget the April issue of Writers’ Narrative is already out in good time for a fantastic Easter read! Check it out at the link.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to say my second entry for the Andrew Siderius competition for Friday Flash Fiction is now up on site. This one, Memories, has the theme of manipulation and is in the 151-500 words category. Hope you enjoy the story. Let’s say my sympathy here is for my alien character and there is none at all for Mrs Evans. See what you think. Link here.

Flash fiction is great for sharing different moods of story. I’ve written funny tales, scary ones, and the poignant kind, just to name a few examples.

One of my latter type is Judgement Day from Tripping the Flash Fantastic. It is a story I often read out at Open Prose Mic Nights and the last line has a “punch to the gut” ending appropriate for the character and their situation. With this tale, I did know the ending first and worked out what would lead to that ending.

If you’d like to find out more, do check out my Amazon Author Central page.

A useful writing exercise, which I’ve used to kick start flash fiction ideas, is to just jot down ideas for titles and then one or two lines working out which direction you could take those titles.

For example, if I used a title such as The Open Door, I would then write a line or two indicating what kind of mood I would want the story to be, what kind of character would best serve that mood, and then I’d jot down some notes for a potential character. All of that would be about a paragraph, similar to this.

But it is enough of an outline to get me started and I find that in itself is enough to fire up other ideas. I often find it is the starting of a piece which can prove tricky. Once I have a way in, I can then get on with the first draft.

I can then judge the piece as a whole later and make suitable amendments (and there always are some!). But you have to have something down in the first place to be able to do that. Getting over a blank page/screen, for me, is vital.

Fairytales with Bite – The Biter Bit

One of the things I’ve always loved about fairytales from an early age is that justice will be done. Sometimes that justice can be on the rough side – a case of the biter bit. But for those characters who are kind and honourable, you know somehow things will work out for them in the end. (If only that was always true in life!).

The phrase The Biter Bit would make a great theme for many stories. Who would deserve to be bitten like that? What have they done to deserve it? And where does magic come into it? Is it a case of an annoyed magical being doling out the punishment here (as is often the case with the fairytales) or would they be on the receiving end? Who would be powerful enough to do this?

Thinking about your setting as a whole, how would the justice system operate? Who would make sure any kind of poetic justice, especially if a magical kind, wasn’t overdone?

Story ideas there too I think!

This World and Others – Sayings

Proverbs and sayings are so useful for giving theme ideas for stories. I’ve sometimes used them directly as titles too. But for your alien setting, what kind of proverbs and sayings would they have? Would they be similar to ours or something totally unknown?

Many of our proverbs and sayings come from the Bible, Shakespeare etc. Where would your setting’s sayings come from? What would be the texts your characters would treasure and how have these influenced their culture/outlook/treatment of aliens (including humans)?

There is no reason either why you couldn’t use our sayings to influence how you portray your alien characters and/or settings.

For example, take the saying Truth Will Out. If your character is an honest one in a setting which isn’t, how would that play out? What led to your character becoming counter culture here? If the setting is based on truthfulness, what would it do to characters who were not (and again what led them to being counter culture here? I think it would take more than just greed here too. To go so against your own culture would take strong motivation given the risks involved, especially if your setting has the death penalty. So the drive behind this would have to be more than material, I think).

Again, interesting story idea potential here.

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Memories, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/LTxG1rUkI9 Pleased to say my second entry for the Andrew Siderius competition for Friday Flash Fiction is on site. Memories has the theme of manipulation and is in the 151-500 words category. Hope you enjoy the tale. pic.twitter.com/4ONeSBapG5
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 29, 2024

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More than Writers: Easter Stories and Little Details by Allison Symes https://t.co/JE3F7Ppmhp It's my turn on MTW. I share how little details in the Bible stories make them more real. I discuss how getting details right will help make your characters believable to readers too. pic.twitter.com/hkKw9nX1GL
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 29, 2024

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Questions and Answers for Characters https://t.co/YfoWwwF69H Getting details right about characters will help make them more believable. I share five useful questions to ask of characters. I’ve long found outlining characters does trigger story ideas. Hope you find the same.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 29, 2024

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Time Management

March 26, 2024Leave a comment

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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 Geoff Parkes for the image of me taking part in a Swanwick Open Prose Mic Night a while back.

Hope you had a lovely weekend. I had a wonderful time with family and friends celebrating my birthday. Lady had a ball too and was so tired but happily so at the end of it all. Now time to get back to the writing desk. I wonder how many characters I’ll put in awkward situations this week. It will be fun finding out! The authorial joy of causing trouble for characters shouldn’t be underestimated – I love doing it and then finding out how they deal with the mess I’ve put them in.

Facebook – General

Posting early as have a meeting later. I sometimes tweet for the Association of Christian Writers and tend to draft my tweets in advance and schedule them, as my posts there are always related to writing in some way.

For Facebook, I tend to draft in advance but then put up “live” as and when I can get to my desk. I’ve done that with this post. The drafting in advance saves me time. In my more limited times to write, I like to hit the ground running as it frees up what time I’ve got to do other smaller jobs, such as starting to draft a future blog spot. I can stop at any convenient point for something like that.

I’ve also found having limited time slots for writing sometimes helps because it makes me focus even more than I already do. Sometimes when I have longer periods in which to write, I find you can waste time working out where to start. Have done this. I don’t do so much now. I work out in advance now what I’m going to do when so I know what I’m going to be working on before I get to my desk. I find that helps me make the most of my available time slot for writing, regardless of how long that may be.

A busy start to Holy Week. Mondays are often hectic for me. It is always a pleasure to get back to my desk after hectic days. Okay, I may not get to write so much (tiredness!), but I am writing something and loving being creative. I also find it helps me unwind after said hectic day.

Later in the week I get to write much more but I’ve got used to the ebbs and flows of the writing life. Often it will be on hectic days I will return to my notebooks and look up potential ideas to write up and jot down further ideas that come to me from them, maybe even write a first draft on one or two.

Time management, I think, is an art form and one which is well worth practicing! I’ve found I get far more done by using hectic days to do smaller items of writing and then making the most of longer writing times for longer pieces of work. Even just five minutes spent writing can produce something useful for you to work up later on.

Hope your weekend has gone well. Am recovering from yesterday’s party, as is Lady. Have rarely seen her that tired but oh so happy with it. Looking forward to listening in to the new Hall of Fame on Classic FM over the Easter weekend. Will be especially listening out for the ones I voted for. One is very close to the top of the chart and I would love to see/hear it make the top spot.

It is one of those odd things that I find no trouble writing whatsoever with classical music on in the background. Anything else and it disrupts my concentration. There is something relaxing about classical I think and when I am relaxed I just get on and write. I usually find I write more too.

Writing Tip: Stories often don’t find a home first go. Put any rejected pieces aside. Give it some time and come back to them. Can you see where you could improve them? I find I usually can after a break like that. I then submit it somewhere else. I have had work published doing this so it is worth a go but give yourself the necessary distance away from the story. It helps.

Hope you have had a good day. I’ve had a fantastic time with family and friends today. Mind you, the weather was strange. Sunshine, rain, hail, we had the works. Lady had a fabulous time with my cousin’s dog, Lily. Lady is absolutely shattered tonight!

Looking forward to sharing Questions and Answers for Characters for Chandler’s Ford Today. More details later in the week and link up on Friday. After that, I will be sharing details of a very special two part interview for CFT. More nearer the time.

Also looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week.

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again soon. To sign up for story links, news, tips etc., do head over to my website landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

When both of my flash fiction collections were accepted by Chapeltown Books, I had to come up with the strap line to go on the front covers.

For From Light to Dark and Back Again this was a collection of very short stories to suit every mood.
For Tripping the Flash Fantastic this was a carefully crafted collection of story worlds.

Now you would think, would you not, that having put books of flash fiction together, I’d have had no trouble writing the one line strap lines! Not a bit of it. It took me some time to come up with both of these.

Less is more is so true in flash fiction as a whole. It isn’t necessarily “easy” to write! Mind you, I’m not convinced there is any such thing as easy writing. What I see in works I read is the craft that has gone into these stories and I can guess how long the author would have taken to get their stories to this point. Naturally I put in a lot of crafting on my own work.

I often find I can get a first draft down relatively fast (thanks to having a helpful outline). The editing takes time. Mind you, it should take time. I set myself a deadline for getting a piece of work out somewhere if it’s not for a competition where I already know the deadline.

It’s to ensure I write my piece, rest it, edit it, rest it again, edit it again should it need it, and then submit the piece. I don’t consider a piece of work “finished” until I have sent it somewhere (or know where it will eventually go if I’m saving stories for future competitions I know are coming up or for a future book).

It’s Monday. It’s been a hectic day. Time to relax with a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – One Off. Will Vera returning to old habits scare Reg? What were those old habits anyway?

Have fun exploring the various random generators out there. I use these only to trigger starting points for story ideas. I’ve used the random number, object, pictures, phrases, and question ones, just to name a few. I then decide how I am going to use these.

The question one often makes for good title and/or theme ideas. Objects and pictures I can place into the story and I ensure they are crucial to the plot in some way. The number one I have used as a countdown, simply by turning the number into a time, or as part of an address where the action of the story takes place or where the lead characters lives/starts out from.

Phrases I tend to use as themes though occasionally I subvert one of these by changing one word. It can change the whole mood of the story I’m going to tell too. That’s fun. But do give them a go. I see these as the electronic version of the old story cubes (and I use those too).

There are also books of prompts, some of which I’ve contributed to over the years. If you want somewhere to start, I am only too happy to recommend The Book of Prompts (Chapeltown Books).

When you are writing flash fiction and short stories, you want plenty of triggers for ideas. All of these things mentioned here can contribute positively to your writing. Have fun!

When I write what I call fairytales with bite (often with humorous twist endings), I nearly always know the ending first and then work backwards to get to a logical starting point. I work out what could come from my planned ending and then take things from there. I find that approach works well.

For flash non-fiction (a lot of my blog posts could count as this), I usually know what I want the overall conclusion to be for my piece and then figure out the logical “staging posts” to get me to that conclusion.

Structure is one of those things you only notice when it is not there. When I’ve not had a proper structure in place, that has been when my stories have failed because I failed to work things out and then managed to box myself in. Has only happened twice.

So even if you don’t outline anything else, thinking about what your structure is going to be will save you a great deal of time and (editing) grief.

Goodreads Author Blog – Mixing Up Books

I like mixing up books in terms of having a wide variety of genres to read but I don’t especially like combining two types of books which were never meant to be put together (in my view). I see there is a place for zombie stories (though they’re not my cup of tea). There will always be a place for Jane Austen but putting Pride and Prejudice together with zombies to me just made me shudder when I first heard about it. Nor will I read it. I just don’t want to go there.

I also get annoyed when films rehash old stories. For me there is no improving the original The Italian Job with Michael Caine. I refuse to watch the so-called remake (and, separately, have heard indifferent reviews about it). So you see I am consistent here!

I do wonder if it is a lack of imagination going on here. Why not write your own zombies story? Why bring other characters from a much loved novel into it?

The simple answer to a lack of imagination is to read more. Then read more. Then read more again. I’ve always found reading well and widely fires up my own imagination. I then happily go and create my own characters and tales. I don’t see the fun in mish-mashes at all.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Mixing Up Books https://t.co/GzlGH4HiJo via @goodreads I share my thoughts on mixing up books from a genre blending viewpoint for this week's Goodreads post. pic.twitter.com/jTUX80MJtI
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 23, 2024

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It’s Monday. It’s been a hectic day. Time to relax with a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – One Off. Will Vera returning to old habits scare Reg? What were those old habits anyway?https://t.co/10V4IJlE0m
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 25, 2024

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PowerPoint, Writers’ Narrative, and Doing Right

March 22, 2024Leave a comment

Screenshot 2024-02-28 at 16-25-51 Allison Symes - The Society of Authors

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. Looking forward to seeing friends and family at the weekend for birthday get together. We all have a fab time. Lady loves (a) seeing everyone, you should see her face when they go home, looks so sad (aaah!); (b) Lady loves playing with a family spaniel, the lovely Lily; and (c) both dogs make excellent hoovers and have a great time there too! Not so much writing over the weekend but I will, to quote the Terminator, be back! Meantime a huge thank you to all who have donated to the Salvation Army through my fundraising post on Facebook.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

A huge thank you for the birthday messages coming in today (22nd March). Much appreciated.

First up tonight, I discuss PowerPoint for this week’s Chandler’s Ford Today post. It is an odd thing to have something come back into use after a period away from using it. Usually something is superceded. PowerPoint is the rare exception to the rule here.

With the advent of Zoom, PowerPoint has come back into its own and I use it frequently. I share thoughts and tips on making the best of it and hope you find the post useful. (Combined with Zoom, it makes for an excellent way of presenting presentations).

PowerPoint

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Secondly up tonight, I am delighted to say the April edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out. Just in time for the perfect weekend read, I’d say!

The theme this time is editing and my piece is called Editing – Do You Love It or Loathe It?

There is a great deal of excellent advice on what can be a thorny topic in this month’s magazine. Do check it out.

Lady got to see just her Hungarian Vizler chum today, both had a lovely time. Bluebells out on our regular walk back home. Lovely to see them (my garden ones always come up later).

I’m discussing the joys of PowerPoint for Chandler’s Ford Today this week and will be sharing useful tips. The advent of Zoom for writing workshops has brought PowerPoint back into my regular usage again. I use it at least once a month. I find it handy especially for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group I lead. Will be using it again at next week’s meeting!

PowerPoint is a good match up for online work but appropriate too. It encourages you to keep to the point. There’s nothing for a flash fiction writer to dislike there, is there?!

Link up tomorrow. See above.

Hope you have had a good day. Nice to see some spring weather. Got warm! (First time since last autumn!). Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals – all three had a fabulous time. Not going to get much writing done today as off to a meeting this evening but this kind of thing happens and it is where my planning out how to use the available writing time pays off. So have a few small jobs to do which I can tick off my list. Back to longer pieces of work when I have more time tomorrow.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting next week. Will be looking at Endings and Beginnings (and yes deliberately that way around as I thought it apt as the meeting will be so close to the Easter weekend. Good Friday is an ending. Easter Sunday is a new beginning. Naturally I will be looking at crafting good endings and beginnings for flash fiction).

Writing Tip: Have a range of writing tasks to do. It’s fun. It helps you make the most of available writing time. On busy days, you will still feel like you have written something useful for the excellent reason you have! Also pockets of time mount up if you see them over a longer time period.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be on Friday Flash Fiction with my 100 words tale, Doing Right. This is my first entry for the Andrew Siderius competition FFF are running for the next couple of weeks.

My story next time will have to be eligible for the longer flash word count section. No comments on any of the stories at the moment either for obvious reasons. Comments return after the competition is over. Good luck to all who are taking part.

I’ve always liked creating characters. It’s my favourite part of storytelling. I like to know who my “stars” are going to be. Flash fiction writing means I am creating characters all the time and the more you do this, the easier it becomes to find ways into creating characters. I’ll be looking at this more for a future Chandler’s Ford Today post.

Flash makes you focus. The word count limit means you have to work out how to make the best use of it. I’ve found characters leading the way into the “action” of the story helps keep the word count down because they won’t waffle on. They will want to get straight on and do what has to be done to get the story resolved. Also readers can be taken straight into the characters’ mind sets and the tale feels more immediate because of that, I feel.

It helps to know what you like and loathe about character portrayal. You will know what you want to achieve and what you want to avoid. This is where reading widely is a must I think for writers, regardless of story length. You do find out likes and dislikes.

When I have small amounts of time in which to write (and today is one of them!), a good writing exercise to try is just to jot down titles, opening lines, closing lines etc. You can then come back to these when you have more time. The time away will give you the break you need to evaluate these ideas properly and which ones are worth your writing up and which ones are not.

For titles, I like to keep things open. I like to be able to take titles in more than one direction so I can then decide which mood I’d like to go for.

For example, my story Bypassing The System (Tripping the Flash Fantastic), I could take in several ways by working out which system, who is doing the bypassing, and are they doing this for criminal or more honourable intentions. Not going to say which way I went on this one but I do like to have manoeuvre room with my titles. I find it triggers even more ideas. That I always welcome!

Fairytales with Bite – Birthdays and Other Celebrations

This is a timely post as this will go out on my birthday. Looking forward to seeing friends and family soon too.

In fiction, my favourite birthday celebration is that of Bilbo Baggins at the beginning of The Lord of the Rings. Say what you like about Gandalf, he knew how to do fireworks! Also hobbits know how to throw a good party.

For your own characters, and the settings in which you’ve placed them, are birthdays marked in any way? Are celebrations only saved for “official” events and is everyone expected to take part in those, whether they like it or not?

If private celebrations do happen, are they similar to what we would have or are parties etc literally not of this world and what forms would they take? What would the food and drink be like?

Who would your characters invite to events? Who would they leave out? Bear in mind that can have consequences. See Sleeping Beauty for more on that one.

Could you use a celebration event as the trigger for a story? If you use a birthday here, what would happen to your character(s) between one celebration and the next?

This World and Others – Public Gatherings

Following on from Fairytales with Bite, does your setting allow for public gatherings? Are these strictly regulated or not? Who administers such regulations? What forms do public gatherings take?

Also give some thought as to what events those in power would want there to be public gatherings for. What would be the history behind these? How to the authorities persuade folk to to? Does anyone resist that?

Are there public events which are not celebrated or remembered but which should be and are kept suppressed by the authorities because they fear public reaction to them? What would happen if someone broke the mould here?

Give some thought too as to how public gatherings are organised. Is there a police force overseeing everything? What would happen if things went wrong? What would cause a public gathering to go wrong? Who would be behind it and what are they trying to do?

Story ideas here for sure!

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Doing Right, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/ggtJZXdrKc Doing Right is my first entry for the Andrew Siderius competition FFF are running at the moment. My next tale will have to be eligible for the longer word count section. Good luck to all taking part. pic.twitter.com/KIfKFKVAC6
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 22, 2024

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PowerPoint https://t.co/DWPMOPRDFS I discuss PowerPoint for CFT this time. It is an odd thing to have something come back into use after a period away from it. With the advent of Zoom, PowerPoint has come back into its own. Combined, they are great for presentations.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 22, 2024

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Delighted to say the April Writers’ Narrative is now out. Just in time for the perfect weekend read! The theme is editing. My piece is called Editing – Do You Love It or Loathe It? There is a wealth of excellent advice here on what can be a thorny topic. https://t.co/CXVYIQtqO2
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 22, 2024

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Publication/Broadcast News and Author Newsletters

March 19, 2024Leave a comment

Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you had a good weekend. Great start to the week with publication and ALCS payment news. Lady got her week off to a cracking start by having a good run round with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals. Hope the rest of the week continues to go well. Spotting more spring flowers out too. They cheer me up so much. I love the colours.

Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day. Glad to share a Mixcloud link to Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show on North Manchester FM on Saturday. Always easier to share one link rather than two! (I had shared two links to both halves of the show over the weekend but will only share this one link here). It was great fun taking part in the flash fiction slot here and do check out the other stories. They were a good mix. Hannah’s Bookshelf is on every Saturday between 2 and 4 pm. If you like books, stories, and radio, well here is the show for you!

Separately, I will be talking about the joys of PowerPoint for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Will be sharing tips and what I’ve found useful here.

Busy night tonight. (18th March 2024 – you know how you sometimes get several things on one day, mine this week was Monday!). First post. Delighted to say I am back on CafeLit with a story called Zoom. Hope you enjoy it. Oh and I will leave you to decide if the character in this one could be in any way related to yours truly!

Second post. (Told you Monday, 18th March 2024 was busy for me!). Glad to share my latest Authors Electric post where I discuss Author Newsletters. I discuss how I approach writing mine and share some tips. Hope you find it useful.

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Hope you are having a lovely weekend. Pleased to see some sun this afternoon.

Will be back on Authors Electric tomorrow, talking about Author Newsletters. Will also have a story on CafeLit tomorrow. Gets the week off to a good start! See above. I like Mondays like Monday 18th March – lots happening!

Listening to Danse Macabre by Camille Saint-Saens on Classic FM as I write this. (Well, I had been!). One of my favourite pieces, I always vote for it in their hall of fame chart. Also used a free to use version of it for the book trailer for From Light to Dark and Back Again. It is apt!

Am busy preparing some wonderful author interviews to go on Chandler’s Ford Today in due course.
It was lovely listening to Budding Betrayal on North Manchester FM live yesterday. I often have to use catch up but it was great listening to the variety of tales, all of which were spring related in some way, and it made a nice change to get to do so at the time of broadcast.

Writing Tip: I regularly have brainstorming sessions where I jot down potential ideas for titles, opening and closing lines, and so on. This is great and I find it so useful. But what do you do when the brain decides now would be a good time to give you a fabulous idea to write up but you are not in a position to write anything? I sometimes find this when I go swimming. It’s not a great time for inspiration to strike.

All I do here is repeat the idea to myself (silently!) until I can get to my phone and type myself up a quick note. I can then flesh that note out further when I have more time. What matters is getting the nugget of the idea down. Do that and you should find it will remind you of what else you thought about and then you can jot it down.

Hope you have had a good day. Delighted to hear my story Budding Betrayal on North Manchester FM in Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show this afternoon. Many congratulations to the other four writers who had stories on. It was a great mixture of tales! All of the stories are on the second half of the show. See single Mixcloud link further up.

What I do when I’m thinking of submitting something for broadcast is edit my story and then I record it on Zoom. I can then play it back and hear how it sounds but I can also check my timings. For Hannah Kate’s show, you send in your stories via Voicemail and you have three minutes maximum on this so your timing does have to be spot on.

As with Open Prose Mic Nights, getting your timing right is crucial but Zoom helps you here. It is also fine to come in at under the maximum time. It is never okay to go over. Word count, I find, for a three minutes slot like today’s one is usually around the 250 mark but it always pays to check as you need to allow for your own reading time here.

The playback is helpful again because I can hear whether I come across clearly or not. No garbling, rushing, or big gaps here. I also find reading out loud and playing a recording back is also great practice for future Mic Nights. Nothing to dislike here basically.

And do enjoy the stories!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I don’t always name a character in my flash tales. (I always do for my longer short stories). I sometimes do this as leaving a character as an “it” can be more scary if I’m writing a darker flash piece. But at other times the name is not the most important thing about the character. Their attitude and back story is more important to know.

An example of this is my The Past – Ready or Not? from Tripping the Flash Fantastic. The story slowly reveals what you do need to know about my character but the name didn’t matter at all!

Most of the time I do name characters of course and use those names to help readers picture them but it isn’t always needed. It is a case of knowing why you are doing (or in this case NOT doing) something which matters most. There has to be a good reason for anything to be in a story.

It’s Monday. Finally the evenings are getting lighter for longer. Having said that, it is still Monday. Time for a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest YouTube flash tale – Next Time. Dog owners especially will relate to this one.

When I have a theme set for a competition, I take some time working out what could come from that theme. It pays. I find the first few ideas are the “obvious” ones but as I write down more possible thoughts, I find I come up with something which isn’t so obvious. I will then explore those ideas further and see if there is anything I can do with them. Often there is and I will go down this route, knowing I’m producing a story which fits the theme but, hopefully, will stand out a bit as being “different”.

If you’re going for the more obvious takes on a theme, think about what would make your characters stand out in that story. What is it unique to you which you can bring to the mix here? A striking character can transform an “obvious” storyline.

But the time taken to work out ideas, I’ve found, has saved me considerable time and grief later. When I pick the idea to write up, I already know I have thought it through, worked out any potential issues with it, and then I get on with the first draft.

Good to hear flash fiction on the radio. I enjoyed tuning in to Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show on North Manchester FM this afternoon (16th March 2024) and hearing five flash pieces, including my Budding Betrayal, broadcast.

Flash works well on radio. Flash has to keep to the point and to word counts. That in turn helps with timings (crucial for radio shows). When I do need a scene break in my flash tale, and I did with Budding Betrayal, I use a slight pause to indicate a change of scene is coming. Only way you can do it but it does have to be a brief pause, otherwise folk will think there’s something wrong.

All dialogue stories would work well on radio but you do need to find a way of distinguishing between your characters. Yes, you can use names but it is also handy to have one character speak in a specific way and another character to speak in another. You can use turns of phrase to good effect here.

If one character in a two character tale uses a certain word or two, we will know who they are just by the use of those words. We will also know who the other character has to be by default because they won’t use them.

For flash with its tight word count, it would pay to ensure any turn of phrase is kept short and it should be repeated (ideally once or twice maximum depending on your word count here) but, as with any good writing, it pays not to overdo it. I think flash helps here. It forces you to keep things tight. Repetition is used as a deliberately chosen effect (which to my mind is the best way to use it at all).

Goodreads Author Blog – Dialogue in Fiction

One thing writers need to be aware of is dialogue in fiction can’t match exactly what we come up with in life. Well, nobody wants to read lots of hesitations, repetitions which are not done for effect (and look like mistakes by the author), info dumps and so on. So dialogue in fiction has to “tidy up” what we would come up for real. Dialogue in fiction has to serve the needs of the characters (and, even more importantly, the readers).

The truly great stories get this spot on. You can imagine the characters speaking. What are they saying moves the story on and you are gripped by their conversation. That is the purpose of fictional dialogue.
Dialogue in fiction serves many purposes. It shares information. It reveals information from one character to another which furthers the plot. But whatever the intention of the author here, the dialogue must make us want to read on.

As readers, we need to be convinced by the dialogue the writer is sharing with us. (We have to be convinced this is what characters, as portrayed, would say if they were real).

I love writing dialogue. What I have to watch is to ensure I am putting dialogue into a story for a good reason. I could easily get my characters into conversational ping-pong. So what I do to ensure I don’t do this is ask what does this dialogue do for the story? If it helps in any way, which it should do, it stays in. Else it gets cut.

Great fictional dialogue shows you so much about the characters. In the Wodehouse stories, I can’t imagine Jeeves and Wooster speaking in any other way. The way the two speak (generally and to each other) confirms their portrayal and is so wonderfully done. That’s just to name one example.

Agatha Christie is consistent with how she gets Poirot and Miss Marple to speak. That matters too.

Consistency confirms characterisation. It is what we expect from the characters we like and loathe.

Character dialogue adds so much to the stories and books I enjoy, when done correctly. It acts as a good challenge for me to get it right with my characters too!

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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🎙️ #OnAir now on Hannah's Bookshelf Spring Equinox Special:

🌼 Budding Betrayal by @AllisonSymes1
🌼 Waking Up is Never Easy by @jennyhsanders pic.twitter.com/ydDFiEtsx3
— Hannah Kate (@HannahKateish) March 16, 2024

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Delighted to hear my tale Budding Betrayal on North Manchester FM in Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show today. Congratulations to the others who had stories on – it was a great mix. All stories are on the second half of the show.https://t.co/Pdx5Rryx4m https://t.co/iXPuhoRqFF pic.twitter.com/5BU9otBooi
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 16, 2024

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Dialogue in Fiction https://t.co/KEBLFWEAHj via @goodreads Delighted to talk about dialogue in fiction for this week's Goodreads post. Get it right and it brings your characters to life, making them seem even more real for your readers. pic.twitter.com/e0ZU2FxdjF
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 16, 2024

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CafeLitMagazine: Zoom by Allison Symes, green tea https://t.co/Nc2J1s0OSE Delighted to say I am back on CafeLit with a story called Zoom. Hope you enjoy it. Oh and I will leave you to decide if the character in this one could be in any way related to yours truly! pic.twitter.com/v7YfRkyrQN
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 18, 2024

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Authors Electric: Author Newsletters by Allison Symes https://t.co/jw0edukyz5 Glad to share my latest Authors Electric post where I discuss Author Newsletters. I discuss how I approach writing mine and share some tips. Hope you find it useful. pic.twitter.com/mm3tq8k2rm
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 18, 2024

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It’s Monday. Finally the evenings are getting lighter for longer. Having said that, it is still Monday. Time for a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest YouTube flash tale – Next Time. Dog owners especially will relate to this one.https://t.co/KAac8548Xq
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 18, 2024

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Missed Saturday's Spring Equinox Special on Hannah's Bookshelf, featuring seasonal flash fiction from Carmen Walton, Peter Barnes, @jennyhsanders, @AllisonSymes1 & @noodleBubble? You can #ListenAgain here: https://t.co/GQaNnBPu4J
— Hannah Kate (@HannahKateish) March 19, 2024

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Online Workshops and Broadcast News

March 15, 2024Leave a comment

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. Delighted to share broadcast news this time (and there will be publication news in the next post too). Weather still all over the place though have had some spring sunshine. Lady is as loveable as ever and continues to have a great time with her pals.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am pleased to share my latest post on Chandler’s Ford Today and this week I’m talking about Online Workshops. I discuss the advantages of these and share tips on how to make the best of them, whether you’re an attendee, a tutor, or, like me, you do both. Hope you find the post useful.

Mind you, if you find the refreshments on offer at an online workshop are not all they should be, you really do only have yourself to blame!

(Will be having some fabulous author interviews coming up on CFT in April and May. Am so looking forward to sharing these too. More to come later).

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Broadcast News: Am delighted to announce my story Budding Betrayals will be broadcast on Saturday 16th March on North Manchester FM. I have an unusual lead character in this one but you will have to listen in (live or on catch up) to find out more.

Hannah Kate is hosting a special Spring Equinox show in her Saturday afternoon slot and I am delighted my tale will be part of it. Many congratulations to every one else taking part too. See link and screenshot for more. I hope to share the link to the show itself sometime next week.

Today would’ve been my mother’s 90th birthday. Many thanks for the gift of reading, Mum. It has led to a lot!

Don’t forget my next author newsletter goes out on 1st April. Not an April Fool, honestly! To sign up for news, tips, prompts etc, head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I chose a monthly time slot deliberately as it gives me plenty of time to put the newsletter together and it isn’t too frequent an arrival in your inbox! All of the author newsletters I subscribe to are either monthly or occasional. Does anyone send one out weekly? How would you have the time?!

Having a newsletter forms part of my marketing, of course. It’s a joy to put together and it also gives me an opportunity to share links to my stories on Friday Flash Fiction for the month and to my videos on my YouTube channel. It makes a good “one stop shop” for me here.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am delighted to share my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction – Neighbours. Neighbours are not always what they appear to be and that is the case for the characters in this story. Hope you like it.

(From tomorrow, 16th March 2024, Friday Flash Fiction are running an annual competition in memory of Andrew Siderius. Check out the home page for more information).

Pleased to have another flash fiction tale due to be broadcast by Hannah Kate on North Manchester FM this coming weekend. (Saturday 16th March 2024). I hope to share a link to the show itself sometime next week. This news came as a nice surprise today.

Am making good progress on what I hope will end up as a fourth flash fiction collection in due course too.

I love flash for its flexibility in mood, style, genre I write in, and even the word count I write to, as long as I don’t go over 1000 words. Great fun to do. It also makes for an excellent warm up writing exercise. Why not give it a go? I did. Two published books later and another in the pipeline, I’d say I made a good call!

Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 09-49-18 North Manchester FM Hannah's Bookshelf Spring Equinox Special Saturday 16 March 2-4pm - Hannah Kate

My mother would’ve been 90 today. She saw my first published story in print. She would’ve been pleased about the flash fiction collections. I owe my love of stories and books in general to her. It is the gift which keeps on giving.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction group meeting later in the month. Always good fun. It’s also an opportunity for folk to share news of relevant competitions etc as no one writer can know them all and I was told about Flash NANO via the Flash Fiction group. Am appreciative of that!

I sometimes write what I call “slice of life” flash tales. One of these is Judgement Day from Tripping the Flash Fantastic which has a “punch in the gut” ending. You would root for my character in this one and that, of course, is the reaction I wanted to generate with this story.

When I write slice of life tales, I focus down on what matters most to my character and that then is the story. There will be change. There will be development. There will be reflection. All of this comes together to bring about an emotional tale, which I hope gives readers pause for thought. For me, that is the purpose of a slice of life tale.

Fairytales With Bite – Humorous Fantasy

I am very fond of humorous fantasy and my favourite series here is the Discworld one by the much missed Sir Terry Pratchett. Humour can often get across points better than “telling”. People are more willing to “take in” humour.

Humour has its place in the world of the fairytale too and many of my flash fiction pieces fall in this category. I love ending a fairytale piece with a punchline ending.

One of my own favourites here is Making The Grade from From Light to Dark and Back Again. I often read this one at Open Prose Mic Nights as it is short (100 words), has a punchline ending, and involves a magical character and exams. All good fun!

I’ve found a good way into writing this kind of humorous fairytale is to have a strong character in mind first. Ensure you know what their main traits are. My character in the story above is determined to do things her way and a lot of the humour comes from that.

I also find knowing a rough idea of the ending helps. I often write down a potential punchline finish first and then work out what could lead to that. It means I have a logical structure in place. I’m just writing from B to A rather than A to B.

So think about what your characters would find funny. Also what situations could you put them in where humour could develop. I am a big fan of outlining (yes, even for 100 word stories) and find jotting down ideas helps clear my mind and sparks other ideas too. I then go with the one which has the biggest impact on me as that will be the same reaction other readers will have.

But do have a go at writing humorous fairytales. They are good fun. I find they work best when kept relatively short but there are places in the flash fiction market which would be open for these kinds of stories.

And they make people smile. I like that.

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This World and Others – Humour In Your Setting

Linking with Fairytales with Bite, I thought I’d look at humour in your setting. Does your setting have anything intrinsically funny about it? Does it have species which are considered to be funny by others and if so, what are they? What is it about them that produces the smiles? (I think there is something intrinsically amusing about the duck-billed platypus, for example. I like the way it breaks the rules. Mammals aren’t meant to lay eggs but it does).

What would your characters find funny? Do the powers that be in your setting encourage humour or suppress it, given humour is often linked to freedom of thought and speech? What would your characters do or where would they go to find humour? Is there an underground humour movement? (For more on this kind of idea do check out The Goodies’ show Goodies Rule UK? It is brilliant).

Do all of your main species have humour or do only some have it? What kind of problems could their humour cause, especially where it is not shared? Could you use humour in your stories to bring species together, maybe to even wrap up your stories?

Humour is a powerful and wonderful thing. Tastes in humour vary too. That could be something to be explored in your character portrayal too.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Which is your favourite Easter story? I have a soft spot for two – Doubting Thomas and Mary mistaking Jesus for the gardener. I find both easy to relate to, which is a challenge for us when creating characters. Can our readers see where our creations are coming from? pic.twitter.com/W1tQhtGKUV
— ACW (@ACW1971) March 13, 2024

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🌼 Coming up on Saturday at 2, it's the Hannah's Bookshelf Spring Equinox Special on @normanfm1066, featuring seasonal stories from @jennyhsanders, Peter Barnes, Carmen Walton, @noodleBubble and @AllisonSymes1! 🌼 pic.twitter.com/ou2MHBviMd
— Hannah Kate (@HannahKateish) March 13, 2024

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Easter shows the triumph of good over evil. For our stories, we need to show our characters “deserving” their triumph over evil. We want readers to be rooting for them every step of the way, another reason why readers need to understand where our people are coming from. pic.twitter.com/AqQ1XaAQoS
— ACW (@ACW1971) March 14, 2024

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Delighted to say my story Budding Betrayals will be broadcast on Saturday 16th March on North Manchester FM. Hannah Kate is hosting a Spring Equinox show in her Saturday afternoon slot. Many congratulations to every one else taking part too. https://t.co/nTFgzNB8j8 pic.twitter.com/gLaaYbuePt
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 14, 2024

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I have found it incredibly helpful to outline my characters. I just need enough information so I feel I know them well enough to write them up. Their own characteristics reveal to me the kind of situations they’re likely to end up in and that’s useful too. pic.twitter.com/EN67h2kZ7O
— ACW (@ACW1971) March 15, 2024

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Neighbours, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/m7L9R6UQxp Am delighted to share my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction – Neighbours. Neighbours are not always what they appear to be and that is the case for the characters in this story. Hope you like it. pic.twitter.com/KUE8pHal1A
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 15, 2024

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Online Workshops https://t.co/rnSJScdnjk Am pleased to share my latest post on CFT. I discuss the advantages of Online Workshops and share tips on how to make the best of them, whether you’re an attendee, a tutor, or, like me, you do both. Hope you find the post useful.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 15, 2024

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Publication News and Writing Tips

March 12, 20242 Comments

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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 had a good weekend. Garden starting to look really nice with daffodils all over the place. Lady has got off to a good start to her week by having a tremendous run around with her best pal, the Rhodesian Ridgeback. Both of them tired out. Job done! Writing wise, got lots done over the weekend so pleased with that.

Facebook – General

Hope you are having a good Tuesday. Am glad it’s dried up somewhat.

Will be looking at Online Workshops for Chandler’s Ford Today this Friday. Will also share tips on how to make the most of these from the viewpoints of attendee and tutor. Hope it will prove useful.

Writing Tip: Got a competition coming up? Good. Give yourself plenty of time for it. My own approach is to draft a story, rest it for a few days, and then come back and edit it. Seeing it with fresh eyes after a reasonable gap does make all the difference in spotting errors, things you could do better etc. I send my competition entries in about ten days before the actual deadline, having carried out a final edit to ensure no pesky typos have slipped the net.

I also double check (as part of my editing) that I am following all of the guidelines issued by the organisers to the letter. Once all done, I’m drafting more stories. I like to having something resting, to be creating something new, and to be jotting ideas down for future stories/competitions I like the look of (where I’ll note down possible themes).

Publication News: Delighted to hear a recently edited story of mine has been accepted and will appear on CafeLit this time next week. Looking forward to sharing that.

Just to flag up as well Friday Flash Fiction will be running the annual Andrew Siderius competition. I hope to have a go – one week in the 100 words category and a longer flash in the longer word count section for the following week. You can enter over two weeks but can only have one go at each word count category. There is a also a poetry category so potentially you can send in three entries in total. More details to follow.

Do keep an eye out on the website for more on this but why not give it a go? Good fun to have a go at.
Happy Mother’s Day to all mums, past and present, and to all mother figures. Hugs to all who find it a difficult day for whatever reason. You are remembered.

It is both a lovely and a strange day for me as I miss both my mum and mum-in-law. My lovely mum-in-law was a second mum to me. Know I was so lucky there.

My mum would’ve been 90 this coming Wednesday. She encouraged my love of reading and taught me to read before I started school. That one is the gift which keeps on giving. She did get to see my first published story in print and my late Dad got to see my first book. There is a kind of symmetry there.

Many thanks to all who have sent in wonderful comments on Point of No Return, my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction. That second line has raised a few smiles!

Sometimes a line like that just comes to you and you know deep down it is a great one. Moments like that are so special for any writer and I treasure my special writing moments. And if you haven’t checked out my second line, see the link and screenshot!
Hope your weekend is going well. Lady got to see her friend, Coco, in the park today and the pair had a good run around. Nice day out there too. Even managed to give my lawn its first cut of the year (and entertained Lady by kicking her football for her as I was doing that. Makes quite a sight. One leg in, one leg out, kick her football all about etc!).

Will be looking at Online Workshops for Chandler’s Ford Today. Link up next Friday. Will be discussing the advantages and disadvantages of these and sharing tips on how to make the most of them.

Writing Tip: Do read the writing magazines. I’ve often found information useful to me immediately but have just as often come back to information when I’ve had a need for it later. It happens! To start you off, do check out the March issue of Writers’ Narrative magazine (oh and remember subscribing to this is free, details on how to do so are in the magazine itself).

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

One of my favourite flash pieces is Calling the Doctor, which I used as the book trailer for From Light to Dark and Back Again. I’ve often changed the mood of the story in the last line or two (and still do of course!) but this one was an early story where I managed to change the mood on the last word. I’ve also found it makes a great piece to read at Open Prose Mic Nights for that reason.

I do have a lot of fun playing with story moods in flash like this. When I’m drafting a tale, I already know what mood it will be, who my character is, and a rough idea of the likely ending. Yes, sometimes that can change. It did with Calling the Doctor. It was on the editing I realised changing what my last line is to what it is now would have far more impact on a reader/viewer.

Hope you have had a good Monday. But as ever it’s story time. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – It’s Good To Be Wrong.

Happy Mother’s Day to all who celebrate and to all who remember and to all who do both, as I do.

Occasionally I write about another kind of mum – the kind who is the human mum to a dog. Well they do say talk about what you know! One of mine from From Light to Dark and Back Again is called She Did It Her Way, Kind Of.

It’s one of my longer flash pieces – right up at the 1000 words end – and it shows Jane Westbrook and her puppy, Harry, figuring out how to get along after the death of William, Jane’s husband and who would’ve been Harry’s trainer. It is one of my reflective, feel good pieces, but if there was anything I could change about it now, it would be that title. I went for this title initially as a twist on a well known phrase (doing it your way) and it does work as that but I know now, as I didn’t back then, I could’ve simplified it!

Having said that, it is a dog-related tale I’m very fond of and I suspect most dog owners would identify with it.

I was delighted to be notified by my publisher the other day they’d received a lovely review of Tripping the Flash Fantastic.

One good thing about reviewing flash fiction collections is it would be highly apt to keep reviews short! The quote below is from another short review for this book.

If you enjoy a diverse collection of stories, this is the book for you!

If you can do review books you’ve enjoyed. It means a great deal to the author to get feedback like that. And I review as much as possible myself (most writers do). Great thing – it doesn’t have to take long and is the second best thing you can do to support writers after buying their books. Thanks!

Goodreads Author Blog – World Book Day

I like the whole concept of World Book Day (which was just held on 7th March 2024). Having said that, judging by the writers I know and this goes for me too, there isn’t a day ever when a book doesn’t feature in it somewhere. Often it is more than one book too!

I like the way children are encouraged to think of/dress up as their favourite characters. Books are meant to be interactive in that they draw you into their worlds. It’s one of the aspects of reading I love most. You really can lose yourself in a good book.

I should imagine the most difficult comes from deciding which character is your favourite, which is the one to dress up as this year etc. I was never into dressing up but books have been a major feature of my life since very early days.

I have my late mother to thank for encouraging that love of reading. She taught me to read before I started school. She was moaned at for “doing it the wrong way” but I’ve never felt her way of doing it was wrong, far from it. She herself read everything from history to science fiction (H.G. Wells in particular for that) so she can’t have been doing too much wrong!

I don’t know which favourite character I would dress up if I was the right age for this. Mind you, given I am not endowed with a great height, I suspect I would end up dressing as a hobbit! (Before you ask, I don’t have hairy feet. Just want to be clear on that point!).

I hope everyone taking part had a fabulous World Book Day and it enthuses all ages for reading more until the next one comes around again.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: World Book Day https://t.co/GoyNUrXVQD via @goodreads It may be a couple of days late but I thought this week's Goodreads post from me really should focus on World Book Day. Hope you enjoy it. pic.twitter.com/Y9a7dyx93x
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 9, 2024

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Hope you have had a good Monday. But as ever it’s story time. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – It’s Good To Be Wrong.https://t.co/e1ep7rev3G
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 11, 2024

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One of my favourite flashes is Calling the Doctor. I used it as the trailer for From Light to Dark and Back Again. I’ve often changed a story mood in the last line or two (and still do!) but this was an early story where the mood changed on the last word. https://t.co/6PeGgHqJyx
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 12, 2024

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