Tag: Using pockets of time for non-fiction

Seasons and Scheduling

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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 Jen Wilson and Penny Blackburn for the Swanwick shots used above.
Hope you had a good weekend. I managed to get plenty of writing done and mow my lawn which did look as it if was turning into a wilderness, thanks to the rain we’ve had recently. Lady and I are disliking the humid weather at the moment but so far no storms. Hope I don’t end up regretting typing that! Lady isn’t scared of thunder but doesn’t particularly like it either. She doesn’t mind getting a good soaking though. Thankfully she dries far quicker than I do.

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Lovely to be back to the normal timetable for the swimming pool. Enjoyed that. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler friend again today and has had some long walks so all is right with her world, as it should be.

Am looking at Story Judging for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Will be sharing thoughts and tips so hope it will prove useful.

Will have two fabulous author interviews coming up for CFT towards the end of the month too and am looking forward to sharing those. I always learn so much from author interviews.

Fun thought: if you could interview any author from the past, who would it be and why? I’d be torn between interviewing Jane Austen and P.G. Wodehouse, I think. I know I’d want to chat to either/both of them with regard to humour in fiction. I would hope both would be delighted their works are still so treasured too.

 

Hope you have had a good start to your week. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler friend today and it was sweet to see them both showing affection towards each other.

I prepare blog posts in advance and schedule them. I then come back to them with about a week to go before publication so I can double check them, add in anything further if appropriate (this can often be the case for my Chandler’s Ford Today posts), and then I know they’re “put to bed”, so to speak. I am a great believer in scheduling!

I use odd pockets of time, as I’ve mentioned before, to jot down story ideas but I also do this for non-fiction. On picking an idea from the pile I like, I will then start drafting a non-fiction post. Five minutes here, another short session there (and I get several of these during the week), and I am well on my way to getting my first draft done.

Those pockets of time do mount up and are worth using in this way. I’ve found they’ve helped me be far more productive.

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I know it’s hard to believe we’re at September already but I think it is one of the loveliest months of the year. I love the changing colours of the leaves and the decent workout I get when I clear up the fallen oak leaves. (Not kidding there. It really does help with my keep fit!).

Author newsletter went out earlier today. Many thanks to all of my subscribers for your support.
Delighted to say I’ll be sharing fabulous author interviews later this month on Chandler’s Ford Today. More details nearer the time.

Writing Tip: Do write what you yourself would love to read. If you accept the writing journey is a long one, you do need to care deeply about what you write. It helps to keep you going.

If later, after publication say, you still need to care about what you have written/are currently writing, as you will always be promoting your work in some way.

Also given marketing is part of the writing life, it pays to find forms you enjoy doing and can therefore keep going for the long term. I only started my newsletter when I knew I could do that. I also have in mind what is it it for the reader but I try to have this in mind for all I write. It encourages me to ensure there is no purple prose, only what a reader needs/will enjoy.

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Am surprised we’ve got to the end of August already but there you go. Author newsletter out again tomorrow of course.

Will be discussing Story Judging for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Link up on Friday.

Delighted to receive a shout out as part of a lovely review for The Best of CafeLit 13 on Amazon. Well done to all of the authors in this book. It is a great collection and perfect for dipping into and/or for those times when reading time isn’t as long as you’d like. Short stories and flash fiction fill that gap nicely I find!.

I often read collections and have discovered authors new to me this way so yet another benefit to reading the short forms. Why not try this out with CafeLit 13? Link below.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Busy preparing an autumn themed story for submission later this week, I need to record it to get my timings right before sending it in. Autumn as a topic though is a great one. My gran hated the season as she saw it as the season when everything died. She too did die in the autumn.

Me? I love the season. I love the changing colours. I see autumn as paving the way for new life to come in the following spring (especially for trees). Before long I will have a good workout clearing up my oak leaves too!

But if you’re thinking of using autumn as a topic, one way in would be to consider what your character makes of it and why. Equally you could look at this from the view of something important happening to your character in the season (and why it has to be autumn rather than the others).

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It’s Monday again. Having said that, it is the first one in what I think is my favourite month of the year. There is something charming about September I think. I love the changing colours of the leaves etc. But it is still Monday when all is said and done. I’ve yet to meet anyone for whom it is their favourite day of the week.

So with that in mind it is story time then! Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Moving On.

 

Hope you have had a good weekend. Have enjoyed my usual Flash Fiction Sunday Afternoon Session!
I like to mix up the moods of the stories I write, as well as their word counts and styles. It keeps things interesting for me and I hope readers too.

Am especially keen on lighter stories given the news is so grim. I do believe there is a place for the humorous, the feel good, and the lighthearted stories. I think escapism of that nature is appreciated. I know it is by me! One of the functions of stories is to take a reader away into other worlds for a while. They don’t all have to be grim ones!

Yes, I do write darker flash pieces too. I know the world (and therefore the fiction which reflects it) is not all sweetness and light but I do like a good balance. If you can’t have unremitting good cheer, I think it follows you can’t have unremitting grim too.

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Dialogue is a great way to start any story but for flash fiction I think it has even more impact. Given there is less room for description and narrative. dialogue has to work harder in a flash story as it needs to convey information the reader needs to know, give some sort of hook to keep the reader interested, as well as move the story forwards. Not much to ask then!

This is one reason why I often use questions in dialogue. A reader instinctively knows the story will have to reveal the answers to those questions by the end of the story. From the writer’s viewpoint that gives a useful framework for your story.

And I must admit if a character came up with the line ‘How have I ended up on this alien planet and what is that being pointed at me?’, I know I would want to read on! Okay dialogue doesn’t have to be so “in your face” intriguing as that but something as simple as ‘You do know Katie got it wrong, don’t you?’ would equally intrigue me enough to read further.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Music to Suit The Written Word

I had a lovely bank holiday recently listening to the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame. I voted for The Lord of the Rings soundtrack, which to me has everything – classical, choral, opera, and Enya! I was delighted it was voted the favourite again.

What I love about the soundtrack is each track brings the film (and therefore the book) to mind at different stages of Frodo’s quest. It just works. That’s what I think an excellent soundtrack should do for a film and, given so many movies are based on original novels, the books too.

Often when listening to classical, I can see a piece working well for a book I’ve read (or for a particular character) and this is even the case when the music hasn’t been written specifically for this. Many of the classical pieces are based on well known works – there are a few pieces relating to Romeo and Juliet for example.

So there is a link between music and the written word. Given I love both of these things, I like this a lot.

For my own stories and characters, I can sometimes picture what would make a good soundtrack for them or I hear something and think this would suit Character A etc.. I like this too. For me, it brings those stories and characters to life even more.

Screenshot 2024-08-31 at 17-32-13 Allison Symes's Blog - Music To Suit The Written Word - August 31 2024 09 31 GoodreadsI write with classical music on in the background

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the March 2024 edition of the magazine which had the theme of writing for children. My two articles in this one were about writing for children and also for writing for anthologies.

 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Writing Difficulties and Favourite Openings

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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. Had a marvellous time at the pantomime last week, review to follow in Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. Good to see more signs of spring emerging too – the snowdrops are out and the birds are busy nest building. Writing wise, have got a draft of a story down for another competition so will come back to that in a few days and work on it again.

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Chilly today but Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal this morning and happily showed off (I.e. racing around with her ball) in front of said pal (who looks on vaguely amused or so it seems to me. The Vizler is older than Lady).

Looking forward to sharing my review of The Sleeping Beauty as performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Do check out your own local amateur dramatic companies by the way – you are bound to find gems. I have! And going to the theatre is another way of taking in stories, when all is said and done.

Amused to see I have another one star review for Tripping the Flash Fantastic over on Amazon but no comments to go with it. Every author gets these so I guess it is a sign I am part of the “club” here then!

When I review books myself, I always pick out something I have liked to comment about. I don’t review books I dislike. Don’t think that’s fair to the author simply because no one author or book is going to please everybody. Things don’t work like that. And that’s fair enough. Tastes differ.

I have varied tastes in books but some things are just not for me so I give them a wide berth. But I’ve long believed the hatchet jobs say more about the reviewer than whoever is on the receiving end. That doesn’t just apply to books of course.

Don’t forget my author newsletter is out this coming Thursday. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Newsletter with envelope imagePleased to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, for my first post here of the New Year. I talk about Writing Difficulties this time. We all get them. We start a piece of work full of enthusiasm and then get bogged down.

My post looks at what I find can trigger struggling with writing for me (being overtired really does not help) and how I handle that. Being aware of what can trigger writing difficulties is so helpful because you can work out how to overcome these. It isn’t always possible to avoid them but it helps a lot as well to know you’re not alone here.

Hope you find the post useful.

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Hope the weekend has gone well. Spotted first snowdrops today.

When I’ve got odd moments of time when I can write something, but not necessarily enough time for a flash piece or short story, I jot down ideas for titles, promising opening lines etc.

I also start drafting blog posts, perhaps an opening paragraph or so. It is great to have something to come back to later. Those pockets of time do mount up as I’ve mentioned before. I also make a point of starting the next blog posts as soon as I can after publication of others.

So for the monthly Authors Electric and More than Writers I am starting to draft the following month’s posts as soon as the current ones have been published. I can then add to these pieces throughout the month. I usually find I have a post finished, edited, and pictures selected for it about ten days before my posts are due for these two places. I like that.

What I try not to do is leave writing a post until almost the last minute. That doesn’t work for me. I find drafting my newsletters over the course of a month also works well. It means I just have to send myself a test email a few days before it is due out. I can spot anything I need to add in or change, do so, and then I know the newsletter is good to go on the first of the month.

I am a big believer in taking pressure off myself. Knowing I have something drafted helps with that a lot. For fiction, I do similarly with competition entries and use my diary to ensure I get things off in good time. It may be old school using a diary but as I mentioned recently it works.

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Hope you have had a good day. Great to see some signs of spring appearing. Am spotting daffodils beginning to emerge.

Looking forward to sharing my review of The Sleeping Beauty performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company this week. Pantomime is a great tradition in the UK and long may it continue.

It is amazing how long admin tasks connected with writing can take. I’ve had to change my email over the Christmas period and getting everything updated has taken longer than I thought. I am there now though (or at least I believe I am, time will tell!).

On a much more fun note, I’m glad to say the flash fiction group meeting (for ACW) went well on Wednesday. I’m also going through the Writing Magazine competition guide and marking up several possibilities for flash fiction and short story competitions. Am looking forward to checking these out and giving them a try.

Next issue of Writers’ Narrative magazine will be out soon. Watch this space. Will share the link once I have it.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

One of my favourite openings to a story of mine comes from Decisions from Tripping the Flash Fantastic. It reads He could watch the world end or jump on to the alien spaceship that encouraged visitors.

You’ve got to read on and find out what happens, right?

That’s the whole point of having a strong, intriguing opening line. You want to draw those readers in but you do need then to deliver on the promise given by that opening line.

This is why I outline. I work things first out and then write my draft. It helps me ensure I do deliver on that promise.

TTFF with social media iconsIt’s Monday. It’s slowly getting lighter in the evenings. It’s still Monday and time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Sunset.

Inspiration for this came from a random phrase generator which I then adapted further. I often use these things as a starting point. I also will take phrases and proverbs and change one word – that can affect the mood of the story I then write. It’s good fun to do – why not give it a go?

One aspect to Flash NANO I loved was the variety of prompts but this included those I wasn’t so keen on. I thought this was a good thing.

It made me go outside of my comfort zone for one thing. For another, it encouraged me to think laterally as to how I would tackle those prompts. And I did produce something to these, as well as for those I knew I could do having done those kinds of prompts before.

It does pay you to try different kinds of writing prompt because it will prepare well for writing to different themes for competitions. It’s also not a bad idea to mix up the word counts you write to for flash as mentioned yesterday. See further down.

I try to think along the lines of what can I do with this rather than have not done this before, can’t do this. You can. This is where I think jotting down your prompt and then working out what could come from it helps. Think along the lines of flowcharts and spider diagrams here. There is something about the act of writing something down which helps me to kick start the imagination.

For example one prompt I hadn’t done before last year was the one sentence only/stream of consciousness writing one. I wouldn’t usually write like that. I did do something for it. I won’t use this prompt directly but what came out of that prompt may form the basis for a longer flash piece at a later date. What I came up with was part of an early memory of mine.

Now I could take that and apply it to a character. Or I could get a character to tell me “their” early memory. But there are ideas I could work up here. That is the point of any writing prompt – to make you see what you can do and there will be something, even if it takes you longer than normal to think of something.

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I like to mix up the word counts I write to when writing flash stories. For some sites like Friday Flash Fiction, I stick to the 100 worder (aka the drabble) but elsewhere most of my stories end up at between the 100 and 500 words mark. A lot of flash fiction competitions are based around the 100 to 500 words mark so it is not a bad idea to practice writing to these word counts. I’ve found it pays!

But sometimes when I have a character who has more to show us, then I will write to the 750 to 1000 words mark. Sometimes I do need the full extent of flash fiction to show the full depth of a character because a reader needs to see that to make sense of the tale. So I get the story written first, edit it, and then and only then think about what the word count should be.

For Friday Flash Fiction, where I know what I am writing to word count wise, that tells me just how much I can show via my characters. It has to be short and sharp – so my works are. I can show one incident and one character.

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Goodreads Author Blog – What Books Do For Us

Aptly, I could write chapter and verse on this one but I will limit it. Books are one of the best inventions we’ve come up with as a species. Books entertain us and take us away from our cares for a while. Books educate us. Books inspire us.

Reading encourages empathy as we follow what characters do and root for them to succeed. In the case of villains where we’re normally rooting for them to fail, there is still some empathy here usually for what the hero has to overcome. Sometimes you can see where the villains are coming from but still don’t agree with their actions. So again there is some empathy. Encouraging empathy is good for us per se.

And then there are the stories of the writers who bring us the books we love. The stories of how they overcame difficulties and became published authors inspire so many and do continue to inspire me though I am now published myself.

In writing books, authors have to think about their characters, what they’re going to do, what the plot line is going to be and so on. Working all of that out has to be beneficial for the brain, I would have thought. Certainly I know writing inspires me to try and write more and better. The striving behind writing and bringing books out is a good thing too.

I’ve loved the rise of the indie press, partly because I am published by them, but mainly because they are bringing more books to more people and giving more authors a voice.

Last but definitely not least, there is a genre and format of book to suit everyone – ebooks, audio books, crime fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, and all manner of other genres and formats.

Books are meant to be enjoyed. Long live the book!

Screenshot 2024-01-27 at 18-45-51 What Books Do For Us

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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