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 great weekend. Pleased with how mine went – lots of writing and some gardening done (prefer it that way round!). More signs of spring in my garden and elsewhere – do find it cheering. More submissions sent out (in one case recorded and sent out). Good to see signs the daylight is lasting that bit longer. Makes it nicer for Lady’s evening walk.
Facebook – General
Hope you managed to avoid the heavy rain earlier today. Lady and I didn’t! Got a good soaking. March has come in like a lion, as the old proverb says. Can only hope it does go out like a lamb. Mind you, am seeing more spring flowers about so something has got the benefit of all of that rain!
I’m looking at The Task of the Opening Lines for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I like to hit the ground running with my stories and posts and will be sharing my thoughts and tips on opening lines in this post. Hope it will prove useful.
Opening lines don’t necessarily have to be the ones you started with in your first draft either. I often change mine once I’ve had chance to judge my piece objectively. I will often spot a stronger opening line further down so just move things around. Much easier to do this day and age and, yes, I did use to have to literally cut and paste. I really don’t miss that!
Writing Tip: When you’ve got a few minutes and you want to write something but don’t know what and time is short etc., why not grab a notebook and jot down some potential opening lines? What you need is a character, an action, maybe a sense of setting.
For example one of mine is ‘What gave me away?’ Maisie scowled. This is the first line from Visitor Expected (Friday Flash Fiction). You can come back at a later date and work out what could come from your draft opening lines. I like the idea of having something to come back to like this and I get to use up pockets of time for some useful writing after all.
Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to play with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback girlfriends. All three dogs very happy about that.
Am making progress (finally!) on my long term project and am investigating possible homes for it when I’m ready to submit it.
Making very good progress on a fourth flash fiction book too. A lot of what I do here goes on around the backdrop of my blogging, regular story submissions etc. It means I always have something of interest to work on (I don’t like being bored, life is too short for that). There are certain things I would like to get done by the summer and am on track so far.
I also love writing the short forms of fiction because they give me a lovely imaginative “break” from the longer work I’m doing. Plus I can get those shorter pieces out and submitted and hopefully receive publication credits in the meantime too.
Nothing to dislike here but it does mean planning out my writing time. I have found that pays off. Some days I do write more than others. That’s the way of it but what I want to do is make the most of whatever time I’ve got whether it is ten minutes or four hours.
Hope today is going well for you. Lovely to see some sunshine after the frost this morning.
Looking forward to sharing some smashing author interviews on Chandler’s Ford Today in the next couple of months. More details nearer the time. It’s always a joy to host these as I find I learn so much from what other writers do. I’ve picked up lots of tips on time management for one thing – and these have paid off for me too.
Writing Tip: Put yourself inside your character’s head. What can they see and hear? Why do they feel the way they do? When you know what your character is doing and why, it simplifies writing their stories up. You will know what they would do. You will also know what they wouldn’t. Their reactions will seem like second nature to you too. All useful.
Hope you are having a good weekend. Good to see some sunshine. A huge thank you for the lovely comments coming in on my latest Friday Flash Fiction story, Visitor Expected. Am thrilled even more comments have come in since yesterday. If you haven’t had chance to check the tale out, see the link. I like the Mrs Harrises of this world. Think you will too.
My Chandler’s Ford Today post for next week is on a topic close to my heart – The Task of the Opening Lines. Especially for flash fiction, the opening line is so important. I like to hit the ground running with my openings because that helps me to make the most of my word count and it also helps to hook the reader in immediately. Link up on Friday.
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
I like to mix up the flash fiction word counts I write to because (a) it’s fun, (b) it’s a good challenge, and (c) there are a wide range of competitions out there, all of which want differing word counts. So it pays to be able to turn your hand to several of them!
Have just submitted a flash piece and am working on a sub-300 words piece for another competition. Mind you compared with what I write for Friday Flash Fiction 300 words seems a huge amount!
You do get better, over time, at judging word counts when you see something written (on paper or in screen). When I guess, I am usually within 30 words or so. But being able to visualise what different word counts look like is handy as it helps me to gauge for this story I might need three paragraphs, for another I might only need the one. So just knowing that gives me a rough story structure immediately.
It’s Monday. The heavy rain’s back. It’s Monday. It’s time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube -We’re Off.
Motivation is vital to the success of character portrayal in any story. In Tripping the Flash Fantastic, I have a character who is out for revenge because their boss put them on a duty they really did not want (Camping It Up). I ended the tale with their revenge carried out but if I had decided to write a longer piece here, I could have had the consequences of that revenge come home to roost for my character. That would have been as understandable and believable as the character’s initial wish for revenge.
When I do use revenge as a motive, regardless of length of story, I always ensure there is a good reason behind it. You have got to understand where your characters are coming from. You don’t have to agree with them though and I often don’t agree with mine!
I occasionally write flash in poetic form. It’s good fun to do and an interesting challenge. One example of this is Choices in Tripping the Flash Fantastic. The key point is I always work out what the story will be first and then decide whether it would suit a poetic form and, if so, which kind.
I usually go for four or five line stanzas with a simple rhyme scheme as I have a soft spot for rhyme. (I’ve read some spectacular free verse by the way but my preference always has been for rhymes).
The editing challenge here is interesting too as I have to ensure my syllable count is consistent. Where I need to change words to fit that, I still need to ensure it makes sense for the story. Basically the joins shouldn’t show!
Writing a flash piece in poetic form is an interesting writing challenge too. Why not give it a go?
Forms by Allison Symes
This writer says give poetic flash a go.
But do remember you will still need to show
A proper tale with a start, middle and end.
Check all is well with your words before you send
Your story out there into the big, bad world.Allison Symes – 2nd March 2024
Goodreads Author Blog – Taking In Stories
One of the things I love most about stories is there are so many ways to take them in. My favourite will always be the paperback, followed by the hardback, followed jointly by ebooks and audio. I especially love audio books for long journeys and will look forward to hearing some old favourites again when I go on holiday later in the year.
But don’t forget audio itself comes in more than one medium. Stories on radio work astonishingly well, whether they are readings from books or plays (which are scripted stories). Also film and TV can share stories amazingly well.
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson got members of my family into that terrific story. They would never have read the book. I had read it, loved it, and thought the film trilogy did the original justice. (Though I must admit I would have liked the films to have included what really happened to Saruman after Sauron’s fall).
I also love the fact adaptations to help breathe new life into classic books. Win-win for the written word there I think.
WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK
AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsliked Allison Symes's blog post: Taking In Stories https://t.co/Y6mCZmgpJa via @goodreads I celebrate the various ways in which we can take in stories for my Goodreads post this week. pic.twitter.com/oOykSHXqui
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 2, 2024
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsIt’s Monday. The heavy rain’s back. It’s Monday. It’s time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube -We’re Off.https://t.co/7wnwwDeYN2
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 4, 2024
Delighted to say the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction Group meeting went well on Zoom last night (meeting held on 28th February 2024). My topic was Leap Year Flash and it produced some wonderful creativity.
Allison Symes: Collected Works 