Tag: what you like and dislike in characters

Characters and Motivation

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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 Lynn Clement for the recent image taken at the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event and to Janet Williams for the one taken of me at the Book Fair in October.
Hope you had a good weekend. A busy one for me with next weekend being even busier still though I suspect that will be true for most. Will be taking a few days off in Christmas week so will probably end up doing one round up post here only that week. Am wrapping up various writing things now.
Looking forward to reading a wonderful poem about the three wise men in a church service later this week. It’s one of the few times when I get to read poetry out – always a lovely thing to do (and listen to I find). There are links between flash fiction and poetry in that both focus on specific details, are looking to make impact by the specific choice of words (we think about how they sound when read out etc) , and word count is limited.

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Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day. Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today so all well there. Looking forward to resuming swimming from tomorrow. Have been poorly but also had car off road so not a great combination of circumstances. All well with car and with me now!

Character Tip: What is it about a character that makes you want to read their story? This is where studying the books you love by other authors is so helpful to you. You can work out what you like and dislike and apply that to your own creations. I know what I dislike in characters so make sure those traits don’t turn up in mine.

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Family funeral today so was out early with the dog. Lady will hopefully catch up with her pals properly later this week though she did get to see one of them on our way home (and the two dogs gave each other “muzzle snuggles” – sweet to see).

Writing wise, am busy editing and wrapping up various pieces of work because come next weekend, I know I won’t be getting much writing done!

Author newsletter will go out on 1st January (though I’m not going to promise it will be on the stroke of midnight!). I share news, tips, prompts, story links and more here so if that sounds of interest, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Many thanks to all who have signed up to the newsletter this year and to all who continue to support it. Much appreciated.

Newsletter with envelope image

Hope you’ve had a good weekend. Cold but dry. Lady and I have appreciated not getting soaked!

Will be sharing Bridge House Publishing Celebration and Broadcast News for my Chandler’s Ford Today post this coming week. Will also be sharing a free festive story not found elsewhere as part of this. Link up on Friday.

Looking forward to wrapping up the year with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Wednesday. Four of us had a story on Hannah Kate’s show yesterday – well done, all.

Character Tip: Actors need to know their motivation, so do your characters. Funnily enough, motivation can be something small (though it would be major to your character). So, for example, a character can be motivated to act in a certain way simply because they want to successfully carry out one petty act of revenge against someone, whereas most of us would just let something like that go.

The motivation has to make sense to your character (and to your reader – we don’t have to agree with it, mind you, and neither do you. I can think of some of my characters whom, if I could meet in real life, I would want to shout at).

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Saturday 14th December 2024
Have had a delightful afternoon listening to Three Minute Santas on North Manchester FM with Hannah Kate. A lovely range of 23 stories – loved them all. Well done, everyone, and such a great advert for festive flash fiction, I think. Hope to share a link later (and again in my Chandler’s Ford Today post next week where I’ll also share more from the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event).

Writing Tip: I often get ideas for festive flash much earlier in the year so I do just dot them down then and come back and work on them at a later date. Naturally you can do this for other obvious topics (someone is bound to want a love story for February for some reason!).

Basically, when you get the idea write it down. Don’t rely on your remembering it – you won’t. I’ve lost ideas myself in not doing this. Something always comes along to distract you. But once it’s safely noted down in a notebook, or on your phone etc., you do at least know you have something to come back to to work on later.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Looking forward to an informal Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom tomorrow. It’s a lovely way to wrap up our writing year. We share festive flash pieces, have a good chat, and Christmas hats/jumpers etc are entirely optional!

I won’t be entering any further competitions this year though I was glad to get a couple of flash related ones in at the end of November/early December. Won’t know for a while how they did. Fingers crossed time!

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It’s Monday. It’s time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Ringing The Changes – Not. There is one person who would love an iced bun with a cherry on it but knows they cannot. Expectations and all that. Find out who and why here.

 

Has been a busy weekend. I suspect the next one will be busier still!

I did love enjoying all those festive flash pieces on Three Minute Santas yesterday – it is a great advert for the form. Many thanks, Hannah Kate. Lovely way to support short form writers.

Am busy enjoying Christmas favourite films at the moment. Watched The Muppet Christmas Carol on Friday and plan to watch The Polar Express soon (Tom Hanks is great in that). Have seen Hogfather.
Definitely time for festive stories – flash or film related!

As for hopes and plans for 2025, I’ve got a few ideas in mind. As ever for this year, I’ve written more than I thought in one direction and not quite finished other items off, though I have made good progress on them – the usual mixed bag! Will be winding down the writing from next weekend for a few days. One thing I look forward to just after Christmas is having more time to read – and I do make the most of that.

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The challenge with writing festive flash, in particular, is coming up with a new way at looking at what are familiar stories and legends. For my Perspective, broadcast on Three Minutes Santas on North Manchester FM earlier today, I took the story of the Nativity and showed how it looked through the viewpoint of the oxen, one of whom especially was a bit on the grumpy side. As ever my way in is to find the character I want to write about and then take things from there.

What appeals to me about a potential character? With a grumpy character like my oxen, I can explore why they are grumpy (and often this can lead to humour). But there has to be something in the character for me to be able to draw out.

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Goodreads Author Blog – The Reading List

I suspect if ever there is a time of year for the reading list to grow, as if it had been fed with a super speedy fertilizer, it will be the time of year just on Christmas and just afterwards. It’s a nice problem to have though and I hope your reading list grows with lots of interesting new items this year.

Now I admit any book related presents I receive at Christmas do go automatically to the top of my reading list. I think there must be an written rule somewhere that new books do go to the top of the list like that. I tend to top up my Kindle reading list in the New Year (it’s a great way to use any given vouchers etc).

One thing that doesn’t change is the variety I have on my reading list. I like a good balance of the long and short forms, non-fiction as well as fiction. I’m never short of something interesting to read – the thought of that makes me shudder. Just as well there’s no chance of that happening then – and my reading list continues to grow and thrive!

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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