Tag: writing advice

Questions and Answers For Characters

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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.

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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.

Screenshot 2024-03-29 at 09-29-35 Memories by Allison SymesFlash 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.

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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.

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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!

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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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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Online Workshops and Broadcast News

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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. 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.

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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.

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

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.

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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).

Screenshot 2024-03-15 at 10-08-09 Neighbours by Allison SymesPleased 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!


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.

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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.

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Ways Into Creating Characters

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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 taking the photo of me at one of my Swanwick Open Prose Mic Nights.
Hope you have had a good week. Lady and I have had a wet week -with many soakings! I am so glad writing is generally an indoor activity where I can stay dry! I share a flash fiction in Fairytales with Bite this time which I hope you enjoy. I also share how I wrote this. I look at character vocabulary too.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am pleased to share Ways Into Creating Characters as this week’s post on Chandler’s Ford Today. I hope you find it useful. I look at why stories are character led (I have good reason to think this given how many I invent over a year), and share various tips.

I look at picking a trait, interviewing characters, and thinking of situations you want to write up (as from that comes the kind of character who would work best in those situations) just to name a few thoughts and tips. I also discuss why a writer needs to know their characters well enough.

What is “well enough” will change from writer to writer as so much depends on what you need to know to be able to picture your people/other beings of choice in your head but you should figure out what it is you do need to know. I have found that last bit to be invaluable.

Ways Into Creating Characters

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Lady and I had a real soaking this morning. She dries off far quicker than I do! Then I went swimming…. That soaking I didn’t mind at all!

I’ll be looking at Ways Into Creating Characters for Chandler’s Ford Today this week, link up tomorrow. Hope you will find it useful. Looking forward to sharing it. See above.

Am also looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week. Theme will be on the fact it is a leap year and how we can use that in our flash stories.

Am also busy working on PowerPoint presentations and enjoying writing these. I hadn’t used PowerPoint for years until Zoom came into my writing life. It is useful for this. Flash writing helps for this kind of thing too. The slides work best if you don’t put too much on them! Far better to have more slides than crammed ones.

409093199_10161745951532053_3758194475051098623_nHope you haven’t got too soggy today. Lady and I probably soaked up your share when we were out this morning. No ducking it today! Am glad rain doesn’t make you shrink otherwise we’d both be in trouble.

Newsletter out again shortly. Where does the time go? Having a monthly newsletter brings home how quickly it does pass. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Writing Tip: I work out my characters’ likely vocabulary as part of my outlining process. I have an idea of the kind of speech they would use (based on what I believe their educational levels would be) and, just as importantly, what they wouldn’t come up with unless under great stress.

So if I get a non-swearing character to suddenly change their mind on that, there has to be a great reason behind that change which plays out in the story. It does mean I would’ve dropped them right in it and the kind of situation they’re in is likely to produce this effect.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Time to end the working week with what I hope you will find is a fun story. Am delighted my latest piece is now up on Friday Flash Fiction. Hope you like Facing The Frog.

Screenshot 2024-02-23 at 09-53-30 Facing The Frog by Allison Symes

When I take part in Open Prose Mic Nights, I look for a mixture of flash pieces to read in terms of mood. I like to try and show what flash can be capable of and that it can produce moving, punch in the gut type tales as well as laugh out loud on a punchline ending ones.

I also mix up whether I read pieces in the first or third person. Flash works well for both. And yes when I am reading a first person piece, I do try to get “into” the character so it is almost a performance rather than a straight reading.

Why? Because I am showing the audience my character. Acting out their story helps me to get them across more vividly I think. And it is huge fun. I am being the “I” in the story after all even if I “just” read it so I may as well get right into the character’s head and “perform” their tale.

409093199_835375105269019_9075061831183394162_nI’ve mentioned before flash is great for twist and/or humorous punchline endings. It is also great for giving a character who deserves it their comeuppance fast. Is fabulous fun to do.

One of my favourite stories of mine here is A Kind of Hell from From Light to Dark and Back Again. Comes in at 94 words, excluding the title, and I paint a scene where my horrible character does get justice and in an appropriate way too.

With these kind of stories, again I work out what the appropriate justice would be first, write that out, and then work out how I could logically get to this point. It works!

Allison Symes - Flash Fiction Collections

Fairytales with Bite – Crossing Spells

Crossing Spells by Allison Symes
The great inventors always discover things by accident. Oh they write down what they think will happen but something always goes awry and either there is an explosion or they find something which is even more useful to us all. There is never any middle ground here. Same goes for us fairy godmothers with spells.

Happened to me last week. I looked up my spells, made sure I had all the ingredients to hand, and then what should have been a pumpkin turned into a coach, let’s just say she turned up to the royal ball smelling of squash! I don’t know what I crossed to get that.

Still I must say the pumpkin style coach did have something about it. My critics say yes, it had a strong pong and the rats, which had been turned into footmen, remembered their original form and started eating away at the coach before it reached the Palace.

I had cast the right spell. Miranda, my best friend at fairy college, tells me I mispronounced one word and hence the desired effect was crossed with the basic ingredient and it all went horribly wrong.

Still the girl got there. Neither she nor His Nibs seemed to care and they’re getting wed next week. So no great harm done. But it has had the effect of whenever I go out and about, people point at me and chuckle. Some wag keeps leaving pumpkins on my doorstep too.

Miranda swears it wasn’t her but why did she stink of squash recently? She tells me she’s taken up gardening. Well if she has, she has the cleanest hands of any gardener I’ve known!

On the plus side, I have been invited to give the annual address to the Pumpkin Growers’ Society this year and I get paid for it too. I just hope the payment isn’t my weight in pumpkins though!

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Allison Symes – 21st February 2024

Hope you enjoyed that. One of my favourite forms of writing is taking a well known fairytale and coming at the story from another angle. It works best when kept short and, I hope, funny and flash fiction is ideal for this.

Here I took the idea of a well meaning fairy godmother not getting things quite right and seeing what would come from that. So start with your character. Who are you using and why have you chosen them? What could you get them to do to bring something different to the tale?

And have fun writing the tale up!

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This World and Others – What We Know as Science

What we know as science covers a wide field, of course, but what would it be thought of in your setting. Would science be seen as that or as a kind of magic?

I went to a medieval fair some time ago and spoke to the herbalist there. She was brilliant but told me that in medieval times, women who were renowned for their use of herbs were okay if things went well for their village because of that herb usage. If anything went wrong, they were likely to face accusations of witchcraft and a horrible death usually followed.

Yet in discovering you could cure headaches with the bark of a certain plant (which we now know led to the development of aspirin), that would have been seen as some kind of magic. What the herbalists had done was simply observe the effects of this bark. This had been observed repeatedly too as one or two spotting this would have just been dismissed. The fact that this was a known remedy meant this has had been tested and found to be true many, many times.

Observation and testing are core skills in any and every science.

So with this in mind, what would your characters make of what we call science? Are they accepting of it or suspicious? Has the practice of science (magic in your setting) gone wrong and led to suspicion of it? How could that be overcome?

Story ideas there I think.

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Writing Tips, Course News, and Finding Blog Ideas

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, as were the photos from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick (taken in much warmer times – last August!). Many thanks to Julia Pattison for taking the publicity shot of me at my editing workshop at August 2023’s Swanwick too.
Hope you have had a good few days. Good weekend writing wise and one of my stories submitted over it will be published soon. More details in a future post. Plus I do have news to share of a two part course I will be running later this year. Good start to 2024! Lady continuing to have fabulous times with her best friends so she thinks she’s got off to a good start for 2024 as well.

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Facebook – General

Brrr… it has been a tad on the nippy side today. Wearing enough layers to act as my own buoyancy aid should the need arise. Hope you have had a good day (and do keep safe. No snow here. Know it has fallen heavily elsewhere).

Will be sharing advice and tips in Newsletter Tips for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Talking of which my next one will be out on 1st February. To sign up please head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

A huge thank you for the kind comments on my post yesterday where I shared news about the course I’ll be running at Swanwick later this year. Much appreciated. Looking forward to August already – mind you, the cold snap here encourages that feeling!

Writing Tip: Finding ideas for blogs such as Chandler’s Ford Today, Authors Electric, More than Writers etc is something I have to do a lot obviously but a good way in to this is to look at what interests you as a reader and as a writer because you won’t be the only one interested in those themes.

Some of the topics I write about are based on what I have found out on my writing journey and would be useful to share. My Newsletter Tips post this week comes into that category. Sometimes I write about books. Sometimes I use seasonal topics (for example, I always write something about the importance of remembering in November).

Occasionally I will use the random generators – especially the question one – to trigger ideas. I looked up one for this post and what came up was Who inspires you to be better? Now that’s a fabulous question and the answer to it would make for a great blog (Allison, do note this one for yourself at some point!).

Course News

Thrilled to say I will be running a two part course at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, in August. My topic will be Hints and Tips on Editing. So looking forward to this and to being at Swanwick once more. For me, if there is a home for writers so to speak, Swanwick is it. Lovely start to 2024 too.

For more details on Swanwick, see the link. Writing Magazine, in conjunction with the School, are running a Win Your Way to Swanwick competition. You have to the end of March 2024 on this one and there are three categories – short stories, poetry, and writing for children. See the Writing Magazine link for more information.

Nice start to the week and pleased to say another story of mine will be on CafeLit next week. Heard today on that one. More details and link to come in due course.

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A good writing exercise is to take a character and put them in different word count stories – for example, 100 words, 200 words, 300 words etc. You can either take the same basic story and extend it (without padding of course) or, as I prefer to do, put the character in a short sharp 100-worder, then put them in different situations for the longer flashes. Three different stories but with one character. Well worth a go and is an interesting challenge especially if you go for the different situations scenario.

And of course you choose how many you do. I’ve prepared something recently on this for the next Association of Christian Writers Flash Group meeting and I went for one character, two different stories but you can do as many as you like. So if you have a character you really want to spend more time with then this is a way to do so.

419744417_809669697839560_6894645829121530112_nHope you have had a good day. Still pretty cold. Will be looking at Newsletter Tips for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Link up on Friday.

It was a joy to welcome back Val Penny on yesterday’s post New Year New Writing Format for Val Penny. Always glad to welcome someone to the short story and flash fiction worlds!

Writing Tip: Think about what it is you love about stories and characters. Is it the way the author has used select details to reveal more about them or the way they speak? Is it the way the story “comes together” for a satisfying resolution?

Look at how the story starts, look out for the tipping point roughly in the middle, heading to the resolution/conclusion. (The latter are often combined). Look at how the writer has ended their story in what is the right place (or what you think, because you love the story, is the right place).

Working out when to end a story can be tricky. It can be tempting to add in just that bit more, especially if you adore the characters, but you want to look for an ending which leaves the reader feeling no more could be said or should be. And a great way to work out what that could be is to see what other authors have done – yet another great reason to get more reading done!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have kept warm today. Brrr… it’s bitter out there. Lady ran around as normal. No problems with her keeping warm.

What is it you like most about stories of any length or genre? For me, the characters have to interest me enough to make me want to read to find out what they get up to and that usually happens if they’re facing dilemmas that have to be solved, one way or another.

I have a soft spot for humorous works where the resolution to the dilemmas faced by the characters usually provide a good laugh. Would love to see humorous fiction and non-fiction appreciated more than it is. We could do with more to laugh about, yes?

Flash can come into its own for humorous stories. I often end a humorous flash with a punchline ending. The form’s brevity makes this the perfect way to end a story. You leave the reader on a high note. Nothing to dislike there!

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It’s Monday. It’s January. It’s freezing. Time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Toppings. Find out what happens when a trainee fairy loses a magical duel and where hats come into it all.

 

I usually write a flash fiction story for Friday Flash Fiction and then another for my YouTube channel afterwards. Sometimes I take the same topic but take it in contrasting directions. So if one story is a “dark” one, the other will be lighter. I like doing that.

Most topics/themes are suitable for working with like that. I don’t write on the topics/themes which, for good reason, can only be grim. I see my role as writer to be one of someone trying to entertain so there are some topics I don’t touch. But there are plenty of other ideas to write up and that is where I focus.

Sometimes I keep the mood for my flash pieces the same but go for two different topics/themes. All good fun to do! And I like to mix up how I approach writing the stories. Sometimes I use random generators (and there are so many of these to choose from you are not going to run out, honestly!), or pick a proverb to use as a theme/title. Sometimes a film or book I like inspires me.

It is the getting started on ideas for stories that can be tricky at times so it pays to have a variety of methods to play with.

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Reviews are what every author would like and find difficult to get but please consider giving a review. They don’t have to be long. And an author can use a review or parts of it to help with their marketing, which in turn can help with book sales and visibility on Amazon etc. Also a bit of encouragement goes a long way when you’re at your desk writing away.

For example, part of a lovely review I had for Tripping the Flash Fantastic reads The storytelling was beautiful in so few words which takes the talent and skill of a practiced author.

Lovely and unexpected and a real boost to yours truly.

I do give reviews myself – mainly on books though I do sometimes on groceries etc. I find you can get a good “feel” for whether something is likely to suit you or not by reading the reviews. If the majority are favourable, they’re likely to be right.

Same goes other way round (and am glad to say I’ve never come across this one with books. I have come across it with grocery items at times – what do I do here? Avoid said product!).

BB - Flash with a Dash for TTFF

Goodreads Author Blog – Making History Gripping

Making history gripping is something that applies to fiction and non-fiction. Given a writer is telling the story of something that has happened or a biography of a historical figure, it should be gripping to read. History is so full of drama and vivid characters, it should catch the reader’s attention and hold it until we get to the end.

Am currently reading historical non-fiction and loving it. Hope to review in due course but what I love about this particular book is the way in which evidence is presented for the case the author is making. It shows the facts and resources used and you just have to read on to find out what will be uncovered next.

I also love creative non-fiction here as history often comes up in this. Creative non-fiction can give a kind of licence to fill in the gaps where facts are not known but it has to be done in context with what is known. A reader has to feel that this is plausible given what is known.

I enjoy history in hardback, paperback, and the Kindle and am glad to see there are so many ways to approach what, for me at least, is an engrossing topic. I’ve also enjoyed historical romance (The Warrior’s Prize by Jennifer C Wilson because this showed me aspects of history for an era I didn’t know much about as well as having a great romance story with it. I will declare I do know the author but I liked the book because it showed me aspects of border life back in medieval times which was an area of history I haven’t really explored).

So even if you like “just stories”, history can meet a need here too. Why not check out historical fiction? It will show you history as you’ve not seen it before. I learned a lot about King John from reading The Lady of Hay.

Screenshot 2024-01-13 at 20-00-55 Making History Gripping

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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The Writing Community

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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 all is well with you. About to head off for a break in gorgeous Northumberland. Will be taking laptop with me. Have laptop, will travel, will write, and I suspect I’ll get some done via good old Evernote on the phone on the journey up there. I’ve taken to the idea of using pockets of time for writing, whether it is to brainstorm or draft a story or blog post. Those pockets mount up. Amazing what you can get done.

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Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am delighted to be sharing The Writing Community on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. This is something so worth celebrating and something I deeply appreciate. It has added richness to my writing life and I have learned so much useful information too. It’s lovely being able to share some of that information back again. There are always new writers glad of this.

I share some useful website links (Society of Authors, Alliance of Independent Authors, Writer Beware, and Hampshire Writers’ Society). I also look at the usefulness of writing magazines which can help you feel part of a wider writing world and a few thoughts on online communities.

I do follow some on Facebook but deliberately don’t follow them all. (Not enough time basically but being selective about what you would like to give to a group as well as receive from it is a good idea anyway). Hope you enjoy the post and find it useful.

The Writing Community

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When did I realise I wanted to write? It has been in the background of my life for a long time. I always did love composition lessons at school but it didn’t occur to me for decades I might do something with this. It took a significant birthday and the birth of my son to make me realise if I wanted to see a book out there with my name on the front cover, it would be a great idea if I sat down and got on with it!

In all seriousness, my only regret, writing wise, is not starting sooner than I did because I had no idea how long it would take for me to find my feet, learn my craft, learn to come to terms with rejections, improve my craft more, get better at submitting the right story to the right place to increase my chances of acceptance etc.

And it does take time. I think though there is a good side to this. I appreciate my acceptances more than if they had come to me “easily” I think. I now have a great deal more appreciation of how hard writers work to bring out works for us to enjoy. I also appreciate the editor’s craft more too. Mind you, I ought to, being one myself! I also appreciate more why every writer needs a good editor!

370051565_745095310963666_2820144343510089716_nHope you have had a good day. Definitely feeling the autumn chill now. Am celebrating The Writing Community in my Chandler’s Ford Today post on Friday. That’s something which is always worth celebrating! See above.

Writing Tip: I find three to five word titles ideal for most of my stories. There are always exceptions to any rule (bear in mind my first book, From Light to Dark and Back Again, has seven, count them, seven words in it!) but most of the time the shorter the title, the easier it is to remember and to share on social media, especially where there is a limited character count.

I will use pockets of time to jot down ideas for future potential titles. I come back to these later and any that still grab me, well those are the ones I flesh out characters for and then go on to write my first draft. The time away from my initial ideas is a good test to see if something is likely to work. If I find myself thinking why did I come up with that, it is highly unlikely I’m taking things any further!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction. My latest story here is called Being Engrossed. Find out what kind of trouble that leads my character, Stephen, into! Glad to say there are some smashing comments coming in on this one already. I do appreciate the feedback I get from FFF (and this ties in nicely with my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week which celebrates The Writing Community!).

Screenshot 2023-10-06 at 09-28-46 Being Engrossed by Allison Symes

There are many things I love about flash fiction. I like the way I can put characters anywhere I want in terms of genre, time period etc. I love coming up with lines which I know will make great twist endings or humorous punchlines. I love working out how I could get to those closing lines literally so, yes, it is like putting a puzzle together.

This may well be one of the joys of crime writing for the author as well. They know what’s happening so it is a question of working out how to put it together so it hooks the reader. And that’s the challenge for every writer, regardless of what form we write in – how do we hook the reader?

For me, it’s always about intriguing characters and interesting situations to dump them in. I so enjoy putting my characters through the mill and finding out how they manage.

385773827_745096554296875_202221957929432612_nRemorse and regrets can make for an interesting character study story. I do this with My Girl in Tripping the Flash Fantastic, where my take on Queen Anne Boleyn is sharing her thoughts on the eve of her execution. All I came up with for her in this story is based on plausibility.

It would not be unreasonable, for example, to be thinking of her young daughter and what would happen to her. We also know Queen Anne did pray a lot (and she would’ve done then).

But this kind of story gives you an opportunity to have your character reflect on their life (whether you use a historical character or make one up) and this can have huge resonance with a reader. Also works best when kept short so flash is ideal for this.

BB - Flash with a Dash for TTFF

Fairytales with Bite – Away Trips

In your magical setting, do your characters get sent on “away trips”? If so, are these missions to spy on other worlds and why would this be done? For example, would a magical world send their spies to Earth to keep an eye on what we are doing with what we call science? Would they be looking to steal our best ideas and use them for their own purposes on their own world?

Equally do your magical characters get to have “jollies” where they can just go away and enjoy themselves? What would they have done to serve their world to justify getting something like that? Where would your average fairy godmother go when she wanted a holiday? Can all beings in your world have these trips or are they just for the select few?

What would the benefits be to your characters of having these trips? If they are allowed to visit other worlds, such as ours, does that trip away change their attitudes towards (a) their own lives at home and (b) their previous views on other worlds? What could the consequences be? If you are told that Species X is evil and you discover that they’re not, what would you then do on your return to the place where you have been lied to?

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This World and Others – To Boldly Go or to Stay Right at Home?

Sorry couldn’t resist the nod to Star Trek here (and is that the most famous split infinitive in history – I think it may well be!). Does your setting encourage its characters to explore and, if so, are there limits as to where they can go and what they can do?

If your world encourages exploring other worlds, do they like what they find out? Do they adapt useful ideas for their own use? Or does finding out about other worlds fuel hostility if they (a) disapprove of what what other world is doing or (b) that other world is doing better than they are.

“Simple” motivations such as jealousy can be put to good use here to set characters on a course of action which will have consequences and increase drama in your story. If you knew your world was going to be resentful, would you give them a watered down account of what you found out when you went exploring? Do you get found out and, if so, what would the consequences be?

I mention consequences a lot. All stories are based on cause and consequence and change. Having characters explore outside of their normal boundaries has great potential for stories as those characters bring new ideas home. Not everyone welcomes new ideas!

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WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
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Deadlines – How to Make the Most of Them

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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. Looking forward to my interview with Hannah Kate going out on air on 4th March. Find out below how a technical hitch added useful material to my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. Trust me, this does not happen often!

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Screenshot 2023-03-01 at 16-17-49 North Manchester FM Hannah's Bookshelf Saturday 4 March 2-4pm - Hannah Kate

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to share Deadlines – How to Make the Most of Them For Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Am relieved too. There was a technical hitch earlier in the week and I had wondered if I would be able to post at all. Still, do see what use I made of this incident in the post itself. In some ways it was timely! I share my thoughts and tips on deadlines, which are a normal part of the writing life. It is just a question of how we handle these and I hope my tips prove useful. I know I have found them so.

Deadlines – How to Make the Most of Them

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Hope today hasn’t been too hectic. Pleased to have another Zoom workshop booking in for May. These are great fun to prepare and do. Also got my name down for books to go into the Book Room at the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School in August – pays to do that early mainly because it makes sure I don’t forget to do it! So looking forward to seeing everyone at what is my writing highlight of the year.

Technical hitches are a pain, right? Well, for my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week, one such thing has helped me prove a point in my text for Deadlines – How to Make the Most of Them! Not something I expected either – find out how when I share the post tomorrow. Also proves material can come to you in unexpected ways. See above.

One thing I discovered early on as a writer was how much I didn’t know about the writing industry and how important it was I rectified that. I did so by joining the Society of Authors. I wanted someone expert in the field to turn to when I needed advice and that so paid off for me. They stopped me signing up with a vanity publisher which would have cost me thousands. I had no idea what vanity publishers were or even that they were out there. I know now.

Time spent in finding out about the writing industry and being prepared to ask questions is never wasted time. I’ve always seen this as steps taken to help me avoid the rogues, find out useful links and connections, and to help me develop my writing.

Never be afraid to ask awkward questions. They can save you a small fortune.

May be a cartoon of text that says "Came across a few of these in the early days of my writing career."

I’ll be talking about Deadlines – How to Make the Most of Them for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I share thoughts and tips and hope people will find it useful. See above. I find deadlines useful, other writers loathe them, but I believe you can use them to help your creativity.

Glad to say the March edition of Mom’s Favorite Reads is now out. March sees International Women’s Day on 8th March so this issue of Mom’s celebrates women. You’ll find my flash fiction column on Page 60 and do check out the fabulous stories in based on the theme. This particular topic of Celebrating Women was great for flash non-fiction too and I was glad to see examples of that come in too.

 

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday. It’s the end of a busy working week (for many of us). Time for another story of mine from Friday Flash Fiction. Hope you enjoy Learning The Trade where my character explains their career choice to a disappointed parent.

Screenshot 2023-03-03 at 09-59-08 Learning The Trade by Allison Symes

As well as taking part in pen Prose Mic Nights when I can (flash is ideal for these, you can’t go on for too long so that pleases the audience too!), I will read a flash piece or two as part of any workshop I run.

Why? Because it is the ideal way to demonstrate what flash can do and be. I mix up the pieces I choose. I like a mixture of funny and those which definitely are not!

Flash is a great vehicle for storytelling moods. I can mix these up along with my characters and what they get up to in my tales, which is something I love doing. I can and do set my characters, and their moods, anywhere I wish.

Flash is liberating like that. It’s only the upper word count you need to watch.

May be an image of sky and text that says "One advantage to flash fiction writing is I can set my characters anywhere. I do too!"

Pleased to share the link to Hannah Kate’s website. I’ll be on her show on Saturday (between 2 and 4 pm) on North Manchester FM. You can get to the Listen Again service via her website though I hope to have a link to share after the weekend. Naturally I’ll be spreading the word about flash fiction again!

When I was first on Hannah’s show back in 2021, I had to pick three books for inclusion in her Library at the End of Days/Apocalypse Books feature. It was hard picking the three books I had to save no matter what but it really made me think about what I picked and why. (I’d still pick the three I have too). Go and have a look at the fabulous collection of books on there. It is impressive!

North Manchester FM: Hannah’s Bookshelf, Saturday 4 March, 2-4pm

 

Fairytales with Bite – The Perfect Ending

Would you say the perfect ending was the traditional happy ever after of the fairytale world? I would say it could also be considered a new beginning. Part of me also wonders what would happen once the “magic” has worn off. Now I appreciate this kind of tale would not be aimed at children but I like alternative renditions where you see “after the happy ending” played out where people have to work things out as we have to do and this time without the intervention of the fairy godmother!

Having said that my first story in print was called A Helping Hand (Bridge House Publishing – Alternative Renditions – 2009) where I do get the fairy godmother sent back to Cinderella’s youngest stepsister because she wasn’t so unkind as the elder one. That was fun to write. I was so thrilled it was published.

So think about what would make a perfect ending for your characters. Is it really all about the magic, the glitz and the glamour, or for when all that has settled down and your characters have to get on with life by themselves?

For me the perfect ending for any story is when the loose ends are tied up. You know what has happened to the characters. The problem/conflict in the story has been resolved satisfactorily (though that doesn’t necessarily have to be happily. Some of your characters are bound not to be happy at how things turned out – the villains especially!).

But it should feel as it not another word could be added or taken away without spoiling the tale in some way, The story should linger with you too. Then you may have the perfect ending!

Alternative Renditions Small

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This World and Others – Resolutions to Conflicts

Conflict is the bedrock of storytelling. A conflict happens. Characters deal with it. There is resolution of some kind. But how does your world handle a conflict which has been imposed on it by outside sources? Is there such as thing as the United Nations? Or are conflicts always “slugged” out and whoever has the biggest army etc wins? (Must admit I find that thought depressing and limiting for storytelling reasons. If there is no hope of any other outcome, where is the story? It becomes a tragedy only at best I think. I prefer stories which have at least some prospect of hope even if it is isn’t actually delivered during the tale).

This is where knowing some of your world’s history helps. If your setting has a series of dreadful conflicts, did that lead to the founding of peace organisations and the like? Who would be behind these? How did they get these set up? There would be stories here since they would be found to face opposition from the “hawks”. That would be another conflict to resolve!

But stories like that can show so much about character, determination to do right by society as a whole etc. You could show how your world has evolved and got better thanks to having these things, despite opposition.

If your setting is facing a threat to its existence, how would it resolve that one? Would it have problems getting people to fight for it or would they be queueing up to do so? How can it deal with the threat? This is where I think a basic outline would help you to work things out.

I’m not talking about a detailed plan but notes on what your character are likely to come up with/be able to do to resolve the conflict. That kind of outline can help avoid “boxing yourself in “ as you try to work out how a character would resolve an issue. You’ve got some ideas from the get-go, even if you end up not using them as you initially jotted them down. I often find better ideas occur to me as I am writing a first draft but I do find notes a useful way to get started.

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Firing Up The Imagination

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing.
Hope you had a good weekend. Mixed bag here – my dog, Lady, wasn’t well though she is a lot better now, thankfully and getting on with plenty of writing (which always cheers me up).

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Facebook – General

I talk about random generators for my Authors Electric post on Firing Up the Imagination this month. I use a variety of these to trigger story ideas, title ideas, theme ideas and so on. I’ve even used a number generator to trigger numbers I either use as countdowns in my tales or house addresses where the action take space. Why not give them a go? They’re great fun to use and you can set your own parameters on them too.

Towards the end of last week, Lady came down with the same bug her best buddy, the Ridgeback, had. Glad to say both girls are now a lot better and were so pleased to see each other this morning.

Sent in another story for Friday Flash Fiction over the weekend and am looking forward to taking part in the ACW Flash Fiction group Zoom meeting on Wednesday. For my FFF story, I did something a little unusual – I repeated a whole line deliberately. I hope to be able to share the link on Friday but the reason for the repetition was that it added “oomph” to the storyline and to my lead character’s portrayal.

With the flash fiction word count being what it is (and 100 words for FFF) I would normally see repetition as a waste of words and I would usually find a different way of saying the same thing if that was justified. Often that kind of thing brings emphasis to a point without the need to repeat. But for this story the direct repetition was the correct way to go. I look forward to sharing the link later in the week and you can see what you think.

What matters is why you’re doing something like this and the reason has to be strong enough to justify it.

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Hope you have had a nice weekend. It was lovely catching up with two lovely writer friends on Zoom last night.

I’ll be talking about Best Friends in Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up on Friday. And I’ll be taking a briefer look at Animals in Fiction again for Authors Electric on Tuesday. Link above.

Many thanks for the comments coming in on Dodging by Numbers, my latest piece on Friday Flash Fiction.

I must admit, especially given what my story is about, I prefer painting by numbers, which is something I did as a kid. I also used to like I-Spy as a kid, both the game and the books on different topics where you got points for specific things observed.

Topics included things like birds, cars, butterflies, on a train journey etc., and I understand the books are still going strong. The idea of course was to encourage observation (and it kept kids quiet on a journey! I know as I was one of those kids!). Also it encouraged kids to collect books, another good thing!

But being observant is excellent prep work for creative writing. You spot things and story ideas occur.

Your observations encourage you to ask questions such as the classic “what if” and that is probably my favourite trigger question for a story. You can do so much with that one but it helps enormously to have an observant, inquiring nature as you’re more likely to ask the question and want to answer it. I can’t honestly say what impact the I-Spy books had on me for developing curiosity about the world around me but triggering interest is key to learning anything I think.

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Hope you have had a good Saturday. It has been pretty cold again here but on the plus side, my winter jasmine is out, and I am beginning to see some signs spring is on its way. Won’t be long I hope before I see the first snowdrop.

Now what do your characters make of the seasons? Do they have a particular favourite? Are they at their best in one, say, and at their worst in another? How could that affect their behaviour and how the outcome of your story might play out?

If you have a character who loathes the long dark evenings of winter, what would it take to make them do something that needs doing as part of your plot? How would they make themselves face up to having to get on with the task in hand regardless?

This would be a good opportunity for your character to show grit and determination. It should also encourage reader sympathy. I have a lot of sympathy for characters who make themselves do what has to be done regardless of personal feelings, likes and dislikes.

Also working out what your characters like/dislike here gives you a chance to flesh them out more so you understand where they are coming from, even if some of this does not make it into your story. I have found the more I know my character, the better I can write up their story as I am writing about them from conviction. And I think some of that comes through to your reader.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

One great way to get “into” a story is to come up with a cracking opening line which gives your character a “do or die” scenario you know has to be resolved one way or the other by the end of the tale.

In my Decisions from Tripping the Flash Fantastic, my opening line reads “He could watch the world end or jump on to the alien spaceship that encourages visitors.”. Decision time right there and then, consequences will have to follow whichever choice is made, and hopefully your reader is hooked to want to find out more.

And it is great fun, and a good use of time, to draft opening lines like that and come back to them later to write the stories up. You give yourself thinking time for one thing. Also if you find that promising opening line isn’t as good as you thought, and that is where the break away will help you come back and judge it objectively, change it to something you want to write up.

When I have moments like that, I then write up the new idea pretty much straight away fuelled by my own enthusiasm for the new idea that has occurred to me believing it will be better than the original one. Most of the time it is but I needed to get the original idea down first to help clear my imagination to come up with the better one! The old brain can be a bit funny like that but it does mean when you jot down ideas, you are “clearing the decks” ready for your subconscious to get to work.

Screenshot 2022-01-18 at 21-12-32 Tripping the Flash Fantastic Amazon co uk Symes, Allison 9781910542583 Books

It’s Monday (Blue Monday too). It has been a long day. It is story time then! Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – The End Is Nigh. (And if you, like me, find Monday especially tiring and busy, then the thought it is almost the end is nigh for this particular Monday is a good thing too!).

I discussed Reading as Therapy in my Goodreads blog this week but reading is, of course, so much more than that. See link here and further down.

Reading is vital to anyone wanting to write whether it is flash fiction pieces or a three volume epic because:-

  • What you read inspires what you write. I love fairytales. So I like to write my own. I don’t want to write my version of Cinderella but I have written twists on that classic story. I like to write from a fairy godmother’s viewpoint etc but I needed to know the fairytales and how they work to be able to do that.
  • You take in subconsciously how stories work, how dialogue is laid out etc so that helps you when it comes to writing your own tales.
  • You literally see who the publishers are and what they are producing. Some authors credit their agents in books. So reading is a way of picking up information that might prove useful to you when it comes to submitting your own work.
  • I read in my field (I need to know what else is out there and I will always read genres I love, including those I write in), and out of it. I widen my sources of inspiration thanks to doing that.

I’ve mentioned before I also mix up the kinds of things I read. I read short and long form, fiction and non-fiction, books, and magazines. It all counts. Best of all it is fun!

Screenshot 2022-01-18 at 21-18-23 Reading as Therapy

It is good fun every now and then to have a writing session where I jot down promising opening lines. I come back to them at a later date and if they still grab me, I write them up. A really good opening line can be a complete flash fiction story in and of itself (though you can still go on and write a fuller version of the story later if you wanted to do so).

And when you only have short pockets of time to write, why not draft this kind of thing? You are doing something creative. And your subconscious can “brew” on the lines you’ve come up with (which will help you when it does come to writing the story up). You may not be able to get to your desk for a bit. Fine. Let your mind start thinking up possibilities for those opening lines. You are thinking possible stories out and that is never wasted time.

BookBrushImage-2022-1-15-20-112

Goodreads Author Blog – Reading as Therapy

Now there are certain things I see as therapeutic – chocolate, classical music, my dog, and, naturally, a good book or several. When the news is grim (as it so often is these days), a good book can transport you back in time, forward in time, anywhere on Earth (other planets are available if you like sci-fi), and can chill you, thrill you or make you laugh.

Books are wonderful. Doesn’t matter what format they come in either.

And when my own mood is low, reading a cosy crime (Agatha Christie) or something by Wodehouse or Pratchett or Austen is the very thing to help lift it. Books cannot stop my problems, yet alone the ones we see in the news day in day out, but they can transport us “somewhere else” for a while and sometimes that is all you need.

So yes I see the act of reading as a therapeutic art in and of itself and one major reason why I would love to see everyone enjoy books and reading.

BookBrushImage-2022-1-18-21-3015

 

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Submissions, Housekeeping, and Anthologies

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Facebook – General

Pleased to have submitted another story (a crime short) this evening. Am pushing myself to submit more often and am loving doing so. The nice thing is whatever happens to the stories, there will be things I can do with them later on. Nothing is ever wasted. If one competition doesn’t like it, will the tale suit another? Does it need a closer look and then submitting elsewhere? You have options!

Am working on my novel and also my Amazon Author Central pages (particularly for the US and UK). Hope to share the links for these soon. A big thanks to #PaulaReadman for putting me on to this. I blog regularly and use FB and other social media but this one had escaped me. It always pays to network with other writers because (a) it is huge fun, (b) reassures you that you are not alone in the crazy but wonderful world of writing, (c) you learn all sorts of things that can help you and, in turn, (d) you can help others too. All of that is great.

What has been nice has been looking up the various anthologies I’ve had work in over the years and it makes a nice selection to put up on said pages. So what now? Try to get in more anthologies of course!

A big thank you to my better half, Adrian, for taking the pics earlier today. It makes a huge difference when the writing geek in a family has support from the rest of the family (and something I am very grateful for).

Image kindly taken by Adrian Symes. It was hard not to have a fit of the giggles during photo time!
These are the anthologies I’ve been in, along with FLTDBA. Image by Adrian Symes
Guilty as charged. Pixabay.
Many thanks to Ana Coelho for taking this image of me speaking at the Waterloo Arts Festival earlier this month.

PS  Have put the new pics up on other areas of the website. Housekeeping like this is a good habit to get into!

The writing life is made up of a series of special moments. You start by plucking up the courage to submit work somewhere. You then get your first rejection (almost inevitably) and you try again and again and then, hopefully, comes the great day when a piece of work is accepted. Joy!

But rejections continue to come in long after your first publication credit and you realise the writing life is a roller coaster and you need to learn to cope with the ups and the downs. Yes, even to cope with the ups, because you don’t want those to create the sense you can never better that special moment. You can hamstring yourself here!

You need, I think, to work towards making progress all the time. Progress can include trying forms of writing new to you and that’s a great opportunity to just write for fun. I took up flash fiction because Cafelit had put out a 100-word challenge and I just thought I’d give it a go. I didn’t expect anything to come from it but quickly became addicted to the form and things took off from there.

Progress can include looking at the rejections that come in and, if lucky enough to get comments, to see if there is a common thread.

Some competitions offer critiques for a fee in addition to the competition entry fee. I’ve gone for these sometimes.Some critiques are more useful than others but you literally pays your money and take your choice. You need to work out whether such a thing would be useful to you.

I only enter competitions that have been longstanding ones or where feedback on them is positive. I also go for critiques like these where the blurb tells you what to expect. For a short story, it is never going to be a long critique. What I’m after here is the critic’s general view of how well my story and characters come across. Tickbox critiques can work well here too.

So true. Pixabay.
Most writers will know how this feels… Pixabay
I’ve yet to see an idea flash above my head like this! Pixabay
Well…? Pixabay
Warning: Writer at Work. Pixabay
Read widely to inspire these. Pixabay
A writer’s life. Pixabay,
Reading work out to an audience can also give you feedback as hopefully they laugh when you did when writing the story! Pixabay

Do you finish reading a story that hasn’t gripped you?

These days, I’m afraid I don’t – life’s too short etc – but I am pleased to say I can’t remember when I last abandoned a story. That’s partly I think because I’m getting better at picking out a tale that’s likely to appeal to me. It’s also because the moment a character has gripped me, I’ve got to find out what happens to them.

So of course you try to replicate that in your own writing. For me, it is always down to the characters which determines whether a story or book is successful or not. For non-fiction, it is the voice of the “narrator” of the piece that has to grip me and therefore determine whether I’m going to like the article or not.

Let the ideas spill out! Pixabay
What writing can give you over time. Pixabay.
What we all need… Pixabay
Books are so special. Pixabay

Do you ever find you start a story slowly, then the pace quickens, and before you know it you can’t get the words down fast enough? I’ve likened this to almost taking dictation from your characters and that’s a good sign.

The other positive is that the slow start means you’ve started the story in the wrong place and that will be what you look at first to edit, cut, or rewrite later. You sometimes need to write a start like that to help get you going. The important thing IS to get going and have that first draft down. This is why I always write a story in full and then edit. I know it won’t be perfect straightaway (what is after all?) but that’s okay. The improvement works come later on.

Only the Ten Commandments were written in stone so just be aware you’ll need to go back and change that slow start. It if serves no purpose get rid of it. If there is useful material in there, what can you do to retain that and get it across to the reader in a better way? Sometimes that material can make a separate scene later once the pace has picked up and be a useful “take a breather” scene. Sometimes you can get the character to convey the information. There are options!

By the time you’re drafted your story and then re-read the whole thing, you should also have a better idea of where your tale should have begun. Hey presto, you take it from there!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am pushing myself on story submissions though I’ve mixed this up with flash tales, standard length short stories and so on. All good fun!

One of my longer term projects is my third flash fiction collection (which is at a reasonable length as it is now but needs editing. I’ve got some linked flash stories in this one and some historical pieces but would like to add a few more tales to this before I really edit the lot).

My starting point for a flash fiction story is always to work out who is the character who is leading it, what their motivations are, what they stand to win or lose by the end of the tale. All of these have got to be strong enough to keep my interest going (yet alone anyone else’s!) and if the three strands together, then a promising flash fiction story should be the result.

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I use first person a lot in flash fiction as it is so immediate but when I do name a character, it’s usually by Christian name only. This is partly due to the word count restriction but, much more importantly, I can convey what I need a reader to know about a character called Mary just by using that name only.

When I do bring in a surname it’s either a means to show what class/background that character belongs to OR another character is referring to them. That tells a reader immediately the named character is important to my narrator. It makes a useful flag!

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Another advantage to flash fiction is when you are really pressed for time to write, you can jot down something to work with. Whether you then extend those jottings to a full length 1500 words+ story or keep it as something that could work in the flash market is up to you, but you have the option! So never despair if you only have 10 minutes to write, you can get something down in that time.

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My CFT post this week will be about Moments that Matter but in flash fiction every moment matters!

Whatever kind of story you write, you select what the reader has to know, you leave gaps for them to work things out, and end with a satisfying conclusion to your tale. With flash, that whole process is more intense.

Every word must count and play its part. For example:-

She always wore velvet.

She always wore moth-eaten velvet.

Which of those lines would I use in a story? The second one.

This is because the “always” implies there’s a character here who may well be obsessed with what she wears. The “moth-eaten” tells you something about her financial well being (or she’s exceptionally careless about how she looks after her clothes). Yes. these are two extra words to the count but both add weight and meaning to the story so stay in.

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Goodreads Author Blog –

What Do You Look For in a Story?

What people look for in a story differs of course but, for me, the primary wish is to be entertained.

I don’t like it when genre fiction is looked down on for not being “highbrow”. That isn’t the purpose of genre fiction. Besides genre fiction CAN be challenging and make readers think.

There is nothing wrong in writing or reading “merely” to be entertained. A good story that can make you forget your troubles for while is wonderful.

One of the lovely things about books/stories is they can take you out of yourself for a while and that is invaluable. In difficult times, I’ve relished those periods when I’ve been able to escape with a good book. The ability to escape for a while is crucial.

I can understand the point of misery memoir but frankly it isn’t for me. I hope others find healing and help through it but I want to switch off the real world when I read and deliberately venture into something I know is totally made up!

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AMAZON CENTRAL

Below is the link to the US and UK pages I’ve set up on Author Central. More will be added as and when I have news/further publications out (there’s optimism for you!).  Hope you enjoy.

https://www.amazon.com/Allison-Symes/e/B07T3HT18L?ref_=pe_1724030_132998060

(American)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B07T3HT18L

(UK)

There are also pages for me on Author Central France, Germany, and Japan!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PUBLICATION/EVENT NEWS AND ROUND UP

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I was so pleased I managed to schedule Facebook, Chandler’s Ford Today posts etc, that I forgot to schedule something for here and also on my Goodreads blog!  Sorry, folks, but a round up of recent posts to follow.  Hope to put up a Goodreads blog in next day or so. Firstly, though:-

PUBLICATION AND EVENT NEWS

I am thrilled that my flash fiction story, Progressing, was one of the 16 winning entries to the Waterloo Arts Festival Writing Competition.  The ebook, To Be…To Become, is now available (reviews would be very welcome!) and I must admit I love a title that also tells you the theme!  Many of my fellow winners took part in the Festival last week and read out from their winning entries.  I was only sorry to miss it being in the beautiful far North of Scotland at the time!  (The link takes you to the Amazon page for the ebook incidentally – no surprises there!).

My latest published story, Progressing, is in here.  A splendid mix of stories – do try them out!  Image via Bridge House Publishing (the sponsor of the writing competition).

 

View from near where I was staying in Scotland. You wouldn't want to rush away from this. Image by Allison Symes

View from near where I was staying in Scotland. You wouldn’t want to rush away from this. Image by Allison Symes

Event News – Hursley Park Book Fair – and Chandler’s Ford Today

I am delighted to be taking part in the above Fair this coming weekend.  The whole event is on 23rd and 24th June but I can only be there for the Saturday, unfortunately.  This is the inaugural Hursley Park Book Fair and everyone taking part (over 40 authors) is hoping this will become a regular event.

I am giving a talk on flash fiction at 10.55 am on the 23rd and am looking forward to that.  Hursley Park is situated between Winchester and Romsey.  The event is free, there is plenty of parking, and a wealth of genres will be represented at the Fair.  So do come along if you can.  If you want to know what inspires our stories, what flash fiction is about etc, I will be pleased to see you.  There are workshops and many other talks, a book quiz, competitions for adults and children, so plenty going on so do drop by.

My post on CFT is naturally about this but gives more details and I am pleased to share some of the other local writers’ pictures and books who will also be at the Fair.  I’ve interviewed them all at some point too!

Book fair Flyer

Hursley Park Book Fair flyer. Image kindly supplied by Glenn Salter.

Chandler’s Ford Today – Graham MacLean Art Series

I occasionally edit a series on CFT and have had the great pleasure of editing Graham MacLean’s series on Art.  I’m sharing Part 2 of the series here, which has some slideshows of his fantastic artwork.  Part 1 was last week and Part 3 will be this Thursday.  If you have any interest in art, I would recommend taking a look.  (My favourite is Part 2 due to the slideshows!).

The Mekong River At Phnom Penh , Cambodia Oil painting.

The Mekong River At Phnom Penh , Cambodia Oil painting. Just one of Graham MacLean’s fantastic artworks. Look at that light! Image kindly supplied by Graham MacLean

Facebook – General

I will just round up all of my most recent posts in one long one here and will do the same for my book page too.  Hope you find plenty of interest.

It always pays to check over work before submitting it anywhere but there is nothing to stop you mixing up the formats you use.

For example, you’ve read through and edited your work on paper. Now have a look at it on screen. Read the piece out loud. Record your reading. Play it back. Literally hear how easily (or otherwise!) it is to read your dialogue.

When I’ve done this in the past, I’ve found that what I thought looked okay on the paper did not necessarily read well so made the necessary adjustments. I don’t use this method all the time, but if you want to check dialogue especially, I’d recommend it.

Old school writing - image via Pixabay

Old school writing. Image via Pixabay.

Always room for different kinds and formats of writing - image via Pixabay

Online writing -v- on a line writing! Image via Pixabay

home-laptop-tablet-lifestyle-163180.jpeg

What every writer needs. Image via Pexels.

Do you remember when you wanted to be a writer? What made you decide to “go for it”?

In my case I’d been writing for a while, was beginning to have acceptances, and took the attitude I would follow my dream here. Nothing ventured, nothing gained etc.

So what was the trigger point for you? Have you achieved what you initially set out to do? Has your writing journey taken a different direction from what you anticipated? I hadn’t heard of flash fiction when I began writing. Now I’m published in it. If there is a lesson here, it is to keep your options open!

 

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What is your favourite piece of writing by another author? Is it what they usually do or something different from the norm?

I sometimes read poetry as that is completely outside what I do and generally read but must admit I tend to stick to the tried and tested classics. (Always a good place to start, at least.).

Given the choice between poetry and limericks, I always go for the latter, partly because I enjoy a good laugh!

What do your characters read? Are the characters in your creations fully literate or are there gaps in education we don’t face? How could you use education/the ability to read etc as (a) part of your story and (b) to give enough details so your reader can get a very good idea of what your world is like?

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Unless in a thunder storm or high winds, this is a good idea! Image via Pexels
Notebook to hand ready for those story ideas. Image via Pexels.
Pressing on towards the light. Image via Pixabay
Love this bookmark! Image via Pexels
Whenever and whatever you read, enjoy. Image via Pixabay.

Writing can teach you many things if you let it. The obvious one is the value of patience given how long it can take to be published and prior to that, you despair as to whether publication is ever going to happen so your “hope muscle” gets a really good workout or several!

Tenacity, perseverance, and determination develop as you learn to handle rejection and improve your work. You also learn to turn a deaf ear to advice that really isn’t helpful for you (and sometimes it really isn’t). Your skin toughens up too coping with the rejections that come in.

But when the writing is going well, your latest has been accepted etc, relish it, see it as the progress it is. I do know I wish I could bottle that positive feeling and unleash it on myself for those days when writing etc does not grow well.

The ultimate book tunnel? Image via Pexels
Creating great characters does mean hard work. Image via Pexels.
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Writing is rewriting. Image via Pixabay.
Fiction should show you new ways of looking at the world. Image via Pixabay.
Books have their own sense of time and space. Image via Pixabay.
Let the words flow! Image via Pixabay.

A surprise ending shouldn’t come as a total shock to the reader. There should be clues earlier on in the story that means the surprise ending is justified.

I must admit one of the great pleasures of reading for me is reading a story, guessing at who the bad guy is, and then finding out if I’m right or not!

I usually then go back through the story, especially if I guessed wrongly, to look for things that might be clues (and often get a bit cross with myself for not having spotted them in the first place. They are there, as they should be!).

Love the bike. Pexels image.
What stories will come from this pen? Pexels image.
Always good advice this. Image via Pexels
The delights of a cosy read. Pexels image
Is everything black and white in your stories? Image via Pexels
I started my working life on a manual typewriter. Pexels image.
Let your writing sparkle. Image via Pexels.
I now use a laptop. Pexels image.

My CFT post this week tells you all about the Hursley Park Book Fair, which is taking place on 23rd and 24th June at Hursley Park, the home of IBM, between Winchester and Romsey. The event is free, there is plenty of parking, and a wide range of authors are taking part. I’m there on the 23rd and will be talking about flash fiction at 10.55 am. Hope to see you there!

Who has the best reasons to thwart your characters’ plans? Do bear in mind that sometimes a character doesn’t need an enemy as such. Sometimes circumstances can thwart them. How do your characters react to that? When there is an enemy, how did they get to be that way? Is there enemity going on that new characters could help resolve? How do your characters response to life’s odd moments?

An A to Z of characters can start with:-

A = Ambition. Are your characters ambitious? What will they do to gain power and keep it?
B = Books. Are your characters well read? What do they read?
C = Creativity. Are your characters creative and, if so, in which field? Can they use their skills here in the story you’ve put them in?
D = Drive. What drives your characters? What can zap that drive and can they get it back again?
E = Education. This is a good one to use to show the standards in your creation. Are they high? Is education universal? Do your characters relish their education or did they hate it all?
F = Family. What are your characters’ families like? Do they support your hero/heroine as they continue their quest (sacred oir otherwise).

Simple but effective storage! Image via Pexels
A huge but lovely library. Image via Pexels
Wonderful books. Image via Pexels
Lovely place to browse. Image via Pixabay.
A stunning library. Image via Pixabay
The ultimate smartphone maybe?! Image via Pixabay
Now that is some serious shelving! Pexels image.
Another beautiful library (this one is in Canada). Image via Pixabay
I wonder how many dragon stories are in here! Image via Pixabay

So continuing with the A to Z of characters, we are now at G.

G = Generosity. Are your characters generous or do they begrudge giving anyone money?
H = Helpfulness. Well, are your characters helpful or not? Can other characters rely on them?
I = Imagination. Do your characters have any? How do they use any they do possess – in writing, the creative arts, or in criminal activities, say?
J = Justice. Justice can be an emotive topic. Is justice truly upheld in your fictional world? Do the nasty (but cheap) and the loud (but knowledgeable) people exist in your fiction? What impact do they have on others?
K – Kindness. I like to see kind characters who are NOT doormats. They choose to be kind. Their attitude makes a difference. They’ve perhaps been shown great kindness and they are now kind of passing it on.

More next time…  (well, actually in a couple of days!).

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I was reading something earlier about using character names to tell you something about back story, about the character themselves and so on. Good idea! And in flash fiction it would be another great way of keeping the word count down!

Ironically, having given this a bit more thought, I often don’t name my flash characters at all as I use first person a lot. It is immediate, takes you straight into the character’s head and thoughts, and is phenomenally useful.

My only problem with the above idea is I would end up revealing some spoilers as some of my flash fiction revolves around a crime. Murderess Mary rather does give the plot away about what said Mary got up to!!

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I like writing flash stories which tell you quite a bit about relationships the main character has with others while getting on with whatever it is that is happening to them as the story.

My Making the Grade is a good example of this as the character is clearly taking exams but you find out a lot about her family and their attitudes in this.

It is also an example of first person usage and I think of this as the character talking directly to “camera” as Eric Morecambe used to do so frequently in the Morecambe and Wise shows. (Wonderful shows, they bring back many happy memories).

Beautiful pens. Pexels image.
Enjoy what you write and read! Image by Allison Symes
Is it Time for a Change for the dragon in my story on Cafelit? Image via Pixabay
Unless in a thunder storm or high winds, this is a good idea! Image via Pexels
Reviews can have global reach. Most impact I think can often be local to the writer.
The dark can seem to overcome the light but light will prevail. Image via Pixabay
Books should keep you gripped and that is down to the characters. Image via Pixabay

Flash fiction is a celebration of the joys of being brief! I think of it as the polar opposite to the epic novel…

I find flash really useful for those scenes which are a story in and of themselves, but are too short to be sent out to standard competitions etc. Waste not, want not! And I’ve always loved books I can read from cover to cover or dip in and out of as I choose. Flash fiction is ideal for that too.

I suppose you could also describe flash fiction as “moment” stories given you haven’t the word count to show much more of a character’s life.

Escape with a good book. Image via Pixabay.
Big screen, little screen, LOTS of stories on either! Image via Pixabay
Preparing a talk or a flash fiction story perhaps. Image via Pixabay.
Let the ideas flow and let journeys encourage that! Image via Pixabay
The wonderful world of stories. Image via Pixabay
Is the truth welcome in your fictional world? How does your community react to it?. Image via Pixabay.
Let your stories have impact. Image via Pixabay
Aiming for more “magic” from my stories this year! Image via Pixabay.

The front cover of FLTDBA shows ripples in a body of water and when I was looking for something suitable to use for my book, this one leapt out at me. (Only metaphorically speaking!).

I liked the idea of the ripples spreading outwards and that for something (a splash!) which initially wouldn’t have seemed so important still managed to make its presence felt! I want my stories to have that kind of impact. A good story stays with you and I hope that with a reduced word count, people will find it easier to remember good flash fiction pieces.

There can be reality behind fairytales. Image via Pixabay (and image used as part of book trailer for From Light to Dark and Back Again)
Let your stories have impact. Image via Pixabay
Flash fiction, by its nature, has to take one look at a situation to be a story but you can get quite a bit into that “one look”. Image via Pixabay.
Chapeltown Books have a distinctive central image in a frame such as with mine. Image by Allison Symes
Simply stunning… image via Pixabay

The reason for a good title is to grab
The reader’s attention and hope
They’ll find flash anything but drab
And suddenly learn to say “nope”
To those saying flash isn’t worth the read
Because it’s so short and to truly feed
Your imagination you need the big book.
Of course you do but you need short stories too.

Allison Symes – June 2018

No literacy = no books. Image via Pixabay
Use what you know of our world and your imagination to create something really special. Image via Pixabay
The magic of stories. Image via Pixabay
If your story grips you, all sense of time will go! Image via Pixabay.
From Light to Dark and Back Again perhaps? Image via Pixabay (and so beautiful)
What journeys are your characters going on? Image via Pixabay

I sometimes schedule posts if I’m away, likely to be really busy and so on and find it quite useful. However, I do find it odd to write a few posts all in one hit so to speak. I am going to try scheduling more often to free up more writing time for other projects I’d like to work on. (It’s also a useful habit to get into as it can cover you for family emergencies, at least for a while).

I’m off on my travels again before long and am mapping out what I’d like to write on Evernote on my phone whilst on my way. I need to use that more for non-fiction posts, including mini blogs like this one. Still I am pleased with progress on my next collection and plan to write more of that up too!

Hopefully the Book Fair will encourage even more reading! Image via Pexels
One downside to online writing is auto-correct! Image via Pixabay
The ever useful post-it note. Image via Pixabay.
Love that clock. Pexels image.
Clarity is vital. Pixabay image.
I’m not arguing with this one! Image via Pixabay.
Never give up, work hard, be disciplined… all valuable traits for success, whether you’re a tennis player, a writer or a character in a story! Image via Pixabay.
Says it all really. Image via Pixabay. And am glad to say my poorly border collie, Mabel, has very much been showing this spirit.

What inspires your fiction? I’ve been inspired by crime stories, fantasy tales and so on. So the more you read, the more you can be inspired by!

If you are in Hampshire over the weekend of 23/24 June, why not pop along to the Hursley Park Book Fair at Hursley Park, home of IBM until 2014? There will be a range of authors (over 40 of us) and I am representing flash fiction writers. I’ll also be talking about the form and why I love it. It is very addictive.

The event is free, there will be a book quiz (with 3 prizes of book bundles in all, a copy of From Light to Dark and Back Again is part of one of the bundles), and car parking is free and plentiful. (Can’t often say that these days).

Children’s fiction will be represented more on the Sunday but why not go to both days and top up on books for all the family. Hope to see you there!

Because there isn’t room to world build in flash fiction, it is very easy to set your stories anywhere. You just put your character in a location, say London in Dickens’ time and for most readers that will instantly conjure up images (lots of fog especially!) that will add to the story for them without you having to spell it all out.

I love writing stories from the viewpoints of aliens as I can show you what they are like as characters. The details of their world in terms of how it is run, population types and sizes etc, are generally not relevant for my tales. (Though why they left can be…).

This can lead to a “mini series” if you really take to the character created. I love having fun with flash fiction and seeing what I can do with it. It all keeps the writing fresh.

I thought of my book’s title while I was away in the beautiful far North of Scotland last week. Only problem was I was reading by natural light up until about 11 pm most nights so by the time it did actually get dark, I was asleep! I am writing this now at just coming up to 11 pm in the South of England and it is pitch black out there. Oh what a difference latitude makes!

One image that I really wish I’d managed to photo was from a previous holiday where there were hills behind where we were staying. I watched the sun go down on one side and the moon rise on the other and it was a beautiful sight. A little bit other worldly too and I suspect, had I managed to snap the image, it would have made a very good picture prompt for a story on those grounds.

Managed to use the journey to and from Scotland to get more flash fiction written (and indeed some non-fiction too) so was very pleased with that.

And I am delighted to say another flash fiction piece of mine called Progressing is one of the 16 winning entries to the Waterloo Arts Festival Writing Competition. The ebook, To Be…To Become (title AND theme!), is now available from the usual outlets, as they say. (See at top of post for link and image).

Is a fairytale world really magical to live in for those who find it hard to keep their chin up and fit in with the rest? Image via Pixabay
Have notebook. Will jot down ideas for how to drop my characters right in it and work out how they get out of it again. Image via Pixabay.
The world’s most beautiful library perhaps? Image via Pixabay.
Books are the gateway to other worlds – image via Pixabay
Where good ideas start… but good ideas need refining and editing, Image via Pixabay
Well, what is it then? Image via Pixabay.
What every writer needs. Image via Pexels.

Fairytales With Bite – All The Fun of the Fair

Am looking forward to taking part in the Hursley Park Book Fair on 23rd June. About 40 authors are taking part in this and it will be the biggest book event I’ve taken part in to date. I’ll also be giving a talk about flash fiction during this and, of course, I hope to sell some books!

Fairs generally go back a very long way in the UK in terms of history and were the highlights of medieval life in particular. They acted as a kind of holiday from the usual backbreaking toil which was the lot of the peasants.

In your fictional world, does your society have this kind of community event? If so, what form does it take, who can take part in it, and how often does it run? Is there a history to it? In a magical world, how do their Fairs differ from non-magical ones?

If there isn’t a Fair or something like that, what kind of recreational activities do the ordinary people of your world enjoy? If there’s nothing at all, how do the people cope with work, work, nothing but work? I would expect people to get ground down and tired and in need of some sort of break so what would happen in your world if that break doesn’t happen? I would expect friction, at least, and probably more than that. Someone is bound to rebel against their lot. And that’s where your story may well be!

Are knights in shining armour all they’re cracked up to be? Image via Pixabay
The scrivener’s tools – image by Allison Symes
Unless in a thunder storm or high winds, this is a good idea! Image via Pexels
What journeys are your characters going on? Image via Pixabay
If your story grips you, all sense of time will go! Image via Pixabay.
Practically everyone stopped off at the refreshment tent at some point. Image by Allison Symes
Part of the dog agility course. Image by Allison Symes
Always lovely to meet readers. Image taken by Janet Williams, editor of Chandler’s Ford Today
Flash Fiction Corner: Damon Wakes and Allison Symes at the Chandler’s Ford Book Fair.. Image by Janet Williams, CFT’s editor. Short on time to read? Try a dash of flash!
What ever writer needs. Image via Pixabay

This World and Others – Compare and Contrast

Comparing and contrasting what is on our world with what may or may not be on your fictional one is a great place to start when it comes to world building.  The “what if” card comes into play here and you can also use alternative versions of our history to create your own world.

I didn’t watch The Man in the High Castle but I heard very good things about it.  People I know who did watch it were gripped by the drama showing an alternative world to ours where Germany won World War Two and Hitler was a very old man. I don’t want to say more than that – no spoilers here! – but you can see how you could create your own timeline based on the opposite of what happened for real and create a whole new world and set of stories.

Another good starting point would be to take character traits you admire or loathe and get your characters, in a setting or time of your choice, to have the exact opposite!

For example, if you loved medieval life, what would the consequences be for, say, a knight who is a coward? (Okay, you could argue that knight would not live long and how did he get to be a knight in the first place with an attitude like that anyway?  I suspect there would be stories to be had answering that question!  Also, so much depends on perspective here.  The knight might not be a coward at all – it is how he is seen by others who might have their own agendas here.  So you can see there are story possibilities there as well).

So compare and contrast and have fun!

Magical lands. Image via Pixabay.
The wonderful world of stories… Image via Pixabay.
Notebooks, pens, beverages… bliss for the writer. Image via Pixabay.
The perfect way to unwind. Image via Pixabay.
I could spend many a happy hour here – the library at Prague. Image via Pixabay.
Can’t beat a good book or several. Image via Pixabay.
Creative writing takes many forms, including blogging. Image via Pixabay.
Tapestries told stories – the Sir Bevis of Hampton legends just being part of this. Image via Pixabay.
The magical world of the imagination. Image via Pixabay

KNOWING WHAT I DO NOW…

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Facebook – General

Are there things connected with writing that you are glad you know now? This is definitely the case for me and my list would be:-

1. When offered a contract, get it checked out by the Society of Authors. I did and it stopped me entering into something that would’ve been a vanity publishing contract. I’ve never regretted not going for that (though at the time I wasn’t published elsewhere nor was there anything in the pipeline). Talking of which:-

2. Don’t be afraid to turn things down. You have got to be happy with what you are doing writing wise. And, as with so much in life, if it seems too good to be true, it is. There’s no shame in walking away from such a thing.

3. You really do need to edit on paper and not on screen. You WILL miss typos, grammatical errors etc on screen. I’m sure there must be a logical reason to this, probably based on how the brain interprets things on screen as opposed to paper. All I know for sure is when I edit on paper, I pick up far more that needs correcting (and so save myself a great deal of embarrassment in NOT submitting something with errors because I’ve not seen the wretched things and dealt with them!). It IS worth taking the time here.

What would you list here?

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Facebook – General

New story from me coming up on Cafelit on Tuesday (5th June), will share the link then. If you like dragons, it will be for you!

Am sorry to be missing the Winchester Writers’ Festival this year. Hope all who go have a wonderful time. Likewise all going to the Waterloo Arts Festival and to all of the winning authors who will be reading their stories out here, have a great time and good luck!

Am looking forward to the Hursley Park Book Fair later in June and Swanwick Writers’ Summer School in August. Much later in the year will be the annual Bridge House Publishing/Cafelit/Chapeltown Books get-together in London.

Immediate writing plans are to get more stories out to Cafelit and press on with my third flash fiction book (though I am happy with how that is going). I would like to write more non-fiction and a long term goal is to do something more with that.

Am also pleased to say a new mini-series will be coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today shortly which is about art by Graham MacLean. I was the series editor on it and it was lovely to work on. Some wonderful pictures by Graham illustrate the three part series. These will be appearing on 7th, 14th and 21st June.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Does the mood of your characters match your mood as you’re writing their stories?

Definitely not in my case and this is just as well given a lot of my flash fiction has themes of murder, revenge, poetic justice and so on! When I’m not writing on those topics, I often write about magical beings you would not want to meet, yet alone cross, or I’m writing about poignant situations.

So is all human life then in From Light to Dark and Back Again? Quite a bit of it is, yes – and a fair amount of non-human life too!

Fiction can take you anywhere. Image via Pixabay.
Reading is wonderful. Image via Pexels.
Pressing on towards the light. Image via Pixabay
The dark can seem to overcome the light but light will prevail. Image via Pixabay
What worlds could there be out here? Image via Pixabay
What lies beyond the shore…. ideas for stories? Image via Pixabay
Hard at work. Pexels image.
Where will your characters take you? Image via Pixabay
Great characters = great books. Image via Pixabay.
The wonderful world of writing should include non-fiction, which benefits from creative techniques too. Image via Pixabay.
Use what you know of our world and your imagination to create something really special. Image via Pixabay
Time to have another home perhaps? Good stories to be had here! Image via Pixabay
What writing triggers will help you create your new worlds? Image via Pixabay
There can be reality behind fairytales. Image via Pixabay (and image used as part of book trailer for From Light to Dark and Back Again)
Flash fiction, by its nature, has to take one look at a situation to be a story but you can get quite a bit into that “one look”. Image via Pixabay.
Let the writing flow and if music can help it along even better! Image via Pixabay
Fairies are definitely not twee and you do not want to come across one that has had a bad day due to Murphy’s Law affecting her. She will take it out on someone. Image via Pixabay.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

One of the most difficult things about writing flash is ensuring that it is a “proper” story and not just a piece of prose cut abruptly short. The need for a beginning, middle and end applies to whatever length of fiction you’re writing, though I suppose it is more obvious for things like novels and short stories.

This is where twist endings help a lot as you can’t go beyond that without spoiling the effect. I’ve occasionally written a flash piece as a letter (Punish the Innocent is a good example of this) and the great thing with that as a device it it has GOT to end with the sign-off (or possibly a PS at most!).

I think of the middle of the story as the “pivot point”. It is where the problem in the tale has been set out, it has got to be resolved, and your reader can see that being done in at least two different ways. (You’ve got to keep them guessing!).

May require help turning the pages. Pexels image.
The way to the magical realm perhaps? Image via Pixabay
A good reading pile! Pexels image.
The virtual library. These days ebooks and emagazines are available at libraries. Chandler’s Ford library are running surgeries about them. Image via Pixabay.
Well, what is it then? Image via Pixabay.
Helping out especially if there’s a change of direction to navigate. Image via Pixabay.
One of my favourite book images. They really are magical. Transportation into other worlds and around this one in a few hundred pages. Brilliant! Image via Pixabay.
I write fairytales with bite. Image via Pixabay
The classic beginning for all stories… Image via Pixabay
I loved the long, light evenings in the Far North of Scotland. Image by me.
Have notebook. Will jot down ideas for how to drop my characters right in it and work out how they get out of it again. Image via Pixabay.
Is a fairytale world really magical to live in for those who find it hard to keep their chin up and fit in with the rest? Image via Pixabay
This statue reminds me of myself when I was a lot younger. Okay I wasn’t made of stone (I’m still not!) but I did always have my head in a book. (And do so as often as I can now!). Image via Pixabay.

Goodreads Author Programme – Blog – Holiday Reading

I’ve recently picked up three lovely paperbacks which will be part of my holiday reading. Many thanks to generous friends and family for the book shop gift cards. I’ve finally had a chance to go and use them on:-

1. Double Cross by Ben McIntyre
2. London by Peter Ackroyd
3. View from the Cheap Seats by Neil Gaiman

I love history of all sorts (and am intrigued by the idea of having a biography of a city!). The Neil Gaiman book is a collection of his non-fiction pieces and I’m really looking forward to reading that.

As ever, my trusty Kindle will also be with me on my holidays this year. I love both ebooks and paperbacks and switching between the two formats is another joy to reading as far as I’m concerned.

Now all I need to do is catch up on my reviewing!

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Hopefully the Book Fair will encourage even more reading! Image via Pexels
The ultimate book tunnel? Image via Pexels
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Photo by Kaboompics .com on Pexels.com
Unless in a thunder storm or high winds, this is a good idea! Image via Pexels
See! It is a good idea, weather permitting! Image via Pexels
Trusted notebook! Image via Pixabay