Tag: writing competition tips

Writing Competition Tips

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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. Weather becoming cold again but generally dry. Pleased to have finally submitted a long term project this week – if I don’t hear within a certain time frame, it’s a no. Continuing to get stories and blog posts done. All enjoyable, to write, which is how I like it.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to share Writing Competition Tips on Chandler’s Ford Today and I hope you find it useful. 

I share why even if you’re not listed or win, it is still an invaluable thing to do to enter writing competitions regularly and discuss why following the rules to the matters is vital. You’d think this is obvious but I’ve had the privilege of judging some competitions and it isn’t always done.

I also look at checking word counts, getting word counts and online forms for submission correct, and much else besides.

Writing Competition Tips

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Today would have been Mum’s 91st birthday. She taught me to read long before I started school and my love of books and stories comes directly from her.

Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals and also saw the lovely Coco and Daisy as well. It was a lovely puppy party in the park today though it was a chilly one.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Writing Competition Tips on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow.  See above. Hope it will prove useful.

The following week, I’ll be interviewing the lovely Joy Wood and she has a thing or two to say about competitions as well – more details nearer the time – and much else besides. All useful stuff for any writer. Looking forward to sharing that too.

Managed to finalise my long term project and submit it last night. If I don’t hear within six months, it’s a no. Meantime, I’ll crack on with other writing work.

 

Lady has had a great day as she got to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals again. She’s had a good week so far.

Will be sharing Writing Competition Tips on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above.

Many thanks for the support re my newsletter. Next one will be out on 1st April and that isn’t an April Fool’s, honestly! To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Will also be having a piece on Authors Electric out in a few days time.

Over the weekend, I hope to look out for a couple of other story competitions to have a crack at as I’ve got an objective this year to try to enter more of these. It will make me produce more stories, if nothing else. Besides which it is fun coming up with stories and I’ve found it to be true the more I write, the more ideas I generate. I like that aspect too!

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale, Picking a Favourite. I suspect many writers will identify with this one. Hope you enjoy it.
Flash fiction isn’t new, far from it. Its name may have changed over time (I know of micro fiction, sudden fiction, and many more names besides), but the format is an ancient one. Think about Aesop’s Fables or Jesus’s parables in the Bible – pretty much all of these come in at under 1000 words.

And the format is a brilliant one for punchline endings, twist in the tale endings, and if you want to get a message across in a succinct but entertaining way. This was especially important back when literacy was reserved only for the privileged few and when the majority would have taken in stories via the oral tradition. It’s much easier to remember a short story than a long one!

Most writers will encounter writing exercises in courses and workshops. You never get very long to have a crack at these things during the session as you usually get about five minutes or so. But the material you come up with here could be turned into polished and published flash fiction tales. Why not have a go?

Good questions to ask potential characters for a flash story:-

  • What is the one single moment you think is the most important? It should be clear from the answer why that is and there should be inklings of a story idea forming from this.
  • What would you say is your main attitude to life and give some indication of why it is this one.
  • What one thing would you never do and what would you do when faced with it?

Good outline right there – have fun!

Fairytales With Bite – Lines Never Said by Magical Characters but Should Have Been

Just sometimes, because my mind works this way, I think of lines magical characters could’ve said but didn’t. Hope you enjoy the following.

Red Riding Hood – My granny has never been that hairy, wolfie, and my eyesight’s fine. I’m not as stupid as you think. Yes, this is a shotgun.

Aladdin – And this piece of rug is supposed to keep me from certain doom is it? Tell me, how does it fly again? A few magic words, hmm? Do you mind if I walk?

Humpty Dumpty – I’m an egg. I’m oval. What could possibly go wrong if I fall from this wall? Hmm.. Think I’ll go somewhere safer.

Hansel and Gretel – Let’s put stones down to follow home rather than the bread. On the other hand, maybe we should find somewhere better to live. I don’t recall Father standing up for us that well.

Cinderella – So you’re my fairy godmother are you? Where the hell have you been?

Well, they would have a point, wouldn’t they?

This World and Others – Languages and Usages

In your setting, how many languages are there? Are they all spoken by many? Do they all have a written system? Are certain languages used for business/politics with others used for cultural or other reasons?

How did the languages develop? Was it a question of one species colonizing everywhere else and imposing their language or is there much more co-operation between your different peoples so languages are shared in a more friendly manner?

Are certain languages used for reading, entertainment etc? Or is there one overall language everyone knows and the others are then a question of cultural choice?

What is your literacy rate on your setting and are some languages encouraged and other discouraged? Why would that be? What would happen to anyone going against this?

How is the teaching of languages done? Are all encouraged to learn more than one language?

Where language represents cultures, are any suppressed and why would that be? Could you tell stories about an underground movement against this?

Story ideas there I think.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Workshop News and Key Story Ingredients

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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.
Still very cold in my part of the world. One nice thing about running a Zoom workshop (which I will be doing on 25th January) is you get to stay indoors!

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Facebook – General

Another bitterly cold day today but Lady got to show off in front of her Hungarian Vizler friend today so she was happy enough!

Looking forward to running the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group on Zoom tomorrow. Those taking part in it live hundreds of miles apart so we never could get together in person but Zoom has made groups like this possible.

I’ve used Zoom to help me get my timings right for stories which have then been broadcast on North Manchester FM. It means I know for sure I am coming in at under the maximum time allowed. And it has been a lifeline for catching up with family as well. So yes I am a big fan of the app here.

I also love in person workshops and it is a good thing, I think, to try and have the best of both worlds.

BookBrushImage-2023-1-24-20-3236

Hope you have had a good start to the working week. Still bitterly cold here. Will be talking about Classic Stories for Chandler’s Ford Today later on this week – will share the link on Friday. (And many thanks for all the comments which have come in over my interview with June Webber last week. Much appreciated all round!).

Many thanks also for the fabulous comments coming in on Reasons, my most recent Friday Flash Fiction tale. This is one of my darker tales but I hope you enjoy it.
Screenshot 2023-01-20 at 09-27-41 Reasons by Allison Symes

Had a lovely time at the workshop yesterday. Many thanks, everyone, for making me so welcome.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom on Wednesday and going to see The Chameleon Theatre Group perform Pinocchio on Saturday. It will be a lively week!

Have been busy sorting out some of my writing admin today – need to get in more business cards etc and book orders too. This kind of admin is a joy to do though – I can literally see the end product! And don’t forget if you would like a copy of either or both of my flash fiction collections, you can get them from me by contacting me through the contact form on my website (link below). Naturally there are the usual other online outlets here but I can sign the books for you if you get them directly from me!

Contact

 

Am on my way to run a flash fiction workshop in London. Looking forward to that though today’s trip is a mixture of trains, tubes, and replacement bus services thanks to the landslide at Hook. This is on the main route to London.

I don’t know if you’ve seen pictures of this but the damage done by the landslide is seriously scary with tracks in mid-air etc! Hope and pray this is sorted well and as quickly as possible given the circumstances (shouldn’t be either/or here!).

Was delighted to hear of a book sale of Tripping The Flash Fantastic to a local fellow dog walker yesterday. Always lovely news that!☺

Many thanks for the lovely comments coming in on social media re my interview with June Webber for Chandler’s Ford Today which went live yesterday.

More author interviews to come in due course but June proves it is never too late to write and be published. I find that enormously encouraging.

Update: had a fabulous time at the workshop. Everyone was so welcoming. I hope you all have fun writing up the story ideas generated.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Many thanks for the views coming in on Bigger and Better, my latest tale on YouTube. See below. Also thanks for the great comments in on Reasons, my newest story on Friday Flash Fiction. Link and image further up.

I like to mix up the way I come up with themes for my stories and do this by using different random generators, proverbs, overhead snippets of conversation, themes which will never date (there will always be places for ghost stories, love stories etc), odd things which catch my eye in the news/on social media etc.

I then think of which characters could best serve those themes and look at why they would. Then I start drafting when I know my character, who has this quality, that fault etc., would be the best for this tale. And I relish writing that draft. It should be fun!

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It’s Monday. It’s icy cold. It’s dark. It has been a hectic Monday. Definitely time for a story then. My latest on YouTube is called Bigger and Better – hope you enjoy it.

 

Had a lovely time running a flash fiction workshop in London yesterday. It is always a joy to share the joys of writing flash and why it is useful for all writers, regardless of whether someone makes it their main creative form or not. I discovered the form having been writing short stories for some time. I hadn’t even heard of flash when I first started out but I’ve never regretted this happy writing accidental discovery!

Many thanks for the lovely comments coming in on Friends, my recent Friday Flash Fiction story. The feedback from this site is great. Do check the site out and, in case you missed my tale first go around, do see the link below. Especially pleased to repeat this one as it is an acrostic story, which are always fun to write, and the comments have been wonderful.

Screenshot 2023-01-13 at 09-32-23 Friends by Allison SymesWhen I enter any kind of writing competition, I assume “nothing doing” if there is no notification from the organisers within two months of the closing date.

I then have another look at my story, revise it (sometimes it is just the odd word or two here), and then send it on elsewhere. I have had flash and short stories then go on to be published.

It isn’t a question of major rewrites for the revision process here. I would’ve written and edited the original as good as I could do before entering the competition. But having the gap of a couple of months means I’m looking at the story again with fresh eyes and there nearly always is something I can tweak and make better. So I do!

I do judge competitions sometimes and know a story can be fine but then one comes in which simply takes your breath away and that must be the one to win. And different things trigger that take your breath away moment for different judges.

Moral of this? Never be afraid to revise your stories and send them out elsewhere.

Goodreads Author Blog – Key Story Ingredients

All successful stories, for me, have to contain key ingredients. Doesn’t matter if these are flash fiction, short stories, novellas, or novels, I think they all need to have the following ingredients in them.

1. Characters you care about and want to root for. Sometimes it can be rooting for a villain to fail.

2. Twists and turns so you have to keep reading to find out what happens.

3. A feeling of having had a fantastic reading experience when you finish the story. Points 1 and 2 are crucial here.

4. For a novel/novella series, there needs to be continual character development so you can see how they change and grow over the series. You can do likewise on a smaller scale for linked flash/short stories.

5. Understanding of the dilemmas the characters face and enjoying finding out how they deal with these.

What would be key ingredients for you?

Screenshot 2023-01-21 at 21-25-05 Key Story Ingredients

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ALLISON SYMES – BOOK BRUSH READER HUB.

 

MOM’S FAVORITE READS LINK – CHECK OUT THE MAGAZINE INCLUDING MY FLASH FICTION COLUMN HERE.

Screenshot 2023-01-20 at 19-56-17 Mom's Favorite Reads