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Writing Prompts by Allison Symes

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Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. I love writing prompts. I use a wide variety ranging from the various random generators to story cubes to picking a proverb or phrase from books and then writing a tale around this saying. They are excellent as themes. I also use books of prompts and have contributed to some too. As I write a lot of flash fiction and short stories, I always need ways of coming up with ideas. I focus on getting the characters outlined because for me characters make or break a story. But I’ve found the prompts have been brilliant in giving me my themes (and these often trigger the ideas for the characters to service said themes well). I enter competitions regularly too. Some have open themes but the majority I go in for have a set theme. I’ve found writing to prompts is useful practice for writing to competition themes set by someone else.  I also like mixing up the prompts I use as this (a) keeps me on my creative toes and (b) means I nev
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Underwater, by Elizabeth Kay

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  The sheer beauty of the underwater world is amazing I taught myself to read in secret whilst sitting on the lavatory. The girl next door was six months older than me, and started school six months earlier. She lorded it over me, saying she could read but I wouldn’t be able to until I went to school, so I felt I wasn’t allowed to tackle books yet although I really wanted to. I would struggle through a sentence of Brer Rabbit until it made sense, and then the next time I locked myself away in the only room in which that was permitted I would read my practised sentence, and then struggle through the next one. Consequently, I could read before I went to school but I kept it very quiet. The very first book that I couldn’t stop reading was The Deep Sea Horse , by Primrose Cumming. I don’t know how old I was, probably about six or seven, but I remember my mother saying “Put that book down now Elizabeth, it’s tea time”, and my father (noticing how engrossed I was) shaking his head at her and
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Proof Copies by Misha Herwin

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  Due to circumstances beyond my control, this is going to be a rather late and very short post. It may also be a salutary one for anyone who is self-publishing through KDP. “Vladimir the Vampire’s Cat,” is a picture book for kids, written by me and illustrated by Duncan Bourne. It’s a project we’ve been working on for over a year and since neither of us had ever done anything like this before it’s been somewhat of a learning curve. In fact, if it hadn’t been for Duncan’s wife, the wonderful Michelle then I don’t think we’d have ever got to this stage. I write and Duncan draws but she has the expertise in formatting, which is what we needed. A few of weeks ago, we spent an afternoon pooling our talents and produced what we thought was going to be the final version of our book.   It looked great and we were all pleased with the results so we scheduled publication day and then, almost as an afterthought sent away for proof copies. When they arrived it seemed, at first glance, that
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Good Luck Makes More Passes at Those in Hot Glasses--Reb MacRath

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The author's eyewear collection. Congratulations on your membership in the exclusive worldwide club of those who are blessed to wear glasses.  Worldwide, the club's membership has over four billion people.  In the UK alone, 77% of women and 68% of men wear specs. In t he US those percentages are 50% and 42%. The club has a long history. Far longer than many might think. Some credit Salvino D'Armate with the invention of eyewear in 1317. Others find references to eyewear as far back as 1000 BC. The evolution continued for hundreds more years for reasons of function, not fashion: Ben Franklin's bifocals...monocles...pince-nez. But all iterations of 'glasses' expressed their own bifocal vision: those who wore them were weak physically and bookish. ( A recent study by the College of Optometrists confirms that today 33% of adults think those in glasses look more professional and 43% think they look smarter.) And no survey was needed to tell that a boy growing up in t
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What To Do With the Dreaded NaNoWriMo Instead of Rush Through Writing a Book (AND YOU CAN WIN A PRIZE FROM ME!)

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I suppose if you've read posts by me here, or on my own blog, before, you know I am not fond of NaNoWriMo. First of all, the pressure! Second, the competition! Third, at least in the USA, the month! In the USA we're finishng our semesters; we're, if we're gig workers in a creative industry, often times closing down a job or a show; we're getting ready for the massive holiday extravaganza that is the USA from Thanksgiving to New Year's Day, and that kinda starts, now, before Halloween! MADNESS! It's a frenetic time when I never have enough time to myself, so much so that I often get really run down. Have you, in general, because life is just too busy, white-knuckled it through a holiday season? I have, and I think all of that torque I experience at that time of the year has often lead to family disagreements as well. Now... let me get a novel done too! SIDE NOTE: If the holidays are slanted from pleasure and connection into obligation and work for you, please
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Every Story Matters

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Jen, who died alone in hospital aged 38. Her story matters.  My September blogpost, Deaf in High Places?   was written as I was preparing to set off for the first public session of Module 3 of Baroness Hallett’s COVID-19 Inquiry: The Impact of the Pandemic on Healthcare Systems.   I still find this a troubling title. What about the impact on patients: will individuals and their human rights and needs be forgotten again in the focus on the system? Remember that slogan ‘Stay at Home – Protect the NHS – Save Lives’? I'm working with the Patients Association and Care Rights UK. We will argue that many people's lives were lost or blighted because of this focus on protecting the institution.  Why did the NHS need protecting? Because it was (is) so seriously lacking capacity that even pre-pandemic it was routinely in crisis. Remember the BBC2 series Hospital back in 2016, bed managers and consultants desperately searching for any available Intensive Care space to treat people in desp
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There's professional, and there's ... by Debbie Bennett

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I’m in quite a few writerly groups on Facebook, of varying degrees of ability and professionalism. Some – like Authors Electric’s own former blogger Wendy Jones – runs an excellent group Women Writers, Editors, Agents and Publishers . This is a highly-moderated pro group for women only and full of useful advice and networking; I highly recommend it to any women involved in the literary world.  Other groups are less professional and often have little-to-zero moderation, resulting in a large number of members of dubious reputation or ability. Sadly, newer writers join – all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, full of enthusiasm to write their book and are often sucked into offline chats almost immediately: How do I start my book? Is this a good opening line? Should I do x or y?  Let’s chat about that. Kindly DM me.  And you just know that the newbie is going to drown in shady promises of instant fame and fortune. These incredibly generous offers of help come from people who are allegedly exper
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