Allison Symes's Blog - Posts Tagged "flash-fiction-collections"

This applies to reviews for my From Light to Dark and Back Again as well as those I give for other books!

A good review has:-

1. No spoilers but enough information so the reader knows what they will be reading in terms of genre etc.

2. What the reviewer likes - good characterisation, twist in the tale endings etc.

3. No waffle.

4. No negativity. (The way to criticize a book is to say what you liked, what you thought didn't work so well etc as the writer will be expecting this. Your thoughts on what didn't work so well can be very useful to them. What you don't write is a "hatchet job" on the book or the author).

5. A rough idea of book length and time taken to read it (though I must admit I don't always remember this one! I DO stress when reviewing flash fiction collections the great thing about this genre is you can read it one sitting but it is also great for dipping in and out of).

6. What you would like to see from the author next time (i.e. next book in the series, continued great characterisation, less of the blood and gore, if appropriate etc).

7. Total honesty from the reviewer.

What would you add to this list?

Hands up time. I write short stories and flash fiction so I am bound to be biased here. Regardless of that, I have always loved short stories (and discovering flash fiction was a revelation to my reading diet as well as my writing one).

I will read flash and short story collections in between reading novels or longer non-fiction books. I kind of see them as an appetiser for the next “big book”.

But I love the impact of short fiction. You do get the pay-off that much more quickly and I enjoy reading that s well as writing it. I’ve always loved inventing people and thought that the best bit of storytelling. So with my short form work, I get to do that all of the time so win-win there!

And short stories have gone on to be turned into films. The most famous example has to be The Birds by Daphne du Maurier, famously turned into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock.

I also see reading short story and flash collections as a chance to try out an author’s style before I commit to reading their longer work.

From a reader’s viewpoint, this is lovely because in an anthology you can get to try out a dozen or so different authors and if some really strike you, then you’ve discovered more authors to try out. What’s not to like about that?

And of course, many an author gets into print via the short fiction route in the first place. I am just one of them!

I recently took stock of a delivery of copies of my two flash fiction collections. Always a joy to top up on stocks and to open parcels like that.

I love book deliveries, also for when I am buying in other authors’ works. Those parcels are joy to open too!

I’ve never envied Santa for his sleigh round. There will be a lot of books on there - and they’re heavy. Maybe that explains the need for millions of mince pies!

I do, of course, visit book shops (not as often as I’d like. Mind you, this may be a good thing to (a) help my bank balance and (b) you might need a crow bar to get me out of the shop).

But however you get your books, the important thing is to enjoy them.

I like to read widely in and out of my genre (including non-fiction) as that helps me inspire with my own writing.

How? Simply in that an odd line here or there will spark off an idea for a situation I could put my characters into and then have fun working out how they get out of it again, assuming they do.

Also the odd fact can spark ideas for a character.

And the best reason of all to enjoy books?

Simply because reading is fun.

I love books you can dip into but what do I mean by that? Well, short story anthologies and flash fiction collections are ideal for this, of course. I will admit to being biased here given I have work in anthologies and two flash collections of my own out there.

But I also love the reference books to dip into as and when.

A great one for this is Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable which goes into the origins of well known fables and phrases. Fascinating book to dip into. It’s a massive one as well - another one to avoid dropping on your foot.

I also love books like the Agatha Christie short story collections. Her novels I will read from cover to cover, naturally, but for the collections I can pick a story at random and then come back to another at random later if I wish. I find this to be a refreshing way to read from time to time.

I have a number of writing advice books on my shelves and I can dip into those to refer to specific topics now I know what it is I need to know.

When you start out as a writer, you generally don’t know. You find out what you do need to know about the writing world as you go along.

But I am at that point now where I can just refer back to selected chapters as and when I need it. (This frees up more time to read other things so win-win there and proves there is value to dipping into books at times).

Understandably all writers want to sell their books. But what got us into writing in the first place? Our love of reading books by other authors!

I’ve just come back from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick and had the great joy of selling some of mine. I came back with an interesting selection of titles which have gone on my To Be Read pile.

I have started on a couple of them. Am loving what I have read so far and am looking forward to tackling the rest in due course.

The bonus for writers is we get to do two things we love - write our own stories and read other stories. This probably explains why most authors are not rich! It also helps a lot if you can arrange to have plenty of shelves.

I do know there is nothing else I would rather do - write (and hopefully sell) my own books and buy books from others. The written word (including via audio books and ebooks) is glorious.

It is a great joy to me to have a book shelf dedicated to books written by friends of mine and signed by them. I am adding to my collection here too. Such a pleasure to do that!

Separately I have a section for the two flash fiction collections I’ve written and the anthologies I’ve contributed to over the years as well. It’s always a joy to add to that too.

Conclusion? Can’t have enough book shelves in my life but it is a nice problem to have.

I write for story collections as well as having my own flash fiction books out with Chapeltown Books. So I appreciate story collections and have a number on my shelves, including those I have not written for.

I love novels. I love short stories. I love mixing up reading longer work with shorter work. I think short story and flash fiction collections are invaluable additions to my book shelves.

Story collections are perfect for dipping into, especially when you don’t have as much time to read as you would like. It happens.

From my viewpoint as a writer, I have found at book events, it is easy to share a little bit from my collections to show what flash fiction is and can be. I’ve made sales that way! People love being read to and indeed I love this myself.

So when you are wondering what your next book should be, why not turn to the shorter form and try out a collection or two? They are also excellent for introducing you to other writers. I’ve come across great writers, whose works I’ve loved, this way.

Naturally as a flash fiction and short story writer, I have a very soft spot indeed for story collections and I would urge you to consider adding these to your Christmas list. (There, I’ve said it! Christmas is indeed coming!).

I find them useful in trying out authors whose work is new to me - if I like their short form work, I am highly likely to love their novels. I also like to read shorter stories in between novels as I like to ensure I read plenty of both types of fiction.

But with my writing hat on, I know some stories simply work best when kept short. The classic fairytales are just one example of this. Simply wouldn’t work as novels in my view. Jesus’s parables and Aesop’s Fables again work best and are remembered better precisely because they are short.

What has been a joy in putting my own flash collections together is in being able to share a wide range of stories in terms of mood, word count length, and so on, It is a great opportunity to show what flash fiction is and can be.

It’s also been a joy to contribute to the longer short story anthologies too and I always consider it a real compliment when my work is included in any of these. I also love reading the other stories in there. The variety of styles is always amazing.

I am also fond of short stories by authors far better known for their novels. P.G. Wodehouse and Agatha Christie both had excellent short story collections and I have these on my shelves along with their more famous longer length works. Love them all.