Month: June 2026

Sparkling Dialogue

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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 was a lovely photo from my local wildflower meadow.
Hope you’re all okay. Am so thankful the weather cooled down over the weekend, especially on Sunday. It was a relief all around, including for the dog.
Writing going well. Delighted to say Seeing The Other Side is now up on Amazon for pre-ordering – Kindle version only as I write this. Paperback will follow. Am getting there!

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Another lovely cooler day and Lady again got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal so all well there.
Writing wise, my author newsletter goes out again tomorrow and I can hardly believe we’re almost into July. My Seeing The Other Side will be out on 16th July though so am very much looking forward to that. (The ebook is already up on Amazon for pre-orders).

Will be discussing What I Look For In a Writing Advice Book for Chandler’s Ford Today later this week and I share tips, which I hope will prove useful given there are many excellent guides out there. Link up for that on Friday.

Was so sorry to hear of the death of Dame Penelope Keith. Loved The Good Life and To The Manor Born. She was my late mother’s favourite comedic actress (and mine too) so another link with the past gone thinking about that too. I hope they put on some repeats of these two series. I think they stand up well over time. Also Dame Penelope’s appearance on the Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show was legendary! Well worth checking out, especially if you’re a fan of staircases… enough said.

In happier news, Lady was thrilled to catch up with Coco, the lovely Labradoodle, and her Hungarian Vizler pal in the park this morning. I think that was what Lady missed most of all last week in that heat – not being able to see her friends. All had a good and cool time this morning.

In other news, I’m delighted to be able to share my new post on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. ACW moved platforms for their blog last month and it is now on WordPress.

My post this time is on Sparkling Dialogue. Amongst other things, I look at how we can use dialogue to show a lot about our characters and the importance of not writing dialogue for the sake of it. As with any element of a story, there has to be a good reason for it to be there.

Hope you find the post useful.

Sparkling Dialogue by Allison Symes

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Even cooler today and it was lovely being able to resume a post church walk with Lady today. She loved it. Also, our park has a wonderful wild flower meadow in it and it looks amazing at the moment. Photo below gives a good idea. The park has had a meadow like this for the last three years or so and there is a different mix of wildflower for each year. It’s a fabulous idea.

Talking of colours, bear in mind these can be great to bring into a story. It helps, for example, with picturing what a character is wearing. Also you can use colours to help flesh out your character more – what are their favourite colours and how do these come into their stories?

A character who loves pink, say, is likely to have an item of pink on them as they get on with whatever is going on in the story. I know I like to wear a mixture of favourite colours myself and even when not, I’ll have a bag or something which will be in one of those colours.

Colours can also be linked to memories. I recall my late grandmother, who died when I was a young child, always had Rose’s Lime Cordial in. I can still picture the colour of that green (delicious) liquid well over fifty years later!

There is a series of linked flash stories in my forthcoming Seeing The Other Side which are based around the theme of “red”. Great fun to write and I hope readers will enjoy them too in due course.

Thankfully it is cooler today though we’re still being cautious with Lady. She has been especially good this week. Dogs like their routines, it gives them a sense of security, so to have that disrupted can disturb even the most placid of dogs. It is due to become cooler still next week, which will be most welcome.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at What I Look For In A Writing Advice Book for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll be sharing tips as to what I’ve found useful to know ahead of making any purchases. Link up on Friday.

Delighted to say my Seeing The Other Side is now available for pre-order on Amazon but with the Kindle version only. Stay tuned for further updates. It is just a matter of time before the paperback is up there too but I was so pleased to discover this late yesterday. The official publication date is now 16th July – not long to go!

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At the end of June already! The year flashes by, does it not?

Talking of which, what do your characters make of time flashing by for them, whether they are set in this world with our time system or somewhere different which has its own ideas on how time should be?

I do know that whenever I do anything boring, such as the housework, time drags. Again, story thoughts here. What would your characters find makes time drag for them and what do they do to try to improve matters? I could see there being some humorous tales there.

Two stories to share here tonight – one for Substack and the other for YouTube. Hope you enjoy them both.

First up is my tale which appeared on Substack yesterday – Discussing a Problem With A Friend.

Find out why an icing gun comes into the tale.

Second up on tonight’s menu is my YouTube story – Timings 2 (Confession time: I forgot I already had a video with this title here but this story is different and amusing and I liked the title so it stays!).

The local kids’ football match has additional help nobody knew was needed. Excellent play and all that but there is a but. Find out more here. This one isn’t based on a true story but it could be!

Looking forward to cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly and very pleased to be doing so in much cooler conditions. The temperature where I am is in the early to mid twenties, as opposed to the late thirties during the week.

Ten may not seem significant as a number but in terms of lowering the temperature by that much, it is considerably something as Lady would also testify if she could!

Talking of the number ten, why not try a ten word story as a flash fiction exercise? I’ll let you have the title though! Hope you have fun with this. I find it a great exercise to return to every now and then. My examples below:-

1. He wondered if he’d finally find the ice cream van.
2. She couldn’t believe Granny left her a talking magical mirror.
3. When time is all you have, you will do anything.

The great thing with this kind of exercise is you can obviously write the stories up further and use these lines as the beginning, the mid point, or the ending of your tales.

Hope you have fun with your own ten word creations.

Nice the weather is cooling down a bit, Lady is far happier, but it will be much better still from next week so we soldier on.

Flash fiction is great if you like to write to the seasons. There can be broadcast opportunities for the seasons too – see Hannah Kate’s show on North Manchester FM for more on this. I was pleased an ACW friend recently was on the midsummer show.

I hope to submit something much later in the year when the season will be so different from what we have now. It will probably be sometime in the autumn when I start thinking out my ideas for this one. Hard to get your thinking cap on for it when the season is so different to what will be required for the tale. That is my excuse and I will be sticking with it!

Having said that, I do usually draft for seasonal writing well ahead of time given most deadlines for these things are either ahead of the actual days or are right at the beginning of them.

Goodreads Author Blog – Reading in Hot Weather

As I write this in late June 2026, most of the UK has experienced a severe heatwave with temperatures in the high thirties (and overnight in high twenties!). Thankfully it is beginning to cool a bit (anything is welcome, especially if you own pets) and it will be better still hopefully as we go into July.

But it made me wonder do you find it easy to read in hot weather? Generally, you may need to wind things down which may free up more time for reading but do you actually feel like reading?

I found I continued my magazine reading (writing advice ones) as usual. I often save these for lunchtime reading and that continues to be fine. My main book reading though is at bedtime and I managed to do some but nowhere near as much as I’d have liked.

There is something about hot weather which zaps concentration levels, even when you do all of the right thing especially regarding hydration, so I suspect this is why I struggled. I hope to get back to normal reading when the weather resumes normal for the UK for this time of year.

As for the kind of reading to be done, when you can, when it is so hot, I like to keep it light. Now is not the time for “serious literature” for me. I want entertaining and funny. It keeps my mind off how hot things are for a start!

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Using Dates in Fiction

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Hope all well. Has been so hot here over the last few days. Gosport in Hampshire has recently shattered a heat record. We’re taking Lady out early and then keeping her in. She’s doing well but isn’t keen on this level of heat.
Writing wise, am progressing okay but will find it easier to progress more when the temperature comes down a bit!

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Pleased to share Using Dates in Fiction on Chandler’s Ford Today this week.

I look at various ways of using dates in our stories including usages in historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy where the dating system may well be so different to ours, and I ask what dates can mean to our characters too. There will be plenty of ideas to be written up around that last thought alone.

I also look at using dates to create settings, time frames and time/dates as a plot device. I discuss dates for the writer too.

Hope you find the post useful.

Using Dates in Fiction

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Another scorcher of a day, another quiet one for Lady though she is managing well and drinking plenty of water, as are we.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Using Dates in Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Lots of useful thoughts here which I hope will trigger plenty of story ideas. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Will be hosting another online group for the Association of Christian Writers next week and am looking forward to that. Plus my next author newsletter is due out on the same day, next Wednesday. How can it be almost July already? Mind you, I have great reasons to look forward to next month. More to come when I have it.

Character Tip: You know your character. You know what they’re capable of and why. Now think of something they might say or do which would catch you and readers off guard. This can bring in great twists to your tale and show you even more about your creation.

If you know, for example, your character is scrupulously honest because they were let down big time by continual lies earlier in their life, readers will understand that. But what if your character then does go and lie, especially if this seems to come out of the blue? I would immediately want to look for the reason in the change of behaviour and there will be at least one.

On this example, I would wonder if they were shielding someone else. Also I will go back and look through the story to see if there were any hints something unexpected might come. There usually is something on a second read.

Crime stories do this all of the time but it can work just as well for other forms of fiction. Incidentally the hint can come in a variety of means such as the character admitting they could do anything to protect someone they love or had done so in the past etc etc.

Wow, it’s been so hot. Hope you are all well and taking good care. Lady out early and then home again for the rest of the day. She’s not sorry. Neither are we. Will be the same again tomorrow and probably Friday too.

Writing wise, I’m trying to start my writing sessions earlier than usual because I do find the heat has a direct impact on my concentration levels (and I drink loads of water etc because I should and because it aids concentration). So it is a question of doing what I can and be as comfortable as possible. Let’s just say I’m already looking forward to a swim tomorrow!

Still the good thing with writing flash fiction and short stories is I can write in short stints and still get plenty done.

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Today would have been my father’s 89th birthday. Dates and anniversaries can be wonderful things, sad ones, funny and much more.

Funnily enough, I discuss Using Dates in Fiction for my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week (see above) but dates/anniversaries are wonderful things to write flash fiction around. They make for a good “peg” to hang the action on.

What, in your story, makes this date/anniversary stand out especially? What has happened to make it more memorable than usual? What does your character make of an anniversary someone else wants to celebrate but they do not?

There are plenty of ways to use dates in stories and, yes, there is such a thing as a random date generator out there. Mind you, the old school way of picking a page at random from your diary and using that date as a focus for your story would also work well!

Hope you’re all keeping well and as cool as possible. Lady managing okay but she loathes this heat and I can’t say I blame her. I heard on the radio earlier that visualising cooler things can help. Hmm… can’t say it’s worked for me so far.

But talking of visualising, when you create your characters do you tend to visualise what they look like? It isn’t the first priority for me. I like to hear them speaking. (I don’t know whether that is because of my life long love of radio coming into play here or whether, back in the day, on the old TV sets you tended to get the sound through first and then the picture). I do get a clearer picture of my characters once I know how they speak though.

This is the joy of the creative process though. Different things work for different writers. It is a question of finding what works for you, I think. (And if one way doesn’t seem to hit your creative spot, then it’s time to try another. You will find what’s right for you writing wise but it can be a question of trial and error).

I don’t tend to use weather much in my flash fiction and short stories. Certainly I’m not planning to write anything about the current heatwave. Not sure there is much of a story in getting my characters to reflect my views – I don’t like this! Mind you, being a dog owner does colour my views here. Both Lady and I much prefer a temperature in the lower twenties.

But you could use the thought of something colouring a character’s views to come up with some interesting story ideas. If a character is kind and generous but won’t be towards another character, there will be reasons (and stories) behind that, for example.

The good thing here is you get to decide what would colour your character’s views (and therefore attitudes and behaviours) and by how much. Can you get a character with a strong opinion which goes against the grain for the other characters in your story to come across as having good reasons to be as they are and even be a sympathetic character?

It would be a good challenge.

Fairytales With Bite – Magical Words

Now I know I’m biased as a writer and editor but I do believe words are magical in and of themselves. When I think about how many stories I’ve loved, and continue to love, I believe I have a good point. Stories are so much part of what makes us human.

But what about our characters who are anything but human? Which stories and/or words would they consider to be magical and why? What impact do these things have on them? How have they shaped them? Would your character’s favourite stories bear any resemblance to those we have here? (It is amazing, for example, just how many variants of the Cinderella story there are and how far in time it goes back too).

Who would have written the stories your characters love? How did they get to be such a special part of your character’s world? Has anyone ever tried to suppress and/or rewrite them to suit their purposes?

Who would be considered to be the overall guardian of your setting’s magical words and stories, how did they get that role, and how good a job do they do? Definite story ideas there.

This World and Others – Literature with Meaning

I believe all literature has at least some meaning. Even the funniest, frothiest of stories have meaning simply because they are great at helping people escape for a while. For me, that is the definition of a good read. I often will not want “serious” reading. I want to be entertained and I see nothing wrong in that.

So when I look for meaning in any story, I am looking for the impact it had on me, for good or bad. I know there are some stories I won’t be reading again because the impact they made on me was I’ve read this once, I don’t need to read it again. Incidentally another definition of a good read for me is wanting to re-read tales.

Anyway, in your setting, especially if it is nothing like our own dear planet, what would your characters see as literature with meaning? Do they read it themselves or only do so when they have to (at school for example)? Is literature readily available to all or only to the select few? If the latter, can literature somehow “escape” by devious means so others can get to see it and, if so, who would be behind that and why are they doing it?

Literature has impact. Not everyone welcomes that here! This could apply easily to other settings. What would be the story of your character who is an author who writes something they know their regime won’t like it? What drives them to do it? Do they get their work out there? Is the impact as expected or not? What would the literature getting out to the masses do to your setting? It could change so much.

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What Attracts You to a New Book/New Author

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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 weekend. Very hot here and will be for next few days so Lady won’t be out so much. Writing continuing to go well. More news on Seeing The Other Side soon.

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Even hotter than yesterday (with more to come) and Lady continues to chill out at home. We’re taking her out early and then she spends the rest of the day pottering around our well shaded garden. She is being so good and (unusually for her!) sensible!

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Using Dates in Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today. The link will be up on Friday. I will be sharing various ways of using dates this way, all of which I hope will trigger story ideas.

It won’t be long before my next author newsletter will be out. I know, I know. Where is the year going? Anyway, for flash tips, news, story links and more do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

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A very hot and sticky Monday. Lady was out earlier than normal. Managed to see her Hungarian Vizler pal but the rest of the day has been spent quietly in and out of our sheltered garden. It will be enough for her for the next few days.

As it’s Monday, it’s story time of course. I shared this one on Substack yesterday but it is time to share it here too. Hope you like my latest on this platform – I Got Away.

Busy and hot weekend. Lady’s not going out so much, as you can imagine. Next couple of days will be especially tricky but I’m grateful she readily drinks water. It helps (my last two dogs didn’t).

Am also very pleased I have one of those boards with a fan in it for my laptop. It comes into its own when the weather is hot and helps me also have the right angle to write to. The board is tipped at an angle so air can also get in underneath it. Highly recommend. Have had mine for years.

Writing wise, I hope to crack on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. Hope to use some of my drafts from the meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group earlier this week to get me off to a good start.

Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. Will need to be careful with Lady over the next few days as the temperatures will be rocketing again.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Using Dates in Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll be sharing various ways in which you could do this and why dates can be such a useful telling detail in and of themselves. Link up on Friday.

Don’t forget it won’t be too long before my next author newsletter will be out. For tips, news, story links etc., do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

One nice job I’m looking forward to doing when Seeing The Other Side comes out is to update my books page on my website. I’ll take the chance to have a bit of a “tidy up” while doing this. It’s not something I feel the need to do often but the occasional refresh is always useful.

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I hope over the weekend to review some of my notes I jotted down during last week’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. I know there are some story ideas to come from these so hope to make a start on some of these then.

I like to mix up the kinds of random generator I use too when I’m seeking ideas. My two stories on Substack and YouTube earlier this week (see above AND below!) were inspired by a random picture generator.

There are loads of these things out there. There is bound to be at least one which will suit you and by putting your own spin on what comes up, you create even further ideas.

Have fun with these, I do!

So glad writing is something I can do in the (relative) cool. Well, almost anything is cooler than the pavements etc at the moment. And as it is Monday, a hot and sticky one at that, it’s time for another story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Best Left.

Both this one and I Got Away on my Substack platform were inspired by a random picture generator. I then put my own spin on the image and have got two stories from the one image. I like this!

She loved her old home. She really didn’t want to leave it but it was best left now. Find out why here.

 

Another hot day here in Hampshire but am keeping nice and cool where I write. Dog is happy in the cool too.

Thought I’d share five tips for flash I continue to find useful. Hope you’ll find them helpful too.

  1. Work out what the story is first and then worry about the word count.

  2. If your character portrayal is great and the story works, then don’t try to cut the story down for the sake of making it fit the “right” word count. I’ve often had to leave stories at 150 words, say, and accept I need to write something else for, say, a 100 word story competition.

  3. Think tight turns of phrases so no “he ran quickly”. It isn’t specific enough. “He raced” is specific and I believe is easier to visualise because people’s definitions of “quickly” can vary.

  4. Have a concrete detail In the story readers can picture. This can vary from being the colour of something to a named place or historical setting. What you want readers to pick up from this is a clear idea of where your character is in time and, from that, what they are likely to be wearing. For example, if you show me your story is set in the Tudor era, I will expect a high born character to be wearing a ruff.

  5. Think about what you want the impact of the story to be on your reader. Do you want to make them laugh or cry? Do you want them to feel empathy for your character? You can then look at ways to do this and my way in here is always to work out what I need a character to do and be to achieve the objective. Most of my characters I want readers to feel empathy for will be on the “goodie” side as a rule.

Hope you find that useful.

I’ve sometimes used the letter format for flash fiction and short stories. It’s fun to do but you need a strong character voice to make it work. For me, this is another great reason to get to know your character ahead of writing their stories up. I need to know the kinds of things they would say and/or write and/or think and what’s behind that.

Motives are usually simple ones – greed, jealousy and, on the more positive side of life, love, wanting to help someone etc. Motives will colour what a character says, does and thinks but get to the bottom of that and what your character comes up with is more likely to be believable. It will “ring true”.

Goodreads Author Blog – What Attracts You to a New Book/New Author?

I think the top thing which attracts me to a new book and/or new author (new to me anyway) is a good recommendation by friends, especially other writing ones. We love good stories. We aim to write themselves, of course. We’re inspired by what has come before (and continue to be). So when a writing friend recommends a book or author, I will sit up and take notice.

Sometimes seeing or listening to an excellent adaptation will make me read the book and find out more works from the author. That was the case for me with Dickens, funnily enough. Watching Shakespeare has introduced me to many of his wonderful works but I remain convinced, other than his sonnets, he is meant to be watched rather than read as such. Ironically, I have the pandemic to thank here because it was thanks to the National Theatre Live productions which were put on at that time which drew me to the Bard.

Sometimes browsing in a book shop will introduce me to a new author. I discovered Terry Pratchett that way. It was the Josh Kirby covers on the Discworld series which drew me in but once I’d read my first Pratchett, which was Jingo, I knew I had to read the rest.

What I remain glad about is there are so many ways to discover new books and authors. There will always be plenty to read out there (and authored by humans too!).

That’s how it should be too.

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Publication Thoughts – Seeing The Other Side by Allison Symes

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Hope you have had a good few days. Pretty busy here and Lady has had a fabulous time catching up with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal this week. Hasn’t seen her for a bit. Writing going well. Seeing The Other Side will be out soon.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler chum today before it heated up in the afternoon so that was fine.

Am delighted to share Publication Thoughts – Seeing The Other Side on Chandler’s Ford Today this week.

My third flash fiction collection is shortly to be published by Chapeltown Books (Bridge House Publishing). I share the book’s blurb, look at what is in my new collection, and discuss the importance of book covers. I look at what happens next and share thoughts and tips I hope will prove useful to other writers approaching their own special publication days.

I also flag up the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society. See the post for why. Hope you enjoy the post and there will be more news on my third book in due course.

Publication Thoughts – Seeing The Other Side by Allison Symes

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Delighted to share my latest post on Authors Electric – Publication Day Thoughts. I discuss launches (both in person and online) as well as whether I enjoy the marketing side of the writing life.

I am looking forward to creating bits and pieces to go with my book launches as and when I have them. It has been a while since I last got to do that.

Hope you enjoy the post and find some useful pointers for your own launches too.

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Hope today has gone well. Lady had a fabulous time with her two closest chums, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback. It seems to be quite a day for the latter as we met another one in the park and three more on our afternoon walk. A bit like London buses – none for ages and then…

Looking forward to catching up with folk from the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later tonight. Plan is to look at how to use questions for themes, titles and more. Hopefully we’ll get some ideas jotted down, maybe the start of some flash pieces.

Writing wise, I’ll be writing “bits and pieces” around the group meeting. These odd pockets of time have proved useful to me in the past. I’ve often drafted the start or even full flash pieces in these slots and later, after further work, have had some published.

I suppose also that given I’ve always had time slots in which to write (other duties have had to be sorted out first), I want to get to my desk for these and just get on with the writing. It’s not a bad habit to have fallen into though. I want to hit the ground running when I write.

I guess it has taught me to make the most of the writing time I do have.

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It’s looking to be a hot few days over the weekend and into next week so Lady will be playing things nice and cool. Am so glad writing is something I can do in the cool!

I like to mix up how I find topics for flash fiction. I do have favourite themes. One liners (including those I overhear!) can inspire ideas, as do books of prompts, the random generators, something I spot when out and about with the dog and much more besides.

I think it is a case of being open to the thought of there being potential ideas all around you. I also think you do have to write what you care about. I love reading funny tales so often write them. I love fairytales where tables are turned on the arrogant and often write these too.

As well as discussing Publication Day Thoughts over on Authors Electric today, 18th June, I’ll be looking at the same topic in greater depth for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up for that tomorrow. I’ll be sharing more thoughts and tips in the CFT post which I hope will be useful to other writers. See above.

More news to come on Seeing The Other Side as and when I have it.

It will be so nice having a third book with my name on it out there. It does validate the work put in and each publication is very special to its creator. It also gives me a great chance to celebrate flash fiction as a format. I am so glad CafeLit issued that 100 word challenge all those years ago. I am even more glad I responded to it!

Flash is a great format for when you are short of time to write but also I think many people write it without necessarily recognizing they have.

If you ever take part in writing exercises at workshops or other events, you almost certainly are writing flash because you normally have five to ten minutes in which to write. You’re only going to write up to 150 words or so in that time. Why not polish them up later and submit them somewhere?

One of my stories in Seeing The Other Side started life as a writing exercise at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick.

Fairytales With Bite – Developing Characters

One of the things I love most about any fiction is seeing how characters develop over the course of one flash fiction piece, one short story, one novella, or one novel. Stories need conflict and resolution. I expect a character to change in some way over the course of a story, no matter how short or long that is.

Characters in a magical setting and/or with magical abilities need to develop too. Does your character improve on their magical skills as their story goes on? Is it a case of them having to do this to survive? Those without magical gifts but in a magical setting must have something to help them navigate their world when it seems they must be at an automatic disadvantage. So what do they develop? What do they have which is useful to everyone else which helps their survival?

In my new flash collection, Seeing The Other Side, I’ve written some linked flash where the character and/or the setting appears in more than one story. The character can have a different “lead” in each link. Each story stands alone but the links put together form their own arc too. Here you get to see the character develop over the links in the chain. It means I can reveal a bit more about them with each story in the chain. These were great fun to write and I hope to do more of this for future books.

But if the character only appeared in one flash piece, they would be different by the end of it to what they were at the beginning. The situation I’ve put them will make them develop. You get to decide, of course, whether or not that is in a good way.

With a magical setting and/or characters, you can show that development in terms of how magic improves/gets worse. You can also show development in a non-magical way around them.

The classic fairytales show proud characters being brought to their senses. They needed to develop humility and being the victim of a curse which could only be freed by love (Beauty and the Beast) is the development they needed to get to where they needed to be overall. Your characters don’t need to see the development as positive by the way though they might later.

This World and Others – Developing Worlds in the Short Fiction Forms

In the short fiction forms, there isn’t any room to show much in the way of your world and its development. But you can still show enough to help your readers form a good picture of your setting and your characters.

It is a question of picking the right detail to share. If I need my setting to be a river based one, and my characters live and work around the major rivers, I will show the characters doing just that. There could be mention, for example, the River XXXX is the major trade route between rivers YYYY and ZZZZ.

Seeing the characters in their environment will make the setting clearer to readers. Seeing them emerge from, say, a hobbit hole (I love those in The Lord of the Rings and think I’m the right height to live in one!), gives you some idea immediately of how tall or otherwise your characters are. It is a question, I think, of choosing what the reader needs to know. They can then fill in the gaps around that (and I know I love doing this when reading stories by other authors).

If your character is not from this world and doesn’t look humanoid, you will need to share a little of what they do look like. If, for example, they have six legs, the world setting they’re in might make that essential and you can show something of what that is. What you can’t do is show everything.

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Publication Week

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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 weekend. Plenty of behind the scenes work happening with Seeing The Other Side. More news soon. Lady and I are enjoying the return of the sunshine too.

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Hope the day has gone well. Lady caught up with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal only today but a fab time was had by both of them, despite me managing to lose one of Lady’s toys. (The whippet who lives in the garden where the ball landed will be pleased at least!).

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Publication Thoughts for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday and will look, in a shorter version, on the same topic for Authors Electric. Link up for the latter on Thursday.

Naturally this is a topic preoccupying me this week (!) but I do share thoughts and tips, especially in the CFT post, which I hope will prove useful to those approaching their own publication days.

Character Tip: What makes your character fascinating to you? What makes you keen to write their story up?

Answer those questions and you will get to what will make readers like them too (and sometimes at least love to hate in the case of villains. I still say in many ways Dolores Umbridge was more scary than Voldemort in the Harry Potter series so who was the bigger villain there?).

Hectic as ever for a Monday but Lady was delighted to catch up with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. Weather lovely and the three dogs had a great time.

I shared this story on my Substack yesterday but now it is time to share it here. Busy days = time to unwind = stories. Well, I think it’s a perfectly good equation.

Hope you like my latest Substack tale – Get Writing. I used a random verb generator to trigger three words for this one. And it ties in with my YouTube story this week too (Moved On). See further down.

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Hope the weekend has gone well. Lovely to see the sunshine back. Lady and I made the most of that earlier.

Writing wise, this coming week should be a cracking one with Seeing The Other Side due out. I will share links as and when I can. A huge thanks to all who commented when I shared the book cover. Much appreciated as further comments have come in since I last thanked you all which is lovely.

Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly but am putting competitions to one side for the moment. Hope to get back to those later in the summer. Am looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Wednesday.

All in all, it will be a busy, flash fiction focused week but I like that!

Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. Busy here with preparations for the publication of Seeing The Other Side. More news in due course.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Publication Thoughts – Seeing The Other Side on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I’ll be looking at some of the work which comes after your book is published, as well as celebrating the fact it has been! I hope others will find that post useful. I will be sharing some pointers here.

Newsletter Tip: I find it useful to have a theme to write to for my newsletters. It means I can focus on relevant tips and keep the newsletter to the point. I think it makes it more interesting month by month too. Certainly, the newsletters I subscribe to tend to do this and it also means I know what I’m going to be writing about and can plan what I do when for this.

Topics can of course include general writing ones but if there is something special coming up, you can base a newsletter around that. Naturally mine at the moment are full of news about my new book. I suspect later in the year I will share news on launches (and tips on having these. I know I’ve found these kinds of tips useful in the past).

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Flash comes in various forms and I like writing to many of them. It also is a great challenge and writing should stretch you. You want to build on what you’ve written already and try and improve on what you do.

My favourite flash fiction forms will always be the 50 and 100 worders (also known as dribbles and drabbles respectively). I do come across more competitions for the 100 word form so if you like competitions in the very short form, it would be good to practice writing to that word count.

Am looking forward to meeting with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group tomorrow.

It’s Monday. It has been hectic. Story time then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Moved On. It ties in with my Substack story – Get Writing

.Why would a witch want to be kind to a young fairy who crashed into her gingerbread house?

Find out here.

 

Will be getting on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. It has been a joy re-reading my Seeing The Other Side collection as part of the process of it coming out into the world. Hope you will enjoy reading it too. Will share links as and when I can. Hope to be getting creative with marketing items for the new book soon too.

I like to use a variety of ways to create new flash stories. I often use proverbs and phrases (sometimes as the theme, sometimes as the title, sometimes both together). I also use a huge range of random generators. Just generating a single word has given me several story ideas. Object and photo generators (as well as photos from my phone I’ve taken) can inspire ideas too.

The books of prompts are useful too (and I’ve contributed to some before now – Bridge House have a Big Book of Prompts which is well worth checking out – see link).

Indeed in Seeing The Other Side I share how I’ve created some of the tales in there. All of the generators, prompt books etc do so much to encourage creativity. I’ve occasionally used these for non-fiction ideas too.

Happy writing (and reading!).

Naturally this coming week is a big one for me on the flash fiction front! More immediately, I’m looking forward to flash fiction Sunday as ever tomorrow. I am going to have to put competition thoughts to one side at the moment but hope to resume writing stories for and entering these later in the month/early into July. Mind you, it is great to be so busy with a new book!

I do say on the back cover for Seeing The Other Side that I hope the book helps people to discover the joys of flash fiction as a format. I like the idea of promoting the form, as well as my own work, because flash is a great writing format and I’ve learned so much from writing it.

Goodreads Author Blog – Publication Week

This coming week is a special one for me in that my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side, is due to be published. This latest collection has been a long time in coming and will be my biggest book to date. Am so looking forward to holding my copies in my hands too!

Publication week does act as a kind of validation for most writers. We work for years on stories, novels, what have you, and then there is the hard work of trying to find a publisher or do the hard work necessary if you go down the self publishing route.

My books are with a traditional small independent press, who are great. (I had some input into my book cover, for example. I know not every author can get to do that).

After that comes the work of letting people know about your book. So there is so much going on around a book being published.

Let’s hear it for all of the authors out there!

And the best thing of all? We add to the books and stories out there. We add to human creativity (and I can’t stress that point enough).

Books are wonderful things but they have to be written by humans for there to be real meaning to them, I think.

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Discovering Classical Authors – and Further Book Cover 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, AS WAS A PHOTO OF AN UNEXPECTED VISITOR I DISCOVERED AFTER RETURNING FROM A RECENT VISIT TO THE DORSET MUSEUM. SEE MY CHANDLER’S FORD TODAY POST FOR THAT.
Hope you have had a good few days. Am thrilled to now reveal my full book cover for Seeing The Other Side. See below. Lady and I have managed to avoid most of the rain this week so I think we can say it has been a good few days so far!

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After an exciting week with my book cover reveals (see further down), I’m equally glad to share my latest Chandler’s Ford Today post – Discovering Classical Authors.

This post was inspired by my recent visit to The Dorset Museum with editing colleagues to see the Thomas Hardy exhibition, which was fascinating. I report on that but also share ways in which I’ve discovered classic authors. These vary from film and TV adaptations to plays and more.

Hope you enjoy the post and discover plenty of classic authors by whatever means. Sometimes the books aren’t the immediate way in. That was the case for Dickens with me. More in the post.

Discovering Classic Authors

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Book Cover Reveal

A week to go and it is time, I think, to share the full book cover for my Seeing The Other Side.
Have been looking forward to doing this, as you can imagine.

I’m pleased the book will be in the classic Chapeltown Books (part of Bridge House Publishing) framed square design. They look distinctive and make excellent gift books, which is part of the reason for this design, of course.

There are a fair few in the series now but I will always have a soft spot for my debut book, From Light to Dark and Back Again, because it was the first one to come out in this format (as well as it being my first book, naturally. I was glad my late Dad got to see that. My late Mum got to see my first printed story – A Helping Hand in Alternative Renditions, a Bridge House Publishing anthology back in 2009. There is a nice symmetry to that, I think).

Hope to share more details of my third book as and when I have them.

Hope the day has gone well. Lady caught up with her Hungarian Vizler pal again today and I’ve enjoyed an online editing meeting this afternoon.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Discovering Classical Authors on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above. This post came about thanks to my recent visit with editing colleagues (whom I caught up with again this afternoon online) to The Dorset Museum to visit the Thomas Hardy exhibition. My post will look at various ways to discover classical authors. I’m sure these will resonate. Looking forward to sharing the post.

Many thanks for the great responses to my sharing of a partial book cover reveal yesterday for Seeing The Other Side. I’ve sent off various items connected with this to enable a launch to happen at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick in August. On my to do list will be to set up other in person and online launches. So there will be more news in due course.

I’ve now seen the back cover for my new book and I have to say the whole cover looks fab. Will share the full cover soon. See above! Just over a week to go before the book is due out too!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

What a week! A huge thank you for the wonderful responses to my book cover share for Seeing The Other Side. Much appreciated. More news to come on the book as and when I have it.

Meantime, there is still plenty of flash fiction to be written, which I hope to get to later in the weekend.

Flash Fiction Tip: Are you intrigued by your potential characters? Do you want to find out what they get up to, what could go wrong for them, and what they do to rectify matters?

You should be. You are your own first reader. The characters do have to grip you first.

But this is where I find working out my potential characters helps so much. As I begin to flesh them out, I get a feel for the attitudes they are likely to have, what kind of troubles they are likely to have due to said attitudes and much more.

I’ve always found time spent getting to know my characters is never wasted time. Indeed, it can save many a rewrite later.

A week to go before my third book, Seeing The Other Side, comes out. Exciting times. I hope there will be further publication news later in the year too.

Looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week. Am bringing it forward for various reasons this month but I hope we get to discuss questions and how we can use them to set themes, characters and more. There will be plenty of fun writing exercises to have a go at too and, yes, I do these too. It’s a great way to get more flash fiction drafted after all.

When I write flash, I am either writing to a competition or there Is a topic I especially want to write about. Sometimes I have an idea for a character and then work out what kind of story would best suit them.

Sometimes I know a rough story outline and then work out the best character to “play the lead part”. I have used snippets of overheard conversation before now as a trigger point (not that the original speakers would ever know). I also know sometimes I want to write a light piece or, conversely, a dark one.

Finding a way into writing a story usually isn’t an issue. What can be is working out the best route to go. But it is a fun challenge and one I am always up for!

My new book, Seeing The Other Side, will be my biggest collection to date. There are over 200 stories in there so plenty of reading to be done there!

I’ve also had fun writing more linked flashes for this book, acrostics and so on, as well as writing to the different word counts in flash up to the maximum of 1000. Am really looking forward to seeing the book out there, as you can imagine.

I’m also glad, whenever I promote any of my books, that I’m also promoting flash fiction as a format. It is an enjoyable challenge and addictive to write and read. It is also the perfect “quick read” for those times when you can’t read for as long as you like but you can still read something.

And I’ve long held the view flash can be useful in bringing in the reluctant readers, those who won’t read a massive book, but could be tempted in by the shorter formats in the form of collections like mine.

More news to come on the book as and when I have it.

Fairytales With Bite – Seeing The Other Side

Naturally given my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side, is due out on 18th June 2026, my thoughts do turn to this topic. Many of my stories in the book will, I hope, help you see how things look from the “other side of the fence” given what the characters are going through.

For our magical characters and settings though, this is a topic worth exploring further. For every character who benefits from magical assistance, who is the one who misses out or is harmed by it in some way? There is always another side to the story.

Indeed, my first story in print was A Helping Hand in Alternative Renditions (Bridge House Publishing – 2009) and that had this thought in mind. My tale was based around the character of Cinderella’s younger stepsister. Fairytale retellings or additions to the original stories have always been popular. Seeing the other side resonates here!

Also within your setting, which of your characters loves it? Which of your characters hate it? Both will have good reasons for feeling the way they do and what would happen if you bring those two together? Clashes galore and some interesting stories would emerge, I’m sure.

If your characters have specific tasks to do what elements of the setting would help them or get in their way? Would they see another side to where they live based on this?

Again, story ideas there.

This World and Others – Perspectives

My strapline for Seeing The Other Side reads Perspective can be wonderful but will you still feel the same if your view from the fence changes?

This theme underlies many of my stories in the new book but it is a great one to write around.

Perspective will change depending on whether you’re writing from the viewpoint of the hero/heroine or the villain, for example.

Often the villain will see themselves as being hard done by rather than being out and out evil (though of course there are exceptions to that. Some of the most over top characters are the villains who know they are and have a ball with it. My thoughts go to the Sheriff of Nottingham as played by the much missed Alan Rickman in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves here).

Perspectives change significantly depending on whether your character has a task to do or someone else is getting them to do it! I always think if Character B insists Character A is the right person for the job, I want to know why and also why Character B isn’t doing it. Not unfair to think that, I think, and this can be used to show Character A struggling to come to terms with what they’re supposed to do. You can also explore why Character A either believes Character B or argues with them over it. Definite story ideas there.

My main way into writing stories is to know my character(s) traits and attitudes and actions likely to come from that. I have to know their perspective on things. This underpins all of my stories and it is what readers latch on to. They need to understand where the character is coming from even if they don’t agree with what is happening.

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Seeing The Other Side – Book Cover 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.
Many thanks to the lovely lady at my local blood donor clinic who used my phone to take a photo of me celebrating their first anniversary at their new place. A very worthy celebration!
Hope the weekend went well. Not bad here. Wet week ahead but Lady and I just get on with things here. She dries off faster than I do! In other news, I’m thrilled to say I have now seen the book cover for Seeing The Other Side and well… see below!

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady and I caught up with her Hungarian Vizler friend after breaks away. Both dogs pleased to see each other again, Lady was especially affectionate.

Now in other news, I mentioned yesterday I had news on the book cover for Seeing The Other Side. See the partial reveal photo below and I hope to reveal the whole cover later this week). I created this image in Book Brush and it was fun and easy to do.

Image reveals part of a book with a yellow cover and two books in green, one called From Light to Dark and Back Again and the other Tripping The Flash Fantastic.

More news to come in due course.

Delighted to share my latest story which went out on Substack yesterday. Now time to share it here! Both this story and the one I’m sharing on YouTube this week took the phrase Goody Two Shoes as a theme. Hope you like both tales but first up here is the Substack one – Atonement Time.

And in other news, I plan to share more news on the book cover for Seeing The Other Side tomorrow. Exciting times. See above!

Am delighted to share my latest piece on Writers’ Narrative – Food Writing in Fiction. Food can /be used successfully in stories of any length to help with characterisation, setting, time period and more. Also, whatever kind of character you create, they are bound to need to eat at some point!

Do see the post for more and I hope you find the tips and thoughts useful. I almost always end my posts here with a question. Why not check out the latest one? Comments are welcome and don’t forget Writers’ Narrative is free to subscribe to. As it is now on Substack, what happens is you receive an article on the topic of the month every few day or so. Easy way to take in plenty of useful writing advice.

Soggy old day today. Lady and I went around the park in record time!

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Discovering Classical Authors for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. This post is inspired by my recent visit to The Dorset Museum to see the Thomas Hardy exhibition. I also discuss in this post other ways bar books to discover classical authors and I share some of the ways I’ve used here. Post up on Friday.

Looking forward to sharing that and unusually for a CFT post I put in a PS but you’ll have to wait until next week to find out what that is and why it has gone up. Mind you, it was a joy to do!

Reading Tip: I’ve often mentioned the need for writers to read in and out of their genre. Aside from anything else it is fun to do and inspiration can spark from other stories so the wider you read, the greater the chance there is of this happening for you.

But mix up, not just the genres, but the lengths of stories and whether they’re classical or contemporary. While it is true writing styles have changed over the years, you can still learn loads from studying how the classical authors created their characters and situations.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Thrilled to bits I have now shared a partial book cover reveal for Seeing The Other Side over on my Facebook author page. See above here. I hope to share the full cover later this week.

But it is always exciting when you know you are so close to having a book with your name on the cover in your hands again.

The thrill of being published doesn’t diminish and I am looking forward to sharing more about my new flash fiction collection soon.

It’s a soggy Monday and time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The Reason For The Name.

There are always those who don’t get the point of a training scheme for self improvement and that goes for the magical world too. See what my fairy character who is about to be “properly qualified” is planning to get up to when allowed out in the world.

Both this story and my Substack one, Atonement Time, are based on the theme of Goody Two Shoes. Hope you like them both.

And look out for book cover news for Seeing The Other Side from me tomorrow. See above. This will be my first book out since 2020 so am naturally rather excited about it!

 

Now when I flag something up it is usually something to do with writing, as you’d expect, but this one is a bit different but could lead to a writing idea or two, maybe suitable for flash stories too.

Earlier this week, I went to give blood and it was the first anniversary of the Blood Service being at their base near where I live so there were plenty of balloons out (red ones naturally). Having donated blood, I then happily posed for a picture. See below. If you can give blood, please do as it is such a worthwhile thing to do.

Now how can that, worthy as it is, lead to a writing idea?

Easy! You meet all kinds of people at blood donation sessions so you could invent characters who meet there. What happens next? You could also use the donor centre as a setting.

Off you go and happy writing!

(And if you do give blood, I know the blood people would want to thank you. I know what I like most is finding out what happens to mine about a fortnight or so after the donation. It’s fascinating to know).

Flash fiction has been around for a long time, centuries in fact, but has been known by many different names. Jesus’s parables and many of Aesop’s fables would come in at under 1000 words.

I must admit my favourite name for the format is postcard fiction because it sums up things well. You’d be hard pushed to get more than a 100 words or so on the back of a postcard (unless you have tiny writing like I have which might push it up to 200!).

Indeed a good writing exercise is to take a blank postcard and get a complete story to fit on it. (I’d aim for 50 to 100 words here).

GOODREADS AUTHOR BLOG – Reading Acrostic

Hope you like the following acrostic. Has been a while since I last wrote one here.

R = Reading does so much for you, not least of which is increasing your vocabulary.

E = Entertainment awaits within books if that is what you choose; education is also an option.

A = Adventures in this world and others just within the power of the imagination await the reader.

D = Dastardly villains, heroes, heroines and more – all fabulous characters with stories to share.

I = Imagination fired up, maybe enough to write your own stories.

N = Nothing beats reading for all you can have from it and there are plenty of formats to choose from.

G = Get reading – old favourites, new books, ideally both!

 

 

 

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Deadlines

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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 since the last post Lady and I have ducked the rain, got caught by the rain, but the temperature is so much better for said rain. Trees and plants are looking happier too. Writing going well too.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

I’m delighted to share Deadlines on Chandler’s Ford Today. I work to deadlines all the time for CFT, Writers’ Narrative, Authors Electric, More Than Writers, and for various story competitions.

I find deadlines useful but know not every writer sings to that tune so I thought a post sharing tips about how to make these things more manageable (and therefore endurable!) would be useful. I also use some old school ways to help me manage my own deadlines. Find out more in the post.

Hope you find the post handy.

Deadlines

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Hope today has gone well. Some amazingly heavy showers today but Lady and I have managed to duck those, thankfully.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Deadlines on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow and share some handy tips as to manage these things. Most writers have to face them at some point and many of us all of the time at that! Hope you will find the post useful. See above.

Have booked my train tickets for The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick today. (You can get good discounts booking a reasonable way in advance and even more of one if you have a railcard. I am now the proud owner of a Senior Railcard and am putting this to good use already!). So looking forward to being back at The Hayes in August.

Character Tip: What drives a character to do something is so important. It is what makes a story believable, I think, even if your character is some fantastic creature from the back of beyond. So understanding motivations, for me, is a key part of character creation and yet another reason why I focus on character over plot. I fervently believe characters set the plot anyway.

Lady and I did get a soaking this morning though that was still easier to cope with than the super high temperatures of last week. There really is a silver lining regarding those clouds!

Looking forward to going to an online ACW group tonight. Plus I plan to get on with various pieces of writing though it will be mainly non-fiction this evening. Having said that it is a joy to write non-fiction as well as fiction as it means I always have something “on the go” and often ideas from non-fiction can spark thoughts for potential stories. It does tend to happen that way around too.

I hope my recent revisit to The Dorset Museum will spark a future Chandler’s Ford Today post. It has already inspired my recent Goodreads one. Ironic as it may sound, getting away from the desk for a while may well trigger ideas to put to good use when you get back to said desk again.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good end to the working week. Weather has been a bit of a mixed bag but it didn’t stop Lady and I getting out and about. Writing wise, I hope to look at some stories for potential competitions over the weekend plus I have various blogs to get on with and am getting ready for when Seeing The Other Side comes out. No chance of being bored here but I like that. I have a very low boredom threshold!

Flash is a great format for developing your characterisation skills. Given it has to be led by characters (as there is no room for lots of description), you do have to focus on what matters about the characters you have as the stars of your tales.

What does the reader need to know about them? Why should they care about what happens to them? Both of these questions should be answered for any length of fiction but it is especially crucial for the shorter story forms.

Hope to pick out a story to review for a possible competition at the weekend. It’s often the best time for me to go through my “stock” and it is nice to come across those tales I wrote a while back but which I have not yet placed. It means I have had the necessary time break away to judge them objectively enough.

It is also a fun thing to do to revisit these because you can see what works and from there figure out how to fix what doesn’t. This is the ongoing challenge of story writing. It’s great for the brain!

Flash Fiction Tip: Let’s say you have a character and storyline you like. Why not try writing this up to, say, 100 words, then 300, then 500 and see which works the best? The longer ones will have a bit more depth to them and that may be exactly what you want for a competition you’ve got in mind. Good luck!

Some of my non-fiction posts can come into the realm of flash non-fiction when they come in at 500 words or fewer. I must admit I still tend to think of them as blogs though!

But a thought to try on this front is to pick a topic you like and see if you can write a flash non-fiction piece to it to 500 words exactly. It’s a good challenge and, if nothing else, this can give you interesting material to share on your website.

Thoughts for topics could include ideas which would work just as well for a story theme. For example:-

Justice;

Favourite historical character (whom you can then put in a story or have someone who would have known them put in a story);

Inventions which changed the world (and you can invent some for stories with a fantasy setting).

Best Day Out Ever (and then write a story around a character who has their best ever day out).

There are many more topics, of course, but I like the thought of flash non-fiction feeding into flash fiction like this. It’s useful! I like the idea of having one idea and getting more than one piece from it.

Fairytales With Bite – Magical Stores

Where do your magical characters get their supplies from? I must admit I love the idea of Diagon Alley in J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. The films especially confirmed my thought the place may well look as it it came straight from the times of Dickens! But it also confirmed magical characters need supplies – potion ingredients, wands, other equipment and so on.

So as well as thinking about where they’d go to get these things, flip it and look at who manufactures these things. How did they discover the art? How did they become expert at producing certain things? Is there a “government standard” they have to adhere to and, if not, why not? (Magic is dangerous enough without dodgy equipment!).

How do your “magical storekeepers” protect their premises against those who would steal their wares? What can be done to stop those on the dark side corrupting products so they’re used for things not originally intended?

Story ideas there for sure!

This World and Others – Provisions

How do your magical characters provide for themselves? Is magic allowed to be used for, say, the growing of food, or would that be the equivalent of “artificial farming” which most of us would reject? If they can’t create their own things like this, where would they get food, clothes etc?

If anyone is allowed to produce these things magically do they have the equivalent of a government licence to do so?

For centuries in the UK, the monarch would grant monopolies on various things to those they favoured and those folk would make money from that. For example, Queen Elizabeth Tudor gave monopolies to print and publish music for twenty-one years to Thomas Tallis and William Byrd. That guaranteed them income.

If your setting cannot produce everything it needs, where would it get the “missing items”? Who would it import from and is there anything it could export back?

Provisions have to come from somewhere and there will be people who make things happen here. There could be some great stories here.

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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 great weekend. Had a lovely time out at The Dorset Museum with editing colleagues and the weather is pleasantly cooler. Lady and I are not sorry about that. My latest newsletter is now out and am so looking forward to Seeing The Other Side come out later this month.

Facebook – General

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady did. She managed to have a puppy party in the park today with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals plus Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. Tired and happy dogs went home. Job done there then. And we’re all thankful the temperature has come down somewhat.

Writing wise, am cracking on with blogs and material I will need later and enjoying this. There is a writing competition I’ve got in mind to enter but will have another look at my “story store” over the weekend, I hope, to see if I have something which would suit. The theme is an open one which helps!

Also found out today another competition entry didn’t make the cut but I will have another look at this story later and see if I can find another home for it. Sometimes, I can.

Hope today has gone well. Lady was reunited with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal for the first time in a couple of weeks today. Both were thrilled to see each other and had a lovely time in the park. None of us are sorry the temperature has come down.

Has been a busy day or so on the writing front. My author newsletter went out again today.

Plus I share here my latest story on Substack which went out on that platform yesterday. I hope you enjoy Banners Banned. It was great fun to write. Back to the good old drabble (aka the 100 word story) for this one. Incidentally I used a random word generator and the word “banner” for my stories here and on YouTube this week.

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Hope the weekend is going well. Cooler and pleasanter day today. It was a joy for Lady and I to be out (so unlike most of last week!).

Writing wise, I’ll be getting on with flash fiction Sunday afternoon shortly. The coming week will probably be based around various blogs and background work for when Seeing The Other Side comes out. All will be a joy to do.

I love all forms of creative writing and editing so it is always a joy to be back at my desk. Yes, there are some writing admin and editing tasks which are less interesting, but when you think these things will help improve your work and can make the difference between being published or not, then that thought makes them easier to deal with.

Editing Tip: Do think of reading work out loud (or recording on Zoom/Audacity etc and playing back) as one of your rounds of edits and yes, there will be more than one round! This kind of editing alone can show up clunky dialogue, missing words and much more and is so worth doing.

For longer work, break this down into chunks such as chapters or two or three scenes in a chapter. I’d also recommend, as you play something back, making notes as to what isn’t working and then go through and amend once you have a complete list to work through.

For short stories and flash, this won’t take long. For novels, as I say, you may want to do one chapter or significant sequence at a time but work through your list and make amendments once you have gone through the lot. When you look at the list as a whole, you may spot where the weaker bits are but I think you do have to see the whole to be able to do that.

I can’t recommend this technique highly enough.

I drafted this on my way down to Dorchester to revisit The Dorset Museum for a Thomas Hardy exhibition. I caught up with editing colleagues here and it was great to see them. On the train home, there was a splendid writing and editing conversation going on.

I used my Senior Railcard for the first time. Today’s trip, including posting the tickets to me, came in at a very good rate indeed.

One thing we know about as editors is deadlines. I’ll be talking about that for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday.

Deadlines are a fact of life for writers and editors alike, of course. I’ll be sharing tips on handling deadlines which I’ve found useful over many years and still do.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Flash tightens up your writing thanks to its restricted word count but another advantage to it is if you have a character and storyline you’d like to do more with, you can.

I’ve sometimes expanded a story which started life as a flash piece and turned it into a longer standard length short story but only because the character and plotline were both strong enough for that.

With my competition judge’s hat on, you can spot where you think someone has padded out a story and this is why that kind of thing never works. Every part of a story, regardless of its word count, has to feel to someone reading it as if it must be there and couldn’t work without it.

Now there’s a challenge for us all!

It has been a cooler and frankly more pleasant Monday today compared with the sweltering heat of last week. Mind you, it is still a Monday and that means it’s story time again. I hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Proper Spelling and Everything.

Joey thought he was doing the right thing with his banner but his teacher shows him there could be a downside. Find out what here and what Joey did get right.

 

Almost time to get on with flash fiction Sunday, which is always a joy. As I’ve been out and about and am now catching up with work, I may need to put back looking for another competition to enter until next weekend.

One good thing about that is I do know there will be something out there which will be worth my while trying. There are far more flash fiction and short story competitions about so there is more choice but, as ever, always check the background of the competition out and ensure all is as it should be. Entry fees should be proportionate to the entry fee. You shouldn’t have to give up your copyright either. And you should be able to find a track record for the competition organisers.

Flash Fiction Tip: Lead with your character is usually my way into creating a new flash piece. I have to know who they are, what their major trait is and from there I can work out the kind of trouble they’d be likely to get into – all good fun!

But I often also start with a line of dialogue or internal thought. Just writing that down can give me a good indication of my character type. Someone who speaks “posh” will use certain words while those who aren’t “posh” would speak in a different way.

From that you can work out where someone is likely to live and something of their background. So if you’re thinking of creating a character and am not sure where to start, write down a random line of dialogue and see what it shows you about the speaker and where this is likely to take them.

Happy writing!

Have been out and about on the trains today having a lovely time.Naturally part of this is looking out for those sparks which can trigger story ideas.

Those sparks can include things like overhearing interesting snippets, spotting oddities (or things which strike me as that), spotting wildlife (there can be room for them in stories too) and much more.

Will be fun finding out tomorrow, hopefully, if any of my “finds” make it into my tales I draft for this week’s flash fiction Sunday.

Goodreads Author Blog – Discovering Classic Authors New to You

I spent the last Saturday in May 2026 visiting a Thomas Hardy exhibition at The Dorset Museum in Dorchester with editing colleagues. We like a jolly every now and then! The exhibition was fascinating and I’m glad I went but must confess to not having read Hardy.

And it made me think about how do you discover those classic authors whom everyone has heard of but you yourself just haven’t got into their works.

I suspect this trip out will lead me into reading Hardy and that may well be the point of exhibitions like this.

My late well read mother had Dickens and Austen at home. But it was at secondary school when Pride and Prejudice was a set book, I discovered dear Jane for myself.

As for Dickens, I watched the old black and white film of Oliver Twist on BBC2 one weekend afternoon which led me into reading Dickens. This film starred Sir Alec Guinness as Fagan and Oliver Reed as Bill Sykes. They were both seriously scary. I had to read the book to see if the original story really was like that. And yes it is.

Which classic authors have you yet to read for yourself? As a writer too, I’m aware of the need to read contemporary fiction, which I do, but it is good to read the classics too. You will often spot the influences on other writers from them.

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