Review – The Chameleon Theatre Company – Notes From A Small Island

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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.
Have had a good week. Hope you have too. Lovely meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Wednesday, Looking forward to supporting Rosemary Johnson’s online launch for her Past and Present (Bridge House Publishing) short story collection via Eventbrite later on Friday 1st August. Lady has had a good week, catching up with her closest buddies, to the joy of all.

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1st August 2025

First post of two here tonight. I’m pleased to share my review of the recent Chameleon Theatre Company production of Notes From A Small Island for Chandler’s Ford Today. The bestselling book by Bill Bryston was adapted for the stage by Tim Whitnall.

My lovely editor from CFT, Janet Williams, and I went to see the play a week or so ago and had a great time. I remain amazed at what the Chameleons can produce on what is not the world’s biggest stage!

For more see the post. Note to self: now read the book! This show was unusual in that it is the first time I’ve seen an adaptation of a book without having read the book first.

Review – The Chameleon Theatre Group – Notes From A Small Island

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1st August 2025

Second post of two here tonight. Glad to say my author newsletter went out again earlier today. Just where does the year go? Hard to believe it’s August already. My theme this time was flash flexibility.

Also delighted to say the August edition of Writers’ Narrative came out today. (Too late to include in my newsletter but I will include it with the next one). The theme this time is Cover Design and my article here is called Cover Design and Why It Matters.

And as it is the weekend it is time for a good read, is it not? Link below to the magazine.

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Hope today has been good for you. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals again, ahead of the rain too, so all had a lovely time.

Will be sharing my review of The Chameleon Theatre Company’s production of Notes From A Small Island on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. Plus I will be supporting Rosemary Johnson for her online book launch for Past and Present (Bridge House Publishing) tomorrow evening. So the beginning of August will get off to a cracking start (especially given my author newsletter will be out too).

Had a lovely meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Wednesday evening. Plenty to think about and ideas to try from the theme of summer too.

Found out today my story for The Bridport Prize didn’t make the cut so will have to try again for that competition next year. I will have another look at my story at some point and see if I can improve it and send it somewhere else. I have done this before with stories going on to be published elsewhere. All part and parcel of the writing life…

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady has had a fantastic one in that she had a good run around with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal while their Hungarian Vizler pal looked on. All were very happy dogs and it is lovely to see how pleased they always are to see each other. Humans can learn a thing or two from that! I was also pleased to get a short bonus swim in – the water was lovely.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this evening. Glad to report good time had by all and plenty of excellent results from the exercises I set too.

Also looking forward to Rosemary Johnson’s book launch for her Past and Present (Bridge House Publishing) on Friday. A busy but fun week!

Will be sharing my review of Notes From A Small Island which was recently performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. My newsletter will be out again then too.

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It’s Friday and time for another story. I hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction called Clock Watching. Thrilled to see I am the Editor’s Choice this week too. Hope you enjoy the drabble.

Some of the most popular flash fiction competition word count limits are the 100, 250, 300, and 500 words ones. Ironically, I am preparing a story for a 750 word competition as I write this! Those come up sometimes too but, by far, there are more flash competitions for the sub-500 word count limit so it is worth practicing writing to these.

Following my advice yesterday (see below) about using postcards to write a story on literally or just accepting this would be a 50 to 100 word count limit would also help practice here!

I mentioned as part of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting yesterday that the theme of summer (or indeed any of the seasons) can be wonderful backdrops to your stories. You won’t need to spell out a time frame in detail if you, say, set a story against someone watching a Wimbledon tennis match live. Everyone will know that’s in the summer. This can save so much on your word count and makes for tighter writing.

I set a series of exercises based on postcards (and the amount of words you get on them) for a recent post for More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers.

Why not give this a go? Depending on the size of your handwriting, you can only get 50 to 100 words on there so these exercises come with an inbuilt word count limit!

You could think along the lines of what would your characters write home about. Also give some thought as to what they might tell you as their creator. It may well not be flattering but could they reveal something about themselves to trigger further story ideas for them. Worth a go and it’s a good fun exercise.

The postcard idea is to make you focus on the one thing a character would reveal as you literally wouldn’t have room for anything else. So if you need to work on character focus, this idea is definitely worth trying.

Fairytales with Bite – Preserving the Past

Does your magical setting cherish its past, fear it, or does it do everything it can to cover it up? What we see as fairytales do they see as actual historical events? Do they think we’ve got them right or wrong?

Are stories/books stored in libraries as we would know them? Who would be the custodians of them and is anyone allowed access? Can anyone read the stories kept at home or are your characters not allowed to do this? Is education limited? It always interests me when this is done because you have to ask what are the powers that be afraid of he ordinary folk find out? There will be something!

If the past is treasured, as I hope it would be (you have to learn from the good and the bad after all), who would do this? What would your setting’s equivalent be of librarians, archivists, archaeologists etc? What items would they be looking after? How do they care for these things properly? Do they copy any of our techniques here?

This World and Others – Hiding the Past

Following on from Fairytales with Bite, if the past isn’t treasured, who hides it? How do they do this and who finds them out? Sure to be cracking story ideas working that out!

What are the reasons to hide the past? Is it all hidden or just a specific era or incident? Could there be good reasons for doing this? Could the discovery of this be used to cause ruin to others for good or evil purposes?

If something rotten needs to be exposed for the greater good, who does this, what led them to decide it had to be done, and do they have help at all? Can magic come to their aid or does it complicate matters?

Naturally there would be opponents to this. What have they got to lose if your character’s quest succeeds in exposing the truth? How would the discovery change the way the world (or a particular area of it) is governed? What impact could there be on those lower down in the “chain”?

Who initially made the decision to hide the past in question and had they any good reasons to do so? Naturally you get to decide how you define good here!

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August 2025 edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out too. See above for the link to that.

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Postcards Home and Authors/Story Links

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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 friends from Swanwick for taking some images of me signing books etc at a previous Swanwick. Also thanks to Adrian Symes for taking a photo of me holding Creativity Matters.
Hope you had a good weekend. Had a lovely trip out to see a Jane Austen exhibition at The Dorset Museum in Dorchester with editing colleagues. Good fun and a fascinating place to visit. Want to go back as I didn’t get to see half of what was there. The Austen exhibition was good too. But oh how tiny the waists were back then!
Meantime back at home, Lady has got to see her two best buddies for the first time in a few days so all is well now. Part 3 of my serialisation of Seeing The Other Side came out over the weekend on CafeLit too. Link given below. All go here but in a great way!

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It’s my turn once again on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This time I look at Postcards Home and set a few exercises for people to try. Hope you have fun with them. I especially hope the ACW Flash Fiction Group gives them a go!

Hope you enjoy the post. This is an apt topic for me as flash fiction has been known by many names, including postcard fiction.

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Lady has had a lovely day. She played with her two best friends, the Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler. All is well in their world!

As promised the other day, I thought I would give a quick reminder now to say I will be quizzing Rosemary Johnson about her new book, Past and Present (Bridge House Publishing) later this week. There is an online book launch via Eventbrite, hosted by Bridge House Publishing, on Friday 1st August from 7.15 pm (UK time). The event will last for an hour. Hope to see you there.

Marketing Tip: Whenever you are sharing information about your latest story or book, think about what is in this for your readers. This is where sharing an odd story or two is handy because it makes perfect sense to say hello, this is what I write, and then share a sample of it. Nobody minds a free sample. If you have an author newsletter, it is a useful thing to include as part of that.

So enjoyed my trip to the Dorset Museum yesterday. Didn’t even see half of what they have there so a return trip is called for. The ticket from the museum lasts for a year so I hope to take full advantage of that. Pleasant run on the train too – and useful writing time of course. Will shortly be getting on with flash fiction Sunday today, naturally.

Writing wise, will have a busy week ahead with plenty going on the blogs front. Plus I will be sending out my author newsletter again on Friday (and taking part in Rosemary Johnson’s book launch for Past and Present the same day so Friday will be fun but busy).

Also it is almost time for the next edition of Writers’ Narrative so do look out for that too. You won’t be short of reading material this week!

Glad to see it is almost time for The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick once again. So looking forward to that.

Writing Tip: If you can get to writing events, be they online or in person, a one day thing or longer, try and go. One huge advantage to them is you get to meet other writers. Not only do you make friends, writers share information with each other all of the time.

You never know when (a) that could prove useful to you and (b) what you can share will prove useful to someone else. The writing community is generally a hugely supportive one and it is lovely to be part of it.

Was on my travels today down to Dorchester to visit the Jane Austen exhibition at the Dorset Museum. This was called Jane Austen – Down To The Sea and looked at the great author’s links with the coast. I met editing colleagues here from the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP). A great time was had by all and I plan to write more about the exhibition for Chandler’s Ford Today soon.

Talking of which, a huge thank you for the fabulous comments which have come in on Esther Chilton’s interview yesterday.

Next week’s post will be a review of the play of Notes From A Small Island, which was performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company this week.

Next week will be busy too as the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group will be meeting on Wednesday. Plus I’m also looking forward to Rosemary Johnson’s online book launch for her Past and Present collection on Friday. Host is Bridge House Publishing via Eventbrite. Will repost the link in next couple of days. Have done so above.

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Lady has had an especially nice day as she got to play with Bear, a wonderful Aussie Shepherd, who is the nearest thing she has ever had to a boyfriend.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting tomorrow on Zoom. We’ll be looking at the theme of summer. Plenty of good ideas to come from using a season in your writing. For one thing, they make an excellent backdrop.

Flash Tip: When you have a theme to hand for a story, take some time to jot down as many possibilities from it as you can think of. There will be more than you think. Play Word Association here. What you come up with may well generate words to put in a story, even the basic outline of what a character might see or do in your story.

For example with the theme of summer, you could think of things like tennis (story set against that back drop perhaps). You could think of ice cream (lovely old soul looks for a favourite flavour for someone he cares about) and that is just two basic ideas from two words associated with the theme.

Am sure you could come up with many more. Have fun!

It’s Monday. It has been hectic. It’s story time once again but this time I’ve produced something a little different. The program I use to produce my videos was unfortunately down when I needed to use it for my usual weekly tale though I am glad to say it is back up and running again.

Having said that (and given I have other writing commitments today), I took a story, recorded it on Zoom and have uploaded that to YouTube. Hope you enjoy my Work To Rule read by yours truly.


Flash Fiction Sunday is with me again so am looking forward to cracking on with that shortly.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Zoom next week.

And now it’s time for part 3 of the serialisation of my Seeing The Other Side on CafeLit. Hope you like the latest selection of tales.

Getting out and about on the train, as I have done today, gives great opportunities for discreet people watching. I have occasionally heard intriguing snippets of conversation I have put my own spin on to create stories. The original speakers would genuinely never know.

This is true for any kind of prompt – it is what you do with it which transforms it into something with exciting story possibilities. The prompt is only ever to get you started, which can often be the difficult bit.

Goodreads Author Blog – Authors and Story Links

By the time I post this, I will have returned from a Jane Austen exhibition at The Dorset Museum in Dorchester. This was called Jane Austen – Down To The Sea and looked at her links with the coast.

Confession time – I was only aware of the one link, that being The Cobb at Lyme Regis. It is a major scene in Austen’s Persuasion. I’ve not read The French Lieutenant’s Woman which I believe also uses The Cobb as a setting.

I do always think of Persuasion whenever I visit Lyme Regis though.

The exhibition was an eye opener, fun, and I am so glad I went. So if a favourite author of yours has an exhibition on, why not check it out? They can be another way of helping you enjoy even more from the books you love. That has to be a good thing!

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Author Interview: Introducing Esther Chilton and The Secret Dragon

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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 Esther Chilton for supplying book and author pictures for my interview with her on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Great interview too.
Hope you have had a good week. Mine has involved going to see a local theatre production (a hugely funny one too), starting to get ready for Swanwick (will be doing some volunteer sessions so wanted to make sure those were ready), and plenty on the writing front. Lady has had a nice week so far too, getting to see some of her friends. Looking forward to a trip out at the weekend too.

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It’s a pleasure to welcome fellow Swanwicker and flash fiction writer, Esther Chilton, to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her new children’s book, The Secret Dragon.

While I am well outside the age range (the books is aimed at the 5-7 bracket!), the blurb and extract intrigues me. I almost wish I was back in that age range again! Do check out the post to read these.

Esther also shares useful writing and marketing tips, the background to how The Secret Dragon came about, discusses her writing journey to date including her work with The Writers’ Bureau, and much else besides.

Many thanks, Esther, for a fascinating interview.

Author Interview: Introducing Esther Chilton and The Secret Dragon

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Hope today has been okay.

Don’t forget I’ll be sharing a fabulous interview with fellow Swanwicker and flash fiction writer, Esther Chilton, about her new children’s book, The Secret Dragon, for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Off to watch The Chameleon Theatre Company perform Bill Bryson’s Notes From A Small Island later. Am sure there will be plenty of laughs, given all I have heard about the book. Hope to review for CFT in about a week or so.

Writing wise, I’m busy with my usual stories and blogs. Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week too.

Hope to get plenty of writing done while on the train on Saturday as I go to visit the Jane Austen exhibition in the Dorset Museum in Dorchester.

Hope you have had a nice day. Lady got to show off in front of her Hungarian Vizler pal today so was most happy about that. Her chum looks on indulgently, almost like a proud granny.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to welcoming Esther Chilton to Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday to discuss her new book, The Secret Dragon. Also looking forward to catching up with Esther in person at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick which is not far away now.

Am off to the theatre tomorrow night to watch The Chameleon Theatre Company perform Bill Bryson’s Notes From a Small lsland. Should be fun. Will also enjoy catching up again with my lovely CFT editor, Janet Williams.

Writing Tip: When you go out and about over the summer months, try to jot down a few notes of impressions, sights, sounds etc which you may well be able to use in a story later on.

I’m looking forward to seeing a Jane Austen exhibition on Saturday so (a) plan to follow my own advice here and (b) get an article out of it for CFT. But trips out give you a chance to see new things and even familiar ones in your own area in a new way so you may be able to use aspects of that for your writing.

Also bear in mind you can check out the websites of various places. Some have virtual tours which might inspire you too.

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Two bits of news here tonight. Firstly, a huge thanks to Rosemary Johnson for a lovely shout out over on her website. This links in with her book launch on 1st August for Past and Present, which was recently published by Bridge House Publishing. I plan to reshare the Eventbrite link for this during the next few days so do look out for that.

Secondly, it is lovely to end the working week with another story on Friday Flash Fiction. I hope you enjoy my latest here, Postcards Home. Is Barry right to worry about Shirley’s intentions here?

I got into the habit of reading my work out loud to hear how dialogue works when I was preparing for my first Open Prose Mic night, many years ago.

It was a joy to find Zoom will convert a recording you make with yourself into an mp4 file (can also get mp3 – audio) so I could play back how I came across.

I found from that I have a tendency to speak a little too fast (I blame the old adrenaline for that!) but it means I know I have to watch for this so I can slow myself down.

I hope to put my name down for the Open Prose Mic at The Writers Summer School, Swanwick again and, if picked, am hoping to get to read some material from my Seeing The Other Side. If that works out, it will be a joy to do it. Always lovely to share new material. It’s fun too.

Am also looking forward to Rosemary Johnson’s book launch via Eventbrite on 1st August for her recently published collection, Past and Present. Always good to hear when people I know have new books out. It’s even nicer when they’re with the same publishing house as me.

Flash Tip: When thinking about your character, ask yourself why would a reader want to find out what they get up to? What is it about them which appeals to a potential audience?

There has to be something a reader will latch on to with your creation. Mind you, they don’t have to like them. I can think of a few of my characters I would never share a cup of tea with, if that were possible!

Fairytales with Bite – Sharing News

Aside from what might be considered the equivalent of our media (social or otherwise), how do your magical characters get to share news?

Is telepathy a reality in your setting? Are there any controls over its usage? Can only certain species use it? What would happen if a banned species gets to develop/use telepathy themselves? What is there in place to prevent sensitive information being shared this way?

If telepathy isn’t a thing, what other magical means of sharing news would your world use instead? Would your world consider copying what we have here in terms of technology (because they could see that as a form of magic)?

Also, are the “old school” ways of sharing news still going? Think of things like the town crier, messengers sent out from villages to gather information, and those who come to villages as part of their duties. Could the sharing of news be used as a kind of barter system between different species and/or settlements in your world? If this was a settled pattern, what or whom could disrupt that and why would they do so? Is it for the best they do or are there evil plans afoot?

Also, whatever the way news is shared, is the news itself generally considered reliable? Can it be verified and who would do that?

This World and Others – Media

Wherever there is news, there would be some sort of media to spread it. Who controls that media? Is magic used in running it and, if so, who controls that and ensures it is used properly? Is the media available to all? What do your characters make of it?

Are your characters involved in producing it/presenting it? How critical or otherwise is the media in your setting of the powers that be?

Has your setting copied what media types we have here or is there something they have which we could never reproduce here? What matters here, I think, is your readers can make sense of this kind of “technology” so they can see how it would work without necessarily going into all of the details of how. Just give readers enough to see how it could be if your world existed and they had this/that capacity…

As for media itself, any form of power, including this one, can be used for great good or evil, of course. It will be how you exploit that thought which will make for gripping stories. Can your characters make use of the media they’ve got to help their cause or must they do everything they can to ensure the media doesn’t get wind of their story until the proper time?

Can your villains exploit the media for their own purposes and cause further problems for your leads?

That could be fun to find out!

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Books Which Live On

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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. One image of me holding Creativity Matters and my flash collections was taken by Adrian Symes, as was the photo of me signing copies of Tripping The Flash Fantastic. I was being watched over by a distinctly unimpressed Lady! Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you had a good weekend. Fabulous one here – lovely family party. Good time had by all, including the dogs. Lady was so tired on Saturday night! Pleased to say the second part of the serialisation of Seeing The Other Side is now on CafeLit – link below. Looking forward also to helping a friend with her online book launch on 1st August – details below.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady had a lovely time in the park. Have been very busy, so much so my feet feel like they need a retread! Good to be at the desk writing.

Don’t forget it won’t be long before my next author newsletter will be out. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I share news, tips, discuss a topic, and share story links, including to the partial serialisation of my Seeing The Other Side plus more on my newsletter. Would be good to have you aboard. A huge thanks to all who support me here. It is much appreciated.

Am looking forward to watching The Chameleon Theatre Company perform the stage version of Bill Bryson’s Notes From A Small Island later this week. Should be great fun. I plan to review it for Chandler’s Ford Today at a later date.

Plus I am off to visit a Jane Austen exhibition at the weekend. Plenty going on. Loving it all.

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Hope your week has got off to a good start. Lady got to play with Coco, the lovely Labradoodle, today and saw Tao, who looks as if he could be Lady’s big brother (but isn’t!).

Event News:  Am delighted to say I’ll be quizzing dear friend and former ACW colleague, Rosemary Johnson, about her new book, Past and Present, which has recently been published by Bridge House Publishing. She will be holding an online book launch via Eventbrite, hosted by Bridge House Publishing, on Friday 1st August from 7.15 pm (UK time). The event will last for an hour.

Do check out the link to find out more – the event is free. Rosemary will also be sharing extracts from her book so if you love stories, especially those of a historical ilk, do come and join us on 1st August. And you can put questions to the author herself too. Hope to see you there.

Lovely family party yesterday. Weather okay in the end (and thankfully cooler thanks to the rain in the morning). Lady enjoyed playing the role of doggy host to Lily and Teddy. Lady was absolutely shattered at the end – caught her out for the count in our passageway. She also slept really well last night but I suspect those of us with two legs, as well as those with the four, all did!

In writing news, I will have news of an event I am helping with for a friend’s book launch in the next day or so. Launch itself will be on 1st August. See above.

Serialisation News:  And I am pleased to share the second part of the serialisation of my Seeing The Other Side (due out on May 2026). Hope you enjoy the selection in the link.

Hope you’ve had a good day. Other half had his birthday yesterday. Family do today. Great fun. Wonderful seeing everyone. Knackering? You bet but isn’t that the sign of a good party?

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to welcoming fellow Swanwicker and flash fiction writer, Esther Chilton, to Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday to discuss her new book, The Secret Dragon. Looking forward to sharing that. The book is aimed at 5-7 year olds and I can tell you now the blurb and extract she shares with me for the post makes me almost wish I was that age range again! More nearer the time.

Sometimes things occur which you hadn’t thought about but it has a special resonance. Yesterday, 18th July, I shared my Authors Electric post about Jane Austen. Her birthday is commemorated later this year (December) but 18th July is the anniversary of her death in Winchester. I hadn’t picked up on that. Always good to re-read her works though. You don’t need a special event for that.

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Hope the day has been a good one. Have a couple of competitions (flash ones) in mind to start drafting for at the weekend (or at least I hope to get to do that. Do have plenty of time for the deadlines which helps).

Also looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week. Will be looking at the topic of summer for that. The seasons can throw up plenty of ideas for stories.

Also do consider using the game of Word Association to help trigger prompts, which in turn can trigger story ideas.

It’s Monday. It has been an especially hectic one, at least for me. All I know is it is time for a story. Hope you like my latest on You Tube – Prompts.

Which three prompts could Shirley pick out to cause any concern to Barry, someone who has never understood her wish to write? Find out here.

 

Hope all well with you. Will be getting on with flash fiction Sunday shortly after a lively and fabulous weekend.

The second part of the serialisation of my Seeing The Other Side is now out on CafeLit. See the link (though it is over on my author page here too).

One of the nice things about having a book accepted is getting to read your stories again after a gap apart from them. I hope to take part in the Open Prose Mic night at Swanwick again this year so hope to share some of my new material from this book there too. 
Did manage to get my competition story off during the week, the one I mentioned last weekend. Have another competition to have a crack at – a lovely 750 words one. Plus there is another one which links with a book festival where I can go up to 1000 words.

I sometimes have a look at my past Flash NANO stories and polish those up for competitions. They’ve had long enough to rest up before I use them. I can usually spot things I can strengthen them so I do. When I draft those tales for the event in November each year, I do have this idea in mind. I’ve found it useful.

Goodreads Author Blog – Books Which Live On

Books which live on is an apt topic for me at the moment as I’ve just written about Jane Austen for another blog I contribute to monthly and it was a lovely, enjoyable thing to do. Her books will live on and have lived on long after her because she creates such memorable characters and situations. That, I think, is the secret to any good story.

Yes, sure, styles of storytelling do change over the years. We don’t need descriptions in the way Dickens wrote them because we have our own references to helps us picture things. His readers would not have had those things – being in the film, radio and TV age does make a difference, as does universal education. But we can still understand his characters and what motivates them. I do feel it is the characters which are the important connection in any story.

Any book which does that should live on. I think the classic books can give us insights as to how life was lived back then so they can be educational in that respect. I don’t want stories dismissed just because they’re old or not read for that reason. (Same applies to the authors!).


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Double Blog Day: Breaking Down Why A Story Works/Jane Austen

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Hope the week has gone well for you. Have had some rain but it is still muggy here. Not a bad week writing wise though I’d have liked to have got more done than I have. Mind you, everyone gets weeks like that. Time to soldier on then but am so looking forward to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick which isn’t far away now.

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18th July 2025 – Double Blog Day – CFT

Second blog out of two up today and it is my weekly spot on Chandler’s Ford Today. For this week’s post I look at Breaking Down Why A Story Works. I hope you find it useful.

I share thoughts and tips as to why breaking down why a story works is a good idea. Writers can learn so much from doing this. I discuss taking in the basics, compelling characters, inspiration encouraging your imagination and much more.

Breaking Down Why A Story Works

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18th July 2025 – Double Blog Day – AE

First blog out of two up today and it is my turn on the Authors Electric one again. I discuss Jane Austen, this time given it is the 250th anniversary of her birth (strictly speaking it is in December).

I celebrate her writing and its impact on me for this post. Hope you enjoy it.

I will be off soon to see an exhibition about her in Dorchester and hope to write about that in due course too.

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Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal again today and a lovely spaniel, who we see from time to time, called Daisy. Lovely time had in the park by all three dogs.

Will have two blogs to share with you tomorrow – my Chandler’s Ford Today one and also one on the monthly Authors Electric (monthly in terms of my contributions to it). See above for both.

Also looking forward to seeing the next production from The Chameleon Theatre Company next week. They re staging the play based on Bill Bryson’s book, Notes From A Small Island. Am sure it will be lots of fun and I hope to write a review in due course for Chandler’s Ford Today.

Plus I have my Jane Austen jolly coming up too. Lots going on and it won’t be long before I’m back at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick once again.

Next week I’ll be interviewing fellow Swanwicker and flash fiction writer, Esther Chilton, for Chandler’s Ford Today too.

Hope today has been okay for you. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler pal today. All well there.

Don’t forget I’ll be sharing Breaking Down Why a Story Works for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. It will be double blog day then too as I will also have my Authors Electric post up for the month. I’ll be discussing Jane Austen for them on Friday given it is the 250th anniversary of her birth later this year. I’m also off for an interesting trip out in connection with Miss Austen later this month. Hope to write about that for CFT at a later date. See above for the blogs.

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Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble, Light Work. Hope you enjoy it.

What do you want to do when you so want to retire but your boss isn’t happy about it and dragons are involved? Find out here. 

Hope today has gone well. Not bad here.

As well as being fun to write, flash can be a great aid to your marketing. It gives you a chance to share some mini stories, which flags up your style and may well tempt people in to read your longer works. It’s also easier to share on social media precisely because flash cannot be too long. It’s easy to share on author newsletters too and give something of value to those who follow yours.

Also if you usually write longer works, could you write a flash piece concerning your main character(s) which could be value to share on your website/author newsletters.

Do think of flash as a marketing tool because it can be.

Today has been one of those days when I’ve been busy but do not seem to have achieved so much. We’ve all been there right? But our characters could experience this too. So why not write a flash tale showing this and how your character deals with it? Could make it funny or tragic. Hope you can make use of that prompt.

I find the best prompts are those which can be taken in more than one way. It’s why proverbs are useful as themes for flash and other stories. They’re timeless and, due to that, there is always something you can do with these.


Fairytales with Bite – Down Time

Ironically though I work with words all the time (as a writer, an editor, or occasionally both at the same time albeit on different things), when I relax, I do so with word games. I have a version of Scrabble on my phone and another anagram type game where I have to make as many words as possible out of the letters given. All good fun and surprisingly relaxing.

But what would your characters do when they had some down time? Is play a thing in their setting? Would they have games as we know them? If not, what would they have instead? Are only certain types allowed to play (and what happens to anyone breaking that rule)?

Games of course take many forms and can be used to help someone develop their craft. Chess, for example, encourages lateral and long term thinking, which would be useful in so many occupations.

What would your characters play to help them develop their skills? Would they be compelled to play these things? Are there tournaments (and yes I am thinking of the jousting ones from medieval times which would have used to show off prowess in riding, tilting etc)? Would your characters look forward to these things or dread them?

Plenty of story ideas there, I hope.

This World and Others – Controlling Leisure Time

Most of us have leisure time which we fit in around out other commitments. But it is generally up to us what we do with it. Is that the case for the characters in your setting? Or does the government, or other authority, dictate what your characters should do/are permitted to do and is that based on species type or other considerations?

Are your characters expected to take leisure time or is that reserved only for the privileged few? Does that cause resentment or, if leisure time is supposed to be spent in a certain way, do those without that pity those who do have it?

If the control of time is used as a way to keep characters oppressed, what do those characters do about it? It is possible the powers that be would give time to be spent in ways folk would enjoy which might lessen the risk of rebellion. Think of the Romans claim that to pacify the people you just needed to give them bread and circuses. Who, in your setting, could exploit that thought so leisure time is controlled in such a way it ensures folk don’t have the time to cause trouble or have no wish to ruin what they’ve got?

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Serialisation News: Seeing The Other Side by Allison Symes – CafeLit

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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 had a good weekend. Busy here – from wood treating fence panels to writing to editing. Glad it has become cooler now. Lady is not sorry about that either. Thrilled to say the partial serialisation of Seeing The Other Side has started on CafeLit – details below.

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Nice day today. Lovely swim. Hope today has been a good one for you. Loved an online Zoom meeting I attended last night. Perfect end to a hectic Monday and interesting topic too.

Writing wise, have just completed the first stage of an edit. Looking forward to assisting with a friend’s online book launch before too long as well. Delighted the first part of the serialisation of Seeing The Other Side is now up on CafeLit. Will share another link to the next part this coming Sunday.

And it won’t be too long before the next author newsletter is due. To sign up for news, tips, story links and more do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

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Hope today has been okay, given it is Monday after all. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal this morning so all is well there. Also cooler today which is most welcome.

Writing wise, I’ll be catching up with bits and pieces this evening as Monday is one of those days when I don’t have so much writing time. But the nice thing about this is I still get useful stuff done which frees up my time for longer writing stints later in the week.

The nice thing about flash is of course I can get a short tale written in the time I do have even when said time is limited. My bits and pieces also include things like writing admin, such as adding things to my ALCS listing (Authors Licensing and Collecting Society) as well as tidying up/updating my website here and there. ALCS link here – do check them out.

Serialisation News – Seeing The Other Side – CafeLit

Am thrilled to say the first part of the serialisation of my third flash fiction book, Seeing The Other Side, starts today on CafeLit. See link. Hope you enjoy this opening taster! More to come too. Will share as and when I have the links. This is the first time I’ve had any work of mine serialised. So pleased about that.

You get good value here too – you will find four of my new flash pieces here.

And while you are on CafeLit do check out the wide range of stories and styles they have here. It is a great site for short story and flash fiction writers.

Hope today has been good for you. Lady out nice and early as another hot one today. Managed to get two fence panels wood treated – it’s all glamour here I’ll have you know!

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Breaking Down Why A Story Works for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Plus after that I’ll be interviewing fellow Swanwicker and flash fiction writer, the lovely Esther Chilton, who will be sharing news of her children’s book, The Secret Dragon. More details on that nearer the time. (Plus it won’t be long after that before I meet Esther again in person at Swanwick; am so looking forward to being there again).

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I sometimes come up with alliterative titles to make me think of ideas for flash stories. Good fun to do. Can be useful for acrostic stories too.

I deliberately mix up how I come up with titles. I use phrases and proverbs. Sometimes I use a piece of some of the dialogue I’ve used in the story itself. I prefer two to five words for my titles (easier to remember) though I have used longer ones, including for my book titles.

What matters though is any title, however you come up with it, has a hook to intrigue a reader.

It’s Monday. Okay it’s not as hot as last week but it is still time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – You Know It Is Time.

You know you must change your career. You know your boss won’t be happy. You dare not run from her. It would be better to face the dragons than that…

It’s flash fiction Sunday again for me. Lovely way to spend the afternoon. (Will also be interviewing fellow flash fiction writer and Swanwicker, Esther Chilton, for Chandler’s Ford Today soon though ironically it won’t be flash which will be the focus here!).

I do love the weekly challenge of coming up with my 100 worder for Friday Flash Fiction and another flash piece for my YouTube channel. I also use this afternoon to sort out competition entries and thinks like that. It’s a nice way to end the week – by submitting pieces here and there. I think it gets the following week off to a cracking start.

It’s another way I put specific time aside for specific writing work I want to do – I find it pays.

Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow for me. Plus I hope to finally get another competition entry out. Story is all good to go but I want to do my final checks on it. This week has been hectic in a good way so am especially looking forward to a quieter one tomorrow when I can get more done.

Things like those final checks for example shouldn’t be rushed. (You will miss something and then be cross with yourself for it – guess how I know!). I will be in good time for the competition deadline – it’s the end of August – but once this story is off, I then focus on another story to work on for somewhere else. I like to have something “on the go”.

Goodreads Author Blog – Favourite Parts of a Story

Regardless of story genre, length, whether it is in a magazine or in a book, what would you say were your favourite parts to a story?

I love dialogue because when this is done well, it is like eavesdropping an interesting conversation. I know – that probably does say a great deal about me, doesn’t it? But good dialogue will move the story on, have a good pace to it, and leave you wanting to “hear”/read more.

Description works for me when it conveys information I need to know in a story which can’t be shared any other way. So yes I will need to know something about setting, for example, but I won’t necessarily need to know every last detail. I just need to know what is important.

So I would need to know there was a moor, say, but I don’t need to know exactly what the moor is made up of because I will have my own ideas about that. Earlier generations would have needed everything spelled out when people didn’t travel so much so wouldn’t necessarily know this. Naturally writing flash fiction and short stories does tend to encourage what I call tight writing.

Narrative where the story is being moved on thanks to the narrator is another favourite of mine because you usually get a good pace here. You are shown what you need to see. Everything counts so you know you need to read this. I’ve forgotten who it was who said “try not to write the bits people skip” but they had a point!

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Quizzing Your Characters

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. One photo of me holding Creativity Matters and my flash fiction collections (to date anyway!) was taken by Adrian Symes. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week so far. Lady has seen some of her friends and I’m making good progress with writing and editing. Will have news of something else soon I’m helping with. Looking forward to sharing about that. Plus there will be another great author interview on Chandler’s Ford Today soon.

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Pleased to be back on Chandler’s Ford Today with my latest post, Quizzing Your Characters. I’ve long believed if you know your characters well enough, ideas for stories to put them in will occur.

For this post, I look at outlining your characters and using templates and/or traits into coming up with new creations time and time again (which is something I need as I write a lot of flash fiction and short stories).

Hope you find the post useful and do see the templates I share here as guides because there is nothing to stop you coming up with your own.

Indeed, I often mix up the types I use because I won’t necessarily need to know the same thing each and every time about characters I am creating. In certain settings, for example, I will need to ask specific questions relating to that setting and how it effects my character, for example.

Quizzing Your Characters

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Lady and her Hungarian Vizler pal had a nice time in the park this morning before it became too hot. I loved my swim today, as you can imagine. Did not want to get out of the pool.

Don’t forget Quizzing Your Characters will be up on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above.

Less than a month to go now until The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. (Okay only just but I am so looking forward to this).

How do I get ideas for my CFT and Writers’ Narrative articles? Well, our lovely editor at Writers’ Narrative does set a theme, which is always useful, but for CFT, I know I’m writing to fellow writers in my area so I try to focus on aspects of our craft which I hope they will find interesting.

Whatever I write, and this goes for fiction too, I am always asking myself what is in this for the reader. It is a good approach to take because it makes you focus on their needs and what you come up with, as a result, should be more useful to them.

Lady had a lovely time in the park today with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals. Will need to watch the weather in the next couple of days as it is due to get very hot again but I’ve found the mornings have been okay.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Quizzing Your Characters on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. It may seem like an odd thing to do but I’ve found it has paid dividends in being able to continually create characters. Best thing of all – you work out which questions suit your style of writing best. More in the post later this week.

Flash Tip: My favourite form of flash fiction has to be the drabble, the 100 worder. A short sharp story and punchlines/twist endings work well for this word count.

I find it helps to have an idea of the ending first for these. Then I work out what leads to it. It also means I know my punchline or twist ending will have a solid foundation behind it because I know what will lead up to it. It will seem natural, as if there could be no other ending, which is what you want here.

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It’s Friday again and another hot one where I am. Definitely time for an end of the working week story then. My latest on Friday Flash Fiction is called Dates. Hope you enjoy it. Just what will Dawn do about her date dilemma? Find out here. 
With the exception of Friday Flash Fiction where I know I will be writing to 100 words, I focus on getting the story down.

I then edit it after a break away from it, and then and only then do I worry about the word count. Sometimes the solution will be an obvious one. If my finished story comes in at 105 words I will edit it again to get to 100. If say, it comes in at 145 words, I will find a 150 words competition for it instead.

What matters is I am happy with the story in terms of its character portrayal and I’ve ensured I’ve delivered on the premise of the story. So if I am I will leave a story at a higher word count and find alternative homes for it rather than try to force it to fit the original home I had in mind for it.

A lovely review for my Tripping The Flash Fantastic included the line “A lovely little collection of quirky and often surprising stories and poems. Fairy godmothers who aren’t what they first appear.”.

Many thanks to my reviewer for that, but seeing it again reminded me characters who aren’t what they seem are (a) a common trait of fairytales and (b) need to be worked out carefully because the reader should have the hint there is more to this character than meets the the eye.

The surprise mustn’t come out of nowhere. Readers should be able to look back at the story and see “aah, I should’ve spotted that.” I love this when authors do it to me (especially in crime novels). It’s great fun to do as a writer too.

Book Trailer for Tripping The Flash Fantastic – thought it would be nice to share it again.

Fairytales with Bite – Problem Solving

How do your characters solve their problems? Do they instantly turn to magic (or other form of powers we don’t have here) to help them out or do they save that? Does using this kind of power drain them so much it isn’t worth doing unless you absolutely must use it?

If they’re not using magical or other artificial aids, what can they use without causing them further problems? Would they use logic, ask others for help etc as we would do? Are your creations able to ask others from outside their own species for assistance or is this frowned on? What would be the consequences if they did ask for that help when they shouldn’t? Could it lead to positive changes in your setting?

Are some of the problems your characters and/or setting face due to not being willing to interact with others when they could do so usefully? What gets in the way here?past history? Prejudice? Both? How can that be broken?

Problems can be useful for writers – you can get some cracking stories out of them!

This World and Others – Developments

Which developments have been welcomed in your magical/sci-fi setting and which weren’t? What problems did the latter cause and how were they stopped? Has your world copied inventions/developments from other worlds, including ours? How did these go down at home? Not everyone welcomes imports!

In terms of magical energy or other forms of energy your world has, how were these discovered? How have they developed? What new things have been added to them and why was this done?

Thinking about the different species in your setting, how did they develop their societies? Do all of them have the same opportunities for employment, education etc? If species were made to develop in different ways, who imposed that and why? Doesn’t necessarily have to be for evil reasons.

One good reason to keep them apart would be if they could never get along and separating them so they developed in their own way was the only way to stop the fighting. (That does sound a depressingly familiar tale, does it not?).

Story ideas for sure here! Happy writing.


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Mixing Writing Exercises Up and Series or Stand Alone Books

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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. One photo taken by my lovely editor from Chandler’s Ford Today, Janet Williams, from the most recent Hiltingbury Book Fair. One image of me holding a copy of Creativity Matters was taken by Adrian Symes. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Much cooler than the last one. Much nicer for Lady and me. Writing and editing going well. Hope to share links to the first part of the serialisation of Seeing The Other Side soon. Exciting times!

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Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today. Lovely time had by both dogs. Will need to watch the weather later in the week given the temperatures are going up again. Lady didn’t miss out when I had to skip walks. She was perfectly content staying in the shade at home and I can see us having to do that again later this week.

Looking forward to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick in just over a month’s time. It is the highlight of my writing year. Am so looking forward to catching up with fellow writers again. Will be leading a couple of volunteer sessions (Lift Up Your Pens and Lift Up Your Hearts, always lovely to do).

Writing Tip: To get the most out of writing exercises, mix up the type you do. For example, I love the opening line kind so, yes, I often do them but I also have a crack at the closing line ones. I like to try the one line stories, as well as flash fiction ones which specify a different word count (100, 250, 500, and 750 worders are popular).

As well as giving you different experiences in producing stories to different kinds of exercise, you may well find a type which you really take to – I’ve taken to the 100 worder for example. I find it’s also fun to mix things up and see it as a great way of getting more stories down than if I just stuck to one or two kinds of exercise.

Also you don’t know if you can do these exercises unless you do give them a go.

Hope you’ve had a good start to the week. Tiring one here. Lady had a lovely time in the park though she didn’t see any pals today. Hope to make up for that later in the week.

Lovely weekend writing wise. Got plenty done, which always pleases me, especially since Monday is the one day of the week when I know I won’t get too much done.

Character Tip: Think about the characters you love and loathe in books you read. What is it about them which makes you feel this way? Is is their attitudes, their behaviour, a combination, or something else? Then look at how the author has shown you these things (and it will be in more than one way too).

Can you apply any of what you have picked up here to how you present your own creations? Writers always learn from other writers and the most fun way of doing this is by reading a lot in and out of your genre. So if you did need an excuse to read more, by all means use this one!

Had some thunder and rain today. Has cooled the air down more which is great. Lady isn’t fazed by thunder. But she isn’t keen on it either so takes the approach it is best to stay out of the way and curl up somewhere cosy. You can’t argue with that, can you?

Writing wise, will be starting flash fiction Sunday shortly before resuming works on blogs etc (I always have at least one on the go. I have a low boredom threshold!).

Top Tip: Want to make the most of your reading? As well as enjoying the stories you read, have a look at them again when you’ve finished. Work out what it was which appealed to you the most and why. You can learn from that for your own writing.

Every writer is inspired by their own love of reading. You pick up so much unconsciously almost as to what makes a character grip you etc. As you read, you are just aware this character is gripping you.

So when you go looking for specifically what made you feel this way about a character, you will find it. Often I find it is a turn of phrase which brings a character to life for me. It “rings true”. It is the “rings true” moment we all strive to write into our own works.


Hope you have had a good day. Got some rain today – made the air lovely and cool.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Quizzing Your Characters for Chandler’s Ford Today next week and sharing different ways in which this can be done as well as sharing three standard questions which would be a fabulous outline for any story.

Looking forward to a lovely Swanwick Zoom later tonight and flash fiction Sunday for me tomorrow. Have a story I want to get off to a competition too.

Marketing Tip: I deliberately don’t try to do every single marketing thing a writer could do. I think you do have to pick what you can do consistently and, importantly, enjoy doing because that will help you to be consistent at all.

Consistency resonates with readers, I think, if only because it shows you take what you do seriously. You are here for the longer term. Plus it makes sense to enjoy this side of life (or as much as possible anyway) because it is part of the writing life. Every writer, published, self published or what have you, has to do their own marketing so it makes sense to like what you do here.

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I’ve had one of those days where I’ve run late on most things all day and that includes getting my Facebook posts up. (Gone past 8 pm today). You do just get days like that but how about this for an idea?

Story Idea:  Create one of these days for a character and see how they handle it. You could get several tales out of that thought because you could have different characters facing different difficulties in the space of a day. You could mix the mood of the stories up here too.

Have fun (and yes I will almost certainly explore this thought myself at a later date).

It’s Monday. Has been more hectic than usual for me. Hope yours has been better! Time to wind down with a story then. My latest on YouTube is Ring Any Bells.

The new vicar is holding auditions for bell ringers but will the next door neighbour get away with their way of auditioning or not? Find out here.


Do dates have meaning for your characters in your stories? There are the obvious dates to use such as birthdays and personal anniversaries but bear in mind you could use historical dates (whether or not your stories are set on Earth).

Dates are a great way to use numbers in your flash fiction because your story can hinge about the meaning of this date. Your character will have a heightened emotional response to it, else why is it special or important in some way to them? Naturally you can get another character to spoil or enhance things here. Good story outline there, I think.

And if you can’t think of a number to use as a date, do use the random number generator. You won’t be stuck for thoughts here using that!

Flash comes in many forms. As well as the different word counts you can use (up to 1000), you can mix up the styles a bit too. For example, I’ve written acrostic flash fiction, poetic flash fiction, all dialogue flash fiction and more. I’ve written historical flash, crime flash, ghost flash, fairytale flash and more. I’ve turned writing exercises in to published flash fiction too.

I think many write flash without always realising it. If you ever take part in a writing exercise set by someone else, you will only get to write a hundred words or so in the time you’ve been given.

If you go in for Open Prose Mic Nights, you usually only have five minutes in which to share something. That’s perfect flash territory because your material cannot go on for too long.

It’s not a bad thing to prepare material to last for a short time whether or not you take part in these things. Why? Because it would be something useful to share on your social media, website etc. That gives you something of value to share with potential readers and that is always a good thing.

Goodreads Author Blog – Series Books -v- Stand Alones

Do your prefer series books or stand alones? I love both, naturally and can see the merits in both.

Sometimes a story can only be told in one book – The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey is a great example of that. Nothing can be added.

But I do love series books, such as Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, where the major characters develop over time. Indeed, you can follow a whole life story for them within the overall plots of the individual books.

Sam Vimes is the best example here as you see him go from being a drunk copper to becoming a heroic copper who marries the fabulous Lady Sybil Ramkin (what she doesn’t know about dragons isn’t worth knowing) and then on to being a Duke, still being heroic and never losing sight of himself. He’s not one for whom fame would get to his head. Love all of that. And you get to see that slowly revealed over many novels.

This kind of thing I think is the best feature of series books and is why crime series tend to do so well. You follow the results of the individual case plus you catch up on what the lead characters have done/are doing. Plenty to like there.

In my field, short fiction, you obviously get to have lots of stand alone stories but you can have series ones too. I write linked flash fiction sometimes where a character will turn up in more than one tale yet each story is its own complete tale. Fun to do and a good challenge.

Am glad to say I will have a new book out next year (more details nearer the time) and I have had fun with linked flash in that. Looking forward to saying more about this later. But you can have series and stand alones in short stories and flash fiction too.

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Stories in Troubled Times

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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 the week has been a good one so far. From insane temperatures over last weekend and continuing on Monday and Tuesday, we now have milder, cooler, far pleasanter temperatures and Lady and I are both relieved about that. It’s also meant she has seen some more of her chums, of course, especially from Wednesday. Writing continuing to go well. Easier to work in cooler conditions too!

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Pleased to be back on Chandler’s Ford Today with my latest post, Stories in Troubled Times. I love stories of all kinds and lengths regardless of whatever is going on in the bad old world but when times are troubled, as I think they are now, I find fiction to be a wonderful comfort. Generally you know things will work out okay in some way in fiction! That was one thing which always appealed to me about the classic fairytales, and still does.

I look at what I think the role of stories is and how stories inspire other stories, including in different formats. A well known film only came about because a certain director was inspired by what he’d seen from another director and asked the classic “what if” question.

Do check the post out and I hope you enjoy it. 

Stories in Troubled Times

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Today has been another lovely cooler day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal and both had a great time. Mind you, our park grass does resemble straw right now. Had a great time at another ACW Zoom group I “go to” monthly. Nice way to catch up with folk.

Will be sharing Stories in Times of Trouble on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above. Fiction is always a wonderful thing but I find especial comfort from it when times are on the grim side. Fiction can provide an outlet, for one thing. I don’t have to encounter dystopian unless I want to for another! More on this in the post tomorrow.

Comments are always welcome on the CFT posts by the way. They just need to be family friendly.

 

Much happier dog and dog Mum today. Lady had a lovely time in the park with her Hungarian Vizler pal and a good run around with Coco the lovely Labradoodle. The air was much fresher, the temperature delightfully cool and it was fabulous to see the dogs having a healthy, happy time of it.

On the other side of life, I am off to the dentists this afternoon…. Wish me luck. Thankfully, it went okay!

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to sharing Stories in Times of Trouble for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Later this month, I’ll be sharing a fabulous author interview here too. More on that nearer the time.

Writing Tip: Never worry about a first draft having to be perfect. It isn’t the purpose of the first draft to be perfect. Its purpose is just to get your ideas down. Sorting out which work best and which need strengthening can happen later.

I know I’ve got to be able to see the whole thing before I can decide what works and what doesn’t. So I find it useful to take the pressure off myself here and just write, get those ideas down and, separately later on, get on with the editing.


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It’s Friday and time for a story again. Am pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble, Super Power. See what my two fairies, on secondment to Earth, choose as their additional gifts to help them cope with humans. Has Bella chosen wisely?

Should be able to share the first link to the partial serialisation of Seeing The Other Side on CafeLit soon. Will keep you posted. Am excited about this as it is the first time I’ve had anything serialised. Naturally am also looking forward to the whole book coming out too.

The challenge of flash remains as having a complete story with a proper beginning, middle, and end, in a few words, often fewer than most would expect for any story. But it does encourage and develop tight writing and I love that. It’s a good challenge to rise to and I can and do have great fun placing my characters in all sorts of situations and genres. I just need to stick to the word count limit.

Hope your day has gone well. Nice to have cooler weather. Much nicer for the dog and I.

Flash Tip: This is one I use all of the time. I draft my flash story first, tidy it up, and then and only then worry about the word count. The story has to be right and it has meant sometimes a story I thought would be 100 words works better at 150.

So I just write another 100 word tale for any competition I’ve got in mind. I don’t try to make the 150 words one “fit”. It never does. Cutting too harshly as well as padding doesn’t work well for your stories.

Fairytales with Bite – Hotting Up and Characters

This one I thought was an apt topic as the weather in the UK over the last few days as I write this (July 2025) has”hotted up” considerably. I’ve had to cancel a few walks out with the dog given the pavements were too hot. But how can we use the topic of hotting up for our characters and our stories?

For the avoidance of doubt, I definitely don’t mean erotica here. I do mean getting your characters to feel the pressures of expectation and then having to face even more pressures and then more pressures after that etc. And then throwing magic into the mix as well to make things even more complicated.

Giving characters dilemmas and then further dilemmas they must solve and ideally a limited time span in which to do it is a timeless way of heating things up and crosses all genres.

As for magical characters, what pressures could be put on them to make them use powers they don’t really want to use? What would be the outcome? Which powers would they reveal to have had which they’ve not used before, which they have not had the need to use before? How does this change things for them because it will do so? They will have to come to terms with what they’ve done afterwards, for one thing.

Pressure is the key to hotting things up for your characters but magical powers, being allowed to use certain skills and not allowed to use others, can heat things up still further. You could also explore further why certain skills are banned and why. Your character already knowing this is going to feel the “heat” of the pressure to try to stick to the rules here when they know deep down they cannot do so.

This World and Others – Magical Climates

As well as thinking about your magical world’s “physical” climate (is it like we have here for example?), give some thought to other types of climate. What would your setting’s political, religious, societal climates be like? How would the use of magic impact on all of these?

Are magical skills encouraged in all sections of society or are they limited to a few? Who gets to decide who can use what magical powers? Do the non-magical sections of society look down upon or up to those with these powers? Is the “magical climate” tightly controlled by some overseeing authority to ensure magic cannot get out of hand?

I am thinking of the Patrician in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld here. After the events in Sourcery, magic doesn’t get the upper hand in the series again, at least in the ones with the Patrician in it! He may not have magical powers but he does have enough other skills to ensure people don’t cross him. Those that do never get to do it twice. If you haven’t read Discworld do check it out. It’s a wonderful series.

Incidentally in the witches books in Discworld where magic does come into the stories more, it is the witches who control it. The reasons for their actions are clear too. So they control the magical climate.

So give some thought as to who would control your setting’s magical climate and how successful or otherwise are they are with this? Who might seek to change the climate and what reasons do they have? They don’t have to be good reasons but they should be those readers would understand. We all get the idea of being greedy for power but what is interesting is seeing how a character develops that. What starts them off on to wanting to change the magical climate in your setting for their own ends.

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Light and Dark and Reading Moods

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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. Two images of me, one with Lady and the other with me holding books, were taken by Adrian Symes.
Hope you’ve had a good weekend. Very hot (30 degrees +) so have focused on keeping Lady as cool and comfortable as possible. (At one point my other half was able to measure the temperature on our manhole cover just for interest – it was 51 degrees C, yes 51!). Good weekend for writing though and I’ve found another competition for me to submit a piece to, which I hope to get done later this week.

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1st July 2025 – Newsletter
Hope you’ve had a good day. Got Lady out earlier today. Not sorry about that as it has heated up considerably since lunchtime. I did enjoy my swim this afternoon though!

Author newsletter went out again today. Many thanks for all who support. It is much appreciated.

Had some lovely news from another newsletter I subscribe to – The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick one. They set a competition for a six word story on the theme of Hesitation. I was one of the joint winners with another colleague here. My entry is below. Hope you enjoy it.

Decisions by Allison Symes

Have the dagger. Should I? Macbeth.

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A scorching day but Lady had a lovely, short time in the park this morning before it heated up too much. She and I have drunk plenty of water today too. Will be glad when it cools a bit. Lady will feel the same way.

Author newsletter out again tomorrow. Can hardly believe it’s almost July but the newsletters do show the passage of time only too well! Next issue of Writers Narrative should be out any moment too. Will share the link once I have that. See further down – I was right here!

Writing Tip: Ensure your working conditions are as comfortable as possible. It does have a direct impact on how well or otherwise you work. Right now, I’m ensuring I drink plenty of squash, water etc. Once good thing about this is it ensures I have to have a screen break later on. Too easy to forget to do that.

Pleased to be back on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, with my blog about Light and Dark.

I look at how contrasts work so well in fiction and light and dark are perhaps the obvious ones to use. Plenty of interesting stories can come from these though especially if you show a character following a redemption arc, going from dark to light.

Hope you enjoy the post and you do write some wonderful tales based on the theme.

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Getting warm again though Monday is going to be the “big one” to watch out for. I suspect Lady and I won’t be going out much.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Stories in Times of Trouble for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Link up on Friday.

Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday afternoon tomorrow. The story I rewrote as an exercise during the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Zoom earlier this week is one I’ll be looking at and then I’ll see if I can find a home for it.

It is always lovely to finish a piece off, find a suitable competition, and get the work submitted. It is satisfying even if the story doesn’t do anything in the competition. But you have to be in it to have even a chance of winning it.

Entering writing competitions is excellent practice in writing to deadlines too. I check out the background of the competition to ensure I’m happy with it (the fees aren’t exorbitant, it has a good track record and so on). It just pays to be aware there are scams out there but there are plenty of genuine writing competitions to have a try at so why not give them a go?

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Glad to report the July issue of Writers Narrative is now out. Amongst the many excellent articles in here, I share a piece called Developing Productive Writing Routines That Work For You. Have a fabulous read (especially since it far too hot to do much else right now!).

 

A scorching Monday where I am. Lady and I have kept as cool as possible. But it is still Monday and that means it is time for another story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Worst Habit.

Confession can be good for the soul but possibly hazardous to life and limb as the latest fairytale client finds out here.

 

My next author newsletter will be out on Tuesday. How can it be almost July already? (Mind you, we do have the heat to go with it in the UK at the moment).

I share news, tips, links to my online flash tales and much else besides here. I especially hope you will find the tips useful with your own flash (and other) writing. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

And now to crack on with flash fiction Sunday, well at least it is for me!

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Hope the weekend is going well so far.

One of the reasons I love flash fiction (and there are so many reasons to do so) is you get a complete story world in a short word count. It makes the form, I think, addictive to read as well as write. Given I love inventing characters, I get to do this all of the time, naturally, so that’s another reason to adore flash writing.

I’ve always had a very soft spot indeed for any story, of whatever word count, where the character voice grips me from the start so I then have to finish reading the story and can’t bear to put the tale down until I have finished it.

With flash that’s more convenient, given I can only go up to 1000 words maximum. I can’t see anyone finishing The Lord of The Rings in one sitting now, can you? And sometimes at least you do just want a satisfying read which doesn’t take too long.

Goodreads Author Blog – Reading Moods

I have various reading moods. Sometimes I want a huge novel to read. I want the complete epic story and that’s that. Sometimes I want quick satisfying reads, which is where short stories and flash fiction come in. Mind you, it helps I write the latter two fiction forms. It does mean I’m biased but in the best possible way of course!

I deliberately mix up the word count lengths I read to as I want a variety of tales to enjoy. I also mix up the genres I read. So for a while, I will read crime, then move on to something else and so on. I often use the short fiction forms as my reading material between reading the novels. I like to see them as appetizers!

I rarely read dystopian works on the grounds the news is gloomy enough but I love lighthearted reads, especially during the summer months. Wodehouse is ideal here I think.

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See July edition above but to keep things interesting please see below a back issue.

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