Allison Symes – Local Author News – Seeing The Other Side

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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. Photo of me with Creativity Matters taken by Adrian Symes. Anolther Creativity Matters image was kindly supplied by Wendy H. Jones. Screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes, as was of part of my contribution to Creativity Matters. Great book. Do check it out. A huge thank you to my lovely editor at Chandler’s Ford Today for a couple of the photos I use in my post this week.
Hope the week has gone well. Cooler here but much pleasanter for the dog and me. Had a lovely Association of Christian Writers Flash Group meeting on Zoom. Other writing and editing going well.

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Hope you’ve had a good Friday. Lady had a lovely time with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal this morning, long before the weather turned hot again. I was glad of a good swim later on as well. So refreshing.

Delighted to share my latest Chandler’s Ford Today post which is Allison Symes – Local Author News – Seeing The Other Side.

This post shares more about what you can expect from my third flash fiction collection which comes out in May 2026 (though I am looking forward to sharing the partial serialisation of it from this July onwards). I also discuss putting a collection together and thinking ahead to book launches.

Allison Symes – Local Author News – Seeing The Other Side

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Today (26th June) would have been Dad’s 88th birthday. He’s been gone for eight years now. Can’t imagine where the time has gone.

Lady had a lovely time in the park today with her Hungarian Vizler chum. Both dogs are much appreciating the cooler weather though we will have to watch things on Monday when it is due to heat up again.

Lady didn’t miss the afternoon walks I had to cancel last week because things were too hot. The pavement test is my guide here. Hold your hand on a spot of concrete, tarmac etc where it gets direct sunlight and hold your hand there for several seconds (I go for 20, you do need a reasonable amount of time to be sure if things are okay or not). If it is uncomfortable for you (and it was last for me week!), it’s uncomfortable for your dog. It’s just not worth risking burnt paws and Lady and I happily stayed at home in the shade.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Allison Symes – Local Author News – Seeing the Other Side for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow where I will share more about my forthcoming book. Looking forward to sharing that. See above. Plus am looking forward to a friend’s online book launch in just over a month’s time too. Plenty going on I’m glad to say.

Am thankful writing is something I can easily do in the shade!

In other news, writing and editing are coming along well. Am also looking forward to going to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick later this summer. It’s not so far away now.

Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to see Daisy, a gentle older spaniel today. We meet up with her and her owner sometimes and it was lovely seeing them both again today.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom later on.
Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Allison Symes – Local Author News – Seeing The Other Side for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See further up.

Will be thinking of another story competition to try soon as I’ve spotted a 750 words one (which comes nicely into flash territory). Will probably have a look at this at the weekend but I am keeping to the promise I made to myself this year I will try and get more work out there.

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It’s Friday. It’s getting hot again in my part of the world. Time for a story to finish the working week with then. Hope you like my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Name Calling. Mark should have realised discretion is the better part of valour – find out why here.
Had a lovely evening with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group last night. (Held on 25th June 2025). Good to see everyone. The topic was Perspectives and I was looking at the use of 1st/2nd/3rd person usage in flash fiction. Naturally I set exercises too though we ran out of time to do all of them.

What I found interesting was I wrote a piece for the 1st person exercise. I then rewrote it for the second person exercise. I think the second person usage one is better. More direct. More emotional impact too. Will have a look at this at a later date and maybe submit it somewhere. Good fun to do.

Second person can be a challenge though I think it works well in the short forms precisely because they are short.

I was impressed by the group’s output here though. All great work.

I mentioned this briefly over on my main author page on Facebook, but do bear in mind there are 750 word stories competitions out there (I’ve just spotted one) which don’t market themselves as flash fiction but it is what they are. It is worth keeping an eye out on all short story competitions because some of those will also allow stories from 1000 words onwards so flash fiction writers could have a go at these.

Plus there are plenty of flash fiction competitions which do market themselves as such so why not try some? I have found writing for competitions a great way to improve skills in writing to deadlines, meeting publisher requirements and much more.

Also, to quote a certain supermarket, you do have to be in it to win it.

Fairytales with Bite – Truth Tellers

Truth tellers ought to be welcome in society but they so often are not. There are numerous reasons for this, including truth tellers exposing corruption or refusing to join in with it. You could take that thought and apply it to your own setting.

What would count as corruption in your magical setting? Could it be as simple as refusing to use magic and using what we would know as scientific techniques instead? It can take a brave soul to be the one who puts their head above the parapet.

How does truth get disseminated in your setting? Can it be shared on public media (social or otherwise),or in print, or on the air? What would be truth to your setting but alien to ours?

Who gets to decide what the truth is at all? If this means suppressing the actual truth how does that get done and who carries out the orders? Could you have a character who defies carrying out said orders? Do they get away with it?

When truth is suppressed, how does it eventually get out and what are the consequences?

Story ideas there for sure.

This World and Others – Species

How many species are there in your setting? Do you focus on the main ones? What roles would the minor ones have in your setting? How do they “service” the major species – or is everyone kept apart with each kind doing their own thing for the good of the world as a whole?

Are species recognised as such or do your creations not categorize in this way? What would those in your setting make of other worlds, including ours? Are there some alien species they would never have anything to do with and why have they concluded this? (In a story I’ve written for a competition recently, I have my character reveal magical characters in their setting see Earth as backwards precisely because we don’t have magic).

Do the different species get on with each other or is it a case of each kind only having anything to do with others, with those of their own kind?

How has your world changed/evolved to accommodate the different species here? Did anything unexpected happen? Have the species been forced to co-operate?

Good story ideas there, I hope.

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Books and Stories In Culture

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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. Many thanks to Julia Pattison for taking the image of me at Swanwick about to run an editing workshop. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, as were the photos from my local wildflower meadow.
Hope you had a lovely weekend. Pleased to say the temperature has come down a bit – much fresher and nicer for Lady and me. Good to take some pictures of the local wildflower meadow – see one of the posts below for these. It is good to focus on lovely things and I include creative writing in that. Especially when the world at large is not a great place, it is good to escape, for a while at least, into a world I can create through stories. When reading, I escape into a world created for me by other writers. What is there not to love about books?

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Hope you’ve had a good day. It has been a lovely pleasant day and Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal too.

Pleased to say I did manage to submit two stories yesterday. It was a good use of my limited writing time yesterday. As ever, I did pick up on a final error – it is the way of the writing life – but it did mean I could correct that before sending my material in. It does pay to give yourself your own time limit ahead of any official deadline. It gives you the chance to spot and correct things like that.

Good breezy day and much pleasanter as a result. Lady and I appreciated that.

Writing wise, well it is Monday, one of my busiest days of the week so I focus on getting bits and pieces done. Hope to submit a couple of pieces a little later on (all prepped earlier of course and edited).

I often use Mondays as my final day to check all is well and send pieces in. It is a good use of my limited time and frees up longer sessions later on in the week for more concentrated bursts of writing.

You do have to find what works best for you. It takes time to work out what does work best for you but it is worth it, I’ve found. I know what I’m going to be doing when I get to my desk so I can get straight on with it. That saves a lot of time in itself, funnily enough.

Cooler today, Lady and I are not at all sorry about that. It was much pleasanter over the park and the wildflower meadow is looking amazing. See pics.

Writing wise, I’ll be on to flash fiction Sunday afternoon shortly. Always a lovely way to end the weekend. Have a short story to send to a competition once I’ve sorted out my edits but hope do that either today or early part of this week. Am also busy editing at the moment and loving the work.

Character Tip: Physical appearance generally for me is not the most important thing for me to know when creating my characters. I need to know their main traits and what comes from that and then ideas about their appearance might come to me.

Just occasionally does knowing a character is a brunette as opposed to a blonde matter to the story but not often. In life, as in fiction, I try not to judge by appearances, not least because it usually is the least important thing about someone. Attitude matters far more but can be so useful for creating tremendous tales and characters readers remember).

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Had some drizzle today, cooled the temperature a bit, but has heated up again this afternoon. Lady keeping nice and cool though.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing some local author news in a detailed post for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. No prizes for guessing who the local author will be when I say the post will be called Allison Symes – Local Author News – Seeing The Other Side. I’ll be sharing some more information about the book as well as what it means to me to have a third book due. More on that on Friday. After that, I will share news when the serialisation of part of the book starts and, later, more on the book launches I hope to have.

Writing/Marketing Tip: Think about what it is which makes you love to write. It gives you a good topic for conversation with potential readers and other writers whether you meet them face to face or online. It is also a natural way into talking about your book whether it is out, about to come out, or whether you are finishing it off ready to send out there.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Today has, aptly for me, gone by in a flash but how do your characters handle the passing of time? Are they finding it drags for them or does it race along? What are the reasons for them feeling this way? Bound to be reasons – and potential flash stories too. Hope you have fun with that thought!

It’s funny how quickly Mondays come around again. It’s time for a story though. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Bringing Things to An End.

A group where confessions can be made anonymously with no fear of disclosure hears what could be its most unusual confession to date. And just where do custard pies come into it? Find out here.

 

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week. Zoom has proved useful for writing groups and made more of them possible to do at tall.

Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday afternoon shortly. Incidentally, Friday Flash Fiction now want submissions sent in between Mondays and Thursdays so I prepare my tale for them on a Sunday and submit it on a Monday evening. Works well, especially since Monday is the day of the week when I know I can’t do much writing. So ”little things to do” such as getting my story in to them is useful and cheers me up. I know I’ve done something useful which is creative.

If you submit work somewhere regularly, it pays to keep on top of what their latest guidelines are because things do change, always with good reason, and it means you’re aware.


It won’t be too long before my next author newsletter will be out. There will be a summer related theme. To sign up for tips, flash tales, news and more do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Flash is easy to share on social media given it is short, hopefully entertaining or thought provoking, and gives you something of value to share with those who follow you and your work. Even if your work is longer, maybe a flash piece about one of your characters could make a useful “taster” to share. Just a thought.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Books and Stories in Culture

No matter what our own cultures are, there will be books and stories which stand out in them. These will be the books and stories “everyone knows” but may not necessarily have read for themselves. I am so conscious of all the wonderful English language classics I am unlikely to get around to reading though I am determined to get at least some read.

Where this comes in is when you play the great game of spot the influences when reading works by authors you love. A great example of this is Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. There are all sorts of “nods” in those.

Another example can be found in the stories of Jeeves and Wooster by P.G. Wodehouse where Bertie Wooster inevitably gets the name of the author and/or the book concerned not quite right. Yet it is clear from context the book and author do exist.

So cultural books and stories can inspire other tales. I like this!

 

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Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at the Open Evening

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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. The Creativity Matters image was kindly supplied by Wendy H Jones. One image of me with books taken by Adrian Symes. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week so far. Has become hot here so Lady has had to miss some of her walks (getting too hot in the afternoons basically). Writing continues to go well. Glad I can do that in the cool at least!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good day. Another hot one here but thankfully the morning was much cooler and Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals before it became too hot. No outings this afternoon!

Delighted to share Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at The Open Evening for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. It was a joy to go to the Open Evening and I even found a Symes family link and odd visitors to the Ritchie Hall where The Chameleons are based. Full report in the post.

Hope you enjoy it and many congratulations to The Chameleons for reaching such a wonderful milestone.

Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at the Open Evening

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Hope you’ve had a good day and managed to stay cool. Lady had a lovely time in the park while it was cool enough this morning but a quiet afternoon as it heated up considerably after about 2 pm where I am. I took the chance to have a good swim and felt much refreshed for that!

Don’t forget I’ll be sharing Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at the Open Evening for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up on that tomorrow. See above.

Writing wise, I am busy editing, preparing blogs and flash fiction, and putting the finishing touches to my presentation for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week. Best of all, I keep cool while doing all of that.

Writing Thought: One positive thing about the hot weather where I am at the moment is I need to get up and take drinks more often and later on answer the call of nature. So I guess the hot weather is giving me additional screen breaks! These are important.

I have found I work better (and for longer overall) if I build these mini breaks into my writing sessions. Else you can find yourself getting bogged down and too tired simply due to things like dehydration and eye strain from being at the screen for too long in one “hit”.

All I know from that is it doesn’t help your writing at all.

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady got to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals this morning before it became too hot. I didn’t take her out this afternoon. She and I were not sorry about that.

Delighted to be back on Authors Electric talking about Themes. I look at how I use these for creating characters and stories and why I find them useful for workshops I run and my monthly newsletter.

I also share a theme I used recently and on which I based an exercise, which I share again here.

Hope you give it a go and find the post useful. 

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Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my Trifling Around. This one is a fun, summer related piece. Doesn’t even matter if, like me, you loathe trifle (sorry, I never have liked the custard, all the other ingredients would be okay though!). Hope you enjoy it.
One question all writers need to be prepared to answer is the inevitable one – what do you write? I was asked this earlier this week at a group I go to when I mentioned my third book is due out next year. So I told them!

But that meant I know what to say, having given this prior thought. I also know to keep it short. I can always take further questions from people later but a brief summary of what you write is always handy for a writer to have to hand. It’s good practice in flash fiction writing too as you do basically want a one line summary.

An exercise I set for a recent Association of Christian Writers Flash Group Meeting was based on the theme of Tens. The exercise was to write a story in exactly ten words. Nothing more. Nothing less. Why not give it a go?

The point of this exercise, funnily enough, is to give practice in writing straplines for longer works later on. Ten words works well for this.

My From Light to Dark and Back Again has the strapline of A collection of very short stories to suit every mood. Ten words to the full stop! Did I get that done in one go? Oh no.

Also ten word stories are fun and easy to share on social media etc. This is one of those I came up with for that exercise. Hope you enjoy it.

The aliens diverted past Earth, as they’d heard about humans.

Allison Symes – June 2025

Well, you couldn’t blame them, could you?

 

Fairytales with Bite – Good News

I’ve recently had the excellent news my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side, will be out in May 2026 with a partial serialisation of the book coming this July. Naturally I reacted pretty well to this news! I also want to say a huge thanks to all who sent congratulations etc via my Facebook page, all much appreciated. 

But my good news led me to wonder what would your characters see as good news and why? What situations could you have where one character sees something as good news and another as anything but? Who would be right?

How would your characters receive any kind of news? Is their technology the same as ours or significantly better or worse? Could the problems with their technology lead to your characters doing something which would usually be frowned upon in their world but where they honestly feel they have no choice?

What news is so important to them they have to “cheat” to get it through? Do they get away with it? What happens when the news does get through? There is bound to be a reaction of some kind which in turn is likely to drive further drama/tension and actions with consequences. (All great for storytelling though!)

This World and Others – Handling The News

There can never be any one great way to handle news, bad or otherwise. It all depends on the individual, of course, but you might like to look at that aspect for finding out more about your characters, which could prove useful for whatever story you put them in.

Do your characters take things calmly or do they make the biggest fuss imaginable over even the slightest bit of bad news? What drives your characters to react this way? Is your character wary of “drama” and so they make themselves react calmly, no matter what? How do they do this? What led them to decide this was the best way to be? There will be stories behind all of that.

As for news via media, who does get to handle it before the public can know about it? Is there government interference here or are the broadcasters genuinely independent? Who does get to decide what news the public gets to find out about?

Even if there is no official “interference” who gets to make the editorial decisions and can they be “bought” at all? What would happen if they broke a story the government would not/did not want to go public?

Handling the news can be tricky indeed.

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Publication News: Third Flash Fiction Book and New and Old 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. Photos of me with my two flash fiction collections and Creativity Matters were taken by Adrian Symes. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you had a great weekend. I had splendid news – details below and with more to come in due course. Mind you, the title of this post is a big clue! Lady had her usual big walks and had a lovely time too. Weather not bad either and my roses are looking fabulous and smelling as fragrant as ever. When all is definitely not right with the world, little things like this help. (Plus an especially nice church service with some lovely singing also helps me!).

Facebook – General

Phew, a hot one today but Lady kept nice and cool. Was able to see her Hungarian Vizler pal too. Plenty of shade where we are, thankfully. I have a nice spot in the back garden (on the patio where it gets direct sunlight) where I can test the pavement temperature before I take Lady anywhere and that is handy at the moment. Will be for the next week or so if the forecast is to be believed.

Don’t forget I’ll be sharing Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at The Open Evening for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday.

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

Last but not least I’ll be back on Authors Electric tomorrow with my latest blog for them on the topic of Themes. More details tomorrow.

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Hope you have had a good day. On the plus side, Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback friend and saw her Hungarian Vizler pal too. On the less positive side, it has been a particularly hectic Monday so am relieved to get to my desk to get on with writing and editing. Creativity really is good for you even if, just for a while, it takes you out of whatever chaos you have been dealing with for a while! (It wasn’t Lady behind the chaos, it just has been one of those full on, non-stop, things going wrong kind of days).

Writing Tip: When you get chaotic days like this take time to be kind to yourself. I know I won’t get so much done writing wise tonight. That’s fine. I’ll make up for it later in the week. My focus this evening will be to enjoy what I can get done in the time I’ve got. That matters even when things haven’t gone wrong!

Enjoying writing (and editing) will help keep you going when the going does get tough and it does sometimes. Happens to us all.

A huge thank you to everyone for the congratulations received on my sharing the news my Seeing The Other Side will be coming out in May 2026. The support is very much appreciated. As you can imagine, I feel the weekend has gone rather well!

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at The Open Evening for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. One of the things I love about going to see their shows is I get to take in stories I would never otherwise have come across. Full report, including revealing who the unexpected visitors were at the Ritchie Hall when I visited, will be shared on my post next week.

 

Big News – 14th June 2025

I am thrilled to be able to tell you I signed and sent back to my publisher today the contract for my third flash fiction book, Seeing The Other Side. It is due out in May 2026 (so will be in time for The Writers Summer School, Swanwick in August 2026, fellow Swanwickers).

BUT

Prior to that, this coming July in fact, part of the book will be serialised on CafeLit. I will send the links as soon as I can but the serialisation of part of the book will give you a good taster. It will also be the first time anything of mine has been serialised in this way so am excited about that too, as you can imagine. I can’t wait to share those tales with you.

And it is lovely to be able to start thinking about book launches again.

More to come as time goes on but so delighted to be able to confirm this news now.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Have picked a potential story to enter for a competition this weekend though it’s not a flash one. Indeed I could write up to 2000 words for this one, twice the flash limit. Having said that, there are plenty of flash competitions out there and I need to get around to picking one or two to have a try at (nothing ventured, nothing gained etc).

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

I now know the serialisation of stories from my Seeing The Other Side will start in the second week of July. I will share the links as and when I get them. So excited about this as I’ve never had anything serialised before.

It’s Monday. It has been more busy than usual for me. I definitely feel it is time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Working Outfit.

Is Mary right to be concerned her husband, who is due to judge a village fete, has decided to wear his best suit AND an apron? What makes her give him her old hat as well? Find out here.

 

Again, may I say a huge thanks to all for the wonderful support when I revealed my Seeing The Other Side will be out in May 2026. It was most kind of you and much appreciated by me. Writers spend so much time alone at their desks. We are all aware of the downs of the writing life and it is fabulous to be able to share a definite “up” moment!

Back on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. I like to mix up the moods of my stories for my regular submissions (Friday Flash Fiction and my own YouTube channel). Especially right now, I feel some light-hearted work is probably over due.

When I decide to start with the mood of the story above everything else, I then look at what kind of character would be most likely to deliver on this and then flesh them out from there.

When I start with the character, I work out what kind of mood they are likely to be in and that will influence the mood of the story. Themes can sometimes give strong indications of what the tale mood should be/is likely to be so it is a good idea to practice writing to a certain mood. It will come up in competitions at some point.


14th June – Publication News
I make no apologies for repeating my good news that I have signed and returned the contract for my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side, today. The book will be out in May 2026 but some of the stories will be serialised on CafeLit from this July. More to come as I have it.

Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow as usual. Need to start thinking about another writing competition soon but have understandably been a bit distracted by my big news! Hope to look into this tomorrow too.

Have got an idea for the competition I want to have a go at but it is a question of selecting a suitable story. I often draft pieces and save them for competitions. If I’ve got the idea, I will just get on and write it and polish it up even if I don’t initially know where I’ll try and place it. By the time I know which competition I’d like to try, the story has rested long enough for me to be able to judge it objectively enough.

Goodreads Author Blog – New Books and Old Books

I expect, like me, you have a good mixture of books on your shelves. I have new books, old books, classics, contemporaries, and, what is especially nice, books written by friends of mine (and signed for me too). I treasure them all.

I have books inherited from my late mother, who was a tremendous reader and encouraged me so much here. I have my own collections of books. The first series I went for, as an adult, was the Odhams Agatha Christie collection. Lovely red and gold hardback books. Fabulous stories, as you know.

Prior to that I collected the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton as these used to be on sale at my local newsagent, back in the days when many of those had a reasonable book selection you could buy. I miss those days! A new edition of the series had been brought out to tie in with Southern TV’s adaptation of the series for their Sunday teatime slot. That only stopped when Southern lost their franchise. (A big mistake but there you go and at least it got me reading the books!).

I do believe it is a great idea to have a health “reading diet” and for me that has always included contemporary as well as classic books. A great story is a great story whenever it came out after all.

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Why Write Fiction

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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 week so far. Not bad here. Keeping busy writing wise and Lady is having a lovely time at the park. It is the simple things in life….


Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to be back on Chandler’s Ford Today with a question which might seem odd for me to ask. My topic is Why Write Fiction and I discuss this in terms of the value of stories.

I also look at how they provide escapism, entertainment, and education and how fiction encourages empathy because you identify with the characters you’re reading about.

Hope you enjoy the post and comments are welcome in the CFT box.

Why Write Fiction

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Despite some damp weather this morning Lady had a lovely time at the park and managed to meet up with her Hungarian Vizler pal. Both were pleased to see each other which is always lovely to see.

Don’t forget my Why Write Fiction post will be up on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow (see above) and I plan to share something of the lovely time I had at The Chameleons Open Evening the following week. Their history is a remarkable one.

Pleased to say there will be a smashing author interview coming up towards the end of July too. Always good to have things to look forward to, I find!

 

Hope today has been a good one for you. Has become very warm again today.

Enjoyed a great discussion on an online editing meeting today. We were thinking about what editors (and I would say this applies to writers just as much) can do to help themselves when the weather does get hot. My thoughts here were on ensuring you keep up a good fluid intake (the non-alcoholic kind!) and having more screen breaks. Mind you if you do drink more to keep fluid intakes up, as you should, the screen breaks will follow out of necessity a little while later.

But it is important to think of these things. Not enough fluid intake will lead to concentration levels dropping. As a result, you will feel more tired more quickly so it is worth doing. This is where Lady helps me. I have to take her out every so often so I get a “furry induced” screen break and that usually leads to a good drink for both of us when we get back again.

Writing wise, I do a lot of my writing in the evening, which is usually a lot cooler and that helps a lot too.

But do look after yourself.

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Delighted to be on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble, Fifty. Find out how Melanie comes to the aid of her neighbour Jane, who is not looking forward to hitting a landmark birthday. Mind you, Jane does have a good reason. Find out what here.

Another reason to read widely and well is it will influence what you write. I love fairytales, history, crime, and many other types of fiction so all of those things come into my flash fiction and short stories (not necessarily all at the same time). Reading inspires your own creativity as well as being the single best way to support the industry you want to be part of.

So investing in books (and I do see them as that) is a good idea. I often test out authors new to me by trying their ebooks first and then there are the libraries. Borrowing from there supports them. There are all sorts of ways to develop your own reading and it will encourage your own writing. I’ve found this to be the case.

We all build on what has gone before. Even Isaac Newton acknowledged this when he talked about if he had seen further, it was because he had stood on the shoulders of giants. It’s just as true for writers.


Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later this month. Will be looking at the theme of perspective.

Talking of which, do you find you have a favourite perspective? Flash fiction has encouraged me to write more in the first person but I do try to balance that by ensuring I write plenty of third person stories too. I sometimes write in the second person but limit this as I think it can come across as gimmicky but for short works it can be effective. You do need a strong “you” character for readers to get behind though.


Fairytales with Bite – Everyday Upsets in a Magical World

How are everyday upsets coped with in your magical world? You know the kind of thing – everything from someone not putting the loo seat down (or up) to putting a spoon in the wrong place in the cutlery drawer.

We might moan at our loved ones on this but what would your magical character(s) do?
Would they just moan or would they do something else given they would have the powers to do so? Or are there rules preventing that kind of thing?

Is magic only allowed to be used for specific purposes? Is it banned from being used for settling petty squabbles and how is that policed? What led to the rules being brought in? Story ideas there, I’m sure.

What would count as an upset in your world with regards to the legitimate use of magic? What would count as a break of the rules? Are minor indiscretions overlooked (student pranks etc) or is every break, no matter how minor or otherwise, clamped down on? Who would do that? What happens to those who cheat and how are they found out? What damage could they do if not stopped?

Again story ideas there. I think there would be potential for humour too.

This World and Others – What Magical Worlds Might Envy from the Non-Magical Ones

This might seem like a strange topic. Surely it would be the other way around? But I think there are possibilities when magical worlds might envy those without such powers.

For one thing, would the magical worlds believe the non-magical ones have fewer complications simply because of the lack of that source of power? Would your magical government have to use extra resources policing the system so it isn’t abused (see Fairytales with Bite above)? Who would it have to rein in and how successful are they in doing this?

Also consider the climate of your setting. Has damage been done to it by too much magic going through it (which would be a good reason for your magical government to envy those without it)? What is done or will be done to deal with that damage?

Also would our world have things your magical world might prefer (such as our beautiful environments, especially if theirs has been damaged due to magic)?

Food for thought there, especially if their world had once been as lovely or better than ours.


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Tips, Blurbs, and Using Set Themes

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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.
Hope you had a good weekend. Stormy on Saturday, sunny on Sunday – typical for the UK! Lady had a lovely time and very busy on the writing and editing front, which I love. Will be sharing good news soon.

Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day. Weather changeable but Lady had a lovely play time – and the zoomies – with her best pal, the Rhodesian Ridgeback today.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Why Write Fiction on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Looking forward to sharing that. I do answer the question, you’ll be glad to hear.

I was pleased to recommend two fictional historical books and one non-fiction one at an online meeting last night. Good fun. (For the record I recommended The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey, The Sunne In Splendour by Sharon Penman, and London by Peter Ackroyd. All excellent reads and different in style).

Character Tip: Think of one character you have already written or are thinking about writing up into a story and then name three things you would associate with them. May well prove to be useful additional information for you character outline.

This is especially useful if you haven’t already thought of three things so ask yourself three questions you know you haven’t already done. If you know about their physical appearance, think about what makes them tick. If you know the latter, think about what they would never wear or always wear etc. It will show you more about them and you are bound to find a use for that.

Hope you have had a good start to the week. Mine has been hectic but then it usually is on a Monday. Lady has had an excellent start to her week because she got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback bestie for the first time in a few days and saw her Hungarian Vizler pal too. Win-win, or perhaps as they would say, woof-woof!

Time Tip: Don’t worry about those days when you know you can’t get much writing done. Mondays are always like that for me. I focus on doing “little bits and pieces” so I can save my longer periods of writing time later in the week for bigger stretches of work. Not only is this efficient, I feel I have done something useful with the small pockets of time I have had and it ensures those are not wasted.

Hope the weekend has been a good one. Nice to see calmer, sunnier weather today. Lady and I appreciated it over the park earlier.

Loved going to The Chameleons Open Evening last night which was their way of celebrating their 60th anniversary this year. I will write about this for Chandler’s Ford Today in a couple of weeks time.

Writing Tip: It is worth keeping an eye out on writing competitions for another reason, especially the ones with a theme set for you. Why?

Simply because I’ve sometimes come across those I would have loved to have entered but know I cannot get anything in for the deadline. So I use the theme as a prompt and write my story up later. The same theme may come up again at some point. They often do. If not, I have another story to put towards another collection.

A soggy Saturday here though so far the rain hasn’t been as bad as predicted. Hope it stays that way especially as I’m off to The Chameleons Open Evening later on.

Writing wise, I’ll be asking a leading question for Chandler’s Ford Today next week when I discuss Why Write Fiction? Link will be up on Friday for that one.

If you write articles for a magazine with an ISSN (International Standard Serial Number) it is worth putting your articles down on your listing with the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). It makes a big difference to your payment received and the good news is online magazines can have an ISSN. I list my articles for Writers’ Narrative with ALCS, for example. To find out more about ALCS, do check out the link.


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I love writing quirky tales from time to time, often with a humorous twist. Flash is the ideal format for these, I think, because they work best when kept to a tight word count. (You don’t want the “laugh” being dragged out – flash won’t allow you to do that).

Usually with these I do know the ending first and then work out how I could have got to this point. It means my structure is a logical one and I often do these with any of my twist flashes and short stories, regardless of the story mood. I find it works. A twist, humorous or otherwise, does have to have a solid foundation behind it. Without that, it won’t convince the reader.

It’s Monday. Hectic as ever and time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Need to Know. Am sure you will understand Bill in this one.

What does the need for secrecy, Wendy, doughnuts, and a new bakery in town, all have in common? Answer: Bill. Find out why and what here.

 

I mix up the ways I come up with ideas for flash fiction and other stories. I do this to keep me on my creative toes but it is a good idea anyway. You don’t want to miss out on possible sources of inspiration after all.

So I use various random generators (and will mix up the parameters I set on these too as that gives me further ideas), books of proverbs and phrases, story dice, books of prompts (and I’ve contributed to some of these – good fun to do) and, of course, from Flash NANO. As mentioned on my author page, I will use set themes from competitions as prompts whether or not I enter the contest. I should add prompts are a regular feature of Writers’ Narrative too. Check out the latest issue at the link below.

 

If you’re in the UK, I hope you’ve managed to dodge the heavy rain today!

Do keep an eye out for flash fiction competitions. There are plenty out there and some short story ones add flash on as a category or allow your minimum word count to be 1000 words, which is at the top end of flash. There are opportunities out there.

Flash is also easy to share on your social media platforms and your website. Doesn’t take up too much room and gives followers a taster of your writing style. Besides it is fun to do and I love playing with genres and setting my characters in all sorts of situations. Give it a go! I’ve found it has also sharpened up the other writing I do, which is no bad thing either.

Goodreads Author Blog – Blurbs

A brilliant blurb is an excellent draw for me to buy the book it is on. Tricky to write though! (I do think writing flash fiction regularly at least gives you practice in writing to the word count required for blurbs but I am biased here given flash is what I do).

What I want from a good blurb is a taster of the book. I must have an idea of who the lead is and the problem (the major one) the character is facing. I have then got to feel as if I must read on to find out what happens. If successful in making me do that, the blurb has done its job!

Blurbs are best kept short. You do just want a taste, not the whole buffet, but it has to be enough of a taster and that is the tricky bit to get right, I think.

Mind you reading lots of books and seeing how other authors have done this is a great way to learn for when you hopefully get to do this for yourself! Not that I need encouraging to read more, mind you. That is always a great thing to do whether you write as well or not.

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June 2025 edition shared further up but please do see the March 2025 edition below. Always worth a re-read or two! Ties in nicely with my comments about historical fiction and non-fiction further up.

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Thoughts on Editing

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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.
Hope you have had a good week so far. Mixed bag weather wise but the train is welcome (grass has been looking sorry for itself). Writing wise, lots going on and I hope to share some very exciting news on this soon.

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Pleased to be back on Chandler’s Ford Today with my latest post, Thoughts on Editing. Naturally I am biased on this topic given I am an editor but I share useful thoughts and tips on editing anything (yes, really). Hope you find the post informative and practical.

Am off to The Chameleons Open Evening tomorrow (7th June) as they are holding this to celebrate their 60th anniversary this year. Congratulations to them all. They put on some wonderful plays so if you have a chance to get to one or more, do go.

The Open Evening is on from 6 pm to 9 pm and will be at the Ritchie Hall in Chandler’s Ford. All welcome to go and find out more about what it takes to put on a performance. Volunteers always wanted for roles on and off the stage. 

Thoughts on Editing

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Hope today has been okay. Another soggy one but Lady got to play in front of her Hungarian Vizler chum again so all is well with their worlds! Not sorry about the rain. Grass needs it. Relieved it’s not coming down as a torrential downpour which just floods everywhere. Rain coming down at a steady rate means the ground is more likely to make better use of it. Also Lady and I get damp rather than soaked so there is that as well!

Don’t forget I’ll be sharing Thoughts on Editing for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above.

Will be off to visit The Chameleons as they hold their Open Evening to celebrate their 60th anniversary on Saturday evening. Hope to catch up with my lovely editor at Chandler’s Ford Today there as well.

Character Tip: What draws you (or repels you) to the character you’re writing about? There has to be a strong reason why you want to write their story up whether they’re going to be the hero of the villain. This all ties in with character motivation of course but I do think this is a huge driver for any story to be a success, regardless of its length.

Hope today has been a good Wednesday for you. Lady showed off in front of her Hungarian Vizler pal again today. The latter looks on Lady playing, almost as if she was being an indulgent granny watching her favourite grandchild! Lady just has a fabulous time (but I am sure she is aware she is showing off!).

Writing wise, am looking forward to going to an online sci-fi and fantasy group (run by the Association of Christian Writers) later this evening. Always good fun. Am making good progress on a longer short story too. Group was great fun. Longer short story on the back burner for the moment. Things have cropped up but I hope to share news of this soon.

I’ll be sharing Thoughts on Editing for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday – it is always a timely topic especially given I am editing away at the moment and loving it. See above.

 

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Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble (100 worder), Starting Over. Find out what role the “umbrella from hell” has to play in Mary’s life here.

I mentioned yesterday about using flash to play with genre (see below) but inevitably my favourite genres come through in my flash fiction stories.

For me, these are what I call fairytales with bite (humorous fantasy, sometimes grimmer fantasy!), historical fiction, crime and many more but I would say these are my main three.

There is often a strong element of justice being done in many of my stories too which crosses the genres but I know for me is inspired by my love of the classic fairytales. The rotters rarely get away with it in those tales. You know the comeuppance is coming. The great thing with flash tales is that comeuppance comes very quickly, sometimes in only 100 words!

One of the things I enjoy most about writing flash fiction is the opportunity it gives me to play with character and, therefore, genre. I can and do set my characters, some of whom are definitely not human, in all kinds of settings and back and forwards in time as well.

What I focus on is making my character believable as I mentioned the other day. Their world may be fantastic. But their actions and attitudes should always be relatable. (Not necessarily agreeable though!).

Fairytales with Bite – Seasonal Magic

In your magical setting, do the seasons, whether they’re the same as ours or not, play havoc with a character’s magical abilities? Does the availability of natural light, or its lack, change what your characters can do or limit their powers in some other way? If it does, can this be overcome by what they would consider artificial means?

Can enemies take advantage of when powers are “down” due to seasonal fluctuations? What would your world do to protect itself against that?

Equally when there is an abundance of natural energy (not necessarily light though this is an obvious one to think about), does that boost your character’s magical powers and how can they make the most of this while this lasts? Can your world take advantage of this against their enemies?

Certainly I wouldn’t think it unreasonable for lack of light or other energy source to have a direct ability on someone’s magical capacity in stories. It an also limit the powers of magic forcing your characters to find other ways to resolve their problems. There will be interesting story ideas to emerge from that.

This World and Others – Times

Time is a major factor in all of our lives and that goes for our characters too. Even the superheroes need their down time. So what kind of down time would your characters need (other than the obvious ones of food, drink, rest) and how would they get this time off?

How is time measured in your setting? Are the lengths of days and nights the same as ours, or are they wildly different and, if the latter why is that the case? This has a direct impact on what could be grown in your setting too and what your characters are likely to be able to eat. It would then in turn have an impact on the kinds of employment in your setting too. If only certain items of food can be grown, your setting would need workers for that, others to process it for the general market and so on.

The way time works in your setting will have an impact on what you characters could get done in a typical “day”. That will have an impact on how long they will need to fulfil their quest or whatever task you’ve set them to do. Of course if they have more time in a day than we do, that could help them a lot!

But it pays to plan out how time will work in your setting.

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Tips, Writers’ Narrative, and Defining a Good Read

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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. Image of me holding Creativity Matters, From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic was taken by Adrian Symes. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. A huge thank you to The Chameleon Theatre Company for permission to use the photos in the bonus Chandler’s Ford Today post shared below.
Hope you have a good weekend. Mine encompassed the glamour of wood treating a fence panel to getting on with my writing. Both creative in their way though, I suppose!

Facebook – General

Today has been somewhat soggy but Lady didn’t mind. She got to see her Hungarian Vziler pal again today and Lady never frets about the rain. She’s got a good coat, she can shake it all over Mum, so why worry?

Writing wise, hope to share some exciting news soon. Looking forward to being able to do that. Watch this space as they say.

Apologies for forgetting to put a title to my June newsletter – oops! But many thanks to all my subscribers. Your support is much appreciated. Other than that little faux pas, I have found the transfer over to MailerLite to be painless, I’m glad to say.

Character Tip: Whatever kind of character you create – and I have many non-human ones in my cast list – they still have to be understandable to readers.

So motivations and wants need to be clear and we should be able to see why someone would do something. Nothing is to “come out of the blue” – nobody ever believes that.

Hope Monday hasn’t been too bad. Busy one here as always. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today so her week has got off to a good start.

Writing Tip: Want a quick easy outline for a story? Just ask two questions.

  1. What does your character want?
  2. What gets in their way?

In fleshing the answers out to those, you will be off to a flying start with your outline and the resulting story. All stories need a structure and those two questions give your tale a great “backbone”.

Hope the weekend has been a good one for you. Still can’t quite believe it’s June already.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Thoughts on Editing for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. It is always a timely topic and I share tips which have proved useful for me as a writer and as an editor.

Looking forward to popping along to The Chameleons’ Open Evening later this week too.

Pleased to say my author newsletter went out again today. It’s only the second one I’ve sent using the new service provider. All well so far and pleased to be able to schedule it too.

Glad to catch up with some friends from Swanwick on a Zoom session last night. Good way to keep in touch.

31st May –  First Post – Bonus Chandler’s Ford Today post
Two posts from me tonight. First up is a bonus Chandler’s Ford Today post. As you know, I often go and see plays performed by our excellent local theatre company, The Chameleons. They’re celebrating their 60th anniversary this year and are holding an Open Evening next weekend (Saturday 7th June). More details in the post but if you can get along, they will be pleased to see you.

The Chameleons – Open Evening – 7th June 2025 – Celebrating 60 Years of Drama

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31st May – Second Post – June 2025 edition of Writers’ Narrative

Second post and I’m pleased to say the June edition of Writers’ Narrative is now available. See link below.

The theme is on Worldbuilding (which comes into various forms of fiction and not just fantasy and sci-fi – e.g. crime fiction has to set its world too, you need to know era for one thing).

I share Five Top Writing Tips, useful for whatever you write. Do enjoy a cracking read.

 

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Flash fiction helps with other forms of writing in all sorts of ways.

Writing to one line sentences, as I set recently for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group, can be used to help practice writing straplines. Longer flashes (say up to 500 words) can be used to help get you used to writing to the word count needed for a synopsis.

Plus it can be used as a warm up exercise ahead of your main writing work and, as I’ve mentioned before, you could polish those pieces up and get them out for competitions etc.

Well worth trying. I find writing flash to be an absorbing challenge.

It’s Monday. Time for another story. Hope you like my latest one on YouTube – Taking Time.

Can the old Master of Time live up to his reputation when put to the ultimate test? Find out here. This is one of my fairytales with bite.

 

Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday afternoon shortly. Need to look out some more competitions soon to have a try at but that may well need to wait until next weekend. Am happily busy elsewhere, writing wise.

I’ve always loved the way The Bridport Prize describes flash fiction – as the “art of just enough”. Sums it up so well. Inference is a powerful tool in the flash format. Picking the right telling detail about your character and/or setting can leave much else to be inferred but readers will pick up on this.

I know I love it in any length of story when an author doesn’t tell me every single thing. I like to work things out. All that is needed are the right clues to do that.

Flash fiction writing is great practice in working out what you do need to reveal and what you can leave to be implied. As such it is an excellent writing exercise. But the better news is there are opportunities for being published and competitions for those flash pieces you come up with.


Had a lovely morning wood treating a fence panel – I know it’s all glamour here! Lady was enjoying the cool indoors. (I also cannot trust her to not want to stick her nose in the wood treatment pot. She is a curious animal but sometimes there is such as thing as too much curiosity!).

Writing wise, pleased to say the June 2025 edition of Writers’ Narrative is out – theme is Worldbuilding. Every fiction writer does this to a certain extent. Even in flash fiction I have to show a reader where my story is, sometimes indicate era and so on. Link to the magazine shared via my author page. See above.

Last but not least, my author newsletter is out tomorrow. Can’t believe we’re almost at June already. I share news, tips, and links to my flash stories online in the newsletter. To sign up head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

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Goodreads Author Blog – Defining a Good Read

How would you define a good read? For me, it is any story of any length and genre, where I have to read through to the finish. Usually it is the character which grips me. Sometimes it’s an intriguing premise. The very best stories have both of those.

But I have been just as entertained and gripped by a well crafted 100 word story as I have been by the other end of the scale, a 100,000 word novel.

I like a wide variety of genres though my favourites are fantasy, fairytales especially, history (fiction and non-fiction) and crime.

Thankfully I have not abandoned many stories of any length because they haven’t engaged but in those cases where it did happen, I know it was because I wasn’t convinced by the characterisation, yet alone gripped by it. Still in a way this is useful. I know what I like and dislike here so I can avoid making the same mistakes in my own work.

Life is too short to not have good reads in your reading pile!

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History and Stories/Writing for Online Magazines

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Hope you have had a good week so far. Mixed bag, weather wise, but Lady has seen her chums most of the week so is happy. Writing and editing going well. Booked for a writing event later in the year (and that kind of thing always makes me smile. Have something to look forward to later).

It’s double blog time. Firstly, Chandler’s Ford Today and, secondly, More than Writers.

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Delighted to be back on Chandler’s Ford Today with my latest post, History and Stories. I love history and stories and, of course, history is full of tales. 

Also as a topic, there are wonderful stories in both the historical fiction and non-fiction departments here, so you will never be short of something intriguing to read (and learn from).

I look at untold history too (what could all of those servants from years gone by have to share with us if they were able to do so? Food for thought or fiction writers there!).

I share how it is possible to write historical flash fiction and how you can “drop” history into a story even if you’re not specifically writing in the genre. Plenty to read and digest here. Hope you enjoy the post.

History and Stories

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More than Writers

Am delighted to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot of the Association of Christian Writers, with my latest post on Writing For Online Magazines.

Well, they do say you should write what you know and given I write for two online magazines… (Chandler’s Ford Today and Writers’ Narrative), I felt this was an apt topic!

I hope you find the post useful as I share useful thoughts and tips about this kind of writing.

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Hope you have had a good day. Weather much nicer today and Lady loved seeing her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals again.

Booked my writing event for later in the year. Will sort out train tickets later (though I have got the ones I need for Swanwick – those arrived last week! Sometimes at least I can get a good discount on booking early so this is not as mad as it may seem, honest. Looking forward to Swanwick and the other writing event already).

Looking forward, much nearer in time, to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom. That happens tonight! (Wednesday 28th May to be precise!).

Writing Tip: Use your own love of stories (and their characters) to work out what you want your stories and characters to be. I know I like characters who do something to try to help themselves, even if they don’t succeed, so will base at least some of my characters on that kind of being. Not all of my characters are human – other beings can try hard and have their failures too! It will be the effort to try to do something which readers will sympathise with.

I’ve never had time for tales where good things happen to the “hero” thanks only to rotten things happening to other characters. I want my people/other beings to earn their successes.

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Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble, George The Butterfly Tamer.

The title idea came from an exercise I’ve set so I thought I would go on to see if I could write the story up to go with it.

Hope you enjoy the tale – it’s a mixture of horror and humour (and could be described as one of my fairytales with bite).

Wonderful meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting last night. Amongst other things connected to the theme of Tens, we had fun with writing ten word stories. No more, no less.

Why not give it a go? It’s fun. It’s also useful practice for writing a strapline for any longer work you are writing. Why?

The ideal strapline isn’t too long! Indeed my one for From Light to Dark and Back Again comes in at exactly ten words with A collection of very short stories to suit every mood. Does what it says, folks!

As for my thoughts on ten word stories, here are those I shared last night.

Mary rammed the umbrella from hell into the park bin.

The aliens diverted past Earth, as they’d heard about humans.

Mark refused to swim in the sea, he’d seen Jaws.

Sarah unintentionally shared salad with some slugs and a caterpillar.

The fairy slammed her wand down, beaten by an amateur.

Hope you like those though I appreciate the one involving Sarah may make you wince! I could, if I wanted to, expand these stories further later on and use them as closing or opening lines too.

Will be sharing thoughts on “tens” in flash fiction as part of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later this evening. I prepare my PowerPoints for these meetings during the month (as I do with my newsletters) so there isn’t one big rush as the relevant date is coming up. I like things which take the pressure off. I also find it fun to compile things as I go. Gives me plenty of editing time later in the month too, which is always a good thing.

When I haven’t a lot of time to write, and I am itching to write something (which is my state of mind most of the time!), I will brainstorm, have a go at a writing exercise, or draft a flash tale. All great things to have a crack at when I only have five minutes, ten minutes or what have you. And I get something drafted I can polish up later.

Fairytales with Bite – Putting On a Show

How would your characters hide their real feelings in a magical world where mind reading, telepathy etc are likely to be commonplace? How good are your characters at “putting on a show” here? We all have to cover up true feelings at times (and sometimes for the best of reasons. For example, we’re sparing others who have gone through worse our problems).

But we don’t have to get around magical powers. Your characters may well have to do so. What can they use to help them here? Are mind blocks a thing in your setting or can only those of a certain status use these? Can your characters have filters to limit the scope of telepathy being used on them rather than by them?

Are certain kinds of characters better at putting on a show like this than others and , if so, what are the reasons for these? Plenty of practice perhaps? Survival depending on it? (Is that still the case now or a historical element?).

Plenty of food for story thought there, I hope.

This World and Others – What Society Expects

What does your fictional society expect from your characters and why? Are the same standards applied to all or only to some? Why any discrimination? Could there be good cause for it?

Where do the expectations come from? History (and all the nastier elements of that leading society to realise it has to have certain standards of behaviour to try to prevent these things happening again)? Faith of any kind? How does your society treat those who rebel against it and are they right to take the line they do?

Good story thoughts can come from looking at how your society has developed over time and what/who were the causes for changes? Is your society grateful for those changes and those behind them? Is there anyone who resents/tries to resist these? (I am thinking of the Luddites here who smashed machinery fearing job losses but you could take that idea further and apply it to your setting and people).

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Book Reviews, Editing, and Writing Superpowers

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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 weekend went well. Good to be back in the garden again. Lawn grateful I was I think! Pleased to see lovely foxgloves in flower too. Writing wise, am pretty much back to my normal routine and enjoying that. Lady, as ever, appreciates the company of her pals at the park. We appreciate the little things in life. They’re often more important to you than you might think. Know this is true for me and the dog!

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Soggy one here in Hampshire though Lady was delighted to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal again. Both dogs had a lovely time in the park before the rain set in.

Writing wise, will have further editing work coming up shortly. Looking forward to starting on that.

There will also be a bonus Chandler’s Ford Today post on Saturday this week from me as I’m publicizing The Chameleons’ Open Evening on 7th June. They’re celebrating their 60th anniversary this year and are inviting people to see what they do (and where they need volunteers) on and off the stage.

Plus I will be looking at History and Stories in my usual Friday night slot where I look at the links between history and stories and why I love both. (Nice link here as The Chameleons have acted out many wonderful stories, some of them history based, over their 60 years on the stage).

Stories, whether as prose or plays, can explore history and shed new insights on it.

Bank holiday here today in my part of the world. Lady was thrilled to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals today. We either see all we know on a bank holiday or nobody at all – there is no middle ground!

Had a quick look at the random question generator I use every so often to trigger story ideas. Usually the question gives me the theme I write to (and my characters answer the question, it literally is the story).

The question which came up tonight was if you could have one superpower what would it be? Now that is a fabulous question and I’m sure an article or two could be written around it but I wondered about answering it for this post from a writing viewpoint.

So which writing superpower would I like to have? I think it would be the ability to keep writing, no matter what. I wouldn’t ask to write perfectly from the get go because I think a lot of excellent stories come about thanks to having decent editing work done on them.

But to keep going whenever and whatever the circumstances, that would be a good thing to have. It isn’t always easy to do this so having a superpower boosting me here would be most welcome.

Hope the weekend is proving to be a good one for you. Cut the lawn yesterday. Desperately needed doing. Looking much better now and it was a great workout for me!

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again too. (I know. I can hardly believe is is almost June either). You can sign up at my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Writing wise, I’m working on a longer short story as well as my usual flash work at the moment. Have put final touches to my presentation for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group for Wednesday. Now done! Will be back to blogging and editing shortly. I do like a good mix of things to do!

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Have got to the end of the first week back from our wonderful Northumberland break. Always tough, the first week back from any kind of break but hey I’m there so now it is a case of onwards and upwards.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at History and Stories for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I love history. I love stories. History is full of stories. It’s a gem of a topic to write about! I’ve also found reading historical fiction has led to me reading historical non-fiction too but more on this in my post on Friday.

Character Tip: Remember it isn’t compulsory to like the characters you create, far from it, but you do need to know what drives and motivates them so you can write their stories up with understanding of where they are coming from and why.

For villains, you do need to look at why they have become that way. Not all of that will make it into your finished tale but enough should so readers can see why they’re being the way they are too.

If, say, your villain is driven by the need to make money a line of dialogue with another character or their own thought showing their need for enough money will create that understanding.

Readers (and you) still don’t need to approve of how they go about things here.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope today has been a good one. Looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction Group tomorrow. The topic is Tens. Looking forward to seeing everyone then. Zoom has made more things possible including writing groups like this one.

Am hoping to go an in-person ACW meeting later this year but have to book it first. Hope to do that in next couple of days. I like a good mixture of in person and online events. In a world which is far from perfect, why not have the best of both worlds when it comes to meeting with other writers?

Flash is also wonderful to share in any kind of workshop and/or writing group given it is short. I’ve always found stories illustrate points well. People remember the stories. (This is nothing new, far from it. Jesus did this with parables. Aesop did it with his fables too. All would count as flash fiction as we know it now).


It’s a Bank Holiday Monday where I am but it is still Monday. Time for a story then and I hope you like my latest on YouTube – Mixing It Up.

What harm could it do to mix up the dragons’ magical foodstuff and give it to the butterflies instead? George thinks it will be okay but is he right to do so?

 

Titles are important for any story (or article come to that) given they’re the first hook to entice a reader into reading your work. 

For flash fiction, I try and use mine to do some “heavy lifting” in terms of indicating to a reader the tale’s probable mood without using up any of my precious word count. (Most flash competitions don’t include the title in the limit they set you but there are always exceptions so do check).

I also use titles as a brainstorming exercise. It’s fun to do too. Why not give it a try?

Writing Exercise: Give yourself five minutes. Jot down as many three to five word titles as you can in that time. It helps to think along the lines of Subject and Action (a refusal to act will count as an action). Also consider Subject and Job.

You are looking for two immediate hooks here. People will want to know about your subject depending on what action or job you’ve given them in the title.

For example, how about George, the Butterfly Tamer, as an idea. I would immediately want to know who George is, how can anyone tame butterflies, and why does anything think it is needed. The story would reveal the answer to those questions but I’ve got to read it to find out. Job done by the author there I think! Do see my YouTube story for this week too – see above. I wrote this post first then decided to write the story up with just the title to go with. Good fun to do.

I’ve also found when I do this exercise once I get started, a whole raft of other ideas come. Later, I will review my title lists and the ones which still appeal to me are the ones I will write up. But this exercise is definitely worth trying. Hope you have fun with it.

Looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction Group on Zoom on Wednesday. Have set what I hope will be an intriguing theme (Tens – what would you make of that?) Alas, I’m not telling all here, but it is fun coming up with different ideas for these meetings and, of course, a good challenge to me.

Whatever you write, doing something different every now and then is a good challenge and will help sharpen up your other writing – or at least I’ve found that to be the case. It’s another good reason to enter story competitions every now and then (but do check the competition background out first and ensure you’re happy with it). Again, it makes you do something different, you are often set the prompt and it is a good challenge to see what you can do with it.

(Am also pleased because when I relax I play with words too. Have today got the word rewrites out in my phone’s equivalent of Scrabble. All seven tiles out so I get the bonus points too. Apt word for a writer and editor, I think!).

Goodreads Author Blog – Book Reviews

Do you read book reviews? I do. As a writer myself, I appreciate the reviews which come in on my books but I also like to write reviews on works by other authors. Other than buying the book itself, reviewing is probably the next best way to support authors. I keep my reviews short and would put in a plea to review when you can. It helps more than you know.

I try to review the moment I’ve finished a book whether it’s on Kindle or in print. Otherwise, I know I may well forget to do it. Life getting in the way and all of that…

The best reviews give a good flavour of what the book is about without giving too much away. The good news is they don’t have to be long to be effective.

Why not review the book you are currently reading? Doesn’t have to be a contemporary one either (though that obviously does help current authors) but there’s nothing to stop you giving your thoughts on a classic work either. I know I still find those useful for the classics I’ve not yet got around to reading.

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