Tag: am writing

Characterisation for Short Fiction and Re-Reads

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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 though I must say Lady loathed the fireworks. Classic FM’s Pet Classics show helped in that she remained calm but was still clearly unhappy. Just wish folk would use the silent fireworks. We can cut out the light flashes simply by drawing curtains but noise is more difficult to get rid of altogether.
Writing going well. Had a good weekend on that.

 

 

Not feeling 100% today so, other than taking Lady out this morning, it has been a quiet day indoors. Lady did get to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal and, earlier still when my other half took her out, Lady met up and played with her Australian Shepherd boyfriend. She’s had a good day. Will have an early night later and hope tomorrow is a much better day.

Writing wise, I was pleased to receive a lovely comment from the author whose work I’ve just proofread. That cheered me up no end given yesterday was more hectic than it normally is though my meeting went well. As I headed back to where I was meeting my other half, a poor fox short out, terrified given some idiot was letting off very noisy fireworks. Poor thing.

Glad to say there will be a super interview on Chandler’s Ford Today soon. More news nearer the time but it will be good to be back with interviews on CFT again. I always learn something useful for author interviews and it is a pleasure to conduct them here.

Another busy Monday with a meeting this evening too so am posting early. But it is never too busy to have a story to hand. Hope you like my latest from my Substack platform (which was shared there yesterday). Inspired by a prompt from Jennifer C Wilson, I then put my spin on said prompt to come up with Discovery. Hope you enjoy it.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

8th November – Remembrance Sunday
As ever, it was a touching Remembrance Sunday Service this morning at the War Memorial in the village where I go to church. The words are timeless and the reading of the names of the dead from the village is always deeply moving.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Online Book Launch Tips and Local Author News – Allison Symes for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. My online launch is on Thursday 19th November. I will share the link again a bit nearer the time. See further down though I will repeat the link next week. The event is being hosted by my publisher and is via Eventbrite and is free. Hope to see you there.

Character Tip: Today especially in the UK is a day for memories and thinking back with gratitude. What would your character want to recall with gratitude and why? There will be story ideas there.

Delighted to share Characterisation in Short Fiction as my monthly post for Writers’ Narrative for November.

I look at why it doesn’t need a lot of words to create memorable characters which, given I write flash fiction and short stories, is just as well but the tips here will also be useful for those writing longer works.This kind of writing ensures you write “tightly” and it is just as useful for novellas and novels.

I look at selecting the right details, share some useful indicators of character (not an exhaustive list by any means but a useful starting point) and other tips.

Hope you enjoy the post and put it to good use!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope today has gone well. Bit of a mixed bag here though Lady has had a super time.

Hope to crack on with amending some draft flash pieces later this week plus I need to prepare something for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group for later this month, all of which will be fun to do.

Looking forward to my online launch for Seeing The Other Side on Thursday, 19th November. Will be reading from the book and taking questions. Free to join. Do see the link.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Another busy Monday and time for my latest story on YouTube – Hidden Treasure. As with my Substack tale this week, Discovery, this is inspired by a prompt from Jennifer C Wilson though I’ve taken the time capsule idea and arranged for my characters to find out what is in it rather than create and bury it. Hope you enjoy both tales.

What is in the time capsule Bill would really rather his wife didn’t discover? Find out here.

 

Hope today has gone well. Chilly and foggy but this is what loads of layers and hot chocolate were invented for.

Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. It’s always a joy and I remain thankful flash fiction came into my writing life. The ongoing challenge of whether I can write another 100 worder this time on this topic is fantastic and keeps me on my writing toes (and out of mischief too, yet another side benefit of the format!).

Flash Fiction Tip: I’ve often said write the story first and edit later, meaning you worry about the word count later, and this is true, but every so often I will set myself the challenge I will write to XXXX word count.

Now I know a 100 worder is two to three paragraphs, a 50 worder is one paragraph. It helps me to visualise this. It means I have to write “tightly” which is why I have a go at this challenge regularly.

Being able to write to a specific word count is so useful if you want to enter competitions. They all have a word count limit and you’re already using to writing to this kind of word count by having a go at this kind of challenge. Nothing to dislike there! (Also, it’s fun, why not give it a go?).

Looking forward to catching up with writing friends on Zoom later and have booked my train tickets for Salisbury for the end of the month when I will be taking part in Salisbury URC’s Christmas Fayre. I’ve also booked my train tickets for the Bridge House Publishing event in December. Am looking forward to both events.

Nearer in time, am looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow. It’s a lovely way to end the week/start the next week off (delete as applicable!).

I’ve been talking about Characterisation in Short Fiction for Writers’ Narrative this month (see my author page for the link). See above. Characters make or break a story for me regardless of its length but especially in short fiction, I think they do a lot of “heavy lifting”. We see events through their eyes and hear what they think of them.

Fiction is the only place where you can genuinely read someone else’s mind! There isn’t the room for much description in short fiction so the characters do have to show us what we need to experience.

Goodreads Author Blog – Re-reads

Do you find, as the longer evenings draw in (at least in the UK where I am), you want to re-read favourite stories as a kind of comfort thing?

At some point in the next few weeks, I’ll be re-reading Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather (who is the Discworld’s equivalent of Santa). I’ll also be re-reading or watching various film adaptations of the Dickens classic, A Christmas Carol. The Muppet version is viewed first and then I often follow it with the late great Patrick Stewart version. He was seriously menacing in that (as was Michael Caine in the Muppet one).

I love new books. I love old favourites too. And there are times I do just want to read something familiar that I know I’ll enjoy. A lot of the time, I will pick up on something new in the story I’ve somehow missed before, perhaps an element of a character I hadn’t paid such close attention to before etc.

Re-reading can bring something new about the much loved story. The first read is to find out what the story is and then there are other discoveries to be made when you re-read.

Naturally there will be new books asked for on my list for Christmas. That’s a brilliant time to read new books. I wonder how many new books do get read over the festive season. I should imagine it’s a fair few!

But old or new books, what matters is we’re reading, right?

MAILERLITE – ALLISON SYMES – NEWSLETTER SIGN UP

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

WRITERS’ NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

ALLISON SYMES ON SUBSTACK  

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Festive Flash Fiction Writing

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good few days. Temperature plummeting here though our main concern is keeping Lady happy or as happy as possible during the firework season.
Writing going well. Looking forward to the Christmas Fayre at Salisbury URC later this month and the Bridge House Publishing event in December.

Facebook – General

Delighted to share Festive Flash Fiction Writing on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Honestly, I’m not too early with this one. The post explains why and shares useful thoughts and tips ahead of you writing material for your website, author newsletter etc, all things which may end the year with a smile or two, I hope.

I look at Festive Focus (the season itself acts as a framework and those are so useful for any length of story) and Festive Characters (and you can add to what is known, whether you’re writing on the secular side of the season or the Christian one or both. I’ve written both).

Hope you find the post useful.

Festive Flash Fiction Writing

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

This is becoming an annual event now but I’m currently tuning into Classic FM’s Pet Classics show which will be playing calming classical music from 5pm to 10pm for tonight (Bonfire Night) and the 6th and 7th November too. The late Bill Turnbull started this and I’ve found it does help with Lady who loathes fireworks.

The music keeps me calm too which also helps her and I just turn the sound up. Is worth a go if your pet is worried. (Only piece I can think of they won’t play is The 1812 Overture which has fireworks in it!). We also make sure Lady is never alone. That helps too.

Writing wise, I’m glad to report I’m in the December issue of Writing Magazine under Subscribers’ News with Seeing The Other Side. This slot is one of the first I turn to when the magazine comes in as I often see friends and their works in there. It’s been a while since I was last in – the last time would’ve been when Tripping The Flash Fantastic came out in 2020. Note to self: try not to leave it so long next time.

Will be sharing Festive Flash Fiction Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. Hope it will prove useful. See above.

You know I said it was chilly yesterday? Well, today’s temperatures beat that by some considerable margin! Not that it stopped Lady having a good time in the park with her Hungarian Vizler chum.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Festive Flash Fiction Writing on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Now is a good time to get some flash pieces written for use on your website etc. Hope you will find the post useful. (And yes I really must get around to drafting some myself!).

Hosting an online group for ACW tonight, that should be fun.

Looking forward to booking train tickets later this week for my event in Salisbury later this month re Seeing The Other Side and my tickets for the Bridge House Publishing event in December. Am on the list of readers for the latter event and I plan to read from the new book. Huge thanks again to Salisbury URC for inviting me to take part in their Christmas Fayre event. Hope to report back on both events later for Chandler’s Ford Today.

Newsletter Tip: Think themes. I find it useful to have a “peg” to write my newsletter around. Seasonal ones are also helpful and my December one will focus on the festive season for obvious reasons. But having that “peg” makes it easier to write pieces of interest around that “peg”.

I go for general themes such as light and dark. You can then break those general themes down in to the areas which most interest you. For the light and dark one, it was about how these things impact on characters.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Lady had a fabulous time in the park with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals. Earlier in the morning, Lady also caught up with her Australian Shepherd “boyfriend”. Am hoping she’ll be so tired, it’ll help against the fireworks.

Classic FM’s Pet Classics did help and we’ll be having this on again this evening. But I do wish people would use the silent fireworks. You can draw curtains etc to blank out the light flashes. Noise is more difficult. Ho hum.

Writing wise, and in keeping with my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week on writing festive flash, my thoughts will turn to writing some of my own for this year soon. It is fun to do and I hope to share a couple of pieces later via CFT, my newsletter, and on my website.

As with any flash piece, I focus on the character first. Who will be my star? Will it be a secular story or one loosely based around the Nativity? Will it be one to make someone smile or a thoughtful piece? (It is possible to write darker work here when you consider the story of King Herod!).

Happy with how my editing has gone on competition pieces this week. Will have another look at these stories soon as am hoping to get them out by the end of this month.

Hope today has gone well. Lady had a lovely time in the park with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal. Thankfully not as cold as yesterday though I did dry and dress after my swim today in record quick time. I think the centre could do with putting the heating up!

Writing wise, am pleased to have got around to editing my flash competition entries. Much tighter. Need to just type up the amended versions and rest them again. I hope to get these off by the middle of the month or so in plenty of time for their respective deadlines.

Pleased to be flagging up flash fiction and my Seeing The Other Side in Writing Magazine this time thanks to their Subscribers’ News slot.

Flash Tip: Have some fun inventing short snappy titles and then writing a flash piece around them. If unsure where to start, take a familiar saying and put your own spin on that.

For example, instead of, say, using A Stitch in Time, why not change that to A Stitch in Margate. (Am not disparaging Margate by the way!). You can then start thinking about why Margate, why does needlework of some sort come into this and how, and above all who is responsible for the “stitch” in the first place.

If I was writing this one, I’d be looking at a crafts fan who perhaps makes something (say a blanket) to raise money for a special cause in Margate. You get the idea.

Happy writing!

Hope today has gone well. Not bad here. Happy with stories I’ve picked out for competition entries. I need to reduce the word count on them but I can see easily where I can do that without losing anything important.

It is where having a break between writing the story and editing it helps enormously. I also print out my draft flash pieces. I do find it easier to spot things on paper rather than on screen and at least with flash I can always use the reverse side for notes etc. Nothing wasted here.

Editing Tip: Think of editing as stages. My first edit is to check does the story work? Is its structure okay? Are the characters consistent in terms of name and how I’ve portrayed them?

Second stage for me is then to look at how well I’ve phrased things. There is always room for improvement.

Third stage is the typo and grammar check.

For competitions, my final check is to ensure I’ve followed all the competition requirements for formatting, whether my name should appear or not (often not – they usually want a cover sheet or it is done on the Submittable/Duotrope form and not on the manuscript itself). In between stages, I’m drafting a story and/or coming back to a story I rested a while ago.

I see editing as a different form of creativity to writing the first draft. Both need “their time” and it pays not to rush either. I build myself in a deadline well ahead of any competition deadline to give me the time to do all of this.

Fairytales With Bite – Beyond The Stars

I was saddened to hear of the loss of Patrick Stewart. His role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation is rightly iconic. I’ve liked seeing many tributes to him, including various thoughts on his now going beyond the stars.

When it comes to your own magical settings, do your characters stay firmly on their own world or do they explore their universe/other universes? If the latter, does magic help them or can it be a hindrance? It could certainly make non-magical species they come across wary of them, as they would be of any power source they don’t know/understand.

Would your characters study the stars they can see? How would those stars differ from the ones we know (am thinking in terms of size, colour etc here)? Could they see the same stars we do but they know them by different names? What would be the basis for their naming stars? We often use classical mythology for our naming system.

Would your setting send out the right characters to explore beyond their stars and report back? What would your characters find?

Plenty of story thoughts there.

This World and Others – Contacts

One of the recurring themes of all of the Star Trek series and films is contacts – first contact with other species usually. Some of these are the beginning of friendships and others are definitely not!

Would your magical world seek to make contact with other worlds and its peoples or do they prefer to keep themselves to themselves? Has your setting had bad experiences with contacts with others before so isn’t prepared to risk if again? Definitely story ideas to explore there.

How would your magical world react if another world, magical or not itself, made contact with them? Would that be welcomed or not and, if the latter, how did the contact happen? Did your world not have enough shields in place to ensure such contact couldn’t happen? What would be the results of this unexpected connection? Could something positive come from it?

Again, plenty of story possibilities there. The lovely thing with the theme of contacts is there has to be two sides to this, whether the contact is welcome or not. Plenty of opportunities for misunderstandings, clashes etc, all of which is great for a writer!

MAILERLITE – ALLISON SYMES – NEWSLETTER SIGN UP

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

WRITERS’ NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

ALLISON SYMES ON SUBSTACK 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Haunted

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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 great weekend. Lady turned 10 on 1st November and we can’t believe it either. Writing and editing going well with some lovely online events to look forward to this month, including my ONLINE launch FOR SEEING THE OTHER SIDE, and in December.

Facebook – General

Hope today has gone well. Getting colder. Lady had a lovely time in the park with her Hungarian Vizler pal. I enjoyed a swim and it was warmer in the water than out of it but it is November after all.

Writing wise, have almost completed an interesting proofreading job. I need to get on with editing some flash pieces for competitions but have earmarked some time later in the week for that. I find it pays to block out time for tasks. It means I’ve made a commitment to myself here and it helps me get more done.

Character Tip: Think about what your character would have on their wish list, say the top two or three things. Could you write a story around them trying to accomplish one of them? Equally you could look at why the items are on that list – there will be stories behind that too.

Hope you’ve had a good day. A hectic one as usual but hey that’s Monday for you.

Time for a story though and I hope you like my latest one which I first shared on Substack yesterday – Lighter. Look out for my YouTube story which I’ll share shortly as that follows this one. See further down. Both were great fun to write.

Hope you enjoy Lighter and I suspect there will be a lot of sympathy for my character, Belpeth, here.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Brrr… chilly today. Glad to report author newsletter went out earlier today. Theme was on light and dark. I shared some tips and ideas on using this theme.

Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. Have booked a couple of Zoom events for later this month and into December for Bridge House Publishing and the Association of Christian Writers respectively.

Looking forward to these plus my online launch for Seeing The Other Side on 19th November.

Link here for that – all welcome. Will be reading from my new collection and taking questions. Hope to see you there.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Hope the weekend has got off to a good start. Getting colder here. Not a fan of Halloween but hope you found my Trick or Treat for Characters on Chandler’s Ford Today yesterday helpful.

Talking of CFT, I’ll be sharing Festive Flash Fiction Writing next week and I’m not too early on this one, honest! If you’re preparing festive flash for your website, newsletter etc., now is a good time to draft some (and certainly for the women’s magazine market you’d have needed to have had your Christmas stories in much earlier in the year, by summer at the latest). Anyway, more on that next week.

Author newsletter out again tomorrow. A huge thanks for your support here.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Well, the longer darker evenings are here with a vengeance now. Dark by 5pm. Am so thankful writing can be done in the warm. There is something about the darker evenings which encourages me to get to my desk even earlier than usual and write more so that’s something positive at least.

I’ve been writing around the themes of light and dark recently (see my Substack and YouTube stories this week – see above and below this time!) but they are timeless themes and the lovely thing with them is you can apply them to characters and situations too as my recent Chandler’s Ford Today post discussed.

What one character sees as light, another will see in a different light, the opposite of it in fact, but you can have a great deal of fun writing stories about characters clashing on things like this.

Another busy Monday and another story from me on YouTube – Darker. This follows on from my Substack tale, Lighter. See above.

Following on from that, what does my Belpeth try now to get out of having to do something she needs to do but so doesn’t want to?

When you have bad news, could a member of your usual opposition be an unusual ally? Can any good come out of a fairy godmother consulting with a witch? Find out here.

 

Will shortly be getting on with flash fiction Sunday. It;’s a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon especially when it’s cold out! I’m so glad writing is generally done indoors. I used to take part in Flash NANO and miss that a lot. Mind you, several of my drafts from this have been published (including in Seeing The Other Side).

What I found useful about it was the daily challenge to write a flash piece (though sometimes I did end up writing two pieces on one day, life sometimes getting in the way as it will do). I also loved the range of prompts including in formats I hadn’t come across before. One of my favourites there was to write a piece in the form of an American style police report. I wrote what I call a fairytale with bite for that. Funny and fun to do.

I’ve had the privilege of contributing to books of prompts issued by Bridge House Publishing. Do check it out – link to Kindle version below. I will often take a prompt and put my own spin on it so getting even more from it.

 

Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow and I hope to get on with editing some stories for competition purposes too. Has been a busy week but a good one. Enjoyed being on Zoom earlier this week for a book launch and, separately, an ACW get together. Online is useful for those times you could never meet in person and both of these events came into that category.

November will be a busy month. I’ll be back at Salisbury URC for a Christmas Fayre and there will also be my online launch for Seeing The Other Side. The link for that will go out in my newsletter but I’ll also share it here later. See above. Am enjoying the prep work for that too which I’m currently doing. It’s always a joy to be talking about flash.

Hope to wrap up my proofreading job in the next ten days. Has been an interesting one.

The flash competitions I’ve got in mind will probably be the last ones I have a go at for this year unless something stupendous comes up between now and early December. (After that it’s a case of winding down for Christmas really).

Goodreads Author Blog – Haunted

I couldn’t resist the title for this piece given I’m writing this on Halloween 2026. Now as well as ghost stories, my favourite being Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, you can have haunted characters.

Haunted not by ghosts but by other living characters, mistakes they’ve made in the past (see Persuasion by Jane Austen – both Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth are haunted this way), haunted by things left undone.

Sometimes they can be haunted by seeing how things could have been. Gollum in The Lord of The Rings is haunted by the fact Sam and Frodo have a great friendship. Gollum killed the only friend he did have to get that wretched ring and seeing Sam’s utter loyalty to Frodo brought home to Gollum, I think, what he could have had if he’d acted more honourably.

Characters with regrets always hit a chord with readers given we all have own own regrets and fiction reflects what we know (and in the case of sci-fi/fantasy what could be real if those other worlds existed).

All fiction has to have characters readers can relate to and we can relate to regrets and mistakes. What I love is seeing how those regrets and mistakes are dealt with – can the characters put things right? Can they come to terms with what can’t be put right?

So, I think, it is the haunted characters who keep us reading.

MAILERLITE – ALLISON SYMES – NEWSLETTER SIGN UP

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

WRITERS’ NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

ALLISON SYMES ON SUBSTACK 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Trick or Treat for Characters and Book Fairs

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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 gone well so far. Off to an online launch this week and had a lovely online get together earlier this week. Let’s hear it for Zoom, it makes things possible. Lady has had a fabulous week catching up with her Australian Shepherd boyfriend, her Rhodesian Ridgeback girlfriend, and her Hungarian Vizler chum who is the matriarch of our little pack.
Am very sorry to hear of the death of Sir Patrick Stewart, a great actor and a greater man. Loved him in Star Trek – The Next Generation. When he is assimilated by The Borg is truly scary. He also played a magnificent Scrooge. We often watch his version of A Christmas Carol after watching The Muppet one. Both are excellent and true to Dickens’ original work.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Delighted to share a timely piece on Trick or Treat For Characters for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I don’t celebrate Halloween as I much prefer the following day, All Saints Day, but I thought I’d look at the topic from a creative writing viewpoint.

I look at characters who play tricks, characters who have tricks played on them, characters who give out treats, characters who receive treats or turn them down (and there are opportunities for blackmail stories in all of these to name one thought). I also look at situations which might be seen as a treat but don’t necessarily turn out that way. I look at situations which could be seen as a trick too.

Lots of lovely story possibilities to come from all of those things which I discuss in the post so I hope you find it useful.

Trick or Treat For Characters

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Lady had a fabulous time with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals again today. Smashing woodland walk this afternoon too.

Writing wise, I’m glad to be back on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, discussing Book Fairs. I stress how useful it is to other authors to support these even when you aren’t behind the stalls and what you can gain here too. I’ve made friends at book fairs.

I also share some tips on having useful materials for potential readers to take away even if they don’t buy from you on the day. (I find these things often lead to sales on Kindle later and, even when not, they are still useful in getting word of who you are and what you write out there).

Hope you enjoy the post.

Book Fairs

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Lady had a doubly special time at the park today. First thing she met up with her Australian Shepherd “boyfriend”. Later she met up with her Hungarian Vizler chum and then got to run around with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal. We have one tired but happy dog here.

Talking of pets, I will flag up Classic FM are running their Pet Classics again next week where they play calming music to help against fireworks etc. I find it helps, especially if I turn the sound up, draw the curtains. The music also soothes me and I think that helps Lady too. I do wish folk would use silent fireworks. They’re more readily available now. It is the noise more than anything here I think. Mind you, I can think of one piece Classic FM won’t be playing next week – the marvellous but noisy 1812 Overture!

Had a fabulous time at the Association of Christian Writers online meeting last night. Once the formal business of the AGM was done, it was lovely to connect up with various people in breakout rooms and have a good chat.

Tomorrow I’ll be online again to celebrate Hannah Ruth Retallick’s new flash fiction collection, Falling Woman. I hope to interview her for Chandler’s Ford Today soon too – more details as and when.

Talking of CFT, I’ll be sharing Trick or Treat For Characters this week. Link up on Friday. See above.  I can promise no pumpkins were harmed in the making of this post!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Thoroughly enjoyed the online launch for Hannah Ruth Retallick’s Falling Woman last night. Great stories read and lots of interesting discussion. Well done, Hannah.

Look out for news on my online launch for Seeing The Other Side in my newsletter out on Sunday and later in the month here too.

Online Launch Tip: You get to speak a fair bit so have plenty of (non-alcoholic) drink before the event and have something to hand during it, you will be glad of it. Alcohol tends to dry out the throat but if you’re in need of a restorative after the event that’s a different matter!

Also prepare questions and answers in advance. It will give you something to talk about in between readings and people always, for example, do like to know what inspired the writing of a story or the collection as a whole.

Hope today has gone well. Chilly here but dry. Looking forward to going to Hannah Ruth Retallick’s launch of Falling Woman, her latest flash fiction collection later tonight. Always good to celebrate flash fiction.

I’ll share the link to my online launch in November. Am looking forward to that one too! I’ll be reading from Seeing The Other Side and taking questions. If you subscribe to my newsletter, full details will be coming out in that on 1st November. I’ll share the link here later.

I’ve mentioned before flash is great to read to people at events because it doesn’t take long and it is the best way of showing what flash is. Works just as well for online events!

Hope today has gone well. Was pretty dark by half four this afternoon. Not keen on that, to be honest, though I did value the hour’s lie in over the weekend. Oh well, can’t have it both ways, can we?

Not that this has stopped some of my characters trying to have things every which way. Such characters are fun to write up. They’re even more fun to bring crashing to earth! I have examples of these in all of my flash fiction collections.

If you want to find out more about the “nuts and bolts of flash fiction”, do check out my interview by Wendy H Jones as part of the blog tour for my third collection from a couple of months back. The interview was great fun to do and Wendy asked some wonderful questions.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Fairytales With Bite – Launching

Now this topic has come up because I’m supporting a friend’s online book launch shortly and in November 2026 will be having an online launch for my Seeing The Other Side. Launches are fun and hard work but such a good opportunity for authors to “share their wares”.

In your magical setting, what kind of creative arts exist where characters would want to have launches such as we know them? Is there a magical book industry for example and what kind of works would they publish, other then spell books which could be seen in this world as technical manuals? How would they launch new works?

Are there other careers where launches would be appropriate?

When it comes to “technical developments” such as new spells, who would launch these? Would they have to be registered with your setting’s equivalent of the Patents Office before any such launch could happen? Who would be responsible for testing these?

Now every author I know, including me, would like more reviews for our work. How would your magical writers feel about that? I would hope they would be banned from literally conjuring up their own reviews – that would be almost a kind of AI at work there, I think!

Are there launch parties? Who would get to go to this? What could happen when a launch went wrong?

Plenty of story thoughts there. Happy writing!

This World and Others – Progression

Whatever the career, most would want to see positive progression in it. What would this look like in your fantasy or sci-fi based setting? Is magic allowed to be used to boost someone’s career? Is it only with magic any kind of progression is possible?

What would magical progression look like for your characters and is it dependent on what kind of magical species they are? Are certain types limited to what kind of progression they make and were those limits brought in for understandable reasons or as a method of controlling said certain types? Is any progression made in changing things here? Would anyone want to campaign for positive change here?

As ever in any world, there are always those who want to make more progression for anything but good reasons and are happy to use unorthodox methods to achieve what they want. See Sir Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic for examples of that! There was a film version made which starred the late Tim Curry in the role of Trymon, whose ambitions seem to know no limits. It was a fantastic bit of casting. Do check it out (and read the books!).

On the opposite side of things, are there characters who are happy where they are, thank you, and don’t want to make progression because they’ve seen what has happened to others when they try? What would these characters do in the scenario they’ve got to make progression or else? How would they handle that?

Again, plenty of story thoughts there.

MAILERLITE – ALLISON SYMES – NEWSLETTER SIGN UP

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

WRITERS’ NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

ALLISON SYMES ON SUBSTACK

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Comfort Reading

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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.
Wet and windy weather over the weekend, hope all okay with you. Even Lady wasn’t impressed. Other than thunder, she’s not fazed by the weather as a rule. Writing wise, getting plenty done and am looking forward to going to an online book launch later this week too.

Facebook – General

Am off to an online meeting of the Association of Christian Writers later this evening so am posting early. Will be nice to see everyone again.

It’s half term week here so off for an early swim too but it was nice to get that done though Lady was a bit bemused I also had to get her to the park early.

Writing wise, don’t forget it’s nearly time for my next author newsletter, yes the November one, how can it be that time already?

To sign up head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

This time I’ll be sharing some thoughts on using light and dark in fiction, which I also worked on with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group last week. But it’s a timely topic and there is plenty to get from it so I hope the thoughts and tips I share in my newsletter will prove useful.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Another murky, wet and windy day today. Lady and I crossed the park in record time. Even she wasn’t sorry to get home. The rest of the day was the usual hectic Monday so that must also mean it’s story time.

Hope you like my latest which I first shared on Substack yesterday – Surprised. I especially enjoyed creating the image for this one. Hope it and the story makes you smile.

Look out for my YouTube story for this week too – the two are linked.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Hope the storms have blown over where you are. Those winds have dried out most places here but there’s a lot of tree debris down. Thankfully no trees down here. Must remember to take the dog out earlier given the clocks went back last night though I must admit I did enjoy the extra sleep.

Writing wise, I’ll be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday afternoon shortly and then back to blogging. All done where I can stay cosy and warm too! Have a book launch to go to this week (online) and an ACW event (again online) on Tuesday evening.

Next month will be busy too as I will be back at Salisbury URC for their Christmas Fayre and just ahead of that will be my publisher’s online launch for Seeing The Other Side. I will share a link to that nearer the time (and also via my newsletter).

Character Tip: What would make your character laugh? What influences their sense of humour? If they had one but don’t now, what happened? What changed? Where the sense of humour is fully functioning, how would your characters show this in your stories? As well as amusing other characters, can they make your readers smile too? I hope so!

Hope you’ve managed to avoid the worst of the weather today. I hope anyone who has lost power soon gets it back. Hunkering down out of a storm is easier to come to terms with when you’ve got power, heating etc, and lots of hot drinks and good books to read and/or write.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Trick or Treat For Characters for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Looking forward to sharing that one.

My author newsletter will be out again soon and you can sign up at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Newsletter Tip: I’ll often share pictures created in Book Brush (which uses Pixabay images) as part of my newsletter and I will take the chance to add additional tips in the text boxes I can put on these. It gives readers more tips they can use and makes the image stand out too.

It’s easy enough to do too. I avoid AI images but Book Brush clearly marks this out, which is useful. So give some thought as to how to make your images enhance the text because a reader will get more out of both of these things if you can do that.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Ran out of time to look at editing stories for competitions at the weekend but this coming one should be quieter so I hope to get to those then.

Plus I have a couple of flash fiction pieces from last week’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group I want to work on too.

And I’m off to Hannah Ruth Retallick’s online launch for her new flash fiction collection, Falling Woman, later this week so it will be a good few days on the flash fiction front!

Flash Fiction Tip: There are always open competitions around so it pays, when you have time, to draft stories to your favourite themes and put them aside for a while.

As well as resting them properly, when you come back to them, and there is no obvious other home for them, why not try submitting them to suitable reputable competitions? If you win, fabulous. If you’re listed at all, again fabulous. You’ve nothing to lose here except some time and a reasonable fee.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Another hectic Monday (and another stormy one too) so that means it’s time for my latest YouTube story – Dropping By. This one links to my Substack tale, Surprised. Both were great fun to write.

Meantime, check out Dropping By here.

Just sometimes you have to put your foot down with your sister, even though she is a witch. Find out what happens here.

 

I sometimes look up the What Happened on This Day kind of websites and have sometimes picked up useful writing prompts from them. For example, if an invention was patented on a certain day, I could give some story thought to what would be the magical world’s equivalent of the invention and the inventor.

Looking at your own photos from your phone can trigger ideas too. Landscapes, for instance, make me think who could be living there, possibly out of sight of humans.

Ideas are around us. The tricky bit is picking out the ones which we know we can do something with. I find photos with humans in them do nothing for me idea wise and I think that’s because I want to imagine my characters for myself. Having something I could use as a starting point for a setting is okay though. I can then picture the characters from there.

Ghastly day weather wise out there but a good day for staying in to read and/or write. Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow and I hope to include editing some stories I’ve got in mind for competitions as part of that. Looking forward to a flash fiction launch for Hannah Ruth Retallick this coming week too for her Falling Woman.

Let’s hear it for flash fiction! It is a fantastic format in which to write and an ongoing challenge. Each story has its own challenges to overcome, whether you’re writing to 50 words or 500.

I’ve also got a couple of stories to edit from Wednesday’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group though that will have to wait for a while. Mind you, it is always good to have something to look forward to writing wise as well.

Goodreads Author Blog – Comfort Reading

As I write this in late October 2026, the UK has had the first of its autumnal storms. I was a bit miffed one of them was named Storm Austen. I associate Austen with the lovely Jane and her fabulous works, especially Pride and Prejudice. She certainly doesn’t deserve to have a storm share her name. Mind you, there has been a Storm Allison as well and I’m not impressed by that either.

The one positive thing about bad weather it it is the perfect excuse to stay in and read. Now I like comfort reading at the best of times, you know the kind of books you turn to time and again when you need them, but especially during the darker times of the year. If I want dark stories, I’ll put the news on, but for fiction, I want something which at least gives some hope (and ideally some smiles too).

I love Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. So funny, insightful, gets some good digs in too, all of which is done without lecturing the reader and via characters you want to get behind (though in the case of Death you might want him to stick to making a fuss of cats and enjoying a curry). The best fantasy, and that very much includes this series, makes you think about us. When you can do it and make people laugh, even better.

I also find comfort reading via Austen, Wodehouse, and the lighter short stories and flash fiction, all of which have influenced my own writing. The more I read, the more I am inspired by. This is just one reason why writers are always encouraged to read in and out of their own genres. You never know what ideas will spark from what so the wider you reader, the more of a pool your imagination has got to fish from.

And comfort reading will keep you reading, I find. I have to be in the right frame of mind for a challenging book and I want to read to be entertained first and foremost. Being made to think too is fine but I want a riveting good story first.

MAILERLITE – ALLISON SYMES – NEWSLETTER SIGN  UP

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

WRITERS’ NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

ALLISON SYMES ON SUBSTACK  

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Questions To Ask Your Characters

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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 gone well so far. Blustery rain and storms coming in though there is a brief pause for some sunshine as I type this. Had a lovely time with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group this week and Lady caught up with her “boyfriend”, the Australian Shepherd this week so, all in all, we’d say it was an okay week!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope today has been okay. I must admit I prefer Jane Austen to Storm Austen any time. Mainly wet and windy here though Lady and I were grateful for a break in the weather for her morning walk. You do give a few heartfelt thanks when you don’t get a soaking! I know not to take that for granted!

Writing wise, I’m delighted to share Questions to Ask Your Characters on Chandler’s Ford Today and hope you find it useful. I also look at the question of does planning your writing mean it becomes formulaic writing?

I also list some questions which would be useful regardless of what genre you write in and share more specific questions which could be useful for many genres (and I am sure could be adapted for still others).

I also look at exploring traits further and how characters need to be believable. I know a good character (whether they themselves are good or not is another matter) will keep me reading to find out what happens to them.

Questions To Ask Your Characters

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Hope today has gone well. It has been chilly but we had sunshine so it was particularly nice at the park. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal again too. I had a nice swim later too.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Questions To Ask Your Characters on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow.  See above. Hope you will find it useful.

I find quizzing my characters a useful tool. I vary what I ask, depending on the character type I know I’ll be using, but the joy of this technique is just a couple of questions will give you ideas for your character development, will help you know enough about them to write your story up, and I find can lead to plot ideas which hadn’t occurred to me initially.

As ever, it’s about asking the pertinent questions. More in the post tomorrow but basically you are getting a structure to your story here. Stories which don’t grip me seem to have a weak or non-existent structure, at least to me, so I find this a great aid.

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady and I managed to avoid getting wet today and she saw her Hungarian Vizler pal too. Lady also had a fabulous run around with her Australian Shepherd “boyfriend”, the lovely Bear. The two of them went home tired and happy. The Vizler being older “supervises” and a grand job she does of it too.

Writing wise, am looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later tonight. It was great!

Later in the week I hope to start preparing questions for two super interviews I hope to share on Chandler’s Ford Today later. I also have some enjoyable “homework” to do for my online launch for Seeing The Other Side in November plus story editing for competitions. So no getting bored here then but that is how I like it.

Oh and I’ll also be working on my next Writers’ Narrative article too. My last one, Darkness in a Flash, received a number of likes and comments which is always appreciated. Writers may not work in the proverbial garret but any more but when you put work out there, you can’t know how it will go down unless someone takes the time and trouble to tell you. Many thanks for all who have, and not just for that piece. I know I’m not the only writer to appreciate this, far from it.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I hope Storm Austen hasn’t caused too much damage where you are and if you’re staying put with a hot drink and a novel by Jane Austen, I don’t blame you!

I rarely use the weather in flash fiction or short stories because I’m only too aware it is to easy for this to slip into cliche. It was a dark and stormy night…. Well, quite, but it’s not specific enough.

Getting a character to put on two coats, wellies, and assure another they will be only ten minutes and yes they have got the torch which is fully charged etc, all of that is far more interesting to me. I can picture the two characters here. I can hear the voice too.

It’s then a question of finding out whether that character will be back in ten minutes after all or whether this will be where said character will meet a dastardly ending. But I’ve got to read to find that out so the author will have done their job well here.

As with anything in a story, give specific details. It’s easier to picture. Showing us it was bucketing down outside is far more interesting, at least to me, than saying it was raining heavily.

Had a lovely time at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting last night. It was good to see everyone and we did get to draft a couple of stories on the theme of light and dark. I’ll now rest mine for a bit and come back to them later though I do know they both need tightening up but that’s fine.

A first draft is never perfect. It’s not meant to be. I’ve always loved the late Sir Terry Pratchett’s quote on this that “a first draft is just you telling yourself the story”. Isn’t that a perfect sum up of what a first draft is meant to be?

Flash Tip: Know your character well enough. For a flash piece, you may only need to know one or two details (and character attitude to life would be a good one to know) but it will make all the difference to how convincing your character comes across as to a reader.

Looking forward to working with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this evening to our theme of light and dark. Plenty of ideas to come from that and I have a soft spot for this given it inspired my first book’s title, From Light to Dark and Back Again. I hope all of us will get a couple of stories drafted this evening.

I suspect most of us have favourite themes we like to write around. I will always have some humorous fairytales on the go but do you find sometimes when you look back at several stories you’ve written, there is an underlying theme?

I’ve particularly noticed this when putting collections together and, for the fist book, when I wasn’t writing funny tales, I was writing stories of justice.

So that tells you I like a laugh and I like to see wrong being righted!

Yep, spot on there.

Fairytales With Bite – Words of Power

All words have power – power to make us laugh, cry, scream etc. But in magical setting, they have even more power.

What words are used specifically for spells in your setting which couldn’t be used elsewhere? Are certain words/spells forbidden (and yes I am thinking of certain ones in the Harry Potter series here). Who would want to defy convention here? There is always plenty of room for tales about good versus evil and words and the power that can be behind them will come into play here.

Who came up with the words of power in the first place and how did they imbue the words with their meaning and practical usage?

If your setting has more than one magical species, are the different kinds allowed to use all of the same words of power or does each species have their own and nobody outside of their group can use these? How is this policed? (I have visions of magical dictionary enforcers here…! Hmm… could be some good funny tales there).

Which words do your characters go out of their way not to use and why? Which would they use in everyday usage and for what spells which they are expected to use?

This World and Others – Controlling Language

Following on from Fairytales with Bite, who are the powers that be who would control the language your species would use, whether it is specifically for magical purposes or not?

Is there freedom of speech as we would know it? Is certain speech forbidden because of the magic it could unleash and how do your characters know it should be forbidden? Or has someone always told them that and there is nothing to back this up? It is so easy to go along with something because that is how things have always been done. Who could be the brave soul in your stories to challenge this/see if there is any justification behind this?

Who lays down the rules for how magical language (as opposed to everyday speech) is used and by whom? Are spell books and the like written in older style of the main language or have these been updated? Old English is considerably different to that used now! The former is not all that easy to read either.

So who decides what can be “translated” to a more modern usage and which items have been deliberately left in a less easy to understand language because that would easily control who had access to it?

Food for thought there and again plenty of opportunity for characters to uncover things which the powers that be might wish they hadn’t.

MAILERLITE – ALLISON SYMES – NEWSLETTER SIGN UP

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

WRITERS’ NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

ALLISON SYMES ON SUBSTACK 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Ghosts and Taking Books With You

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Due in for a wet week or so which means back to the boot and big coat! Lady won’t worry. Writing going well. Have picked some stories to edit for competitions and hope to do that later this week.

Facebook – General

Hope you’ve had a good day. It’s been a wet one here with more rain to come. Mind you, it is nice to see the trees changing their leaf colours (bar the holly of course!).

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting tomorrow night. We’ll be looking at light and dark as themes.

Managed to get more writing done on my busy night, Monday, than I anticipated so I count that as a win. I managed to get a pitch off which I’d been working on for a while. Nice to tick the box on that one. Will be a while before I know what happens with it.

Have selected some stories for competitions and hope to work on those later in the week. Need to get them sent off by the end of November for one and end of the year for the other, but I will probably try and get them sent off together.

Also added more to my newsletter and continued to work on a proofing task I’m working on right now. Making good progress on that and it’s an enjoyable job too.

And the best thing about writing? It’s the perfect creative task for the indoors, accompanied by beverages and treats of choice of course!

Another hectic Monday so it must mean story time. Well, it is a good way to start the week.

Hope you like my latest tale, which first appeared on Substack yesterday – Worth It. Look out for my YouTube story as well as this links to this one. (See further down). 

If you like the fairytales, you’ll love both of them.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Am pleased to be back on Authors Electric with my latest post, Ghosts. Well, it is apt for this time of year.

I look at favourite ghost stories, why I need to believe in the ghost as a character for them to work for me, and look at some well remembered and loved shows I enjoyed watching which feature ghosts. Most recently, that has included the series Ghosts which I thought was brilliantly done.

I also like ghost stories which make me think or encourage empathy. Ghosts don’t necessarily need to be scary after all but they should have good reasons for being in a tale at all. And yes I’ve written some flash tales featuring ghosts including in my Seeing The Other Side. Given the topic of my Authors Electric post this month, my book title seems peculiarly apt!

Hope you enjoy the post.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. Managed to get the grass cut today and it is the start of my usual autumn workout – clearing the leaves! Still it saves trips to the gym and keeps me warm.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Questions to Ask Your Characters for next week’s Chandler’s Ford Today. I’ll be suggesting some which I use a lot and hope the post will prove to be useful.

Am looking forward to next week’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group, something Zoom makes possible. We’ll be looking at light and dark as our theme. Should have fun with that one and certainly it’s timely!

Facebook – From Light To Dark and Back Again

Wet day today but when out and about with the dog (who doesn’t care about the rain), you can get to notice things around you which you might not if you were meeting up with dog walking friends (whose dogs do loathe the rain). Sounds can seem different too partly because I’m not chatting away with said dog walking friends! (Will make up for it when the weather breaks and they’re back out).

Now the use of sound is something you can use in your stories, including in flash. You can get a character to be listening out for a sound (and the reason why will be the story hook there). You can get a sudden sound to bring about a change of behaviour in your character (and again the reason why will be the interesting thing here).

I find the hardest sense to use in a story is touch, funnily enough. It’s easy enough to get a character to see, hear, smell or eat something but touch is harder, I think, to do convincingly unless you are writing something like a love story, which I don’t.

If I get a character to brush by something, I need to already have established this is the kind of thing they would do otherwise it looks too convenient. I’m not going to force a sense into a story when I can’t have it there as a natural part of my character’s life and behaviour.

Mind you, that goes for almost anything, I think.

Whatever doesn’t help the story in some way should come out.

Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today and, later on our evening work, a human chum we haven’t seen for a while who always gives her a cuddle and dog biscuits. So Lady has had a great day!

Less so for the tired humans of the household. Mondays are usually busy for us but today just seemed to be on another level. Am so glad to be at my desk writing.

And with that, I would say it’s definitely time for another story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Tip Off. It links to my Substack one too. (See above). Hope you like both of them.

Even in the fairytale world, there are behind the scenes deals here but can my business man here get the better of the Big Bad Wolf? Find out here.

 

Looking forward to getting on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. As well as my usual Substack and YouTube tales, I need to look through my stock of drafts for a couple of competitions which are coming up. The stories I’ve got in mind will be well rested by now!

Am also looking forward to catching up with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group this week.

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

I share many of my online story links here in a kind of “one stop shop”, as well as sharing tips and news. It’s a joy to put together and a huge thank you to my subscribers for supporting me here.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Brrr…. It has been chilly but bright today. Time for the big cardigans and hot chocolate. Mind you, I can enjoy both of those while writing so win-win here. Lady doesn’t notice unless it is a few degrees below zero of course, not that we’re there yet.

Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow. Have spotted another competition to have a crack at but may already have some suitable pieces drafted. Will look into that further.

It is just one reason why I love having “stories in stock”. I will often write drafts to themes I want to write about and it usually is a matter of time before that theme comes up as a competition or there is an open one and the word count I’ve written to will suit it. Win-win here too.

GOODREADS AUTHOR BLOG – Taking Books With You

It’s not that long ago when we were in holiday season. I write this in October 2026 but it was only a couple of months back the holidays were in full swing, as was the heatwave in the UK. Now I must confess for once, while I did take my Kindle with me on holiday, I was too shattered at the end of each day to use it. I focused on some writing and reading my writing magazines.

But I do like to take books with me in some way whenever I’m out and about. And if I’m at an event, as I will be again in November and December, there is every likelihood I will be bringing new books back with me! I suppose this is one reason why I am so fond of the paperback. There are so much easier to lug about compared with the hardbacks.

Books though have followed me around all of my life from childhood home to my various homes I’ve lived in as an adult. I can’t imagine there being a house without books in. Certainly should I move again, I do know my books are definitely coming with me. Will take me ages to pack them, mind you, but I see that as a good thing.

But you can take books with you metaphorically as well. One of the joys of reading, in any format, is recalling favourite lines, incidents, characters etc and the more you read, the more you can do this. I love recalling these things when I can’t have the actual books with me for whatever reason. And I guess this means one thing – we all have to read more. I don’t see any problems there!

Let’s keep reading then!

Mailerlite – allison symes – newsletter sign up

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

WRITERS’ NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

ALLISON SYMES ON SUBSTACK  

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Fairytales and Their Impact

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

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’ve had a good week. Had smashing day out with other half and the dog down in Dorset. Lady made some fans in the very friendly dog cafe we visited and she’s seen her friends so she has had a terrific week so far.
Writing is going well. Looking forward to catching up with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Delighted to share a topic on Chandler’s Ford Today, which is close to my writing and reading heart – Fairytales and Their Impact.

I have so many reasons to love fairytales. One of them is being given the two volume set of The Readers’ Digest Collection of Fairytales which collates so many of the original stories. My late Dad gave me this and I still have them, though one of the volumes does have a spine with a lot of tape on it!

Another reason is, naturally, my first story in print was A Helping Hand in the 2009 anthology Alternative Renditions (Bridge House Publishing) which was another look at the Cinderella tale but this time from the viewpoint of the younger stepsister.

My post considers the impact of fairytales on writing craft because they can teach writers so much including the use of the Three Act Structure, clear character definition, only giving you what you need to know, no sentimentality (good and evil are both shown for what they are) and so much more.

Hope you find the post useful.

Fairytales and Their Impact

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Quiet day in the park today with Lady but that may have been useful as I suspect she is still tired from our super day out yesterday. I know I am and even more so after my swim today though it was lovely to chat to regulars there.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Fairytales and Their Impact for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow on a topic close to my heart. See above.

Delighted to have booked my tickets for (a) Hannah Ruth Retallick’s launch of her latest flash fiction collection, Falling Woman, which is later this month and (b) my place at the Bridge House Publishing Celebration Event in December. It’s always great fun.

Had a lovely day out with other half and Lady in Dorset. Good weather, great walking and a smashing lunch at a very dog friendly cafe. Good time had by us all. Lady made some fans there too!

Did us good which led me to think about what would your characters do when they felt the need to take time out? Where would they visit? Why are these places special to them?

Food for story thought there.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Have had one of those days when I may as well have put a revolving door on the front door. Likewise for other half. Won’t be sorry to have a quieter weekend.

Loved listening to the Classic FM concert which was staged at the Royal Albert Hall recently. The broadcast went out earlier this week and it was sublime especially listening to Sir Willard White.

Good music can transport you to other worlds. And great stories, including flash ones, can do the same. Maybe this is why I find having classical music on while writing such a help then.

I haven’t used music as a story theme though I did have the great joy of editing a music themed flash fiction collection for Chapeltown Books, which was a joy to do.

Maybe I should give some thought to what kind of music my characters would like at some point because I can see that triggering some story ideas. You can never have too many of them!

Thrilled to discover another review on Amazon for Seeing The Other Side. Many thanks to the reviewers (and those who reviewed the book on its blog tour. I hope to create some graphics for those reviews and share them later. Am looking forward to this as it is both creativity and marketing – that at least is fun!).

Reviews mean so much to an author and they don’t have to be long either so if you can help writer friends this way, I know they’ll appreciate it. I know I do!

Also looking forward to my online launch for Seeing The Other Side in November. If you want to book tickets, they’re free, do check out the link below. Will share this again later on and via my newsletter. Hope to see you there.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Had a special trip out today which was lovely. Full of those moments of observation which might inspire story ideas later. I usually take a few photos because you can’t recall everything. I just use these as an aide memoire.

What would your characters want to remember from their trips out? What would they be keen to forget?

Story ideas there too.

Fairytales With Bite – Day Trips

Do your characters ever take time out for day trips? Where would they go? Would your setting have a tourist industry as such?

If your setting is a magical one, are your characters allowed to use their normal powers when on down time? Or can they only use self defence ones or anything which helps them survive outside of their usual environment?

If they visit non-magical locations, do they hide their true nature? What would happen if they didn’t? I’d expect chaos and misunderstanding. Not everyone would welcome magical beings to their world, especially if there had been previous problems.

Story ideas there and I think good potential for funny ones too.

This World and Others – Getting Away

Do your characters find it easy to get away from it all? What methods would they use to get away?

For those who can fly, can they just literally take off or do they have to register what we’d know as a flight plan? How would your setting avoid chaos in their skies, especially at peak times?
Would your setting have public transport as we know it? If so is this powered magically or not? What kind of magical species would operate these systems? Are any banned from doing so?

There could be story ideas here as well as from your characters getting away.

MAILERLITE – ALLISON SYMES – NEWSLETTER SIGN UP

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

WRITERS’ NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

ALLISON SYMES ON SUBSTACK 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Interview with Gill James on Seeing The Other Side – and Favourites

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Busy one here – lots of admin – but managed to get plenty of writing done though competitions are still going to have to wait for a bit but that’s life for you.
Looking forward to sharing a presentation on 12th October with an online group I go to and I have an interview with Gill James which went out last week. See below for more.

Facebook – General

Pleased to finally share my interview with Gill James about Seeing The Other Side and flash fiction. This went out last week but today is the first chance I’ve had to share it but better late than never is a good motto!

Hope you enjoy the interview. I get to answer the tricky question about whether I have a favourite in my new book, how I discovered flash fiction in the first place, and I share a tip or two for anyone wanting to write flash.

Many thanks, Gill, for the interview.

 

It’s a busy Monday and am looking forward to going to an online history group this evening, which is why I’m posting early.

Still time for a story though which I initially posted to Substack yesterday. Hope you enjoy Ten.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Hope you’ve had a relaxing Sunday. Was a mad rush this morning but this afternoon has proved calmer.

Writing wise, I’ll be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. Looking forward to tomorrow when I am due to share a presentation for a group I go to online once a month. And I hope to get on with drafting some questions for a future Chandler’s Ford Today interview during the coming week as well.

Competition writing is again on the back boiler for the moment though I do have drafts to look at and revise so I kind of have something here (or will do once the editing gets done). There are times when you’re just on the go all of the time – I’m in one of mine right now! (I suspect things will slow down a bit in November and then speed up again as we head to the festive season).

Writing Tip: When time is short, focus on writing and reading what you can. The rest of what you’d like to do here can be done later. Prioritising what does have to be done has taken me ages to get right but I have found it worth doing and it is helping me now.

The other thing helping me is drafting bits and pieces in odd moments and coming back to them when I’m at my desk again. It means I’ve already made a start and that helps a lot because it makes me feel better – I have done something creative.

Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. Getting chilly here.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Fairytales and Their Impact for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. This one has been a real joy to write given fairytales continue to have a major impact on my stories. You can spot the influence! More on this in my post on Friday.

Hope to catch up with some writing pals on Zoom later this evening and cracking on with flash fiction writing tomorrow.

Dialogue Tip: I’m a great believer in keeping things simple here so I will get one character to use certain kinds of words and another one something more “lofty”.

When my flash tales often feature one character only, I already know what their background will be and that directly affects how they speak and think. Knowing your character is key. What would they say? How would they say these things?

Keep those thoughts in mind and your dialogue will be fine.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady had a fantastic puppy party with her two closest chums, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback. Later, I had a lovely swim and tonight will be happily spent writing.

Delighted to share my interview with Gill James over on my author page here. See above. I love author interviews – taking part in them and being the one to set the questions. You always learn so much from these.

But I often interview my own characters too. It’s a good technique to help me work out what I need to know so I can picture my characters and believe in them enough to feel they’ve got a story worth sharing. I’ve got to be convinced by them before anyone else can be after all!

Another hectic Monday but I’ve a lovely online meeting to look forward to this evening. Meantime it’s time for a new YouTube story. Hope you enjoy Ten For Tea.

The kid may be right to want to make amends for broken furniture but can Goldie’s Mum find enough chairs to make this work? And who on earth is coming to tea?

Haven’t shared a flash acrostic here for ages. Time to rectify that then!

F = Fun format in which to write and you can vary the word count up to 1000 words.

L = Lively writing because you haven’t got the word count room to do anything else but it is fab for your readers.

A = Assuming different identities for your characters – from humans to magical beings to dragons – and telling their stories is fun.

S = Styles of story can vary too from standard prose to acrostics to flash pieces told in poetic format to all dialogue ones.

H = Handy practice for writing exercises set at groups and workshops too; if you’re already writing flash, you’ll be used to writing to smaller word counts, which is all you have time for at these things.

We’re well into autumn here now in the UK and the weather is turning colder by the day. When I want to indicate a season in a flash tale, I will pick one detail for a character to notice.

Instead of going on about the leaves changing colour, I’ll get a character to spot the Virginia Creeper is turning to red earlier this year than it did last (which also tells you the character is observant and interested in plants). Picking the right detail conjures up more inferred information and does wonders for keeping your word count down.

What can be tricky is working out what the right detail is for your story. I try to use something which brings in at least one of the senses because it helps readers picture things, hear things, imagine the smell, touch or taste of something.

It’s all about the focus, folks.

Goodreads Author Blog – Favourites

We all have favourite things – beverages, chocolates, books and stories though for the last three I find hard to list just one thing for!

I think the characters we create should have favourite things too – it helps them seem more real. I agree with Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of The Rings about his love of potatoes. Gollum on the other hand can have the raw fish on his own!

Favourite stories stay with you all your life. My own writing is inspired by the fairytales I’ve always loved. The elements of right being done for the deserving, the villains getting their comeuppance and so on come into my stories a fair bit. Indeed it can be fun when reading another author to play “spot the influence”. You usually can spot some.

I treasure my favourite books – ones I’ve bought, inherited or have been written by friends. I think you can’t have too many favourites here!

MAILERLITE – ALLISON SYMES – NEWSLETTER SIGN UP

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

WRITERS’ NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

ALLISON SYMES ON SUBSTACK  

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Character Likes and Dislikes

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Lovely autumnal weather here. Writing and editing work going well and Lady is continuing to have a great time with her pals, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback, but there is now a new boy to our “group”, the fantastic Flash, a black lab. The Ridgeback is especially keen on him and Lady has spotted an opportunity to have a bigger group to herd up so everyone is happy here.

Facebook – General

Hope today has gone well. Odd one for me as not feeling brilliant so have cancelled a few things today and have taken life that bit easier. Hope it’s just one of those 24 hour buglets.

Writing, though, is lovely because I get to sit down, I can take my time doing it, and I always feel better for having written something. I guess it’s a need to get a creative fix here.

Writing wise, I’ll be delighted to share The Chameleon Theatre Company – Review – Curtain Up for Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. It is always a delight to see their shows and this was a new story to me. Find out more when the link goes up on Friday.

It has been a particularly hectic Monday so am glad to be at my desk and share stories with you.

First up tonight is the one I shared on Substack yesterday called Autumn Colours, one of my darker pieces. Hope you enjoy it.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Hope you’ve had a good weekend. Have loved the warm autumnal weather.

Writing wise, I’m hosting an ACW online group next week plus I hope to catch up with some blogging I need to get done. My Writers’ Narrative article about Darkness in a Flash is out next week too. Not going to get around to competition drafting this weekend after all but things should ease up towards the end of next week so should get to make some progress then.

What first drew me to writing short stories and, from there, to flash fiction? I can’t pin down any one thing here. I’ve always loved fiction of all lengths but there is something so compact about short tales which makes me adore them. I like being able to read about and write a complete world in 2000 words or fewer and then move on to more! You can’t read a novel in a day (at least I can’t). I suppose it is a case of getting my story fix per day right!

Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. Not bad here.

Will be sharing The Chameleon Theatre Company – Review – Curtain Up for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. It wasn’t a play I’d heard of but then that is one of the joys of going to your local excellent amateur theatre company. You get to discover many wonderful plays. Review up on Friday.

Going to the theatre is just one fabulous way of taking in stories, apart from reading them. Am also fond of good film adaptations and audio books/productions. Where I’ve read the originating book first, as so many productions are based on novels and short stories, I like to see the adaptation has stuck to the book as faithfully as possible or, at the very least, to its spirit. I’ve got to feel the original novelist/short story writer would like what has been done with their works.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal again today. Quiet one here as not feeling brilliant but writing is useful for taking your mind off things. Flash is great when you know you want to write something but not necessarily a lengthy piece!

I think writers do have two great joys – writing and the love of reading which got us into writing our own stories in the first place. The lovely thing with flash it is a perfect format for dipping into and I often read flash and short story collections in between reading novels. I like a good mixture of long and short fiction in my life, whether I’m reading or writing it.

I’m currently preparing some answers to questions for a blog I hope to appear on in due course (I will share the link as and when) and one brilliant question was to ask about my favourite story in Seeing The Other Side. Now I love them all, naturally, though there is one which stands out as I gave it a test run at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick in 2025 where it was well received.

But with rare exceptions, most stories are great aren’t they? And the challenge of writing your own remains fun, as it should do (most of the time anyway).

It has been a non-stop Monday so am glad to be sitting down to write this. Time for another story on YouTube. This one is lighter in tone than my Substack one this week (Autumn Colours – see above) but both are written to the 50 word classic dribble word count.

Hope you enjoy Change of Plan.

No matter what world it is, there will be disagreements between mothers and daughters as to what the latter should be wearing when they go out. See what happens here on this in the fairytale world.

Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. The last few weeks have seen me write plenty of 100 worders for Substack and YouTube so will be writing to a different word count today.

It’s a good idea to mix up writing to different flash fiction word count ranges as you will find competitions to suit whatever word count you are using. It’s also fun!

The dribbles (fifty worders) are great for sharing on social media. The 100 worders are good for sharing on your website/blog. Both give folk a chance to enjoy your writing style.

As ever, am looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow. I shared some thoughts on getting work out there with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group earlier this week and I hope in time I’ll get to see they did get some of their flash pieces published/broadcast etc.

Am also going to an online launch for a flash fiction collection by a fellow Chapeltown Books author later this month. Always good to celebrate flash books getting out there. And don’t forget they make excellent presents!

I’ve always loved inventing characters so getting to do this all of the time for flash writing is a joy. What makes characters come to life for me is their voice. Can I imagine Character A saying the things the author has given them to say?

The answer to that should be an unqualified yes. Even where Character A says one thing but thinks something else it should be clear to the reader why this is. There it is interesting to find out whether thoughts and speech ever come together or whether what the character is really thinking finally emerges undermining what they’ve said.

But the author has done their job well there because I only have one way to find out – keep reading.

Goodreads Author Blog – Character Likes and Dislikes

We all have our likes and dislikes when it comes to characters. I love those who try to get things right, fail, try again, eventually get them right. I don’t like characters who rely on others to do all of that for them or if they are relying on the misfortunes of others to make things right for them. Doesn’t seem quite right to me.

I find it fascinating to find out more about a character as I read on and that goes for their likes and dislikes too. How will those likes and dislikes pan out during the course of the story? Could someone’s dislike of tea, say, give them problems when they’re trying to win someone over who loves the beverage? Good potential for comedy there.

A character seems to be more real to me, even when they’re the most fantastical creation, if they have likes and dislikes. I will have much more empathy for a tea drinking fairy godmother who is bemoaning the lack of time for a decent brew or two than one who just gets on with the job and shows no “humanlike” traits about them. Indeed, the latter is more likely to come across as a cardboard cut out.

MAILERLITE – ALLISON SYMES – NEWSLETTER SIGN  UP

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

WRITERS’ NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

ALLISON SYMES ON SUBSTACK

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.