Tag: am writing

Storytelling

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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. Quiet one here but next weekend will be a different story – family do which we all love. Writing and proofreading work going well.
Lady and I popped along to a local dog show, not to take part, but to have a nose (literally in her case) and to catch up with those we know, humans and dogs. Off to see The Chameleons perform Curtain Up later this week. Should be good.

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Hope today has gone well. Lady was delighted to see her Hungarian Vizler pal again today as we saw her at the local dog show over the weekend, not that either of them took part in it!

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Reading Feeding Into Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Definitely a post which was a joy to write and I’m looking forward to sharing that.

Won’t be long before my next author newsletter is due out once more. To sign up for story links, tips and more, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Character Tip: When you’re reading works by other authors, once you’ve enjoyed the story take a moment to think about what worked about the characters and what didn’t grip you so much. You can learn a great deal from what you come up with here which you can then apply to your own creations.

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Lady has had a fabulous day in that she had an early morning playtime with her Aussie Shepherd “boyfriend” and, later when out with me, she got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback “girlfriend” too. One tired but happy dog is curled up on the sofa as I write this.

Has been a busy day for me too, as Mondays always are, so am glad to get to my desk. For one thing, I sit down for a while!

And of course Monday means storytime. I share Stash, which I first posted on Substack yesterday. Hope you enjoy it. I see this one as a historical flash fiction piece.

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Lady and I popped in to see the local dog show going on at our park after church today. Got to see some pals there. This show had to be cancelled as it was originally going to be in June, during the first heatwave. Much better today. People – and their dogs – seemed to be enjoying it all.

Writing wise, I’ll be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. I hope to chat with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group soon about ways to get your work out there. One tip though is flash is easy to share via your website/author newsletter etc and gives something of value, an entertaining tale, to your followers. It also gives a flavour of your work, which is why I share stories on Substack and YouTube.

Talking of which, I ought to get on writing this week’s tales! Done and shared above and further down!

Hope the weekend has got off to a reasonable start. Not bad here. Have got around to doing some sorting out. Not a displacement activity for the writing, honest! It’s been something I’ve needed to do for a while and I feel better for doing it.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Reading Feeding Into Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. If you ever needed an excuse to read more (as if, I know!), this post may well be for you. If you love books at all, it definitely will be. Looking forward to sharing that one.

Am off to see The Chameleon Theatre Company perform Curtain Up next week. Will be going with my lovely editor from CFT. On the same day I’m off to the dentists! Lovely as they are, I will be much more keen to go and see our local amateur theatre company in action (can’t imagine why, eh?!). The company have staged some marvellous shows over the years. Review will follow on CFT in due course.

Character Tip: What makes a character come alive for you when you read the work of other authors? It can vary. Sometimes a line or two of dialogue will help you “hear” and then “picture” that character. Sometimes a physical description will be enough for you to picture them and then want to find out what they get up to.

For me, I want to hear the character talk or think. From there I pick up their attitudes. I don’t need to like those attitudes. Especially when I don’t like them, I want to find out what makes the character that way and there is only one way to find this out – I read on. But working out what makes other authors’ characters spring to life can be a huge help when you’re creating your own.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Know I’m not going to be popular saying this but I have booked my Christmas food shop slot! Yes, the year is speeding by and things like this confirm it.

What do your characters make of the passing of time in their setting? Do they regret it speeding by or does it seem to drag for them? There will be stories behind why they think the way they do here.

And if your setting is in another world where time doesn’t exist as such or there is something we’d recognise as time but which works in a different way from what we know here, again how do your characters response to this? How does it impact on their stories?

It’s another busy Monday so time to relax with a story, I think. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Family Tradition.

Gran introduces Sarah to a family tradition involving making cakes. Find out what here. I suspect we’ve all been here!

 

I suspect this is true for you too but I’m starting to get adverts etc relating to the festive season coming up in a couple of months. Now for me the timing of this too early. We haven’t had Harvest Festival, Halloween, Bonfire Night yet etc. But the thought of bad timing made me think this could be a good story prompt.

What would be a case of bad timing for your character and why? What would the consequences be (and there would be bound to be some!)? Why did your character get their timing wrong especially if it is not something they would usually do or if they were facing something or someone where they had to be punctual?

Bound to be stories to come from that thought. Now how to work out how to switch off the festive adverts for the time being…

Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow and that is probably when I’m going to pick out another competition to try.

Also looking forward to catching up with writer pals on Zoom later tonight. Always good to catch up. Getting together by Zoom when other means aren’t possible is one of the few good things to come out of the pandemic, I think.

Flash Tip: When you’ve got your story down and you’re happy with the character and storyline, then and only then is the time to have a look at your word count. This ties in with your choice of phrasing because so often I’ve found I can reduce my word count a lot by simply improving my phrasing.

What matters is getting your draft down first and you will write whatever comes to mind first. It’s why I can’t stop myself writing what I know are my own wasted words but I do know I’ll get rid of them later so that’s okay.

Don’t break the flow of getting that draft down. The choice of phrasing is a fine tuning issue and that Is reason enough, I think, to treat drafting and editing as two separate things. I know I can’t combine them.

Goodreads Author Blog – Storytelling

Storytelling is one of the finest things humanity has given the world. To begin with it had to be done orally. Later came the books and serialisations in newspapers, the magazines etc. Later still came books all could access via the penny dreadfuls (it was an accurate description but they did get people reading) but, better still, via the library system.

Storytelling matters. It makes us feel human simply because it helps us empathise with others as we read what the characters get up to and wonder if, in their shoes, would we have done the same thing.

I love the way we now have so many ways to tell stories – in print, via audio and radio, on the stage (am off soon to see what I have no doubt will be another excellent production from my local amateur theatre company), on the screen (small and large. I loved the Peter Jackson adaptation of The Lord of The Rings – it brought the story to someone I know who would never read a book that size).

I like taking part in Open Prose Mic Nights when I can. It’s a great way for a writer to engage with their potential readers directly and I think it brings storytelling full circle.

I also get to “feel” (from audience reaction) to what works well, what works as I hoped, and which is okay but didn’t get such a strong reaction. That may mean the story needs more work or it just doesn’t work so well for that particular audience. Another one may react differently. You learn so much here.

And I love performing my stories here. I’d never act but performing here is the nearest I get to it and it is a fabulous way to share stories.

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Celebrating Books and Blog Tours and Book Events

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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. Weather changeable but Lady has caught up with her Hungarian Vizler pal this week and I’m doing better with my swimming. Writing and proofing work continuing to keep me busy but that is how I like it so all well there!

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18th September 2026 

Second blog post from me tonight is my regularly Friday night Chandler’s Ford Today post. This week I look at Blog Tours and Book Events, both of which have been uppermost on my mind recently! I look at the advantages of these for writers, share tips, plus I share links to all the blogs I was on recently for my tour with Seeing The Other Side.

Again, a huge thank you to all who hosted me and to Lynsey Adams of Reading Between The Lines Book Vlog for organising things so well.

Hope you find the post useful. Even if this isn’t for you yet (and I stress the yet), it may become so later. I remain grateful for all of the writing advice I receive earlier on in my writing life which is so much a help to me now.

Blog Tours and Book Events

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18th September 2026 – Authors Electric

It’s double blog day for me today. First up tonight is my latest post on Authors Electric on Celebrating Books. As you can imagine, this one was a particular joy to write. There is never a time where you shouldn’t celebrate books either!

I look at reluctant readers, my hopes the shorter fiction forms might help draw them into reading, and there’s a word of encouragement too. It isn’t all doom and gloom on the getting the younger generation to read front, far from it. More in the post on that.

Hope you enjoy the post before then celebrating by reading more books! (Okay, okay, I’m biased here but it is a good thing to be biased about, yes?).

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Hope today has gone well. Quiet one here but lovely all the same. Sometimes you just need that, right?

It will be a double blog day from me tomorrow as, not only will I have my Chandler’s Ford Today post to share, I’ll also be sharing my Authors Electric post. Plenty of thoughts and tips from both, which I hope will prove useful. See above for both.

I’m not sure what my greatest joy from storytelling as a writer and a reader is as I think there are so many, but one which would be pretty high on my list would be the way great stories take you into others worlds (including this one funnily enough) and into characters.

Stories can be fabulous for generating empathy as you read and understand a character. Other worlds can show you what life is like on the other side (a theme I have shown in my Seeing The Other Side – there is a reason for the title!).

Reading does so much for your vocabulary and is a fabulous way to keep your brain active. Writing also does this and I know I enjoy the challenge of coming up with new creations and situations in which to put them.

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady was delighted to catch up with her Hungarian Vizler pal and I was, as ever, pleased with the lovely job done on my hair by the fantastic Hannah. A good day here then and some sunshine too.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Blog Tours and Book Events for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday.  See above. As well as summarising recent events for me regarding Seeing The Other Side, I’ll be sharing useful thoughts and tips on the advantages of these things for writers. I hope if they don’t prove useful for you now, they will do later. (I’ve been so grateful for advice received like this earlier in my writing life, which is paying dividends for me now).

Have signed the recent Society of Authors petition regarding AI and author rights.

Am also currently trying to set up some events local to me regarding my new flash fiction collection. Fingers crossed time.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope the week has been a good one. Not bad here. Calmer after the excitement of the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side naturally but the breather is welcome too. I do hope to have other events for the book and will share when I have news (though it is unlikely to be before October now, not that this is so far away now).

Hope to pick a competition to have a go at over the weekend if I can. Next few days will be especially busy – family stuff coming up (all good!). But I do want to get back into sending things in for competition. It’s the single best way I know of practising writing to deadlines and that comes in handy in other areas of the writing life too.

The 100 word flash fiction piece, also known as the drabble, will always be my favourite form in which to write because it is what introduced me to flash fiction. It should have come with a warning those – this form is addictive! I found having discovered I could write to 100 words, could I do it again, again, again etc. Could I write to 50 words? Could I write exactly to the 1000 words upper limit?

Flash demands you’re exact so you have to consider word choice well. Have my characters shared what they needed to in the most appropriate way for their type and the story in the word count required?

Thinking about word choices has stood me in good stead for my other writing and my editing work. I find I almost automatically want to cut words which aren’t adding anything of real value – see what I did there?

With flash fiction, I find the best way in is to start with the character. Who are they? What do they want? Why must I tell their story? That is such a good foundation for any length of story.

Just as people come in all shapes and sizes, so do characters and writers can have fun with that. Indeed, you don’t even have to stick to the human race, I often don’t, but I do have to understand why my characters are the way they are. Otherwise I can’t write about them with any kind of conviction. I have to believe in my characters. I don’t necessarily have to like them or agree with them.

I’ve also found with such a wide variety of potential characters, a wide range of plots come with them. Some might say that’s handy. Some might say it’s coincidence. I don’t. I’ve long believed characters drive the plot rather than the other way around. Certainly that thought has worked, and continues to work, for me.

Fairytales With Bite – Secrets

Secrets are fun to write stories around. I’ve written many flash pieces and short tales where a secret is revealed or someone is covering up something they don’t want anyone else to know.

But it doesn’t have to be a great dramatic secret. A wish to avoid embarrassment can be enough of a motive to keep something secret, even if it is harmless or would seem to be to most. It would be the fact is isn’t unimportant to the secret keeper here which matters and which will drive the story – will they be found out? If so, what are the consequences? If they get away with it, how do they do so and what are the consequences from that?

In the fairytale world, secrets can revolved around someone’s magical abilities. Would someone try to keep quiet just how magical they are and what are their motivations here? Is it to surprise someone else (in a good way or not) or are they worried if the full extent of their powers are known, they might be pressurized to use them (and if so for whom and how)? Good story ideas would come from those thoughts.

The magical setting you’ve created may well have secrets of its own. Are there areas where magic can’t be performed because of something that happened there centuries ago? How would that be found out and, once this secret was discovered, how would it challenge your characters? I could see this discovery coming at an awkward moment and not being especially good news for your characters.

Secrets can be deadly, especially so in a magical setting. Again, plenty to write about there, I think.

This World and Others – Surveillance

Hand in hand with secrets can come the need for surveillance. In a magical setting, how could this be done effectively by the authorities given most, if not all, characters will have magical powers which could well include at least some element of mind reading?

Would your authorities have to resort to what we know as technology to get around that? Equally can they limit how much mind reading powers your characters can have to try to prevent any rebellions against them?

Which characters would your authorities want to keep under surveillance and why? Are the reasons justified? Have mistakes been made in the past thanks to surveillance not being carried out?

Do the “ordinary” characters in your setting know they are under surveillance – the government makes it clear they watch everyone – or are they unaware? How would this affect daily lives in your setting?

Food for thought there!

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Blog Tours and The Final Blog Tour Reviews for 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. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you’ve had a good weekend. The blog tour for Seeing The Other Side ended on Sunday but it was a fabulous experience. Final blog links below plus I will be sharing soon a Chandler’s Ford Today post which looks at the advantages of these things for writers and will share all of my links in one handy place. Lady is doing well. The autumnal temperatures suit her well.

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Hope today has gone well. So enjoyed my swim today. Good to chat with friends there too. I once thought I’d use my swimming time to think of story ideas etc. Not a bit of it – I find my mind just empties and I focus on the swimming. Mind you, that emptying of the mind is incredibly useful, as well as the physical exercise. Writer’s bottom (it spreads!) is real, folks!

Writing wise, I’m ploughing on with enjoyable proofreading work, blogging, and I hope to get back to story competitions from the weekend. Am also putting finishing touches to a presentation I hope to share at an online group next month. Went to their meeting last night for a thoroughly enjoyable talk about an aspect of World War One history I didn’t know much about. History is a vast subject and perfect for fiction and non-fiction writers alike to write about.

Also it won’t be too long before my next author newsletter will be out again so will be working on that later this week. I’ve found adding to it as the month goes on makes it an enjoyable and less pressured way to get the newsletter written. It also gives me the option of adding in late items of news as has been the case for me lately.

To sign up for story links, tips and more, do head over to https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

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Hope you have had a good start to the week. Quiet one in the park for Lady though hopefully we’ll catch up with pals, human and doggy, later in the week.

Meantime, it’s Monday, always a hectic day for many of us, and it’s time for a story. I share my latest on Substack, which went up on that platform yesterday.

Hope you enjoy On The Late Side. Look out for my YouTube story too this week as it follows on from this one (see further down) but both stand alone.

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13th September – last blog tour post Melanie Robertson- King – Celtic Connexions

The last blog post for the Seeing The Other Side tour comes from Melanie Robertson-King/ Celtic Connexions. Many thanks, Melanie.

I’ve had a wonderful time on this blog tour. A huge thanks go to Lynsey Adams of Reading Between The Lines Book Vlog for organising everything so well.

I’ll be celebrating good blog tours and book events for my Chandler’s Ford Today post next week so do look out for that. As well as sharing the blog links for my tour in one handy post here, I’ll also look at the advantages of such things for writers. It may not be relevant for where your writing is at right now but it may well become relevant. I’ve often found this to be the case for me as my writing has developed. Link up on Friday.

13th September –  Kaz Warrent

The week has whizzed by once again and now it is time to share the final two posts from the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side. First up is Kaz Warrent whose review is on Instagram though I share a screenshot of the review below. Many thanks, Kaz.

12th September – Val Penny Review
Hope the weekend has got off to a good start. All well here and I’m delighted with the latest review for Seeing The Other Side, which has come in from Val Penny. Just a quick extract here:-

This third book of flash fiction stories, Seeing the Other Side, by author Allison Symes is a long-awaited treasure and I was thrilled to be invited to join the tour organised by Lynsey Adams of Reading Between the Lines.

I write novels and in which an extra word or two is not an issue. Therefore, I am always in awe of poets and flash fiction writers who choose their words so carefully and can portray ideas and stories with delightful brevity.

Seeing the Other Side is a larger collection of stories that either of her previous books, From Light to Dark and Back Again, and, Tripping the Flash Fantastic. However the increased quantity has not diluted the sparkling quality. Each of the stories is a gem with an unexpected twist in the tale.

Many thanks, Val. Do see the link for more details.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Was delighted to receive my second order of Seeing The Other Side. It is a joyous moment when you receive your first lot of books. It’s an even better joyous moment when you receive a second lot through because you’ve had to reorder. So much a nice “problem” to have and I hope to have to put in more orders in due course, naturally.

Am so thrilled with the lovely reviews which came in for the book during the blog tour. I hope to have fun creating some graphics via Book Brush with some quotes from these to use later. I find Book Brush easier to use than Canva to be honest and like BB’s templates – there is a good range of these. But I need time to do that and I hope to have a look at this at the weekend.

Another busy Monday and so it’s time for another YouTube story from me. This one follows on from my story, On The Late Side, which was on Substack yesterday (see above) but both stories stand alone.

Hope you enjoy Blind To The Obvious.

Despite past history, will Dora finally believe Tom when he says he is trying to do the right thing by her? What will happen if she doesn’t? Find out here.

 

This week has been a thrill in terms of celebrating flash fiction generally via the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side. With that now ended, I hope to resume having a go at various flash fiction competitions. I know there is at least two I would like to try for before the end of the year and may well come across others before that.

I haven’t written so much for competitions this year, which I will try and rectify for 2027, but I think having a new book out, my first in six years, would count as a valid excuse!

One of the joys of flash fiction is there are so many more competitions available now and these can be a great way of getting your name and work out there. I’ve found competitions useful practice for writing to deadlines too, which also comes in useful for longer works!

Thrilled with the latest review for Seeing The Other Side which came in today from Val Penny. The blog tour concludes tomorrow but it has been a fabulous experience. See above.

I’ll be talking about Blog Tours and Book Events for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. As well as sharing the links to my blog tour in one handy post, I’ll be looking at the advantages of these things, especially the blog tours, from a writer’s viewpoint. I hope that will prove useful.

Often I decide on a topic for CFT based on what I know I would have found useful had it been around earlier in my writing career and this is one of those themes.

And, of course, I’m spreading the word about flash fiction in all of this too. Nothing to dislike there!

Goodreads Author Blog – Blog Tours

I’ve recently been on a blog tour for my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side. It has been a fabulous experience and generated some great reviews. It also spreads the word about flash fiction as a fabulous format to read too.

I write non-fiction too and often interview authors as part of their blog tours. I find it fascinating to find out what inspires them and their books. Blog tours are so useful in promotion, of course. I also feel such things also promote the joy of reading and enable more people to find out about more books and in genres they’d not considered before. All useful stuff.

So if you can support other authors on their blog tours, I’d do so. You will find you will end up reading more. This has happened to me. And it’s not as if reading more can ever be a bad thing, right?

Certainly checking out the reviews the blog tours generate has led to me discovering books new to me. Win-win here for the readers, I’d say.

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Out and About in Salisbury

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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. IMAGES OF ME AT A LOCAL BOOK FAIR WERE TAKEN BY MY LOVELY EDITOR AT CHANDLER’S FORD TODAY, JANET WILLIAMS.
Hope all is well. Am slowly resuming normal swimming in terms of distance – am about 80% there. Lady has seen her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal this week so is well pleased with that, as was the Ridgeback.
Looking forward to my book event for Seeing The Other Side at Salisbury URC tomorrow, 5th September. Hope to report back on that later.

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Hope the day has gone well. Lady caught up with her Hungarian Vizler chum and Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. Hasn’t seen either in ages. All three dogs had a super time.

Writing wise, I’m pleased to share Out and About In Salisbury for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. It flags up my writing event at Salisbury URC tomorrow, Saturday 5th September, and celebrates Salisbury itself to an extent. It is a lovely city to visit.

Hope to report back at a later date on how the event tomorrow goes though I hope the Salisbury URC, their book stall and coffee shop and I all do well! I do know it will be fun! And if you are in the city, do pop by and say hello.

Out and About in Salisbury

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Am thrilled to be able to share the following Facebook reel created by Lynsey Adams of Reading Between the Lines Book Vlog ahead of my blog tour for Seeing The Other Side. That kicks off from next week from 7th September.

Meantime I have also just sent in a pitch to give a talk at my local library after an interesting chat with them yesterday. Fingers crossed time! Would so love to do something here.

I’ll be sharing Out and About in Salisbury for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow, giving details of my book event at the URC on Saturday. It is all go but in a good way. See above.

Hope the day has gone well. Popped up to my local library. Hope to pitch an author talk to them – they were interested so fingers crossed. Blog tour for Seeing The Other Side starts next week too.

Will be hosting an online group for the Association of Christian Writers later this evening. Was delighted to see in the latest Christian Writer a friend of mine has joined them and got his book in there. Mine has gone out via the ACW newsletter. Hope it gets into the magazine too in due course. It’s a useful membership perk!

Writing wise, am busy blogging and drafting and proofreading, as well as marketing, so not sure of things to be getting on with but I like this. I love the variety. Keeps me on my creative toes and that’s never a bad thing. Filled in the feedback form for The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick today too. Did appreciate being able to have my book launch there. It was useful.

Marketing Tip: Start small, build up. Find things you know you’ll enjoy doing. I like sharing stories so will always find ways to do that, for example. Carve out marketing time away from your writing time. I say that because you want to enjoy your writing. Without that you would have nothing to market anyway. You also don’t want to resent marketing eating up your writing time either.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Looking forward to tomorrow’s event (5th September) at Salisbury URC for Seeing The Other Side. Next week will be blog tour week for the book and I look forward to sharing the various links. Have now got my pitch into my local library for a talk there but have no idea how long it will be before I hear back but as the saying goes, if you don’t ask etc etc.

I hope over the weekend to submit my story for potential broadcast and on Sunday 6th September I’ll have another story up on CafeLit, which will be lovely.

Flash Tip: Know your character. Know what makes them stand out for you. That aspect of them will resonate with your readers too. You want to feel as if I’ve got to write this character’s story up. If they grip you like that, they will grip others. It’s why I swear by jotting down a few thoughts as to a potential character. I’ve mentioned before I like traits because they are a good way in to likely attitudes and behaviours. You can do a lot with that.

Lady has had a great day, having had a wonderful playtime in the park with her Rhodesian Ridgeback chum. The grass is also coming back! It’s much nicer to walk on and it’s fabulous seeing some green reappear.

Writing wise, as well as various things connected to Seeing The Other Side going on right now, I hope to submit a story for potential broadcast over the weekend. Happy with the piece. Just need to send it in.

I always record stories for this kind of thing on Zoom and play them back but doing this also means I know I can’t go over the allotted time span. I know what the time allowed is (three to five minutes usually) and I know what Zoom is telling me I’ve come in at! I also hear how the story sounds and whether I stumble or not. All useful stuff.

There’s also a story I need to edit considerably but hope to work on this over the weekend as well.

Always pleased to have plenty to do.

Flash fiction was something I found by accident.
But it made me a published author with books to my name.
Not every writing accident is a bad one!
The writing life should be seen, I think, as a long term game.
Allison Symes – 2nd September 2026

I’ve learned over time to be open to trying new forms of writing which is how I got into short stories and flash fiction at all. But I had to be willing to give it a go and take the view what did I have to lose?

I take the same view with competitions. Give it my best shot and send something suitable in. If I am shortlisted or win, brilliant. If not, at least I knew I tried. And, as I’ve mentioned before, when I’ve looked at work again, I’ve had another edit on it and gone on to have it published second time around.

There are no shortcuts in writing but there is plenty of support on the way. It’s the biggest thing I love about the writing community. With rare exceptions, it is supportive.

Fairytales With Bite – Musical Magic

Had a fabulous time earlier this week listening to the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame. I suspect many take in classical music without realising it. Enjoy a Spielberg film? Composer will almost certainly be John Williams. I’ve always understood classical to be music which uses all of the sections of the orchestra and most film music does and to great effect too.

I love a wide range of music and think it is truly magical but would this apply in your setting and to your characters? Good music can take you out of yourself but would your characters ever want that? If not, why not?

What would the music be like in your magical setting? Similar to ours or literally like nothing on Earth? Would your setting/characters copy musical styles from Earth once they became aware of them? Could our music be one thing which might make them think better of us and could change a course of action they’d been planning to follow?

Story ideas there for sure.

This World and Others – Appreciation of The Arts

I love music, especially classical. I love poetry especially when it is read to me at Poetry Open Mic Nights. I love writing and reading, especially flash fiction and short stories. I love wonderful paintings (but am of the school of thought I know what I like when I see it). Generally, I appreciate the arts for what they can give us and those who practice the arts. I’ve got a lot of sympathy for the behind the scenes work and practice over years which must happen here.

But how do your characters appreciate the arts? Do they appreciate them at all or think they’re just for the “snobs”? What art forms are there in your setting? Could comparisons be made with what we have here or would they be far beyond us here in terms of scale, technical ability etc?

Do they have art forms which can only be on their setting due to its nature/your characters’ natures? What would humans make of these if they discovered your setting?

Can art help improve relationships between species? Could an appreciation of the arts change behaviours, attitudes, promote understanding etc?

Again there are story ideas there.

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New Season, New Books and Blog Tour News

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. BLOG TOUR POSTER FOR SEEING THE OTHER SIDE FROM LYNSEY ADAMS OF READING BETWEEN THE LINES BOOK VLOG. TOUR STARTS NEXT WEEK, 7TH SEPTEMBER 2026. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you’ve had a good weekend. Finally had some proper rain. Already the grass and plants are looking better. Looking forward to my book event for Seeing The Other Side at Salisbury URC on 5th September. Am hoping the weather stays dry for that one because while I’ll be indoors, footfall is better when it isn’t wet!

Facebook – General

Hope you’ve had a good day. Not bad here. Had the best swim in terms of distance since my fall. Really enjoyable. Okay, I’m not going to break any speed records right now but that wasn’t the idea and recovery continues to go well, I’m relieved to say. Being in the water has helped too.

Am delighted to share the poster for the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side. Many thanks to Lynsey Adams of Reading Between The Lines Book Vlog for this and to the lovely folks who will be hosting me soon. Am so looking forward to sharing the links.

Meantime I’ve a book event to prepare for on Saturday at Salisbury URC. Am looking forward to that too.

Also author newsletter out this morning. It’s a good reminder of how fast the year is going!
Hope to submit a story for potential broadcast later this week too.

Have enjoyed a bank holiday Monday (most of the UK bar Scotland has had one today, scary thought is the next one is Christmas!) enjoying the Classic FM Movie Music Hall of Fame.

Delighted to hear The Lord of the Rings soundtrack came in at No. 1 again. I voted for it but do feel it has everything – classical, choral, opera, Enya and Annie Lennox. What more could you want?!

Today has been a treat for the ears and Lady had a treat too – she played with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal for the first time in a while today. Both dogs so excited to see each other. It is so sweet to see.

Author newsletter out again tomorrow. Will share some details about my blog tour for Seeing The Other Side tomorrow. Lots going on. See above.

Meantime, and as it is Monday, it’s time to share the story I put on my Substack platform yesterday. Hope you enjoy my Menace.

Who will you sympathise with – Mrs Wilkins, Mrs Lake or my narrator?

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Hope the weekend has been a good one. Good to see some rain. Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly.

Am making good progress on some proofreading work too. So looking forward to next Saturday’s book event for Seeing The Other Side at Salisbury URC. Will be writing about that for Chandler’s Ford Today this week too.

Have also got a couple of places where I’d like to submit some flash fiction so hope to start some drafts later today.

Character Tip: What makes you want to write about the character you’ve got in mind for a story? What is it about them that intrigues you? Are they “strong” enough to deliver the impact you’d like your story to have on potential readers?

I’ve mentioned before the first person the characters have to grip is you, their creator, but it is worth repeating. Usually with me I can hear a character’s voice in my head and something about their attitude/what they say is enough to make me think yes, this character has got sparkle, this one is definitely worth writing up.

Am delighted to be back on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, with my latest post, Summer Writing. Do you find your writing winds down during the summer months? I find it is a season of peaks and troughs.

I find I need to take some time out to calm the buzz I have on returning from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. A day or two later and I’m raring to go again. I don’t think the heatwave this year has helped either despite my following all the advice on hydration. There are times you need to step back and be kind to yourself. For me, summer is one of them.

I’ve always found lots of “little bits” of writing keep my creative mind “ticking over” until I’m ready for the full writing work schedule again. Writing flash helps here. I know I can get something written in, say, fifteen minutes. I feel better for having written something.

My post goes on to share ways in which you can use summer in your writing. I also associate summer with “light” so want “light” reading. Light reading I think is misnamed. Lighter reads can still look at issues but they are primarily there to entertain and I’ve never seen anything wrong with that.

Hope you enjoy the post.

Summer Writing

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Had some late news come in yesterday but am thrilled to say my Truth Hurts will be on CafeLit on Sunday, 6th September. It has been a while since I last had something on there so am pleased about this. Will share the link later this week.

Meantime why not check out the CafeLit website? Link here takes you to the Read Our Stories page. There is a great mixture here of flash fiction and short stories, across a wealth of genres, from newbie to more experienced writers. A new story appears at 4pm just in time to enjoy with tea/coffee and cake of course!

Had a lovely productive weekend writing. Have a draft ready for some polishing and then submitting later this week. Also received some good news about a CafeLit submission of mine – more on that tomorrow.

But as it is Monday, a busy one as always, it is time for my latest YouTube story. Hope you enjoy Plausible Deniability.

To be told you should master plausible deniability is one thing but does my character manage it? What cause could they have to want to do so? Find out here.

 

Have selected a competition to have a go at for some flash fiction. It’s the first time in a while I’m getting some stories out there but it has been so lovely to be focused on having a new book out and all that needs to be done around that. Thankfully, there is no use by date here though I hope to set up events relating to Seeing The Other Side later on.

Sometimes the competition theme will indicate a likely mood of a story, sometimes it is wide open, as is the case for the one I’m shortly going to be trying. So I will take a little time out to think about the mood of the story I want to write for that theme. I like to mix up writing lighter and darker stories. Suits my style and reflects my reading tastes too.

Flash Tip: It’s fun to mix up using first, second and third person for flash. I use all three, though the second is the one I use the least often. It can be highly effective though. Depends on how well your narrator comes across here so you do want a strong, interesting character to stand out here.

I found when I was writing more and more flash, I was falling into the habit of using the first person so have deliberately rebalanced to make sure I get plenty of the third person in too. Now when I’m thinking of a story, I will also convince what “voice” the story would work best in – first, second, or third. Some ideas naturally lend themselves to one so I will go with that.

How can it be almost September already? Well, that reminds me my next author newsletter will be out again next week. To sign up head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I hope to report back on how my Salisbury event goes for the October issue but plenty going on for the September one, along with my usual story links etc. The newsletter is always a joy to put together and if I have one top tip for marketing it is to enjoy what you do. It makes it more sustainable for you in the longer run. It also means it doesn’t feel like a chore.

Flash is wonderful for sharing as part of an overall marketing schedule which is why I put stories regularly on Substack and YouTube. More to come on both of those platforms tomorrow and Monday.

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GOODREADS AUTHOR BLOG – New Season, New Books

September is just around the corner as I write this and is very much the start of a new season. I have a soft spot for autumn. I love the changing colours of the leaves and the one good thing about the darker, longer evenings is they do give you the perfect excuse to read and/or write more! (And if you can do that while drinking scrumptious hot chocolate even better!).

September in many ways is the kick off point for new books coming out. There will be lots of events in the run up to Christmas (and I’ll be holding some too for Seeing The Other Side, which is lovely. My last launch for Tripping The Flash Fantastic was in 2020 when everything had to be online. I’ve been enjoying getting out and about in person again and hope to do more of this over the next few months).

I also can’t think of a better way to welcome in a new season than to do so with new books or with books new to you, whether you buy them or borrow them. I’ve sometimes done the latter and then loved the borrowed book so much then went on to buy my own copy.

There is never a wrong time for new books and to treasurer the older ones.

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Swanwick 2026 and Book Launch for 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. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Many thanks to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, Gemma Owen-Kendall, Liz Pacey and Babs Trevitt for images from Swanwick which feature in my Chandler’s Ford Post this week.
Hope you’ve had a good week. I’ve spent some of it thinking back to what I was doing at Swanwick the previous week! Been lovely to get out and about with the dog and to go swimmimg again. Also, hooray, we’ve had some rain here and it is a lot cooler.
Next big event for me will be the book signing for Seeing The Other Side in Salisbury on 5th September and not long after that there will be a blog tour for the book. All good!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Now this was a post I’ve been looking forward to sharing. My post on Chandler’s Ford Today this week is Swanwick 2026 and Book Launch for Seeing The Other Side.

I celebrate both events in this post and I share a mini diary of what courses I went to on which day. That alone will show the wide variety of topics on offer and there were many more I could easily have chosen.

Plus I celebrate the thought of catching up with writing friends, which is the focus for many a Swanwicker when we get back to The Hayes again.

I look at the launch, the benefits of it being held at the school, and how taking part in Open Prose Mic Nights can help with book sales too, as well as being great fun to take part in and listen to.

Hope you enjoy the post.

Swanwick 2026 and Book Launch for Seeing The Other Side

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Hope today has gone well. Was on the final leg of my journey home from Swanwick this time last week. (Thursday 13th August – one of the hottest days ever for travelling!).

Delighted to say Seeing The Other Side is now available through Waterstones. Just spotted it on there. Am also looking forward to my signing event at Salisbury URC on Saturday 5th September.

Writing wise, I’m also busy with editing work, as well as the writing. I may well try to draft something for a competition over the weekend. It’s time I put my hat in the ring for one of those again.

Writing Tip: Schedule as much as you can, it takes the pressure off. I use quieter periods during the week to draft future articles etc and, once done, get them scheduled. I put a note in my diary a week or so before it is due to go out to just run though the posts again. There are always little things to pick up and correct.

For fiction, use the quieter times to draft flash and short stories. The time away from them will help you see them again with fresh eyes and again should help you pick up errors. While you can’t schedule stories as such, you can do a lot of prep work which then frees up time for a thorough edit (rather than a rushed one) later.

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Hope your day has gone well. Not bad here. Gentle swim earlier.

Will be sharing Swanwick 2026 and Book Launch for Seeing The Other Side on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Looking forward to sharing that as it is a celebratory post for both sides of that equation! See above.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week. It was good there was a contingent from ACW at Swanwick.

Don’t forget it won’t be that long before my next author newsletter is out. Writing one of these is a sure fire way of spotting how quickly the year passes! To sign up head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

I share tips, news, story links and more here.

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Having a quiet end to the week, which is proving soothing. Mind you, not that I allow my characters to have a soothing time of it, far from it. As well as loving creating characters, I do enjoy dropping them right in the mire and then finding out what they do to get out of it again. The best characters will find a way out.

Having said that, I don’t drop my characters in it for the sake of it. The situation they face is something well within the bounds of likelihood given who they are, where they are and so on. Everything should seem as if it could be true even if it is set in a galaxy or other world far far away etc.

It is the characters who have to be believable in terms of their attitudes, behaviours and their reactions.

Such fun to create, mind you!

Pleasant day and a quiet one. Was an idiot earlier in the week and had a fall. All okay but am feeling somewhat (a) bruised and (b) sorry for myself so am focusing on writing. It takes the mind off other matters. Writing is useful like that at times. It’s also nice not to have to go anywhere but I do wish there’d been a better reason behind it! I hope to resume things like swimming next week.

Plodding on (literally in my case!), am pleased to be resuming my normal writing routine. Sometimes after a break it can be hard to get back to normal again, but not this time. It’s like putting on the perfect pair of gloves – am straight back into what I’d usually do again. And a break can be useful to help recharge the batteries, inspire you (as was the case for me with Swanwick) and more. All of that can be used to help your writing for the longer term.

It helps a lot to think about your writing in the longer term. I’ve found it easier to cope with rejections by taking the longer term view, for one thing, because I know now something which is rejected today may, with work, be accepted by someone else later. That has happened to me a fair bit. It helps to know often rejections aren’t due to what’s wrong with your work but because the market has recently accepted something similar or they’ve gone off a certain theme for a while.

Mind you, after a break, it still pays you to look at the piece again. What can be done to improve it? What alternative markets could there be?

Good luck!

I have various ways into starting a piece of flash fiction. Sometimes I know the character first and therefore the kind of situation which would suit them best. Sometimes I know the theme and then work out what kind of character would best suit it.

Sometimes, of course, I’m giving a topic to write to so I list what could come from that and then go with the one which makes me really want to write the tale up. I use prompts of all kinds.

My focus though is on the character. For me they make or break a story. If I’m gripped by them, I’ll read on no matter who or what they are, where they are based, how many claws they have etc.

Creating characters has always been a great love of mine and in short form fiction, you get to do this a lot. Match made in heaven I’d say.

Fairytales With Bite – A Fairytale Event

What would characters in your magical setting consider to be a fairytale event? What would the fairies themselves consider to be worthy of note, given the magical business is their daily bread and butter, so to speak?

What one character would consider to be a fairytale event would be thought of in opposite terms for another character. So why the opposing views and which one would be right given they can’t both be?

Now I’ve just returned from what I consider to be a fairytale event, The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick which was made even more special this year given I had the launch there for my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side. These moments stand out in a writing life because you know they happen every so often. They cannot by their nature be everyday things.

So what would be magical moments for your characters and why do they feel this way? Was it something they’ve had to work for or has someone else helped them? (In my case it was both. I wrote the book obviously but the school organising launches was a real blessing for me and the other eleven authors who had launches there this year).

How often could these magical moments happen for your characters or are they always one-offs? Also, is there someone who wants to crash the party here? There’s always a jealous one somewhere in the fairytales. Good source for story ideas though.

This World and Others – Events in the Magical Realms

What events would your magical realm hold? Are they similar to events held elsewhere – on magical worlds or not – or are the events you share in your setting unique to that setting? What do your characters make of the events? Is it compulsory for all to go to these things and, if so, how is that enforced, given there is bound to be a rebel or two somewhere?

Are there historical connections to the events your world holds? We have things like Remembrance Sunday. What would your world want to commemorate? What would it definitely want to forget?

Would your characters take part in your world’s equivalent of re-enactments? The best ones of those are spectacularly good and do bring history home to people so what would your world do to ensure the “right message” got through here.

And when the events are over, and folk are returning to their normal life, do they ever consider what the events meant to them or are they just glad the whole thing is over?

Not everybody likes a show and there are story ideas there too.

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Book Launches and Associated Activities

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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. A huge thank you to Keith Hinchy for taking and giving permission to use shots he took from the Swanwick Prom. More below.Many thanks also to Babs Trevitt for the image of me taking part in the Swanwick Open Prose Mic Night.
Talking of Swanwick, I had a fabulous time at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. The launch for Seeing The Other Side went brilliantly. Sold two-thirds of my stock at the launch and the rest a day or so later. First time I’ve had a sell out. So thrilled. Pleased I also sold copies of From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping The Flash Fantastic.
It was a joy catching up with friends and chatting to new people to Swanwick. Hope to see them again there next year. Resuming normal home life – and the dog did mug me on my return!

Facebook – General

Pleased to be back on Authors Electric with Book Launches and Associated Activities. This one was a particular joy to write up given my recent launch for Seeing The Other Side at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick.

I also talk in this post about what I learn from other launches I go to, what authors hope will happen at them (and onwards – I often note a rise in my Kindle sales a few days after an event), and share some tips I think will help any writer prepare for their book launch.

Hope you find this useful. My last launch was in 2020 as, aside from anything else, I’m thrilled to bits to be able to get out and about for book events in person.

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Well, it is my first full day back at the helm after a fantastic few days away at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Am I shattered? You bet. It was nice Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal again today though.

Writing wise, it’s Monday so it’s time for my Substack story for the week after my break. Hope you enjoy Stuck on Q. This one isn’t just for Scrabble players, honest!

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Lovely to be back at church this morning and taking the dog out again afterwards. The latter is probably the most exercise I’ve had this week! Nice to be back at my desk “properly” and am looking forward to cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. Also nice to bring back some lovely books of prompts from Swanwick. Know they will be a great help.

I use prompts from a wide range of sources, including books, and will take something I like and put my own spin on it. Sometimes I will splice prompts and get a new one from two put together like that.

Story cubes are brilliant too. So many combinations available, depending on how many cubes you have. You won’t run out of the random generators any time soon either and with almost all of them you can set your own parameters, which again increases their usefulness to you and the ideas available.

Prompt Tip: If you use the generators, don’t generate too many in one go. You’ll feel swamped and that stifles creativity. Limits are so useful. They make you think more deeply and yes I know I’m biased here being a flash fiction writer but it is true nonetheless.

For books of prompts, pick out a few you think you’d like, say three or four. By the time you’ve done that, you should find there is one which is “grabbing” you so that’s the one to go for.

It takes a few days to recover from a fabulous time at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick but am slowly getting there. It was nice for Lady and I to get back to walking together and we even caught up with her Hungarian Vizler pal. It’s the first time we’ve seen them in a good couple of weeks as everyone is getting out earlier than normal for dog walking and we all have different ideas of what early is!

Talking of Swanwick, my Chandler’s Ford Today post next week will be Swanwick 2026 and Book Launch For Seeing The Other Side. Am looking forward to sharing that one next Friday.
Will be resuming flash fiction Sunday tomorrow and it will be lovely to get back to that again.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

One of the joys of The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick is the end of school party. Many thanks to Keith Hinchy who took these (and many other) fab shots.

June Webber and I had a great time at the disco. We often get together online the rest of the year with other Swanwickers (it is one of those things where people drop in as and when) but it is special to be able to get together in person.

Fabulous way to wrap up another year’s school. Writers spend so much time at their desks.

Just sometimes we get up on the dance floor too!

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It’s Monday, it’s marginally cooler than last week, I stress the marginally, but it does mean it’s story time.

Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Scrabbling Around. The eagle eyed amongst you may spot a connection to my Substack story this week in terms of theme.

Is Linda really cheating at Scrabble, as Mark suspects, or is there something else going on? Find out here.

Looking forward to resuming sharing my Substack and YouTube stories. Now just to get on and write them which I’ll do shortly.

Sometimes when deciding where to start, I will think about the mood of the stories I want to tell. Funny, dark, or somewhere in between? Sometimes I’ll think about the character type I want – someone who is overdue their comeuppance or someone worthy of support getting that in an unexpected way?

It pays to ask yourself a few questions as to what you want your stories to be and what impact you’d like them to have on readers. From there, you can start to outline situations and/or characters and off you go with your first draft.

Happy writing!

The highlight for me at Swanwick this year was of course the book launch for Seeing The Other Side, but it was closely followed by the Open Prose Mic Night.

I love these. I get to hear a marvellous range of stories and, when I take part as I did again this year, I can highlight something about what flash fiction is and can be simply by performing some of my stories. I hope I get to introduce some folk to the form this way.

It is another reason why I include reading work out loud as part of my editing process. I know a story has got to read well on the page and out loud for Mic Nights and the like.

It is amazing what errors you can pick up simply by reading your story out loud and if you record it on Zoom and play it back, you can (a) get your timings right which always goes down well with a Mic host and (b) you will take in the story as the audience would.

That in turn helps you spot what might be missing, what doesn’t flow as well as you might like and so on. Gives you a chance to put all of that right before you do perform the pieces. Can’t recommend doing this highly enough.

GOODREADS AUTHOR BLOG – Reading Time

I suspect most of us would like far more reading time than we have got. I think it’s part of the territory of so many books, not enough time, and having other wonderful responsibilities. Time doesn’t stretch that much.

The irony for me as I write this is I’m off to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick where there will be so much love and appreciation shown for the written word in all its forms.

Yet most of us will be busy catching up with friends, learning from the writing courses and so on to get much actual reading done while here!

I expect most of us will bring home new delights from the Book Room though! The To Be Read pile never goes down much, does it?! But then maybe that is as it should be.

I find it encouraging there will never be a shortage of good reading material.

And now I’m back from Swanwick, I can confirm I have brought more good reading material home with me! Sorry, couldn’t get to post this last week while away but will now resume weekly posts.

Ironically it was due to being at a place where every writer loves books, their own and others, and we spent a lot of time celebrating the fact, as well as learning more about our craft.

Now back home again, we can resume our usual reading with more material to add to the mix but then that’s never a problem, is it?

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Author Interview – Val Penny – Murder in Gilmerton

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good few days. So looking forward to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Will be writing one big blog post on Friday 14th August and will do daily Facebook posts but there won’t be much time to write more while away.
Will be too busy (a) learning from the courses, (b) catching up with friends I only see online the rest of the year, (c) socialising with said friends, (d) enjoying my book launch for Seeing The Other Side and (e) knowing my fellas will be fine, wondering how the dog is doing!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am delighted to share a fabulous interview with Val Penny on Chandler’s Ford Today this week called Author Interview – Val Penny – Murder at Gilmerton.

I’m a great believer in having titles which “do as they say on the tin”. It’s a reference to the old Ronseal advert which always claimed “it does what it says on the tin”. Keep it clear and to the point!

Anyway, in this in depth conversation, Val brings us up to date with what has been going on in her writing life since she was last on CFT, not least of which is her move to Joffe Books. We also discuss back story (for series characters and one-off characters, who in Val’s books are often the victims), whether Val can read crime while she is writing her own or not, the advantages of using an area you know well as your setting and much, much more.

Plenty to enjoy here and, as ever, there are useful tips too.

Hope you enjoy the post and good luck with Murder in Gilmerton, Val.

Author Interview – Val Penny – Murder in Gilmerton

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lovely swim, my last one this side of Swanwick.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Author Interview – Val Penny – Murder at Gilmerton on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above.

Val shares the changes in her writing and publishing life since she was last on CFT and there are plenty of useful thoughts and tips too. Be sure not to miss it, especially if you love crime fiction. Val’s books are a tremendous read but don’t just take my word for it. Check them out after seeing what she has to say about her new release on CFT. Link up tomorrow.

Now I hope to post daily from Swanwick but I will be having a big round up blog via my website after I get back. It will be easier as I mentioned yesterday. I’ll also resume my Substack and YouTube stories after Swanwick but hope to get some drafts down while there.

I do hope to come back buzzing with inspiration, mind you!

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Hope today has gone well. Lady was overjoyed to run around with Coco, the lovely Labradoodle, this morning. Must be a good month since we last met up.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing a smashing interview with Val Penny about Murder in Gilmerton for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Do look out for that. Again, see above.

Have packed for The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. As I go up by train, I can’t leave this until the last minute but it is good to have it done. Will be posting as and when next week and certain things I will probably leave until I get home again such as my Sunday stories and WordPress round up. Will resume those on my return. To be honest by the time you’ve been to the courses and workshops, caught up with pals, made new pals, enjoyed the evening entertainment, there’s not a lot of energy left for writing!

Naturally am so looking forward to my launch for Seeing The Other Side on Sunday too. Will be a busy and fun few days in the run up to Swanwick, while I am there, and catching up with everything on my return. It is a joy though! (I also anticipate being mugged by the dog on my return too – it’s what she usually does).

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It’s a busy Friday on the article front as my latest post on Writers’ Narrative, Is It Time For Your Characters To Get Away From It All, is also out today.

I look at the advantages of sending your characters away from their usual setting and share some favourite books of mine which have done just that.

Yes, for individual short stories and flash fiction, it is still possible to send a character away on vacation. You simply make it clear somewhere in the narrative they’re not in their usual location.

I look at using holidays as backdrops (which is why they can work so well in any length of tale), I share tips on how to best make use of holiday settings, and I set you a couple of questions which I hope will prove to be a good starting point for your own stories.

Hope you enjoy the post and you and your characters enjoy your holidays!

I’ve mentioned before I like to mix up the moods of the stories I write. Now this isn’t just down to how I’m feeling. I will often write a cheery piece when I feel anything but cheery. It can help and it does take my mind off things for a bit. Writing can be therapeutic like that at times. But I also think this is a reflection of life in general. It is a mix of moods. So how about this for some story ideas?

Theme Tip: Pick a well known proverb or saying and write two stories on it – one to be cheery, one to be anything but cheery (though that still leaves you a good range to choose from). This also makes for a great writing exercise. And if you’re stuck for the proverbs, use the random generators – the phrase one would be good for this.

Hope to draft some flash fiction pieces while I’m at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick shortly but will probably not get to share any on Substack or YouTube until after what is one of the major highlights of my writing year. Mind you, Swanwick is also a great opportunity to wave the flag for flash fiction, which I’m always glad to do.

Am also looking forward to the blog tour for Seeing The Other Side which will be from 7th to 13th September. More news later on that but it is the first time I’m having an “official” blog tour. It also makes a lovely change for me to be on the other side of the fence here as I do often support such tours for other authors so it’s nice to be able to join in myself!

Fairytales with Bite – Magical Get Togethers

I’m shortly going to head off to what I consider to be a magical get together – The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. It is one of the major highlights of my writing year and there is something magical about being able to spend time with writing friends, learning more about the industry, and just being immersed totally in the writing life for a few days.

For your magical characters/setting, what would count as a magical get together when magic, for them, is such an everyday thing? What would it take to make something stand out as special to them? Could it be an event where magic is specifically not allowed and everything is done “manually”?

What could happen against the backdrop of a magical get together which could not happen in ordinary life and who would want to take advantage of such a thing to cause that happening? What are they hoping to achieve? I could see some magical crime stories going on there!

Also, what one character would consider magical, another may think was humdrum. Why the difference in opinion? Who is right? Again there could be story ideas to explore from fleshing this out more – I could see there being clashes between the characters here.

This World and Others – Leaving The World Behind For a While

When I go to my big annual writing event in Derbyshire, which I will be heading to shortly, I get to leave the world behind for a while. For a few days I am immersed in the wonderful world of writing and I love it.

Am I glad to get back to reality again? Yes. Aside from being back with the family again, I am also keen to get to my desk again to write up those ideas I had while I was away. There are various ways to get away from it all for a bit and we are in holiday season as I write this.

So what would your magical/sci-fi characters do when they want to leave their worlds behind for a while (as we all do from time to time)? How easy or otherwise do they find shrugging off their responsibilities for a while? Does the break refresh them or do they come back, wanting to get away from it all on a more permanent basis? Plenty of story ideas there.

Even if the break is a normal holiday one, where would your characters go? How would it differ from their normal environment and is is the differences which draw them here? Do they try to introduce those differences to their home worlds? What kind of outcome/fall out would there be from this as there would be reactions!

Again, story ideas there.

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Reworking Stories

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good few days. Cooling down a bit for which Lady and I are grateful. Just over a week to go to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick as I write this – so looking forward to it.
More behind the scenes admin going on with Seeing The Other Side too including the fact it is now up on the online bookshop for the Association of Christian Writers. Having your books on there is a perk of membership and it is so nice to have my new one there.

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Pleased to share Reworking Stories on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I look at why all writers have to accept the need to rework and why I believe getting your draft down, resting it, and then having another look at it later is such a good idea.

For short form writers, the rest period doesn’t necessarily need to be that long, but you do need to get out of “creator mode” and in more analytical “editor mode”. How long that takes will depend on the length of your work but it is the best way I know to give myself enough distance to be able to judge a piece of writing objectively enough.

On the plus side our laptops and PCs do make reworking easier to do. I did use to have to paste and cut literally. It wasn’t fun! I also look at the challenge to the writer here and it really is a question of ensuring you can judge your work objectively. I also share tips for reworking stories I continue to find useful.

Hope you find the post helpful.

Reworking Stories

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady briefly saw her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal earlier – both dogs delighted to be reunited briefly. I was out early for an early swim which was lovely. Am thankful it isn’t as hot as yesterday but it’s still a bit too warm for my (and Lady’s) liking. Feel very sorry for the wildfire fighters.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Reworking Stories on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above. Mind you, even if you just write non-fiction, reworking your drafts comes into play for you too. I share thoughts and tips.

After that I’ll be interviewing Scottish crime writer, Val Penny, who also knows more than a thing or two about reworking stories! Indeed, I can’t think of any author who hasn’t had to rework something and often more than once. I do know that’s the case for me. Hope you’ll find tomorrow’s post useful.

And my next author newsletter is out on Saturday too. Plenty of news to share this time.

Pleased to share my latest post on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This time I discuss Getting Together with Other Writers, which is apt as it is just over a week or so before I head to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick.

I share something of what I’ve learned over many years of meeting up with other writers, not least of which is making many fabulous friends. That alone is reason to go to writing events when you can (and the online ones are also valuable here).

Hope you enjoy the post and you have a great time at any events you go to over the next few months. If you’re plucking up courage to go to one, I would say go for it because we were all nervous newbies for these things. I remember my first event years ago on the Isle of Wight but I ended up having a lovely time and I met the lady who went on to become my publisher many years later. Neither of us could have known at the time.

It is amazing what you can learn from a writing event and, talking of which, I’m also looking forward to meeting up with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this evening. That was good fun too!

Getting Together With Other Writers

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Hope the day has gone well. Won’t be writing much (if at all) tomorrow given I’ll be at a family wedding. It has been a long time since we last had one of those…

Don’t forget my author newsletter is out again tomorrow. A huge thank you to my subscribers for their support. I share news, tips, and more including story links so you get to have a good read. To sign up head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

What has been especially nice about the newsletter about to go out is having much more news to share. It’s always wonderful to share publication news and I am so glad Seeing The Other Side is now out there.

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Nice task today. I’ve been preparing the copies of Seeing The Other Side I’ll be taking to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick in just over a week’s time. Some jobs you just don’t mind doing…!

Am also getting on with further “admin” for my new book, the results of which I hope to be able to share later on.

Incidentally, if you are thinking of getting the paperback via a certain online retailer, please ignore their delivery date guidelines. You will get the book quicker than they say. All that happens here is they receive the order for the book, they let the publishers know, it gets sent on to the printers, and lo and behold a couple of days later you will get your book.

I should add the online retailer does do this for all of the independent presses and it can be a pain. What I think is forgotten is with print on demand, which all of my books are, is there is no stock as such. You just order and pay and then you get your book. At worst case, it may be a day or two later but that should be all.

This way of working is also greener because you’re not printing more than is needed. Neither are there warehousing or distribution costs as such. It is a huge factor in what makes the independent press viable.

The ebook, of course, you will get immediately.

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Delighted to say my Seeing The Other Side is now on the Association of Christian Writers online bookshop. It is one of the perks of being an ACW member and one which is appreciated.

Many thanks to the ACW webmaster, Annmarie Miles, for making this happen. And do check out the ACW bookshop. There is a huge range of fiction, non-fiction and devotional works on there, representing very well what ACW members write. We are a broad church, aptly enough.

Seeing the Other Side

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Fairytales With Bite – Ending The Beginning

When and how do your magical characters take off, so to speak? Where is the point where they have ended their training and are ready to start the magical life “properly”? How do they get on? There could be some good stories around rookie mistakes here. Bound to be some. Most professions will have these so why not the magical ones?

Are your characters glad to leave the training behind and get on with their lives or are they nervous about it? What support do they have? Are they willing to avail themselves of that support?

Where your characters have had training, do the institutions concerned follow up on their previous students or leave them to it? Are they ever proud of their former students? Also, would they have something like mature students? Learning is life long after all (or should be).

In the case of a quest story, where is the point when the story really takes off, the characters know there is no going back, they have to press on to whatever conclusion awaits them?

At some point, the beginning has to end. It will be here your characters begin to mature and come into their own lives. Same as for us, really, but there could be great stories here.

This World and Others – Society Forming

Does your setting focus on a magical or a science-fiction like basis? Or could the two co-exist? Why has your society developed in the way it has, whichever route it has chosen to be the predominant way through for most of their citizens?

What are the advantages to your society forming the way it has? Have there been any aspects it has regretted “dumping”, presumably out of necessity to develop what was the most important things for the society to function in the desired way?

Talking of which, who did make the decisions to take the society in a certain direction? Which of your characters (present or in the past backstory) decided this world will be a magical or science based one? Were they ever challenged? Were their decisions right or not? There would be good stories here.

I could see if characters were unhappy in the way the society was heading, they might want to try to change that. It happens here after all and both fantasy and science fiction reflect humanity with all of its merits and woes.

If your society is mainly a magical one, how would a character who wants to go down the science route as we would know it do this? Would they be ostracised or encouraged? (Some might see the point in having a balance at both magic and science, especially if you know there are things magic cannot do).

Interesting thoughts to explore, I hope.

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New Stories and Opening Lines

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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’ve had a good weekend. Quiet one ahead of two busy ones coming up. Cooling down, even had some rain, but more is needed. Feel sorry for those fighting the wildfires.
Writing going all okay. Set up my card reader so it is ready to use – it was easier than I thought which was nice.

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Hope today has gone well. Is becoming hotter again so am being careful with the dog again. Having said that, she’s fine but she’d like the thermostat turned down a bit, as would I.

Writing wise, my next author newsletter goes out on 1st August (Saturday!) and I’ve plenty to share this time, of course. I also share story links to my work on Substack and YouTube and offer writing tips and advice. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

There’s nothing quite like writing a monthly newsletter to bring home the thought the year is whizzing by.

In other news, I’ve just heard my Bridport Prize entry won’t be going any further. On the plus side, this means I can have another look at this tale when I have more time and see if I can send it somewhere else. I’ve done this before and sometimes a piece has found a home on the second go around.

The writing life is full of ups and downs but you do get used to this. You learn to make the most of the up periods when you have them too!

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Another busy Monday so that means it’s time to share here the story I shared on my Substack platform yesterday. Both this story and the YouTube one I’ll share on my book page shortly are based on a blue hat. Two stories out of one object? Oh yes! Also both are at the 75 words mark. Hope you enjoy both of them but first up from Substack is my The Blue Hat.

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Many apologies but I forgot to share my Authors Electric post from just over a week ago but I am pleased to share it now. I talk about New Stories this time.

I know why I forgot. I’ve been full of the publication of Seeing The Other Side, of course, but this post looks at the joy of having new stories to share for things like Open Prose Mic Nights and the like. I like to mix up new and old stories and the moods of those tales for events like these so there is a good balance.

I also look at the advantage of reading work out loud even when it’s not for an audience. I continue to find it can be a great editing tool. I’ve often spotted things like missing words doing this and they can be the devil to spot precisely because they’re not there but when you read out loud, that is when you suddenly realise the gap.

Hope you enjoy the post and, again, apologies for the late share.

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Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. Have finally invested in a card reader for book events and have now got it set up and good to go. Regardless of what the tech is, I know from experience it pays to give yourself plenty of time here! Still all seems to be okay and it will be lovely to be able to offer card payment facilities at book events.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Reworking Stories on Chandler’s Ford Today next week. The week after that, I hope to be sharing a super interview with Val Penny so do watch out for that. And then after that I’m off to Swanwick again – the year whizzes by.

Review Tip: As with any author with books out there, I will put in a plea for reviews. They don’t need to be long. They do need to be honest. One line reviews are absolutely fine and a good tip here is to think about what you liked most about the book and go with that. These make for excellent reviews. Reviews do help authors more than it might appear at face value so please do give a review.

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Pleased Tuesday has been somewhat calmer than Monday. Enjoyed a lovely swim earlier too. I remember thinking when I took swimming up seriously I could use this time to work out story ideas etc. Not a bit of it.

You focus on what you’re doing – rightly so – for one thing. I also find you tend to “switch off” which is lovely and I am sure that does refresh me, mentally speaking, for work at the old desk later in the day. I can’t recall writing any flash fiction based around the swimming world. Hmm… will have to rectify that at some point.

But things like swimming, going out with the dog etc can inspire story ideas even if they don’t seem to do so directly. I’ve spotted, say, a striking hat being worn by someone and “pinch the hat” to use for a character of mine who I know would just wear something like that.

Sometimes objects you see while out and about can be a great trigger for a story idea. (And there is always the random object generators to fall back on too. Plus don’t forget the photos on your phone. What view did you take a shot of which could be used as a story setting, say?).

Happy writing!

Monday – busy, hot, my least favourite day of the week as you may well have gathered by now. Mind you, it does mean it’s story time.

Hope you enjoy my The Return. As with my Substack story this week (see above), this video also features a blue hat but I take a very different take on what can be done with it in this tale.

One person’s bargain from a charity shop is another one’s horror story. Find out more here about what possible bargain this could be.

 

Will be getting on with flash fiction Sunday in a short while. Am also looking forward to catching up with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Wednesday too. Will be hosting another group for ACW the week after and then I’m off to Swanwick so next couple of weeks will be delightfully busy.

Flash Tip for Specific Word Counts: Now this is a specific tip if ever there was one! I’ve found it useful to look at what 50 words, 100 words etc looks like on screen/paper. It gives me a visual aid as to what I should be aiming for here. I then draft my stories, knowing roughly what it should like to get to the desired word count.

I always go over the limit but then go through and cut out my wasted words which brings the count down. I wish I could stop myself writing those wasted words in the first place but it doesn’t work that way for me so I go with the flow here, happy in the knowledge these things won’t be in the story for long.

Looking forward, as always, to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow. Nice way to wind up one week and to start another one.

I do miss writing for Friday Flash Fiction and haven’t yet found somewhere suitable for me to submit regularly. It was that aspect of regular submissions I found most useful for FFF. Am sure I will find somewhere eventually. (Am also sorry Flash NANO is no longer about).

Having said that, I am enjoying posting stories to Substack and YouTube and will continue. Incidentally I do share all of my links to my stories on a monthly basis via my newsletter so you can easily see them all in “one hit” there so to speak.

I never mind doing this kind of marketing! I want there to be something in it for a potential audience and there is something lovely about sharing stories.

GOODREADS AUTHOR BLOG – Opening Lines

I enjoy creating intriguing opening lines for my flash fiction and short stories. Great fun to do. I also love reading intriguing opening lines. They do keep me reading on, which of course is the whole idea. The tricky bit though is in working out what will be intriguing to a reader given tastes vary.

Having something different which can indicate an interesting time period or setting is a good way to start. The classic one here is from Orwell’s 1984. The thought of a clock striking thirteen is fascinating.

But irony as in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is also a wonderful start. It leads to wondering whether the premise of that opening line (which I won’t give away here and in any case I am sure you know it) will be delivered on. The only way to find out is to read the book.

I must admit I have a soft spot for stories, including my own, which start with dialogue or a character’s internal thoughts. You get to have a feel for the character’s attitude and from that what might come further on in the story just from this alone.

A successful opening line then is one which makes you read on to the finishing one. You can write the most amazing finish to a story but unless the opening is equally fantastic nobody will get to the end and that’s the challenge every fiction writer faces. It’s a cracking challenge though!

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