Tag: Authors Electric

A Year In Flashback

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All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Many thanks to Lynn Clement, Paula Readman, and Penny Blackburn for images from the Bridge House Publishing Celebration Event and The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick held earlier this year.
Hope you have had a good week. Lady has enjoyed seeing her chums though the weather has been frightful at times. Am slowly winding down for a Christmas break. There will be one more round up post (Tuesday 23rd December and the one after that will be on Tuesday, 30th December). Meantime I hope all of your Christmas preparations go well – still plenty to do here!

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Pleased to share my last Chandler’s Ford Today post for 2025. I look at A Year In Flashback and review my writing year. I also share the link to the recent Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM hosted by Hannah Kate. I was pleased to have a festive piece broadcast here (and thrilled three other members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group had their work broadcast too).

This post was a joy to write as I look back at events I went to and review my news of the year, especially the forthcoming publication of Seeing The Other Side (Bridge House Publishing). Hope you enjoy the post and I would recommend taking out some time to look back at your own writing for the year. You may well find you’ve achieved more than you thought. I’ve written more stories than ever this year, for one thing.

A Year In Flashback

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The weather has been ghastly today (Lady didn’t go out this afternoon and it has to be really bad for that to happen) but I do hope my latest post on Authors Electric might bring some seasonal cheer.

I look at Approaching Christmas and A New Year this time and discuss the joys of taking in seasonal stories whether it is by book or film (many of which are based on books in any case). I also share some film ideas here too – if you haven’t seen Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather, I highly recommend it. Plus you can’t beat The Muppet Christmas Carol.

Hope you enjoy the post and I hope you have a lovely Christmas and New Year. See you here again in 2026, all being well!

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Hope you have had a good Wednesday. Lady had a lovely time with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals which was sweet to see.

Looking forward to tonight’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. We’ll be sharing chat, news, stories etc. Christmas jumpers and so on are optional. Should be fun and it is a lovely way to wrap up our writing year here. It was great fun!

Will be sharing A Year in Flashback for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I will be back on CFT after that early in the New Year. A huge thank you to all the lovely authors I’ve interviewed this year. Am hoping for more of the same in 2026. See above for CFT post.

Writing Tip: As Christmas approaches, I do slow down on the writing and then stop for a few days. The break is wonderful and gives me chance to catch up on some reading too. Never be afraid to take a break from writing when you feel you need one. It will still be there for you when you are ready to resume it (and I find I am raring to get back precisely because I have had that break).

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No story to share on Friday Flash Fiction this time but I will just say the winner of their Christmas competition will be announced shortly after 19th December 2025. Good luck to all who took part in the competition too.

I will start sending stories in again in the New Year and look forward to doing so, though the break will also be lovely (and I am sure that will be the view of the FFF people too!).
Will be sharing A Year in Flashback for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. Will be my last CFT post for 2025. See above.

I hope to draft some flash and other pieces during the holidays but don’t plan on writing much. I do hope to catch up on some reading though.

I will be sending out my author newsletter on 1st January as normal though I will admit to preparing a lot of this in advance. It helps! I share news, tips, story links and more here. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com and for those who already subscribe, may I say a huge thank you for your continued support.

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Last meeting for 2025 for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group tonight. (On Wednesday 17th December and it was good fun).

Also am glad I got my final flash and short story competition entries in a couple of weeks ago. Things are starting to become more hectic in the run up to Christmas. I know, I know. I shouldn’t be surprised by it really. We all know Christmas is coming but the last week or so seems to creep up on you. Am looking forward to taking part in some carol services too. These are always lovely.

I try to use some of the Christmas break to catch up with stories (via books, films, audio etc).

Flash fiction comes into its own during busy times. It means I will always have time to read some stories, even if they are only 100 words long a piece!

Fairytales with Bite – Minor Characters in Fairytales

I have a very soft spot in my heart for minor characters in fairytales. One helped me get into print with A Helping Hand in Bridge House Publishing’s 2009 anthology, Alternative Renditions. I have written many fairytales with minor characters taking the lead for once since then.

Flash fiction works brilliantly for this given I think this kind of story works at its best when kept tight. For one thing, you don’t need to go into much detail about the story the minor characters have come from as folk will know this already. All you do is hint there was more to come and that is where your story comes in, of course.

This kind of story can be great fun to write as you can set the record straight, if you wish, for the minor characters who will be your “stars”. You can also show behind the scenes material the original story didn’t cover. For example, what did go on in the Palace kitchens on the night of Prince Charming’s ball? What was the gossip (and you can bet there would have been plenty of that, especially after midnight!).

What matters is showing why you want to write about the minor characters you pick. What made them special enough for you to write their tales up? That is where the story will “spark” and catch not just your imagination but those of your readers too. So what does need to be told about these characters and why?

These tales are a great vehicle for humorous stories too. Have fun! (I continue to do so here).

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This World and Others – The Role of Your Setting

What role does your setting play in your story? Why have you set your story there? How does it help or hinder your characters? How would it appeal to your readers? What would we picture about it to make it seem real to us?

Setting can almost be a character in its own right. Think Mordor or The Shire from The Lord of The Rings. Both of those places conjure up different images (and of the characters likely to live here too).

If your world setting is an old one, how has it changed over time and has that been due to natural factors or things like magical power misuse? If the latter, has anything been done to correct it?

Your setting could be the story in its own right – what happened to it, why, and what was done to rectify it and who led the way to things being put right (or as right as possible).

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Character Memories and Publication News

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All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Busy one here but productive. Lady is making good progress too. Writing has gone well. Looking forward to sharing another superb author interview on Chandler’s Ford Today next month and many thanks too for the lovely likes and comments on the publication of Magi, the latest anthology from Bridge House Publishing.

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Delighted to be back on Authors Electric with my latest post Character Memories.

I look at why I think character memories make the character concerned more real for me. I also look at how memories can drive action and attitudes. I also discuss how I use memories a character might have to help me know about them even if those memories don’t end up in the story I tell about them.

Hope you enjoy the post.

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Hope today has been reasonable (well, you have to make allowances for it being Monday). Lady got to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler which cheered her up no end. Lady is making good progress and I think giving it another week should see her fully okay again. We hope that will be the case anyway.

As the day went on though, I started to feel unwell and am not feeling fabulous as I write this so it will be an early night for me, I think. I will get some writing done though not as much as I might usually have done because it will cheer me up a bit. Being creative, in any form, is good for you like that. I hope a good night’s sleep will do wonders too. I guess it’s time for the bugs to make their presence felt, unfortunately.

Writing Tip: Never despair when you get those times when you can’t write much for whatever reason. It happens to most writers. I find the best way to handle this is to accept I will just do something and leave it at that until I am able to write to my normal levels.

Hope you have had a lovely weekend. Busy one here. Glad to get to Sunday afternoon and wind down a bit. Can’t believe we’ve hit the halfway stage of Flash NANO already. Will be working at today’s prompt later on.

Lady continues to improve and is feeling happier than she has done though we still need to be careful with her exercise for a while.

Had a lovely Zoom with Swanwick friends yesterday, one of whom I’ll catch up with in person at the Bridge House Publishing celebration event.

A huge thank you too for all the lovely comments and likes etc coming in on my news yesterday of Magi, the latest BHP anthology, being released. See below.

Check out an anthology for Christmas – that could catch on as a saying I think!

Hope today has gone well. Good news – Lady is improving and she got to see her best pal, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, on a short walk today. It was lovely to see how seeing her closest chum cheered Lady up a lot. Dogs are good for each other as well as us.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing a review of The Business of Murder, the murder mystery play recently staged at the Chandler’s Ford Methodist Church by the wonderfully named Senior Thespians! Link up for that on Friday.

Will also on with the latest prompt from Flash NANO later today.

Publication News: But the big news is I am thrilled to say I am in print again. My story, The Family Legend, appears in Bridge House Publishing’s latest anthology, Magi. It is out today – 15th November 2025 – link below.

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Feeling better than yesterday though still not 100%. Writing has proved to be a wonderful distraction. It’s also handy it’s something which can be done in the warm given we had our first full frost overnight. Brr…

Will be working on the latest prompt from Flash NANO later. As ever, I’m enjoying the variety of prompts. It’s always a good idea to mix up the type of writing prompts you use. It keeps you on your toes. It makes you think outside of the box. Also, it’s just plain fun to have a go at different prompts, though inevitably you will end up with favourite types. I would say mine are writing to an opening line or where you have to put certain words into a story. Like those a lot.

Incidentally, if you like books of prompts, why not check out The Big Book of Prompts, published by Bridge House Publishing? I’ve contributed prompts to this book, along with dear friends from Bridge House, CafeLit and Chapeltown Books. This book gives you a prompt for every day of the year too.

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It’s Monday. It has been hectic. I feel under the weather – boo. Definitely time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Outstanding Effort.

Sometimes monsters can’t believe what they’re hearing but when they win first prize for something which comes naturally to them, maybe they can hide their real attributes for a bit longer.

 

Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly as I draft pieces for Friday Flash Fiction, my YouTube channel, and the latest Flash NANO prompt.

I need to select some stories, already written in draft form, to look at for potential competitions. I’ve got a couple of competitions I wouldn’t mind entering before the year end. This is where regularly drafting flash helps a lot because I always have something in stock I can pull out and, after good editing and polishing, put in for a competition.

Also hope to get on with a PowerPoint for the next Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group.


Thrilled to have publication news again in that my story, The Family Legend, is in Bridge House Publishing’s latest anthology, Magi. Always good to have news like this!

I started writing standard length short stories, such as this one, long before I discovered the joys of flash fiction and I happily write both. Most of my standard length short stories are either in anthologies or are submitted for competitions. My flash fiction work usually ends up online or in a future collection (sometimes both!). Plus I do enter flash fiction competitions.

Many congratulations to all who are between the covers with me for Magi. It is good to see some familiar names here and I hope to meet up with at least some of you at the Bridge House Publishing celebration event next month.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Collections Acrostic

C = Collections (short stories and flash fiction) are wonderful ways to try out works by authors new to you.

O = Original stories, often on a theme, inspire so many ideas and make for a truly entertaining read.

L = Lively imaginations at work in collections to make the most of the theme.

L = Love collections for giving authors a voice and also some at least are used to raise money for charity.

E = Enter the worlds of story collections and meet many different characters.

C = Characters which grip you and often short stories and flash fiction make more of an impact because of their brevity.

T = Tension and drama aplenty in the short forms and collections bring so many of them together in one easy format.

I = Imagination let loose for readers to enjoy.

O = Options for collections usually include paperback and ebook so there will be something to suit you.

N = Nothing ventured, nothing gained – why not try story collections as gifts?

S = Story collections are perfect for dipping into when you don’t have as much time as you’d like for reading.

Go on, give them a go! You are bound to find topics and themes to suit.

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Book Buying Season

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Image Credits:- All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, as was one photo for my Authors Electric post.
Hope the weekend went okay. Wet, windy and wild here in Hampshire. Time again for lots of soakings for the dog and me and plenty of warm towels to snuggle up with! Am so thankful writing is generally done indoors!

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Lady and I made the most of some sunshine this morning (which we were so glad to see after yesterday) and had a lovely time in the park. Even better was meeting up with her Rhodesian Ridgeback chum – zoomies followed!

Writing wise, will be working on the first part of my blog round up for this week and editing work.

Looking forward to drafting some flash pieces with the ACW Flash Fiction Group tomorrow night. (I do always set exercises but they are fun ones, honest!).

It’s also not long now before the last Flash NANO starts and am looking forward to that. I understand there will be something else from November 2026 but will have to wait and see what form that takes. I like the idea of having a month working on flash prompts though. It helps output a lot!

Lady and I set a world record time for getting around the park this morning – the weather was awful. At one point, I did think I was going to have to thumb a lift from Noah – there would have been room in the Ark for the pair of us, I’m sure.

Writing wise, am ploughing on with blogs and editing. I hope later this week to pick a story I’ve already drafted and look at it with a view to entering it in a competition.

Also looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom on Wednesday. Also looking forward to seeing some of the group at the ACW in person event on Saturday at Egham. It will be good to catch up with friends in person once again. I confidently expect to come back with more books to add to my TBR pile!

Wet and wild here in Hampshire today, unfortunately. Still in some ways it means it is the perfect day to stay inside and get on with some writing.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to sharing a fabulous interview with local (to me) author, John Puzey, about his latest book, Captive Audience, on Chandler’s Ford Today next week. John is a stalwart member of our local amateur theatre group, The Chameleons.

Stepping into the lives of characters is nothing new for him. This book was inspired by letters from John’s father when he was a prisoner of war in World War Two. Do check out the interview especially if you have any interest at all in historical writing, fiction and non-fiction. Link up on Friday.

Pleased to be back on Authors Electric with my latest post, Book Buying Season. Well, it is timely given a certain event is only a couple of months away now. I also look at why I think this season is also Author Event Season and I hope all of these go well for anyone holding them. I have a couple of events coming up later this month and in December where I hope to sell books. I also look at the biggest challenge to all writers in this post.

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Hope today has gone okay. Not bad here. Almost time to start thinking about drafting some festive flash fiction. When I am ahead of myself, writing wise, I have been known to do this in July but not this year!).

Will have the joy of proofing a story of mine which will be in an anthology soon. Will share more news on that book before too long.

Editing a piece of flash fiction takes time. Okay, it cannot be as long as for a novel, say, obviously, but where the editing skill comes in here is working out what you can take out without spoiling the story overall. I have left pieces at a longer word count before now when I’ve felt the flow of the story works better with those “extra” words in it. I have to consider how the story flows. It’s not just about getting it to the “right” word count.

It’s Monday. It has been so stormy here – the rain has been torrential. Definitely time for a story I think. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Achievement.

The wandmaker finds out how Jill, a young fairy, earned enough money to get a wand upgrade, where Cinderella’s story comes into it all, the role of the kitchen sink, and cheery songs.

 

Time for an acrostic I think, on this wet and wild Sunday afternoon. Well, why not? Hope you enjoy this one.

F = Fantastic format for anyone who loves creating characters and a wide mixture of genres in which to put them.

L = Length is anything from a few words up to 1000 maximum and plenty of categories across the range.

A = Attitudes and actions of your characters come across clearly in this sharply written format.

S = Stories can cross time, space, dimensions known and unknown and so much more – it’s just the word count which has a limit.

H = Have fun experimenting with characters and genres here as writing flash will tighten up your other writing too, removing all fear of editing.

Hope the weekend has gone well so far. I’ve resumed my usual autumn workout in clearing up oak leaves in front of my home. We have some superb and very old oaks and I don’t mind clearing up. It keeps me warm, I love the trees, and it means I get very good value for money out of my Garden Waste collection service each year!

The changing colours of the leaves (and their falling) shows up the passing of time so well and we need to show this to an extent in our stories. We expect to see characters change in our tales, no matter how short or long the stories are, and regardless of the time span of those tales. Without the change, whether it’s due to internal or external conflict or both, there is no story after all.

Goodreads Author Blog – Story Acrostic

Haven’t written an acrostic for a while. Hope you enjoy this one.

S = Stories spring surprises with characters who keep you gripped.

T = Tall tales, flash fiction, short stories, novels, novellas – there is something for everyone across so many genres.

O = Originally stories were told in oral form but now we have print, audio, ebooks, which is all to the good, something for everyone again.

R = Re-reading favourites is always a joy, as is discovering new authors and new stories.

Y = Young or old or anywhere in between, there are stories for you.

Have a fantastic read!

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Writing Competitions

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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. Wet, wild and blustery here. Writing going well. Am so glad it’s generally an indoors job when it comes to this time of year! Lady has got to see all of her chums already so is pleased with how her week is going.

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Delighted to share my latest Chandler’s Ford Today post where I talk about Writing Competitions. I look at the benefits of these and share tips, including things to watch out for when you are thinking about entering competitions. And, yes, do watch out for scams.

Hope you find the post useful. I sometimes write the kind of post I wish I had to hand when I was starting out as a writer all those many moons ago and this one does fall into that category.

Writing Competitions

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Delighted to be back on Authors Electric with my latest post – Writing Prompts. As I write a lot of short fiction (short stories as well as flash fiction), I am always glad for prompts which help me come up with ideas and tales I would not have created in any other way. Good prompts encourage lateral thinking, which is always useful. I share other advantages to using prompts and hope you find the post useful.

(Good news: you are never going to run out of prompt types to use – there are thousands if you consider all of the different random generators, proverbs, sayings and other things which can be used as prompts, some of which, like photos, you will have on your own phone).

 

Hope you have had a good day. Lady had a lovely one, getting to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals and all before the rain came in so we all count that as a win.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to sharing Writing Competitions on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above.

Plus I will have further author interviews coming up on CFT in October. Will share more nearer the time.

Looking forward to going to see The Ghost Train which will be performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company in late October, aptly for the Halloween weekend. This was written by Arnold Ridley of Dad’s Army fame. Will be interesting (and a great performance I’m sure).

My next Authors Electric post is out tomorrow. I’m looking at Writing Prompts this time, which is a favourite topic of mine (and a useful one I think). Again, see above. Has been a busy week on the blogging front!

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It’s Friday, the end of the working week for many, and time for another story. Hope you like my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Getting Better With Time.

I’ll be looking at linked flash for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting next week. For my Seeing The Other Side, I have written more examples of this and found it great fun and a good challenge to do. It’s where focusing on character helps. A good character with a strong voice can be used more than once, which is what I love about linked flash.

One compelling reason to focus on character when writing flash, in particular, is I do want to see and experience the story through their eyes because that is what I want a reader to see and experience. It is also more direct and immediate and that is one of the strengths of flash fiction.

It can help cut word count considerably too because it will be what the character needs to show you that you will focus on – no room for any kind of waffle.

Even when you have a character prone to waffling, they will have to rein it in for the purposes of the story. You will just need to show a “little waffle” but that will be relevant to the character portrayal so readers will understand that. You just can’t go on at length, which is no bad thing!

Fairytales with Bite – Changing Seasons

This year in the UK at least we seem to have gone straight into autumn after a long hot summer with pretty much no or little warning of big drops in temperature and heavy rainfall. Often there is a small period of adjustment weather wise as the seasons change.

In your magical setting, are the seasons the same as ours? If not, how do they differ? How do your characters respond to the changing seasons? I love autumn, my late maternal grandmother did not.

How is daylight affected by the change in the seasons? How would things like clothing, the food your characters would eat, and general activities change as the seasons do?

Are there things your characters look forward to in each season or are there aspects they dread? Could things like magic be affected by the change in atmospheric conditions as the seasons change? Are there specific laws your characters have to follow at certain times of their year? Why were these introduced (public safety could be a good route to explore here)?

There are certain things I look forward to in each season here. I love to see new life appear in spring, love the nice holiday feel to summer, adore the changing colours of the leaves of autumn, and feel the silhouettes of non-evergreen trees in winter time have their own specific beauty.

What would your characters pick and what does this reveal about them to you? Could you use what you find out in further stories?

This World and Others – Geographical Considerations

In your magical setting, what role does the geography play? Is it constant (generally as we know, though we have exceptions like active volcanoes)? Can it be affected by the magic being used in it or is it immune? If it was affected, were the changes in it useful or not? Has that led to rules being brought in about the use of magic and where and when it can be used?

Naturally geography will play a role in how well or otherwise your characters do on any journey or quest they undertake. Certainly it can give them added complications. How would your world arrange things like its transportation system to overcome geographical complications for getting around (mountains do tend to get in the way!)?

Are there certain geographical areas which are uninhabitable and what could make a character have to go through that area to get to somewhere else? How would they manage this? How did those areas become uninhabitable if they were not always like that?

Story ideas there I hope!

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Writing Events and An Author’s Dilemma

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. One photo of me holding Creativity Matters and my flash collections to date was taken by Adrian Symes. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, as were the photos from Swanwick for my Authors Electric blog. See below.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Slowly getting back to normal after my trip to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Nice to be out walking Lady again. Hope to catch up with some chums in the park later this week.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler chum today. Lovely time had by both. I was back in the swimming pool for a long swim. It was wonderful. Am now suitably tired!

Writing wise, I will be sharing Returning To The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick For 2025 for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Looking forward to sharing that one. Look out for a couple of pictures of Lady in it too – think of them as a before and after selection.

Slowly resuming my normal writing routine. Am preparing another wonderful author interview to appear on CFT in September. Plus I am preparing to be interviewed myself in October so all go here but fun with it.

It’s my turn once again on the Authors Electric blog. This time I look at Writing Events. It is no coincidence I post this just after returning from my annual jaunt to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, Derbyshire.

Naturally I had a fabulous time there but my post looks at the benefits of writing events, including online ones, for all writers. Hope you enjoy the post (and I hope you have a great time at any forthcoming events you’re attending).

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Lovely to be back at church this morning. Peaceful and thoughtful. Just what was needed after a busy but fun week, I think. Looking forward to writing about Swanwick for Chandler’s Ford Today. Will be cracking on with that later today after spending some enjoyable time composing more flash fiction tales. Will resume competition entries I think from next weekend though I am glad I did get my 750 words story in for the relevant competition before heading off to Swanwick.

Writing Tip: It pays to spend a little time working out what writing time you have where. Most of mine is in the evening though I do have some slots in some afternoons. I always plan out what I will do my writing time. I find it helps me make the most of them. It means I get straight with the tasks in hand when I do get to my desk.


I expect every Swanwicker will be doing what I’ve done since getting home on Thursday – working out what I was doing this time last week! I thought of this today as I was back out creosoting my front fence – oh, the glamour of it all! It was a truly fabulous week away and I plan to write more about it for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday.

Slowly getting back to my usual writing and other routines. Has been great taking Lady out for her walks again (and it may help shift some of the inevitable weight gain most Swanwickers have to face up on getting home again. The Hayes feed you really well!).

Also looking forward to resuming my flash fiction Sunday afternoon tomorrow. Also hope to share news of another fabulous author interview on CFT before long. I will have another interview to share with you later too but this time the interviewee will be me. Exciting times!

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Am looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this month. It’s amazing how quickly the weeks whizz by.

Friday Flash Fiction is currently judging its recent competition so is not open to submissions at the moment. Will let you know when that changes. (Do check out the stories on there anyway. There is so much amazing work here and I can’t think of a better way to practice writing 100 word stories regularly).

Flash Tip: The one thing I find most fascinating about any length of story is in my wanting to know what happens. Simple as that. And why do I want to know what happens? I want to find out because I’ve come to care for the character(s) in the story quickly. There’s a good challenge for every fiction writer right there.

For flash fiction writers, you’ve probably got the opening line or two to create a character who readers will want to root for in some way. It’s a great challenge! 
It’s Monday. It has been as hectic as ever. Definitely time for a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Writing Woes.

Writers have all manner of writing woes but this one may come as a surprise to the author in my story here. Find out what that woe is here.

 

I forgot to share the link to the latest serialisation of my Seeing The Other Side on CafeLit last Sunday when I was at Swanwick. Good news, it’s double bubble time, folks.

I share below the link to the stories I forgot to share last week plus I share today’s selection. Hope you enjoy them.

I am glad to say I read one of my new stories (Time For a Change) at the Swanwick Open Prose Mic Night and it went down well. Now to crack on with my flash fiction writing Sunday afternoon too!

Part 1 Serialisation
Part 2 Serialisation 

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As you know, I love writing prompts (and I picked up loads having gone to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick). Sometimes you come across a prompt where you cannot find an obvious immediate use for it but I have found on making myself dig that bit deeper with it, I can usually get a story from it.

Often these are especially good stories precisely because I have had to dig deeper. I have had to not use what might seem to be an obvious idea.

I also think it good practice to deliberately mix up the prompts I do use though it is always good to have something to fall back on it. I will always have a soft spot for the random words to go in a story kind of prompt but am also fond of the opening line type.

When I get one of the latter prompts, I will make myself list some ideas to come from it. I never go for the first few I jot down either. By digging deeper, my experience has been you can come up with some truly great work in the ideas which are further down on your list.

Goodreads Author Blog – An Author’s Dilemma

There is one dilemma no author minds that much. This is where you go to a writing event and bring home as many or more books than you took of your own to sell! I have done this again this year having just returned from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick.

Mind you, my trip this year has also enabled me to add to my growing collection of books signed for me by my author friends. Whenever I pass the shelves these books are on, I smile and recall where I first met the author. I like things like this.

Books are important for more than just the stories or interesting non-fiction between their covers, vital though they are. They can encourage positive memories. For example, I still have The Readers’ Digest Collection of Fairytales. Both volumes were given to me by my late father. I loved looking at those books long before I could read them for myself. Wonderful illustrations and lovely memories to go with them.

Books, stories, memories – lovely things as a rule.

Incidentally, the only thing which did stop me from going completely overboard with how many books I brought back from Swanwick was knowing I was travelling by train and had to be able to put them in my suitcase! Sometimes you need the discipline of that!


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

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Image Credits:- All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope the week has gone well for you. Have had some rain but it is still muggy here. Not a bad week writing wise though I’d have liked to have got more done than I have. Mind you, everyone gets weeks like that. Time to soldier on then but am so looking forward to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick which isn’t far away now.

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18th July 2025 – Double Blog Day – CFT

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

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

Breaking Down Why A Story Works

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18th July 2025 – Double Blog Day – AE

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hope today has gone well. Not bad here.

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

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

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

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

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


Fairytales with Bite – Down Time

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

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

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

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

Plenty of story ideas there, I hope.

This World and Others – Controlling Leisure Time

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

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

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

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

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All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. The Creativity Matters image was kindly supplied by Wendy H Jones. One image of me with books taken by Adrian Symes. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week so far. Has become hot here so Lady has had to miss some of her walks (getting too hot in the afternoons basically). Writing continues to go well. Glad I can do that in the cool at least!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Allison Symes – June 2025

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

 

Fairytales with Bite – Good News

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

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

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

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

This World and Others – Handling The News

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

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

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

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

Handling the news can be tricky indeed.

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What Do I Love About Writing?

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Image Credits:- All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Photos of me with Creativity Matters were taken by Adrian Symes.  One promo image of Creativity Matters was kindly supplied by Wendy H Jones. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, as was the photo of Lady having a wonderful time at Druridge Bay.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Had a fabulous holiday in Northumberland last week. We all enjoyed it. Lady had a wonderful time. All those walkies! Now back to the normal routine – the common thread here? I kept writing in the evenings. Writing is work but it is also a great joy. I have to be ill not to want to do it!

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Hope you have had a good day. It was good to get back to swimming again today. Mind you, it was hard work!

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again before too long. To sign up for news, tips, story links and more, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Writing/Editing Tip: I’ve always found it helpful to get that first draft down, warts and all, before doing any editing on the story or article. I’ve got to see the whole thing written down before I can judge it objectively enough to deal with the inevitable faults. But this is what the first draft is for – get those warts out of your system by writing them out and then stamp on them during the editing process!

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Hope Monday has been kind to you. Lady was overjoyed to see her two best friends, the Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler, in the park today, especially after a lovely week’s break away in Northumberland last week. It was sweet to see.

Writing wise, am slowly getting back to my usual routines. Was pleased to get plenty of story writing done yesterday, including a submission. Another is fleshing out an idea I’ve had for a while and beginning work on it. Was pleased with how that has gone but plenty still to do. Will be back on this later this week, I hope.

Pleased to be back on Authors Electric with my Out and About – Inspiring Ideas. Sometimes ideas for blogs feed in to each other and my recent Chandler’s Ford Today article (which is longer) explored this theme too. The Authors Electric post gives a good summary though of things which can help inspire your writing when out and about, even if you don’t wander far from home. Hope you find it useful.

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Hope the weekend has got off to a great start. Am on way home from a fabulous week in Northumberland. Great time had by all.

Writing wise, I’ll be welcoming Val Penny back to Chandler’s Ford Today about a short story collection she is contributing to and on something different for her. This anthology is called The Ring which follows what happens to a Roman ring over time. The book will be raising funds for The Reading Agency too. More on this next week.

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What do I love most about writing? Hard to pinpoint exactly but a huge part of this is the sheer joy of meeting the challenge of creating something new which will hopefully resonate with readers.

For flash fiction, my initial thought was to see if I could write 100 word tales. Then the challenge went to could I write 50 worders? Could I write right across the spectrum for flash? Then could I get a collection together?

There are always new things to try in writing, whatever your field. Each article and story I write is a new challenge in and of itself. I do love this. What helps is knowing I can write short stories, flash, articles etc.

The challenge always is can I do something with this topic, this story idea – will they work this time? It keeps you on your creative toes (which I think is beneficial, if only because you don’t rest on your laurels. You also don’t take anything for granted).

It’s a lovely sunny Monday but still a Monday and time for a tale. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Breaking the Chain.

The opening line to this one is based on an exercise I set the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group recently. I only changed one word – the starting one to give my character a name. The name occurred to me as I was drafting the story. That happens.

Sometimes I don’t name a character deliberately (usually when I feel it would have more of an impact keeping a sense of the unknown going usually though that wasn’t the case here).

Why does Louise know her grandson, Mark, smashed the last thing her late husband, Tom, gave her? What will she do about it?

 

Sometimes I link flash stories. For example, my recent one on Friday Flash Fiction, Rivalry, links to my YouTube tale, The List. You can check them both out below. Mind you, I don’t think I would trust Shirabelle any further than I could throw her. See what you think!

Why link stories? Sometimes it is because I can think of a further idea which the 100 word limit in Friday Flash Fiction (the one I prefer to adhere to) won’t allow me to include so I get another longer tale out of it for my YouTube channel (and another post to share like this one!).

Best reason of all though? Simply because it is fun to do this sometimes. I like to mix things up and reusing a character or two is one way I do this.

Just got back from a lovely break in Northumberland. Have followed my own advice in yesterday’s Chandler’s Ford Today on Inspiration Ideas as I have taken lots of photos. Plan to use some of these to inspire flash stories later. Landscape ones will be especially useful I think.

Hope to look up more flash competitions to have a go at soon too.

Goodreads Author Blog – Holiday Reading

I recently had a lovely holiday in gorgeous Northumberland and naturally took plenty to read with me.
Equally naturally, lots of walking and fresh air in forests and on beaches meant I didn’t get to read as much as I’d planned! But there is no way I wouldn’t pack plenty of reading material. You just do, right?

I like to take my Kindle, one or two books, and magazines. All easy to pack, of course.

Mind you, when I could read, I made the most of it. Comfy chair, gorgeous outlook, drink to hand – perfect reading conditions.

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What You Need to Know About Character Creation and Shorter Fiction Forms

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Hope you have had a good week. Have had some writing admin to tackle again but now sorted. Lady has had a lovely time with her pals. Looking forward to the Easter celebrations and a long weekend. Have a good Easter break yourself, whether you celebrate or not.

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Double Blog Time!

18th April 2025 – Good Friday – Chandler’s Ford Today

Second blog post from me today. First one below! This time it is my latest for Chandler’s Ford Today. This time I look at What You Need to Know About Character Creation. (Combines well with my Authors Electric post too! It does too. See below).

I look at the positives and negatives of using certain traits (which is something you can expand further depending on which trait you use for your characters). I also look at attitudes, situations, and dialogue, so I hope you will find plenty of useful information here.

Do have fun creating your characters. I think it is the best aspect to storytelling.

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18th April 2025 – Good Friday – Authors Electric
Double blog post today. First up is my latest on Authors Electric. This month I discuss Shorter Fiction Forms.  Second blog above.

One huge advantage to the shorter forms of fiction is they do make you focus on what does matter for your characters, you don’t have the word count room to do otherwise. But that in turn is a good discipline to get used to for writing any fiction. Hope you find it useful.

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Hope the day has gone well. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler friend again so all is well there.

My Chandler’s Ford Today post on What You Need to Know for Character Creation will be up tomorrow. See top post.

It is double blog day for me tomorrow given my Authors Electric post will also be up. That will be on the topic of Short Fiction Forms. See second post!

Looking forward to sharing both of those tomorrow so expect two posts. Has been lovely and busy on the non-fiction front!

 

Hope you have had a good day. Squally weather this morning, better this afternoon. Lady did get to see and have a fabulous time with her Hungarian Vizler friend and Coco, the lovely Labradoodle.

Writing wise, I will be sharing What You Need to Know For Character Creation on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See top post.

Following my scam warning post yesterday, I have since heard a few other writers I know have had similar experiences so clearly there is a spate of these things going on at the moment.

Newsletter coming along nicely. To sign up for this do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

You should see what appears on the screenshot below.

Theme this time will be on playing with genre in flash fiction, which I‘ll be discussing in further depth later this month for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group.

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Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest 100 words tale, Appearances. Trying to keep up appearances doesn’t always work out. Find out why here.

Hope today has been a good one.

I sometimes decide on what my next flash fiction story will be by picking a topic to write about. This is good practice for competitions with a set theme too. I then look at the kind of characters which could serve that topic well and then start to flesh them out.

The topic has got to grip me (and that goes for the set theme for competitions too) for me to want to write to it, of course. Not every topic does.

But there are plenty of topics (and set theme competitions) to go around to this never worries me. I think you do have to have a keen interest in the topic of theme to be able to do it any justice at all.

Hope the day has been a good one. Just to flag up the submissions window for Friday Flash Fiction is now open again. Have sent in something this afternoon.

Flash fiction is a lovely thing to share on your website, social media etc to flag up the kind of writing you do. It’s a good way to share something of interest to your subscribers for your author newsletter. It’s fun to do too especially if you love creating characters, which has always been my favourite aspect to storytelling.

Create my “people” (not that I always choose humans!), put them in a situation and find out what happens! And although I outline so I know roughly what is going to happen, I deliberately don’t plan out everything. I like to give my characters room to surprise me and they often do. I love that too.

Fairytales with Bite – Endings which Could Be Beginnings

I write this in the run up to Easter 2025 and it led me to think that, as a Christian, I see Good Friday as an ending (the crucifixion of Jesus) which became a new beginning (the resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday).

But it also led me to think we can have endings which could be beginnings for our stories too in any genre but I’m focusing on one of my favourite kinds – the fairytale. How?

Simply by remembering there are two sides to every story. What is one character’s happy ever after ending will bring about a change of circumstances for other characters in the story (which they may or may not welcome of course) and those can be interesting avenues to explore further.

The musical Wicked is based on an alternative look at The Wizard of Oz story and people seem to like this!

My first story in print, A Helping Hand (in Alternative Renditions, Bridge House Publishing, 2009) looks at the Cinderella story from the viewpoint of the youngest stepsister. That character had a distinct view on Cinders as you can imagine. The story was great fun to write and I was thrilled for it to be my breakthrough in print.

There is nothing to stop you from (a) taking a character of yours and exploring their story further (it is where prequels can come in for one thing) and/or (b) taking another character from your story and doing something creative with them.

Why not give it a go? Having endings which could be beginnings for new stories is great fun to do. I think it works especially well with fairytales.

This World and Others – Upheavals

Our world is always full of upheavals and is especially this way as I write this in April 2025. But it led me to wonder about the kinds of upheavals your settings might see. Do they make ours look pathetic by comparison or are their upheavals “ a piece of cake” compared with what we have going on here?

What triggers your setting’s overall upheaval? Usually these things start with something small which then build and build. What would be your characters’ involvement in this? Are they the trigger point themselves or do they get caught up in the momentum of events as things build up and then find they can’t escape?

What are the consequences of the upheavals? Does it lead to political or other change or does the upheaval fail and governments crack down harder than ever on any kind of dissent? (This does sound depressingly familiar doesn’t it? The one positive is taking this idea and using it for a story where at least you can decide what the ending will be!).

Also, something positive can come out of things like this. For example, communities torn apart by previous events can come together to fight against a common foe (not necessarily literally though that too is a possibility). Things which needed to be changed are changed and for the better for most. The great thing here is you get to decide what these will be.

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Author Interviews

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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. Book Fair images taken by Janet Williams. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a great weekend. Nice one here. Making good progress on the writing. Significant editing done too. Hope the week ahead continues to go well for us all. There are more signs of spring appearing all the time too, which always cheers me up.

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Pleased to share my latest post on Authors Electric. This time I look at Author Interviews. It is a great joy to be on both the receiving and setting end of these, given I’ve appeared on other writers’ blogs, have been on podcasts, and, of course, I set many writers questions over at Chandler’s Ford Today.

I discuss how I’ve used author interviews to help me on my own journey to becoming a published writer and how I continue to find such interviews engaging and informative. Hope you find the post useful and thought provoking.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Hectic here but it was good to see Lady playing with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals earlier this morning.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing a fabulous interview with Joy Wood on Chandler’s Ford Today post on Friday. Tomorrow I’ll be sharing my Authors Electric post about Author Interviews. See above. Not a coincidence this one!

Hoping to get an article finished and sent off later this evening plus I hope to work on my presentation for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this month. Am almost there on it.

Had a productive weekend but Mondays are always one of those days when I don’t get so much writing done due to commitments elsewhere so I use Mondays to do little bits and pieces. These things mount up.

Hope the weekend has been a good one. Nice to see more sunshine.

Writing wise I’ll be getting on with Flash Fiction Sunday shortly. Later I have editing to crack on with and a presentation to add more to so I will be happily out of mischief for the rest of the day, no problem!

Also have just heard will be off to a murder mystery my local amateur theatre group is performing in April. Will be going to this with my lovely editor from Chandler’s Ford Today. Looking forward to that already. Plus I will have a writing Zoom to go to in early April as well as so plenty going on.

Character Tip: This is where writing what you know can help you in the creation of your characters. We know what we like and dislike in other people so let’s put that to good use as we invent our own people/beings of choice.

We understand what can make people angry, for example, so how can you tap into that when writing an angry character of your own? Look at the reasons why people have the attitudes they do.

There will be something you can use for your fictional creations from that. Understanding motivation helps so much here I think.

Hope you have had a good start to the weekend. Managed to get washing out and dried on the line today – yes, I know it’s sad but it is a win, honestly! Also lots of daffodils now out in one of my borders – daffodils always make me smile as I see them as pretty cheery plants, and they also remind me of Wordsworth.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing a fabulous interview with Joy Wood on Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Do look out for that on Friday. The interview is packed full of useful thoughts and tips and you can also find out how and why competition slogans had an impact on her writing life. Looking forward to sharing that and hopefully catching up with Joy again in person at Swanwick later this year.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Lady had a fabulous time in the park today with her Rhodesian Ridgeback chum and Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. Great time had by all. Hopefully more of the same will take place tomorrow!

I haven’t used dogs much in my flash fiction tales and short stories. I tend to focus on characters who are human or fantastical in some way though my YouTube story this week, Temptation, is one for dog owners to enjoy especially.

But there is nothing to stop us using the qualities most dog owners appreciate in their pets (loyalty, love, faithfulness, mischief making, just being fun to be around etc!) in other types of character for our stories. Just a thought.

To quote The Bangles, it has indeed been a Manic Monday and it is time to share another story of mine on YouTube. Hope you like the short but sweet Temptation. Dogs and their owners will especially appreciate this one.

Temptation can attack anyone or anything but especially, in some cases, where cooked chicken is involved.

 

Both of my flash fiction collections with Chapeltown Books have titles which indicate something of their genre and/or mood. From Light to Dark and Back Again very much flags up the mood of the stories. Tripping the Flash Fantastic indicates the genre (flash and fantastic tales/fantasy).

Did I have either of those titles when I began compiling my books for submission? No! Both had alternative working titles. The titles I ended up with came to mind as I was drafting and editing. This happens so I no longer worry about it. I find I have to have a working title for anything I write but am not worried if it ends up changing. I think I just need a placeholder and I work with that.

Most of the time when ideas for alternative titles come up, they are better than the original but it doesn’t always work out that way. When it doesn’t I simply stay with what I first came up with. I always ask myself what kind of impact the title has on me (and therefore on a likely reader) and the strongest impact is always the one I go with.

Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday afternoon tomorrow. Friday Flash Fiction is about to run their annual Andrew Siderius competition so do look out for this. I hope to have a go.

Also looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later in the month. Will be looking at editing flash fiction for this one. One massive benefit to flash fiction writing is you do learn to improve your editing skills considerably and that can then filter across to other forms of writing you do. I’ve found this to be the case.

Goodreads Author Blog – Books and Their Moods

Now it’s no secret the books I read often depend on what mood I’m in. When life is grim (and the news even more so), then I will usually go for humorous reads such as works by Wodehouse, Pratchett, and Austen, something I know will make me smile basically. I see it as having something lighter to counterbalance the darker side of life.

But books too have their moods and certain genres play on this to good effect – horror, crime, and thrillers, all indicate the moods of their stories to name but a few.

Now I’m one of those readers where I don’t want the mood the book to match my mood. I like that counterbalance though there are books I will always read regardless of what mood I’m in. For example, I will always find time to re-read Agatha Christie or Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time (which is a fabulous book and the only novel to make me change my view on a historical person, in this case Richard III).

So which books do you use to lighten your mood? Which ones do you read regardless of mood of book or your own mood?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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