Where Do You Read?

March 3, 2026Leave a comment

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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. Lovely one here. Plenty of writing, even had more sun, and it was a refreshing one for us here. Plenty coming up this week including a super interview on Friday on Chandler’s Ford Today.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lovely weather again. Lady and I are so making the most of this. Well, you don’t want to blink and miss it, do you?

Writing wise, I’m sharing a super author interview with Wendy H Jones on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. This is to showcase the latest anthology to come from her – A Right Cozy Historical Crime. The interview will form part of a blog tour organised by Lynsey Adams of Reading Between the Lines Vlog.

As well as flagging up the other authors in this great book, Wendy and I discuss the joys of blending historical and crime fiction. Am so looking forward to sharing this on Friday. Do look out for it.

Hope you’ve had a good weekend and a promising start to the week. Lovely weather here. Lady made the most of it at the park.

Writing wise, I posted my first flash fiction to my Substack yesterday and I plan to do this regularly. To subscribe to my Substack, just head over to Substack.com/@allisonsymeswriter1

As well as receiving what I post here, you should also receive my articles on Writers’ Narrative. My next one here appears on 7th March, later this week.

Was also delighted to review a flash piece over the weekend and send that in. Will know more about how what does later this month.

Delighted my author newsletter went out earlier today. Many thanks to all of my subscribers and I do hope you find the special pdf which comes with it useful. It was a joy to put it together.

Writing wise, I’ll be getting on with flash fiction Sunday shortly plus I’ll have article and blog work to do too – all great fun. I like having plenty of writing to do. Literally never a dull moment. Okay, I grant you checking for typos etc is not the world’s most exciting task but given it helps improve my work, I see it as a case of I have got to do it so let’s get it done and done well. Then I can move on to something much more interesting.

Writing Tip: Planning out what you write and when, depending on your other commitments, helps in terms of knowing when you can get the duller side of writing out of the way ahead of doing something much more creative. With the duller bits done, I can go full steam ahead into more creative work and enjoy it more precisely because I have got the duller stuff out of the way. And we all have to do the dull stuff so it is a question, I think, of fitting it in when it won’t get in the way of longer writing sessions. When I have a longer writing stint, I just want to get on with much more interesting work than checking for typos.

Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. Lovely to see some sun out again today. More flowers appearing too.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing a superb interview with Wendy H Jones for Chandler’s Ford Today next week about her new anthology, A Right Cozy Historical Crime. Several other authors are in the book with her and full details about the anthology as well as a wonderful talk about the joys of historical fiction, will be in my post next week.

So looking forward to sharing this one as it combines several loves of mine – short stories, anthologies (they are great books), and historical fiction. This interview will form part of the blog tour organised by Lynsey Adams of Reading Between the Lines Book Vlog.

My next author newsletter will be out tomorrow, 1st March, and will have something special to celebrate a significant birthday of mine later on in the month. Do look out for that in your inbox.

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Another hectic day today but I did enjoy a swim and Lady and I both enjoyed the sunshine again. Glad to have sent off a flash piece over the weekend and I shared my first one on my Substack account too. I hope to do more of that in due course.

Why is flash fiction such an addictive form? I suppose it is because having written a 100 word story, say, and it works well, I want to see if I can do this over and over again. The challenge is an ongoing one to have a proper tale with a proper beginning, middle and ending in that word count (or any of the other ranges flash fiction offers up to 1000 words). Also it is such fun playing with genre because I can set my characters anywhere, use the first, second and third persons, and all of that offers up so many more story possibilities.

As ever, it’s a hectic Monday but, hooray, it is at least a sunny one where I am! Much appreciated. Still time for a story though. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The Apple Seller. No prizes for guessing the inspiration behind this one…

A market stall holder selling apples recalls a strange conversation with an old woman and wonders where Snow White has got to.

Hope the weekend is going well. Mixture of sunshine and showers but I’m seeing more spring flowers emerge every time I take Lady out. That cheers me up no end.

Flash Tip: Read flash fiction collections (and yes I know I’m biased here with two of mine out there) but you will get a good feel for what flash can do and be. You’ll also see how it looks on the page. It can challenge you to raise your game to which is no bad thing, as you’ll inevitably come up with writing you would not have written otherwise. Do check out the independent presses for potential publishers. They are usually more open to unagented writers. I always flag up The Mslexia Indie Press Guide here because it kind of does for the indie presses what The Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook does for the bigger publishing houses.

At the end of February already – I suppose you could say it is the “flash” month of the year. Not quite a case of blink and you’ll miss it but it speeds by. What is cheering about it is seeing more evidence of spring coming as the month goes on.

Talking of which, give some thought as to what would help your characters look on the brighter side of life and how this would help them in their story. A story isn’t a story unless there is a point of change and often this is where a character has to do something or change in some way. Their mood and mind set can directly impact on how successful or otherwise they are in changing what has to be changed.

An optimistic character is more likely to see the need for change and implement it. A pessimistic one may well wonder why bother? An optimistic character is more likely to succeed in their quest. They will take the actions and advice needed for this. A pessimistic one may well fail – would they be willing to listen to yet alone take advice which would help them?

Where a pessimistic character may see they need to change, what or whom would help them there?

Goodreads Author Blog – Where Do You Read?

I’m sometimes asked in surveys etc where do I like to read. I love reading in bed just before settling for the night. It’s a fantastic way to unwind, though I grant it is not the time for horror stories, at least it isn’t for me. I also like to read (usually a magazine) at lunchtime.

When away, I usually get to read more during the day. Over the Christmas break, I like nothing better than to curl up on the sofa with a book present and some chocolate (the eating and drinking kinds!).

I suppose a more important question is do you read? I was once at a Book Fair with my table and someone walked past it saying they “didn’t do books”. I had to bite my tongue because I so wanted to ask “what are you doing here then” but deemed it probably wouldn’t help.

What led me into reading at all? Well, I must bless my late mother here because she encouraged reading at an early age and read to my kid sister and I regularly. We also saw her reading. Libraries were (and still are) fabulous places to visit. I developed a love of magazine reading in my teens. That continues but the topic has changed. My focus now is on writing magazines and sometimes things like The Oldie. That will tell you I left my teens behind some time ago!

But what matters is we read and keep reading. It is such a wonderful thing. (And you still can’t beat reading in bed or a comfy sofa for the best location!).

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Where Do You Read? https://t.co/gBhYYKNhUV via @goodreads I celebrate reading and share where I like to read for Goodreads this week. I also look at the importance of early encouragement to read too. Hope you enjoy the post. pic.twitter.com/oAorIrNRQX
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 28, 2026

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As ever, it’s a hectic Monday but it was sunny! Still story time though. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The Apple Seller.

A market stall holder selling apples recalls a strange conversation with an old woman and wonders where Snow White has got to.https://t.co/OTKKuIPTX3
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 2, 2026

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Catching Up

February 27, 20262 Comments

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Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. One image in my books slideshow was taken by Wendy H Jones and another by Adrian Symes. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope the week has gone well. Enjoyed the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Wednesday. Lady has had a lovely time with her closest pals all week and we have had more sunshine. Spring is finally on the way, hooray!

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Am delighted to share Catching Up on Chandler’s Ford Today this week which is a round up of my recent(ish) news. Plenty has been happening since my last writing update here as I briefly outlined yesterday.

It pays, every now and again, to look back at where you have come from on your writing journey. Mine has taken me in directions I never envisaged when I started writing seriously but am glad of every experience here. Even the dodgier ones, such as almost being caught out by a vanity publisher and I stress almost, were useful in that I learned something from it and I also discovered the fabulous Society of Authors as a result.

Hope you enjoy the post.

Catching Up

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Hope today has gone well. Lady is having an absolute ball with her pals over the park at the moment. Today she saw her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals and Coco and Charlie. All of the dogs went home tired but happy.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Catching Up on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above. This is a round up of various things happening in my writing world including Writers’ Narrative’s move to Substack, my editing work, Friday Flash Fiction (which also includes publication news) and more. A lot has happened in the last few months!

Marketing Tip: I’ve mentioned before I use odd pockets of time to draft flash pieces, brainstorm for titles, opening lines etc, but you can also use these periods to jot down some ideas for future marketing for your stories. This includes making a note of avenues you would like to explore. I find I am much more likely to do this if I write this down in the first place. I guess it is a case of my making a commitment to myself here.

Hope you’ve also enjoyed a lovely, sunny Wednesday. Proper puppy party over the park this morning with Lady, Coco, the lovely Labradoole, her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals. Plus our neighbour’s Golden Retriever (who is huge and lovely) came over to say hello. Lovely time had by all. Could swear I was feeling the benefit of being out in the sunshine. The dogs certainly loved it.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Catching Up on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. This will be a round up post of recent happenings, writing wise. Again, see above.

Character Tip: Think about what can “throw” your characters – illness, work worries, just sheer tiredness. What impact would those things have on their story and how would they overcome them, assuming they do? (Might be a short story if they don’t!). I know tiredness can directly have an impact on my writing so have developed ways of limiting that, such as accepting certain days when I’m rushed off my feet all day, I will only write for a shorter time and get bits and pieces done. Makes me feel better doing those things. Means I’m not overdoing it either. So what would your characters do to help them manage things?

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Am thinking of sharing some of my 100 word flash pieces on my Substack account on a regular basis. Will keep you posted when I do this. One of the things I loved about writing for Friday Flash Fiction regularly was it did get me into the discipline of writing to such a tight word count often. And I’ve found that pays off. I also love the challenge of it too.

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again on 1st March and to celebrate a significant birthday for me later that month, I will be sharing something special with this one which I hope will be prove useful.

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

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One thing which came up in last night’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group was how a document could inspire story ideas. This is even more true if the document is something someone wanted suppressed, as is so often the way with these things.

But bear in mind you can write flash (or longer fiction) based around an object and what that means to a character. Yes, there is such a thing as a random object generator too. I share a link to one here but there are others. But you could look at what a character would do to obtain or get rid of an object. Plenty of story ideas there.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting this evening. Hope to get some more drafts written too. I like taking part in the exercises I set. Some of them I do in advance to illustrate a point but I save a lot of them so I can join in on the night. Good fun!

I also love taking part in writing exercises at the various writing events I attend. I always see these as a great challenge but they do make you “up your game” and I’ve come up with several published stories thanks to these.

You can of course set your own writing exercises. I will sometimes use the random generators for this purposes and again the challenge of writing to a prompt you’ve not set yourself will encourage creativity and lateral thinking. If you like the old school way of doing this, take a book of proverbs, pick a page number at random and then a line number at random and then write to the theme of the proverb which comes up from that line.

It all helps keep you on your creative writing toes!

Fairytales with Bite – Starting Over Again

We know what it is to have to start over again in various aspects of life and how we feel about this. Sometimes a new start is something exciting to look forward to, at other times it is simply a pain, and at still others it comes with heartache. So how do your characters, magical or otherwise, feel and manage when they have to start all over again?

What led to the circumstances causing them to have to start again? Was it through their own mistakes or something beyond their control? Where they’ve been the unfortunate victims of circumstance, how do they overcome this? Would they want the circumstances to not dictate to them – that is, they will rise above it, no matter what? Good stories to be told following that path.

Do your characters have others to help them to start again or do these secondary characters get in the way, perhaps scared of the inevitable changes that are coming? Do they hold your characters back fearing to lose them altogether if they don’t?

Again, plenty of story ideas to come there given characters will have, like we do, mixed motives at times and that will also affect how they handle having to start again.

This World and Others – Rebuilding a World

Natural disasters are, sadly, a fact of life and some of them can change an area permanently. I’m thinking of the volcanic eruption which engulfed Pompeii (though ironically it did help preserve the place for all time – archaeologists have discovered so much here).

In your setting, what natural disasters have happened there? Were your species responsible for any of that happening and, if so, how? What have they learned from this? Have they been able to put things right? Did anything “good” come out of the disaster? Has your setting and those responsible for running it learned from the disaster to prevent anything like it happening again?

If magic was involved in the disaster, did it make things worse or did it limit the damage done? Was magic used in the clearing up operations? How did it help? Who did do the clearing up?

Of course, we can also rebuild our own personal worlds, especially after a sad event. How would your characters do this? Would they be “moving on “ knowing a loved one would want them to do so? How do they start again and rebuild? What help is available to them? Is your setting/major species broadly sympathetic here or not? Does the culture expect your characters to just get on with life again?

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Catching Up https://t.co/smxrjrlkP3
Delighted to share Catching Up on CFT. This is a news round up. Plenty has happened since my last writing update. It pays sometimes to reflect on your writing journey. Mine has taken me in directions I never expected but I'm glad of it all.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 27, 2026

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Writing Events

February 20, 2026Leave a comment

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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. Many thanks to Lynn Clement and Gill James for two images in my Chandlers Ford Today post this week. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope the week has gone well. Lady has had a lovely time with friends. Have had some sunshine which was welcome but more rain which wasn’t! Writing going well. Am drafting various things at the moment.

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Lady had a lovely time with her Hungarian Vizler pal today and has had a fabulous week in that she has “partied” with pals all week! You’ve got to admire the stamina…

Writing wise, I’m pleased to share Writing Events as my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. I look at the benefits for writers of going to events and how I evaluate which ones are the best for me. I also discuss day events and Zoom/online ones. (Am going to one of these later this evening in support of a friend’s book launch so the timing of this is nice).

Hope you enjoy the post and find it useful.

Writing Events

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Hope the day has gone well. Lady had a fantastic puppy party with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal and Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. Cold and drizzly out there but nowhere near as bad as yesterday.

Writing wise, I’ll be discussing Writing Events for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I share what I look for when deciding which events to go to and look at day events and Zoom ones too. Hope you’ll find the post useful. The link goes up tomorrow.

Writing Tip: When I started writing seriously, the thought of networking terrified me. When I realised going to events would mean talking about something I love, writing, with others who love writing too, those fears went. And it got me used to talking about what I do writing wise. What I did do before going to my first ever event was jot a few thoughts on what I could say about what I write. That helped give me more confidence because I knew I had something I could say and then, of course, as you get chatting to other writers, the conversation continues naturally which is wonderful.

18th February – Authors Electric

Despite cold and wet weather, Lady managed to have a great time at the park with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback chums, and Charlie, the lovely Toller. I can’t speak for the others but I do know Lady and I weren’t sorry to be indoors again.

Writing wise, it’s my turn on the Authors Electric blog and this time I look at The Shortest Time, an apt title for a flash fiction writer. I look at this from the viewpoint of meeting deadlines for competitions, using smaller pockets of writing time well so I can make better use of longer sessions, and, of course, I give my characters the shortest time possible in the format to resolve their issues. No dithering about what to do here!

Hope you enjoy the post.

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Am happily drafting a flash piece I hope to submit in the next week or so. Have got the basics okay but it is a question of now fine tuning the piece and I know I need a few days away from the work to be able to see what needs to be done and where. I’ve mentioned before it pays all writers to draft a piece, rest it for a while, and then come back to it so you can see it with fresh eyes.

The advantage for flash fiction writers here is we don’t need such a long break as, say, a novella writer would. But it still pays to put the time aside here. I always find something I could’ve phrased better etc on coming back to the work again. The distance from that initial creative spark is crucial, I think, to pick things up and make the work even better.

I like to use my characters to show their location. Often it is by showing you what kind of character they are. For example, if I have a dragon or fairy godmother, it’s a reasonably safe assumption to believe they’re in some sort of magical world. If they’re not, I will show them “on location”, almost inevitably confronting/being confronted by another character (and it will be clear enough where they must be based).

Flash teaches you, I think, to work out what the characters can show the readers. You haven’t got the word count room to spell everything out in any case. I must admit I love it when authors leave me to work things out. All I need is the right clues to be able to do that. The challenge to me as a writer is to plant the right clues so readers can do that with my stories without giving it all away.

I don’t use the weather much in fiction because, for me, it always a background thing. Where the weather has a direct impact on what my characters can do and how, then fine I’d write it in. But I don’t want the weather dominating the story (and when such scenes are badly written, they can be ripe for mockery. Love a laugh etc. Don’t want it to be aimed at my writing though!).

Where it can be useful is in showing more about your character. If I want a character to be struggling against the elements, I will probably show something of the clothing they’re wearing (that is often indicative of prevailing conditions). I may get them to moan about the weather to another character. That is something we an call identify with. I don’t generally need to show you the rain my character is struggling through. I will mention the lightning and rumble of thunder though which makes them start.

As with anything in fiction, it is the telling details which will make something stand out. So think about your reader, as well as your character. What would they expect to see? What would they expect to hear? Do use as many of the senses as you can.

Having a character doing the following makes something more gripping to me.

Mary knew she had to get away from the trees. The thunder was happening more often now and yes, there it was, she saw the first flash of lightning. She pressed on towards the cottage. Once there, everything else could wait including her vital message.

Allison Symes – 18th February 2026.

Hmm… now that does sound much more promising than saying something like It was pouring down!

Fairytales With Bite – Signs of Hope

February 2026 has been just as much of a wash out weather wise as January was but there are more signs of hope in February. The natural world is waking up to the thought of spring being not too far away and I’ve loved being out with the dog, despite the rain, spotting things like snowdrops, early crocuses and much more. Also the evenings, when it isn’t raining, are becoming lighter for longer.

What signs of hope would there be in your magical setting? What role does the natural world have against your main magical background? What signs of spring (or the equivalent season) would your characters like to see? Do they even appreciate these things? Do your magical characters appreciate other flora and fauna which are not used for potions etc?

Signs of hope aren’t just confined to the natural world. For example, if your setting has a dictatorial system of government or a wicked magical character in charge, but your characters are moving against all of that, what signs of hope would they have to encourage them to keep going? How would those signs of hope make a difference to the eventual and hoped for victory?

Hope can spur people on in difficult times. How would that play out in your setting?

This World and Others – The Natural World in a Magical Setting

As with Fairytales with Bite above, the role of the natural world in a magical setting is an interesting one. Yes, it will be the source of ingredients for spells and potions but it can be more than that.

I’m thinking of The Ents in The Lord of the Rings here, where they, representing the natural world as the Shepherds of the Trees, rose up against Saruman to try to overcome his wanton destruction of trees etc. The natural world can rebel against ill treatment (and I would say climate change is a warning from our own planet here. I don’t see how anyone can deny it. There have been major changes and it still befits us to take as good a care of our planet as we can – and that’s as radical as I get though to me it is plain common sense).

So how do your characters treat their natural world? Is it valued? Would your magical characters appreciate their natural world for its beauty, health benefits to walking in it etc? Where would your characters go to in your setting when they wanted to get away with it all?

Also, are any of the animals, plants etc magical in their own right? What advantages are there to this for your setting or characters? What would be the disadvantages? What are the dangers? How would the natural magical world clash or co-operate with the magical characters?

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Authors Electric: The Shortest Time by Allison Symes https://t.co/HJknnhe5Qw
I discuss meeting deadlines, using small pockets of writing time, and, of course, as a flash fiction writer, I give my characters the shortest time possible to resolve their issues. No dithering here! pic.twitter.com/Xine2gygUw
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 18, 2026

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Writing Events https://t.co/ZgumIX1IGe
Glad to share Writing Events as my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week. I look at the benefits of writing events and how I evaluate which are the best for me. I also discuss day events and Zoom/online ones. Hope you find the post useful.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 20, 2026

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Writing To Themes

February 13, 2026Leave a comment

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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 few days. Lady has been having fabulous times with various chums all week. I’ve been very busy with writing and meetings on Zoom. Looking forward to a quieter weekend, to be honest. Will be having a super interview coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today in March (so you can guess from that some of the writing I’m busy with!).

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Am pleased to share my latest post on Chandler’s Ford Today on Writing To Themes.

I share thoughts and tips on the topic given I write to set themes almost always. Even when not doing so for competitions and Writers’ Narrative, I set my own theme, as I have done here. Themes give structure to any piece of writing and are fabulous for sparking ideas for characters and situations.

Hope you find the post useful.

Writing To Themes

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Hope today has gone well. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler friend today so has done brilliantly in seeing at least one of her closest pals all week this week. (Doesn’t always happen).

Writing wise, I’m sharing Writing To Themes for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above. I share tips and thoughts, all of which I hope will prove useful. I’m hard pushed to think of any writer who hasn’t written to a theme at some point, even if they invent the theme first!

Marketing Tip: I put aside some of my writing time to think about ways of marketing. I include my YouTube videos which I share on Mondays as part of this because they show something of my writing style. I like the marketing I do to be as much fun as possible because I then don’t mind doing it and hopefully it will be fun for readers too.

Hope you’ve had a good day. Puppy party over the park today with Lady, the Hungarian Vizler, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, Coco, and a lovely Toller called Charlie. Good time had by all. All went home tired and happy.

Writing wise, have a flash story to submit for a competition later today, plus I’m preparing a super interview to appear on Chandler’s Ford Today in March. Love conducting as well as reading/hearing author interviews – always learn something useful from them. All writing journeys are different and this, I think, helps contribute to my finding author interviews fascinating.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this month. We’ll be looking at On This Day…. Loads of topics for flash (and other) stories to come from that.

Writing Tip: Have put my own advice into play this week as I’ve had a couple of hectic days where I haven’t been able to write much. Lovely but so, so busy, so have focused on writing little bits and pieces, knowing I will find these useful later on. At the end of the day, the important thing is to write, whether you have five minutes or five hours.

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Have had a lovely day out in deepest Dorset (super county) with other half and Lady. Even had some sunshine. Does you good to have mini breaks every so often.

Talking of which, why not send a character off for a mini break for a flash tale? Where do they go and what happens there? This would work well for longer fiction, of course, but I like the thought of a short, sharp story on this. One break. One character. One event.

Happy writing!

I mentioned yesterday about flash being strong on impact. It’s also strong on getting right inside a character’s mind for the duration of the tale. There is no word count room to dilute what your character thinks, does, or says.

If I’m showing you a story about a grumpy fairy godmother (as I love to do sometimes), I will need to show you something about what made her grumpy, what she does because of her mood, the consequences and so on.

Everything has to follow through but I cannot go on for too long. I have to show you just what you need to know to make sense of the tale. If you need to work on focus in stories, do try flash fiction. It encourages the development of focus. It has also led me to lose all fear of editing.

Plan to submit a flash piece for a 500 words maximum competition a little later today. Will be good to get that done.

Am thoroughly enjoying the co-judging I’m involved with on another flash competition at the moment.

Flash Fiction Tip: Give thought as to why your story idea would work best for a flash fiction format. What you are looking for here is maximum impact in the fewest words possible to convey that. So it is helpful to focus on one character, one incident, one impact here, I find.

Fairytales With Bite – Days Out

Every so often the other half and I take the dog out for the day. A lovely time is had by all. Does us all the world of good.

So, when your magical characters need a break, where would they go and what would they do? Does your setting have places designed for the day tripper?

How would magical characters ensure they could have a proper mini break from magical work? Also, do your characters happily go on these breaks or are they forced into them due to tiredness making them less effective? Would their bosses insist on the break?

Story ideas there for sure.

This World and Others – Down Time

We all need down time. The same goes for our characters. So how would they spend that down time?

If in things like reading or enjoying music, what would they have which would be comparable with what we have here? What would be different?
Would they have more or less down time than us? Would your characters be prepared to give up all or some of their down time should the need arise? How could they tell this was genuine rather than their bosses sneakily trying to make them work longer?

Where you have different magical species, what down time activities do they have in common? Which would be specific to species?

What stories could there be with a character having down time and something disrupts it? Or where the down time gets in the way of something important?

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ALLISON SYMES ON SUBSTACK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Writing To Themes https://t.co/xX4IkPAxg9

I share tips here as I write to set themes almost always. Even when not doing so for competitions/Writers' Narrative, I set my theme, as I have here. Themes spark ideas for characters and situations.

Hope you find the post useful.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 13, 2026

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Top Ten Author Newsletter Tips

January 30, 2026Leave a comment

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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. Lady has had a wonderful time catching up with many of her friends and I did the same when I went to our local theatre company’s excellent pantomime. Will be reviewing that for Chandler’s Ford Today in due course. The week has had its ups and downs so will not be sorry to get to the end of this one.

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Delighted to share Top Ten Author Newsletter Tips for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. It’s apt given my next author newsletter is out soon (1st February). I’m also using this post to update a couple of earlier ones I wrote for CFT on the topic. I do hope you find this useful if you are considering having your own newsletter or already have one.

Top Ten Author Newsletter Tips

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It’s my turn on More Than Writers, the blog spot of the Association of Christian Writers. This time I look at Pressing On Towards The End of the Longest Month Ever. I suspect this will remain my longest title for the ACW blog spot! Mind you, it is apt given January does seem to drag on forever.

I look at the thought of pressing on and being patient being crucial parts of both our writing and Christian lives. I also look at the advantages of pressing on. (Success cannot come if you give up. Changing direction is another matter and I’ve done that myself but giving up, no). Also it helps I think to know you’re not alone in the ups and downs of the writing life.

I hope you find the post to be encouraging in what can be a dark and dreary month.

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Hope today has gone well. Lady saw her two best friends, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback, today and Daisy, who we see every so often, who is such a sweet spaniel. Not as muddy as I thought it would be over the park after yesterday’s awful weather (Storm Chandra). Still boot weather, mind you.

Am looking forward to exploring the theme of Ways and Paths with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group this evening. It will be nice to see everyone again. It was too and the evening went well.

Am off to see Camelot The Pantomime tomorrow so it is proving to be a varied week. Am getting to grips with Substack as Writers’ Narrative is moving over to that platform. More on this soon. My first two posts here will be appearing in early February.

Finding topics for the Flash Group, my Chandler’s Ford Today posts etc is an ongoing task but a fun one. Proverbs and sayings can give excellent themes to write around plus the writing and editing worlds as a whole also throw up timeless topics to write about. What matters is asking myself what can I bring to the table here which will be useful to someone else. I do love the challenge of this and it stretches me as a writer too. No bad thing that.

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Hope your Friday has gone well. My next author newsletter will be out on 1st February and I include an exclusive 100 word story in it. To sign up for this, other story links, tips and prompts, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Will be having a busy weekend with flash and short story drafts but those are the kind of weekends I like!

There are a few standard and well known competitions I have a go at during the year so will be starting to think about drafting something for those before long. I like to give myself plenty of time for these.

I’ll also be co-judging a flash fiction competition soon and am looking forward to this. It’s an enjoyable and enlightening thing to do.

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Hope today has gone well. Lady caught up with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler friends again today and we also caught up with Daisy the lovely spaniel again. Lady has done very well with her “socials” this week. I will be getting on with my “socials” this evening as I head off to the pantomime.

Flash fiction wise, I have a story in draft for a competition which I hope to sort out and send at the weekend. I have other “stories in stock” I want to get out there so hope to get back to having a look at those at the weekend too. Plus I have a longer short story to read through and hopefully submit so plenty going on here.

But for tonight though I am going to sit back and enjoy the story of Camelot The Pantomime.
Oh yes I am! And I did – great fun too. More to come on Chandler’s Ford Today in due course.

Hope to get some flash fiction drafted tonight as I join in with the exercises I set for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group this evening. I love “writing live”. It gives me a real buzz and I hope it does for the other members of the group.

Later, much later, I’ll look back at my drafts and then see what I can do to improve them. There will be room for improvement, there always is, but the idea of a first draft is to just get those initial ideas down. Once I’ve worked on the pieces more, I do send some out for competitions, save others for a future collection, and still others for use on my newsletter. Nothing goes to waste. Even the ones I decide to not take any further, I can find something in them (such as the character or a good line of dialogue) I can use elsewhere. I have gone on to have pieces published which started life as my response to a writing exercise. It can be done!

Fairytales with Bite – Looking Ahead to Brighter Times

Much as I love the classic fairytales, I’ve never gone along with the “twee” school of thought which is where some folk think they’re just sweet tales for the kiddies. Errr…. No. That tells me someone hasn’t read the original stories for one thing.

Fairytales are anything but twee and they do show darker sides to aspects of our behaviour. A wave of the magic wand does not solve all problems and generally characters have to earn their “right” to have help in that manner from a friendly magical being.

It isn’t unreasonable then to have characters, magical or otherwise, in situations where they are looking ahead to brighter times. This theme can give a great outline.

What grim situation is your character in? How did this happen (and that can very much include things which are their fault)? How do they think they can get out of it again and what brighter times are they looking forward to experiencing? Does that happen for them? You can get several stories from answering those questions. The characters and their situations change which is why you could get several stories out of this idea.

Happy writing! (And I hope your characters do earn, in some way, their brighter times. I think there should be something they do or are to contribute to them getting their happy ever after).

This World and Others – The Rough and The Smooth

Life is full of the rough and the smooth, of course, so our stories should reflect this too, I think, no matter how fantastical our settings. Indeed, showing the rough and the smooth will help make those fantastical settings more believable.

Also a character’s journey is far more interesting as we read how they cope with the rough times, overcome them or manage them well enough so they’re not destroyed by them. I know I always want to see characters do something to deserve an appropriate positive ending to their story.

The rough times shouldn’t just come out of nowhere though. Even though I love dropping my characters in the mire and finding out how they get out again, those rough times are hinted at as being possibilities earlier on in my stories. It is then a question of whether those rough times will happen and, if so as I would expect to what degree, and again a little foreshadowing means readers are more likely to accept the story premise.

For example, if I have an arrogant character, it wouldn’t be unreasonable for them to upset someone who then goes on to do something to cause grief to the arrogant character. You can see this being likely to happen. For any story to work for me, there has to be a “believability” factor.

When life becomes smoother again, I want to see the character, with or without help, contributing to that. In the example given above, I’d want my arrogant character to realise how they’ve come across and to want to put things right as much as they can. Even if things don’t quite work out by the end of the story (the other character may still be too angry to accept the “being put right” factor), I want to see my character is trying to make things better.

Stories reflect life here I think. There is a wish to see things put right and we can explore that ideas in our stories. But for that to happen successfully, there have to be the rough times for your characters to experience. The smoother times mean nothing without that.

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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More than Writers: Pressing On Towards The End of the Longest Month E… https://t.co/OQCSLWwiRm This is and will be my longest ACW title but it's apt given January drags. It helps to know you’re not alone in the ups and downs of the writing life. I hope this post encourages you. pic.twitter.com/59C9GY8u3l
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 29, 2026

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Delighted to share Top Ten Author Newsletter Tips for Chandler’s Ford Today. It’s apt given my next author newsletter is out on 1st February. I hope you find this useful if you are considering having a newsletter or already have one.https://t.co/ZDYo90nqQt
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 30, 2026

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Spoofs

January 23, 2026Leave a comment

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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. Lady needed an X-ray but is fine and recovering well. Writing going well too. And mostly Lady and I are managing to avoid the rain so we always take that as a win.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am pleased to share Spoofs on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. A great spoof has to mimic what it is spoofing successfully so people will “go along” with the spoof and enjoy it (and what it is mimicking). This requires an in depth knowledge of the original work and, I believe, a great love for it. You have to know exceedingly well what it is you’re spoofing.

But when done well, this format is a delight. It isn’t just found in books either and I name two films and, separately, a TV series, which I think spoof brilliantly.

To find out more do check out the post.

Spoofs

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Lady is pretty much back to her old self today (needed an X-ray the day before, see below) and it was particularly nice she caught up with her two best pals, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback today. Seeing them perked her up no end and they all had a lovely time, despite the mud.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Spoofs on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. Looking forward to sharing that. I look at what makes for a good spoof and if ever there was a time of year to enjoy them, I think it is now while we are still in the depths of winter with spring still a fair way away. See above.

It’s my experience too that humorous writing, of any kind, while it may be easy to read definitely isn’t easy to write. I salute anyone who manages it. This is partly because humour is subjective, of course, and not of all it “reads across” well. Also especially with a spoof, you do run the risk that those who love the original you base your spoof on will loathe the take you put on it!

But a good spoof is a great joy and you can find them in many art forms. More in my post tomorrow.

Hope the day has gone well. Has been a strange one here as Lady had to have an X-ray. She’s okay and we have had confirmed what we thought was the problem but it is manageable and things will get better from here because we know what it is. So glad to have her home again. The house has felt very odd without her here.

Writing wise, I loved the ACW Connect session run by the Association of Christian Writers last night. It was good to see old friends and chat with new ones. I’m also looking forward to the next session of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week. I’m off to the panto next week too – oh yes I am!

I’ll be sharing Spoofs on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I like a good spoof and share some of my favourites as well as discussing what I think a good spoof should be. It was fun to write, as you can imagine.

Writing Tip: My week is made up of writing sessions where I can get lots done in one go and lots of smaller sessions. Writing flash is great here because I can use the smaller time slots I have available for that. But a good idea is to save the smaller sessions for those writing tasks you’re not so keen on (e.g. marketing, editing etc) so you have the longer ones for longer stretches of creative writing, which is where most of us get the maximum enjoyment from our writing.

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Lady was delighted to catch up with her Hungarian Vizler friend today and two chums she hasn’t seen for a while – the lovely Coco and Charlie. Lady is much more herself after her X-ray earlier this week.

Flash Fiction Tip: Always focus on the lead character (in stories under 250 words or so, you are likely to just have the one character in your story). Think about their purpose. What are they seeking to achieve? Do they do so or fall flat on their face (which you can exploit, of course, for a humorous tale)? What drives them? What gets in their way? All of those questions would be good to answer for longer works too. Motivation matters for our characters. It is that which does so much to make them believable to readers.

Hope to get around to looking up some flash fiction competitions over the weekend. I know of a couple of possibles but it will be a case of having the time to check them out before I draft anything. It always pays to check the details to avoid the risk of being scammed etc. Sadly rogues target any industry including the writing and publishing ones.

Also some competitions have very restrictive conditions which may well make you think twice about going that route. I avoid those who want to take all of my rights, for example, on the general principle I really don’t like this. The author is unlikely to do well out of this.

Having said that, when I’ve found suitable competitions, I love the challenge of getting something into them. It is fun to do. And you do have to be in it to win it after all.

It is possible to write flash without realising it. Any novelist who prepares a blurb or the shorter kind of synopsis will be writing up to the 1000 words maximum (and probably closer to 500 words). It would count as flash!

Any writer who takes part in writing exercises at online or in person events will be writing flash as you never have enough time to write more than about 100-200 words or so in the time you’re given for these things.

So why not look at those pieces you’ve drafted and polish them up and submit them? I was asked last night at the ACW Connect session (which was fabulous) where I submit my flash. Well, I build up stories for collections, of course. I also send them into competitions. I also share some in my newsletter/on my website (all counts as marketing).

Why not see if you can get your flash work out there and see what can be done with it? If you win or are shortlisted, anything like that, it also gives you news to share.

Flash Tip: Think about the purpose of your story. How do you want your readers to feel on reading it? Are you trying to make them laugh, cry, scream etc? From there you can work out the kind of character(s) which would be best suited for the story.

Fairytales With Bite – Starting Over

All of us need to start over at some point, whether it is starting a new job, new writing project etc. Why would your characters want or need to start over? Do they welcome or fear the prospect? How easy or otherwise do they find taking a new path in life? Is there support available?

What do your characters want their starting over to bring to them? There should be some advantages, otherwise why bother? If it is a question of necessity rather than wanting to start over, what brought them to this point? Could they have avoided it? If not, what advantages could they gain from dealing with the position they’re now in? Could something good come of the having to start over again?

Alternatively, is your character the one forcing someone else to start over? If they’re a fairy godmother or similar magical being, they could well need to use magic to bring someone to their senses to force them to face up to something and then change their ways. This is common theme in fairytales. Here, could you look at what was the last straw for your character which made them decide now is the time they are going to make Character X change their ways?

This World and Others – Finding A New Place

If your characters have to start over, as I discussed in Fairytales with Bite, would this involve finding a new place? Where would they go? Where are they coming from? Is the new place somewhere they want to go or are they out of options?

How easy or otherwise is it for your character(s) to find a new place to be? If they can choose where they want to go, given they can’t stay where they are for whatever reason, what would they be looking for? If they find this, does it compensate them for having to leave their old place at all? What does make them have to/want to leave?

In a magical setting, are characters expected to live in certain areas depending on their species? Or are the different species encouraged to live together and how does that work out? If it works out well, what would they do if someone from outside tried to change that? Would anyone be forced to find a new place because of this? (Sadly it is nothing new and we still see plenty of examples of it here).

Also, natural disasters can cause the need to find a new place. What kind of natural disasters could happen in your magical environment? Can the use of magic make things better or worsen them?

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News: Writers’ Narrative will soon be moving to Substack. Subscription IS still free to the magazine. Have shared a link with an older version of the magazine below. Do enjoy and look forward to the next issue soon.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Spoofs https://t.co/IPU7qd3BOZ
Glad to share Spoofs on CFT. A great spoof must mimic what it is spoofing successfully so people will “go along” with it. Spoofs are found across the arts. I name two films and a TV series which I think spoof brilliantly. Hope you enjoy the post.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 23, 2026

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Pitching

January 16, 2026Leave a comment

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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. Lady and I have spent most of our time dodging the rain whenever possible and catching up with friends. Writing going well and I’m looking forward to joining in with an online event from the Association of Christian Writers next week too.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am pleased to share Pitching on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Pitching, I suspect, is one of those Marmite topics where writers will either love or loathe it. (The other one here is editing incidentally).

I share tips I’ve found useful for pitching, as well as discussing the importance of keeping accurate records of what you sent where and the result. I also look at some reasons why pitches can be turned down even though you have sent in the best possible pitch for the market.

I hope you find the post useful.

Pitching

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Hope your Thursday has gone well. Dreadful weather here today. Only time I enjoyed a soaking today was when I went swimming. Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler pal though and before the heavy rain came in so we’ll take that as a win.

I’ll be sharing Pitching on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow and hope it will prove useful. See above.

I’m off to the pantomime (oh yes I am) with my CFT editor later in the month to watch the latest production from The Chameleon Theatre Company. They’re staging Camelot The Pantomime. It should be fun and I plan to review it in due course. Those reviews are always fun to write.

Writing Tip: Every so often, I will check out the random generators and deliberately try one I haven’t used before. It’s a case of seeing what I can do with it. I can usually come up with something but the idea of trying something different here is to knowingly keep myself on my writing toes. And I get to produce stories I wouldn’t have produced any other way so I see that as a win.

Hope today has gone well. Lady had a fabulous time in the park. She saw her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals and her “boyfriend”, the lovely Aussie Shepherd. Great time had by all. Lady has shown her Ridgeback pal how to herd. Not sure the Shepherd knew quite what to make of that!

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to an ACW event online next week, the idea being it will help ACW members around the country connect and chat. Should be fun. Am busy writing various pieces including future Chandler’s Ford Today posts. I’ve drafted a couple of shorter flash pieces I hope to find a home for in due course too.

Writing Tip: Do you care about your characters? Do you root for them to succeed or fail (sometimes, at least, that’s apt for villains)? Do your characters make you want to find out what happens to them?

The answers to all of those should be a definite yes, naturally, because if your creations don’t grip you, they won’t do so for potential readers.

So there has to be something about your characters which makes you care, which is another reason why I like to outline “my people” so I get to know them a bit and, from there, I can start to care for them.

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One random generator I find especially useful is the random question one. What it comes up with can often give great ideas for themes and you then take that in the direction you want. One of my examples is below and I hope you enjoy it.

Theme: What’s something about you today that the old you would find surprising?

Changing My Life by Allison Symes

I open the red box which was in my wardrobe. I stored a letter in it years ago. My reopening date was to be my next birthday ending in zero.

I open the letter. I was to name on opening it five things I’d changed since writing it.

I’ve lost weight. I now swim. I’ve updated my clothes and look fabulous. I’ve discovered Fairtrade chocolate. Last but not least, I lost an abusive husband.

I feel happier than I have in years. He won’t feel the same. He won’t feel anything.

I buried him at the bottom of the garden.

Ends
Allison Symes – written on 11th January 2026.

Why not give the random question generator a try and use the questions as themes? I’ve written many stories this way.

Flash is a great joy to write and a continuing challenge, which is something I love about it. I have to find ways to keep on inventing characters and situations and it is fun to do. It is also nice to mix up the word count ranges I write to, though my favourite will always be the 100 worders. Well, as they were my way into flash fiction at all, it’s understandable they will always be my favourite, I think.

When I’m at workshops or events such as Swanwick, I enjoy taking part in the writing exercises which are set at these things. I try to polish up as many of my first drafts here as I can and see if I can do something with them. I have gone on to have pieces published doing this.

When I set exercises for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group, I either take part in the exercises on the night (I love live writing) or I have prepared something as an example. I still get more flash drafted so win-win here!

Flash is a wonderful tool for improving your writing overall. I’ve learned to spot my wasted words and so cut them out later. I’ve yet to work out a way of not writing those wasted words at all but so far that’s beyond me. I do know what to cut though and my first edit is off to a flying start thanks to that.

It also teaches you to think about what matters to your stories and characters and to focus on this alone. That’s no bad thing either. After all, this is what we need to share with readers first and foremost.

Anything that doesn’t move your story on in some way should be cut because why is it there if it isn’t a vital component?

Fairytales with Bite – Games

What kind of games would be played by your characters in your magical setting? Do they play games at all to unwind?

Games can teach us so much about winning and losing graciously. They can also encourage team spirit and co-operation. So where and how would your characters develop all of that if games were not a “thing” in your setting? Or is co-operation not a “thing” either and how would disputes get resolved in your setting to avoid absolute chaos?

Games can also be used to teach skills. What skills would be useful to your characters to learn this way?
Is magic allowed to be used in games or would that be considered cheating? Who would police things to ensure cheating was spotted and stopped?

We also talk about games as in playing games with people in a more dishonest way, usually to try to get something we want by underhand means? What games would your characters stoop to for something like this and do they get away with it?

Story ideas there for sure. Happy writing!

This World and Others – Arts and Crafts

One lovely thing about humanity, I think, is our arts and crafts. There is a huge range of them, of course, and often they are beautiful things. I admire anyone who can knit or crochet well, for example. Their finished works look amazing. (Also see tapestries for more of the same – beautiful objects, beautiful just because they are). I admire anyone who can draw or paint well – skills which are well beyond me but I do appreciate the finished articles.

Which arts and crafts would be found in your setting? Can anyone enjoy these? Or are certain arts and crafts limited to certain species? There may be good reason for that if so, such as the way your creations function may dictate what they can and cannot do here.

Would your characters have/go to arts exhibitions? Would their arts and crafts include the imaginative use of magic (for the public good of course)? How would your characters carry out their arts and crafts? Could they deliberately not use magic here to make the most of enjoying arts and crafts the “manual” way?

Which arts and crafts would your setting have which we either don’t have here or carry out in a different way? Could arts and crafts be used to build bridges between different communities in your setting?
And even if it is just something your lead character would do to unwind, which art or craft do they find the most helpful and why? Just answering that will tell you more about them, which in turn can impact on how you show them to us via your story.

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Pleased to share Pitching on CFT. I share tips and discuss keeping records of what you sent where.

I look at some reasons why pitches can be turned down though you sent in the best pitch for the market.

I hope you find the post useful.

Pitching https://t.co/PS62VhIQah
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 16, 2026

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Story Inspiration

January 9, 2026Leave a comment

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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 first full week back after the Christmas and New Year break has gone well. Lady has been pleased to catch up with her friends. Weather is what you’d expect for January! Writing and editing are going well and I have booked my big writing event for later in the year, which has cheered me no end.

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Hope your Friday has been a good one. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler pal and her Aussie Shepherd boyfriend, who, by far, had the best coat of anyone for coping with the bitter weather today.

Writing wise, I’m pleased to share Story Inspiration for Chandler’s Ford Today this week and hope you will find it useful. I look at various useful “hunting grounds” where inspiration is likely to strike (and has done for me many times). These include books of lists, prompts, Kipling’s honest serving men and much more besides.

I hope you find these thoughts useful to encourage your own inspiration as it never does any harm to encourage that as much as possible.

Happy writing.

Story Inspiration

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Hope today has gone okay. Bad weather coming in this evening as I write this. Keep safe. Lady saw her two chums, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback, again today. Thankfully it was only light rain this morning. I don’t think any of the dogs would’ve been that sorry to get back indoors again.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Story Inspiration on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above. I hope it will prove useful as I share some good ways to find inspiration. I always feel it is better to hunt for it than wait for it to come to you. There are various good “hunting grounds” for inspiration, some of which I’ll be sharing tomorrow, and which I hope will add to your “store” of places to look for sources of story ideas.

Hope today has gone well. Lady saw her best buddies, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback, today. Ice and snow pretty much gone, just in time for the storm to come in tomorrow! Oh well, at least the temperature has gone up somewhat.

Writing wise, am looking forward to meeting up again later in the month with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. We’ll be looking at Ways and Paths as a topic. Plenty of story ideas to come from that and I hope we will start drafting some on the evening.

Also have a story to get on and draft for a future submission. Plus I’m beginning to go though the Writing Magazine Competition Guide for possible places to try.

Looking forward to joining in with another ACW genre group online this evening. It’s always good fun and a great chance to socialise. Zoom continues to be a blessing when you can’t get together with other writers in person. Though I am looking forward to my big annual event in August – The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick – as well. Thinking about that cheers up a gloomy January for me somewhat!

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My way into flash fiction writing was the 100 word story, also known as the drabble. CafeLit issued their 100 word challenge and I responded to it and haven’t looked back since.

Flash Tip: I’ve often found the best way into writing a 100 worder is to focus on the ending first. How do I want the story to end – with a laugh or with something else which will move readers in other ways? Is a line of dialogue to bring the story to an end the right way to go or should I finish the tale with an “event” which must finish the tale?

Once I have a rough idea of the likely ending, I can work backwards from there to the likely beginning. Knowing a likely ending also shows me the likely lead character who will be finishing the story. I can then work out more about them.

Having the tight word count means I have to only focus on that which is relevant but this is a good thing. I’ve found writing the 100 worders does encourage tighter writing elsewhere and helps me fight any tendency to indulge in purple prose.

As well as flash fiction, there is such a thing as flash non-fiction. Many blogs would count as this given often they come in at about the 500 words mark.

But have you given thought to writing a short piece sharing how you came to write one particular story, say? This would be of interest to other writers and your readers. Works best when kept tight but could give you excellent additional material to add to your website/blog.

Counts as part of your overall marketing, of course, as well.

Glad it’s warming up a bit outside. Spotted a primrose out in my garden just around Christmas time. Is still out. Seems to have survived the frosts and snow – at least so far. (Am putting the qualifier in because I recently said we hadn’t had any snow and, guess what, overnight we got some so I don’t want anything happening to that poor little primrose!).

Now, we all face tricky conditions at time but this can be fabulous for our characters. It is perhaps just as well they cannot tell their creators what they think of them for this. I do love dropping mine in the mire as much as I can.

So what traits do your characters have to help them handle the situations you put them in? Are they already resourceful or do they have to learn how to be so? Many great story thoughts to come from that, I think.

Traits are an invaluable way of gauging a character. You could also use them to figure out how they could develop others.

For example, if your character’s main trait is honesty, would they develop bravery to ensure honesty in their world continued? Would they fight to save what was good in their world and stop it from being obliterated by the greedy?

(And if anyone’s thinking there are parallels with what’s going on here right now, you’d be right but we can use some of this at least as inspiration for story ideas. When you know what’s driving someone, you can get stories out of that).

Fairytales With Bite – Resuming Normal Life

It always takes a little while to resume normal life after any kind of break and perhaps more so after a break like the Christmas/New Year one. Am slowly resuming normality myself!

But how would your characters get back to what is normal for them? How long would that take them and what does count as normal for them? What kind of breaks would they expect to be as part of their overall life?

What official breaks does everyone in your setting have to take? Are they appreciated or resented? Could the events themselves be “commercially exploited” (and that does tend to lead to resentment in some quarters)?

Do any of your characters use official breaks to get out of something they ought to be doing? Does that work or does it cause further problems later on? Does anyone resent having to resume normal life again?
Could enemies of your setting use the break to cause havoc and how would they do this?

Story ideas there, for sure.

This World and Others – Routines

I must admit I do like routines. I have one for my writing and have had this for years. Every so often I adjust it to take in new writing/editing work etc but, on the whole, I’ve found it useful to help me make the best of the time I have available for writing and/or editing on any one day. But I know not everyone likes routines. There are many who would find them restrictive.

What would your characters make of routines? Are there those who thrive on them (and if so, how)? Are there others who would feel routines are like straitjackets? What would happen if you have a character of each type stuck together and they have to work out some sort of routine to get them though to the time when they’re free to do their own thing again?

Does your setting have a routine in terms of characters have to work at certain times, relax at certain times etc? What would its views be on those who don’t follow the general pattern here? Could a setting with a fixed routine face enemies who would exploit the disadvantages of being too rigid? What would the enemies be seeking to exploit on your setting itself?

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Story Inspiration https://t.co/9xk0e4i5pz Glad to share Story Inspiration on CFT. I look at “hunting grounds” where inspiration can strike (and has for me often). I include books of lists, Kipling’s serving men and more. It never does any harm to encourage inspiration to strike.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 9, 2026

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Winter Stories – Part 2

January 2, 2026Leave a comment

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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.

Firstly, I hope you have a very happy and peaceful New Year. I slept through it – I was very happy! Writing and editing work has recommenced now but it is a joy to get back to it again. Secondly and most importantly, Lady had a fabulous Christmas and is enjoying seeing her friends again.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

I don’t know about you but it really doesn’t feel like a Friday. Still, Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler friend again today and a lovely time was had by all.

What has helped me accept it really is a Friday is it is time for my first Chandler’s Ford Today post of 2026 – Winter Stories.

I share some of what I think count as winter stories, the importance of appreciating reading, and look at stories about stories, including how they can inspire further stories themselves. I also see stories as a link to the past and to the future.

I hope you enjoy the post – it’s a gentle start to a new writing year.

Winter Stories

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Happy New Year! Lady was pleased to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today and I was pleased it was less cold than yesterday so we both came home feeling we had gained something!

It’s good to be back to the old writing routine again, having had a wonderful break (and a calorific one at that!). Glad to say my author newsletter went out earlier today and I will be back on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow with my first post for 2026 on Winter Stories. See above.

Am on both sides of the editing fence at the same time again at the moment. Loving this. The last time this happened for me was back in 2020, the year we all prefer to forget, when I was working on Tripping The Flash Fantastic. Seems a world away now but am so looking forward to Seeing The Other Side coming out this year.

Hope you have had a good day. Lady caught up with her two best buddies, the Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler. We kept the dogs moving. It was far too cold to keep still! Lots of fog too – didn’t really lift. Still, this is one thing I love about writing. It is an activity best done in the warm! Will be listening to Classic FM’s Pet Classics this evening too. (New Year’s Eve). I think it helps the dog but I know for sure the calming music does do wonders for me!

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Winter Stories for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. My next author newsletter is good to go for tomorrow, 1st January, and talking of which, I’ll finish by wishing you all a very Happy New Year.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s sad to start the New Year with no more Friday Flash Fiction (see screenshot) but it was wonderful getting back into the world of writing drabbles with them for the last couple of years.

I do hope to share 100 word stories of mine every so often here. And to start, here was one I was going to submit to FFF in early 2026, having written it in December 2025. It does fit in with pantomime season though – oh yes it does!

Hope you enjoy Following.

Following by Allison Symes

‘Which way now? This old map isn’t clear enough. I knew we should have bought an updated one. See, here, the print is all smudged, Hans.’
‘Shall we toss a coin?’
‘Is that all you can come up with, Hans? Didn’t you learn something from last time?’
‘Yes. I learned not to rely on using a trail of breadcrumbs because the birds will eat them. Come on, let’s just go left. It’s the wider path. It looks less overgrown.’
‘Okay but if we come across a gingerbread house again, we are turning and running away immediately, right, Hans?’
‘Right, Gretel.’

Ends
Allison Symes – 21st December 2025

Happy New Year! Had a lovely informal meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group just before Christmas. Our next meeting will be towards the end of the month. Already looking forward to that one plus ACW members have the chance to meet up online later in the month too so I’ve signed up for that one.

Zoom can and does bring people together when in person gatherings aren’t feasible. It’s also a great tool for helping with flash fiction writing in that I use it to record stories I intend to “perform” or send in for potential broadcast. It gives me a way of hearing how I come across and it confirms my timings. All useful stuff.

Hope to start looking for potential flash and short story competitions in a week or so. Looking forward to submitting stories again. You have to be in it to have any chance of winning it after all.

The turn of the old year into a new one is one of those points in time we all remember. But you can use the thought of points of time as something your characters have to deal with.

What moment in time would be a pivotal point for your character and why? It doesn’t have to tie in with the calendar after all. It could be an anniversary date (pleasant or otherwise) and much more. It could also be a driver for what your character does next and naturally there would be consequences from that.

Happy New (writing) Year!

Fairytales with Bite – New Beginnings

I write this on 31st December 2025 with the New Year only a few hours away so I suppose it is a natural time to be thinking about new beginnings. What would make your characters decide they need a new beginning? Would they use a New Year (or equivalent in your setting) to decide this or are they forced to make a new start and how did they get into that position at all?

Does the new beginning live up to its promise? What makes the character change to make the new beginning mean something to them? What do they have to change? Is anyone or anything getting in the way of your character having a successful new beginning? Or is your character made to face up to the need to have a new beginning by another character and what makes them go along with this?

Do you have characters who always make new beginnings but they never seem to work out? Could a friendly fairy godmother help with this and finally help them get the breakthrough they’ve been seeking?

Definitely story ideas there! Happy writing.

This World and Others – Letting The Old Go

New Year’s Eve is an obvious time to let things go. You don’t have the choice. The old year goes, the new one comes in. But what would your characters really not want to let go of, even if they should do so? I have sympathy here. I never want to let go of chocolate even though, strictly speaking, it is something I don’t need to be able to survive.

All successful stories pivot on a moment of change. The character has to change in some way or do something different – the story has to move forward so it can work.

Letting things go, especially those with great meaning to the character, can be a useful symbol showing your character being ready to move on as they let go of anything they feel is holding them back. This can, of course, include other characters, who may or may not be happy about this but what you definitely have here is a story. The conflict here has to be resolved in some way and that can include the first character moving on regardless.

Give some thought as to what your characters wouldn’t like to let go off too and make them face the possibility of having to do so. What would they do? How would they react?

Story ideas there for sure!

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Winter Stories https://t.co/Tkoo8BVlr2
It's time for my first 2026 CFT post – Winter Stories. I share what I think are winter stories, discuss appreciating reading, and look at how tales can inspire further stories. Hope you enjoy the post, a gentle start to a new writing year.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 2, 2026

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Back At The Theodore Bullfrog With Bridge House Publishing

December 12, 2025Leave a comment

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Image Credits:- All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Many thanks to Paula Readman and Lynn Clement for certain pictures taken at the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event. Most of the pictures for that Chandler’s Ford Today post and screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good week. Lady has! Delighted to hear one of my festive flash pieces will be broadcast on Hannah Kate’s Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM on Saturday 13th December 2025. Will share the link to the broadcast itself next week. Equally thrilled to say three other members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group will have their work broadcast here too. Well done, all!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am delighted to look back at last weekend’s celebration event with my Chandler’s Ford Today post, Back At The Theodore Bullfrog with Bridge House Publishing.

The post gives a good round-up of events and shares something of the joys of getting together with other authors like this (and also being with a splendid independent publisher).

I also flag up the specific celebrations for the publication of The Best of CafeLit 14 and, more recently, Magi An Anthology.

Hope you enjoy the post.

Back At The Theodore Bullfrog with Bridge House Publishing

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Hope Thursday has gone well. All quiet in the park today so Lady had to put up with just me!

Looking forward to sharing Back at The Theodore Bullfrog with Bridge House Publishing on Chandler’s Ford Today – link up tomorrow. It was such a fun event, I was bound to write about it. See above.

In other news, I’m glad to share the following link re the Hannah Kate Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM on Saturday 13th December. I also want to add huge congratulations to the other writers taking part in this, especially three of them who are members, with me, of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. I’m very much looking forward to tuning in to hear a great range of festive flash fiction.

North Manchester FM: Hannah’s Bookshelf 3 Minute Santas Special, Saturday 13 December, 2-4pm

Hope you have had a good day. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler pal so all well there. Lovely sunny day too, the kind of winter day I like.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Back at the Theodore Bullfrog with Bridge House Publishing on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above. Then there will be one more post after that from me (19th December) before I take a Christmas break and resume on CFT in the New Year. Just where has the year gone?!

Had a turn down from a flash competition over the weekend. Will have another look at that story in the New Year and see if I can submit it somewhere else. I have had work published doing that.

Writing Tip: Rejections and not hearing back from competitions do happen to everyone so do take some heart from that when it happens to you (and it is bound to at some point). I do try to see this as a chance to have another look at my stories and find ways of improving them. Normally I can see something and I adjust the story, which is why I think I have then gone on to have the story published somewhere else.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s the last day of the Friday Flash Fiction Christmas Competition and I did manage to send in two stories, one per week, for the two weeks the event ran. It was good fun to take part in this. All of the stories in this have to be 100 words exactly (and trust me it is so easy to come in at 102 words or 98 but for this competition it had to be spot on the 100). Good luck to all taking part.

Word association is a great game. I remember playing it often when I was younger. Little did I realise then it was going to become a great tool for writing prompts for me much later on. The reason it is so useful is the game makes you think of links and those are so useful for outlining characters/potential story ideas.

For example let’s take the word festive and see what can be done with that:-
Festive = Christmas = Scrooge = Muppets = films = The Great Escape = bravery.

Now on the face of it, this is just a list of fun, loosely connected words but if I was to use this for a story, it would be the last word, bravery, I would focus on. I love working with traits. They can tell you so much about a character.

Here, I would want to know who showed bravery and why (and it could be a Christmas set story too or not as I chose). Just from this then, I have the sparks of a potential idea.

Do add word association to your prompt generating toolkit if you don’t use it already. It is useful.

Looking forward to an informal chat and sharing of news and stories with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week. We usually do have this kind of session at the year end and it is a lovely way to bring our writing year to a close before we head off to our respective Christmas breaks.

Am a co-judge for a flash competition in the New Year so looking forward to working on that. Naturally I’m looking forward to Seeing The Other Side coming out next year. It is highly likely I will be on both sides of the editing fence again. It’s an interesting experience (and useful to me both as a writer and editor. The view from the other side of the fence can be enlightening to say the least).

Fairytales With Bite – The Fairytale Flip Side

There can be a flip side to much in life so why should the fairytale world be exempt? For all of those fairytale characters who have the benefit of magical help, there are so many others who do not. Mind you, the latter can be fun characters to write about and my first story in print, A Helping Hand in Alternative Renditions (Bridge House Publishing), was about Cinderella’s youngest step-sister.

I’ve long believed there are disadvantages as well as advantages to any form of power and that goes for magic too. What would happen if magical characters misuse their powers for their own ends? (I know, I know – as if that would happen here! Oh if only!). How could they be stopped?

Even when magic isn’t misused, what effects would it have on the bodies of the characters? I’ve long thought sustained use of magic must be incredibly draining. Indeed, I can’t see otherwise being the case.

So what would your characters themselves see as the flip side to their magical abilities/their world’s magical abilities? Do your characters have to cope with, say, envying other characters with greater powers than themselves? Would they find ways of developing or, worse still, stealing those powers for themselves? How would they handle powers they’re not used to handling?

Bound to be story ideas there!

This World and Others – Policing

Now given I am sure we can all think of those who misuse their powers in this world, and therefore we must have some kind of policing to try to keep things in order (and protect ourselves as much as possible), how would that work out in your magical setting?

Who would be the police force? Who created them? What are they allowed to do? What are they banned from doing? What would happen to any police authority who misused the powers given to them (and who would have bestowed those in the first place)? What extra magical powers would they need to be able to combat magical crime?

How would policing work and is it with the consent of the people generally?

I do love the Vimes stories in Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series and if you haven’t checked them out, do as you’ll be in for a treat. Here, the Discworld has magic and magical practitioners in it, but it’s not in the City Watch and Vimes doesn’t like magic. So many interesting tales there.

I think for any successful fantasy world, the writer does have to work out first how things will work broadly at least, which will include who can use magic, what can they do, recognizing crime does get everywhere so there has to be something to combat that.

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🎄 … plus Keith Jones, Dorinda MacDowell, @AllisonSymes1, @jennyhsanders, Maria Cohut, Pinky Taylor, Martin Elder, @noodleBubble, Amanda Melvin, @brennanaccordio and Carmen Walton! 🎄 https://t.co/84F3B7l1QR
— Hannah Kate (@HannahKateish) December 10, 2025

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I’m glad to share the link re the Hannah Kate Three Minute Santas show on North Manchester FM on Saturday 13th December. Huge congratulations to the other writers taking part in this. I’m looking forward to tuning in to hear a great range of festive flash.https://t.co/UKX7cpP4oU
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 11, 2025

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It’s the last day of the Friday Flash Fiction Christmas Competition. I sent in two stories, one a week, for the two weeks it was on. All stories had to be 100 words exactly (and it is so easy to come in at 102 words or 98). Good luck to all taking part.https://t.co/4bXnFfkhuq pic.twitter.com/aiG8xyjIfX
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 12, 2025

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Back At The Theodore Bullfrog with Bridge House Publishing https://t.co/Oy7Qmcvbws
Delighted to recall last weekend’s event for CFT. The post shares the joys of getting together with other authors (and also being with a splendid independent publisher). Hope you enjoy the post.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) December 12, 2025

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