Tag: Chandler's Ford Today

Using Old Sayings in Fiction

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Hope you have had a good week. Lady and I are loving the continuing sunshine. Writing is going well and I now have news my Seeing The Other Side should be out on 18th June 2026 – exciting times!


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Delighted to share Using Old Sayings in Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today and I hope you get to draft some stories as a result of it. Why? Simply because I share a few old sayings and suggest ways in which they could be used for storytelling. (Incidentally the proverbs are also useful for non-fiction writing but I thought for this post I’d focus on the fiction side).

Proverbs reveal timeless truths so will always resonate with people and I think this is why they will always be useful as themes and/or titles. Basically, you do have ready made prompts here.

Hope you enjoy the post and find it useful.

Using Old Sayings in Fiction

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady and I had another great time in the park this morning. She saw her Hungarian Vizler chum and Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. Nice time had by all.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Using Old Sayings in Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I’ll be sharing some old sayings and suggesting ways in which they can be used. I hope the post will prove useful and inspire some stories. Link up tomorrow. See above.

It was great to see everyone at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting last night. There was great discussion around the prompts set too. I felt it was a particularly encouraging and inspirational session and I hope everyone goes on to edit and polish their drafts.

Publication News: I’m thrilled to tell you Seeing The Other Side has a soft launch date in the middle of June (18th). More news as and when I have it but am delighted to flag this up now. Has perked me up a lot this week, as I’m sure you can imagine!

Glad to be back on More Than Writers, the blog spot of the Association of Christian Writers, with my latest post called Controlling Characters.

Do you control your characters or do they, at least sometimes, control you? I share tips and thoughts for those occasions when your characters come out with the unexpected. I also look at whether you can control your characters while giving them some “freedom” at the same time and where knowing the major trait(s) can prove so useful.

Hope you enjoy the post and find it useful.

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1st May 2026 – newsletter
Pleased to say my latest author newsletter went out today. My theme was Dialogue in Fiction. I hope subscribers find the tips and thoughts on that topic useful.

To subscribe you just need to head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

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Has been a lovely week so far with publication news (my third book, Seeing The Other Side, will be out in mid-June – circa the 18th) and a fabulous writing session with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group last night. (On Wednesday 29th April 2026). Have also worked on a piece which I hope to submit to a competition over the weekend.

It is lovely when you have productive times like this. It makes up for those times which are more of a struggle or where all that seems to come in are turn downs from competitions etc.

Encouraging times also help you focus and move forward too. Nothing to dislike about that.

And bear in mind too encouragement can be a fabulous theme to write about. Best encourager in the “fiction business”? To my mind that has to go to Sam Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings. Frodo needed him.

Lovely morning in the park and Lady caught up with her Hungarian Vizler chum today for the first time this week so both dogs were pleased to see each other. Little moments like that are special.

You could argue flash fiction is the art of sharing the “little moments”. By that, I mean there is enough of a tale to be a proper story with a proper beginning, middle and end, but not enough for a standard length short story (usually 1500 words plus). The secret here is to ensure the “little moment” is enough of a story to be a story at all. So there must be a memorable character and something crucial happens but it is all over within a compressed word count.

If you ever want to learn to write tightly, do practice writing flash fiction. You learn to work out what you do need and what you don’t. You cut out the qualifiers such as the words “quite”, “a bit” and “very”. Usually the things these are referring to don’t need the qualifier at all. If something is “a bit” scary, say, then surely it is just scary!


Fairytales With Bite – Crashes

In your magical environment where folk can fly with or without the aid of machinery or a decent broom, how do they avoid crashes? Traffic congestion happens everywhere (and I’ve written a few humorous flash pieces around that thought – one will appear in my forthcoming book, Seeing The Other Side).

Is there a kind of magical Highway Code which people stick to? Do they learn this at their equivalent of school or is it something like our driving test which people have to do later when they are considered to be mature enough to do this?

Would your setting have anything like air traffic control, which would monitor and control air lanes?

If crashes do sometimes happen, what is the procedure for dealing with them? Is there a “magical insurance policy” drivers/fliers have to have and do claimants have to go through claims processes as we do? I smile at the thought of an annoyed witch having to file an insurance claim and being told she has been turned down or has to pay an excess. Would she dare to do anything against the assessor?

Good potential for humorous stories here, I think.

And what inspired this thought? A word game I like on my phone crashed without warning. Still, it’s given me an idea for a blog post!

This World and Others – Technology and Magic Clashes

In your magical setting, would your world consider our technology to be the equivalent to their magic? Or would they consider their magic to be far superior and would they be right to think that?

I’m thinking along the lines that certain aspects of science can “look” magical. For example, if you combine elements to create something else, that could look “magical”.

Especially if our technology can achieve things your world’s settings cannot do, would they want to try and copy what we’ve done? Or would they want to stop it and us? Or would they improve their magical powers to overtake us? Or would they simply steal the ideas from us and use them in their own way back at home?

Could our technology ever threaten their magical powers?

Story ideas there for sure.

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Writing Wishes

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Hope you have had a good few days. Gorgeous spring weather here. Lady and I are making the most of it. Writing and editing going well too. Not short of things to do right now!

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Am delighted to share Writing Wishes on Chandler’s Ford Today this week.

As I take a brief look at AI and the Human Authored campaign, I also look at other writing wishes, many of which are achievable! Others need working at but that is true for us all, if it is any comfort. Still others are “no-brainers” such as writers always wanting lots of nice stationery. Well, there is always room for one more notebook and pen set, isn’t there?

I also share two useful links for those seeking writing advice (and we all need that).

Hope you enjoy the post.

Writing Wishes

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler pal today. Lovely time in the park.

Today it is St. George’s Day and also Shakespeare’s birth/death days. I can only think of one other who died on their birthday, Elizabeth of York, Henry VII’s queen.

It took me ages to “get” Shakespeare at all, though like many of us I’ve used phrases I hadn’t known he invented. It took the pandemic and watching National Theatre Live, along with going to some of those productions in a local school after we were allowed out again, which changed my opinion. I do remain convinced though Shakespeare, generally, is best watched than read (with the exception of the sonnets, obviously). I saw Hamlet via NTL, both the Benedict Cumberbatch and David Tennant ones. Loved them. My late mother loved him and I’m sure she’d be pleased I’ve finally “got” Shakespeare.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Writing Wishes on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow (see above) and am ploughing on with the editing. Nice to do this with the windows open though and letting some sunshine in. It’s been months since I was last able to do that!

It has been another lovely spring day today, which Lady and I appreciated. The park was quiet and lovely. Talking of which, how about this for a prompt?

Prompt Thought: Quietness can seem wonderful or threatening, depending on circumstance and character mood. It can also seem oppressive, leading to the threatening feeling. Why not write two stories based on quietness being a wonderful thing for your character and then another tale where it is anything but that? You could also keep the word count for the two stories the same. Am sure you could get two interesting and contrasting stories here and, yes, you could use the same character but in different situations.

Happy drafting! (May well do this one myself at some point. As ever, watch this space).

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Hope the day has been a good one. Lovely weather again and Lady so enjoyed seeing her Hungarian Vizler pal. Later, she met a lovely cockapoo called Roscoe. Lady has had a good day on “the socials”. She is easily the most sociable pet we’ve had (and yes she loves it when we hold parties here so you could call her a party animal too).

Flash fiction wise, I am happily going through my third book and hope to have that done in the next few days. Then it’s back to the publisher. Exciting times.

Plus this weekend I want to dig out an old story of mine and have a look at it for a future competition. I always keep a supply of stories in stock, so to speak, for this purpose. It pays. If a theme is set, I often have a story already written in draft and I can then examine it to see if it could be submitted. Often it can be with some more work done to it, which is fine. I’ve never had a problem with editing!

I suspect by now there is a National Day of Something for every day of the year. As well as it being St. George’s Day and Shakespeare’s birth/death days, it appears it is also National Picnic Day (has anyone told the wasps?), World Book and Copyright Day (am naturally all for that), and Allergy Awareness Week. I should imagine though if you have any allergies (I do – asthma and hayfever), you are aware of that all year!

Having said that, there’s nothing to stop you weaving ideas from these days into your flash fiction stories.

For example, a character with an allergy – how does it get in their way? What do they do to overcome it as much as possible?

A character wants to set up a picnic and makes a right mess of it – could be potential for humour here. Do they give up on the idea or are they able to salvage something from the mess? Does anyone else help here?

So story ideas are there, including for flash. It’s a question, I think, of keeping an open mind to possibilities. I like to see these National Days as potential prompt ideas because you can take them that way.

I like to mix up the mood of my flash (and short) stories because I think this reflects life. Much as I’d love to find things funny all of the time, that isn’t possible. There is the darker side of life and I think it is honest to have stories which reflect both sides of life here. Certainly I believe having a mixture of the two types in a collection makes the stories, and the characters, more believable.

I do like to keep a balance in my collections though and this will also apply to Seeing The Other Side in due course.

There are times when I just know from my character outline what mood the story is likely to take. If, for example, I have a character dealing with a sad situation, there will be elements within the story which will show the character being influenced by that. I would then hope to write them going on to rise about things as much as is possible (and probably with help) but I can’t have them immune to what is going on around them. Else they would be a cardboard cut out character.

Characters make or break a story for me and even the most fantastical of creatures still has to be believable in some way. Motivation is key here. I might not understand what a great big dragon’s life is like,not having had experience of being a great big dragon (!), but I can imagine why they may want to terrorise a village. If they’re hungry, say, where would they go to look for food? Something has to drive them and basic needs can be a great way into working out what a character’s motivation would be.

Fairytales With Bite – Journeys

I like journeys. Journeys have purpose. (Okay I loathe traffic jams, cancellations on the trains etc but journeys themselves are generally fine). They are also great things to write stories around. For a magical setting, you’ve got more range as to what kind of transport your characters have to use. The sky could indeed be the limit here!

Journeys can also be enlightening. Why does your character have to go on one? What does it achieve for them? When using magic, how does that help or hinder them? Are there disadvantages to magical transport? How could it compare with what we have here? I’m thinking along the lines of energy usage here. Could your magical setting have issues with “clean” and “unclean” magical energy usage? Journeys would be likely to use up a lot of this.

What does your character think about having to go on a journey, especially if it is not something they would usually do and/or it is to somewhere they would far rather not go? Be fair, would you go to Mordor if you didn’t have to?!

This World and Others – Taking The Long Way

I remember as a kid my Dad taking the family out for day trips and, especially if we weren’t in a hurry, we’d take the long way around to get home after a great day out. It was all part of the trip and we enjoyed it. Would your characters ever choose to do that? Where would they choose to go and why? What would be their long way home?

Where characters have to take the long way out of necessity, what is behind that? How do they manage it? What help do they have along their way? Frodo from The Lord of the Rings needed others to help him. He’d have never have made it to Mordor on his own.

What kind of roads would your setting have? Is the thought of any kind of journey, long or short, something your characters might dread because of the state of the roads and/or transport networks? Would have every sympathy there!

If a character has a choice of a short or long way to achieve their objective, what would make them choose the longer, more complicated way? I would expect there to be good reasons behind that. For example, the short route could have hazards the longer one doesn’t. The longer route is safer but just longer.

Whatever journey your character is going on, what would they face along the way?

Story ideas there!

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Observations

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Hope you have had a good weekend. Not bad here. Enjoying more sunshine again. Making good progress on the editing front. Can’t say much at the moment but hope it won’t be too long before I share news. Lady seeing some of her friends but not all of the moment though we look forward to rectifying that when possible.

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Hope today has gone well. Quiet in the park though Lady and I had a lovely peaceful time. Bluebells out all over the place where we are too, including in our garden.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to sharing Writing Wishes on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I’ll also be looking at the Human-Authored campaign being led, in the UK at least, by the Society of Authors as part of this. There are many writers who have wishes about AI! Some can see the usefulness of it, others worry about the effects on creativity. I worry about the effects on editing quality. More on that in the post.

Come the weekend, I hope to be working on a short story for a competition I have in mind but my editing work is taking priority at the moment so that may have to be pushed back for a week. It is fun having lots of interesting work to do, mind you! I just want more hours in the day but then I suspect that’s true for most of us.

Hope you’ve had a good start to the week. Lady has. She saw her Hungarian Vizler pal and Coco, the lovely Labradoodle.

Writing wise, I’m ploughing on with my editing and making good progress. Hope to make even more progress later tonight!

And as it’s Monday, not my favourite day of the week it must be said, it is time for a story I shared on my Substack account yesterday. Hope you enjoy Talking It Out. Do you feel any sympathy for Mary here?

Hope your weekend has been a good one. Loved my day out at Salisbury yesterday. Glad to be at home today.

Looking forward to getting on with flash fiction Sunday in a while and after that getting on with further editing on my Seeing The Other Side. There comes a point with flash where you know you can edit a piece and tighten it further in terms of word count but you then lose something of the “flow” of the story. That’s where I stop. I don’t want to lose that “flow” so, assuming all else is well, I would far rather leave a flash piece at 125 words, say, rather than cut back too far to get it to 100 words.

I’m always thinking about the impact of my stories on potential readers so don’t want anything to weaken that.


Had a lovely day out in Salisbury at the URC where there was a study on Women in the Bible. Very interesting and may spark story ideas. So many of these women showed great courage, which in itself is a great theme to write around. It was also great to catch up with folk I know here.

Bus replacement service was fine though I will always prefer the train. Bumpy roads meant I couldn’t write on my phone app on the bus. I drafted this while enjoying peppermint tea in a Salisbury coffee shop. Someone has to do it…

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Writing Wishes for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Looking forward to sharing that plus I hope to get plenty done on editing work later.

And, last but not least, I share Light and Dark in Fiction, my latest post on Authors Electric. I look, amongst other things, at how both kinds of fiction can reveal great truths though one is more likely to leave you with a smile on your face than the other! Hope you enjoy it.

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Getting out and about with the dog regularly gives opportunities for noticing things going on in the natural world and we are blessed to live close to parks and woods so I’m getting to see plenty of bluebells, the lilacs coming into bloom and so on.

So can you use these things in flash fiction (and indeed in other kinds of fiction)? Of course.

They can make an excellent backdrop for your character. Your character may equally be glad of a break in the fresh air given their circumstances. Some time in the natural world could give them what they need to go back and do what has to be done to hopefully improve said circumstances. Or you could take the colours and scents you come across and write a story around those – who notices them and why? What makes these things stand out? Is your character so glad to escape something, they are relieved to see these things?

Happy writing!

It’s Monday and it has been as hectic as ever. Time for another story then. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Hope, Hoax and Cake.

Emily Winters finally won the village cake competition but did she do so fairly and squarely? Of course not. Find out what happened here.

 

One word themes make excellent topics for all kinds of fiction including flash. These themes come up time and again for competitions and what markets are looking for. To name a few:-

Love
Justice
Revenge
Misunderstanding
Hope

There are many, many more but these topics are timeless. The good news on that is for writers, it means we can always use them.

One thing about getting out and about is spotting those moments you know you can do something with story wise.

For example, on the replacement bus service to Salisbury I was on today, there were two people busy chatting when I got on the bus. They were still nattering an hour later when we all got off at Salisbury and no pauses to speak of in between! I do feel there could be a humorous flash pieces out of that. Watch this space!

I also find I start wondering about backgrounds and settings when I go out anywhere. Again, this is a potential source for story ideas. So make the most of your trips out!

Goodreads Author Blog – Observations

One of the lovely things about fiction is when you come across observations which show up something about us. Jane Austen was fantastic here, as was Terry Pratchett. The best of these observations are always done subtly. You almost take these in without realising it.

Over time, as a writer, you learn to look out for these so you can figure out how to do this for your creations. Best of all, this is fun because you get to do even more reading. Nothing to dislike there!

Of course, some of the observations at least can be sharp ones. Often humorous fiction does this best, I find.

So when you lose yourself in a good book (and as often as possible), it is amazing what you can be taking in. Writers are inspired by what has gone before. We build on what has gone before. There will always be a need for stories and those observations, which make us think when we spot them, will continue to make us think.

Time to get on with some more reading then!

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Character Moments

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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. Weather changeable – April is living up to its reputation for showers – though it hasn’t stopped Lady and I getting about. Writing and editing going well. Am off to a church event on Saturday in Salisbury and am looking forward to that (chance to catch up with some folk I know too).

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Delighted to share my latest post on Chandler’s Ford Today – Character Moments. I share some of my favourite character moments (which I am sure will ring more than one bell with you!) and ask some pertinent questions, which I hope will help you create your characters. I also discuss how using your own love of stories by others can help so much here and what character moments can mean to their author. Hope you enjoy the post.

Character Moments

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler chum today. Nice to catch up with her and her owner again today.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Character Moments for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up on Friday. See above. My next post Authors Electric will be up later this week too.

Character Tip: I’ve long found creating characters to be my favourite part of storytelling. Coming in at a close second is giving said characters the words to say/thoughts to think. It’s at that point they take on “life” for me. I can understand who they are and where they come from and what they want. From there I can figure out what kind of story these characters would best be suited for.

So it is worth taking time over creating your “people”/beings of choice? Definitely. But only you can figure out what it is you need to know about them. I always need to know what drives them. Others may need to know the character’s appearance and from that work out the kind of situation where the character would work best.

Sometimes what you need to know will change a bit from story to story, especially if you are working for a market or competition where the theme has been set. If, for example, the theme is love, you can work out what kind of love you want to write about (as it may not necessarily be just the romantic kind) and from that the kind of characters who would work best.

But prep work in terms of thinking things through does pay off. I’ve only abandoned two stories in my time and in both cases it was because I hadn’t thought things through enough. I’ve written hundreds of tales since…

Hope your day has gone well. Mixed bag weather wise here.

Writing wise, don’t forget it won’t be long before my author newsletter is out once again. To sign up for news, tips, and stories do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Have booked tickets for a multi book launch Bridge House Publishing are having in May. Am already looking forward to that. Online launches have the huge advantage of making it easier for people to get to them. I’ve attended several over the years where I know I couldn’t get to an in person event. Naturally I hope to have something like this for Seeing The Other Side in due course.

Launch Tip: You can think well ahead of time here about questions which are likely to come up and prepare some answers ready for the event. Also if you are planning to read from your book, take you time selecting what you will read. You obviously don’t want any spoilers but you do want something which will encourage your audience to want to find out more. And once you’ve found the right extract, do practice reading it out loud. It will help steady your nerves on the night of the event because you know you’ve rehearsed. You know you can do it basically!

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Hope the day has gone well. Nice to see some sunshine about. Am off for a day trip tomorrow and hope to get to do some writing though it won’t be as easy as usual. Will be on a replacement bus service rather than the train. Mind you, I suspect I can probably write some horror flash pieces about replacement bus services at some point!

Am happily working away on my third book – all is going well, I’m glad to say. So looking forward to Seeing The Other Side seeing the light of day in due course.

I’ve always loved writing dialogue for my characters and, sometimes with my flash fiction work, I write tales which are all dialogue. These stories have a great pace to them but the challenge is always to ensure it is clear to the reader who is speaking. Every line of dialogue must move the story on in some way, just as any other component in a story should do. I find it useful to establish character names in the first couple of lines and then maybe one repeat later down in the tale.

I also like to give my characters slightly different ways of speaking. One will use certain kinds of vocabulary, the other character might use slang etc. All of that helps readers.

It is great fun to do and it makes for a good writing exercise too. Why not try it? Set yourself an exercise of an all dialogue story to, say, 100 words. Good luck!

Flash is a wonderful format for exploring genre. I’ve written, and continue to write, flash tales in a wide variety of genres and moods. It’s fun and a fabulous ongoing challenge and that’s before I get to the limited word count bit!

Flash encourages you to think about your choice of words and whether or not you can express something better. A lot of the time you can do that but you need the first draft down first to be able to see it. I like to see the first draft as just getting the ideas down and then it’s a case of refining them further and getting the best out of them.

And you need to give yourself time for that. Sometimes I think that can be the hardest thing of all – to make yourself wait for a bit before revisiting a story and being able to evaluate it properly. I make sure I’m working on other things during these times. I have something else to focus on and it means I do get the time break I need.

Fairytales with Bite – Cloudy Weather For Characters

How do your magical characters cope when things are clouding over for them, when they can’t see a way through to resolving whatever their main problem is? This is where grit, determination, and some luck come into play (though I must admit I especially love those stories where you can see the characters doing something to “earn” having some good luck go their way).

It’s at this moment of a story you usually find out whether a character’s friend really is their friend or not. Tests of character are not only for the lead characters after all and not everyone passes that test. Naturally when a friend fails the test, things become even gloomier for the lead and that will be the moment they will be tempted to give up. Totally understandable to feel that way too. But what does keep them going? What keeps them believing there will be sunshine beyond the gloom?

If magical help is available to clear those clouds away, what form does it come in and who is willing to provide that help? What do they stand to gain by offering this? If it is genuine goodwill (which I would hope would be the case), is it a case of their having gone through difficult times themselves and they want someone else, your lead character, to also get through?

Story ideas there!

This World and Others – Smoothing The Way For Good or Evil

Which characters clear the way for your lead to either be the hero or the villain? Generally, these folks don’t work alone. In the case of villains, they need their minions. In the case of heroes, they need their guides.

Are your characters here motivated by ideology or something simpler like greed? Or is it a case they want to make sure they’re on the winning side and so will (a) survive and (b) reap rich rewards later on?

Do any of your characters end up regretting the choices they make here or does it all work out well for them?

When a character is helping the villain, what happens to them when the villain fails? Often the villain will make sure their minions suffer ill effects long before they themselves do!

When a character is helping the hero, what happens to them when the hero succeeds? Do they end up being disappointed by the rewards they receive? (I’d make sure they weren’t in the hero’s shoes). If somehow the villain succeeds, can this character escape any inevitable retribution the villain would want to impose?

Also, can there be the possibility your character’s ideas of who the hero and villain are could be wrong?

Again, story thoughts to explore there.

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Where Do You Read?

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Image Credits:-
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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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Catching Up

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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. 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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Writing Events

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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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Writing To Themes

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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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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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Spoofs

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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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