Tag: character tip

Story Essentials

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, as was one photo from the magnificent north-east Scottish coast.
Hope you have had a good week. Lady and I have been out and about and the writing/editing continues to go well so, for differing reasons, we both think we’ve had a good and enjoyable week. Plenty to share further down including thoughts on Story Essentials and useful marketing and character tips.

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Delighted to share Story Essentials on Chandler’s Ford Today this week.

I look at the classic structure of story beginnings, middles, and endings. I also look at the other crucial ingredient to any successful story – interesting characters. I share what I think can help make them be interesting to potential readers. The role of character motivations and attitudes plays a huge role here.

Hope you enjoy the post and find it useful.

Story Essentials

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Hope your Thursday has gone well. Sunshine and showers again. Lady tired out after her exercising today and is currently snoozing as I write this. It’s always good to see a contented dog!

Don’t forget I’ll be sharing Story Essentials on Chandler’s Ford Today. Link up tomorrow. See above. I will discuss story structure (the classic beginning, middle and ending), and look at the vital role characters play. Hope you will find the post useful as it is written with any kind of fiction in mind.

Having a story structure in place may sound boring, you just want to get on and write, right? But I’ve found having one saves me a great deal of time in writing the piece and in editing it later simply because I already know the structure will work.

Marketing Tip: The good news here is marketing doesn’t have to be done all at once. What you can do is focus on the marketing you are going to do and ensure all is well prepared for that.

For example, I know I’ll have plenty of marketing to do when Seeing The Other Side comes out. I’ll be looking at launches, perhaps being a guest on blogs and all of that kind of thing. But I can do this a piece at a time. It takes the pressure off. It means I’ll enjoy every part of the marketing I’m going to do (and I believe you as a writer get so much more from this when you enjoy what you’re doing here).

Also marketing is genuinely always an ongoing thing. I’m always going to want to promote my books and anthologies in some way long after they first came out/are due out.

Hope the day has gone well. Mixed bag weather wise again though as I type this, the sunshine is out again. Lots of lovely walking with Lady today.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to interviewing Esther Chilton about her latest children’s book, Myths and Magic, on Chandler’s Ford Today later this month. There will be plenty of interest and tips here. Look out for this towards the end of the month.

Character Tip: Characters make or break a story for me so I have to believe in them to care enough about them to find out what happens. This, for me, means I need to understand their motivations for doing what they are, even if I don’t agree with the actions.

I especially love those characters where some of their back story is dropped in, as that can highlight what drives them. I don’t need to know everything though. I just need to know enough.

And how much is enough? That will depend on the length of the story to a certain extent. If it is a flash piece, I won’t need to know nearly as much as I would for a long short story, novella or novel.

For flash work, I like to use character thoughts to show something of their motivations because these also reveal their attitudes at the time too.

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Have just had news from an ACW friend about a potential competition so hope to look into that over the next few days or so and see if I can do something with it.

Networking helps writers in so many ways and this is just one of them. Nobody can know every single competition there is available but together we can share news of what we do know – it will indeed be news to someone else.

I’ve made good use of tips like this in the past and I do spread the word about the wonderful CafeLit whenever I can too. They were my introduction to flash fiction. It’s paid off!

I look for ideas for flash fiction stories all of the time. I opt for timeless topics as much as possible too. Right now I’m especially enjoying being out and about with the dog so I suspect at some point I’ll write a piece based around a walk which will be life changing in some way for my lead character.

The ordinary things of life can and do spark story ideas. Most of hate having to do housework yet see it as a necessary evil. So you could give some thought to what your characters would consider natural evils they have to cope with in some way. There could be potential for funny stories here too.

As well as using prompts, random generators, proverbs etc., I sometimes look at old scenic photos of mine and then weave a story around that. What characters could live here? What would they do? What issue do they have to resolve?

I think it’s a question of keeping your mind open to the thought there are plenty of ideas out there. The trick is working out which would best suit you and your style of writing.

I’m looking forward to the release of Seeing The Other Side next month, naturally enough. One reason why is having new material to share at Open Prose Mic Nights, such as the one The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick put on. I did read something from the new book last year and was pleased it went down well.

I like to mix up the moods of the stories I read at these things and the word counts too. So I will read a humorous piece, a grimmer one, a short 50 worder, a 100 worder or two and so on, depending on how much time I’ve been given.

Flash works so well for these things. It also makes it easier to stop on a “high” and top tip here, it is always better to come in at slightly under your allotted time rather than to go over it. Going over it at all is not really that fair on others still to read and it is always best to go out leaving your audience wishing they had heard more. For one thing, they can go and buy your book, can’t they?

Fairytales with Bite – Magical Wilderness

Recently, I’ve had the joy of escaping to a part of the country which can be considered to be Wild Britain – the north-east coast of Scotland. It is a magnificent mix of moorland, mountains, coast, and farmland. Lots of lovely walking done with other half and the dog. A real break from it all.

In your magical world, what areas would be considered to be wild? Is this because of the natural geography, flora and fauna or because the area has untamed magic none of your characters can harness, yet alone control? If the latter, how did the area become magically wild at all? Was there a curse and, if so, what was the story behind it?

Alternatively, are there areas in your magical setting where magic cannot be? If so, how did this happen and has anyone tried to change the status quo here? (Bound to be consequences and interesting stories here from where people tried and failed. Could form the legends in your magical setting’s fictional history).

This World and Others – Calming Areas

I think we all need our areas of calm. For me, this is often in the swimming pool. I can’t get emails or phone calls there! Plus the exercise is beneficial and can help create a sense of calm because it makes me feel better in myself for having done this.

Holidays where I can get away from it all help here too but even in my immediate area, there are physical places, including in my own garden, which are just good places to be.

So thinking about our characters, what calming areas/things to help them would they seek?

Where would they go to get away from things, locally to them or otherwise? What makes these areas special for them and can getting to them for a while be the catalyst they need to resolve the issues they’re facing?

Definite story ideas there.

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Moving Books

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. Many thanks to Janet Williams for taking two images of me at one of the Hiltingbury Book Fairs.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Nice one here and it includes a Bank Holiday. Lady is hoping to see more of her friends this week and I remain thrilled to bits my third book, Seeing The Other Side, is due out on 18th June 2026. Onwards and upwards it is then!

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Hope today has gone well. Lady caught up with her Hungarian Vizler friend today – all well there.

Writing wise, I’m back on to editing for a client, as well as getting various bits and pieces together which will appear over the next month or so. All hugely enjoyable tasks plus, naturally, I hope to share more news of Seeing The Other Side in due course. So looking forward to that coming out.

Character Tip: There are various ways to start creating a character. Ironically, I don’t find pictures that helpful while I know many other authors do. I’m more drawn by how my character sounds in conversation, which will also show me a great deal about their attitudes to life and educational level/class. That conversation will come from what I believe their main trait will be.

Creating a character can be a bit like putting a jigsaw together. Get a corner piece and away you go! For me that corner piece is the trait and then I get the second corner piece of something my character is likely to say or think.

Hope you’ve had a good day. It has been a Bank Holiday Monday where I am. Still hectic mind you.

So time for my Substack story of the week and I hope you enjoy this one – Last Silly Thing. Idea for this one came from a random question generator which asked what was the last silly thing you did. There is no way I’m revealing that one but I can get a character to do so!

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Lovely church service this morning followed by a quick walk in the park with Lady and a quiet writing and editing afternoon. Much to enjoy about Sundays from my viewpoint! And I’ll be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday soon too….

Hope to submit a story I’ve worked on recently to a competition later today. Then it’ll be time to pick another competition to have a go at. I like to keep my hand in!

Writing Tip: I’ve mentioned before how useful it can be to have a stock of stories to hand for when competitions of interest come up, as they do, but where to start here? My thought would be to write stories around timeless themes (which is where the proverbs and sayings will prove useful), because these will always come up. There will always be competitions based around the themes of love, justice, revenge, and things like that. You can also think about genres here too. There will always be competitions around ghost stories, crime stories, history stories and more.

It’s important to write what you genuinely love though. I love most genres (and read in them) so writing to them when the occasion demands it seems a natural thing to do for me. I’m not so keen on horror, for example, so won’t write to that. (The nearest I’ve ever got to that was a dark, by my standards, ghost story and there I was looking at what could drive the character to be the way I portrayed them. I had no problem with approaching the story that way).

Hope the weekend has got off to a good start. Not bad here though rain has now come in. Not that this bothers Lady.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Book Event Tips for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I hope it will prove useful. Am looking forward to more events myself when Seeing The Other Side comes out.

Delighted to receive my copy of Christian Writer, the journal of the Association of Christian Writers, in the post today. Aside from anything else, we don’t always get post on a Saturday these days! Anyway, I have a column in Christian Writer called Allison’s Advice and I write a 100 word flash non-fiction piece for it on aspects of writing. My column this time shared a few thoughts on learning to love editing (or at least see it as the useful and crucial thing it is).

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Did get my flash competition entry off over the Bank Holiday weekend so was pleased about that. Have just received an email about another potential one. It is one I’ve tried before but have had no joy but you have to be in it to win it, yes?

I hope to get back to some longer short story competitions too but am putting this on the back burner for the next couple of months. Once my Seeing The Other Side is out, there will be plenty to do there but I am looking forward to that immensely.


It has been a busy Bank Holiday Monday here (though Lady was delighted to get to see her “boyfriend”, a lovely Aussie Shepherd). I do know it is time for a story on my YouTube channel though. Hope you like my latest one here – Past Mistakes.

Magical mistakes have led to my character learning and surviving but she now faces the test of her life. Find out more here.

 

Will be getting on with flash fiction Sunday shortly and I have a competition to submit for too. My entry for that was a flash piece I drafted a while ago, left “to brew”, came back and edited it and strengthened it. It’s now ready to send in but the break away did help me see flaws clearly when I came back to it.

I hope to write up some of the prompts I set at last week’s Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting. There was time for one of the exercises on the night and I’ve drafted something for that, which I think has promise. But I do want to try to have a go at some of the other prompts. There are some interesting characters to write stories around and that kind of prompt always draws me in.

As you know, I do believe a successful story hinges on how well readers root for the characters in it.

One of the joys of re-reading my Seeing The Other Side when I was proofreading it recently was to rediscover the stories in there. I write a great number of tales so it is impossible to remember them all. But I do tend to remember the characters. They’ve always been the kingpin of any form of fiction. If they grip me, the story will. It’s a good challenge to remember as I write my own tales.

Character Tip: Think about what makes your character stand out for you. What do you love about them? What do you loathe? The reasons why behind your answers here will tell you more about those characters and will reveal something of their motivations, which is always useful to know.

If you loathe a character because they’re dishonest, you can then look at why they’re that way. Were they driven to it? Did they do this as a survival technique? Were they determined not to be deceived by anyone else again?

Whichever way you look at it, there are story ideas here.

Goodreads Author Blog – Moving Books

I’ve long thought any story, any book (including non-fiction), should move you in some way for it to “work properly”.

For non-fiction, the “moving” bit comes from helping you to discover something you didn’t know or where a different interpretation, one you’d not come across before, is shown. Here the moving bit is enlightenment, if you like, or you agree/disagree with the different interpretation. It will still have made you think though!

For fiction, the success of any story is for the characters to move you enough to make you care about what happens to them. I’ve long found if I don’t care about the character, I won’t be finishing the story.

There are various ways to bring characters to life so they can move readers. Sometimes it is getting them to face a life or death quest (The Lord of the Rings is the godfather of this kind of fiction for me). Sometimes it is when two characters are clearly meant for each other but they have to overcome difficulties (Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion for me here).

But something about the characters has to appeal. I admired Frodo’s courage, Elizabeth Bennet’s determination not to settle for second best, and Anne Elliot accepting she made a mistake when rejecting Wentworth all those years ago.



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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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Travel Writing – Making The Characters Move

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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 wonderful Easter. Moving Easter services meant a great deal to me. Lady has been out and about enjoying the sunshine and I’m writing away. A good weekend and yes chocolate was involved too!

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lovely day weather wise today.

Writing wise, I’m delighted to share the link to my latest article on Writers’ Narrative. For this month, the theme is travel writing. My take on it? To think about it from a character’s viewpoint.

At some point we have to make our characters move and travel problems will be as real for them as, alas, they are for us. (I faced yet more temporary traffic lights today – no warning given etc!).

Even in a fantasy world where some characters may be able to fly without the aid of machinery, they will face issues such as wind currents and so on. I share thoughts and tips on this including the thought travel brings out the best and worst in us so it can do exactly the same for our creations too.

Hope you enjoy the post and find it useful.

It’s a Bank Holiday here in the UK. I’ve spent a lot of the weekend listening to and enjoying the countdown of the Classic FM Hall of Fame for 2026. I’ve heard two of my choices so far – one went up, the other went down – and have still to hear the third. The third one ended up being a non-mover!

It’s not that easy just picking three pieces of music but it’s fun having a go. And listening to so much lovely music over the Easter weekend has been a joy – everything from classical to film scores to operatic to themes from games (the latter is surprisingly good). I usually write with Classic FM on. It relaxes me and when I relax I write more.

Writing wise, I shared another flash piece over on my Substack page over the weekend. Link here. Have started work on various things I’ll be sharing in one form or another later this month/early next month. Plus I’ve been editing. So the weekend has been productive.

Character Tip: If you’re fleshing out a character outline, give some thought as to what kind of music they’d like and why. It may well show you their likely age, possibly some of their background too, and I’m sure you can make use of that in your stories.

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Happy Easter to all who celebrate. Lovely and cheery church service this morning. Our minister even brought a big chocolate egg for us to share. It went down very well with all!

Writing wise, will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly.

Congratulations to all who have been accepted for the Bridge House Publishing anthology out later this year. News came out about that yesterday.

Ahead of that will be the release of The Best of CafeLit 15, where my story, Freedom, will be included. Already looking forward to catching up with folk in person at the end of the year.

Writing Tip: Will be reviewing my story for the BHP book because I know its theme may well make it open for other competitions. I’ve nothing to lose doing this and, indeed, have sometimes gone on to have work accepted which was initially turned down elsewhere. The good thing is I now know I’ve the necessary distance now to re-read this story and see what can be done to boost its chances out there.


Hope the Easter weekend has got off to a good start. Weather can’t make up its mind what it wants to do here, not that this stopped Lady and I having a nice time at the park.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Flash Fiction On Radio for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll be sharing tips here too. Am looking forward to sharing that.

Will also be starting work on a super interview to come up on CFT later in May. Good to be kept busy!

Structure Tip: I find this tip as useful for my non-fiction writing as I do for my short form fiction. I have a rough plan of what will be at the start of the piece, what must be in the middle, and from there what must come at the end. The Three Act structure has much to recommend it even when you’re writing short pieces. I find it keeps me on track. I do find having a framework to work to so useful.

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Absolutely gorgeous day today. Lady and I had a quiet time in the park today. Hope to catch up with pals again tomorrow.

My Writers’ Narrative article is out today (7th April 2026) and talks about Travel Writing – Making The Characters Move. So many of the issues, including travel, that we face, we can then apply to our characters.

Now in flash fiction, there isn’t a lot of room for description so if I need to show you my fairy godmother on the move, I’ll show her getting on her broom or tapping her red shoes to go somewhere. Flash uses inference a lot but there does need to be something in the story for readers to be able to make that inference. This is where using tropes can help you – red shoes will remind folk of The Wizard of Oz and brooms, well everyone knows about flying brooms in the magical world. So it is a question of then of picking out the right detail for readers to pick up on. For flash, they don’t need to know the ins and outs of broom transport unless that is the story itself.

It has been one of those rare beasts in the UK – a Bank Holiday Monday which was sunny! Have loved that. But it is still Monday when all is said and done and so it is time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The Colour of Lying.

It seems lying politicians get everywhere when it comes to energy usage, as my fairy godmother character finds out

 

Hope your Easter Sunday is going well. Good to see some sunshine out. I know it cheers me up no end seeing some brightness especially since earlier today Lady and I were caught in a hail shower.

Weather can change moods then for better or worse but how does it do this for your characters? Could a change in the weather change the outcome in your story and, if so, how?

What other factors would change your character’s mood for better or worse? Who could exploit that, whether or not it is in the character’s best interest?

Definite story ideas there!

I plan as part of my flash fiction Sunday afternoon tomorrow to look through some drafts I’ve been storing as I’ve got ideas for competitions in mind for some of this work. This is why it pays to build up a stock of stories and something I need to get back to doing because I’ve got some to use now, which is fabulous, but I will need to replenish these in due course.

Naturally keeping some stories back like this gives me the necessary distance from them to see the faults and rectify those.

It also pays to draft some tales, every so often, to common themes because you know these will come up at some point and it can give you a head start when you spot competitions you fancy trying.

Goodreads Author Blog – Easter Stories and Inspiring Characters

The Easter story is full of drama – betrayal, injustice, a grim killing – but also hope in the form of the resurrection on Easter Sunday. The characters in the story do go through a rollercoaster of emotion from crushing grief to overwhelming joy.

I must admit I like the little moments in these stories. I can picture Mary, literally blinded by grief, mistaking the risen Jesus for the gardener. You just would, wouldn’t you? Grief does things to you like that.

I like the story of Doubting Thomas too. Someone would’ve asked…

All of these tales bring home the very human qualities of these people.

Naturally, you can be inspired by that to create your own characters where the grief hits home for them, the doubts and fears do haunt them, though I must admit I would always like those stories to end on a note of hope. The news is grim enough. Books and stories can take us away from that for a while but you still need to be able to root for the characters. Understanding where they come from is a huge step for this.

And this is what the very best stories do, of course. You get behind the characters because you want them to do well (usually). It’s the hope of that which keeps me reading, for sure.

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Hope Springs Eternal and Characters

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Hope the weekend has gone well for you. Sunny but cold now but has been good to get out with Lady. Writing and editing going well. Would’ve liked to have done more at the weekend but various things got in the way of that so onward and upward this week, I hope.

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Hope today has gone well. No chums in the park for Lady today as I had to get her out early so I could squeeze in a wonderful swim. Timetable changes for the Easter holidays but it was well worth going. Feel suitably tired and refreshed at the same time.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Hopes in Writing on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I’ll be looking at hopes for writers and how we can use hopes in our characters. Hope you’ll find the post useful.

Next author newsletter is out tomorrow (1st April). Many thanks to all who subscribe.

Character Tip: When we talk about write what we know, this applies directly to characters too. We know what we as a species, and as individuals, can be capable of so we can apply that to our creations. It pays to be honest here about the better qualities we have and the worst ones too. From there, we can create well rounded characters.

Hope the week has got off to a good start. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback chums and a good time was had by all three dogs. Can hardly believe we’re almost at the end of another month.

Writing wise, will be getting on with various blogs during the week and stories at the weekend. Am also editing at the moment and am enjoying the work immensely.

Writing Tip: It’s easy to forget to do this one but do read about what is going on in the industry. It keeps you up to date and may well share news of interesting competitions and so on. The advice is also useful and I’ve often found tips coming in useful for me much later on after I first read about them. They stick in the mind. You come across something and recall advice you’d heard about before. I catch up with writing news while having lunch – win-win there. Food for the creative mind as well as the body here!

And don’t forget Writers’ Narrative gives plenty of good advice every few days on Substack. Do sign up. It’s free.


It’s my turn once again on More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers. This time I look at Hope Springs Eternal, which is particularly apt as we enter Holy Week and Easter.

I look at why writers need hope and how you can find this via a supportive writing group. ACW is excellent here, of course. I should add I have been to the two ACW Connect sessions held so far and found these were great opportunities to listen and talk with other ACW members. If you get the chance to go to these online meetings, I would highly recommend it. I do know a little hope and support can go a long way in the writing community.

I also look at how, as you start out in writing, you do need this kind of hope and support but as your own journey goes on, you in turn can become a source of hope and support to other writers. This is a real blessing for both ends of this seesaw.

I also look at why I like hopeful stories as a rule. I know I’m not alone there.

Hope you enjoy the post.

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Hope you’ve had a good start to your weekend.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Hopes in Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll look at this from the viewpoint of writers and characters.

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again soon. To sign up for hints, tips, story links and so on, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Hope to get on with plenty of flash and short story drafting tomorrow. It has been another hectic week so will be especially glad to get to Flash Fiction Sunday afternoon!

Writing Tip: Clarity is everything in storytelling and never more so than in the short forms. Part of the editing process for me is going through and checking the impressions I want to give to a reader via my characters are coming across clearly enough.

If I need a character to be ambiguous, I will show this through their dialogue and then back it up with what they are thinking because the two things won’t marry up here. But I want the reader to be able to see that my character is like that. This is the advantage of the written form. A reader can literally read my character’s thoughts and deduce from that whether they’re trustworthy or not.

And if it is a case the character said something and then realised later they were wrong, I’ll either show them apologising or get them to act in a way that shows they know they were wrong. But this will be crystal clear. There will be a natural and clear progression and that is what I like to try to achieve in all of my stories.

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I love the focus on character flash fiction encourages. Without much room for description, I have to take you inside a character’s mindset immediately. Even when the story starts with action, it won’t be long before you meet the character responsible for it and gauge something of their attitudes and actions.

Flash fiction is great for strengthening writing skills. You have got to cut the waffle and that’s no bad thing. That skill is transferable to other types of writing too and I’ve found this to help a lot with my blogging and article writing.

So am I all for flash fiction and flash non-fiction? Oh yes! Why not give it a go? (And if you regularly have a go at writing exercises, you are already in the flash world – welcome!).

It has been another hectic Monday. It’s time for another story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Heavy Handed. This dark tale started life as a sixty word flash fiction exercise. Brief can still give plenty of impact, which is why I love the form.

My character explains their actions against the most powerful man in their world.

 

We’re racing towards the end of another month and while I’ve managed to get plenty done, there is still plenty I would’ve liked to have done. I think this is true for most writers. Still, it does mean I’m never short of things to write up.

Talking of which, it’s almost time for my flash fiction Sunday afternoon. It’s a lovely way to finish an old week and begin a new one – getting more flash written. I had hoped to spend time this weekend either drafting more stories or picking competitions to enter but that isn’t going to happen. Will try to do better in the coming week. But what does matter is making the most of the writing time you do have and, as long as I’ve done that, I’m reasonably content.

Onwards and upwards with the writing then!

Flash fiction can and does make good use of words which have more than one meaning. The meaning being used will be clear from the story context. I am selecting words for definitive impact.

If I want to lead a reader down a certain path and then throw in a twist, there will be clues early on in the story to show that might happen so a reader can look back over the story and see, yes, this character was capable of doing this. I love this when other authors do it to me and it especially works well in crime fiction, of course.

But I choose words with care because I want to wring every possible use out of them that I can for my limited word counts!

Goodreads Author Blog – Characters Acrostic

C = Characters make or break a story.
H = Having characters to root for, to succeed or fail, is vital.
A = Actions and attitudes should be understandable though nobody says you have to agree with them.
R = Reading the stories should draw you right into the world and mindset of the characters.
A = Any action should have a reaction and consequences.
C = Characters should grip you by the heart.
T = Tension, drama, laughs – what will the characters give you?
E = Endings should be apt for the characters, not necessarily happy ones.
R = Re-reading stories is a sure sign the characters have got to you in a good way.
S = Stories with characters you can get behind – the best tales of all.

And whether you’re reading books, novellas, short stories or flash fiction, all of the above applies!

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The Perfect Ending

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Hope you have had a good weekend. Nice one here including a pre-birthday celebration meal out with immediate family. Lovely time had by all. Lady had a great weekend too – plenty of walkies though there is also still plenty of mud. Not that she cares…

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Hope the day has gone well. Hectic here and am glad to be at my desk, sitting down to write. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals and even Daisy the gentle spaniel. Good time had by all.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting next week. Always fun. Am not looking forward to a visit to the dentist tomorrow even though said dentist is lovely (but it is never a fun visit, is it?).

Need to start work on some stories for competitions I always enter but won’t get much chance before Sunday but I can at least be “brewing” some ideas before then. Thinking time is never wasted.

Hope your Monday has gone well. Busy as ever here but it was lovely to see Lady having a good time in the park with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals.

Writing wise, I’ll be catching up with a few writing odd jobs. I’ve long found it’s the best use of my limited writing time on a Monday night.

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

Many thanks to my subscribers for your continued support here – it is always appreciated.

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Hope your weekend has gone well and you enjoy the rest of it! Busy one here but good.

Writing wise, I’m back to editing again and enjoying that. Shortly, I’ll be getting on with my flash fiction Sunday afternoon, always a nice way to wind up the week. I’m focusing on 100 word stories at the moment. I do love the form, especially since they were my introduction to flash fiction in the first place. This length of story makes for a great warm up writing exercise too.

Character Tip: Think about what you like and dislike most in a character you’ve read. Think about why you have these likes and dislikes. Especially if you dislike the character, look in more depth as to why and then work out how you would’ve written the character. You learn a lot by thinking things through like this. I know I don’t like characters who come across as wishy-washy. I won’t write them. But I had to know the character type I disliked here to work out what it is I do like.

Hope the weekend has got off to a good start. Nice weather here.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Setting Writing Exercises for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll be sharing tips here and this post will tie in nicely with my Getting The Hooks In one too as the best writing exercises “hook” the writer in to want to give them a go. Link up on Friday.

First Draft Tip: I’ve always found it useful to just get the first draft written, rest it, and then edit it later. But if that isn’t your way of doing things, I’d still recommend getting as much of your story down before polishing up anything. It has been my experience better ideas can come as I write my first draft (and the further I get on that first draft the more ideas come) so I note these down separately and look at them later when I’ve had a proper chance to evaluate them all.

But if something really does grip you get that down fast before you forget it (and you do, trust me I’ve made that mistake). You can worry about the exact placing of that idea in your story later. Also the time break once you have got your draft down does give you a chance to decide whether that red hot idea was so red hot after all. They’re not always.

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Flash fiction is especially cheering for me on those days when I seem to be chasing my tail all day because I at least get something creative drafted and when time is very short I go for the 50 or 100 worders.

But it is amazing on looking back at where I’ve used pockets of time like this for odd bits of writing just how much I’ve been able to get done. It does mount up so is worth using these times and if you’re not sure where to start when you have pockets of time like that, why not give flash fiction or flash non-fiction a go?

It has been another hectic Monday. Time to wind down at least a little with a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Bells.

What does the ringing of the church bells mean for my character? Do her memories help her? Find out here.

 

Will be beginning flash fiction Sunday shortly, a bit later than planned but life gets like that at time. What was meant to be a quiet day suddenly isn’t. But the nice thing with flash is I know I can get something written (which always makes me feel better in myself) precisely because I am committing myself to short form writing. I will get something done.

I find topics for flash fiction in various ways. Sometimes I will use the seasons, anniversaries (personal or national etc) and, at other times, I know I will want to write something light/funny so then figure out the best way to do that and which kind of character would suit me best here. I like to have a variety of ways in to writing stories. It keeps things interesting for me, and I hope my readers, and it is good to be able to respond to different writing challenges in the form of prompts etc. It means I’m not stuck. It is a question of working out which idea I want to write up on what day. Always good to have something in hand there.

As ever, I’m looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow. I like putting time aside specifically to write flash (though if I get the chance to write some at other times, I do. That doesn’t happen as often as I’d like. It’s always a case of not having enough time to write as much as I’d like to but I know I’m not alone with that issue).

Am currently catching up with reading a flash anthology and am enjoying that. I love those moments when a story has an emotional impact on you and I am getting plenty of those moments with this book. I love to then re-read these and figure out how the author did it. It makes me up my game for sure. Nothing to dislike about that and I get more reading done.

Naturally, I always think about the impact I’d like my own flash pieces to have on readers. It does affect how I present my characters, indeed even the character types I need to have to successfully bring about that impact.

Writing also includes thinking time and, yes, it is useful for flash fiction too.

Goodreads Author Blog – The Perfect Ending

The perfect ending for any story or book I read or listen to must leave me feeling the characters did get what they deserved. I must also feel that not a word could be added to or taken away without it spoiling the story somehow. Those are good challenges for the writers and I’m so aware of these when writing my own stories.

The perfect ending doesn’t have to be a happy one though I admit I prefer those. But it should be appropriate to what the characters have gone through. It shouldn’t come out of nowhere. When you look back at a story, you should be able to spot the clues which indicated this ending was likely. The skill of the writers here is when you don’t see those clues the first go around or, if you do guess at it, they are still able to wrong foot you another way in that yes, the ending was X but it happened via route Y rather than route W.

Twist endings are great here and I still think you can’t get better than Roald Dahl’s short story, Lamb To The Slaughter. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it and I suspect some of you may well remember it when it was adapted for the TV series, Tales of the Unexpected. I also love this story for another reason in that you have a great plot here but also not a word could be added to or taken away from this one.

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Getting The Hooks In

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Hope the week has gone well. Mixed bag with the weather though there have been some nice days and Lady has seen her friends so all well there. Writing and editing going well too. I also have publication news too, which is always welcome.

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Am pleased to share Getting In The Hooks for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I look at the importance of delivering on the hook’s promise, look at their role in non-fiction and writing exercises, the usefulness of opening line hooks, other kinds of hook, and placing your hooks (they don’t necessarily have to be at the beginning). I hope you find the post useful.

Publication News: Nice to finish the working week with publication news. Am delighted to say I’ll be in The Best of CafeLit 15 coming out later this year. Good to see some familiar names will be in that book with me but congratulations to all.

Getting The Hooks In

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Hope the day has gone well. Drizzly and blustery here though Lady was cheered to see her Hungarian Vizler chum again.

Writing wise, am happily preparing my next PowerPoint for the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this month. Plus my Chandler’s Ford Today post on Getting The Hooks In will be up tomorrow. See above. Am also equally happily editing and drafting bits and pieces for later use. Never a dull moment here but that is how I like things to be.

Character Tip: I always find it useful to work out what motivates my character but, on top of that, to work out what they would be prepared to do when pressurised. The differences between “normal” motivations and those actions which come as a result of dire straits can be interesting and reveal much more about your character to you.

For example, a character who is usually calm because they hate drama, unnecessary anger etc because they know how hurtful it can be, what would make them go away from that state? Would it be to help someone else and why would they help that particular character? Definite story ideas there.

Hope today has gone well. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler pal again today and a lovely time was had by both dogs.

Don’t forget I’ll be sharing Getting The Hooks In on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I share thoughts and tips here and hope the post will prove to be useful.

Writing Question: What do I most enjoy about any creative writing? I think it is the creating of something new. Okay, I know it will need a lot of work but there is something new I’ve got down on paper or on screen with potential to be better. And I find discovering that potential to be such a challenging, fun and interesting thing to do. I really do love editing. It brings out the best of those initial drafts and it’s great to get to that point. I’ve also found the more writing I do, the clearer my writing voice becomes and I like that too.

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Hope the day has gone well. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback chums today and a lovely time was had by all.

Pleased to discover yesterday I will be in The Best of CafeLit 15 later this year. Always lovely to receive news like that.

Writing wise, I hope to be back to drafting more stories over the weekend, especially on Sunday. That’s a lovely way to wind up the week as a whole. Am thoroughly enjoying reading Editor’s Choice – Friday Flash Fiction Favourites. I have some tales in there but the selection is wonderful and I highly recommend this (and not just because I’m in it, honest guv!). Link below.

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As well as writing flash fiction, I also read it. It makes sense to read in your genre. It confirms what you love about it for one thing! It also shows you what is out there already (and you can learn a great deal from that). Also reading the anthologies is simply fun to do and I read these in between reading novels. I like to make sure I read plenty in the short as well as the long forms – again, fun to do and so helpful to any writer as you learn what you like and dislike as you read. That does have a powerful impact on your own writing.

My works, including the anthologies I’m in, can be found on Amazon (as well as elsewhere). Link to my Amazon Author Central page here. (Am so looking forward to when my third collection, Seeing The Other Side, can be on there too).

Twist endings in flash work so well. You don’t have to wait long for the pay-off. Because the story is so short, the impact of that twist is stronger, I think. I often know my twist first so I then jot down different scenarios which would lead to this twist arising naturally and then go with the one which has the most impact on me. Other readers are likely to feel similarly.

I also know the kind of twist I love reading in stories written by others and why I like them. Almost inevitably it is because when I look back at the story again, I can see the clues were there which would lead to that twist and this is why it works so well.

Twists serve the story and the character. It all has to blend together nicely. A twist shouldn’t be thrown in just for the sake of it. It won’t work. But a character doing something and then because something else happens, the twist occurs, that’s fair enough. And I do love it when authors manage to wrong foot me here. I always go back and study how they’ve done it. Always plenty to learn here (which is another aspect of the writing life I love because you are always learning and that is so good for you and your creativity).

Fairytales With Bite – Going Against Stereotype

Fairytales may be seen to be stereotypical but they often go against type. When you think that many powerful magical characters are older men or women in disguise, usually to teach someone arrogant a lesson, the message there is, rightly, don’t write off or treat with contempt older folk.

I must admit I love the Shrek franchise which goes even further here in turning a typical storybook villain into the hero. Thought that was so well done. And it does throw open an interesting question – just who is the hero or villain? These can be very different characters depending on which perspective you use. Robin Hood is a great example of this – if you were from peasant stock, you’d support him. If you were the Sheriff of Nottingham, you definitely wouldn’t.

When it comes to going against stereotype in your own stories, think about what it is you want to change. Do you want to give a fairytale species a better reputation as Shrek has successfully done? Or is it a question of helping a misunderstood character type have their say and showing where it is they come from?

Motivation is key here. Show us your character’s motivation, one we can understand (but not necessarily agree with), and then we’ll follow their journey and your story is more likely to work.

Happy anti-stereotype writing! (You do need to know what it is you want to change and why and then start from there).

This World and Others – Fitting In

I’ve always had a soft spot for characters who struggle to fit in but get there in the end, usually with understanding characters who help them and/or where they themselves go to huge efforts here. Sometimes it can be a case of their saving those who are misunderstanding them.

How easily do your characters find fitting in? Is it a natural thing for them or do they have to work hard at this? What parts of their personality do they reveal to make fitting in easier? Equally, what do they hide because they worry it will put folk off?

I always look for character development in stories, yes even the flash fiction pieces I write and read, because I like to see how the situation the characters are in change them for better or worse. Going through a situation could help your characters to fit in better at the end of the story than they had been at the beginning. That is a classic story arc because it works.

In a magical setting, how easy or otherwise would your non-magical characters have in fitting in? Are they treated decently or discriminated against? What can they do the magical kind can’t? These abilities could be the way they would fit in.

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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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“Lent” and Borrowed

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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.
Pleased to say we’ve had some sunshine and some of my early spring flowers are emerging. Lady is still getting pretty muddy over the park though! Writing going well. Had a good stint, especially on Sunday. Here’s hoping the next few days go well on all fronts!

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Hope today has gone well. Have enjoyed being out and about in the sunshine (yes, really!) with Lady and her two best pals, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group tomorrow. The topic will be On This Day, which should prove to get our imaginations started. Well, I hope it will!

Have drafted a flash piece which I hope to submit in the next day or so. Was a joy to write.

Also due to have a super interview coming up very soon on Chandler’s Ford Today. More about that nearer the time but plenty going on right no, which is how I like things to be.

Hope your week has got off to a good start. Lovely sunshine today. Cheered me up no end seeing that. Lady was cheered up by having a great time in the park with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals.

Hard to believe we’re racing towards the end of February already. Talking of which, it’s almost time for my next author newsletter and the one for March will be special. I celebrate a certain landmark birthday next month so have prepared something special to go with that newsletter when it goes on out on 1st March.

To sign up for this, and to receive news, tips, story links and more, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

As ever, a huge thank you to all of my subscribers.

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Hope your weekend has gone well. Managed to see some sunshine! Lady didn’t. She was too busy with her head to the ground “tracking”!

Looking forward to getting on with flash fiction Sunday. I’ve yet to find somewhere I can regularly submit work to as I did with Friday Flash Fiction but will do so eventually I’m sure. Meantime I’m judging, editing, and writing so I’ve got plenty to be getting on with.

Every so often I check out the Book Brush hints and tips videos and did so again recently. Am looking forward to implementing some of the ideas coming from those.

Flash Fiction Tip: I know it sounds odd but leave worrying about the word count until later. Get your story written, rest it, edit it, then worry about what word count you want for this piece. When I am specifically writing a 100 word story (as I hope to do later this afternoon), I know what will work out as about three short paragraphs. So I have my character and situation in the first paragraph, the problem worsening in the second one and a resolution in the third one. It’s a loose structure but it works.

Hope you have had a good start to the weekend. Still pretty muddy over the park though I am seeing more crocuses and spring flowers out now.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Catching Up on Chandler’s Ford Today next week. It will be a round up of my most recent news. Not long after that I’ll be sharing a super author interview. More on that nearer the time.

Character Tip: Have you ever written characters you dislike? I have. It’s an interesting challenge because I need to figure out why I dislike them and then what makes them act in the way that makes me dislike them in the first place. You do have, I think, to be able to work out where your characters are coming from. You don’t have to agree with them though. I can think of several of mine I disagree with but I do know why they acted the way they did.

I have to get into their heads and mindsets and keep mine out of the way. Understanding motivation is pivotal to this. This is another reason why asking my characters a few pertinent questions is a good idea. I get to “see” them and their way of thinking and then I can write their stories.

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Prompts for any kind of fictional writing come in a variety of forms and I like to use a good selection. They all challenge me to think laterally. I also like not being reliant on only a couple of prompt types because you can never know what can come up in competitions so the more prompt types I can put my hand to, the better. I also think it is great fun creatively too. My most recent YouTube story – Learning From the Past – was inspired by a proverb and I hadn’t used those for a while. So I like to revisit old favourite prompt types from time to time too.

There is no such thing, I think, for a writer as running out of sources of ideas. I think the problem can come in when working out where to start looking and how to hone things down so you’re not overwhelmed. It’s why when I use the random generators, I only set a few things to be generated at a time (you can generate loads). I’ve found limits, including the word count for flash fiction, to be an aid to creativity, not a restriction. I think it is because you have to work with what you have got and that certainly compels me to get on with it.


Hope your Monday has been less hectic than mine. I do know it’s time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Learning From The Past.

Will Annabel get through the Flying Fairy Test this time? Can she avoid the mistakes which made her a laughing stock amongst other FFT inspectors? Find out here.

 

For flash fiction, I need to come up with characters and situations continually so need various ways of doing this. This is why I use the random generators, the books of prompts, proverbs and phrases, story cubes and much more. All of these things encourage you to think creatively and links start to form. From there, I get the beginnings of a possible story outline.

But you need to have something for that initial spark which is why knowing where to start can be the issue rather than the actual drafting of the story. I like to have loads of different ways in which to start! Options here are always a good thing and mixing up the things I use keeps me on my toes too. I don’t want to be stuck only being able to create stories in one or two ways.

So if you have tried and tested favourites for story ideas, why not try out some new ones to add to your repertoire? I’ve done that with the various random generators and have found it has paid dividends as I’ve come up with many stories I wouldn’t have done in any other way.

As ever, I’m looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow. It’s a lovely time to get some new pieces drafted. It won’t be too long before I start thinking about putting another collection together.

Flash is fabulous for those times when you haven’t got much time to write but it does take crafting to get it right and that does take time. This confirms my belief I’m right to write first and edit later so I can see, with suitable distance, what needs improving. There always is something but that’s the nature of writing anything.

Looking forward also to next week’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. Hope to get some work drafted then too.

Goodreads Author Blog – “Lent” and Borrowed

I couldn’t resist the pun on “lent” given we’re in the Christian season of Lent but it led me to think about our beloved books. Have you ever lent books out? Have you ever borrowed books from friends? I must admit I’ve only done these occasionally. My main borrowing, especially when I was younger, was from the libraries (those wonderful institutions). (Confession time: yes, I do need to make more time for more visiting here).

Many of my friends are fellow writers and we all have great reading collections of our own. I’ve long thought writers have two joys – the joy of creating stories and of reading those stories which inspired us to write in the first place.

It is a joy that some of my shelves contain books written by those friends and signed for me. Every time I pass those shelves, I smile. Books in themselves can be associated with fabulous memories. When they’re signed for you by the authors, even more great memories are created.

I like to buy and keep my books. I do end up with the occasional duplicate but I usually donate those. (Though that isn’t so easy to do these days). I buy paperbacks mainly but use Kindle to try out authors new to me. If I like their work, I’ll usually go on to buy future paperbacks from them.

I am always happy to recommend books though (and can’t get in enough plugs for the fabulous The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey).

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Love Stories and When Writing Doesn’t Love You

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Hope you’ve had a good weekend. Lovely one here, even saw some sunshine. Writing going well and have finally started submitting competition entries. Have done this before – off to a slow start but then I just keep going. Lady still getting plenty of mud on her at the moment, not that she minds this!

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Hope today has gone well. Lady enjoyed seeing her Hungarian Vizler friend and loved playing with Coco the lovely Labradoodle. Lady has also had a huge walk with me this afternoon. Lady loved it. Has had a great day.

Looking forward to going to a friend’s online book launch on Friday evening. Plus, aptly, I’ll be discussing Writing Events on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. My next post on Authors Electric is out tomorrow and will be about The Shortest Time. More tomorrow on that but it is an apt title for a flash fiction writer. Could be a good story title too…hmm…. Now there’s a thought.

Character Tip: What kinds of characters do you like? Why do you think this is? Now have another look at their stories and watch out for where their good qualities, the ones you love, show up the most. It will almost certainly be in what they do and possibly in the attitudes they show. But how has the author shown you this? What can you learn from this to apply to your own creations?

Hope your Monday has gone well. Lady’s day got off to a cracking start given she saw her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. Lovely to have some sunshine too.

Plenty of writing work done over the weekend so was happy with how that went. Will be getting on with my usual Monday bits and pieces and then look forward to having more writing time as the week goes on. Am never sorry to get Monday behind me though I do get lots done, just not as much as I’d like on the writing front.

Now I have some competition entries out there, I’d like later this week to pick another couple to try and then write stories up for them. There are a couple of big competitions I like to try so will be having a go at those in due course.

And a huge thank you to Jenny Sanders for flagging up Hannah Kate will be having her Spring Equinox flash fiction show again on North Manchester FM. To find out more, do click on the link (and get drafting! Note to self: do likewise!). Deadline is 16th March 2026. Story length is three minutes maximum recording time. I find about 125 to 150 words is about right usually but to make sure I record my final draft on Zoom and play it back so I can hear how it sounds and get the timing right. Zoom gives you the timing which is so handy for things like this.

Spring Equinox Stories Wanted for Hannah’s Bookshelf on North Manchester FM


Hope today has gone well. Soggy again here – surprise, surprise not!

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Writing Events for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll be sharing some thoughts on residential, day events, Zoom ones too, and discuss what I look for when deciding what to go for here. I also share the general benefits to writers in going to good writing events because there are quite a few benefits. Post up on Friday (and that will be around again before we know it!).

Have finally sent in some story competition entries. Have been a bit slow to get started here but now I have started, I will aim to keep going.

Don’t forget if you have subscribed to Writers’ Narrative, now they’re on Substack, you will receive an article on the topic of the month every couple of days or so. You’ll also be able to easily look up articles you’ve missed. My next one here will be in early March. I must admit I’ve found Substack pleasantly easy to use (and I haven’t always been able to say that for a platform new to me).

14th February 2026 – St. Valentine’s Day

As the rhyme says, roses are red, violets are blue
You love writing but it doesn’t always love you!
Allison Symes – 14th February 2026

Do you ever feel that way? I think most writers can feel this way sometimes. Often it is a case you’re tired. I find a few earlier nights, less writing, a bit more reading, and more sleep help clear this feeling away. We’re not machines (is anyone else tired of being asked to confirm they’re not a robot by the way?).

Creativity of any kind is wonderful for the brain but when we’re tired, it’s time to be kind to yourself. Breaks will help you get back to normal writing activity more quickly in the long run.

I find having evenings when I can’t do much writing a help, funnily enough, because when my writing time does increase again, I’m keen to get back to it and hit the ground running. I use those small periods of time when I can’t do much else for writing admin and other tasks I want to get out of the way. That helps a lot as I reward myself with being creative again when I do have more time.

And I can’t stress enough about getting enough sleep because that kind of thing does help your creative side. Being overtired does get in the way of it and I’ve found that one out the hard way years ago. It’s a mistake I try not to make now. It pays.

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Am looking forward to next week’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group.

Will also be sharing something a bit special in my next author newsletter due out on 1st March. Am looking forward to getting that out there. If you’d like to find out more, do sign up at my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

One great use for those small pockets of time we all get but can’t do a lot with is to draft a flash piece, say a 50 or 100 worder. The old school method of notebook and pen is wonderful here and I use typing up my drafts from these (as I do after Swanwick each year) as my first edit. But getting something down on paper to work on further later on always cheers me. I know I can do something with this story later on.

I’ve used five/ten minutes productively too. I’m also old school enough to sometimes like getting back to pen and paper too. Mind you, I remember literally cutting and pasting when I worked as a secretary. I’m not at all sorry cutting and pasting on a PC/laptop is far better and easier!

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It has been another hectic Monday. Time to wind down with a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Magical Suppliers.

Has a shop keeper found the best way of stopping the evilly inclined in the magical world? Find out here.

 

Mid-month already though I think February is short-changed because January hogged all the days! Flash fiction Sunday will start for me shortly. Am looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later this month. Our topic will be On This Day. Incidentally, that would be a great theme or title for a story. Why not give it a go?

F = Flash is fantastic to write and read.
L = Language is there for you to play with for you to make the most of your word count.
A = Adjective usage is something you will hone again to make the most of the word count – your character will race up a hill rather than run up the hill quickly.
S = Story impact will be strong because there is no room for the old purple prose, you do have to stick to the point of the story.
H = Have fun setting your characters in different genres and times – I do.

Flash fiction is remarkably versatile. Restrictions, such as word counts, can do much to encourage your creativity.

Flash fiction, like any kind of storytelling, must have a proper beginning, middle and end. It is just “condensed” to a tight word count. I find it useful, for a 100 word tale, to have my opening paragraph set the dilemma my character faces. The second paragraph shows how they try to overcome it and the last paragraph will show the results.

I’ve long found having a rough structure to my stories helps make them work. I know what I must have achieved by the first third of the story, what the middle must do (and that will help keep things interesting and stop it from sagging), and then a natural lead into the conclusion.

Structure sounds boring but it is a crucial component to all stories.

Goodreads Author Blog – St. Valentine’s Day – Love Stories

I write this on 14th February 2026, St. Valentine’s Day. Love stories are a crucial part of our literature. I’m sure when asked to name love stories, the following will come to mind:-

Romeo and Juliet
Pride and Prejudice
Persuasion
Jane Eyre
A Tale of Two Cities
Gone With The Wind

I must admit I don’t like overly sentimental stories. I want to see a love story as part of the overall plot or where the plot wouldn’t make sense without the love element. I also want to see characters come to the romantic conclusion naturally and for them to make mistakes on the way. This is one reason why I think Pride and Prejudice is such a superb book.

There are love stories within other tales of course. I’ve always loved the love stories of Aragorn and Arwen and Faramir and Eowyn in The Lord of The Rings, though they’re not the main plot for that magnificent work.

I suppose I could say my biggest love story is my love for books and stories generally. That love is a permanent one!

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