Tag: characterisation

Character Likes and Dislikes

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All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Lovely autumnal weather here. Writing and editing work going well and Lady is continuing to have a great time with her pals, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback, but there is now a new boy to our “group”, the fantastic Flash, a black lab. The Ridgeback is especially keen on him and Lady has spotted an opportunity to have a bigger group to herd up so everyone is happy here.

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Hope today has gone well. Odd one for me as not feeling brilliant so have cancelled a few things today and have taken life that bit easier. Hope it’s just one of those 24 hour buglets.

Writing, though, is lovely because I get to sit down, I can take my time doing it, and I always feel better for having written something. I guess it’s a need to get a creative fix here.

Writing wise, I’ll be delighted to share The Chameleon Theatre Company – Review – Curtain Up for Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. It is always a delight to see their shows and this was a new story to me. Find out more when the link goes up on Friday.

It has been a particularly hectic Monday so am glad to be at my desk and share stories with you.

First up tonight is the one I shared on Substack yesterday called Autumn Colours, one of my darker pieces. Hope you enjoy it.

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Hope you’ve had a good weekend. Have loved the warm autumnal weather.

Writing wise, I’m hosting an ACW online group next week plus I hope to catch up with some blogging I need to get done. My Writers’ Narrative article about Darkness in a Flash is out next week too. Not going to get around to competition drafting this weekend after all but things should ease up towards the end of next week so should get to make some progress then.

What first drew me to writing short stories and, from there, to flash fiction? I can’t pin down any one thing here. I’ve always loved fiction of all lengths but there is something so compact about short tales which makes me adore them. I like being able to read about and write a complete world in 2000 words or fewer and then move on to more! You can’t read a novel in a day (at least I can’t). I suppose it is a case of getting my story fix per day right!

Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. Not bad here.

Will be sharing The Chameleon Theatre Company – Review – Curtain Up for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. It wasn’t a play I’d heard of but then that is one of the joys of going to your local excellent amateur theatre company. You get to discover many wonderful plays. Review up on Friday.

Going to the theatre is just one fabulous way of taking in stories, apart from reading them. Am also fond of good film adaptations and audio books/productions. Where I’ve read the originating book first, as so many productions are based on novels and short stories, I like to see the adaptation has stuck to the book as faithfully as possible or, at the very least, to its spirit. I’ve got to feel the original novelist/short story writer would like what has been done with their works.

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Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal again today. Quiet one here as not feeling brilliant but writing is useful for taking your mind off things. Flash is great when you know you want to write something but not necessarily a lengthy piece!

I think writers do have two great joys – writing and the love of reading which got us into writing our own stories in the first place. The lovely thing with flash it is a perfect format for dipping into and I often read flash and short story collections in between reading novels. I like a good mixture of long and short fiction in my life, whether I’m reading or writing it.

I’m currently preparing some answers to questions for a blog I hope to appear on in due course (I will share the link as and when) and one brilliant question was to ask about my favourite story in Seeing The Other Side. Now I love them all, naturally, though there is one which stands out as I gave it a test run at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick in 2025 where it was well received.

But with rare exceptions, most stories are great aren’t they? And the challenge of writing your own remains fun, as it should do (most of the time anyway).

It has been a non-stop Monday so am glad to be sitting down to write this. Time for another story on YouTube. This one is lighter in tone than my Substack one this week (Autumn Colours – see above) but both are written to the 50 word classic dribble word count.

Hope you enjoy Change of Plan.

No matter what world it is, there will be disagreements between mothers and daughters as to what the latter should be wearing when they go out. See what happens here on this in the fairytale world.

Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. The last few weeks have seen me write plenty of 100 worders for Substack and YouTube so will be writing to a different word count today.

It’s a good idea to mix up writing to different flash fiction word count ranges as you will find competitions to suit whatever word count you are using. It’s also fun!

The dribbles (fifty worders) are great for sharing on social media. The 100 worders are good for sharing on your website/blog. Both give folk a chance to enjoy your writing style.

As ever, am looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow. I shared some thoughts on getting work out there with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group earlier this week and I hope in time I’ll get to see they did get some of their flash pieces published/broadcast etc.

Am also going to an online launch for a flash fiction collection by a fellow Chapeltown Books author later this month. Always good to celebrate flash books getting out there. And don’t forget they make excellent presents!

I’ve always loved inventing characters so getting to do this all of the time for flash writing is a joy. What makes characters come to life for me is their voice. Can I imagine Character A saying the things the author has given them to say?

The answer to that should be an unqualified yes. Even where Character A says one thing but thinks something else it should be clear to the reader why this is. There it is interesting to find out whether thoughts and speech ever come together or whether what the character is really thinking finally emerges undermining what they’ve said.

But the author has done their job well there because I only have one way to find out – keep reading.

Goodreads Author Blog – Character Likes and Dislikes

We all have our likes and dislikes when it comes to characters. I love those who try to get things right, fail, try again, eventually get them right. I don’t like characters who rely on others to do all of that for them or if they are relying on the misfortunes of others to make things right for them. Doesn’t seem quite right to me.

I find it fascinating to find out more about a character as I read on and that goes for their likes and dislikes too. How will those likes and dislikes pan out during the course of the story? Could someone’s dislike of tea, say, give them problems when they’re trying to win someone over who loves the beverage? Good potential for comedy there.

A character seems to be more real to me, even when they’re the most fantastical creation, if they have likes and dislikes. I will have much more empathy for a tea drinking fairy godmother who is bemoaning the lack of time for a decent brew or two than one who just gets on with the job and shows no “humanlike” traits about them. Indeed, the latter is more likely to come across as a cardboard cut out.

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Comedy In Writing

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you’ve had a good few days. Pleasant autumnal weather here and Lady has enjoyed seeing her pals, as ever. Had a lovely session with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group and am ploughing on with proofreading work and writing.

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Pleased to share Comedy in Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I celebrate comedy in books, films, radios, plays etc (the post was inspired by my recent visit to The Chameleon Theatre Company to watch Curtain Up), and look at comedy moments (which can bring so much depth to characterisation in a book which may not be funny overall).

I look at humour as a natural development. It should never feel forced. I look at humour and perspective too and how humour can ease tensions – that alone can make all the difference as to how things work out for your characters.

I look at humour as a character trait (is your character witty, droll, sarcastic etc?) and invite you to suggest which humorous books work for you and which do nothing for you. Comments welcome in the CFT box, as always.

Hope you enjoy the post. I love humour in fiction and think we can do with much more of it.

Comedy In Writing

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Lovely day in the park with Lady’s Hungarian Vizler pal and later, after a short swim, met up with some of my friends for tea and cake, as you do. So as you can imagine it has been a nice day (the chocolate cake and peppermint tea were wonderful, only one of those things was good for me!) and hope it has been likewise for you too.

Writing wise, my author newsletter went out earlier today and it was lovely to see everyone at last night’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group.

A huge thank you to Jacci Gooding for the shout out for me and Seeing The Other Side in her newsletter, which also went out today. That came as a very pleasant surprise.

Last but not least look out for Comedy in Writing on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady caught up with her Hungarian Vizler pal. Nice autumnal day, gave blood (if you can, please do, folks) and a special birthday in our household today too so a nice way to end the month.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later this evening. Author newsletter out again tomorrow. Will be looking at Comedy in Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Again, see above, and the Flash Group Meeting was fab.

Writing wise, am catching up with various blogs and other pieces of writing I want to get done.

Character Tip: Sometimes I will put on particular outfits to suit a mood or for a special occasion. We all do, right. So can our characters. What would your characters choose to wear for (a) moods and (b) special occasions? There will be stories behind exploring those thoughts.

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Hope today has gone well. Pleasant one here and Lady got to see her Australian Shepherd boyfriend again and, later, her Hungarian Vizler pal. Lady has had a great week on the old social front.

Writing wise, I’ll be trying to get a draft started for a competition I’ve got in mind (but the deadline is the end of the year so I do have some time in hand but I like it to be that way). My next Writers’ Narrative article is due out next week too and I’ll be looking at Darkness In A Flash for that. Well, it is October and the nights are already coming in earlier and we haven’t had the clock change yet.

Character Tip: I often use traits as a way in to getting to know a character well enough before I write them up but sometimes a line of dialogue comes to mind and that shows me their main trait immediately. What would you make of a character who came up with “I told her umpteen times she’d regret getting involved with him.”

I’m hearing a shrill tone of voice, an element of bossiness (is that why the “her” here has not taken what could be good advice?).

What makes me wonder at this point is this speaker a gossip or are they genuinely trying to share some news with someone else who needs to know? I am also wondering what relationship the speaker has with the “her” in this tale (and probably with the “him” too).

But this is good. You want readers to start wondering about things like that – it is the key way to keep them reading. Certainly it makes me want to write the story up to find out more and that’s the best sign of all for a writer.

Great autumnal weather at the moment and am enjoying seeing the slow changing of the colours of many of the trees around my area. (There are lots of holly trees in the area too so not everything changes!).

Talking of changes, these are great trigger points for flash fiction tales. Okay, in the lower word count limit, you would need there to be one point of change with the appropriate consequence. In a standard short story you could have more but I’ve found with flash having to focus on the one point of change means I have a sharper, stronger tale.

I really do have to focus only on what matters for the character as a result of that change. One change = one consequence for the character = no dilution of the impact of that change on the character or the reader.

The change doesn’t have to be something dramatic to have consequences for your character. Something as simple as a bus being late could have consequences for your character. What does the being late do for them at (a) work or (b) for any appointment they were supposed to be keeping? Also how well does your character handle being late at all – some will handle it better than others?

Story ideas there.

Will be looking at outlets (some at least) for flash fiction as part of tonight’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. There are loads of outlets out there and far more choice than when I started writing flash seriously, which is great. You could spend all of your time writing flash pieces for the different competitions out there.

I’ve been writing a lot of drabbles (the 100 worders) for Substack and YouTube recently so may well pick a different word count to write to at the weekend. Picking a word count in advance gives you practice at writing to that count. If you go for the 50, 75, 100, 250, 300, and 500 word counts, you will find many competitions taking these.

I’ve also found picking the word count in advance means I need to think about how the story will look on the screen/page (a 50 worder is basically a paragraph, a 100 worder two paragraphs and so on).

Knowing this in advance means I tend to work out first how my story will end and then work backwards to the beginning. It makes sure each paragraph (or in the case of the 50 worder the one paragraph) does have everything in it to make it a proper story with a beginning, middle and end.

Fairytales with Bite – Special Numbers

This year has seen some special birthdays, you know the ones that end in zero, there’s a special anniversary coming up (likewise with the zero!), and certain dates, regardless of the year, always have significance. That thought can trigger story ideas.

What numbers would be special to your characters and why? What would they be keen to celebrate and/or remember? Equally, which numbers would they go out of their way to avoid? A number linked to a sad date, for example, could trigger memories for your character. Have they come to terms with this and “handle it” or do they go for a policy of avoidance or do other characters help them here?

Your setting may well have special numbers too – for example the date linked to its founding. Do your characters celebrate something like that or feel it is nothing to celebrate?

If your magical characters use numbers in their spells which would they use and what properties do these have as part of those spells? Also in a magical world, could anyone ever be said to be lucky or unlucky with their numbers in life? That is, do they consider certain numbers unlucky like we do with the number thirteen?

This World and Others – Significant Dates

Linking to Fairytales with Bite, how does your setting’s dating system work? Is it similar to ours or totally different? Do they have months as we understand them, for example?

If they mark the passing of time in ways we do not, how would their ways roughly equate to what we do here? I think there would need be some “equivalence” so readers can picture how time is used in your setting and what we would do here instead.

Does your setting mark special dates and, if so, how? Is everyone expected to take part in whatever ceremonies take place here?

What dates would have significance for your characters and why? What would they do differently on these dates?

Also we use the sun and moon to divide up day and night – what would your setting do if it is not based on something similar? I think there would have to be some sense of time and therefore dates and time passing by etc.

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Celebrating Books and Blog Tours and Book Events

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week. Weather changeable but Lady has caught up with her Hungarian Vizler pal this week and I’m doing better with my swimming. Writing and proofing work continuing to keep me busy but that is how I like it so all well there!

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18th September 2026 

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

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

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

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18th September 2026 – Authors Electric

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fairytales With Bite – Secrets

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

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

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

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

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

This World and Others – Surveillance

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

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

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

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

Food for thought there!

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Using Dates in Fiction

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Hope all well. Has been so hot here over the last few days. Gosport in Hampshire has recently shattered a heat record. We’re taking Lady out early and then keeping her in. She’s doing well but isn’t keen on this level of heat.
Writing wise, am progressing okay but will find it easier to progress more when the temperature comes down a bit!

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Pleased to share Using Dates in Fiction on Chandler’s Ford Today this week.

I look at various ways of using dates in our stories including usages in historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy where the dating system may well be so different to ours, and I ask what dates can mean to our characters too. There will be plenty of ideas to be written up around that last thought alone.

I also look at using dates to create settings, time frames and time/dates as a plot device. I discuss dates for the writer too.

Hope you find the post useful.

Using Dates in Fiction

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Another scorcher of a day, another quiet one for Lady though she is managing well and drinking plenty of water, as are we.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Using Dates in Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Lots of useful thoughts here which I hope will trigger plenty of story ideas. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Will be hosting another online group for the Association of Christian Writers next week and am looking forward to that. Plus my next author newsletter is due out on the same day, next Wednesday. How can it be almost July already? Mind you, I have great reasons to look forward to next month. More to come when I have it.

Character Tip: You know your character. You know what they’re capable of and why. Now think of something they might say or do which would catch you and readers off guard. This can bring in great twists to your tale and show you even more about your creation.

If you know, for example, your character is scrupulously honest because they were let down big time by continual lies earlier in their life, readers will understand that. But what if your character then does go and lie, especially if this seems to come out of the blue? I would immediately want to look for the reason in the change of behaviour and there will be at least one.

On this example, I would wonder if they were shielding someone else. Also I will go back and look through the story to see if there were any hints something unexpected might come. There usually is something on a second read.

Crime stories do this all of the time but it can work just as well for other forms of fiction. Incidentally the hint can come in a variety of means such as the character admitting they could do anything to protect someone they love or had done so in the past etc etc.

Wow, it’s been so hot. Hope you are all well and taking good care. Lady out early and then home again for the rest of the day. She’s not sorry. Neither are we. Will be the same again tomorrow and probably Friday too.

Writing wise, I’m trying to start my writing sessions earlier than usual because I do find the heat has a direct impact on my concentration levels (and I drink loads of water etc because I should and because it aids concentration). So it is a question of doing what I can and be as comfortable as possible. Let’s just say I’m already looking forward to a swim tomorrow!

Still the good thing with writing flash fiction and short stories is I can write in short stints and still get plenty done.

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Today would have been my father’s 89th birthday. Dates and anniversaries can be wonderful things, sad ones, funny and much more.

Funnily enough, I discuss Using Dates in Fiction for my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week (see above) but dates/anniversaries are wonderful things to write flash fiction around. They make for a good “peg” to hang the action on.

What, in your story, makes this date/anniversary stand out especially? What has happened to make it more memorable than usual? What does your character make of an anniversary someone else wants to celebrate but they do not?

There are plenty of ways to use dates in stories and, yes, there is such a thing as a random date generator out there. Mind you, the old school way of picking a page at random from your diary and using that date as a focus for your story would also work well!

Hope you’re all keeping well and as cool as possible. Lady managing okay but she loathes this heat and I can’t say I blame her. I heard on the radio earlier that visualising cooler things can help. Hmm… can’t say it’s worked for me so far.

But talking of visualising, when you create your characters do you tend to visualise what they look like? It isn’t the first priority for me. I like to hear them speaking. (I don’t know whether that is because of my life long love of radio coming into play here or whether, back in the day, on the old TV sets you tended to get the sound through first and then the picture). I do get a clearer picture of my characters once I know how they speak though.

This is the joy of the creative process though. Different things work for different writers. It is a question of finding what works for you, I think. (And if one way doesn’t seem to hit your creative spot, then it’s time to try another. You will find what’s right for you writing wise but it can be a question of trial and error).

I don’t tend to use weather much in my flash fiction and short stories. Certainly I’m not planning to write anything about the current heatwave. Not sure there is much of a story in getting my characters to reflect my views – I don’t like this! Mind you, being a dog owner does colour my views here. Both Lady and I much prefer a temperature in the lower twenties.

But you could use the thought of something colouring a character’s views to come up with some interesting story ideas. If a character is kind and generous but won’t be towards another character, there will be reasons (and stories) behind that, for example.

The good thing here is you get to decide what would colour your character’s views (and therefore attitudes and behaviours) and by how much. Can you get a character with a strong opinion which goes against the grain for the other characters in your story to come across as having good reasons to be as they are and even be a sympathetic character?

It would be a good challenge.

Fairytales With Bite – Magical Words

Now I know I’m biased as a writer and editor but I do believe words are magical in and of themselves. When I think about how many stories I’ve loved, and continue to love, I believe I have a good point. Stories are so much part of what makes us human.

But what about our characters who are anything but human? Which stories and/or words would they consider to be magical and why? What impact do these things have on them? How have they shaped them? Would your character’s favourite stories bear any resemblance to those we have here? (It is amazing, for example, just how many variants of the Cinderella story there are and how far in time it goes back too).

Who would have written the stories your characters love? How did they get to be such a special part of your character’s world? Has anyone ever tried to suppress and/or rewrite them to suit their purposes?

Who would be considered to be the overall guardian of your setting’s magical words and stories, how did they get that role, and how good a job do they do? Definite story ideas there.

This World and Others – Literature with Meaning

I believe all literature has at least some meaning. Even the funniest, frothiest of stories have meaning simply because they are great at helping people escape for a while. For me, that is the definition of a good read. I often will not want “serious” reading. I want to be entertained and I see nothing wrong in that.

So when I look for meaning in any story, I am looking for the impact it had on me, for good or bad. I know there are some stories I won’t be reading again because the impact they made on me was I’ve read this once, I don’t need to read it again. Incidentally another definition of a good read for me is wanting to re-read tales.

Anyway, in your setting, especially if it is nothing like our own dear planet, what would your characters see as literature with meaning? Do they read it themselves or only do so when they have to (at school for example)? Is literature readily available to all or only to the select few? If the latter, can literature somehow “escape” by devious means so others can get to see it and, if so, who would be behind that and why are they doing it?

Literature has impact. Not everyone welcomes that here! This could apply easily to other settings. What would be the story of your character who is an author who writes something they know their regime won’t like it? What drives them to do it? Do they get their work out there? Is the impact as expected or not? What would the literature getting out to the masses do to your setting? It could change so much.

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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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“Lent” and Borrowed

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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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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.

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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.

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Hope the weekend went well. Managed to get plenty of writing and editing done. Also pleased the temperature has come up somewhat. My solitary primrose made it through the snow and frosts! Lady continuing to enjoy getting out and about with her chums and that is how life should be, I think.

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Hope today has gone well. Wet and muddy here today. Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler friend but neither dog nor their owners wanted to be out for long. We weren’t!

Writing wise, I had a lovely time at the online group I went to last night. Am also looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this month. Zoom is a fabulous thing though the words ‘you’re on mute’ have gone into the general vocabulary of everyone I know.

Will be sharing Pitching on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday and hope it will be useful. I suspect this topic will be another Marmite one (the other is editing) where writers will love or loathe it. But I still hope the post will be handy!

Hope the week has got off to a good start. Lady’s has. She saw her Hungarian Vizler pal and received pets from the shopping delivery guy (I loathe supermarkets).

Writing wise, am looking forward to going to an online writing related group on Zoom this evening so will get some “bits and pieces” of writing and editing done around that. Mondays are always hectic for me so this will be a fabulous way to unwind.

Have started going through the Writing Magazine Competition Guide and have marked up one or two possibles to try out. I hope, later this week, to check the background of these competitions out and maybe start drafting something. I do have a story to write for somewhere else so have started drafting ideas for that.

Hope your weekend has gone well despite the grim weather and even grimmer news. Mind you, I guess this makes me even more glad than I usually am to escape into the worlds of flash fiction and short stories. At least I know my villains will get what they deserve even if it does end up being in a roundabout way.

Am enjoying my usual Sunday flash fiction afternoon. The fact it is cosy indoors helps a lot! On a more serious note, I’ve always loved creating characters and in short form work you get to do this a lot. Know the people (or other beings of choice), know what drives them, and I’m off to a cracking start with a story outline.

Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. We don’t usually see friends, doggy or otherwise, at the weekend though today was a nice exception when Lady and I caught up with Daisy, a sweet spaniel, and her owner.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Pitching for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Link up on Friday (which will halfway through January already, hooray!).

Though Friday Flash Fiction has now sadly shut up shop, Sunday afternoons will continue to be flash fiction day for me as I can get a reasonable amount of writing done and I do want that to continue.

Character Tip: What is your character’s level of education? It is worth giving this some thought as it will have a direct impact on the vocabulary and type of language they’re going to use, both of which can show so much else about them (such as likely class etc).

Readers won’t need to know the answer to this directly but will pick up on it subconsciously as they read what your characters say and think. Incidentally, that’s another lovely thing about reading – it’s the nearest we get to mind reading. We can read the minds of characters after all!

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Flash is a great way of helping your other writing as by the time you’ve written 200 or 300 words as a flash piece, you should find you’ve “limbered” up enough to get on with other, longer writing work.

Writing exercises set at events or workshops can only give people five or ten minutes at most to respond so you will “only” get a flash piece in terms of word count out of them but there’s no reason why you can’t go on to polish these pieces up and get them published.

Certainly collect them together, polish them up and you could have a collection on your hands.

It’s Monday. It’s January. It’s winter weather. Okay not unexpected but very few enjoy it! Definitely time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – The Done List. Collie owners will especially appreciate this one!

Everyone has a To Do list, even when they can’t write them down. Find out why my collie character was happy to get their two jobs done, even though their Mum wasn’t.

Chilly again today. I don’t think Lady was that sorry to get back indoors again. It is during cold spells I really appreciate writing being an indoors job!

Glad to catch up with some Swanwick friends on Zoom last night. Hope to be back on Zoom again later on.

Writing wise, it’s flash fiction Sunday for me so will be cracking on with some new pieces in a while and, later, continuing the editing work on my Seeing The Other Side. All great fun.

Also a nice bit of news. I’ve often sent in pieces, and had them accepted, by Christian Writer, the magazine of the Association of Christian Writers. I now have a column in there called Allison’s Advice (I do like a nice spot of alliteration every now and then and it seems I’m not the only one!).

I’ll be sharing 100 word writing tips here. First one appeared in the magazine I received yesterday. I hope people are going to find the tips useful. It’s lovely getting some flash non-fiction published.

I love mixing up the mood of my stories and think this reflects life in a way. It is a mixture of funny and sad and I like my tales to reflect that. This is where I think a collection can work so well because it can show a range of emotions.

Naturally, I’m biased here, but I’ve always loved story anthologies, long before I became published in them, because I loved the variety of moods they can show. I still love them, of course.

If you write flash pieces over time, would it be worth you seeing if you have enough to get a collection together? The independent presses or self publishing would be the best routes here. But it is possible. Two collections later, with a third due this year, I can confirm it is worth doing.

One of my favourite parts of putting a collection together is grouping the stories. It’s fun as I can group character types or moods of story as I see fit. Okay, my editor may want to change this later and that’s fine but I do enjoy this process.

Goodreads Author Blog – Stories Everywhere

I like the thought of there being stories everywhere. Okay, I’m biased because I love reading and writing them. Inspiration for stories of my own can and does come from various sources too. There’s nothing to beat being inspired by what you love reading yourself, in my view.

Okay, there are stories I try to avoid, most notably the news which is so grim. There is a focus on negative rather than positive stories there and I would like to see a better balance. But I guess knowing this, it does encourage me to read more and escape into the world of books. Nothing wrong about that.

Where you have characters, you have stories. Where you have any society, you have stories. The fun with fictional writing is, of course, in inventing your own. The fun with reading is discovering what other authors have invented.

And the great thing here is the sky isn’t the limit.There are no limits. Fantasy and science fiction especially are great vehicles to explore other kinds of character and societies and I find these fascinating. What can also be fun is spotting the other books and stories which have clearly influenced the author. Quest stories, I think, will have some kind of nod to the ultimate quest story, The Lord of the Rings.

Stories being everywhere is excellent news for all of us who love reading. We will not lack variety or number of stories to enjoy. That’s definitely worth celebrating.

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Things I Wish I’d Known Earlier

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Hope the week so far has gone well. Lady has had a lovely few days with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal and I’ve kept busy with the writing and editing. Also went to a fun ACW Zoom group (on science fiction and fantasy). So not a bad week at all so far here.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to share Things I Wish I’d Known Earlier on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Have focused on writing things here. Am sure there are plenty of thoughts here which most writers will identify with!

Hope you find the post useful and encouraging. I think it helps to know you’re not alone as a writer on things like the topics (time taken to get published, rejections, opportunities which may not seem as if they are at first etc) I share in this post.

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Hope you’ve had a good Thursday. Lady had another fabulous time with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal (they’ve had a terrific week!) and saw her lovely spaniel friend, the gentle Daisy, too.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Things I Wish I’d Known Earlier on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up for that tomorrow and I restricted the post to just being about writing otherwise the post would’ve been far too long! See above.

Later in the month I’m off to see The Ghost Train (written by Arnold Ridley of Dad’s Army fame) performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company. I’ll also be off to the Association of Christian Writers in person meeting at Egham where I’ll be pleased to catch up with members of the flash fiction group in person, as well as other ACW members I haven’t seen for a while.

Plus I will have further author interviews coming up on CFT too so plenty to look out for and plenty going on with me at the moment. But then that is how I like it to be.

Lady was overjoyed to see and play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback friend again today. Lots of cuddles were exchanged. Sweet to see.

Pleased to see my author newsletter went out this morning. I was looking at short fiction forms for this one (and that will be the theme of the October Writers’ Narrative which is due out at any time).

I am also looking at Things I Wish I’d Known Earlier for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link for that up on Friday. To prevent the post from being far too long, I have limited the topic to things associated with writing! Am sure you will identify with a lot of what I will be sharing here. Again, see above, and if I hadn’t limited the scope of the post, I really could have written chapter and verse on the topic!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my Lighting Up. I hope you enjoy the story and would you like Marian as a friend or relative of yours?

Flash gives me the opportunity to have fun with genre as I have written flash crime stories, flash historical ones, flash fairytales, and many more types. I love the variety here. I have to lead with my characters given there isn’t room for much in the way of description though that in turn makes you focus.

I show you what the character needs to show you. The character only gives you the dialogue and internal thoughts you need to make sense of what they are doing and why. But given I can put my characters anywhere, I do take advantage of that. It makes life more interesting for me and I hope for my readers too.

Certainly for the collections, it leads to a good variety of stories. I love reading those as well as writing them so know I want to see plenty of story types in my collections.

Hope the day has been a good one for you. Not bad here. Looking forward to going to an ACW Zoom group tonight – always good fun.

Am pleased to know a few of the Flash Fiction Group will be going to the in person ACW event later this month. It will be lovely for us all to come out of our “Zoom boxes” and meet in person”! Naturally we will put in the word about the joys of flash fiction at some point (and I will be sharing some of this in the October Writers’ Narrative which is due out at any minute I will share the link as soon as I can).

Character Tip: One of the strengths of flash fiction is it does mean you have to focus which is why I recommend for our story to focus on one character and one moment in time, especially if your story will be 500 words or fewer. I like to think of this as not “diluting” your story.

Fairytales with Bite – Natural Light

As I write this in October 2025, the autumn season is well under way. The nights are drawing in, the leaves are changing colour (which is one of my favourite sights at this time of year) and the acorns are coming down rapidly (you should hear the sound as they hit the car roof!).

Now much as I love autumn, it is always a shame to see the amount of natural light fading. While it is lovely to cosy up inside with writing and good books, I also love being able to enjoy the natural light as long into the evening as possible. So this led me to wonder, how does light “work” in your setting? Do they have a sun (or more) as we know this? How are your characters affected the amount of natural light available?

Can natural light be created artificially? Does your setting have electricity as we know it? (I always loved the old character Catweazle describing it as electrickery. For those who don’t know, this was a 1970s UK children’s programme and many have fond memories of it. Catweazle was a time travelling wizard effectively).

How does the geography of your setting, including light and darkness, challenge your characters? How can they use natural light, or the lack of, to their advantage?

There will be story ideas there.

This World and Others – Character Types

How many character types does your setting have and are they anything like what we have here? Are species easy to differentiate? Is there a clear hierarchy in terms of magical power etc? Is there a dominant species and what led to them becoming that way?

I have an interest in hierarchies in settings because I am always looking out for the underdog in a story and seeing what they get up to. I guess that comes from my long love of the classic fairytales where the underdog often turns out to be the hero/heroine.

I also have a soft spot for non-human characters but then I have written from the viewpoint of a mother dragon before now. As long as readers can understand why your characters (of any kind) are the way they are, why they have the attitudes they do, why they act the way they are, then the story will follow through. I also think variety in character types is a good thing. The Lord of the Rings would be much poorer without that.

Why does your setting need the character types it has? I would expect to see geography and climate to have an impact here given we have different species suited to different conditions so it would be odd if a fantasy world didn’t have something similar.

Also give some thought as to how your character types developed the skills, magical or otherwise, that they have? Is there evolution going on here? If there is an overall creator in your world, how do they control how things/characters develop? Is there a limit to how far they can go?

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Quizzing Your Characters

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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 photo of me holding Creativity Matters and my flash fiction collections (to date anyway!) was taken by Adrian Symes. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week so far. Lady has seen some of her friends and I’m making good progress with writing and editing. Will have news of something else soon I’m helping with. Looking forward to sharing about that. Plus there will be another great author interview on Chandler’s Ford Today soon.

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Pleased to be back on Chandler’s Ford Today with my latest post, Quizzing Your Characters. I’ve long believed if you know your characters well enough, ideas for stories to put them in will occur.

For this post, I look at outlining your characters and using templates and/or traits into coming up with new creations time and time again (which is something I need as I write a lot of flash fiction and short stories).

Hope you find the post useful and do see the templates I share here as guides because there is nothing to stop you coming up with your own.

Indeed, I often mix up the types I use because I won’t necessarily need to know the same thing each and every time about characters I am creating. In certain settings, for example, I will need to ask specific questions relating to that setting and how it effects my character, for example.

Quizzing Your Characters

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Lady and her Hungarian Vizler pal had a nice time in the park this morning before it became too hot. I loved my swim today, as you can imagine. Did not want to get out of the pool.

Don’t forget Quizzing Your Characters will be up on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above.

Less than a month to go now until The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. (Okay only just but I am so looking forward to this).

How do I get ideas for my CFT and Writers’ Narrative articles? Well, our lovely editor at Writers’ Narrative does set a theme, which is always useful, but for CFT, I know I’m writing to fellow writers in my area so I try to focus on aspects of our craft which I hope they will find interesting.

Whatever I write, and this goes for fiction too, I am always asking myself what is in this for the reader. It is a good approach to take because it makes you focus on their needs and what you come up with, as a result, should be more useful to them.

Lady had a lovely time in the park today with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals. Will need to watch the weather in the next couple of days as it is due to get very hot again but I’ve found the mornings have been okay.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Quizzing Your Characters on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. It may seem like an odd thing to do but I’ve found it has paid dividends in being able to continually create characters. Best thing of all – you work out which questions suit your style of writing best. More in the post later this week.

Flash Tip: My favourite form of flash fiction has to be the drabble, the 100 worder. A short sharp story and punchlines/twist endings work well for this word count.

I find it helps to have an idea of the ending first for these. Then I work out what leads to it. It also means I know my punchline or twist ending will have a solid foundation behind it because I know what will lead up to it. It will seem natural, as if there could be no other ending, which is what you want here.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday again and another hot one where I am. Definitely time for an end of the working week story then. My latest on Friday Flash Fiction is called Dates. Hope you enjoy it. Just what will Dawn do about her date dilemma? Find out here. 
With the exception of Friday Flash Fiction where I know I will be writing to 100 words, I focus on getting the story down.

I then edit it after a break away from it, and then and only then do I worry about the word count. Sometimes the solution will be an obvious one. If my finished story comes in at 105 words I will edit it again to get to 100. If say, it comes in at 145 words, I will find a 150 words competition for it instead.

What matters is I am happy with the story in terms of its character portrayal and I’ve ensured I’ve delivered on the premise of the story. So if I am I will leave a story at a higher word count and find alternative homes for it rather than try to force it to fit the original home I had in mind for it.

A lovely review for my Tripping The Flash Fantastic included the line “A lovely little collection of quirky and often surprising stories and poems. Fairy godmothers who aren’t what they first appear.”.

Many thanks to my reviewer for that, but seeing it again reminded me characters who aren’t what they seem are (a) a common trait of fairytales and (b) need to be worked out carefully because the reader should have the hint there is more to this character than meets the the eye.

The surprise mustn’t come out of nowhere. Readers should be able to look back at the story and see “aah, I should’ve spotted that.” I love this when authors do it to me (especially in crime novels). It’s great fun to do as a writer too.

Book Trailer for Tripping The Flash Fantastic – thought it would be nice to share it again.

Fairytales with Bite – Problem Solving

How do your characters solve their problems? Do they instantly turn to magic (or other form of powers we don’t have here) to help them out or do they save that? Does using this kind of power drain them so much it isn’t worth doing unless you absolutely must use it?

If they’re not using magical or other artificial aids, what can they use without causing them further problems? Would they use logic, ask others for help etc as we would do? Are your creations able to ask others from outside their own species for assistance or is this frowned on? What would be the consequences if they did ask for that help when they shouldn’t? Could it lead to positive changes in your setting?

Are some of the problems your characters and/or setting face due to not being willing to interact with others when they could do so usefully? What gets in the way here?past history? Prejudice? Both? How can that be broken?

Problems can be useful for writers – you can get some cracking stories out of them!

This World and Others – Developments

Which developments have been welcomed in your magical/sci-fi setting and which weren’t? What problems did the latter cause and how were they stopped? Has your world copied inventions/developments from other worlds, including ours? How did these go down at home? Not everyone welcomes imports!

In terms of magical energy or other forms of energy your world has, how were these discovered? How have they developed? What new things have been added to them and why was this done?

Thinking about the different species in your setting, how did they develop their societies? Do all of them have the same opportunities for employment, education etc? If species were made to develop in different ways, who imposed that and why? Doesn’t necessarily have to be for evil reasons.

One good reason to keep them apart would be if they could never get along and separating them so they developed in their own way was the only way to stop the fighting. (That does sound a depressingly familiar tale, does it not?).

Story ideas for sure here! Happy writing.


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