Writing Wishes

April 24, 2026Leave a comment

: A very special book in my memory! My first printed story, A Helping Hand, was in here!

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. Gorgeous spring weather here. Lady and I are making the most of it. Writing and editing going well too. Not short of things to do right now!

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

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

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

Hope you enjoy the post.

Writing Wishes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fairytales With Bite – Journeys

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

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

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

This World and Others – Taking The Long Way

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

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

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

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

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

Story ideas there!

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Writing Wishes https://t.co/FozmuBRz6w
Delighted to share Writing Wishes on CFT. I take a brief look at AI & the Human Authored campaign & other writing wishes including always having plenty of ideas and nice stationery. Every writer can get behind those two! pic.twitter.com/ygzkX6rCSi
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 24, 2026

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The Importance of Titles

April 14, 2026Leave a comment

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Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good weekend. Not bad here. Lady enjoyed catching up with a pal over the weekend which she doesn’t usually get to do. I’m busy writing and editing, including on my third book, Seeing The Other Side. Hope to have more news on that before too long.

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Hope today has gone well. Weather changeable though it didn’t stop Lady from having a good time in the park. No pals today, hope to catch up with them later in the week and, before you ask, yes I am my dog’s social secretary! Most dog owners are!

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Character Moments for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Meantime I plough on with editing (client) and proofreading (my third book). Not short of things to do!

Also looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group later this month and thoroughly enjoyed the online writing group meeting I went to last night. You can still get about even if it is just by Zoom!

Hope your working week has got off to a good start. Changeable weather here though Lady still saw her Hungarian Vizler pal so all well there.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to an online writing meeting this evening. Always good fun. Am making good progress with the editing of a client’s book and my own. I’ve been on both sides of the editing fence at the same time before. It’s always an interesting experience and you do learn a lot from it.

Was delighted to share another story of mine on my Substack account yesterday. To subscribe please head over to the following link – https://substack.com/@allisonsymeswriter1

Scroll down and you will find several flash pieces of mine on here now.

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Hope you’re enjoying a nice peaceful Sunday. Will be getting on with flash fiction Sunday afternoon shortly. Also have some interesting work to do regarding my forthcoming third flash fiction collection. Will share more later but am so pleased about this as you can imagine.

Did manage to submit my story for the competition I mentioned yesterday. Good to have that done. Did I find some final things to correct before submission? Oh yes – a minor adjustment needed – but this is why I put in a final, final check to look for things like this. It pays. After all, you want your story entry to have the best possible chance out there.

I get my first draft done, rest it, look at it again and it as this point I pick up the vast majority of errors and correct them. I rest the story again and when I come back to it this time, I am specifically looking for typos, grammatical errors, missing words etc. Just ahead of submission I double check I’ve laid the story out as the competition requires and things like word count are fine. I find all of this useful because you never do pick up everything on one sweep. Well, at least I don’t!

Looking for specific things on each sweep means you’re more likely to find them too.

Hope the weekend has got off to a good start for you. Windy but sunny here and Lady managed to meet up and play with Coco, the lovely Labradoodle today. We don’t usually see anyone we know at weekends so Lady has rightly taken that as a win.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Character Moments for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Will be sharing useful tips and it is on a topic I love writing about – creating characters, the stars of our story shows.

Hope to submit a story for a competition over the weekend and then start working on another story which I’ve already got in draft form. Plus there will be flash fiction Sunday to look forward to as well. As for today, Saturday, it’s blogging and editing time! Now to crack on…

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope at the weekend to pick a draft story to work on for another flash competition. Know I won’t get much chance before then. Am enjoying the process of proofreading my third book. Hope to share more news on that fairly soon.

I always look for impact in fiction, regardless of its length or whether I’m reading it or writing it. I need to care about the characters enough to want to find out what happens to them. This is what drives my belief that if you get the characters right, the plot will develop naturally from them.

I don’t really want a clever plot. I do want characters I want to root for and and then I’ll enjoy finding out just what they get up to and how much of a mess they make of things on the way to whatever the ending is going to be.

It’s another hectic Monday and, therefore, story time. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Rebranding.

Times change even in Fairyland much to the disgust of the local wicked witch. Find out why she is disgruntled here – and what did happen to her wand?

I was talking over on my most recent Goodreads post about the importance of titles (see below) and, for flash fiction, they can help a writer convey mood without using up any of their precious word count allowance, given most places don’t include the title as part of that. (Do keep an eye out for this though – some places do include it. I always double check things like that to make sure I don’t get it wrong. I also allow about five words for a title when I have markets who include the title in the word count. I then know what I’ve got for the prose).

Inspiration for title ideas can come from proverbs and sayings and can also double up to be your theme. I find short is generally better. Short titles are easier to remember and if you share things on Twitter/X, you don’t use up so much of your character allowance either.

I also find having brainstorming sessions for possible titles not only useful but fun. I know I have things to come back to later to write up into potential tales. It is good to have that kind of back up and where notebooks/journals are brilliant. I’m old school enough to still like the thought of pen and paper coming into the process somewhere.

I read in my field of flash fiction as well as write in it, naturally. There are many wonderful flash fiction and short story anthologies out there but I am going to recommend Editor’s Choice – Friday Flash Fiction. I’ve just finished reading it and it has a superb collection of styles and moods, the one unifying factor being they are all at 100 words long. Pleased to see some great reviews coming in for the book too.

I have a few stories in there and it is great to recognize many familiar names in the book with me. Why not check it out? It is perfect for dipping in there and a great study of what flash fiction is and can be.

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Goodreads Author Blog – The Importance of Titles

Oscar Wilde may well have talked about it being Earnest who was important but, for any writer, titles are essential to get right. They are your first hook for potential readers.

Working in the short forms of fiction as I do, I will use titles to do some “heavy lifting” for me in that I can use them to set moods, give an indication of what is likely to follow and so on. I can do that without using up any of my word count allowance, especially for flash fiction, as most places exclude the title from their word count limits.

But when it comes to reading, does a good title draw you in? I know they do for me. I was intrigued by The ABC Murders (Agatha Christie) and had to read the book to find out the relevance of the title to the plot. It is a cracking Poirot story by the way.

Other titles which are more “open” such as Christie’s Nemesis (Miss Marple) make you wonder who/what the nemesis will be and who/what justifies facing that nemesis. Again, you have to read to find out.

Certainly when I’m buying books, if I already know the author then I have some idea of what I’m looking for but, for a writer new to me, it will often be the title which will lure me into looking at the cover and the blurb.

So titles matter. They can be tricky things to get right too.

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: The Importance of Titles https://t.co/W2JPjAeoPj via @goodreads I discuss titles whether I'm setting them for the stories I write or am deciding on a new book to buy. They do matter and are so tricky to get right. Hope you enjoy the post. pic.twitter.com/yvGjW1nWUK
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 11, 2026

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It’s another hectic Monday and, therefore, story time. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Rebranding.

Times change even in Fairyland much to the disgust of the local wicked witch. Find out why she is disgruntled here – and what did happen to her wand?https://t.co/Hfkk9ryIb7
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 13, 2026

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New Year, New Books, New Authors

January 6, 2026Leave a comment

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Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope your weekend went well. Some snow here though not too deep. Am wrapping up with multiple layers so I am waddling with Lady rather than walking with her right now! Hope the first full week back to “normal life” goes well. Pleased to be back writing and editing again. Needed and enjoyed the break but it is good to be back.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler friend and, later, was escorted home by her Aussie Shepherd “boyfriend”. Lady is keeping her socials together, well enough!

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Story Inspiration on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Always a timely topic, this one. Writing and editing works are going well – and I’m staying out of the cold as much as possible, all wins here!

Writing Tip: Think about what inspires you to write – favourite stories, favourite types of characters etc – and then look at why you love these things. You will learn something useful from doing this and it will help you as you create your own tales. More in my post on CFT on this on Friday – what I can say now though is this works.

You know I said yesterday (4th January 2025) we hadn’t had snow in Hampshire as yet? Well, it is a clear case of me and my big mouth. We did get snow over night (probably 1 to 2 cm, no more than that). You’ll be pleased to know I won’t apply for any job in weather forecasting! Think that would be best for everyone…

Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today, both of whom were wearing coats. Lady doesn’t really need one (and I am sure she and her predecessors would consider them sissy for a collie/collie-cross anyway). All three dogs had a lovely time despite the cold and yes we owners did keep them moving.

Writing wise, am having a quiet evening getting on with various small writing pieces. Nice way to unwind after what is always a hectic day for me. And I get to stay well out of the cold too. Win-win there, I’d say.

Character Tip: What does your character make of their usual weather patterns? If cold is a regular feature of these, how does your character cope with it? (If they’re a northerner of any sort, they’ll put on their big coat. If they’re a southerner like me, they’ll put on a big coat with a body warmer under it – mind you, it did live up to its name today). How could cold weather help or hinder them? There will be story ideas there. Happy writing!

Hope Sunday has gone well. Bitterly cold and heavy frosts here in Hampshire but no snow (as yet anyway). Hope you are all okay. Lady has had a lovely day in that she saw her “boyfriend”, a lovely Aussie Shepherd, in the park earlier. He has a wonderful thick coat and I shouldn’t imagine felt the cold at all!

Writing wise, I’m making good progress with my editing work. I’ve also got ideas I’d like to develop this year and I hope to share some 100 word stories on Facebook every so often. I’ve enjoyed sharing my Friday Flash Fiction links most weeks and want to keep up writing the good old drabbles regularly.

One enjoyable task this coming week is to start reading the latest Writing Magazine. It came with its annual competition guide and I hope to work my way through at least some of that this year. There are more flash fiction competitions out there than you might think and I do find this guide immensely helpful.

Hope the weekend has got off to a good start for you. As I write this I am enjoying a trip down memory lane thanks to Classic FM playing the theme from Animal Magic. Older readers will remember that show!

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at Story Inspiration for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. It’s a timeless topic and I’ll be sharing some ways I use regularly to keep triggering ideas. I hope you will find it useful and look forward to sharing that on Friday.

Have resumed my editing work and making good strides with it, including on my own edits for Seeing The Other Side.

Writing Tip: I use an old school diary to note down deadlines for competitions, my own deadlines for when I want to get work finished by, and so on. It pays. I see it as making an appointment with myself and my writing and it has helped me to get more done. For longer work, I can break my task down into “manageable chunks” and put those in the diary. It all helps.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Tonight, 6th January, is of course Twelfth Night, traditionally the time the Three Wise Men visited Jesus in Bethlehem. My story, The Family Legend, in the recently published Magi (Bridge House Publishing) takes a thought from this story – that at least one of the men were still alive thirty three years later and found out what had gone on in Jerusalem – and I ran with it.

But you too can run with the idea of an unexpected and/or unlikely journey and the characters that do this. There could be some interesting flash fiction pieces here too though I suspect you would probably need the 500 words plus range to do this justice in the very short form.

Hope you try the idea out though. Good luck!

It’s a bitterly cold Monday, the kind where Good King Wenceslas would feel at home. For me it’s definitely time for a story. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Looking on The Bright Side.

A fairytale witch finally has to tell the facts of the magical life to her child, who is shocked to find out where their instructions come from. Find out more here.

F = Flash fiction – fun to write, easy to read, lots of impact due to its brevity.

L = Language and editing skills develop a lot when you write in this form as you do look for the right word which carries the right amount of weight for what you want to convey. No wasted words here. Where one word will have the impact I want, I’m using that not three or four.

A = Assessing the impact you want your story to have on readers and then working out the best way of doing it before writing anything is, I find, sensible for this format. I want to hit the ground running so to speak here.

S = Settings can be anywhere in time or space or in any kind of world you care to invent. What matters are the characters. People follow what they’re up to even if they’re a three headed purple dragon from the planet Zog. If people care about the dragon, they will read on.

H = Humour is fabulous for flash. It’s fun to end a story with a punchline.

Flash fiction is not new. It has been around for centuries. To name one example, all of Jesus’s parables in the Bible come in at well under the 1000 words mark limit for flash.

The form has had several names including postcard fiction (which I like – you can picture it); short short fiction (which I don’t like – it’s a mouthful); and sudden fiction (this is okay but doesn’t, to my mind, seem an apt term for thoughtful flash pieces).

But whatever you do call it, flash fiction is a fun challenge and I love writing to the various word count brackets within it. The most popular for competitions I’ve come across are the 100, 250, 300, and 500 word ones but the first three of those are the most common.

All of them are great fun so why not give them a go?

Goodreads Author Blog – New Year, New Books, New Authors

Happy New Year and I hope 2026 brings you plenty of books to enjoy. I hope amongst those books will be books and authors who are new to you. One of the great joys of reading is in discovering new stories to enjoy by writers you either already thought you knew well or by authors you’ve not read before. Everyone wins from that one.

I’ve not yet made any plans for my new reading year. I’m currently engrossed with the books I received for Christmas and loving them all. Then I may catch up on my poor neglected To Be Read pile or at least make some inroads into it. I suspect you may well be in the same reading boat, yes? I’ve not yet come across a reader and/or writer who hasn’t got lots of books “on the go”.

I used to feel sad at the thought I know I won’t get around to reading all of the books I would like to read. Funnily enough, I now feel comforted by the thought. Why?

Well, it confirms to me the world will never run out of stories to enjoy and that is a great thing.

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: New Year, New Books, New Authors https://t.co/y3gYqbxqwW via @goodreads I don't know about you but I'm still engrossed with my Christmas books. I haven't made plans for my new reading year but I hope there will be authors new to me in that. pic.twitter.com/ZttR7FWsFy
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 3, 2026

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It’s a cold Monday. Story time! My latest on YouTube is Looking on The Bright Side.

A fairytale witch finally has to tell the facts of the magical life to her child, who is shocked to find out where their instructions come from. Find out more here.https://t.co/jWiMMcntCv
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 5, 2026

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Books and Stories In Culture

June 24, 2025Leave a comment

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Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Many thanks to Julia Pattison for taking the image of me at Swanwick about to run an editing workshop. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, as were the photos from my local wildflower meadow.

Hope you had a lovely weekend. Pleased to say the temperature has come down a bit – much fresher and nicer for Lady and me. Good to take some pictures of the local wildflower meadow – see one of the posts below for these. It is good to focus on lovely things and I include creative writing in that. Especially when the world at large is not a great place, it is good to escape, for a while at least, into a world I can create through stories. When reading, I escape into a world created for me by other writers. What is there not to love about books?

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Hope you’ve had a good day. It has been a lovely pleasant day and Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal too.

Pleased to say I did manage to submit two stories yesterday. It was a good use of my limited writing time yesterday. As ever, I did pick up on a final error – it is the way of the writing life – but it did mean I could correct that before sending my material in. It does pay to give yourself your own time limit ahead of any official deadline. It gives you the chance to spot and correct things like that.

Good breezy day and much pleasanter as a result. Lady and I appreciated that.

Writing wise, well it is Monday, one of my busiest days of the week so I focus on getting bits and pieces done. Hope to submit a couple of pieces a little later on (all prepped earlier of course and edited).

I often use Mondays as my final day to check all is well and send pieces in. It is a good use of my limited time and frees up longer sessions later on in the week for more concentrated bursts of writing.

You do have to find what works best for you. It takes time to work out what does work best for you but it is worth it, I’ve found. I know what I’m going to be doing when I get to my desk so I can get straight on with it. That saves a lot of time in itself, funnily enough.

Cooler today, Lady and I are not at all sorry about that. It was much pleasanter over the park and the wildflower meadow is looking amazing. See pics.

Writing wise, I’ll be on to flash fiction Sunday afternoon shortly. Always a lovely way to end the weekend. Have a short story to send to a competition once I’ve sorted out my edits but hope do that either today or early part of this week. Am also busy editing at the moment and loving the work.

Character Tip: Physical appearance generally for me is not the most important thing for me to know when creating my characters. I need to know their main traits and what comes from that and then ideas about their appearance might come to me.

Just occasionally does knowing a character is a brunette as opposed to a blonde matter to the story but not often. In life, as in fiction, I try not to judge by appearances, not least because it usually is the least important thing about someone. Attitude matters far more but can be so useful for creating tremendous tales and characters readers remember).

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Had some drizzle today, cooled the temperature a bit, but has heated up again this afternoon. Lady keeping nice and cool though.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing some local author news in a detailed post for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. No prizes for guessing who the local author will be when I say the post will be called Allison Symes – Local Author News – Seeing The Other Side. I’ll be sharing some more information about the book as well as what it means to me to have a third book due. More on that on Friday. After that, I will share news when the serialisation of part of the book starts and, later, more on the book launches I hope to have.

Writing/Marketing Tip: Think about what it is which makes you love to write. It gives you a good topic for conversation with potential readers and other writers whether you meet them face to face or online. It is also a natural way into talking about your book whether it is out, about to come out, or whether you are finishing it off ready to send out there.

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Today has, aptly for me, gone by in a flash but how do your characters handle the passing of time? Are they finding it drags for them or does it race along? What are the reasons for them feeling this way? Bound to be reasons – and potential flash stories too. Hope you have fun with that thought!

It’s funny how quickly Mondays come around again. It’s time for a story though. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Bringing Things to An End.

A group where confessions can be made anonymously with no fear of disclosure hears what could be its most unusual confession to date. And just where do custard pies come into it? Find out here.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week. Zoom has proved useful for writing groups and made more of them possible to do at tall.

Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday afternoon shortly. Incidentally, Friday Flash Fiction now want submissions sent in between Mondays and Thursdays so I prepare my tale for them on a Sunday and submit it on a Monday evening. Works well, especially since Monday is the day of the week when I know I can’t do much writing. So ”little things to do” such as getting my story in to them is useful and cheers me up. I know I’ve done something useful which is creative.

If you submit work somewhere regularly, it pays to keep on top of what their latest guidelines are because things do change, always with good reason, and it means you’re aware.

It won’t be too long before my next author newsletter will be out. There will be a summer related theme. To sign up for tips, flash tales, news and more do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Flash is easy to share on social media given it is short, hopefully entertaining or thought provoking, and gives you something of value to share with those who follow you and your work. Even if your work is longer, maybe a flash piece about one of your characters could make a useful “taster” to share. Just a thought.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Books and Stories in Culture

No matter what our own cultures are, there will be books and stories which stand out in them. These will be the books and stories “everyone knows” but may not necessarily have read for themselves. I am so conscious of all the wonderful English language classics I am unlikely to get around to reading though I am determined to get at least some read.

Where this comes in is when you play the great game of spot the influences when reading works by authors you love. A great example of this is Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series. There are all sorts of “nods” in those.

Another example can be found in the stories of Jeeves and Wooster by P.G. Wodehouse where Bertie Wooster inevitably gets the name of the author and/or the book concerned not quite right. Yet it is clear from context the book and author do exist.

So cultural books and stories can inspire other tales. I like this!

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Books and Stories in Culture https://t.co/JJabYIMe69 via @goodreads I know I won't read all the books "meant to be read", usually those with cultural influence. I do celebrate these influence other tales & share examples for Goodreads this week. pic.twitter.com/zEYxFf1Mx9
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) June 21, 2025

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It’s Monday again. Time for a new YouTube tale – Bringing Things to An End. A group where confessions can be made anonymously with no fear of disclosure hears what could be its most unusual confession to date. And just where do custard pies come into it? https://t.co/awsCIE6jix
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) June 23, 2025

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Book Reviews, Editing, and Writing Superpowers

May 27, 2025Leave a comment

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All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope the weekend went well. Good to be back in the garden again. Lawn grateful I was I think! Pleased to see lovely foxgloves in flower too. Writing wise, am pretty much back to my normal routine and enjoying that. Lady, as ever, appreciates the company of her pals at the park. We appreciate the little things in life. They’re often more important to you than you might think. Know this is true for me and the dog!

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Soggy one here in Hampshire though Lady was delighted to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal again. Both dogs had a lovely time in the park before the rain set in.

Writing wise, will have further editing work coming up shortly. Looking forward to starting on that.

There will also be a bonus Chandler’s Ford Today post on Saturday this week from me as I’m publicizing The Chameleons’ Open Evening on 7th June. They’re celebrating their 60th anniversary this year and are inviting people to see what they do (and where they need volunteers) on and off the stage.

Plus I will be looking at History and Stories in my usual Friday night slot where I look at the links between history and stories and why I love both. (Nice link here as The Chameleons have acted out many wonderful stories, some of them history based, over their 60 years on the stage).

Stories, whether as prose or plays, can explore history and shed new insights on it.

Bank holiday here today in my part of the world. Lady was thrilled to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals today. We either see all we know on a bank holiday or nobody at all – there is no middle ground!

Had a quick look at the random question generator I use every so often to trigger story ideas. Usually the question gives me the theme I write to (and my characters answer the question, it literally is the story).

The question which came up tonight was if you could have one superpower what would it be? Now that is a fabulous question and I’m sure an article or two could be written around it but I wondered about answering it for this post from a writing viewpoint.

So which writing superpower would I like to have? I think it would be the ability to keep writing, no matter what. I wouldn’t ask to write perfectly from the get go because I think a lot of excellent stories come about thanks to having decent editing work done on them.

But to keep going whenever and whatever the circumstances, that would be a good thing to have. It isn’t always easy to do this so having a superpower boosting me here would be most welcome.

Hope the weekend is proving to be a good one for you. Cut the lawn yesterday. Desperately needed doing. Looking much better now and it was a great workout for me!

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out again too. (I know. I can hardly believe is is almost June either). You can sign up at my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Writing wise, I’m working on a longer short story as well as my usual flash work at the moment. Have put final touches to my presentation for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group for Wednesday. Now done! Will be back to blogging and editing shortly. I do like a good mix of things to do!

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Have got to the end of the first week back from our wonderful Northumberland break. Always tough, the first week back from any kind of break but hey I’m there so now it is a case of onwards and upwards.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at History and Stories for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I love history. I love stories. History is full of stories. It’s a gem of a topic to write about! I’ve also found reading historical fiction has led to me reading historical non-fiction too but more on this in my post on Friday.

Character Tip: Remember it isn’t compulsory to like the characters you create, far from it, but you do need to know what drives and motivates them so you can write their stories up with understanding of where they are coming from and why.

For villains, you do need to look at why they have become that way. Not all of that will make it into your finished tale but enough should so readers can see why they’re being the way they are too.

If, say, your villain is driven by the need to make money a line of dialogue with another character or their own thought showing their need for enough money will create that understanding.

Readers (and you) still don’t need to approve of how they go about things here.

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Hope today has been a good one. Looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction Group tomorrow. The topic is Tens. Looking forward to seeing everyone then. Zoom has made more things possible including writing groups like this one.

Am hoping to go an in-person ACW meeting later this year but have to book it first. Hope to do that in next couple of days. I like a good mixture of in person and online events. In a world which is far from perfect, why not have the best of both worlds when it comes to meeting with other writers?

Flash is also wonderful to share in any kind of workshop and/or writing group given it is short. I’ve always found stories illustrate points well. People remember the stories. (This is nothing new, far from it. Jesus did this with parables. Aesop did it with his fables too. All would count as flash fiction as we know it now).

It’s a Bank Holiday Monday where I am but it is still Monday. Time for a story then and I hope you like my latest on YouTube – Mixing It Up.

What harm could it do to mix up the dragons’ magical foodstuff and give it to the butterflies instead? George thinks it will be okay but is he right to do so?

Titles are important for any story (or article come to that) given they’re the first hook to entice a reader into reading your work.

For flash fiction, I try and use mine to do some “heavy lifting” in terms of indicating to a reader the tale’s probable mood without using up any of my precious word count. (Most flash competitions don’t include the title in the limit they set you but there are always exceptions so do check).

I also use titles as a brainstorming exercise. It’s fun to do too. Why not give it a try?

Writing Exercise: Give yourself five minutes. Jot down as many three to five word titles as you can in that time. It helps to think along the lines of Subject and Action (a refusal to act will count as an action). Also consider Subject and Job.

You are looking for two immediate hooks here. People will want to know about your subject depending on what action or job you’ve given them in the title.

For example, how about George, the Butterfly Tamer, as an idea. I would immediately want to know who George is, how can anyone tame butterflies, and why does anything think it is needed. The story would reveal the answer to those questions but I’ve got to read it to find out. Job done by the author there I think! Do see my YouTube story for this week too – see above. I wrote this post first then decided to write the story up with just the title to go with. Good fun to do.

I’ve also found when I do this exercise once I get started, a whole raft of other ideas come. Later, I will review my title lists and the ones which still appeal to me are the ones I will write up. But this exercise is definitely worth trying. Hope you have fun with it.

Looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction Group on Zoom on Wednesday. Have set what I hope will be an intriguing theme (Tens – what would you make of that?) Alas, I’m not telling all here, but it is fun coming up with different ideas for these meetings and, of course, a good challenge to me.

Whatever you write, doing something different every now and then is a good challenge and will help sharpen up your other writing – or at least I’ve found that to be the case. It’s another good reason to enter story competitions every now and then (but do check the competition background out first and ensure you’re happy with it). Again, it makes you do something different, you are often set the prompt and it is a good challenge to see what you can do with it.

(Am also pleased because when I relax I play with words too. Have today got the word rewrites out in my phone’s equivalent of Scrabble. All seven tiles out so I get the bonus points too. Apt word for a writer and editor, I think!).

Goodreads Author Blog – Book Reviews

Do you read book reviews? I do. As a writer myself, I appreciate the reviews which come in on my books but I also like to write reviews on works by other authors. Other than buying the book itself, reviewing is probably the next best way to support authors. I keep my reviews short and would put in a plea to review when you can. It helps more than you know.

I try to review the moment I’ve finished a book whether it’s on Kindle or in print. Otherwise, I know I may well forget to do it. Life getting in the way and all of that…

The best reviews give a good flavour of what the book is about without giving too much away. The good news is they don’t have to be long to be effective.

Why not review the book you are currently reading? Doesn’t have to be a contemporary one either (though that obviously does help current authors) but there’s nothing to stop you giving your thoughts on a classic work either. I know I still find those useful for the classics I’ve not yet got around to reading.

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Book Reviews https://t.co/PAMwU5hilM via @goodreads I discuss book reviews for Goodreads this week. They help authors so much but it also pays to review classic works too. Find out why here. pic.twitter.com/defyDcYlT5
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) May 24, 2025

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It’s a Bank Holiday Monday but it still means story time. My latest on YouTube is Mixing It Up. What harm could it do to mix up the dragons' magical foodstuff and give it to the butterflies instead? George thinks it will be okay but is he right to do so?https://t.co/5vRuXqHJ7E
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) May 26, 2025

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Making the Most of Your Writing Time

January 17, 2025Leave a comment

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All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good few days. Lady has been catching up with her pals and I’ve been catching up with my writing. Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week too. Smashing author interview coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today next week as well – looking forward to sharing that.

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Delighted to share Making the Most of Your Writing Time for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. It’s always a useful topic!

I look at the positives of planning out your writing time and discuss the negative side to it. I share what one piece of advice P.G. Wodehouse gave to a writer (which has a considerable impact on my way of thinking here) and look at mixing things up to make the best use of the writing time available.

Hope you find the post useful.

Making the Most of Your Writing Time

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Hope today has been okay for you. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler friend today. Lady has had a good week in catching up with her pals.

Looking forward to sharing Making the Most of Your Writing Time on Chandler’s Ford Today – link up tomorrow. Hope it will prove useful. See above.

Planning, over the weekend, to have a look at the two short story competition entries I drafted a few days ago and see what needs to be done to make them better. There will be something, there always is, but I love this stage of writing. To see what needs to be fixed and then to do it and know your work has taken a good step forward – well, all of that pleases me a lot. Also increases my chances a lot too!

I’ve always taken some consolation from the knowledge I can’t think of any writer who has ever written a first draft. It’s okay I don’t do so either then but what matters is seeing it for what it is – a first draft only I’m ever going to see.

Shakespeare didn't write perfect first drafts and neither will we but exercises help you create stories in different ways

Hope Wednesday has been a good day for you. Lady got to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals today – a lovely time was had by all in the park.

Now I hope you received lots of lovely book presents for Christmas. Am working my way through mine but I thought this would be a good point to say a lovely present for any author would be to receive reviews on Amazon etc. Other than buying the books themselves, leaving thoughtful reviews is the next best thing you an do to support authors.

Reviews don’t have to be long. One of mine for From Light to Dark and Back Again is a sentence long – An eclectic mix of flash fiction, from an author with a great imagination.

Many thanks to the author of that review. Much appreciated by me, obviously. Reviews like this can be useful for marketing purposes but also the feedback is so useful for writers.

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It’s lovely to be back on Friday Flash Fiction once again after a fabulous and enjoyable Christmas break. Hope you enjoy my A Different New Year though I know for sure one of my characters in this one certainly won’t.

Flash fiction is, of course, short, but you still need to give yourself plenty of time to edit and to polish your stories. It doesn’t matter what word count you write to, the editing does take time, but it is so worth it when you have a polished as good as you can make it piece of work to send out.

Crafting your work to make it as good as you can does make all the difference to whether a piece is published or not, or gets a placing (or a win) in a competition or not.

Some of you will know I discovered flash fiction by accident. It remains the happiest writing accident I’ve had. CafeLit issued a 100 word challenge and I went for it. Haven’t looked back since.

But I mention this as I think it shows the importance of being open to writing possibilities and not to be afraid to try something new.

I’d been writing the longer short stories prior to that (and still do but flash has given me another string to my bow and a way into having books with my name on the front covers. Really love that).

It has pleased me a lot to see increasing opportunities for flash with online story markets and flash being added to competition categories. All good, that!

Fairytales with Bite – Pantomimes

In the UK pantomimes are along standing tradition and usually run from December through to about February. They are often the first introduction to theatre for many and most of the stories for them do come from the traditional fairytales. I will be off to see a production of Cinderella later this month which will be staged by my excellent local amateur theatre company.

Pantomimes are funny, colourful, and jokes are aimed at all levels. It is deliberate adults will get some jokes when the children will not. You have the pantomime Dame, always played by a man, wearing the most garish costume and makeup. The Principal Boy is always played by a girl. Certain phrases are always used (he/she is behind you etc) and the audience is always encouraged to join in. There is often music too.

Another tradition here is some of the jokes will poke fun at those in authority while other gags will refer to local issues/events/places. All great fun. Chaos is expected.

Fairytales work brilliantly for this as they have a good three act structure which translates well to the stage. There are obvious baddies and goodies too and magic is involved somewhere. It helps the audience know the story because they know when they can join in.

But it led me to wonder for this post what kind of theatre or pantomime would your setting have? Would they have anything like the pantomime? What fairytales do they have they might base their own version on? Could you invent something here for your stories?

This World and Others – Behind The Scenes

Linking with Fairytales with Bite, I know my excellent local amateur theatre company create their own sets and what they come up with here is amazing. They have, I’m sure, great fun with the pantomime sets they create – lots of bright colours etc. But without this, there is no show. Without their lighting and sound crews, the shows wouldn’t be so good. It’s amazing how the well placed light or sound effect makes a difference to the impact on the audience of the story being acted out.

Naturally it won’t just be in the entertainment industry, there will be those elsewhere whose work behind the scenes (a) makes things happen at all and (b) without whom what does get done isn’t as good.

So for your stories whose work behind the scenes is crucial to the success of what your lead characters are doing/plan to do? Equally who could unintentionally or otherwise scupper your characters’ plans by their work behind the scenes which has an impact later on?

You could also have characters who are behind the scenes but don’t want to be and what impact any resentful attitude on their part plays in your story.

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It’s lovely to be back on Friday Flash Fiction once again after a fabulous and enjoyable Christmas break. Hope you enjoy my A Different New Year though I know for sure one of my characters in this one certainly won’t.https://t.co/QaswcQCzUT pic.twitter.com/9I3Wy9Jx64
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 17, 2025

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Making the Most of Your Writing Time https://t.co/nhM9lScz19 I'm delighted to share this post for CFT. It’s a useful topic! I look at the positives and negatives of planning writing time. I share one piece of advice P.G. Wodehouse gave to a writer and look at mixing things up.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 17, 2025

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PowerPoint, Writers’ Narrative, and Doing Right

March 22, 2024Leave a comment

Screenshot 2024-02-28 at 16-25-51 Allison Symes - The Society of Authors

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. Looking forward to seeing friends and family at the weekend for birthday get together. We all have a fab time. Lady loves (a) seeing everyone, you should see her face when they go home, looks so sad (aaah!); (b) Lady loves playing with a family spaniel, the lovely Lily; and (c) both dogs make excellent hoovers and have a great time there too! Not so much writing over the weekend but I will, to quote the Terminator, be back! Meantime a huge thank you to all who have donated to the Salvation Army through my fundraising post on Facebook.

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A huge thank you for the birthday messages coming in today (22nd March). Much appreciated.

First up tonight, I discuss PowerPoint for this week’s Chandler’s Ford Today post. It is an odd thing to have something come back into use after a period away from using it. Usually something is superceded. PowerPoint is the rare exception to the rule here.

With the advent of Zoom, PowerPoint has come back into its own and I use it frequently. I share thoughts and tips on making the best of it and hope you find the post useful. (Combined with Zoom, it makes for an excellent way of presenting presentations).

PowerPoint

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Secondly up tonight, I am delighted to say the April edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out. Just in time for the perfect weekend read, I’d say!

The theme this time is editing and my piece is called Editing – Do You Love It or Loathe It?

There is a great deal of excellent advice on what can be a thorny topic in this month’s magazine. Do check it out.

Lady got to see just her Hungarian Vizler chum today, both had a lovely time. Bluebells out on our regular walk back home. Lovely to see them (my garden ones always come up later).

I’m discussing the joys of PowerPoint for Chandler’s Ford Today this week and will be sharing useful tips. The advent of Zoom for writing workshops has brought PowerPoint back into my regular usage again. I use it at least once a month. I find it handy especially for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group I lead. Will be using it again at next week’s meeting!

PowerPoint is a good match up for online work but appropriate too. It encourages you to keep to the point. There’s nothing for a flash fiction writer to dislike there, is there?!

Link up tomorrow. See above.

Hope you have had a good day. Nice to see some spring weather. Got warm! (First time since last autumn!). Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals – all three had a fabulous time. Not going to get much writing done today as off to a meeting this evening but this kind of thing happens and it is where my planning out how to use the available writing time pays off. So have a few small jobs to do which I can tick off my list. Back to longer pieces of work when I have more time tomorrow.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting next week. Will be looking at Endings and Beginnings (and yes deliberately that way around as I thought it apt as the meeting will be so close to the Easter weekend. Good Friday is an ending. Easter Sunday is a new beginning. Naturally I will be looking at crafting good endings and beginnings for flash fiction).

Writing Tip: Have a range of writing tasks to do. It’s fun. It helps you make the most of available writing time. On busy days, you will still feel like you have written something useful for the excellent reason you have! Also pockets of time mount up if you see them over a longer time period.

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Pleased to be on Friday Flash Fiction with my 100 words tale, Doing Right. This is my first entry for the Andrew Siderius competition FFF are running for the next couple of weeks.

My story next time will have to be eligible for the longer flash word count section. No comments on any of the stories at the moment either for obvious reasons. Comments return after the competition is over. Good luck to all who are taking part.

I’ve always liked creating characters. It’s my favourite part of storytelling. I like to know who my “stars” are going to be. Flash fiction writing means I am creating characters all the time and the more you do this, the easier it becomes to find ways into creating characters. I’ll be looking at this more for a future Chandler’s Ford Today post.

Flash makes you focus. The word count limit means you have to work out how to make the best use of it. I’ve found characters leading the way into the “action” of the story helps keep the word count down because they won’t waffle on. They will want to get straight on and do what has to be done to get the story resolved. Also readers can be taken straight into the characters’ mind sets and the tale feels more immediate because of that, I feel.

It helps to know what you like and loathe about character portrayal. You will know what you want to achieve and what you want to avoid. This is where reading widely is a must I think for writers, regardless of story length. You do find out likes and dislikes.

When I have small amounts of time in which to write (and today is one of them!), a good writing exercise to try is just to jot down titles, opening lines, closing lines etc. You can then come back to these when you have more time. The time away will give you the break you need to evaluate these ideas properly and which ones are worth your writing up and which ones are not.

For titles, I like to keep things open. I like to be able to take titles in more than one direction so I can then decide which mood I’d like to go for.

For example, my story Bypassing The System (Tripping the Flash Fantastic), I could take in several ways by working out which system, who is doing the bypassing, and are they doing this for criminal or more honourable intentions. Not going to say which way I went on this one but I do like to have manoeuvre room with my titles. I find it triggers even more ideas. That I always welcome!

Fairytales with Bite – Birthdays and Other Celebrations

This is a timely post as this will go out on my birthday. Looking forward to seeing friends and family soon too.

In fiction, my favourite birthday celebration is that of Bilbo Baggins at the beginning of The Lord of the Rings. Say what you like about Gandalf, he knew how to do fireworks! Also hobbits know how to throw a good party.

For your own characters, and the settings in which you’ve placed them, are birthdays marked in any way? Are celebrations only saved for “official” events and is everyone expected to take part in those, whether they like it or not?

If private celebrations do happen, are they similar to what we would have or are parties etc literally not of this world and what forms would they take? What would the food and drink be like?

Who would your characters invite to events? Who would they leave out? Bear in mind that can have consequences. See Sleeping Beauty for more on that one.

Could you use a celebration event as the trigger for a story? If you use a birthday here, what would happen to your character(s) between one celebration and the next?

This World and Others – Public Gatherings

Following on from Fairytales with Bite, does your setting allow for public gatherings? Are these strictly regulated or not? Who administers such regulations? What forms do public gatherings take?

Also give some thought as to what events those in power would want there to be public gatherings for. What would be the history behind these? How to the authorities persuade folk to to? Does anyone resist that?

Are there public events which are not celebrated or remembered but which should be and are kept suppressed by the authorities because they fear public reaction to them? What would happen if someone broke the mould here?

Give some thought too as to how public gatherings are organised. Is there a police force overseeing everything? What would happen if things went wrong? What would cause a public gathering to go wrong? Who would be behind it and what are they trying to do?

Story ideas here for sure!

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Screenshot 2024-03-22 at 15-24-20 Writers' Narrative April 2024

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Doing Right, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/ggtJZXdrKc Doing Right is my first entry for the Andrew Siderius competition FFF are running at the moment. My next tale will have to be eligible for the longer word count section. Good luck to all taking part. pic.twitter.com/KIfKFKVAC6
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 22, 2024

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PowerPoint https://t.co/DWPMOPRDFS I discuss PowerPoint for CFT this time. It is an odd thing to have something come back into use after a period away from it. With the advent of Zoom, PowerPoint has come back into its own. Combined, they are great for presentations.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 22, 2024

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Delighted to say the April Writers’ Narrative is now out. Just in time for the perfect weekend read! The theme is editing. My piece is called Editing – Do You Love It or Loathe It? There is a wealth of excellent advice here on what can be a thorny topic. https://t.co/CXVYIQtqO2
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 22, 2024

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Resting Stories and What ARE your characters like?

February 13, 2024Leave a comment

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Image Credits:- All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good weekend. Had one of those lovely weekends where I was out in the garden and managed to get lots of writing done. Lady has had a good start to her week, seeing her two closest girlfriends on Monday. It is smashing to see them get on so well. When we’re leaving the park, it does look a bit like “the girls are back in town” as the three dogs walk together!

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Drizzly all day. Never worries Lady though she didn’t get to see her chums today.

In happier news (Lady misses her pals when they’re not in the park), I’ll be running a two part course on editing at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick in August. So looking forward to that but I will also be offering 1:1 sessions during that week too. My topics are flash fiction and editing (general tips). See screenshot for more information. Looking forward to this too.

My attitudes to editing became far more positive on realising good edits make all the difference to being published or not. Prior to that, I’d just seen it as a chore. Now I see it as part of the overall creative process but do find I have to get the story written (or blog post) and then edit later. I can’t do the two tasks at the same time. That just doesn’t work for me.

Screenshot 2024-02-13 at 16-54-38 Tutor 1 1 Sessions Swanwick School

Screenshot 2024-02-13 at 16-54-12 Tutor 1 1 Sessions Swanwick School

Hope you have had a good start to your week. Lady got to see and play with her two best buddies, so she has had a good start to her week. Crocuses are starting to spring up. Lovely to see that.

Writing Tip: Think about what your characters like in terms of what they like to eat and drink, do they appreciate the natural world, what kind of music do they like etc. Also think about what they loathe.

Now put them in a situation where they have to put up with what they loathe, they have no choice. How do they handle this? How do they get out the situation which has landed them in it? Good story possibilities there. Could also take this in a humorous way or a more serious one so give some thought as to what mood you want to convey here.

Today has been lovely. Nice church service. Sunny, a bit warmer than recently, and more signs of spring on the way. Love days like this. Lady does too.

Don’t forget my next author newsletter will be out on 1st March. How quickly February whizzes by! To sign up for news, tips, links to stories etc., do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com and I will just say many thanks to all of my subscribers. Support much appreciated!

Writing Tip: I’ve talked before about resting stories before editing them but how long should a rest period be? There is no one straight answer to this but I’ve found a couple of days is another for a flash fiction piece.

I tend to rest a longer short story (1500 words upwards) for a week or so. The advice I’ve come across for novelists is to leave your work for at least a month. The reason for resting any kind of story is so you can “escape its world” for a while and when you come back to you will see the tale with fresh eyes, as if coming to it for the first time. That is the way to be objective about your stories.

Hope you have had a good weekend so far. At least it’s dry today in my part of the world. Managed to get out and do some gardening. Had a lovely task today – to proofread my three stories which will be in The Best of CafeLit 13. That was a joy to do!

I’m looking at Writing Themes and Saints’ Days for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. What on earth is the link there and how can writers make use of it? I will share all on Friday. Looking forward to sharing that. Ideas come from a wide range of sources and this post is an example of one that came as a surprise to me but I trust the post will prove useful to other writers.

Have had a good week. I’ve submitted another story to a different market. Will say more assuming I hear more though this may not be for some time. I followed my own advice and, having checked things out and being happy with what I found, I figured I had nothing to lose. Didn’t cost anything either. There are good reputable free to enter competitions and markets out there. It is just a question of finding them.

In this case, it was from a tweet I saw and I then followed it up. Have done this kind of thing before but previously, on checking things out, I found something I wasn’t comfortable with so didn’t go further with it.

Never be afraid to walk away from a market or competition if you are not entirely happy with it. There are others out there with which you will be happy. You need to think a little longer term here and think along the lines of would I be happy with my work appearing here. If the answer is not an emphatic yes, do walk away.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Many thanks for the views coming in on Likely Story, my latest YouTube story which I posted yesterday. (See below). Much appreciated. Subscribers to my channel are always welcome.

I love creating the flash tales here. I use Book Brush to help with creating the video itself and then use YouTube’s own vast library of audio tracks (free to use etc) to add music. But I create and edit the story itself first. Sometimes I have to think laterally to come up with a suitable video background but that is always a good challenge!

Screenshot 2024-02-13 at 20-06-47 Allison Symes - YouTube

It’s Monday. It’s slowly getting lighter in the evenings where I am. Hooray! More spring flowers emerging. Double hooray! Still Monday though. Still time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Likely Story.

I’ve occasionally started two flash fiction pieces with a similar opening line. See Mishaps and Jumping Time in Tripping the Flash Fantastic. These stories were written together, are meant to follow on from one another, and were fun to do. It meant I could take the character I created for Mishaps, the first story, and get even more use out of him for the second story!

As both of these are humorous tales, there was more fun to be had with two tales rather than just the one. They also worked better as two stories rather than one, there was a natural end point for the first story, which gave me a good start for the second one.

I had in mind from the start how these two stories would look on the printed page later, naturally hoping they would make it into print! It is no coincidence one is on the left page and the other on the right either. Layout can sometimes help your stories have more of an impact too.

So this is another aspect to flash fiction you could use. If you have a character you love, put them in more than one story. Use that to help you sort out your running order for your book in due course. It will flag up to a publisher and future readers this is a deliberate use of the same character.

Also to get the most impact from two or more stories with one “star”, that impact will be the greater for keeping the tales together.

One of the things I love about writing for Friday Flash Fiction is that I am effectively given a weekly challenge to produce new writing to a 100 word count. So I do! The themes I can set, it is just the word count which is fixed, and I know now, after a lot of experience, 100 words looks like two to three short paragraphs. You can see what I mean via the link.

I find being able to visualise what the word count looks like enormously helpful. I know I’ve got two paragraphs and the second one of those has to wrap the story up. The first one, of course, reveals what the story is so there, straight away, I have a story structure in place. Love that too.

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Screenshot 2024-02-09 at 09-56-05 Horizons by Allison Symes

Goodreads Author Blog – Themes in Stories

Do you have favourite themes for stories? I think mostly this is an unconscious thing. I know I like to see justice done, to name one example of a theme, so this is one reason why I love the classic fairytales, where it generally is done.

I also like crime novels where justice is done. (It is one reason why I love the Agatha Christie books).I don’t like the ones where justice is perverted. But I pick the fairytale or crime novel to read based on what I can read of the plot outline and then decide whether it is for me or not. It is funny though how favourite themes do come out time and again in what I choose to read.

As for themes I like to write to, I do like the character who turns out to be more than what others expected. Again I’ve got fairytales to thank for that one, especially The Ugly Duckling by Hans Christen Andersen. It is a good lesson in not judging by appearances, another theme I love reading about/writing for.

The best stories do have timeless themes behind them. Writers will always have something to say about these things. These themes will always have resonance with readers. Certain things about us as a species will not change which is why these themes resonate and why they make such great stories.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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In the run up to St. Valentine’s Day, I thought looking at the theme of love for our stories, blog posts etc would be apt. Love takes many forms – romantic, sacrificial, love for an ideal and so on. What will your take be on the theme? pic.twitter.com/qjaoM1RiHk
— ACW (@ACW1971) February 10, 2024

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Themes In Stories https://t.co/KO81XkcCnq via @goodreads For Goodreads this week, I look at why themes are such an important part of the stories we love reading and often they come through unconsciously. pic.twitter.com/HCoRmI1Lrx
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 10, 2024

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Love can also lead to second chances for characters who have made mistakes. Interesting stories could come from showing what those mistakes are, what your characters learn from them, and how they go on to do better. pic.twitter.com/2EDrBFKhxn
— ACW (@ACW1971) February 11, 2024

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For non-fiction, you could always write blogs on the stories surrounding St. Valentine. Then how about the factual stories of those who invent things to benefit mankind and they do that out of love for humanity? pic.twitter.com/EWfwRfY8uX
— ACW (@ACW1971) February 12, 2024

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It’s Monday. It’s slowly getting lighter in the evenings where I am. Hooray! More spring flowers emerging. Double hooray! Still Monday though. Still time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube -Likely Story.https://t.co/YmznGTpiks
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 12, 2024

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Thanks for the views on Likely Story, my new YouTube story. Subscribers to my channel are always welcome. I use Book Brush to create the video and use YouTube’s library of audio tracks (free to use) to add music. I create and edit the story itself first.https://t.co/UABhvVRjC1
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 13, 2024

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The Joys of Writing Dialogue

January 5, 2024Leave a comment

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Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. A huge thank you to fellow author friends for taking various publicity shots of me last year. Much appreciated and said shots are being put to good use!

Well, the New Year in the UK has got off to a very stormy start. Hope you are all okay. Plenty of flooding and high winds in my part of the world. Have well and truly christened the new boots received for Christmas!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

My first Chandler’s Ford Today post for the New Year is all about The Joys of Writing Dialogue. I love getting my characters to talk but I do have to ensure what I get them to say is relevant to their story and moves the tale on in some way. Otherwise there is a risk of conversational ping-pong which gets in the way of a good, pacy story.

I share thoughts and tips on what I’ve found useful in writing dialogue. I also share why knowing your character types helps with this aspect of writing too. Hope you enjoy the post and find it helpful.

The Joys of Writing Dialogue

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Hope you are all okay. Stormy weather today. Enjoyed my swim but that was the only occasion today when I welcomed getting wet. Even Lady didn’t like the heavy rain and it was very heavy. Did our walk in record time this afternoon!

Another reason to love creative writing – it is something you can do in the dry! Talking of which, I will be sharing The Joys of Writing Dialogue for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above.

My interview with Val Penny will be Friday week so plenty of good things to look forward to (and I hope you enjoy reading them in the dry!).

Will be having a busy weekend looking at some drafts for competitions. Deadlines are in February but I follow my own advice to get my entries in at least ten days before said deadline, having gone through my scripts several times. Yes, even for flash. It’s amazing how typos can get through several edits.

The one consolation here is this happens to every writer but I know to look out for this and my final edit on anything is to specifically look for these. So I set myself dates where I will have an edit to check the story works done by a set date, then I will have another edit a few days later to ensure I am still happy with the plot and go through for errors. Then a few days later still I do my final edit for typos and get the story submitted. Then off to the next story!

The weather was a complete contrast with yesterday. Lady and I didn’t get wet at all. She did get to see her best pal, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, and a riotous time was had by both of them.

Am looking forward to interviewing Val Penny for Chandler’s Ford Today again soon on her book of short stories. More details nearer the time but did I want to quiz a novelist about switching to the short form? You bet I did! All sorts of questions arose from that which I look forward to sharing later, along with Val’s answers.

Writing Tip: Never worry about rubbish first drafts. That’s the point of a first draft. You just get the story down and tidy up later. Nobody ever writes a perfect first draft. Shakespeare didn’t either. There is some consolation in that thought, I think!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s great to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my first story for 2024 called, aptly, A New Start. Find out if Gemma does actually have her own new start this time. Hope you enjoy the tale (and many thanks to those of you who have already commented on this one).

Sometimes I use a theme as a title. One example of this is The Power of Suggestion in Tripping The Flash Fantastic. I get my character to show how the power of suggestion changed their life and whether it was for the good or not. Themes are fantastic hooks for stories and I like the thought of having a double whammy here by using them as titles as well.

Writing Thought: Why not write down a list of your favourite themes (and this can include proverbs and sayings too) and pick one or two to write stories up for? Think about your favourite films, TV shows, books etc – is there a common theme or two behind what you like most?

I’m attracted to the thought of people not always being what they seem (this is a classic idea in fairytales) so the moment I came across Strider in The Lord of the Rings, I did guess correctly there was more to this character than was apparent. I also thought this was true for Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series.

So do I write stories where characters are not all they seem to be? Oh yes! Simply because it is a theme I care about and working out what those are for you can be a great place to start when looking for new story ideas.

There are several good reasons to have a try at the flash fiction and short story competitions.

Firstly, these are excellent ways to practice writing to deadlines.

Secondly, following the submission rules (and these do vary) gets you some useful practice in following any future guidelines on submissions of longer work.

Thirdly, if you are long or short listed or win or get a runner’s up spot, all of this makes for excellent material to put on your writing CV. This is especially true when you are submitting longer work. It will show a publisher/agent someone else judged your material to be of a standard to get any of those placings.

Fourthly, you get in useful practice in sticking to word counts. This is especially true of the flash fiction competitions where there are those who want you to write to an exact word count. Not one word more. Not one word less. It is a good idea, when you’re drafting flash for future use, to draft some which come in at the 250, 300, and 500 word counts as these are some of the most popular categories I’ve come across for competitions.

Fairytales With Bite –

New Year Acrostic – Tips for Visitors to the Magical World

N = Never underestimate a fairy waving a wand.

E = Expect the worst if you come across a witch with a cauldron as she is highly unlikely to worry about your health and safety.

W = When visiting a magical world, expect strange creatures but the good thing is they’ll think you’re odd too.

Y = Your three wishes, if you are fortunate enough to get any, cannot be extended or transferred.

E = Expect high moral standards here, even with strange creatures about – greed is generally looked down on, for example.

A = Always treat anyone you meet with respect – you never know what powers they’ve got and prudence is a good thing here.

R = Restrict yourself to following the proper tour with guide and don’t go wandering off – it won’t end well for you if you do.

This World and Others – Beginnings

At the start of a new year, it is natural to think about beginnings. For fiction, we can look at beginnings for characters but also for settings.

How did your magical world begin? How did it get to where it is now in terms of development? Has the use of magic enhanced your setting or weakened it? Have there been magical wars? Has power had to be controlled to stop chaos erupting?

For example, if magic polluted your world, was there a point when the “bosses” said enough was enough and limited the use of magic to prevent further damage? How did your setting and characters then cope with a new beginning of limited magical use? How difficult was it to adjust?

For your characters, what beginnings have they had to face up to and were these welcome or not? What are they leaving behind so they have their new beginning? Do they have regrets or are they only too glad to have a new start (and what could lead them to feeling that way)?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
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A New Start, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/Q02aOlIHBP It’s great to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my first story for 2024 called, aptly, A New Start. Find out if Gemma does have her own new start this time. Hope you enjoy the tale. pic.twitter.com/jIbEAlhMH6
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 5, 2024

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The Joys of Writing Dialogue https://t.co/FPHNh3Crjr My first CFT post for 2024 is The Joys of Writing Dialogue. I love getting my characters to talk but must ensure what I get them to say is relevant and moves the tale on in some way. I share tips on what I’ve found useful here.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 5, 2024

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Book Buying, Past Stories, and Imaginative Advertising

November 21, 2023Leave a comment

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 had a good weekend. Happily drafting plenty of flash stories and some of those written for Flash NANO this time, I’ve already got some ideas as to where I can try placing them. There is also a competition I would like to try before the end of the year too. Am so glad writing is an indoors activity. Weather has been a right mix again. It’s a win at the moment if Lady and I come home without being soaked.

Facebook – General

Brrr… it’s cold today. Often when I swim, if it’s cold outside, the pool feels lovely by comparison. Not today. Cold outside and in the water. Fine when I got swimming though. I swear it’s done on purpose to make you get a move on in the pool. It worked today on me, that’s all I can say.

I’ll be talking about Editing Tips on Friday for Chandler’s Ford Today. I’ll be looking at my approach to editing (which I go into more detail about when I run my workshops on the topic). I see it as part of the creative process. Good editing is what will make the difference to your story being accepted or placed somewhere or not. I also discuss editing on screen and on paper. Looking forward to sharing that later in the week.

One of the joys of writing for CFT is coming up with interesting questions for interviewees. I had a lovely time doing this recently and am looking forward to receiving the replies back from the people concerned! I’ve also learned a lot from author interviews I’ve read or listened to, which is another reason to love them.

Hope you had a good weekend. Leaves coming off the trees at an incredibly fast rate right now. Lady is a bit wary of this time of year only because of the chestnut husks down. She picks her way through delicately but every so often she has to stop and I have to take a husk out of her pads, poor thing. It is like walking on needles. These are better after some rain funnily enough as they then soften.

Can’t believe we’re almost at the two-thirds mark of Flash NANO for another year. Am happily drafting other flash pieces too as I have a competition in mind I want to have a go at and other places I’d like send something into so busy, busy. Am also hoping to be interviewing other authors for Chandler’s Ford Today again before too long.

Must admit some imaginative writing caught my eye today on the packet of the coffee I get for my other half. It’s a new brand to him, as his usual wasn’t in stock. Usually coffee is graded for how strong it is, right? Well this one says “it will kick you THIS hard” and then shows you a star rating. I must admit I liked that. There was also a reference to “if you’re a nerd, you could do…” which made me grin. Great advertising too. Someone somewhere gave great thought to this and it is a great lesson in how to make the usually boring bits much more interesting!

Hope the weekend is being kind to you. Blustery weather here. Lady made a new friend today, a long-haired dachshund called Olive. Lovely to see them running around together. Olive is amazingly fast. Too tired dogs went home. Job done.

I was talking about Book Buying in my Authors Electric post yesterday. Today I’ve ordered my first Christmas presents – books, of course. Feel reasonably virtuous!

Writing Tip: Don’t give up on past stories. I’ve often had a look at past work which hadn’t got anywhere at the time I wrote them. With a good distance of time away from these, I’ve been able to fix flaws and get them out again. Some have gone on to be published.

So it is worth every so often going through your unplaced work and seeing if there is something you can do with them now. Also even if you can’t use the whole story, there may be a character you like you could put into another story or a piece of dialogue worth noting for future use.

Am pleased to be back on Authors Electric talking about a subject close to us all – Book Buying! Is book buying for others fraught with difficulties or do you just get them to give you a list? The only problem with the latter is any element of surprise has gone, of course.

I also ask whether books chosen for you, where you have not known in advance what is coming, have proved to be a fabulous surprise or not. I take the chance to put in a good word for the annual.

Confession time: I have got my list of book requirements for Christmas ready – you’re not really surprised by that, are you?

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good day and kept warm. It’s bitterly cold in my part of the world at the moment, not that Lady noticed when she ran around the park this morning!

Many thanks for the lovely comments coming in on Maisie, my most recent tale (or should that be tail?) on Friday Flash Fiction. See what my dog character makes of the ending of the world in this story.

It’s Monday. It’s dark way too early in my part of the world. It’s cold. It’s Monday. It’s time for a story. Hope you enjoy Drumming Up Business, my latest on YouTube. What would you do if you found jam doughnuts deliberately smashed around your property? Find out what my character makes of it here.

I sometimes write poetic justice tales. I love these. It’s always a joy bringing down a character who deserves that or who finds a way to right a wrong. One of these is The Circle of Life in From Light to Dark and Back Again, where my character makes it clear what they think about animal cruelty and what they intend doing to stop their fellow villagers carrying on with their wrong behaviour. My character’s plan would work too.

This kind of story really does need the ending worked out first because having figured out what my character was going to do to fix things, I could then work back to the beginning to show readers what it was that needed fixing in the first place. It also meant I knew I had my structure in place for this tale immediately. Knowing that always gives my confidence a boost and that helps. It helps me get that first draft down quickly. I then come back to it later to tighten it up.

Hope you are having a good weekend. Perfect day to be indoors writing and editing, to be honest. Talking of the latter, I will be discussing Editing Tips for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. More to come on that during the week though I will say now it helps to think of editing as part of the overall creative process. It really is given good editing will strengthen your work and give it more of a chance “out there”.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers’ Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom later this month. Always good fun and we all get some useful drafts done during the session, yes me too. I make sure of that. I prepare my exercise types in advance but not my answers so to speak. I want to draft these on the night as the others are drafting theirs.

Have started drafting a festive flash fiction story. Always love writing these but it needs honing. Mind you, all stories do, but I’ve never minded this since realising this side of things is just as much a part of the creative process as is getting the first draft down.

Goodreads Author Blog – What I Get From Reading?

What I get from reading is a leading question if ever there was one. Where to start is the question here for me.

Firstly, there is the entertainment factor. I love to escape into other worlds with books (literally if I’m reading fantasy or science fiction). Escaping your own cares for a while is something that should not be undervalued.

Secondly, books and stories introduce you to a wide range of characters. You follow their stories, their dilemmas, you work out whether you would have done or said what they did or said. Empathy is encouraged. You can also learn from what not to do here (and many comic works are fabulous at this. There is always a character who will give you a good laugh because they get it wrong).

Thirdly, there is education, especially from the non-fiction world, but you take this in via a user-friendly medium. I can put my feet up with a good book, a cup of something lovely and nibbles, and learn. Sometimes what I learn can inspire story ideas of my own. I often get a spark of inspiration for a fiction idea from reading something in non-fiction.

Fourthly, books are relatively inexpensive. You can keep them and read them many times over. I do. You can borrow from the library. You can read via ebooks, which are cheaper than paperbacks etc. There is at least one book format out there to suit you.

Fifthly, it is the perfect entertainment when the weather is lousy. Curling up with a good book is such a great idea!

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Bound to be some fabulous stories in here

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Authors Electric: Book Buying by Allison Symes https://t.co/EBPzlXYXc6 Am pleased to be on AE talking about a subject close to us all – Book Buying! Is book buying for others difficult or do you get them to give you a list? My list for Christmas is ready – no surprises there! pic.twitter.com/RnGc1xbnLC
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 18, 2023

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: What Do I Get From Reading? https://t.co/TufWogGeCO via @goodreads This is a topic from the heart! I talk about what I get from reading for Goodreads this week. pic.twitter.com/z4TKuW6OC2
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 18, 2023

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Do you bring the seasons into your writing? Festive flash fiction is about it for seasonal writing from me. If you use the seasons, do you have a favourite? Think about what aspects to use too. Will it be the weather or events associated with the season you’ll use? pic.twitter.com/J9oYKp0RaS
— ACW (@ACW1971) November 18, 2023

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The joy of festive flash fiction is I can take it in different directions including humour. I have had Santa face a strike by his elves on Christmas Eve, for example. Consider your story’s mood. What impact will your tales, seasonal or otherwise, have on readers? pic.twitter.com/Oms7nJuHxA
— ACW (@ACW1971) November 19, 2023

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I’m relishing Flash NANO again (30 prompts in November). There is no word count requirement except the classic flash one of 1000 words maximum. Mine are at 300-500 words. I should have 30 drafted which I will edit and submit. Try writing challenges like this. They stretch you. pic.twitter.com/iMRTQdN5M9
— ACW (@ACW1971) November 20, 2023

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It’s Monday. It’s dark. It’s cold. It’s Monday. It’s time for a story. Hope you enjoy Drumming Up Business, my latest on YouTube. What would you do if you found jam doughnuts smashed around your property? Find out what my character makes of it here.https://t.co/qVK4NQ0Lw0
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 20, 2023

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