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?
Facebook – General
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).
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.
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
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.
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!
MailerLite – Allison Symes – Newsletter Sign Up
WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK
AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsliked 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
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsIt’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
Allison Symes: Collected Works 