Tag: flash focus

Curling Up With A Good Book

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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 for you. Okay here. Writing wise, am making good progress on my next author newsletter, have sent some pitches off last week, and am continuing to blog, edit, and write flash fiction – all good stuff. I think it’s sometimes easier to write more as we go into autumn and winter – less temptation to be outside!

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Hope today has been a good one. Lady didn’t get to see any doggie pals today but she did see some human ones so was pleased about that and is looking forward to catching up with her four legged chums tomorrow.

There is one more big flash competition I want to have a go at (deadline is the end of the year) but am hoping something I will draft for Flash NANO (which starts on 1st November) this year may prove to be a good fit for it. Will have to wait and see. What I do draft this year will be an excellent start to my fourth flash fiction collection in due course.

Hope you have had a good day. Lady’s week has got off to a flying start as she met up with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals. Lady and her Ridgeback pal has a lovely play fight, which they both loved. Given Lady is coming up 9 and her pal is 7, they are both still pups at heart.

Writing wise, one of the joys of being interviewed is of course to talk about your work and what you love about it in depth. One fabulous question I was asked by Wendy H Jones in the October 2025 issue of Writers’ Narrative was about whether short form fiction allowed for more experimentation in voice and form.

Do check out the interview for my reply (screenshot below gives a taster) but it was great to share something of what I love about the short forms of fiction and, in a separate question, what drew me to it in the first place.

Hope Sunday has been a good and peaceful one for you. Not bad here. Looking forward to starting flash fiction Sunday soon. Nice way to end the week (or begin the next one, either works!).

Writing Tip: When you come across (as you will) a story which didn’t work for you, take some time out to figure out why this was. You will learn a great deal from this.

I know there are certain types of character I don’t like having read some of them in stories which didn’t grip me at all, so I take care not to produce that kind of character myself. I’ve found it helps just as much to know what you don’t like as it does knowing what you do when it comes to your own writing.

Hope you have had a good start to your weekend. Managed to get the lawn cut (and before it shoots up too high again ) so I count that as a win.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Ending a Piece of Fiction as a nice conclusion to my mini-series started yesterday with Starting a Piece of Fiction. The new post will be up on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday.

It was lovely to finish the working week with a nice surprise. Naturally, I was thrilled to be one of the two Editor’s Choices for Friday Flash Fiction this week with my Finding Out the Hard Way.

Delighted Jim Bartlett was the other pick for his Safer. Many a word of truth in that one. Do check the stories out on FFF. You can be guaranteed a good read. Link below to my one which appeared yesterday.

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One tip I find useful for competitions with a specific word count (e.g. 53 words, 75 words etc – and I have come across these) is to instantly reserve up to five words for the title. I then know a rough count for the story itself.

If I end up having a shorter title, I can add a couple of words to the story. Often I don’t bother. I see having those “spare words” as a safety net to ensure I am well under the count asked for though there are places which want you to get to the exact limit. In these cases, I know immediately how many words I need to put into the story to bring it up to the right count.

It’s Monday. It’s as hectic as ever. It’s time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Giving It A Miss.

A justly beautiful tourist destination, popular with colleagues, who only visit at a certain time of year leads to my character finding out why. She isn’t planning a return visit. Find out why here.

 

It won’t be too long before I take part in the last Flash NANO. I will be sorry to see that go. I’ve found it so useful for producing 30 draft flash pieces in November for the last few years. Some of those went on to be published (and some will be in my Seeing The Other Side collection due out in May 2026).

I’m looking forward to meeting up with other members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group at the ACW in person meeting at the end of this month. It will be nice to step outside our Zoom boxes for a bit. Naturally, we will all be waving the flag for the joys of writing flash fiction!

When I write to a specific word count, as I do for Friday Flash Fiction, the additional challenge of sticking to 100 words each time is coming up with something fresh and different every time, which can still be contained in that tight word limit.

I have found it useful to focus on one character and one moment. It makes me think about what matters so much to my character it has to be written up as a story. Flash is excellent for helping you develop a real feel for what matters here and that’s a good discipline to take across to other forms of writing as well. I’ve found it useful with my blog posts and articles too.

Goodreads Author Blog – Curling Up With A Good Book

One of the joys of the autumn and winter seasons is you get to have more opportunities to curl up with a good book., Okay, I do have to go out with the dog (which is fine) but when you have the chance to just grab a book and not go out in the cold and wet, you’re going to take it, yes?

As the nights draw in, I will often turn to my favourite forms of comfort reading, which is on the lighter side of fiction. There is enough “grim” going on in the world for real for me to want to read more of it in a book, I’m afraid.

Dystopian fiction has never been my thing and it certainly isn’t now. I’m all for books which address issues because they can meet so many needs. For one thing, they can draw attention to those issues and make people think about them.

But I will admit with not having as much reading time as I would like, I am going to focus on an entertaining read. That takes in many genres, funnily enough.

For me, one definition of a good book is it is one that takes my mind off things for a short while and with characters I can root for and come to care about.

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Back issue time as I’ve shared the October 2025 edition above. Hope you also enjoy the issue below and remember it is free to subscribe.

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Favourite Aspects of Writing

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you had a good weekend. Had a lovely time with family for a family birthday. Lady had a smashing time. Lots of cuddles, extra food, and she just adores being with people. One shattered but happy dog at the end of the evening! Writing going well and will have another workshop to do in November which I’m looking forward to doing. Not that far away now. I can hardly believe we’re into October already.

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It’s hard to say what is my favourite thing about writing.

For fiction, I love coming up with characters. Always did like the idea of inventing my own people/other beings of choice. This is from a woman who has written from the viewpoint of a mother dragon, mind you!

For non-fiction, I love it when an idea for a blog post sparks other ideas and I know the post will end up being useful and I hope entertaining too. I am so glad the days of dull but worthy non-fiction works has finally bitten the dust. Not before time. I recall going to libraries as a child and the non-fiction section contained rows of huge encylopedias and the like. Wasn’t going to encourage me to read there – and I loved reading back then just as much as I do now.

I think most people have creative skill. It’s a question of working out what it is and then deciding if you want to develop it or not. I can’t draw. I can sing. I can’t dance. I can write. There has to be a creative outlet somewhere – or at least there has to be for me and writing is it.

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Lady got to play with her two special girlfriends, the Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler, today. Great time had by all. Missed the thunder and heavy rain thankfully – that came in later. Lady thankfully isn’t frightened of storms but she doesn’t like them either. Her policy is to get up and move to what she considers to be the safest room in the house. Once she’s done that, she’s happy again!

Many thanks for the comments coming in on The Old Days, my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction. Have you been to a school reunion? See what my characters make of their one in this story.
Screenshot 2023-09-29 at 10-11-20 The Old Days by Allison Symes

Wow! October already. Author newsletter out earlier today. I share some thoughts on finding ideas this time along with the usual news and story links. Hope you enjoy.

Will be celebrating the joys of The Writing Community for Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. Looking forward to sharing that post on Friday.

It was fantastic to catch up with my lovely editor here, Janet Williams, in person yesterday. Great to have a good chat and I am looking forward to seeing Wyrd Sisters with her to be performed by The Chameleon Theatre Group towards the end of the month.

It will be the first time I’ve seen a Discworld play and given the story is such a strong one, I just know the play will be something special. Plan to review in due course for CFT.

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Posting at a different time today as have a family birthday do. Lady loves these events. Everyone makes a good fuss of her and she usually gets more snacks than usual. It isn’t even her birthday! See photo above! Fab time doesn’t begin to cover it…

What events would your characters want to celebrate? If your story is in a fantasy/sci-fi setting, are birthdays celebrated as we know them or is the date of birth considered irrelevant? Could they consider the day someone graduates to be more important, for example? What events would characters be compelled to honour in some way, whether that compulsion is imposed by family, friends, the wider society, or the government?

There needs to be a sense your characters have a life away from your story. You can imagine Character X going to school even if that is not part of the tale. Characters will have memories so what would they consider important enough to recall?

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Hope you have had a good day. One of my favourite writing exercises is to jot down promising opening lines I will flesh out at a later date. I often use odd pockets of time for this and the great thing is when I have more time at my desk I’ve already got ideas to think about.

If an opening line still grips me a couple of weeks or so after I drafted it, I then run with it. I outline my character and work out how that opening line would apply to them. That nearly always sparks the kind of story they would have to be in for this to happen. Basic story structure in place and away I go with my first draft.

My opening line from Seeing Is Believing (Tripping The Flash Fantastic) reads When Ben was unwell, strange signs appeared in the sky above his house. That was fun to flesh out! I worked out who Ben was (not all of this is in the story. Only I needed to know it). I also worked out from that why strange signs would be associated with him. Then I was away on my first draft.

As I am writing flash and short stories a lot, I am always looking for ways into character creation. I also like mixing up the kinds of writing exercise I use. It keeps me on my toes and they all generate ideas.

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It’s Monday. Autumn is really coming in now with the dark evenings starting in my part of the world as early as 7 pm. It’s still Monday. There has been heavy rain. Dog really wished it hadn’t thundered, though not scared of it. (She just moves to what she thinks is the safest part of the world and treats it as an inconvenience!). Definitely time for a story then. Hope you enjoy Escape, my latest on YouTube. One of my darker tales, this one.

 

Amazon have an offer on the paperback of From Light to Dark and Back Again. Details in the link below. A fantastic review here refers to FLTDBA as “An eclectic mix of flash fiction, from an author with a great imagination.” I always appreciate reviews received and it is a great way to give some feedback to an author.

So please do consider leaving reviews. My example above proves it doesn’t have to be long. As well as being an obvious morale boost, reviews can help authors with their marketing. I review too – and not just on books.

I do a fair amount of online shopping and I always check the reviews out on products new to me. I find them a useful guide. And yes I am a great believer in reviewing and being reviewed – to me it is only right to be on both sides of the coin here!


Posting outside usual times due to family commitments (nice ones!). Flash has to focus on moments. Events are often held around a specific moment such as a birthday in a character’s life or an event considered to be important if it is some sort of ceremony. Can you use this as a backdrop to your tale?

If it is meant to be central, your flash tale will focus on why an event is important to your character but you can’t go on at length. So hone down your event to a specific thing your character is focussed on – an outline for your story will come from that.

If the event is a birthday, your character may wish to focus on the cake. Maybe they never had one before? Maybe their attempts at baking have gone wrong and someone has come to their rescue meaning for once they’re looking forward to eating their birthday cake?

You get the idea. I’ve found figuring out what really matters to my character helps me to write them and their tale up more efficiently.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Books as Presents

I’ve long loved receiving books as presents. Next best thing is receiving book tokens so I can go out and buy my own books later. And I love giving books too. If I’ve loved a book, I can think of nothing more lovely than sharing that experience with a friend by getting them to read the book too.

Paperbacks and audio books are by far the easiest formats to go for and I must admit I love seeing book shaped presents under the Christmas tree. Okay, you can’t really disguise them but why would you want to? The anticipation of discovering what book has been bought for you is great. Don’t want anything spoiling that.

Matching up books with friends is a fun game too (and a nice one). Putting potential book lists together is also a pleasurable task and I will be starting mine soon for the Christmas season. Readers and writers are the easiest people in the world to buy presents for – we always want books. Well done, us!

As for books I’ve received, all are treasured. People have chosen well for me and I appreciate that.

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Using the Senses, Workshops, and Classical Music

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good few days. It was a bank holiday for many of us in the UK and I loved listening to a special classical music chart – more details below. I find writing to classical music effective. There is something about classical which relaxes me and when I relax, I write more (and I hope better!). As far as Lady is concerned, bank holidays mean bonus walks so she is happy.

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Am delighted to be back on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, with my post on Workshops.

I share thoughts on what I look for from a workshop I go to as a delegate. I especially check out the workshop leader’s background in the topic they’re sharing. This should never be difficult to find out by the way!

I am so grateful for all I have learned from workshops and will continue to do so. They are a good thing and I am glad Zoom has made more workshops possible.

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For those of you who had a bank holiday today, I hope it went well. Bank holidays are a bit odd for me as I get on with the jobs I would usually do on a Monday anyway. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today so it was a normal day for them too!

Mind you, I am enjoying the movie music countdown on the Classic FM Hall of Fame today. I’m rooting for The Lord of the Rings soundtrack to get the number one spot. The soundtrack is perfect for the films. There is everything from opera to Enya on there and it all suits the story so brilliantly.

Talking of music, do you listen to any while you write? I find classical to be soothing and when I’m relaxed, I just get on and write. Sometimes I will hear a piece of music and think that might suit Character X whom I’ve just written about. That’s a good sign. If the characters seem real enough to me to have tastes in music, they’ll seem real enough to readers too.

So working out what your characters are likely to love and/or loathe is a good way to find out more about them and as a result you will write their stories up knowing you know your character well enough to do justice to their tales.

I find it helps to think of it as being “their” tales too. I don’t want my authors’ voice intruding. It is the character which holds my interest in any story I read. I want to find out what happens to them so I take the same approach with my own stories.

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Hope you have had a lovely weekend. Will be talking about Workshops in my More than Writers post for the Association of Christian Writers. That will be up on Tuesday. See above. Can hardly believe the end of next week will see us into September, mind you.

Writing Tip: It has often been said about using all of the senses in your writing. It is a great idea but don’t shoehorn these things for the sake of it as that never works.

If I need a character to eat something, I may well slip in something about how much they loved or loathed the texture of their food etc. Or, even more likely, mention the smell of it. But I won’t get a character to eat something just so I can get the use of another sense into my story.

Everything in your story has to be in there for a good reason. The story should lose something important if you were to take that something out. I’ve found this to be a useful way of gauging whether I do need something in the tale or not.

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Strange day weather wise – a right old mix. Still I guess it prepares us for autumn with September just around the corner. I’ll be talking about Autumnal Joys for Chandler’s Ford Today next week so it’s timely! I don’t do a lot of seasonal writing – my autumn post for CFT and my festive flash fiction writing is about it.

I’ve talked about knowing your character well before but you could consider, as part of the getting to know them process, what they make of the seasons and why they hold the feelings they do. You do get people who love autumn and those who loathe it.

My late grandmother hated it. Always thought it was the season when everything died. I do love it as I see it as the colour change season (leaves etc) and things getting ready for a rest period (winter) and then coming back (spring). You can’t have the spring without the autumn and the winter before it.

This in turn could lead you to thinking about whether your character is generally optimistic or not and what kind of problems their overall attitude to life could cause them. There would be story ideas there.
I thought I’d share one of my autumn stories from a while back. Hope you enjoy it.

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Don’t forget my author newsletter is due out again on Friday. I share links to my online flash stories here as well as useful writing advice and the latest news from me. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com and many thanks to all who have subscribed. Much appreciated.

I’ll be talking about Autumnal Joys for my Chandler’s Ford Today post on Friday. Autumn is a busy season writing wise and I have various things to look forward to, culminating in the Bridge House Publishing celebration event in December. I hope to have further publication news soon too.

One good thing about the darker evenings is they do encourage you to stay at your desk and write! Have resumed working on a long term project and it has been great to get back to that so I hope to make good progress on this over the next few months.


It’s a Bank Holiday Monday where I am but it still remains at heart a Monday, that day of the week which can fill people with dread. Time for a story then. Hope you enjoy my latest tale on YouTube – Bobbing for Apples. A bit early for an autumnal story, I hear you cry? Hmm.. Given the weather has taken a distinctly autumnal turn where I am, I thought I’d get ahead of the game here!


Flash illuminates one moment in time but has such a powerful impact because of that. I use that aspect of flash fiction writing to work out whether I want to write a funny story, a sad one, or what have you. I then work out how I can best achieve this.

I focus on one character, one moment for any tale which is 500 words or fewer. For the 500 to 1000 bracket, I may have a second character but I always make it clear whose story it is and there has to be a good reason for the second character to be there at all.

Naturally that second character can fall into the helper or villain category where I have made the main character the “good guy”. Where I haven’t, I can flip that around (though I still like to show where my main character is a villain, the second character has severely damaged them and I have to have a good reason for telling the story from the villain’s viewpoint in the first place).

Flash Fiction focuses on THE important aspect of a character's life

Sometimes I use repetition in a flash tale. An example of this is The Wish List from Tripping the Flash Fantastic. Every sentence bar the last one starts with the words I wish. The story builds up until the conclusion. It was fun to do.

Repetition can be useful. It can be used to build up tension, which is what I did in this story. It can be used for emphasis. But it is important you know what you want repetition to achieve for your story. Otherwise you will use up your word count without having good reason to do so.

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Goodreads Author Blog – Fiction – An Acrostic

F = Fabulous characters in a range of settings, past and present and future, in this world and others.

I = Imagination, inventiveness, images created – all gripping stuff.

C = Characters who live on in your memory long after you have read their tales.

T = Truth is often stranger than fiction but the latter can show truths in a way straight reporting cannot and in a more palatable way too.

I = I can get to imagine what I would do if I was in the characters’ shoes – fiction is great for encouraging empathy.

O = On this world, over it, off this world altogether – fiction can take you anywhere.

N = New books, old books, bought books, borrowed books, audio books, ebooks, collections – treasure them all!

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Emotions, Solace, and Books With Meaning

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Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. As you can imagine it has been a strange and sombre week here in the UK following the death of Her Majesty the Queen. Some of my posts below reflect that.

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13th September 2022
The scenes around Buckingham Palace tonight are moving. Especially when you consider the last time there were crowds like that it was for Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. You are and will be much missed, Ma’am.

Portraying emotion in fiction can be tricky. I like to let my characters show you how they’re feeling by what they say (and you will also pick up how they’re saying it from context). Sometimes I use gestures to back that up. I can show you a character pacing up and down for example, muttering to themselves. I can also show them biting their nails. I don’t need to tell you they’re worried. You’d have seen that from what I’ve shown you through them.

I like to build up a character picture with small touches like that. For me that is more realistic. I don’t want”over the top” emotion here because it can spill too easily over into melodrama and that for me is a huge switch off. Why? For me it simply doesn’t feel real. And I have to be convinced by my characters. If I’m not, nobody else will be.

We need to care about the characters we read

12th September 2022
I thought the ceremonies from Scotland today for the late Queen were wonderful and most moving. The Honours of Scotland are beautiful (as is the country. Am not on holiday there this year but did enjoy my visit as part of the Scottish Association of Writers Conference earlier this year).

Many thanks for the comments coming in on On That Day, my latest tale on Friday Flash Fiction. If you missed the story, you can find it here.

I’ll also be discussing Hooks for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday.

Screenshot 2022-09-09 at 09-12-26 On That Day by Allison Symes

11th September 2022
I liked the line up of tractors as a farming salute to the late Queen on Her Majesty’s final journey. I thought that was nicely done – and also the line up of horse riders further down.

Gestures have so much meaning and they are something that can be used in fiction too. Does your lead character have a gesture they use? It doesn’t even have to be a conscious one. A character twiddling with their hair may not be aware they’re doing it but it is an immediate signal that character is nervous about something.

Gestures can be a great way to show and not tell given most gestures are immediately understandable and we can picture the character giving these out.

You can also think about what you would like your character to signal. If it is respect, do they bow their head? Doff their hat? Just say still for a moment when they don’t strictly have to do that? Readers will pick things up from context here too.

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10th September 2022
Music and books are two things that bring great solace to me – the other one is chocolate but that’s not such a healthy option, I admit.

I’ve found bringing my characters to life so I can visualise what their tastes would be and things like that means I write about them with more conviction. So working out things like what would bring them cheer, their minor vices (like chocolate!), and so on can make them seem more real to you. I think something of that does get through to readers as they read your tales.

Using your own tastes can help you work out what your characters might like. I love classical music, my characters might like hard rock, but my taste in music has given me a way in to working out what I need to know about my character. It is the way into a story that matters, I think. Once I’ve got that way in, off I go happily with my first draft.

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Flash captures a moment in a character’s life – the single most important one. This is why it is such a great tool to help you focus on what really matters to your character and to figure out just what story it is they have to share.

I always like to think of these things as my characters’ stories. I don’t want my author voice getting in the way. By taking this view, I am getting into my characters’ heads more effectively and I hope end up writing their stories with more conviction.

I also focus on getting the story down and then working out how I can improve it. I don’t worry about the word count at all until I know I’ve got everything in place and then I can figure out what word count would suit the story best. Often it isn’t what I had in the back of my mind initially but that’s okay. There’s plenty of different markets and competitions for different word counts out there.

Flash Fiction focuses on THE important aspect of a character's life

It’s Monday so time for a story again. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – this one is called Memories.

I like using flash fiction to show moments in a character’s life which are complete stories in and of themselves. They’re just smaller than the ones you see in the magazines. But that’s fine. Sometimes something is best said in 100 words or so than it would be in 1000. (You can dilute the impact for one thing).

I also think slice of life stories probably work better when kept short. You get an interesting insight into a character and enough time to develop empathy for what they’re showing you but not enough time to be bored or to think they’re whining!

It’s also why monologues/first person narration work so well in flash. Enough but not too much. The Bridport Prize describes flash as “the art of just enough” which is one of the finest descriptions of the form I’ve come across.

Flash Fiction Impact


Flash is brilliant for those ties when you might not feel/be able to write much – life does get in the way. How you feel can feed into this too but flash does mean you can write something that will be a complete piece of work. There are markets and competitions for it too so there are opportunities out there for you to do something with your work.

Even when you’re on a roll with your writing, you can still use flash an excellent warm up exercise for your “main event”. I like the flexibility of flash with regards to genre and the different word count brackets. I don’t write drabbles (100-worders) all the time. I like to mix things up.

Above all, it is lovely to write something for fun and then see what you can do with it. Flash does give more opportunities here simply because by its nature it is quicker to produce than a novel. If you can get your work out there, you get the payback of publication quicker too. And it can make a great way to build up a track record to tell a publisher about when you are sending longer works somewhere.

Advantage to flash is setting characters anywhere

Goodreads Author Blog – Books With Meaning to You

All books have meaning. For me, I have a few categories here. There are the books written by and signed for me by author friends. I love seeing those books on my shelves, Then there are the books left to me by my late mother. Then there are books I saved up to buy when I was much younger and which I still have.

Then there are books such as The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey which opened up my eyes to the idea there is a whole story behind Richard III that needs further investigating. Do not take Shakespeare as gospel!

Then there are the books which make me gasp as I take in their full scale and scope – The Lord of the Rings is the obvious one.

Then there are my childhood fairytale books – The Reader’s Digest books here were my first introduction to the wonderful (and often scary) world of the fairytale. They remain a great influence on me as a writer too.

Then there are the shelves with my collections of books by P.G.Wodehouse and Terry Pratchett – the laughter shelves if you like.

So which books have special meaning to you and why?

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