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. One photo of me holding Creativity Matters and my flash fiction collections (to date anyway!) was taken by Adrian Symes. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week so far. Lady has seen some of her friends and I’m making good progress with writing and editing. Will have news of something else soon I’m helping with. Looking forward to sharing about that. Plus there will be another great author interview on Chandler’s Ford Today soon.
Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today
Pleased to be back on Chandler’s Ford Today with my latest post, Quizzing Your Characters. I’ve long believed if you know your characters well enough, ideas for stories to put them in will occur.
For this post, I look at outlining your characters and using templates and/or traits into coming up with new creations time and time again (which is something I need as I write a lot of flash fiction and short stories).
Hope you find the post useful and do see the templates I share here as guides because there is nothing to stop you coming up with your own.
Indeed, I often mix up the types I use because I won’t necessarily need to know the same thing each and every time about characters I am creating. In certain settings, for example, I will need to ask specific questions relating to that setting and how it effects my character, for example.
Quizzing Your Characters
Lady and her Hungarian Vizler pal had a nice time in the park this morning before it became too hot. I loved my swim today, as you can imagine. Did not want to get out of the pool.
Don’t forget Quizzing Your Characters will be up on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above.
Less than a month to go now until The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. (Okay only just but I am so looking forward to this).
How do I get ideas for my CFT and Writers’ Narrative articles? Well, our lovely editor at Writers’ Narrative does set a theme, which is always useful, but for CFT, I know I’m writing to fellow writers in my area so I try to focus on aspects of our craft which I hope they will find interesting.
Whatever I write, and this goes for fiction too, I am always asking myself what is in this for the reader. It is a good approach to take because it makes you focus on their needs and what you come up with, as a result, should be more useful to them.
Lady had a lovely time in the park today with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals. Will need to watch the weather in the next couple of days as it is due to get very hot again but I’ve found the mornings have been okay.
Writing wise, I’m sharing Quizzing Your Characters on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. It may seem like an odd thing to do but I’ve found it has paid dividends in being able to continually create characters. Best thing of all – you work out which questions suit your style of writing best. More in the post later this week.
Flash Tip: My favourite form of flash fiction has to be the drabble, the 100 worder. A short sharp story and punchlines/twist endings work well for this word count.
I find it helps to have an idea of the ending first for these. Then I work out what leads to it. It also means I know my punchline or twist ending will have a solid foundation behind it because I know what will lead up to it. It will seem natural, as if there could be no other ending, which is what you want here.
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
It’s Friday again and another hot one where I am. Definitely time for an end of the working week story then. My latest on Friday Flash Fiction is called Dates. Hope you enjoy it. Just what will Dawn do about her date dilemma? Find out here. 
With the exception of Friday Flash Fiction where I know I will be writing to 100 words, I focus on getting the story down.
I then edit it after a break away from it, and then and only then do I worry about the word count. Sometimes the solution will be an obvious one. If my finished story comes in at 105 words I will edit it again to get to 100. If say, it comes in at 145 words, I will find a 150 words competition for it instead.
What matters is I am happy with the story in terms of its character portrayal and I’ve ensured I’ve delivered on the premise of the story. So if I am I will leave a story at a higher word count and find alternative homes for it rather than try to force it to fit the original home I had in mind for it.
A lovely review for my Tripping The Flash Fantastic included the line “A lovely little collection of quirky and often surprising stories and poems. Fairy godmothers who aren’t what they first appear.”.
Many thanks to my reviewer for that, but seeing it again reminded me characters who aren’t what they seem are (a) a common trait of fairytales and (b) need to be worked out carefully because the reader should have the hint there is more to this character than meets the the eye.
The surprise mustn’t come out of nowhere. Readers should be able to look back at the story and see “aah, I should’ve spotted that.” I love this when authors do it to me (especially in crime novels). It’s great fun to do as a writer too.
Book Trailer for Tripping The Flash Fantastic – thought it would be nice to share it again.
Fairytales with Bite – Problem Solving
How do your characters solve their problems? Do they instantly turn to magic (or other form of powers we don’t have here) to help them out or do they save that? Does using this kind of power drain them so much it isn’t worth doing unless you absolutely must use it?
If they’re not using magical or other artificial aids, what can they use without causing them further problems? Would they use logic, ask others for help etc as we would do? Are your creations able to ask others from outside their own species for assistance or is this frowned on? What would be the consequences if they did ask for that help when they shouldn’t? Could it lead to positive changes in your setting?
Are some of the problems your characters and/or setting face due to not being willing to interact with others when they could do so usefully? What gets in the way here?past history? Prejudice? Both? How can that be broken?
Problems can be useful for writers – you can get some cracking stories out of them!
This World and Others – Developments
Which developments have been welcomed in your magical/sci-fi setting and which weren’t? What problems did the latter cause and how were they stopped? Has your world copied inventions/developments from other worlds, including ours? How did these go down at home? Not everyone welcomes imports!
In terms of magical energy or other forms of energy your world has, how were these discovered? How have they developed? What new things have been added to them and why was this done?
Thinking about the different species in your setting, how did they develop their societies? Do all of them have the same opportunities for employment, education etc? If species were made to develop in different ways, who imposed that and why? Doesn’t necessarily have to be for evil reasons.
One good reason to keep them apart would be if they could never get along and separating them so they developed in their own way was the only way to stop the fighting. (That does sound a depressingly familiar tale, does it not?).
Story ideas for sure here! Happy writing.
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https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsIt’s Friday again and another hot one where I am. Definitely time for an end of the working week story then.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) July 11, 2025
My latest on Friday Flash Fiction is called Dates. Hope you enjoy it. Just what will Dawn do about her date dilemma? Find out here. https://t.co/4kgkLMIp7I pic.twitter.com/JfHd2kqRxf
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsQuizzing Your Characters https://t.co/DY6WY9IetN I’ve long believed if you know your characters well enough, ideas for their tales occur. I look at outlining characters and using templates and/or traits to help you invent new creations time and time again.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) July 11, 2025
Hope you have had a good start to your week. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today and it has been another fine day too. So win-win all around there.
Another nice day, more butterflies out, and I even spotted a very early bluebell (outside a neighbour’s place). Lady enjoyed her time in the park but this is where I am grateful she does not share one trait with my first dog, Gracie. The footballers were out today and Gracie would have wanted to go on to the pitch to join in. Lady gives them a casual glance and then resumes playing with her own ball, thank you!
A lovely sunny day. It was nice to wear lighter clothes, a body warmer and plimsolls (instead of heavy dog coat and boots, makes such a nice change!). I also spotted my first butterfly of the year (believe it was a Cabbage White). Lady loved the weather and her time in the park too.
It’s Monday. It’s a lovely sunny one where I am but it is still Monday when all is said and done. Time for a story then, a darker one this time. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube called Book Ends.
How do your characters respond to the seasons? Today has been a lovely spring day where I am and it lifts the mood. How could you use this to help your characters achieve more than they might otherwise have done? Equally can you use geographic and climate conditions to get in the way of your characters and could magic and/or science be used to make this happen deliberately?
