Image Credits:-
All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week. Lovely weather. Lady and I have enjoyed being out and about in that. Writing and editing going well. Steadily making progress.
Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today
Delighted to share Flash Fiction On Radio for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I include in this a link to the Mixcloud recording of Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show on North Manchester FM. I was thrilled to have my Out With The Old included in this.
Also in the post are hints and tips on preparing stories for broadcast which I hope you will find useful. I also share tips on preparing the story itself. Thinking about the impact you want to have is especially useful here (and do bear in mind you are so reliant on how something sounds here).
I look at the importance of rehearsals and believe flash fiction and radio are a great match. There are opportunities out there for short form writers – community and internet stations help a lot here and are well worth supporting and listening to.
Hope you enjoy the post.
Flash Fiction on Radio
Hope you’ve had a good day. Not as warm as yesterday but pleasant enough. Lady enjoyed seeing her Hungarian Vizler friend again.
The Society of Authors have launched a Human Authored campaign in conjunction with their American counterparts, The Authors Guild. To find out more do click on the link here.
I’ve applied for it for my Tripping The Flash Fantastic and will add future books of mine to this labelling scheme. The scheme is open to books published from 2020 onwards (which is why I can’t list From Light to Dark and Back Again as that came out in 2017). There are logos you can use on your website and I hope to put them on mine over the weekend at some point. If you’re not already a member of The Society of Authors, you can apply to do so via the link below too.
I think this is a great idea to differentiate from AI produced books and wish the scheme well.
Gorgeous day today and Lady enjoyed catching up with her Hungarian Vizler pal. I squeezed in a short swim and a hairdressing appointment so a nice but full day and am glad to now be at my desk to write.
Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Flash Fiction On Radio for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I will be including in this the link to the recent Hannah Kate Spring Equinox show on North Manchester FM where my story, Out With The Old, was broadcast. I’ll also be sharing hints and tips when it comes to writing short pieces for radio. Hope you’ll find it useful. See above.
Am happily editing a short story for a competition at the moment. Am also equally happily editing someone else too. Editing others is interesting because it can show up so much about your own writing which you can take and learn from.
Editing Tip: If you prefer to edit on screen, do change the font, the font size, the colour of the text etc to make the document look new to you. That will help you pick up more errors and there will be some. There always is, for everyone. You also know you won’t be sending the manuscript out in this form but it is amazing how enlightening a “new” looking piece can be to your brain for spotting things you would otherwise have missed. It is worth doing. Also it helps to be aware the brain will fill in the words you meant to put in but which aren’t there in fact. Having a new looking document makes that kind of thing easier to spot too.
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
Hope today has been a good one. Lady had a lovely puppy party in the park with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals. We also saw Daisy the gentle spaniel. Great time had by all.
I look at Flash Fiction On Radio for my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week (see my author page here for the link to that – also see above). I’ve mentioned before reading work aloud ahead of sending it anywhere is a useful editing technique. For broadcast and Open Prose Mic Nights, I would say it is essential.
I know I find it helps calm my nerves a bit precisely because I know I’ve rehearsed, I’ve played my recordings back to check how the story is coming across and so on. Good prep work helps all kinds of writing including flash.
As well as seeing my own work come out, it is a privilege and joy to see books I’ve edited for others come out. Another one of those has come out recently.
Now one of the lovely things about the writing community is it is supportive and you quickly make friends. Of all the writer friends I am privileged to know (hello, all!), I can’t think of one of them who enjoys writing their blurb. They’ve come up with thousands of words of fabulous prose and then that short bit on the back cover…
I also can’t think of any writer (and this goes for me too) who doesn’t spend considerable time on getting that short bit on the back cover right or as right as possible!
Blurb Tip: I’ve found it helpful to try to treat this as a piece of flash non-fiction writing. I will often start by working out what I know I want the blurb to end with. From there I can figure out what must come immediately before it and then that will open up ideas for how I open the piece.
Still hard work. Still plenty of crafting and editing to be done but I’ve found thinking of it in these terms has helped and I hope it helps you too.
I was talking about editing on my author page here and it is just as vital to get it right for flash fiction, as for any other kind of writing. I would also say it is easier with flash to make the classic error of leaving words out.
Why? Partly because you do have the word count limit in your mind and partly you may well be writing quickly to get that first draft down. Depending on the word count, I can draft a flash piece in fifteen minutes. It’s not going anywhere in that rough state, mind you! I easily spend several times longer than that honing and crafting the piece before it does go anywhere.
And it’s easy to think you’ve got to the required word count when you spot those dratted missing words, put them in and then need to go through the piece again to get it to what you need word count wise.
Flash may be short but there are still no short cuts with crafting it and rightly so.
Fairytales With Bite – Light Bearers
Who are the positive souls in your setting? Who could be considered to be light bearers for others who need that? The obvious one here to me is Sam Gamgee acting in this manner towards Frodo in The Lord of the Rings. Sam’s presence and actions made a huge difference and your light bearers should do the same. Their motivations for doing this should be strong enough to withstand pretty much anything because this should come from a genuine wish to help someone else. No fair weather friends here.
Even outside of quest stories, there will be times your characters may feel as if they’re stumbling in the dark, figuratively or literally. So who would be their light bearer to help them get out of this? How would the light bearer achieve this? Is magic involved at all?
What struggles would your light bearers have with their role? Many will play second fiddle to the lead character. Could they come to resent this or are they relieved about it? Sam never sort to take over from Frodo as such, neither did Sam envy him. This is just one reason why I think Sam is more heroic than might at first appear to be the case – and maybe that could be true for your characters too.
Also, what darkness is there which needs to be overcome by light? How did that come into being making light bearers needed at all?
This World and Others – Sources of Light
What sources of light does your world have? How many of these are natural for your setting? How many have been invented to suit the purposes of your setting? There could be interesting stories in working out who developed these things, their problems doing so, and how those were overcome. Also, what materials would they have needed and how easy or otherwise was it to get these things? Would your setting experience environmental damage similar to what we have had here?
Assuming sources of light have been well established, what kinds are used for what purpose? Could magic be used to produce these light sources or are they powered by magic? What would be the downside to that? Would there be a risk of running out of magical energy to keep these things going?
Who controls the sources of light and do they so fairly? Would certain magical species have access to only some kinds of light but not others (and could that be because they’ve shown they can’t be trusted with these when allowed access before?).
Story ideas there, I’m sure!
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— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 10, 2026
Glad to share this on CFT. I include the Mixcloud link to Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show on North Manchester FM. My Out With The Old was on this. I share tips on preparing stories for broadcast as well as for the story itself.
Allison Symes: Collected Works 