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. Do have a lovely Easter break (and Passover if you celebrate). I’m looking forward to the Easter services, always a special time. Lady and I are enjoying the sunshine and making the most of it while it lasts. Writing wise, I plough on!
Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today
Am pleased to share Hopes In Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I look at this from the viewpoints of hopes for a writer and how we can use hopes to strengthen our characterisation. After all, our characters must hope for something, yes?
I look at hopes coming from basic needs, believable hopes for characters, and the best kinds of hopes for characters which are not necessarily the same as the best hopes because a character may hope for something but they actually need something better).
I also look at hopes for writers, especially developments in print on demand and the indie press, both of which have given more opportunities for writers.
Hope you enjoy the post too!
Hopes in Writing
Quiet day in the park today but lovely all the same. Lady and I enjoyed the sunshine.
Don’t forget I’ll be sharing Hopes in Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I’ll be looking at hopes for writers and how we can use hopes as part of our characterisation. Hope you’ll find the post useful. Link up tomorrow. See above.
Loved the ACW group I went to online last night – good chat and laughs. There is rarely a time when that isn’t welcome!
Writing wise, I do plan to get on with more story writing over the weekend, especially on Sunday. I was pleased to recently use two stories I drafted at the last ACW Flash Fiction Group meeting for a recent Substack post and YouTube video. I do like to have stories like this in “stock” so to speak, even if they have only just been put into the “stock cupboard”. I do know I could do with topping up my supplies though! Mind you, this is a fun task to be getting on with and the Easter weekend should help a lot here.
Hope your day has gone well. Lady did get to see her Hungarian Vizler pal so all is well there.
Writing wise, am looking forward to “going to” an online ACW meeting this evening. It’s always a fun one. It also won’t be too long before my next article will be on Writers’ Narrative. Hope to share the link to that next week.
Also my April newsletter went out today. (1st April).
Editing Tip: The biggest one of all, I think, is to give yourself plenty of time and accept you will need more than one sweep for this. You will, in fact, need several. You will need an edit to make sure the story “works properly” (structural). You will need an edit to look for inconsistencies as well as typos and grammatical errors (copy editing). You will need a final check all is well before the manuscript goes to print (proofreading). All three take time. All three make a huge difference to how well your work comes across. Don’t sell yourself short here.
Yes, I’m biased being an editor but I think it is a good bias. I know I’ve always appreciated the editing work carried out on my books. Editors will pick up on things you won’t have seen, precisely because you are too close to your own work (and in many ways should be as it is your baby, after all, but you do need to accept you need that distance and independent eye).
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
Hope to do much more flash fiction writing this weekend but meantime I thought I’d share a fun story I wrote for Flash NANO 2025 (which was alas the last one!). Hope you enjoy the following.
A Change Will Do You Good by Allison Symes
How often did I hear her say “A change will do you good”, whenever life threw bricks at me? It was her answer to everything.
I did wonder if she used it as an excuse when chatting about my latest failure with the neighbours. I guess she had to find something to say. Mums are like that.
Still, I have, at last, found a change I like. She never did want me to go to that special school. I told her she’d watched too many fantasy films. But I loved the school and finally found somewhere I didn’t stick out. Everyone else there was like me.
As for the change, I know I shouldn’t have done it but I’d just had enough.
I turned Mum into a statue. The spell will wear off tomorrow. No harm done. She’ll remember nothing.
But I get some peace and quiet for a day. That is a change I welcome. And I can use it whenever she becomes a little too much.
You do understand, don’t you?Ends
Allison Symes – 3rd November 2025
I was looking through Writing Magazine earlier today and came across a place which specifically asked for flash prose. I know that sounds an odd term but it isn’t really. I’ve occasionally written a flash story in poetic form so it does pay to make the distinction. Certainly, flash prose does make up the vast majority of what I write.
I do write flash acrostics more often and they’re fun to do now, every now and then, as a change. It pays to keep the word or words you use for this short though.
Most of all, I do write to the different categories in flash in terms of word count as I’m pleased to say there are far more competitions about now than when I was starting out in this field. So it pays to be able to write to the various word counts required, the most popular being 50, 100, 250, 300, and 500 words.
I was talking about editing on my other Facebook page but I should add here flash needs just as much editing as any other form of writing. One thing I’m always looking out for is whether my words are the best I could choose to create the maximum impact for the fewest words used.
The other thing to watch here when writing in this form is that errors will stand out more given the reduced word counts involved so beware! Mind you, it is easier to read flash pieces out loud to pick up errors that way and to check your dialogue does flow as it should do. So there are positives here!
You still need to take your time though!
Fairytales with Bite – Sparkle and Glitter
I must admit I’m always wary when any magical character turns up in a story spreading sparkle and glitter and good will. I always want to see the context behind that. Is this character really as good as they are making out to be or is this a good cover up? What do they hope to get out of it? I want to see good deeds carried out for good reasons.
I’ve much more sympathy, and more inclined to believe, those characters who try to do what is right, sometimes muck it up, and then seek to put it right. Mind you, I’ve got more sympathy for those in life who do that.
Those characters who are generally good will be more believable if you show something of what led them to be that way. What made them decide not to go down the path for using power for their own ends and so on? Show something of the struggle they may have against that constant temptation.
I’m sure there must be magical characters who would love to “blitz” away a bad magical being for the best of reasons but know in doing so they will betray themselves and their principles so have to find a better way of dealing with this.
I also think magic is a form of power and there will be downsides to those using it.
This World and Others – Putting On A Show
Do your magical characters like to put on a show when using their powers or do they believe discretion is the better part of valour? (I prefer that myself).
Those characters who do like to put on a show – what are their motivations for this? Is it because they’re insecure or are they trying to demonstrate to others they’re worthy of promotion etc? What do they really want? There usually is something!
When shows are put on for better reasons, individually or state events, who is behind this? What are the shows for? For state events, will these be a means of controlling the population? I can’t help but think of the old Roman maxim here about bread and circuses.
What do your characters make of shows which they are either part of, attend (and do they have a choice on that?), or know about? If your characters do their utmost to avoid these things, how successful or otherwise are they at doing that? Would other characters give them grief for this?
Story ideas there!
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https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsHopes in Writing https://t.co/QaDkuxGjJ0 Am pleased to share Hopes In Writing for CFT. I look at hopes for a writer and how we can use hopes to strengthen our characterisation. Our characters must hope for something, yes? Hope you enjoy the post too!https://t.co/QaDkuxGjJ0
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) April 3, 2026
Allison Symes: Collected Works 