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.

It has been an odd week. I started it being ill, got better, appeared on a blog, and am now looking forward to catching up with friends and family shortly. Proof I suppose it is better to end well rather than worry about a rotten start. Having that said, writers need to start well, do the middle well, and end well. It is a good challenge!

Facebook – General – and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to share Purposes of Creative Writing, my Chandler’s Ford Today post for this week. There are many benefits to any kind of creative activity but I look at these from the writing viewpoint. I hope this proves to be an encouraging post! I also look at finding your creativity in this one. I believe everyone has at least one form of creative activity which would suit them. It can be a question of finding it. I also feel creative writers actually have two – we need to be active readers too. Hope you find much of cheer here and do keep on with the writing.

Whether you stay in the same direction or not is another matter. I changed direction to flash fiction and have never regretted that! Whether you seek to be published or not, writing can stretch you, make you come up with pieces you never thought you could produce, and is huge fun.

Yes, there are those days when you would rather throw your laptop out of the nearest window but even there is some comfort. Every writer has felt like that at some point. I find it helps to know I’m not alone when I feel like that. We get days when we still do but you also get those days when you are in the zone, the words fly out of you, stories get produced and published etc.

Purposes of Creative Writing by Allison Symes

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Hope you have had a good day. Looking forward to sharing my Purposes of Creative Writing post for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above. Has been a struggle to get back to writing after a very dodgy weekend but have got there in the end. Have run late all week but not just on my writing it should be said. The writing has been a solace all week (unlike so much else!).

I hope everyone who goes to the Scottish Association of Writers Conference has a fabulous time. I did when I went last year. I ran a flash fiction workshop there and judged one of their competitions for them. It was a delight to meet friends old and new. Weather this year is a bit different, mind you! Keep warm, folks.

One of the joys of conferences is learning more about the wonderful world of writing. I love the fact there is always something you can learn to improve on what you do and to get more from it. No wonder writing is good for the brain, something I cover in my CFT post tomorrow. (Nice to come full circle on a post as well!).

Am thrilled to be back on Val Penny’s blog today. Many thanks for hosting me once more, Val.
Val put some pertinent questions to me which I loved answering. I talk about flash fiction (of course!), discuss characters, and writing routines. Last but not least I share some advice which I’ve found helpful. Hope you do too.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

You know the saying beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Well, for my story for Friday Flash Fiction this week, I apply that principle to magic. Hope you enjoy Spotting the Magic.

Am at that stage where I’ve got a couple of possibles for a certain well known competition I enter – now it’s make up my mind time. I could enter both so I may decide on that eventually. Am resting the pieces so I can look at them with a fresh eye. I’ve got a couple of months in hand here but that soon whizzes by and I want to have my submissions in well ahead of the deadline, as I usually do. What is pleasing here is I have earmarked some of my draft Flash NANO pieces for competitions so that’s another reason for taking part in this again. I found it a great way to get a stock of stories together to work on for future use.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom later this month. Ideas and news (competitions etc) are shared. This is handy as no one writer can know everything and we can all help each other here.

Don’t forget I share tips and news on a regular basis via my newsletter. Next one due out on 1st April. That may be April Fools Day but I’m not fooling, honest. To sign up head over to (my landing page) at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Fairytales with Bite – Using Prompts for Fairytales

I often use a wide range of writing prompt. I often use random generators, have recently used story cubes, and I’ve contributed to, as well as used, books of prompts in my time.

But have I used any of these for writing what I call my fairytales with bite? Oh yes. Not all the time. Some prompts work better for certain types of story but things like the random question generator are useful for giving you a direct theme and/or title for your piece. Then you can work out how to get a fantasy/fairytale story out of it!

One such question I’ve used was What’s something you learned in the last week? You can apply that to a magical character easily enough and there is good potential for a humorous piece here.

The random word ones are even easier here given what you usually do with those is put them into a story (of any genre so the sky’s the limit here).

Well worth having a go at – I’ve had a few pieces published this way. I often use these to submit stories once a week to Friday Flash Fiction and to create stories for my YouTube channel. You just want a way in to get started and the prompts are useful here.

This World and Others – Exploring Your World

How do your characters get around in your setting? Is exploration encouraged or firmly discouraged? Is there a drive to explore at all? Or does that drive come about as a result of urgent need? The hobbits in The Lord of the Rings are the ultimate example of that I think, given they were usually more concerned with second breakfast and/or beer!

You could get stories from transport systems here (and who uses them and, perhaps more pertinently, who doesn’t. What would be the reasons behind that? Does anyone defy the rules? What would be the consequences (there always would be something)?

Where the world has been explored, who did this? Who were they doing it on behalf of? What do your characters think is the most important thing about their world? Are they worried about location or do they prefer to explore the world metaphorically via challenges to standard ideas etc? There is always someone who will want to find out just how far they can go!

ALLISON SYMES – BOOK BRUSH READER HUB

MOM’S FAVORITE READS LINK – CHECK OUT THE MAGAZINE INCLUDING MY FLASH FICTION COLUMN HERE
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You can catch my recent conversation with award winning author, Allison Syme’s @AllisonSymes1 on my blog today. https://t.co/zUbr333KP9

— Val Penny (@valeriepenny) March 15, 2023

https://t.co/s5nL4tAgin Am thrilled to be back on Val Penny’s blog. Val put pertinent questions to me which I loved answering. I talk about flash fiction, characters, and writing routines. I share advice I’ve found helpful. Hope you do too.

— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 15, 2023

Spotting the Magic, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/cJcpgS1DKD You know the saying beauty is in the eye of the beholder? Well, for my story for Friday Flash Fiction this week, I apply that principle to magic. Hope you enjoy Spotting the Magic. pic.twitter.com/JxQ2GQeV4B

— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 17, 2023

Purposes of Creative Writing by Allison Symes https://t.co/smrQzwOHUl Pleased to share Purposes of Creative Writing, my new CFT post. There are many benefits to any creative activity and I hope this proves to be an encouraging post! I also look at finding your creativity in this.

— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) March 17, 2023