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 the first full week back after the Christmas and New Year break has gone well. Lady has been pleased to catch up with her friends. Weather is what you’d expect for January! Writing and editing are going well and I have booked my big writing event for later in the year, which has cheered me no end.
Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today
Hope your Friday has been a good one. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler pal and her Aussie Shepherd boyfriend, who, by far, had the best coat of anyone for coping with the bitter weather today.
Writing wise, I’m pleased to share Story Inspiration for Chandler’s Ford Today this week and hope you will find it useful. I look at various useful “hunting grounds” where inspiration is likely to strike (and has done for me many times). These include books of lists, prompts, Kipling’s honest serving men and much more besides.
I hope you find these thoughts useful to encourage your own inspiration as it never does any harm to encourage that as much as possible.
Happy writing.
Story Inspiration
Hope today has gone okay. Bad weather coming in this evening as I write this. Keep safe. Lady saw her two chums, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback, again today. Thankfully it was only light rain this morning. I don’t think any of the dogs would’ve been that sorry to get back indoors again.
Writing wise, I’m sharing Story Inspiration on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above. I hope it will prove useful as I share some good ways to find inspiration. I always feel it is better to hunt for it than wait for it to come to you. There are various good “hunting grounds” for inspiration, some of which I’ll be sharing tomorrow, and which I hope will add to your “store” of places to look for sources of story ideas.
Hope today has gone well. Lady saw her best buddies, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback, today. Ice and snow pretty much gone, just in time for the storm to come in tomorrow! Oh well, at least the temperature has gone up somewhat.
Writing wise, am looking forward to meeting up again later in the month with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. We’ll be looking at Ways and Paths as a topic. Plenty of story ideas to come from that and I hope we will start drafting some on the evening.
Also have a story to get on and draft for a future submission. Plus I’m beginning to go though the Writing Magazine Competition Guide for possible places to try.
Looking forward to joining in with another ACW genre group online this evening. It’s always good fun and a great chance to socialise. Zoom continues to be a blessing when you can’t get together with other writers in person. Though I am looking forward to my big annual event in August – The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick – as well. Thinking about that cheers up a gloomy January for me somewhat!
Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again
My way into flash fiction writing was the 100 word story, also known as the drabble. CafeLit issued their 100 word challenge and I responded to it and haven’t looked back since.
Flash Tip: I’ve often found the best way into writing a 100 worder is to focus on the ending first. How do I want the story to end – with a laugh or with something else which will move readers in other ways? Is a line of dialogue to bring the story to an end the right way to go or should I finish the tale with an “event” which must finish the tale?
Once I have a rough idea of the likely ending, I can work backwards from there to the likely beginning. Knowing a likely ending also shows me the likely lead character who will be finishing the story. I can then work out more about them.
Having the tight word count means I have to only focus on that which is relevant but this is a good thing. I’ve found writing the 100 worders does encourage tighter writing elsewhere and helps me fight any tendency to indulge in purple prose.
As well as flash fiction, there is such a thing as flash non-fiction. Many blogs would count as this given often they come in at about the 500 words mark.
But have you given thought to writing a short piece sharing how you came to write one particular story, say? This would be of interest to other writers and your readers. Works best when kept tight but could give you excellent additional material to add to your website/blog.
Counts as part of your overall marketing, of course, as well.
Glad it’s warming up a bit outside. Spotted a primrose out in my garden just around Christmas time. Is still out. Seems to have survived the frosts and snow – at least so far. (Am putting the qualifier in because I recently said we hadn’t had any snow and, guess what, overnight we got some so I don’t want anything happening to that poor little primrose!).
Now, we all face tricky conditions at time but this can be fabulous for our characters. It is perhaps just as well they cannot tell their creators what they think of them for this. I do love dropping mine in the mire as much as I can.
So what traits do your characters have to help them handle the situations you put them in? Are they already resourceful or do they have to learn how to be so? Many great story thoughts to come from that, I think.
Traits are an invaluable way of gauging a character. You could also use them to figure out how they could develop others.
For example, if your character’s main trait is honesty, would they develop bravery to ensure honesty in their world continued? Would they fight to save what was good in their world and stop it from being obliterated by the greedy?
(And if anyone’s thinking there are parallels with what’s going on here right now, you’d be right but we can use some of this at least as inspiration for story ideas. When you know what’s driving someone, you can get stories out of that).
Fairytales With Bite – Resuming Normal Life
It always takes a little while to resume normal life after any kind of break and perhaps more so after a break like the Christmas/New Year one. Am slowly resuming normality myself!
But how would your characters get back to what is normal for them? How long would that take them and what does count as normal for them? What kind of breaks would they expect to be as part of their overall life?
What official breaks does everyone in your setting have to take? Are they appreciated or resented? Could the events themselves be “commercially exploited” (and that does tend to lead to resentment in some quarters)?
Do any of your characters use official breaks to get out of something they ought to be doing? Does that work or does it cause further problems later on? Does anyone resent having to resume normal life again?
Could enemies of your setting use the break to cause havoc and how would they do this?
Story ideas there, for sure.
This World and Others – Routines
I must admit I do like routines. I have one for my writing and have had this for years. Every so often I adjust it to take in new writing/editing work etc but, on the whole, I’ve found it useful to help me make the best of the time I have available for writing and/or editing on any one day. But I know not everyone likes routines. There are many who would find them restrictive.
What would your characters make of routines? Are there those who thrive on them (and if so, how)? Are there others who would feel routines are like straitjackets? What would happen if you have a character of each type stuck together and they have to work out some sort of routine to get them though to the time when they’re free to do their own thing again?
Does your setting have a routine in terms of characters have to work at certain times, relax at certain times etc? What would its views be on those who don’t follow the general pattern here? Could a setting with a fixed routine face enemies who would exploit the disadvantages of being too rigid? What would the enemies be seeking to exploit on your setting itself?
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https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.jsStory Inspiration https://t.co/9xk0e4i5pz Glad to share Story Inspiration on CFT. I look at “hunting grounds” where inspiration can strike (and has for me often). I include books of lists, Kipling’s serving men and more. It never does any harm to encourage inspiration to strike.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 9, 2026
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