Tag: This World and Others

Review – The Chameleon Theatre Company – Notes From A Small Island

Leave a comment

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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.
Have had a good week. Hope you have too. Lovely meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Wednesday, Looking forward to supporting Rosemary Johnson’s online launch for her Past and Present (Bridge House Publishing) short story collection via Eventbrite later on Friday 1st August. Lady has had a good week, catching up with her closest buddies, to the joy of all.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

1st August 2025

First post of two here tonight. I’m pleased to share my review of the recent Chameleon Theatre Company production of Notes From A Small Island for Chandler’s Ford Today. The bestselling book by Bill Bryston was adapted for the stage by Tim Whitnall.

My lovely editor from CFT, Janet Williams, and I went to see the play a week or so ago and had a great time. I remain amazed at what the Chameleons can produce on what is not the world’s biggest stage!

For more see the post. Note to self: now read the book! This show was unusual in that it is the first time I’ve seen an adaptation of a book without having read the book first.

Review – The Chameleon Theatre Group – Notes From A Small Island

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

1st August 2025

Second post of two here tonight. Glad to say my author newsletter went out again earlier today. Just where does the year go? Hard to believe it’s August already. My theme this time was flash flexibility.

Also delighted to say the August edition of Writers’ Narrative came out today. (Too late to include in my newsletter but I will include it with the next one). The theme this time is Cover Design and my article here is called Cover Design and Why It Matters.

And as it is the weekend it is time for a good read, is it not? Link below to the magazine.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Hope today has been good for you. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals again, ahead of the rain too, so all had a lovely time.

Will be sharing my review of The Chameleon Theatre Company’s production of Notes From A Small Island on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. Plus I will be supporting Rosemary Johnson for her online book launch for Past and Present (Bridge House Publishing) tomorrow evening. So the beginning of August will get off to a cracking start (especially given my author newsletter will be out too).

Had a lovely meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Wednesday evening. Plenty to think about and ideas to try from the theme of summer too.

Found out today my story for The Bridport Prize didn’t make the cut so will have to try again for that competition next year. I will have another look at my story at some point and see if I can improve it and send it somewhere else. I have done this before with stories going on to be published elsewhere. All part and parcel of the writing life…

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady has had a fantastic one in that she had a good run around with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal while their Hungarian Vizler pal looked on. All were very happy dogs and it is lovely to see how pleased they always are to see each other. Humans can learn a thing or two from that! I was also pleased to get a short bonus swim in – the water was lovely.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this evening. Glad to report good time had by all and plenty of excellent results from the exercises I set too.

Also looking forward to Rosemary Johnson’s book launch for her Past and Present (Bridge House Publishing) on Friday. A busy but fun week!

Will be sharing my review of Notes From A Small Island which was recently performed by The Chameleon Theatre Company for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. My newsletter will be out again then too.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday and time for another story. I hope you enjoy my latest on Friday Flash Fiction called Clock Watching. Thrilled to see I am the Editor’s Choice this week too. Hope you enjoy the drabble.

Some of the most popular flash fiction competition word count limits are the 100, 250, 300, and 500 words ones. Ironically, I am preparing a story for a 750 word competition as I write this! Those come up sometimes too but, by far, there are more flash competitions for the sub-500 word count limit so it is worth practicing writing to these.

Following my advice yesterday (see below) about using postcards to write a story on literally or just accepting this would be a 50 to 100 word count limit would also help practice here!

I mentioned as part of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting yesterday that the theme of summer (or indeed any of the seasons) can be wonderful backdrops to your stories. You won’t need to spell out a time frame in detail if you, say, set a story against someone watching a Wimbledon tennis match live. Everyone will know that’s in the summer. This can save so much on your word count and makes for tighter writing.

I set a series of exercises based on postcards (and the amount of words you get on them) for a recent post for More than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers.

Why not give this a go? Depending on the size of your handwriting, you can only get 50 to 100 words on there so these exercises come with an inbuilt word count limit!

You could think along the lines of what would your characters write home about. Also give some thought as to what they might tell you as their creator. It may well not be flattering but could they reveal something about themselves to trigger further story ideas for them. Worth a go and it’s a good fun exercise.

The postcard idea is to make you focus on the one thing a character would reveal as you literally wouldn’t have room for anything else. So if you need to work on character focus, this idea is definitely worth trying.

Fairytales with Bite – Preserving the Past

Does your magical setting cherish its past, fear it, or does it do everything it can to cover it up? What we see as fairytales do they see as actual historical events? Do they think we’ve got them right or wrong?

Are stories/books stored in libraries as we would know them? Who would be the custodians of them and is anyone allowed access? Can anyone read the stories kept at home or are your characters not allowed to do this? Is education limited? It always interests me when this is done because you have to ask what are the powers that be afraid of he ordinary folk find out? There will be something!

If the past is treasured, as I hope it would be (you have to learn from the good and the bad after all), who would do this? What would your setting’s equivalent be of librarians, archivists, archaeologists etc? What items would they be looking after? How do they care for these things properly? Do they copy any of our techniques here?

This World and Others – Hiding the Past

Following on from Fairytales with Bite, if the past isn’t treasured, who hides it? How do they do this and who finds them out? Sure to be cracking story ideas working that out!

What are the reasons to hide the past? Is it all hidden or just a specific era or incident? Could there be good reasons for doing this? Could the discovery of this be used to cause ruin to others for good or evil purposes?

If something rotten needs to be exposed for the greater good, who does this, what led them to decide it had to be done, and do they have help at all? Can magic come to their aid or does it complicate matters?

Naturally there would be opponents to this. What have they got to lose if your character’s quest succeeds in exposing the truth? How would the discovery change the way the world (or a particular area of it) is governed? What impact could there be on those lower down in the “chain”?

Who initially made the decision to hide the past in question and had they any good reasons to do so? Naturally you get to decide how you define good here!

MailerLite – Allison Symes – Newsletter Sign Up

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

August 2025 edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out too. See above for the link to that.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Author Interview: Introducing Esther Chilton and The Secret Dragon

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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. Many thanks to Esther Chilton for supplying book and author pictures for my interview with her on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Great interview too.
Hope you have had a good week. Mine has involved going to see a local theatre production (a hugely funny one too), starting to get ready for Swanwick (will be doing some volunteer sessions so wanted to make sure those were ready), and plenty on the writing front. Lady has had a nice week so far too, getting to see some of her friends. Looking forward to a trip out at the weekend too.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

It’s a pleasure to welcome fellow Swanwicker and flash fiction writer, Esther Chilton, to Chandler’s Ford Today to discuss her new children’s book, The Secret Dragon.

While I am well outside the age range (the books is aimed at the 5-7 bracket!), the blurb and extract intrigues me. I almost wish I was back in that age range again! Do check out the post to read these.

Esther also shares useful writing and marketing tips, the background to how The Secret Dragon came about, discusses her writing journey to date including her work with The Writers’ Bureau, and much else besides.

Many thanks, Esther, for a fascinating interview.

Author Interview: Introducing Esther Chilton and The Secret Dragon

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Hope today has been okay.

Don’t forget I’ll be sharing a fabulous interview with fellow Swanwicker and flash fiction writer, Esther Chilton, about her new children’s book, The Secret Dragon, for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Off to watch The Chameleon Theatre Company perform Bill Bryson’s Notes From A Small Island later. Am sure there will be plenty of laughs, given all I have heard about the book. Hope to review for CFT in about a week or so.

Writing wise, I’m busy with my usual stories and blogs. Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week too.

Hope to get plenty of writing done while on the train on Saturday as I go to visit the Jane Austen exhibition in the Dorset Museum in Dorchester.

Hope you have had a nice day. Lady got to show off in front of her Hungarian Vizler pal today so was most happy about that. Her chum looks on indulgently, almost like a proud granny.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to welcoming Esther Chilton to Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday to discuss her new book, The Secret Dragon. Also looking forward to catching up with Esther in person at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick which is not far away now.

Am off to the theatre tomorrow night to watch The Chameleon Theatre Company perform Bill Bryson’s Notes From a Small lsland. Should be fun. Will also enjoy catching up again with my lovely CFT editor, Janet Williams.

Writing Tip: When you go out and about over the summer months, try to jot down a few notes of impressions, sights, sounds etc which you may well be able to use in a story later on.

I’m looking forward to seeing a Jane Austen exhibition on Saturday so (a) plan to follow my own advice here and (b) get an article out of it for CFT. But trips out give you a chance to see new things and even familiar ones in your own area in a new way so you may be able to use aspects of that for your writing.

Also bear in mind you can check out the websites of various places. Some have virtual tours which might inspire you too.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Two bits of news here tonight. Firstly, a huge thanks to Rosemary Johnson for a lovely shout out over on her website. This links in with her book launch on 1st August for Past and Present, which was recently published by Bridge House Publishing. I plan to reshare the Eventbrite link for this during the next few days so do look out for that.

Secondly, it is lovely to end the working week with another story on Friday Flash Fiction. I hope you enjoy my latest here, Postcards Home. Is Barry right to worry about Shirley’s intentions here?

I got into the habit of reading my work out loud to hear how dialogue works when I was preparing for my first Open Prose Mic night, many years ago.

It was a joy to find Zoom will convert a recording you make with yourself into an mp4 file (can also get mp3 – audio) so I could play back how I came across.

I found from that I have a tendency to speak a little too fast (I blame the old adrenaline for that!) but it means I know I have to watch for this so I can slow myself down.

I hope to put my name down for the Open Prose Mic at The Writers Summer School, Swanwick again and, if picked, am hoping to get to read some material from my Seeing The Other Side. If that works out, it will be a joy to do it. Always lovely to share new material. It’s fun too.

Am also looking forward to Rosemary Johnson’s book launch via Eventbrite on 1st August for her recently published collection, Past and Present. Always good to hear when people I know have new books out. It’s even nicer when they’re with the same publishing house as me.

Flash Tip: When thinking about your character, ask yourself why would a reader want to find out what they get up to? What is it about them which appeals to a potential audience?

There has to be something a reader will latch on to with your creation. Mind you, they don’t have to like them. I can think of a few of my characters I would never share a cup of tea with, if that were possible!

Fairytales with Bite – Sharing News

Aside from what might be considered the equivalent of our media (social or otherwise), how do your magical characters get to share news?

Is telepathy a reality in your setting? Are there any controls over its usage? Can only certain species use it? What would happen if a banned species gets to develop/use telepathy themselves? What is there in place to prevent sensitive information being shared this way?

If telepathy isn’t a thing, what other magical means of sharing news would your world use instead? Would your world consider copying what we have here in terms of technology (because they could see that as a form of magic)?

Also, are the “old school” ways of sharing news still going? Think of things like the town crier, messengers sent out from villages to gather information, and those who come to villages as part of their duties. Could the sharing of news be used as a kind of barter system between different species and/or settlements in your world? If this was a settled pattern, what or whom could disrupt that and why would they do so? Is it for the best they do or are there evil plans afoot?

Also, whatever the way news is shared, is the news itself generally considered reliable? Can it be verified and who would do that?

This World and Others – Media

Wherever there is news, there would be some sort of media to spread it. Who controls that media? Is magic used in running it and, if so, who controls that and ensures it is used properly? Is the media available to all? What do your characters make of it?

Are your characters involved in producing it/presenting it? How critical or otherwise is the media in your setting of the powers that be?

Has your setting copied what media types we have here or is there something they have which we could never reproduce here? What matters here, I think, is your readers can make sense of this kind of “technology” so they can see how it would work without necessarily going into all of the details of how. Just give readers enough to see how it could be if your world existed and they had this/that capacity…

As for media itself, any form of power, including this one, can be used for great good or evil, of course. It will be how you exploit that thought which will make for gripping stories. Can your characters make use of the media they’ve got to help their cause or must they do everything they can to ensure the media doesn’t get wind of their story until the proper time?

Can your villains exploit the media for their own purposes and cause further problems for your leads?

That could be fun to find out!

MailerLite – Allison Symes – Newsletter Sign Up

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Double Blog Day: Breaking Down Why A Story Works/Jane Austen

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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 week has gone well for you. Have had some rain but it is still muggy here. Not a bad week writing wise though I’d have liked to have got more done than I have. Mind you, everyone gets weeks like that. Time to soldier on then but am so looking forward to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick which isn’t far away now.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

18th July 2025 – Double Blog Day – CFT

Second blog out of two up today and it is my weekly spot on Chandler’s Ford Today. For this week’s post I look at Breaking Down Why A Story Works. I hope you find it useful.

I share thoughts and tips as to why breaking down why a story works is a good idea. Writers can learn so much from doing this. I discuss taking in the basics, compelling characters, inspiration encouraging your imagination and much more.

Breaking Down Why A Story Works

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

18th July 2025 – Double Blog Day – AE

First blog out of two up today and it is my turn on the Authors Electric one again. I discuss Jane Austen, this time given it is the 250th anniversary of her birth (strictly speaking it is in December).

I celebrate her writing and its impact on me for this post. Hope you enjoy it.

I will be off soon to see an exhibition about her in Dorchester and hope to write about that in due course too.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal again today and a lovely spaniel, who we see from time to time, called Daisy. Lovely time had in the park by all three dogs.

Will have two blogs to share with you tomorrow – my Chandler’s Ford Today one and also one on the monthly Authors Electric (monthly in terms of my contributions to it). See above for both.

Also looking forward to seeing the next production from The Chameleon Theatre Company next week. They re staging the play based on Bill Bryson’s book, Notes From A Small Island. Am sure it will be lots of fun and I hope to write a review in due course for Chandler’s Ford Today.

Plus I have my Jane Austen jolly coming up too. Lots going on and it won’t be long before I’m back at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick once again.

Next week I’ll be interviewing fellow Swanwicker and flash fiction writer, Esther Chilton, for Chandler’s Ford Today too.

Hope today has been okay for you. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler pal today. All well there.

Don’t forget I’ll be sharing Breaking Down Why a Story Works for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. It will be double blog day then too as I will also have my Authors Electric post up for the month. I’ll be discussing Jane Austen for them on Friday given it is the 250th anniversary of her birth later this year. I’m also off for an interesting trip out in connection with Miss Austen later this month. Hope to write about that for CFT at a later date. See above for the blogs.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble, Light Work. Hope you enjoy it.

What do you want to do when you so want to retire but your boss isn’t happy about it and dragons are involved? Find out here. 

Hope today has gone well. Not bad here.

As well as being fun to write, flash can be a great aid to your marketing. It gives you a chance to share some mini stories, which flags up your style and may well tempt people in to read your longer works. It’s also easier to share on social media precisely because flash cannot be too long. It’s easy to share on author newsletters too and give something of value to those who follow yours.

Also if you usually write longer works, could you write a flash piece concerning your main character(s) which could be value to share on your website/author newsletters.

Do think of flash as a marketing tool because it can be.

Today has been one of those days when I’ve been busy but do not seem to have achieved so much. We’ve all been there right? But our characters could experience this too. So why not write a flash tale showing this and how your character deals with it? Could make it funny or tragic. Hope you can make use of that prompt.

I find the best prompts are those which can be taken in more than one way. It’s why proverbs are useful as themes for flash and other stories. They’re timeless and, due to that, there is always something you can do with these.


Fairytales with Bite – Down Time

Ironically though I work with words all the time (as a writer, an editor, or occasionally both at the same time albeit on different things), when I relax, I do so with word games. I have a version of Scrabble on my phone and another anagram type game where I have to make as many words as possible out of the letters given. All good fun and surprisingly relaxing.

But what would your characters do when they had some down time? Is play a thing in their setting? Would they have games as we know them? If not, what would they have instead? Are only certain types allowed to play (and what happens to anyone breaking that rule)?

Games of course take many forms and can be used to help someone develop their craft. Chess, for example, encourages lateral and long term thinking, which would be useful in so many occupations.

What would your characters play to help them develop their skills? Would they be compelled to play these things? Are there tournaments (and yes I am thinking of the jousting ones from medieval times which would have used to show off prowess in riding, tilting etc)? Would your characters look forward to these things or dread them?

Plenty of story ideas there, I hope.

This World and Others – Controlling Leisure Time

Most of us have leisure time which we fit in around out other commitments. But it is generally up to us what we do with it. Is that the case for the characters in your setting? Or does the government, or other authority, dictate what your characters should do/are permitted to do and is that based on species type or other considerations?

Are your characters expected to take leisure time or is that reserved only for the privileged few? Does that cause resentment or, if leisure time is supposed to be spent in a certain way, do those without that pity those who do have it?

If the control of time is used as a way to keep characters oppressed, what do those characters do about it? It is possible the powers that be would give time to be spent in ways folk would enjoy which might lessen the risk of rebellion. Think of the Romans claim that to pacify the people you just needed to give them bread and circuses. Who, in your setting, could exploit that thought so leisure time is controlled in such a way it ensures folk don’t have the time to cause trouble or have no wish to ruin what they’ve got?

MailerLite – Allison Symes – Newsletter Sign Up

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Quizzing Your Characters

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

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.


MailerLite – Allison Symes – Newsletter Sign Up
WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Stories in Troubled Times

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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 week has been a good one so far. From insane temperatures over last weekend and continuing on Monday and Tuesday, we now have milder, cooler, far pleasanter temperatures and Lady and I are both relieved about that. It’s also meant she has seen some more of her chums, of course, especially from Wednesday. Writing continuing to go well. Easier to work in cooler conditions too!

Facebook – General

Pleased to be back on Chandler’s Ford Today with my latest post, Stories in Troubled Times. I love stories of all kinds and lengths regardless of whatever is going on in the bad old world but when times are troubled, as I think they are now, I find fiction to be a wonderful comfort. Generally you know things will work out okay in some way in fiction! That was one thing which always appealed to me about the classic fairytales, and still does.

I look at what I think the role of stories is and how stories inspire other stories, including in different formats. A well known film only came about because a certain director was inspired by what he’d seen from another director and asked the classic “what if” question.

Do check the post out and I hope you enjoy it. 

Stories in Troubled Times

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Today has been another lovely cooler day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal and both had a great time. Mind you, our park grass does resemble straw right now. Had a great time at another ACW Zoom group I “go to” monthly. Nice way to catch up with folk.

Will be sharing Stories in Times of Trouble on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above. Fiction is always a wonderful thing but I find especial comfort from it when times are on the grim side. Fiction can provide an outlet, for one thing. I don’t have to encounter dystopian unless I want to for another! More on this in the post tomorrow.

Comments are always welcome on the CFT posts by the way. They just need to be family friendly.

 

Much happier dog and dog Mum today. Lady had a lovely time in the park with her Hungarian Vizler pal and a good run around with Coco the lovely Labradoodle. The air was much fresher, the temperature delightfully cool and it was fabulous to see the dogs having a healthy, happy time of it.

On the other side of life, I am off to the dentists this afternoon…. Wish me luck. Thankfully, it went okay!

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to sharing Stories in Times of Trouble for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Later this month, I’ll be sharing a fabulous author interview here too. More on that nearer the time.

Writing Tip: Never worry about a first draft having to be perfect. It isn’t the purpose of the first draft to be perfect. Its purpose is just to get your ideas down. Sorting out which work best and which need strengthening can happen later.

I know I’ve got to be able to see the whole thing before I can decide what works and what doesn’t. So I find it useful to take the pressure off myself here and just write, get those ideas down and, separately later on, get on with the editing.


Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday and time for a story again. Am pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble, Super Power. See what my two fairies, on secondment to Earth, choose as their additional gifts to help them cope with humans. Has Bella chosen wisely?

Should be able to share the first link to the partial serialisation of Seeing The Other Side on CafeLit soon. Will keep you posted. Am excited about this as it is the first time I’ve had anything serialised. Naturally am also looking forward to the whole book coming out too.

The challenge of flash remains as having a complete story with a proper beginning, middle, and end, in a few words, often fewer than most would expect for any story. But it does encourage and develop tight writing and I love that. It’s a good challenge to rise to and I can and do have great fun placing my characters in all sorts of situations and genres. I just need to stick to the word count limit.

Hope your day has gone well. Nice to have cooler weather. Much nicer for the dog and I.

Flash Tip: This is one I use all of the time. I draft my flash story first, tidy it up, and then and only then worry about the word count. The story has to be right and it has meant sometimes a story I thought would be 100 words works better at 150.

So I just write another 100 word tale for any competition I’ve got in mind. I don’t try to make the 150 words one “fit”. It never does. Cutting too harshly as well as padding doesn’t work well for your stories.

Fairytales with Bite – Hotting Up and Characters

This one I thought was an apt topic as the weather in the UK over the last few days as I write this (July 2025) has”hotted up” considerably. I’ve had to cancel a few walks out with the dog given the pavements were too hot. But how can we use the topic of hotting up for our characters and our stories?

For the avoidance of doubt, I definitely don’t mean erotica here. I do mean getting your characters to feel the pressures of expectation and then having to face even more pressures and then more pressures after that etc. And then throwing magic into the mix as well to make things even more complicated.

Giving characters dilemmas and then further dilemmas they must solve and ideally a limited time span in which to do it is a timeless way of heating things up and crosses all genres.

As for magical characters, what pressures could be put on them to make them use powers they don’t really want to use? What would be the outcome? Which powers would they reveal to have had which they’ve not used before, which they have not had the need to use before? How does this change things for them because it will do so? They will have to come to terms with what they’ve done afterwards, for one thing.

Pressure is the key to hotting things up for your characters but magical powers, being allowed to use certain skills and not allowed to use others, can heat things up still further. You could also explore further why certain skills are banned and why. Your character already knowing this is going to feel the “heat” of the pressure to try to stick to the rules here when they know deep down they cannot do so.

This World and Others – Magical Climates

As well as thinking about your magical world’s “physical” climate (is it like we have here for example?), give some thought to other types of climate. What would your setting’s political, religious, societal climates be like? How would the use of magic impact on all of these?

Are magical skills encouraged in all sections of society or are they limited to a few? Who gets to decide who can use what magical powers? Do the non-magical sections of society look down upon or up to those with these powers? Is the “magical climate” tightly controlled by some overseeing authority to ensure magic cannot get out of hand?

I am thinking of the Patrician in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld here. After the events in Sourcery, magic doesn’t get the upper hand in the series again, at least in the ones with the Patrician in it! He may not have magical powers but he does have enough other skills to ensure people don’t cross him. Those that do never get to do it twice. If you haven’t read Discworld do check it out. It’s a wonderful series.

Incidentally in the witches books in Discworld where magic does come into the stories more, it is the witches who control it. The reasons for their actions are clear too. So they control the magical climate.

So give some thought as to who would control your setting’s magical climate and how successful or otherwise are they are with this? Who might seek to change the climate and what reasons do they have? They don’t have to be good reasons but they should be those readers would understand. We all get the idea of being greedy for power but what is interesting is seeing how a character develops that. What starts them off on to wanting to change the magical climate in your setting for their own ends.

MailerLite – Allison Symes – Newsletter Sign Up

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Allison Symes – Local Author News – Seeing The Other Side

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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. Photo of me with Creativity Matters taken by Adrian Symes. Anolther Creativity Matters image was kindly supplied by Wendy H. Jones. Screenshots were taken by me, Allison Symes, as was of part of my contribution to Creativity Matters. Great book. Do check it out. A huge thank you to my lovely editor at Chandler’s Ford Today for a couple of the photos I use in my post this week.
Hope the week has gone well. Cooler here but much pleasanter for the dog and me. Had a lovely Association of Christian Writers Flash Group meeting on Zoom. Other writing and editing going well.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you’ve had a good Friday. Lady had a lovely time with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal this morning, long before the weather turned hot again. I was glad of a good swim later on as well. So refreshing.

Delighted to share my latest Chandler’s Ford Today post which is Allison Symes – Local Author News – Seeing The Other Side.

This post shares more about what you can expect from my third flash fiction collection which comes out in May 2026 (though I am looking forward to sharing the partial serialisation of it from this July onwards). I also discuss putting a collection together and thinking ahead to book launches.

Allison Symes – Local Author News – Seeing The Other Side

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Today (26th June) would have been Dad’s 88th birthday. He’s been gone for eight years now. Can’t imagine where the time has gone.

Lady had a lovely time in the park today with her Hungarian Vizler chum. Both dogs are much appreciating the cooler weather though we will have to watch things on Monday when it is due to heat up again.

Lady didn’t miss the afternoon walks I had to cancel last week because things were too hot. The pavement test is my guide here. Hold your hand on a spot of concrete, tarmac etc where it gets direct sunlight and hold your hand there for several seconds (I go for 20, you do need a reasonable amount of time to be sure if things are okay or not). If it is uncomfortable for you (and it was last for me week!), it’s uncomfortable for your dog. It’s just not worth risking burnt paws and Lady and I happily stayed at home in the shade.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Allison Symes – Local Author News – Seeing the Other Side for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow where I will share more about my forthcoming book. Looking forward to sharing that. See above. Plus am looking forward to a friend’s online book launch in just over a month’s time too. Plenty going on I’m glad to say.

Am thankful writing is something I can easily do in the shade!

In other news, writing and editing are coming along well. Am also looking forward to going to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick later this summer. It’s not so far away now.

Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to see Daisy, a gentle older spaniel today. We meet up with her and her owner sometimes and it was lovely seeing them both again today.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom later on.
Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Allison Symes – Local Author News – Seeing The Other Side for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See further up.

Will be thinking of another story competition to try soon as I’ve spotted a 750 words one (which comes nicely into flash territory). Will probably have a look at this at the weekend but I am keeping to the promise I made to myself this year I will try and get more work out there.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday. It’s getting hot again in my part of the world. Time for a story to finish the working week with then. Hope you like my latest on Friday Flash Fiction – Name Calling. Mark should have realised discretion is the better part of valour – find out why here.
Had a lovely evening with the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group last night. (Held on 25th June 2025). Good to see everyone. The topic was Perspectives and I was looking at the use of 1st/2nd/3rd person usage in flash fiction. Naturally I set exercises too though we ran out of time to do all of them.

What I found interesting was I wrote a piece for the 1st person exercise. I then rewrote it for the second person exercise. I think the second person usage one is better. More direct. More emotional impact too. Will have a look at this at a later date and maybe submit it somewhere. Good fun to do.

Second person can be a challenge though I think it works well in the short forms precisely because they are short.

I was impressed by the group’s output here though. All great work.

I mentioned this briefly over on my main author page on Facebook, but do bear in mind there are 750 word stories competitions out there (I’ve just spotted one) which don’t market themselves as flash fiction but it is what they are. It is worth keeping an eye out on all short story competitions because some of those will also allow stories from 1000 words onwards so flash fiction writers could have a go at these.

Plus there are plenty of flash fiction competitions which do market themselves as such so why not try some? I have found writing for competitions a great way to improve skills in writing to deadlines, meeting publisher requirements and much more.

Also, to quote a certain supermarket, you do have to be in it to win it.

Fairytales with Bite – Truth Tellers

Truth tellers ought to be welcome in society but they so often are not. There are numerous reasons for this, including truth tellers exposing corruption or refusing to join in with it. You could take that thought and apply it to your own setting.

What would count as corruption in your magical setting? Could it be as simple as refusing to use magic and using what we would know as scientific techniques instead? It can take a brave soul to be the one who puts their head above the parapet.

How does truth get disseminated in your setting? Can it be shared on public media (social or otherwise),or in print, or on the air? What would be truth to your setting but alien to ours?

Who gets to decide what the truth is at all? If this means suppressing the actual truth how does that get done and who carries out the orders? Could you have a character who defies carrying out said orders? Do they get away with it?

When truth is suppressed, how does it eventually get out and what are the consequences?

Story ideas there for sure.

This World and Others – Species

How many species are there in your setting? Do you focus on the main ones? What roles would the minor ones have in your setting? How do they “service” the major species – or is everyone kept apart with each kind doing their own thing for the good of the world as a whole?

Are species recognised as such or do your creations not categorize in this way? What would those in your setting make of other worlds, including ours? Are there some alien species they would never have anything to do with and why have they concluded this? (In a story I’ve written for a competition recently, I have my character reveal magical characters in their setting see Earth as backwards precisely because we don’t have magic).

Do the different species get on with each other or is it a case of each kind only having anything to do with others, with those of their own kind?

How has your world changed/evolved to accommodate the different species here? Did anything unexpected happen? Have the species been forced to co-operate?

Good story ideas there, I hope.

MailerLite – Allison Symes – Newsletter Sign Up

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at the Open Evening

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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. The Creativity Matters image was kindly supplied by Wendy H Jones. One image of me with books taken by Adrian Symes. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week so far. Has become hot here so Lady has had to miss some of her walks (getting too hot in the afternoons basically). Writing continues to go well. Glad I can do that in the cool at least!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good day. Another hot one here but thankfully the morning was much cooler and Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals before it became too hot. No outings this afternoon!

Delighted to share Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at The Open Evening for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. It was a joy to go to the Open Evening and I even found a Symes family link and odd visitors to the Ritchie Hall where The Chameleons are based. Full report in the post.

Hope you enjoy it and many congratulations to The Chameleons for reaching such a wonderful milestone.

Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at the Open Evening

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Hope you’ve had a good day and managed to stay cool. Lady had a lovely time in the park while it was cool enough this morning but a quiet afternoon as it heated up considerably after about 2 pm where I am. I took the chance to have a good swim and felt much refreshed for that!

Don’t forget I’ll be sharing Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at the Open Evening for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up on that tomorrow. See above.

Writing wise, I am busy editing, preparing blogs and flash fiction, and putting the finishing touches to my presentation for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week. Best of all, I keep cool while doing all of that.

Writing Thought: One positive thing about the hot weather where I am at the moment is I need to get up and take drinks more often and later on answer the call of nature. So I guess the hot weather is giving me additional screen breaks! These are important.

I have found I work better (and for longer overall) if I build these mini breaks into my writing sessions. Else you can find yourself getting bogged down and too tired simply due to things like dehydration and eye strain from being at the screen for too long in one “hit”.

All I know from that is it doesn’t help your writing at all.

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady got to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals this morning before it became too hot. I didn’t take her out this afternoon. She and I were not sorry about that.

Delighted to be back on Authors Electric talking about Themes. I look at how I use these for creating characters and stories and why I find them useful for workshops I run and my monthly newsletter.

I also share a theme I used recently and on which I based an exercise, which I share again here.

Hope you give it a go and find the post useful. 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my Trifling Around. This one is a fun, summer related piece. Doesn’t even matter if, like me, you loathe trifle (sorry, I never have liked the custard, all the other ingredients would be okay though!). Hope you enjoy it.
One question all writers need to be prepared to answer is the inevitable one – what do you write? I was asked this earlier this week at a group I go to when I mentioned my third book is due out next year. So I told them!

But that meant I know what to say, having given this prior thought. I also know to keep it short. I can always take further questions from people later but a brief summary of what you write is always handy for a writer to have to hand. It’s good practice in flash fiction writing too as you do basically want a one line summary.

An exercise I set for a recent Association of Christian Writers Flash Group Meeting was based on the theme of Tens. The exercise was to write a story in exactly ten words. Nothing more. Nothing less. Why not give it a go?

The point of this exercise, funnily enough, is to give practice in writing straplines for longer works later on. Ten words works well for this.

My From Light to Dark and Back Again has the strapline of A collection of very short stories to suit every mood. Ten words to the full stop! Did I get that done in one go? Oh no.

Also ten word stories are fun and easy to share on social media etc. This is one of those I came up with for that exercise. Hope you enjoy it.

The aliens diverted past Earth, as they’d heard about humans.

Allison Symes – June 2025

Well, you couldn’t blame them, could you?

 

Fairytales with Bite – Good News

I’ve recently had the excellent news my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side, will be out in May 2026 with a partial serialisation of the book coming this July. Naturally I reacted pretty well to this news! I also want to say a huge thanks to all who sent congratulations etc via my Facebook page, all much appreciated. 

But my good news led me to wonder what would your characters see as good news and why? What situations could you have where one character sees something as good news and another as anything but? Who would be right?

How would your characters receive any kind of news? Is their technology the same as ours or significantly better or worse? Could the problems with their technology lead to your characters doing something which would usually be frowned upon in their world but where they honestly feel they have no choice?

What news is so important to them they have to “cheat” to get it through? Do they get away with it? What happens when the news does get through? There is bound to be a reaction of some kind which in turn is likely to drive further drama/tension and actions with consequences. (All great for storytelling though!)

This World and Others – Handling The News

There can never be any one great way to handle news, bad or otherwise. It all depends on the individual, of course, but you might like to look at that aspect for finding out more about your characters, which could prove useful for whatever story you put them in.

Do your characters take things calmly or do they make the biggest fuss imaginable over even the slightest bit of bad news? What drives your characters to react this way? Is your character wary of “drama” and so they make themselves react calmly, no matter what? How do they do this? What led them to decide this was the best way to be? There will be stories behind all of that.

As for news via media, who does get to handle it before the public can know about it? Is there government interference here or are the broadcasters genuinely independent? Who does get to decide what news the public gets to find out about?

Even if there is no official “interference” who gets to make the editorial decisions and can they be “bought” at all? What would happen if they broke a story the government would not/did not want to go public?

Handling the news can be tricky indeed.

MailerLite – Allison Symes – Newsletter Sign Up

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Why Write Fiction

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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 so far. Not bad here. Keeping busy writing wise and Lady is having a lovely time at the park. It is the simple things in life….


Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to be back on Chandler’s Ford Today with a question which might seem odd for me to ask. My topic is Why Write Fiction and I discuss this in terms of the value of stories.

I also look at how they provide escapism, entertainment, and education and how fiction encourages empathy because you identify with the characters you’re reading about.

Hope you enjoy the post and comments are welcome in the CFT box.

Why Write Fiction

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Despite some damp weather this morning Lady had a lovely time at the park and managed to meet up with her Hungarian Vizler pal. Both were pleased to see each other which is always lovely to see.

Don’t forget my Why Write Fiction post will be up on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow (see above) and I plan to share something of the lovely time I had at The Chameleons Open Evening the following week. Their history is a remarkable one.

Pleased to say there will be a smashing author interview coming up towards the end of July too. Always good to have things to look forward to, I find!

 

Hope today has been a good one for you. Has become very warm again today.

Enjoyed a great discussion on an online editing meeting today. We were thinking about what editors (and I would say this applies to writers just as much) can do to help themselves when the weather does get hot. My thoughts here were on ensuring you keep up a good fluid intake (the non-alcoholic kind!) and having more screen breaks. Mind you if you do drink more to keep fluid intakes up, as you should, the screen breaks will follow out of necessity a little while later.

But it is important to think of these things. Not enough fluid intake will lead to concentration levels dropping. As a result, you will feel more tired more quickly so it is worth doing. This is where Lady helps me. I have to take her out every so often so I get a “furry induced” screen break and that usually leads to a good drink for both of us when we get back again.

Writing wise, I do a lot of my writing in the evening, which is usually a lot cooler and that helps a lot too.

But do look after yourself.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to be on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble, Fifty. Find out how Melanie comes to the aid of her neighbour Jane, who is not looking forward to hitting a landmark birthday. Mind you, Jane does have a good reason. Find out what here.

Another reason to read widely and well is it will influence what you write. I love fairytales, history, crime, and many other types of fiction so all of those things come into my flash fiction and short stories (not necessarily all at the same time). Reading inspires your own creativity as well as being the single best way to support the industry you want to be part of.

So investing in books (and I do see them as that) is a good idea. I often test out authors new to me by trying their ebooks first and then there are the libraries. Borrowing from there supports them. There are all sorts of ways to develop your own reading and it will encourage your own writing. I’ve found this to be the case.

We all build on what has gone before. Even Isaac Newton acknowledged this when he talked about if he had seen further, it was because he had stood on the shoulders of giants. It’s just as true for writers.


Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later this month. Will be looking at the theme of perspective.

Talking of which, do you find you have a favourite perspective? Flash fiction has encouraged me to write more in the first person but I do try to balance that by ensuring I write plenty of third person stories too. I sometimes write in the second person but limit this as I think it can come across as gimmicky but for short works it can be effective. You do need a strong “you” character for readers to get behind though.


Fairytales with Bite – Everyday Upsets in a Magical World

How are everyday upsets coped with in your magical world? You know the kind of thing – everything from someone not putting the loo seat down (or up) to putting a spoon in the wrong place in the cutlery drawer.

We might moan at our loved ones on this but what would your magical character(s) do?
Would they just moan or would they do something else given they would have the powers to do so? Or are there rules preventing that kind of thing?

Is magic only allowed to be used for specific purposes? Is it banned from being used for settling petty squabbles and how is that policed? What led to the rules being brought in? Story ideas there, I’m sure.

What would count as an upset in your world with regards to the legitimate use of magic? What would count as a break of the rules? Are minor indiscretions overlooked (student pranks etc) or is every break, no matter how minor or otherwise, clamped down on? Who would do that? What happens to those who cheat and how are they found out? What damage could they do if not stopped?

Again story ideas there. I think there would be potential for humour too.

This World and Others – What Magical Worlds Might Envy from the Non-Magical Ones

This might seem like a strange topic. Surely it would be the other way around? But I think there are possibilities when magical worlds might envy those without such powers.

For one thing, would the magical worlds believe the non-magical ones have fewer complications simply because of the lack of that source of power? Would your magical government have to use extra resources policing the system so it isn’t abused (see Fairytales with Bite above)? Who would it have to rein in and how successful are they in doing this?

Also consider the climate of your setting. Has damage been done to it by too much magic going through it (which would be a good reason for your magical government to envy those without it)? What is done or will be done to deal with that damage?

Also would our world have things your magical world might prefer (such as our beautiful environments, especially if theirs has been damaged due to magic)?

Food for thought there, especially if their world had once been as lovely or better than ours.


MailerLite – Allison Symes – Newsletter Sign Up

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Thoughts on Editing

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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 so far. Mixed bag weather wise but the train is welcome (grass has been looking sorry for itself). Writing wise, lots going on and I hope to share some very exciting news on this soon.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to be back on Chandler’s Ford Today with my latest post, Thoughts on Editing. Naturally I am biased on this topic given I am an editor but I share useful thoughts and tips on editing anything (yes, really). Hope you find the post informative and practical.

Am off to The Chameleons Open Evening tomorrow (7th June) as they are holding this to celebrate their 60th anniversary this year. Congratulations to them all. They put on some wonderful plays so if you have a chance to get to one or more, do go.

The Open Evening is on from 6 pm to 9 pm and will be at the Ritchie Hall in Chandler’s Ford. All welcome to go and find out more about what it takes to put on a performance. Volunteers always wanted for roles on and off the stage. 

Thoughts on Editing

This slideshow requires JavaScript.


Hope today has been okay. Another soggy one but Lady got to play in front of her Hungarian Vizler chum again so all is well with their worlds! Not sorry about the rain. Grass needs it. Relieved it’s not coming down as a torrential downpour which just floods everywhere. Rain coming down at a steady rate means the ground is more likely to make better use of it. Also Lady and I get damp rather than soaked so there is that as well!

Don’t forget I’ll be sharing Thoughts on Editing for Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above.

Will be off to visit The Chameleons as they hold their Open Evening to celebrate their 60th anniversary on Saturday evening. Hope to catch up with my lovely editor at Chandler’s Ford Today there as well.

Character Tip: What draws you (or repels you) to the character you’re writing about? There has to be a strong reason why you want to write their story up whether they’re going to be the hero of the villain. This all ties in with character motivation of course but I do think this is a huge driver for any story to be a success, regardless of its length.

Hope today has been a good Wednesday for you. Lady showed off in front of her Hungarian Vizler pal again today. The latter looks on Lady playing, almost as if she was being an indulgent granny watching her favourite grandchild! Lady just has a fabulous time (but I am sure she is aware she is showing off!).

Writing wise, am looking forward to going to an online sci-fi and fantasy group (run by the Association of Christian Writers) later this evening. Always good fun. Am making good progress on a longer short story too. Group was great fun. Longer short story on the back burner for the moment. Things have cropped up but I hope to share news of this soon.

I’ll be sharing Thoughts on Editing for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday – it is always a timely topic especially given I am editing away at the moment and loving it. See above.

 

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Delighted to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble (100 worder), Starting Over. Find out what role the “umbrella from hell” has to play in Mary’s life here.

I mentioned yesterday about using flash to play with genre (see below) but inevitably my favourite genres come through in my flash fiction stories.

For me, these are what I call fairytales with bite (humorous fantasy, sometimes grimmer fantasy!), historical fiction, crime and many more but I would say these are my main three.

There is often a strong element of justice being done in many of my stories too which crosses the genres but I know for me is inspired by my love of the classic fairytales. The rotters rarely get away with it in those tales. You know the comeuppance is coming. The great thing with flash tales is that comeuppance comes very quickly, sometimes in only 100 words!

One of the things I enjoy most about writing flash fiction is the opportunity it gives me to play with character and, therefore, genre. I can and do set my characters, some of whom are definitely not human, in all kinds of settings and back and forwards in time as well.

What I focus on is making my character believable as I mentioned the other day. Their world may be fantastic. But their actions and attitudes should always be relatable. (Not necessarily agreeable though!).

Fairytales with Bite – Seasonal Magic

In your magical setting, do the seasons, whether they’re the same as ours or not, play havoc with a character’s magical abilities? Does the availability of natural light, or its lack, change what your characters can do or limit their powers in some other way? If it does, can this be overcome by what they would consider artificial means?

Can enemies take advantage of when powers are “down” due to seasonal fluctuations? What would your world do to protect itself against that?

Equally when there is an abundance of natural energy (not necessarily light though this is an obvious one to think about), does that boost your character’s magical powers and how can they make the most of this while this lasts? Can your world take advantage of this against their enemies?

Certainly I wouldn’t think it unreasonable for lack of light or other energy source to have a direct ability on someone’s magical capacity in stories. It an also limit the powers of magic forcing your characters to find other ways to resolve their problems. There will be interesting story ideas to emerge from that.

This World and Others – Times

Time is a major factor in all of our lives and that goes for our characters too. Even the superheroes need their down time. So what kind of down time would your characters need (other than the obvious ones of food, drink, rest) and how would they get this time off?

How is time measured in your setting? Are the lengths of days and nights the same as ours, or are they wildly different and, if the latter why is that the case? This has a direct impact on what could be grown in your setting too and what your characters are likely to be able to eat. It would then in turn have an impact on the kinds of employment in your setting too. If only certain items of food can be grown, your setting would need workers for that, others to process it for the general market and so on.

The way time works in your setting will have an impact on what you characters could get done in a typical “day”. That will have an impact on how long they will need to fulfil their quest or whatever task you’ve set them to do. Of course if they have more time in a day than we do, that could help them a lot!

But it pays to plan out how time will work in your setting.

MailerLite – Allison Symes – Newsletter Sign Up

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK 

 

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

History and Stories/Writing for Online Magazines

Leave a comment

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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 so far. Mixed bag, weather wise, but Lady has seen her chums most of the week so is happy. Writing and editing going well. Booked for a writing event later in the year (and that kind of thing always makes me smile. Have something to look forward to later).

It’s double blog time. Firstly, Chandler’s Ford Today and, secondly, More than Writers.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Delighted to be back on Chandler’s Ford Today with my latest post, History and Stories. I love history and stories and, of course, history is full of tales. 

Also as a topic, there are wonderful stories in both the historical fiction and non-fiction departments here, so you will never be short of something intriguing to read (and learn from).

I look at untold history too (what could all of those servants from years gone by have to share with us if they were able to do so? Food for thought or fiction writers there!).

I share how it is possible to write historical flash fiction and how you can “drop” history into a story even if you’re not specifically writing in the genre. Plenty to read and digest here. Hope you enjoy the post.

History and Stories

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

More than Writers

Am delighted to be back on More than Writers, the blog spot of the Association of Christian Writers, with my latest post on Writing For Online Magazines.

Well, they do say you should write what you know and given I write for two online magazines… (Chandler’s Ford Today and Writers’ Narrative), I felt this was an apt topic!

I hope you find the post useful as I share useful thoughts and tips about this kind of writing.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Hope you have had a good day. Weather much nicer today and Lady loved seeing her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals again.

Booked my writing event for later in the year. Will sort out train tickets later (though I have got the ones I need for Swanwick – those arrived last week! Sometimes at least I can get a good discount on booking early so this is not as mad as it may seem, honest. Looking forward to Swanwick and the other writing event already).

Looking forward, much nearer in time, to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom. That happens tonight! (Wednesday 28th May to be precise!).

Writing Tip: Use your own love of stories (and their characters) to work out what you want your stories and characters to be. I know I like characters who do something to try to help themselves, even if they don’t succeed, so will base at least some of my characters on that kind of being. Not all of my characters are human – other beings can try hard and have their failures too! It will be the effort to try to do something which readers will sympathise with.

I’ve never had time for tales where good things happen to the “hero” thanks only to rotten things happening to other characters. I want my people/other beings to earn their successes.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble, George The Butterfly Tamer.

The title idea came from an exercise I’ve set so I thought I would go on to see if I could write the story up to go with it.

Hope you enjoy the tale – it’s a mixture of horror and humour (and could be described as one of my fairytales with bite).

Wonderful meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting last night. Amongst other things connected to the theme of Tens, we had fun with writing ten word stories. No more, no less.

Why not give it a go? It’s fun. It’s also useful practice for writing a strapline for any longer work you are writing. Why?

The ideal strapline isn’t too long! Indeed my one for From Light to Dark and Back Again comes in at exactly ten words with A collection of very short stories to suit every mood. Does what it says, folks!

As for my thoughts on ten word stories, here are those I shared last night.

Mary rammed the umbrella from hell into the park bin.

The aliens diverted past Earth, as they’d heard about humans.

Mark refused to swim in the sea, he’d seen Jaws.

Sarah unintentionally shared salad with some slugs and a caterpillar.

The fairy slammed her wand down, beaten by an amateur.

Hope you like those though I appreciate the one involving Sarah may make you wince! I could, if I wanted to, expand these stories further later on and use them as closing or opening lines too.

Will be sharing thoughts on “tens” in flash fiction as part of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later this evening. I prepare my PowerPoints for these meetings during the month (as I do with my newsletters) so there isn’t one big rush as the relevant date is coming up. I like things which take the pressure off. I also find it fun to compile things as I go. Gives me plenty of editing time later in the month too, which is always a good thing.

When I haven’t a lot of time to write, and I am itching to write something (which is my state of mind most of the time!), I will brainstorm, have a go at a writing exercise, or draft a flash tale. All great things to have a crack at when I only have five minutes, ten minutes or what have you. And I get something drafted I can polish up later.

Fairytales with Bite – Putting On a Show

How would your characters hide their real feelings in a magical world where mind reading, telepathy etc are likely to be commonplace? How good are your characters at “putting on a show” here? We all have to cover up true feelings at times (and sometimes for the best of reasons. For example, we’re sparing others who have gone through worse our problems).

But we don’t have to get around magical powers. Your characters may well have to do so. What can they use to help them here? Are mind blocks a thing in your setting or can only those of a certain status use these? Can your characters have filters to limit the scope of telepathy being used on them rather than by them?

Are certain kinds of characters better at putting on a show like this than others and , if so, what are the reasons for these? Plenty of practice perhaps? Survival depending on it? (Is that still the case now or a historical element?).

Plenty of food for story thought there, I hope.

This World and Others – What Society Expects

What does your fictional society expect from your characters and why? Are the same standards applied to all or only to some? Why any discrimination? Could there be good cause for it?

Where do the expectations come from? History (and all the nastier elements of that leading society to realise it has to have certain standards of behaviour to try to prevent these things happening again)? Faith of any kind? How does your society treat those who rebel against it and are they right to take the line they do?

Good story thoughts can come from looking at how your society has developed over time and what/who were the causes for changes? Is your society grateful for those changes and those behind them? Is there anyone who resents/tries to resist these? (I am thinking of the Luddites here who smashed machinery fearing job losses but you could take that idea further and apply it to your setting and people).

MailerLite – Allison Symes – Newsletter Sign Up

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js