Ending A Piece of Fiction

October 17, 2025Leave a comment

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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. Many thanks to Janet Williams for the picture of me at the HIltingbury Book Fair a year or so ago. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good week. Lady has had a fabulous time with most of her pals this week. Am busy on editing and writing but good progress being made so am reasonably happy with that!

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Hope you’ve had a good Friday. Lady had a good run around with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal and a lovely time was had by both dogs. Also met a cute puppy.

Writing wise, I’m pleased to share Ending A Piece of Fiction on Chandler’s Ford Today and hope you find it useful.

I share thoughts on those occasions when you do know the ending first, about themes in competitions where what they give you may well suggest an ending, and how knowing what you like in story endings can help you with creating your own plus much more.

Ending A Piece of Fiction

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Hope today has been good. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler pal today and a lovely time was had in the park. Nice to see the autumn colours too. Getting out with the dog gives me more opportunities to appreciate things like that. There’s a lot of Virginia Creeper where I am – all a blaze of red right now.

Don’t forget my next Chandler’s Ford Today post is out tomorrow, I’ll be sharing Ending A Piece of Fiction which I hope will prove useful. See above.

Looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group which will be next week. Looking forward to catching up with some of the group in person at the ACW in-person event at Egham not long after that.

And now back to the writing and editing…

Hope you’ve had a good Wednesday. Lady had a lovely time. It was puppy party time at the park as she saw all of her best chums – the Hungarian Vizler, the Rhodesian Ridgeback, and Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. Lady has been rather tired the rest of the day!

Writing wise, I’m sharing Ending A Piece of Fiction on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above. Also it won’t be that long before my next author newsletter is due. To sign up for news, tips, stories, and more, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

For a long time, I wrote only for my own pleasure and to prove to myself I could put a story together. It took me some time to be confident enough to try to submit work anywhere. Naturally for a long time after that I received plenty of rejections but when the acceptances did start coming, that was the boost I needed to keep going and to realise the importance of learning how to improve my writing.

There are no shortcuts to learning your craft and the rejections are all part of the learning curve here. The positive thing is it does toughen up up a bit so later you really do take these things in your stride and focus on improving your story and trying again with it elsewhere. I’ve gone on to have work published thanks to doing that so it is worth doing.

Persistence and willingness to learn go hand in hand here.

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Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble, Comforts. Two fairies argue about the benefits of enjoying certain human treats. Find our more here. Hope you enjoy it.

I was talking yesterday about flash being great when you haven’t much writing time but it is also fabulous for when you haven’t much reading time. Flash collections are wonderful for dipping into. I know I‘m biased with two of my own collections out there and another one to come next year but it is true.

I often dip into collections. This is partly reading in my field which all writers should do but I love the form so why wouldn’t I want to read it as well as write it? I want to enjoy and be inspired by what is out there from other flash authors as well as hope my stories do the same for someone else.

Quiet day today which has been welcome. Still haven’t got as much done as I’d have liked. Always the way though! Mind you, I did get my flu jab done so good to have that out of the way.

Flash is great for those days when you haven’t got much writing time. I find I can at least draft a story in the time I do have. Polishing comes later when I do have more time. Yes, I often do find it takes at least as twice as long to polish a story to get it right than it does to come up with the first draft but I think this is a good ratio. Editing shouldn’t be rushed. It will guarantee you will miss something doing that!

Fairytales with Bite – Adjusting to a New Role

Over the years, I’ve adjusted to several new roles – changes of job, changes of marital status, becoming a mum and later a doggy mum plus I’ve become a writer and editor. All wonderful new roles which I was (and remain) only too happy to have embraced. But other new roles in life aren’t welcome – such as getting used to loss. (Doesn’t mean you have to like it even though you adjust as much as you can).

So thinking about your characters, how do you think they would react to a new role they would welcome and one which wasn’t but which they had no choice but to undergo? What would this tell you about them? Could you feed that into your story?

When it comes to magical practices, are new roles developed in that as new and “better” forms of magic are found and used in your world? (There would always be the magical equivalent of the Luddites who wouldn’t see anything as “better” – could be story ideas there too).

Do some of your characters adjust better than others and, if so as is likely, why would that be? Have they had to adjust before? What had that taught them so they adjust well again? If the other characters didn’t know, why was their past kept quiet? Does that come back to haunt your character now?

This World and Others – Rivers and Seas

I am fond of rivers, seas, and all sorts of water features in the natural world. They seem to speak to me of timelessness, beauty, calm (when the weather’s right!), and of worlds beneath them, a lot of which we still don’t know much about. This is especially true for the seas.

So can any of that apply to your magical world? What water features does it have? If it isn’t dependent on water to be able to sustain life, what does it rely on instead? What does your setting know about what lives in the rivers and seas (or equivalent)? What does it need to know? Does it take good care of its natural environment?

Would your water (or equivalent) features look like what we have on Earth? Would they “behave” in the same way (e.g. are there tides?). The later would be vital to know if your characters are dependent on water (or equivalent) to make their living (e.g. they have to sail)?

Which of your characters live near water features (or equivalent)? Have they learned over time to “manage” them? What natural conditions would they dread these things having (e.g. certain tides always cause mass flooding etc)?

Story ideas there!

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Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest drabble, Comforts. Two fairies argue about the benefits of enjoying certain human treats. Find our more here. Hope you enjoy it.https://t.co/cvfQdrxyfv pic.twitter.com/oBLsoPlqgg
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 17, 2025

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Ending A Piece of Fiction https://t.co/2VWDO20eWy
I'm pleased to share Ending A Piece of Fiction on CFT. I share thoughts on when you know the ending first, about themes which may suggest an ending, and how knowing what you like in story endings can help you create your own.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 17, 2025

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Starting A Piece of Fiction

October 10, 2025Leave a comment

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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. Lady has – she’s been catching up with her pals. Many thanks for great responses to my posts about the October issue of Writers’ Narrative where I’m the Featured Author. It’s not often you get to be a cover girl in your late fifties but there you go!

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler pal and Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. Lady has had a fabulous week in that she has seen most of her friends most of the time this week. I think most of us would count that as a great week.

Writing wise, I’m pleased to share Starting A Piece of Fiction on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Hope you find it useful.

Once I get started on a flash tale or short story, I am generally “away with it” (though I do use outlines to help me). What can be tricky can be knowing where to start and this post shares some thoughts and tips I have found useful over many years to overcome this.

I also share a useful template (which is easily adaptable) which, again, I hope you find useful.

Starting A Piece of Fiction

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Will be sharing Starting A Piece of Fiction on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. The following week, I will, as you will probably have guessed, be sharing a piece on Ending a Piece of Fiction. I hope both will prove to be useful. After that will be a fabulous interview with John Puzey about his book, Captive Audience, so plenty going on at CFT at the moment. John is also a member of our excellent local theatre company, The Chameleons.

Have been busy this week working on a presentation and pitches. Have sent the latter off. The presentation will be for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this month. So far it has been a non-fiction heavy week but I will be switching to the fiction side again soon.

And Lady had a great Thursday meeting up with her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals so she has had a great day, as did her friends.

Hope today has gone well. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler pal today – nice time had by both dogs.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Starting a Piece of Fiction on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Will be sharing tips I’ve found useful for overcoming hesitant starts to stories. I find once I get started it’s fine. It can be the getting started which can be tricky sometimes. I hope the post will prove useful. See above.

Marketing Tip: Consistency matters. It’s better to focus on a few things you know you can do (and keep doing) than spread yourself too thin. This is why I’m not on every social media platform out there (though that doesn’t preclude me from changing the ones I am on or adding others later). But I know I can post regularly where I currently do so I keep that going. Over time, consistency pays off. Readers know where to find you.

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Am thrilled to be one of two Editor’s Choices on Friday Flash Fiction with my tale, Finding Out The Hard Way. Hope you enjoy it.

Congratulations to Jim Bartlett for his story, Safer, which was the other Editor’s Choice.

Having two stories chosen doesn’t happen often so this was an especially nice surprise today.
We talk about having flashes of inspiration and they do happen but I find they come more often when I am at my desk working out ideas for characters and situations to put them in. Then the flashes can come.

Basically, I’ve got to put the work in, which is fine because I love that.

Where I do a get an idea out of “nowhere”, it usually is because something has been bubbling away in my subconscious for a while and it comes to the surface when I am working on something it could be useful for.

Often that something bubbling will be due something I’ve read so this is another reason to read widely and well, contemporary and classic works, short and long forms, and non-fiction because you want a wide pool to fish from for ideas to bubble like that.

It is also more likely you will get more ideas the more you read (and write).

Another aspect to flash fiction flexibility is mixing up the word count ranges you write to within the overall limit of 1000 words. You do develop favourites over time. My overall favourite will always be the drabble, the 100 worder, as it was my way into flash fiction in the first place, but I often write to 300 and 500 words especially. This is handy as so many flash competitions go to these word count limits. As you can imagine, I’m sure, this is no coincidence on my part!

Also when I have submitted stories for potential broadcasting, I am usually looking at the 200 to 250 word count tops for these, so it pays to practice writing to this kind of count.

You do, with time, get used to seeing/knowing what 200 to 300 words will look like on the page/screen so get better at knowing where to stop your story. You get a feel for what will fit in that word count limit.

I can usually tell at a glance now when I draft a 100 word story for Friday Flash Fiction, by roughly how much I’ve gone over on that first draft (and I always do go over). I’m not usually out by much when I compare my thought to the word count on the screen.

Mind you, that tells me how much I have to edit and I start by removing all of my wasted words (that, very, actually etc). Its amazing what a difference can be made to your word count removing words like that can do.

Fairytales with Bite – Options for Magical Beings

What options do your magical beings have in your setting? Are they born with their powers or do they develop these as they grow up? Which powers come to them as naturally as breathing and which do they have to learn? How would all of that impact on the kind of careers they can have later?

Do your magical creations get any choice at all on their career? Can anyone “rebel” against their “default setting” and do something different? What would the consequences be of that?

Are your characters happy with the skills they are born with and/or go on to develop? What are the advantages and disadvantages of them? Could any of your characters with powers envy those without them and why would that be? (Simpler lifestyle and less complications would be one thought springing to my mind).

This World and Others – Careers

In your setting what kind of careers are available for your characters? Is this dependent on magical skill set (see Fairytales With Bite above) or can anyone go for these careers as long as they’re willing to learn and work hard? How have the careers developed in your world? Is magic an advantage here or not?

Also are there careers not possible in your setting but which are still needed for your society to function?

Could magical power get in the way of these needed careers so your world has to import people /other beings of choice to carry out these vital roles? How does that happen? (There could be many a tale of alien abduction here – at least it would be for a reason that made sense!).

Are there careers your characters are desperate to avoid or get? How can they avoid/get them? Why do they feel this way? Could a story involve a character facing up to having to do a career they don’t want for a greater purpose?

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Thrilled to be 1 of 2 Editor’s Choices on Friday Flash Fiction with my Finding Out The Hard Way. Congratulations to Jim Bartlett for his story, Safer, which was the other pick. Having two stories chosen doesn’t happen often. This was a nice surprise today.https://t.co/mbBGjiiuzl pic.twitter.com/T9nx6uKkRM
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 10, 2025

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Starting A Piece of Fiction https://t.co/H08j0H23TI
Pleased to share Starting A Piece of Fiction on CFT. Once I begin a story, I am generally “away with it” (I use outlines to help). What can be tricky is knowing where to start. This post shares tips I've found useful.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 10, 2025

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Publication News: Third Flash Fiction Book and New and Old Books

June 17, 2025Leave a comment

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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. Photos of me with my two flash fiction collections and Creativity Matters were taken by Adrian Symes. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you had a great weekend. I had splendid news – details below and with more to come in due course. Mind you, the title of this post is a big clue! Lady had her usual big walks and had a lovely time too. Weather not bad either and my roses are looking fabulous and smelling as fragrant as ever. When all is definitely not right with the world, little things like this help. (Plus an especially nice church service with some lovely singing also helps me!).

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Phew, a hot one today but Lady kept nice and cool. Was able to see her Hungarian Vizler pal too. Plenty of shade where we are, thankfully. I have a nice spot in the back garden (on the patio where it gets direct sunlight) where I can test the pavement temperature before I take Lady anywhere and that is handy at the moment. Will be for the next week or so if the forecast is to be believed.

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 on Friday.

It won’t be too long before my next author newsletter will be out again. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Last but not least I’ll be back on Authors Electric tomorrow with my latest blog for them on the topic of Themes. More details tomorrow.

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Hope you have had a good day. On the plus side, Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback friend and saw her Hungarian Vizler pal too. On the less positive side, it has been a particularly hectic Monday so am relieved to get to my desk to get on with writing and editing. Creativity really is good for you even if, just for a while, it takes you out of whatever chaos you have been dealing with for a while! (It wasn’t Lady behind the chaos, it just has been one of those full on, non-stop, things going wrong kind of days).

Writing Tip: When you get chaotic days like this take time to be kind to yourself. I know I won’t get so much done writing wise tonight. That’s fine. I’ll make up for it later in the week. My focus this evening will be to enjoy what I can get done in the time I’ve got. That matters even when things haven’t gone wrong!

Enjoying writing (and editing) will help keep you going when the going does get tough and it does sometimes. Happens to us all.

A huge thank you to everyone for the congratulations received on my sharing the news my Seeing The Other Side will be coming out in May 2026. The support is very much appreciated. As you can imagine, I feel the weekend has gone rather well!

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Celebrating 60 Years of Drama with The Chameleons – A Look Back at The Open Evening for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. One of the things I love about going to see their shows is I get to take in stories I would never otherwise have come across. Full report, including revealing who the unexpected visitors were at the Ritchie Hall when I visited, will be shared on my post next week.

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Big News – 14th June 2025

I am thrilled to be able to tell you I signed and sent back to my publisher today the contract for my third flash fiction book, Seeing The Other Side. It is due out in May 2026 (so will be in time for The Writers Summer School, Swanwick in August 2026, fellow Swanwickers).

BUT

Prior to that, this coming July in fact, part of the book will be serialised on CafeLit. I will send the links as soon as I can but the serialisation of part of the book will give you a good taster. It will also be the first time anything of mine has been serialised in this way so am excited about that too, as you can imagine. I can’t wait to share those tales with you.

And it is lovely to be able to start thinking about book launches again.

More to come as time goes on but so delighted to be able to confirm this news now.

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Have picked a potential story to enter for a competition this weekend though it’s not a flash one. Indeed I could write up to 2000 words for this one, twice the flash limit. Having said that, there are plenty of flash competitions out there and I need to get around to picking one or two to have a try at (nothing ventured, nothing gained etc).

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week.

I now know the serialisation of stories from my Seeing The Other Side will start in the second week of July. I will share the links as and when I get them. So excited about this as I’ve never had anything serialised before.

It’s Monday. It has been more busy than usual for me. I definitely feel it is time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Working Outfit.

Is Mary right to be concerned her husband, who is due to judge a village fete, has decided to wear his best suit AND an apron? What makes her give him her old hat as well? Find out here.

Again, may I say a huge thanks to all for the wonderful support when I revealed my Seeing The Other Side will be out in May 2026. It was most kind of you and much appreciated by me. Writers spend so much time alone at their desks. We are all aware of the downs of the writing life and it is fabulous to be able to share a definite “up” moment!

Back on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. I like to mix up the moods of my stories for my regular submissions (Friday Flash Fiction and my own YouTube channel). Especially right now, I feel some light-hearted work is probably over due.

When I decide to start with the mood of the story above everything else, I then look at what kind of character would be most likely to deliver on this and then flesh them out from there.

When I start with the character, I work out what kind of mood they are likely to be in and that will influence the mood of the story. Themes can sometimes give strong indications of what the tale mood should be/is likely to be so it is a good idea to practice writing to a certain mood. It will come up in competitions at some point.

14th June – Publication News
I make no apologies for repeating my good news that I have signed and returned the contract for my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side, today. The book will be out in May 2026 but some of the stories will be serialised on CafeLit from this July. More to come as I have it.

Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow as usual. Need to start thinking about another writing competition soon but have understandably been a bit distracted by my big news! Hope to look into this tomorrow too.

Have got an idea for the competition I want to have a go at but it is a question of selecting a suitable story. I often draft pieces and save them for competitions. If I’ve got the idea, I will just get on and write it and polish it up even if I don’t initially know where I’ll try and place it. By the time I know which competition I’d like to try, the story has rested long enough for me to be able to judge it objectively enough.

Goodreads Author Blog – New Books and Old Books

I expect, like me, you have a good mixture of books on your shelves. I have new books, old books, classics, contemporaries, and, what is especially nice, books written by friends of mine (and signed for me too). I treasure them all.

I have books inherited from my late mother, who was a tremendous reader and encouraged me so much here. I have my own collections of books. The first series I went for, as an adult, was the Odhams Agatha Christie collection. Lovely red and gold hardback books. Fabulous stories, as you know.

Prior to that I collected the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton as these used to be on sale at my local newsagent, back in the days when many of those had a reasonable book selection you could buy. I miss those days! A new edition of the series had been brought out to tie in with Southern TV’s adaptation of the series for their Sunday teatime slot. That only stopped when Southern lost their franchise. (A big mistake but there you go and at least it got me reading the books!).

I do believe it is a great idea to have a health “reading diet” and for me that has always included contemporary as well as classic books. A great story is a great story whenever it came out after all.

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: New Books and Old Books https://t.co/SPn6z0Du4A via @goodreads I share the joys of new books and old, why I have a lovely mixture on my shelves, and why I treasure collections too. Hope you enjoy the post. Do read! pic.twitter.com/ByPKX9xaOt
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) June 14, 2025

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It’s Monday. Time for a tale. My latest on YouTube is Working Outfit. Is Mary right to be concerned her husband, who is due to judge a village fete, has decided to wear his best suit AND an apron? What makes her give him her old hat as well? Find out here.https://t.co/8eXL7pbwNn
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) June 16, 2025

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The Writer’s Wish List

February 28, 2025Leave a comment

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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. Lady has seen friends and I’m spotting more spring flowers out. Writing is going well too. Hope to edit a story for another competition over the weekend.

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Hope you have had a good Friday. Lovely to see some sunshine and more spring flowers out.
Pleased to share my latest post on Chandler’s Ford Today – The Writer’s Wish List.

I share five things I would wish for and this includes my thoughts on AI, tiredness. and finding out useful writing information plus much more.

Hope you enjoy the post. Comments always welcome on the CFT box.

The Writer’s Wish List

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Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler friend again today and I am spotting more crocuses out both cheery things to celebrate I think!

Will be sharing The Writers’ Wish List on Chandler’s Ford Today. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Had a lovely session of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group on Zoom last night. Good to see everyone.

I’ve been revisiting some of my Flash NANO stories from last year and sent a couple of those out to competitions, having polished and edited them. Now to wait and see.

Also happily working on future articles and a long term project. Hope to get that submitted soon.

Writing Tip: Even if you’re happily reading everything fictional you can get your hands on (and why not!) with the aim of writing plenty of fiction of your own, don’t forget to include non-fiction in your reading. Not only are the articles etc interesting, I’ve known non-fiction works spark off ideas for stories for me. Why not see if it can do the same for you?

Mixed bag weather wise today. Lady and I got wet this morning though we did see her Hungarian Vizler friend which cheered us up. For this afternoon’s walk, there was glorious sunshine. I guess that is proof – spring is on its way! In further good news, my first daffodils are out in the garden.

On Friday, I’ll be sharing The Writer’s Wish List on Chandler’s Ford Today. See further up. And I hope to bring another smashing author interview before too long. More details nearer the time.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting his evening on Zoom. Will be looking at Using Popular Themes as a topic. Glad to say the session went well. Nice to welcome new members to it too.

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It’s Friday once again and I’m pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest tale, Memory Issues. You know how you can see a face and swear you know from it somewhere, well so does my character here. Is he right or wrong though? What could be the consequences of being right?
The Bridport Prize has described flash fiction as “the art of just enough” which I think is a brilliant description of flash fiction. (Their competitions are open again incidentally. Deadline is the end of May).

It’s a great challenge to respond to and I’ve found it has helped my other fiction and non-fiction work. How?

Simply because I’ve got into the habit of thinking does the reader need to know this? I’ve got used to justifying every part of my stories and/or articles and/or blogs etc being included and ruthlessly cutting out anything which isn’t. Writing flash so regularly has helped sharpen my editing skills (and indeed has helped me lose all fear of that).

Other than for Friday Flash Fiction, where I always write 100 word tales, I do like to mix up the word count I use across the flash fiction spectrum. I do this to keep me on my creative toes but also because certain markets and competitions have specific requirements here.

I can think of markets which ask for strictly 75 words only, including the title, and another one which asks for 53 words. There are all kinds in between too all the way up to the 1000 word limit. And it is a funny thing how often I gravitate to the 1000 words mark.

For my Writers’ Narrative articles, these always come in at around the 1000 words mark. My shorter Chandler’s Ford Today pieces come it at about the same limit though my longer ones (such as author interviews) can be double that.

Word count then plays a huge role in my writing life though I like to mix it up. It keeps life interesting!

Fairytales with Bite – Turning The Tables

One of the things I’ve always loved about fairytales is you know things will work out all right in the end, usually with some magical assistance from a benign magical being. Turning the tables on the unkind and cruel can be guaranteed. Just ask Cinderella!

But we need to know early on in the story that such magical assistance is going to be possible. So we needed to know Cinders had a fairy godmother though she had been unaware of it until the lady deigned to turn up! I’ve always thought I would’ve understood Cinders if she’d greeted the lady with something like, “Where the hell have you been? Do you know what’s been going on here?” Well, you just would, wouldn’t you?

For tables to be turned, we need to know then that such a thing will be possible. Hints and clues need to be planted to the alert reader to pick up (and for the less alert ones to go back through the story later and then spot them – we all do this at times! It’s no bad thing either. You always pick up more on a second read and writers can learn so much from that).

With fairytales, there is the general expectation tables will be turned but you do need to see how this happens. In the case of Cinders, we know things will become better once that fairy godmother does turn up (and that magic will be the way forward here).

In other stories, look for the pivotal moment of change. Study what leads up to it. There will be things here we can apply to our own fairytales and magical stories. Often there is an early hint when we discover the setting is not of this world so that too is a huge clue magic or some other force for good will turn up at some point.

The fun thing here, of course, is you get to decide what clues to plant where. Then you can get your characters to reveal more. It’s why I love writing, as well as reading, what I call fairytales with bite. They’re a great source of entertainment and a small comfort in a world where justice is so often not done.

This World and Others – Accountability

With great power comes great responsibility (or should do!) and there should be some accountability as to how a character uses their powers. This isn’t meant as a commentary on what is going on right now but it perhaps reflects on us that accountability is always needed, I think.

In an ideal world (which ours definitely isn’t!) the most powerful have to have some restraints on what they can do otherwise there is no story. They would just get their own way all the time. There is no story in that.

I’ve long believed there has to be some hope in any kind of story (e.g. justice will be done in crime stories in some way) and I feel this should be just as true for science fiction and fantasy tales. Perhaps especially so since there is access to powers we don’t know here.

We understand power struggles here so can relate to those going through the same thing in the fantastic worlds we create. It is the characters, I feel, which draw us into reading the stories.

I rooted for Frodo and Sam in The Lord of the Rings and the details of The Shire, Mordor etc were fabulous but without those characters drawing me in would I have gone on to read the rest? Possibly not. Having said that, having sense of the setting in which they were travelling added to the story. Knowing Sauron could be brought down (and I refuse to believe that is a spoiler after all these years) gave hope. I was rooting for those hobbits to ensure Sauron did face his accountability even though it took an unusual way of doing it. It was vital Sauron had a weakness that could be used against him – therein the accountability and that evil would not triumph.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Two issues here this time – the February one as we leave the month behind and the March one as we go into that month. Happy reading!

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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It’s Friday again and I’m pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my new tale, Memory Issues. You know how you can see a face and swear you know from it somewhere, so does my character. Is he right or wrong though? What could be the consequences?https://t.co/N8MdRVyiOV pic.twitter.com/7RLnvESvua
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 28, 2025

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The Writer's Wish List https://t.co/wE7Gb2TJAX Pleased to share my latest post on Chandler’s Ford Today – The Writer’s Wish List. I share five things I would wish for. This includes thoughts on AI, tiredness, and finding useful writing information plus much more.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) February 28, 2025

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Making the Most of Your Writing Time

January 17, 2025Leave a comment

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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 few days. Lady has been catching up with her pals and I’ve been catching up with my writing. Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting on Zoom next week too. Smashing author interview coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today next week as well – looking forward to sharing that.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Delighted to share Making the Most of Your Writing Time for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. It’s always a useful topic!

I look at the positives of planning out your writing time and discuss the negative side to it. I share what one piece of advice P.G. Wodehouse gave to a writer (which has a considerable impact on my way of thinking here) and look at mixing things up to make the best use of the writing time available.

Hope you find the post useful.

Making the Most of Your Writing Time

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Hope today has been okay for you. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler friend today. Lady has had a good week in catching up with her pals.

Looking forward to sharing Making the Most of Your Writing Time on Chandler’s Ford Today – link up tomorrow. Hope it will prove useful. See above.

Planning, over the weekend, to have a look at the two short story competition entries I drafted a few days ago and see what needs to be done to make them better. There will be something, there always is, but I love this stage of writing. To see what needs to be fixed and then to do it and know your work has taken a good step forward – well, all of that pleases me a lot. Also increases my chances a lot too!

I’ve always taken some consolation from the knowledge I can’t think of any writer who has ever written a first draft. It’s okay I don’t do so either then but what matters is seeing it for what it is – a first draft only I’m ever going to see.

Shakespeare didn't write perfect first drafts and neither will we but exercises help you create stories in different ways

Hope Wednesday has been a good day for you. Lady got to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals today – a lovely time was had by all in the park.

Now I hope you received lots of lovely book presents for Christmas. Am working my way through mine but I thought this would be a good point to say a lovely present for any author would be to receive reviews on Amazon etc. Other than buying the books themselves, leaving thoughtful reviews is the next best thing you an do to support authors.

Reviews don’t have to be long. One of mine for From Light to Dark and Back Again is a sentence long – An eclectic mix of flash fiction, from an author with a great imagination.

Many thanks to the author of that review. Much appreciated by me, obviously. Reviews like this can be useful for marketing purposes but also the feedback is so useful for writers.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s lovely to be back on Friday Flash Fiction once again after a fabulous and enjoyable Christmas break. Hope you enjoy my A Different New Year though I know for sure one of my characters in this one certainly won’t.

Flash fiction is, of course, short, but you still need to give yourself plenty of time to edit and to polish your stories. It doesn’t matter what word count you write to, the editing does take time, but it is so worth it when you have a polished as good as you can make it piece of work to send out.

Crafting your work to make it as good as you can does make all the difference to whether a piece is published or not, or gets a placing (or a win) in a competition or not.

Some of you will know I discovered flash fiction by accident. It remains the happiest writing accident I’ve had. CafeLit issued a 100 word challenge and I went for it. Haven’t looked back since.

But I mention this as I think it shows the importance of being open to writing possibilities and not to be afraid to try something new.

I’d been writing the longer short stories prior to that (and still do but flash has given me another string to my bow and a way into having books with my name on the front covers. Really love that).

It has pleased me a lot to see increasing opportunities for flash with online story markets and flash being added to competition categories. All good, that!

Fairytales with Bite – Pantomimes

In the UK pantomimes are along standing tradition and usually run from December through to about February. They are often the first introduction to theatre for many and most of the stories for them do come from the traditional fairytales. I will be off to see a production of Cinderella later this month which will be staged by my excellent local amateur theatre company.

Pantomimes are funny, colourful, and jokes are aimed at all levels. It is deliberate adults will get some jokes when the children will not. You have the pantomime Dame, always played by a man, wearing the most garish costume and makeup. The Principal Boy is always played by a girl. Certain phrases are always used (he/she is behind you etc) and the audience is always encouraged to join in. There is often music too.

Another tradition here is some of the jokes will poke fun at those in authority while other gags will refer to local issues/events/places. All great fun. Chaos is expected.

Fairytales work brilliantly for this as they have a good three act structure which translates well to the stage. There are obvious baddies and goodies too and magic is involved somewhere. It helps the audience know the story because they know when they can join in.

But it led me to wonder for this post what kind of theatre or pantomime would your setting have? Would they have anything like the pantomime? What fairytales do they have they might base their own version on? Could you invent something here for your stories?

This World and Others – Behind The Scenes

Linking with Fairytales with Bite, I know my excellent local amateur theatre company create their own sets and what they come up with here is amazing. They have, I’m sure, great fun with the pantomime sets they create – lots of bright colours etc. But without this, there is no show. Without their lighting and sound crews, the shows wouldn’t be so good. It’s amazing how the well placed light or sound effect makes a difference to the impact on the audience of the story being acted out.

Naturally it won’t just be in the entertainment industry, there will be those elsewhere whose work behind the scenes (a) makes things happen at all and (b) without whom what does get done isn’t as good.

So for your stories whose work behind the scenes is crucial to the success of what your lead characters are doing/plan to do? Equally who could unintentionally or otherwise scupper your characters’ plans by their work behind the scenes which has an impact later on?

You could also have characters who are behind the scenes but don’t want to be and what impact any resentful attitude on their part plays in your story.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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It’s lovely to be back on Friday Flash Fiction once again after a fabulous and enjoyable Christmas break. Hope you enjoy my A Different New Year though I know for sure one of my characters in this one certainly won’t.https://t.co/QaswcQCzUT pic.twitter.com/9I3Wy9Jx64
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 17, 2025

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Making the Most of Your Writing Time https://t.co/nhM9lScz19 I'm delighted to share this post for CFT. It’s a useful topic! I look at the positives and negatives of planning writing time. I share one piece of advice P.G. Wodehouse gave to a writer and look at mixing things up.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) January 17, 2025

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Author Interview Part 2 – Debz Hobbs-Wyatt – If Crows Could Talk and Flash NANO 2024

November 1, 2024Leave a comment

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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, as is one of the photos from the Book Fair. The image of me signing books there was taken by my lovely CFT editor, Janet Williams.

Hope you have had a good few days. Looking forward to listening to Pet Classics on Classic FM soon – it does help against the noise of the fireworks. Lady isn’t so much scared, more annoyed by fireworks especially the louder ones though the pain there is it means she finds it hard to settle. I wish people would use the silent ones and have done.

Writing wise, it is a joy to welcome back Debz Hobbs-Wyatt to Chandler’s Ford Today and I’m glad to say I will have more author interviews coming up too. Plenty to look forward to then. And Flash NANO 2024 has started too!

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Am so pleased to welcome back Debz Hobbs-Wyatt to Chandler’s Ford Today for the second half of a superb interview re her If Crows Could Talk. As well as discussing her novel, Debz shares so much useful advice which will be of use to all writers so do have a good read!

Tonight, Debz discusses drafts, editing, marketing, her favourite aspects of storytelling and so much more. Hope you enjoy the post (and if you missed Part 1, fear not, there is a link to it at the bottom of this interview).

Separately, Flash NANO has started – hooray – and I look forward to having a crack at the first prompt later this evening. Also author newsletter went out earlier. Busy but productive day and Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal and the lovely Coco, the Labradoodle, so Lady feels her day has been a good one too.

Author Interview – Debz Hobbs-Wyatt – If Crows Could Talk – Part 2

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Don’t forget I’ll be sharing the second half of a superb interview with Debs Hobbs-Wyatt on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. She’ll be discussing her If Crows Could Talk but shares so much useful advice, it doesn’t matter where you are on your writing journey you will find it useful. Be sure to check it out – link up tomorrow. See above.

Author newsletter also out tomorrow and Flash NANO begins, hooray! Looking forward also to the Bridge House Publishing Celebration event in December. Writers’ Narrative will be back soon too so plenty to look forward to as the year winds down. Where has the time gone?

Character Tip: I sometimes find it useful to work out a character’s negative traits. If someone is honest, my character will be so to the point of rudeness and a story idea will begin to form from that. If they tend to be pessimistic I may throw them in a situation where they have to find reasons to be more optimistic for once – that being the only way to get out of their situation. What will my character do to achieve this? I want to have fun finding that out and I would hope a reader would too.

Hope you have had a good day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. Good time had by all. It’s their rule to always have a good time and to be fair they do stick to it!

Don’t forget Part 2 of a wonderful interview with Debz Hobbs-Wyatt about her If Crows Could Talk is on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Be sure to not miss it as Debz shares much useful advice which will benefit so many writers. See above.

The following week is when I am planning to review the recently performed I’ll Be Back Before Midnight so wonderfully staged by The Chameleon Theatre Group. One joy of going to their shows is it introduces me to a whole wealth of stories (as plays) I would not otherwise have come across.

There will be more author interviews to come before the year’s out on Chandler’s Ford Today and I am looking forward to sharing these as and when.

Writing Prompt: You can ask one of your characters one question only which they must answer truthfully (nor can they leave anything out). What would be your question? Find out what the answer reveals. I strongly suspect you’ll end up with a good story outline at the least answering this one. Happy writing!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

It’s Friday. Somehow it is November. Time for a story then. Glad to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest Random Objects. Even magical parents have issues with their offspring human parents will understand only too well. Find out one of those issues here. Hope you enjoy it.

Hope you have had a good day. No pals out for Lady to play with today so she had to put up with me!

Author newsletter out again tomorrow and, of course, Flash NANO kicks off. Good luck if you’re taking part. Unless the prompt is to a specific word count, I don’t worry about this aspect at all. Some of my stories end up at 100 words or fewer, some at 250 words or more and most somewhere in between. All will need polishing up later. But that’s fine. I will hopefully have 30 new drafts to look at in December!

What I am hoping for will be the kinds of prompts I know and love and others which are new to me but which I find to be great fun! Will keep you posted.

Two days to go until Flash NANO starts. Yes, I am keen, fancy you noticing!

What I especially like here is not knowing what prompts will come up and then just seeing what I can do with them. I know I’ll get something from them. The polishing can happen later. I am hoping to use at least two of these prompts for competitions I’ve got in mind.

Those will be the two stories I won’t share on the supportive Flash NANO Facebook page! Some places don’t allow you to send in anything which has been published elsewhere, even on your own website, so I play safe here and ensure anything I want to submit anywhere does not go elsewhere at all. Easiest thing to do. Can’t go wrong with that.

Fairytales with Bite – Magical Fireworks

I’m not keen on fireworks, being a dog owner, but have enjoyed them when they turn up in fantasy fiction. My two favourite examples are:-

The Lord of the Rings – Gandalf has a supreme talent for fireworks, does he not? The book conjured up wonderful images in my head. The films brought those images to life spectacularly.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – I always was fond of Fred and George Weasley but my favourite scene of theirs for me has to be when they unleash their fireworks and the dragon one goes after the odious Dolores Umbridge. (Played almost too well by Imelda Staunton, I thought). And I loved that bit where Professor Flitwick shows his approval of the Weasleys’s antics and then realises he shouldn’t. Very funny. Suspect Warwick Davis enjoyed that bit, it certainly come across that way.

But there can be metaphorical fireworks of course. So what kind of magical metaphorical fireworks would your characters (a) set off or (b) do their best to avoid setting off but somehow don’t manage it? What are the consequences of these things? There would be consequences! Funny ones maybe or deadly serious? The choice is yours.

This World and Others – Intelligent Beings

I suspect if we had a group discussion on what counted as intelligent beings, there would be many who would put a question mark against humans. They would point to what we’ve done to the planet, our warlike tendencies and so on. As a dog owner, I know when dogs squabble, it is over something specific and usually easily dealt with. Dogs generally don’t hold grudges either. Hmm…

But then there would be others who would point out to our amazing creative skills ranging across a huge range of disciplines. I’ve got every sympathy here. It does take intelligence to want to create something lovely such as a painting, piece of music, or a story.

Okay, let’s move that group discussion out of our own solar system. If others from worlds way beyond us were to look down on us, would they consider we were intelligent beings or not?

And if we went exploring, what kinds of being would we come across? How would we evaluate their intelligence? What would happen if we got this wrong? We could get it wrong in two different ways here. What would the consequences be and what intelligence would we use to rectify matters?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Back to the September 2023 edition of the magazine this time with its ever timely topic – marketing. I have two pieces in this one – Marketing Your Books and Writing For Online Magazines.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Random Objects, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/h5wGWeye5E It’s Friday. Somehow it's November. Time for a story. Glad to be on FFF with Random Objects. Even magical parents have issues with their offspring humans understand. Find out one such issue here. pic.twitter.com/P9nPFYzyD4
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 1, 2024

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Author Interview – Debz Hobbs-Wyatt – If Crows Could Talk – Part 2 https://t.co/c19jR3rRp3 Thrilled to welcome back Debz Hobbs-Wyatt to CFT for Part 2 of a fab interview. She discusses editing, marketing, storytelling and more. There's a link to Part 1 in this interview too.
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) November 1, 2024

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Outlining and Prompts

October 8, 2024Leave a comment

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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 few days. Looking forward to going to the Association of Christian Writers Autumn Gathering in Rugby at the end of the week. Will be good to catch up with folk. Am looking forward to the workshops too. Won’t be long before Flash NANO starts in November either. Have found that great fun to take part in over the last couple of years and am looking forward to being part of it again.

Facebook – General

Hope you have had a good day and managed to avoid at least some of the rain. Mu gutters were doing their usual splendid impersonation of Niagara Falls at 9 am today! Thankfully it was dry when Lady and I went out and she did get to see her Hungarian Vizler friend, much to the delight of both dogs.

Looking forward to sharing a fabulous interview with Miriam Drori about her new book, Loyalty and the Learner, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Looking forward also to my trip to Rugby on Saturday to join the Association of Christian Writers for their Autumn Gathering. Am hoping the weather will be better!

Writing Tip: I often outline my characters by interviewing them. A couple of pertinent questions gets the ball rolling nicely. Once I know the character well enough, I can write their story up. So I look at what motivates them (and from that, why). I also look at what secrets they might keep and why.

For example if my character is motivated by the need to be discreet, I would probably discover a secret from their past which is so horrendous, discretion has become second nature for them. I can then decide whether to reveal their secret and how they handle the outcome of that or take another route and get them doing something drastic to keep that secret. Either would be a good story to write up.

7th October
A deeply sad day.

Writing wise, I’m working on blogs, editing, judging, as well as flash fiction at the moment. Enjoying it all too. I find writing therapeutic at times in terms of it giving me a creative outlet and I escape for a while into the world I create. Reading helps me escape into worlds other writers create – love that too.

Having said that, I don’t always like what my characters get up to and some of them I definitely wouldn’t want to meet for real, so to speak. It is the way of things but I also take comfort from the fact my characters should have a life of their own, else they would only be cardboard cutouts. Nobody relates to those.

Drizzly but clearing up here today. Hope your weekend has been a good one.

Busy editing and judging at the moment. Will be enjoying flash fiction Sunday afternoon too today.

Character Creation Tip: It’s not unknown for authors to base their characters on aspects of themselves. Well, you draw on what you know here, right? True but I’d be wary about doing this if writing horror, erotica or even crime! You do want to separate the author from their work!

My approach is to take what I know about human nature/behaviours – and specifically what can result from a trait – and ask myself questions especially the What If one. The What If question is useful for getting an outline/rough idea together. I look at what a character would do and why.

Knowing the why is important for me because I can then write the story up with confidence knowing where it and its characters are going. The why makes motivations understandable (though not necessarily nice).

Hope you have had a good start to your weekend. I’m looking forward to going to the Association of Christian Writers Autumn Gathering next Saturday. Looking forward to catching up with people and enjoying the workshops.

On Chandler’s Ford Today next week, I’ll be chatting to fellow Swanwicker, Miriam Drori, about her new novel, Loyalty and the Learner. Looking forward to sharing that.

Writing Tip: What have I found to be the most useful piece of writing advice I’ve picked up over the years? I’d say it was to write first and to edit later and that’s it’s okay to write a rubbish first draft. Everyone does! Just get those ideas down and then come back to them, after a suitable break away to evaluate them properly and then do the inevitable tidying up work which needs to be done.

The time away from your first draft is vital to be able to judge it properly but I use that time away to go and draft something else. I can then rest that one and come back to the first piece. It means I always have something on the go. I like that.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting in a couple of weeks. Will be looking at how to make the most of Flash NANO, which stars on 1st November, and I’ll be sharing tips on how to make the most of writing prompts. I’m writing on prompts again for Authors Electric this month (due out on 18th October).

I use a wide variety of prompts. It keeps things interesting for me but it also means I’m not fazed when I’m set them by other writers. I know I can produce something. I can polish things up later and only I see the first draft!

I use the prompts directly but I often do put my own twist on them and get yet another idea. So if an opening line prompt says something like He wasn’t amused to get a parking ticket, I would change that to something like The alien wasn’t amused to get a parking ticket. I know I could have fun with that one!

It’s Monday. Time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Lighting Up. I expect many will identify with this one!

There are plenty of flash fiction competitions out there. A quick Google search will bring up loads of them. All of that is good news but do make sure you check out the terms and conditions and you are happy with these.

I never enter competitions which require me to sign away all of my rights (just what is in that for me?! I also may want to do something else with a the story in the future. Signing away my rights means I can’t do that).

I also check the entry fee is proportionate to the prize on offer. I also check out the competition’s website. Usually there are FAQs here which I find it pays to look at. The competition should be easy to find online. If they have a Facebook page, do check out the comments. If you’re not sure about a competition (a) walk away, you have to be comfortable with where you’re sending your work as you want it to reflect well on you and (b) do ask the writing community.

If you’re part of online writing groups do ask around here too. Someone is likely to be able to answer your query. Also the competition organiser should cover a lot of the common queries in their FAQs and, if not, be amenable to you putting a query to them.

Always walk away from those who don’t want to be helpful – you have to query why, right?

One reason I love writing something for Friday Flash Fiction most weeks is it gets me back to my first introduction, and therefore love of the flash fiction format, the classic 100 word story otherwise known as the drabble.

For flash competitions and markets, unless they want a specific word count, I write to just under the overall limit. I want to make the most of the word count room I have available. So if I have a 250 words limit and my story comes in at 150, I will save it for a competition or market which is looking for word counts of 200 words or fewer.

The reason for that is so I can make every possible use of the word count limit I have got. If I’ve got the room for that powerful line which shows something useful about the character it’s going in. Here it is a case of adding depth to the story and character.

No line will ever go in, regardless of word count, if it doesn’t add something useful to the story in some way but if I’ve got some extra room, I see it as a wasted chance if I don’t use it this way.

Goodreads Author Blog – Books With Impact

To an extent, all books have impact. The first impact is on you as the reader making you decide whether you loved the book or not. But when I talk about books with impact, I mean those stories which stay with you long after you’ve read them initially and which you will happily re-read at any time.

For me, this includes The Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice, most of the back catalogues of Agatha Christie, P.G. Wodehouse, Terry Pratchett, and the classic fairytales.

What pleases me now is I’m increasingly adding non-fiction to that mix. It makes for an interesting “reading diet” and I would include most of Ben Macintyre’s books in the “will happily re-read” category.

I don’t mind the book format I use either. I mainly read paperbacks and ebooks with hardbacks every so often coming into the mix (but I have to be very sure of the author for those!).

The impact I look for in fiction is entertainment. For non-fiction it is in learning something new to me in a way that entertained me (and I welcome the development of creative non-fiction here because this is one of its strengths).

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

This time I share the link to the September 2023 issue of the magazine which had marketing as its theme. Always a timely topic, that one! I have two pieces in here – Marketing Your Books and Writing for Online Magazines. And it really isn’t long to go now before the magazine is back with us again!

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Books With Impact https://t.co/YRcBOtM4EQ via @goodreads Delighted to talk about books with impact for Goodreads. I look at what this means to me and name some of those authors whose works come into this category for me. Who would you nominate? pic.twitter.com/ZBSN6yXtB2
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 5, 2024

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It’s Monday. Time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Lighting Up. I expect many will identify with this one!https://t.co/HZmB9WETZa
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) October 7, 2024

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What I Look For In Stories – Reading/Writing Them

June 25, 2024Leave a comment

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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 great weekend. Lovely summer weather continues here. Looking forward to sharing another author interview on Chandler’s Ford Today later this week. This time I’ll be talking to Maressa Mortimer about her latest book, Downstream, which is a cracking read. Always plenty to learn from author interviews, I find. There will be more to come in July too.

Facebook – General

Busy evening tonight so am posting early.

Writing Advice I’ve Found Most Helpful: Could write a series on this, I’m sure, but I think the number one top tip here is to write something first, then edit it. See these as two separate creative tasks. I’ve got to know what I’m working with in the first place before I can figure out how to improve it (and there will always be things to improve!).

I edit on paper but also on screen so for the latter I do what I can to make the text look different. It helps with spotting errors. I also know to look for “missing words”, the thing I could’ve sworn I typed up but on closer inspection find I didn’t. Happens to us all but it helps a lot to be aware of this kind of error so you know to look for it.

A lovely start to the week as Lady got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal before the heat took hold this afternoon. Great to see them having a lovely time.

Now Writers Narrative is taking a break for a while but there is plenty to read and enjoy in the back issues. Every so often I will pick one and share it here. Naturally since we are still in June, for this post, I’ll share the current edition, which is on the theme of poetry. I look at the links between flash fiction and poetry in my article here – there are more than you might think. Hope you enjoy.

Hope your weekend is proving to be sunny again – lovely weather here. Lady loves it as it is pleasant but not too hot.

What do I look for in stories I read? Generally I want to be entertained and to care about what happens to the characters. Am not into highbrow books for the good reason I’m not highbrow! Indeed at under 5’ tall, I am anything but highbrow! I want to see interesting plots, threads followed through properly etc.

What do I look for in stories I write? I want to be entertained (because if I’m not, who else would be?). I want to care about what happens to my characters (and I adore giving just deserts to those worthy of it – that is such fun). I want a good storyline/plot and yes for threads to be followed through properly.

Even in flash fiction, there can be threads. These come in more towards the upper end of the flash limit range and you don’t have so many of them. Having said that, they’ve still got to be tied up properly or the reader will feel cheated or, worse still, feel what was the point of that then? You never want readers to feel that about your stories.

This is why when I’m editing my stories, I always ask what does the reader get out of this? It’s a good question to ask. The challenge to me is to make sure I can answer it.

Hope you are having a nice weekend so far. Great weather. Lady got to see our neighbour’s retriever at the park and the pair had a lovely run around. Normally they’re barking at each other either side of our fences! It does sound like a conversation. I wonder if the pair of them are rating their owners…hmm…

It’s a busy time at the moment but am loving it. I will be interviewing Maressa Mortimer about her latest book, Downstream, on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. I’ve read the book. It’s a gripping read but I’ll let Maressa herself tell you more about it when the interview goes live next week. Be sure not to miss. Again there are lots of tips and useful thoughts for other writers.

Talking of which, I’ll just say a huge thank you to Jennifer C Wilson for what she shared here on CFT yesterday – all excellent stuff and if you like writing prompts do look out for her 31 Days of Writing. Prompts are an excellent way to kick start or reinvigorate your writing mojo.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good day. Continuing warm here. Lady keeping nice and cool.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting tomorrow on Zoom. Will be looking at writing the 50 and 100 word flash tales. So apt given the 100-worders were my way into discovering the fabulous world of flash fiction and they remain one of my favourite categories to write to. Writing for Friday Flash Fiction regularly has reawakened that love of the good old drabble!

If you’re thinking of getting into writing to specific word counts like this, have a good look at the websites which publish them. I find it helps to be able to visualise what a 50 or 100 word story looks like, something I’ll be discussing with the group tomorrow.

It’s Monday. It’s sunny and lovely – hooray. However, it is still Monday. Time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Provisions. See how I make use of a well known phrase here!

Wow, the month is rattling on, is it not? My author newsletter will be out again on 1st July. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Many thanks to all of my subscribers for your support.

Also please do check out my author services page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com/author-services-allison-symes/

As well as writing, I judge competitions, run workshops on editing and flash fiction writing, and, of course, I am an editor. Many thanks to Yvonne Walus for her recent wonderful testimonial on this page re the latter. I am also happy to give talks online or in person depending on distance. Do contact me via the contact form on my website if any of this is of interest.

And what has fuelled all of this? My love of writing, especially flash fiction which has taught me so much about editing and writing craft. In some ways it it the gift which keeps on giving and I appreciate it a great deal.

Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting next week. We’ll be looking at writing 50 and 100 words flash fiction, two of the most popular categories. The 100 worders will always have a special place in my heart as it is thanks to them I discovered flash fiction in the first place.

There are a number of competitions for them too and, if you like to share stories every so often on your social media to show a little of what you do writing wise, as I do, these are ideal for that. Don’t take too long to read. Entertaining (hopefully!) for readers too. Win-win there, I think.

I’ll be busy judging flash and short stories over the summer and autumn and am looking forward to doing that. Plus I am hoping to get to read some of my flash fiction (including from CafeLit 13 and Friday Flash Fiction) at Swanwick if I can. I like to mix up material I share this way in terms of mood and will have a good selection here.

Goodreads Author Blog – Mixing Genres

Do you enjoy books which mix genres? I do. I’m a huge fan of the Discworld series from the much missed Sir Terry Pratchett. The Sam Vimes novels in that series cross fantasy with crime stories and successfully meet the needs of both genres here. They work as stand alone crime novels too. Highly recommend Men At Arms and Feet of Clay in particular here. Really good detection tales.

I see the mixing of genres as an inevitable thing. Why? Because I’m focused on whether or not I care for the characters. I’m focused on finding out what happens to said characters. If they’re in a fantasy world I want to find out how that changes what the characters do. They will have challenges to face in that world they wouldn’t have in a non-fantasy world. I want to see how that plays out.

Also a character doesn’t live in a vacuum, any more than we do, so their setting is bound to have a bearing on their stories. It has been said the Harry Potter stories cross boarding school tales with the magical world. Well, why not? Why shouldn’t a world like that have its own education system? To me, it would be odd if there wasn’t something like that. Therefore it makes sense to have stories based on this premise.

So mixing genres then? No problem at all for me. I find it gives me an ever wider choice of books to read and I’m all for that too.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: Mixed Genres https://t.co/1m5tBHHnD9 via @goodreads I discuss why I loved mixed genres for Goodreads this week. pic.twitter.com/fZlTHuZQyn
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) June 22, 2024

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It’s Monday. It’s sunny and lovely – hooray. However, it is still Monday. Time for a story then. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Provisions. See how I make use of a well known phrase here!https://t.co/yZvWjpLFLM
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) June 24, 2024

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Publication News and The Perfect Ending

June 4, 2024Leave a comment

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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 weekend. Week has got off to a great start with the news The Best of CafeLit 13 is now out. I have three stories in there. More below on that. Also the June issue of Writers’ Narrative is out now too. Can’t believe we’re in June already but at least the weather is stating to play along with the idea we’re due some sunshine now!

Facebook – General

Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today. Three very happy dogs went home again after a lovely time in the park. Dogs know what matters!

Writing wise, I’m talking to Jenny Sanders again for Part 2 of a fabulous interview on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. Her devotional book, Polished Arrows, was published recently and this week we’ll be talking about marketing, launches, the value of good supportive writing groups, and much more besides. Don’t miss! Lots of tips and useful thoughts here.

Now to give Amazon their due. I contacted them on Sunday to ask them to add The Best of CafeLit 13 to my Amazon Author Central page. I’ve found, from past experience, I need to give them the details and they add anthologies (because I’m not the publisher but am a contributing author). Anyway, it was done yesterday, well within 24 hours.

Have just added the book to my ALCS records too. I’ve found it pays to add new publications (books or articles where there is an ISSN number) as soon as I can to make sure I get it done. Will make a difference to my ALCS payment next year, which is the best incentive to get it done!

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My three stories in The Best of CafeLit 13 are Cinnamon Comforts, Untaken, and Sweet Dreams. It’s good to be back between the covers with old friends in this anthology and I’m looking forward to catching up with their works here, as well as checking out those authors new to me. I often do read anthologies as you might expect and find them to be a fabulous way to try out works by authors new to me. If I like their work, I will often then try their longer works. This is a great way to discover new writers.

I also like to read collections of short form works in between reading novels. I like to ensure I have a good reading diet of longer works and shorter ones. Anthologies make it so much more convenient to catch up with the latter!

Also if you are writing in the short form, reading books like this can count as part of your market research. It is always good to know what is already out there and from that you can work out where you would fit in. A publisher needs to know where you’d fit in with their lists and you need to be able to show them that you can.

Publication News (as you may have gathered from the above!)

Thrilled to say The Best of CafeLit 13 is now out. I have three stories in here. Will say more about this during the next few days but just wanted to (a) share the news and (b) congratulate the other authors with work in here. Nice to see names and old friends here. Well done, all. (What is especially nice here is the stories are voted for by other CafeLit people so nobody can know their story is going to make the cut).

Will be sharing Part 2 of an in-depth conversation with Jenny Sanders for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Next time we’ll be looking at launches, marketing, and more. Link up on Friday.

Many thanks for the comments coming in on my Unwelcome News, my latest Friday Flash Fiction tale. Just who is the worst here – Melissa or Stefan? Read the tale and see what you think. Link here. (Great fun to write).

Screenshot 2024-05-31 at 10-15-31 Unwelcome News by Allison Symes

Delighted to say the June edition of Writers’ Narrative is now out. The theme is poetry this time and my article looks at The Links Between Flash Fiction and Poetry. There are more than you might think. I also include a flash fiction piece told in poetic form as I sometimes write stories this way and it can work well. I share some tips for doing this too.

My article is on Pages 14/15 but do check out the excellent pieces throughout. For one thing, you can find out if you know who your padawan is! Go on, you know you want to find out!

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope you have had a good day.

Something I mention to members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group is to look out for the short story competitions. Many of them either have a lower word count limit of 1000 words (making it the top end of the range for flash fiction writers but still do-able) or have a range of word counts for you to write to.

The Bridport Prize, for example, has a flash fiction category but also has a short story one. No reason why you couldn’t enter both with different tales should you wish.

Another one is the HISSAC Annual Open Short Story competition where they want short stories up to 2000 words and flash fiction up to 500. There will be other competitions out there who will do something similar. Worth watching for.

Competitions are great for making up face up to working to a deadline and if you get listed or win, even better!

It’s Monday. It has been a sunny one too. Still Monday though. Still time for a YouTube story from me. Hope you like my Life Changing Moments. Those who came to the recent Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting will recognise this as my response to a prompt I set.

Usually when I put my YouTube videos here, they are inserted into the page and you click and play. Not happening tonight. Please use the link above. Screenshot to just give you an idea but there is more to this story so do check the link out! Thanks.

The buzz of being in print never diminishes! The Best of CafeLit 13 is now out and I have three stories included. I also enjoy getting to update my records over on the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and on Amazon. This will be a lovely job to do later this week! Done. See above but most enjoyable tasks to do!

Will be getting on with some flash fiction writing today. Nice way to spend Sunday afternoons! I do more later in the week too but there is something about Sunday afternoons which helps with focus. Well, I know it helps me.

Favourite thing about creating a character? I think it is that moment when I think “yes, I know you, I’ve got where you’re coming from” because then I know I can write from their viewpoint effectively. I understand what drives them and what mistakes they’re likely to make. Once I’ve “got” this, I can’t wait to write their stories up and that is always a good sign.

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It’s that time of the month again – time for the author newsletter. A huge hello to those who have subscribed since last time and an enormous thanks to all who support me here. All much appreciated. The theme this time is questioning your characters, something I do all the time. It pays especially when you’re writing a lot of stories and need ways into coming up with characters all the time.

Goodreads Author Blog – The Perfect Ending

Is there such a thing as the perfect ending to any story? The only reason I’m not sure about this is because all writers are human and we’re all fallible. No perfect writer = no perfect writing.

I know, looking back on my older stories, I can see ways of improving them thanks to things I’ve learned about writing craft and technique since that time. BUT you can improve on what you do. I can look back at those stories and know they were the best I could do at that time. So am reasonably pleased with them but am more pleased with improvements I have made since that time. Writing is always a case of developing your craft, I think.

For stories by other writers, what I look for is an appropriate ending for their characters’ stories. Yes, sometimes that ending can be ambiguous. (After all, tomorrow is another day from Gone With The Wind is a good example of that kind of ending). But it should be appropriate to all that has come before and as long as it has done that, I’m happy.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Delighted to say the June edition of Writers’ Narrative is out. The theme is poetry. My article looks at The Links Between Flash Fiction and Poetry. I also include a flash fiction piece told in poetic form as I sometimes write stories this way.https://t.co/43xQd7Tuly
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) June 1, 2024

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It’s time for the author newsletter. A huge hello to those who have subscribed since last time and an enormous thanks to all who support me here. The theme is questioning your characters. It pays especially when you always need ways to invent characters.https://t.co/zqjQyPkKJp
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) June 1, 2024

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liked Allison Symes's blog post: The Perfect Ending https://t.co/HYH2jKEsZA via @goodreads I discuss whether there is such a thing as the perfect ending for any stories for Goodreads this week. pic.twitter.com/6o3IzZqXBA
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) June 1, 2024

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Thrilled to say The Best of CafeLit 13 is now out. I have three stories in here. Will say more about this during the next few days but just wanted to (a) share the news and (b) congratulate the other authors with work in here. Well done, all. pic.twitter.com/lwYcZi0LQh
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) June 2, 2024

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Gosh, where did Friday go? #bookreviews #interview #books pic.twitter.com/78amURPimA
— DancingThroughChaos (@jennyhsanders) June 3, 2024

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It’s Monday. It has been sunny too. Still time for a YouTube story. Hope you like my Life Changing Moments. Those who came to the recent Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting will recognise this as my response to a prompt I set. https://t.co/67Ht9zeTk2
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) June 3, 2024

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My stories in The Best of CafeLit 13 are Cinnamon Comforts, Untaken, and Sweet Dreams. It’s good to be back between the covers with friends in this anthology. I’m looking forward to catching up with their works and checking out those authors new to me. https://t.co/Pmu009fd3x
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) June 3, 2024

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Questions and Answers In Writing

May 10, 2024Leave a comment

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Image Credits:-

All images from Pixabay/Pexels unless otherwise stated with many created in Book Brush. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.

Hope you have had a good week. Lovely to have the temperatures matching the spring weather at last. Posts will be out at different times next week but am looking forward to my Scottish break. Will do hubby, dog, and I the world of good, as it always does.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Delighted to share Questions and Answers in Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I look at the value of a simple but timeless structure for writing, which works just as well for non-fiction as it does for fiction. I also share specific examples of good questions to ask for use in fiction and non-fiction respectively. Hope you find the post useful.

Questions and Answers In Writing

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The spring sunshine has finally turned up with a lovely temperature to go with it. Lady and I are loving this.

Will be looking at Questions and Answers in Writing for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. See above. Post will look at how these work for fiction and non-fiction. They do make a useful structure for your writing.

Writing Tip: Mix up how you find prompts for your writing. It keeps things interesting for you by keeping you on your creative toes. No bad thing that. I like to use a mixture of the random generators, story cubes, books of prompts, proverbs and phrases etc. I have written stories, many of which went on to be published, from all of these methods.

Hope you have had a good day. Proper spring weather at last – Lady and I loved it.

I’ve mentioned before I use random generators of various types to help trigger ideas. They are the modern equivalent of story cubes (and I use those too!). I had a quick look at the random question generator tonight and came up with What is one of the great values that guides your life?

Now that could make an interesting blog post or non-fiction article but it would have uses in fiction too. You could use this as a theme, deciding on the value in advance and showing that being played out through your story. You could get your character to answer the question directly and then backing it up with their actions. You could also have fun here by showing them failing to live up to what they said. What would be the fallout there? There would be some.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my latest 100-worder, Artistic Inspiration. Talking of inspiration, this one is inspired by the old Tom and Jerry cartoons (which are always worth watching). Find out why via the link. Hope you enjoy the story.

Another great way to have fun with flash is to write what I call a “two-hander”. This is where one character is directly addressing another one who is reading what the first one has sent to them which is in the style of a letter, minus the usual greetings and yours sincerely bits etc.

My example of this is You Never Know from From Light to Dark and Back Again where my lead character is berating the unseen other character for envying them a luxurious life as a magical tour guide.

The story shows exactly why it is any thing but that. Would you fancy the Gollum special (the raw fish diet), for example, which my lead character has to have? Doesn’t matter if they get tired of it. Would you listen to Snow White’s advice to never eat anything red and glowing? (I can’t help but feel that is good advice outside of fiction as well!).

Fun to write but you need a strong lead character who has enough to say on the theme of the story and ideally does so with wit. (Nobody likes a whiner). You want your readers to end up sympathising with what the lead character is putting up with here. So think about who your two characters would be and how the second one would give the first one something to write to them about.

If you have a character with special powers or abilities, you do need to let readers know about this before any demonstration of those things.

In my Being Yourself (Tripping the Flash Fantastic), my character reveals what her special gift is, then demonstrates it, leading to a satisfying conclusion as she…. Well no spoilers here as ever but the point is I do set that special gift up ahead of showing it in action. To do anything else won’t ring true for a reader.

A reader will also need to understand why your character wants to use these gifts/powers. Doesn’t necessarily have to agree with the course of action being taken by the character but there has to be what I call good follow through in that a reader sees what is happening, understands why, and so the story will work for them.

Fairytales With Bite – Travels

How do your characters get around in your setting? Do they rely on broomsticks or do they have more sophisticated forms of travel? Do your characters regularly travel or is it something they only do out of necessity (such as with the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings)?

Are certain species banned from travelling and how did that come about? Is travel easy for most or only the reserve of the privileged few? Is magic used to power transport or is that saved for other more important things? You could have a combination of machines as we would know them with magical power saved for what cannot be done mechanically.

Which characters can fly directly? Which need to use a broomstick or other device? Can animals fly in your setting and would that be restricted to those who would normally be renowned for running such as the horse? (You could argue their flying would equal their running on the ground, they would just be “running” in the sky effectively).

Are there places in your setting where everyone loves to go? Where would they avoid and why?

This World and Others – Wonders

There are so many wonders on our planet, despite the ever grim news, it can be easy to miss them. From the glories of nature to the wonders of the universe above us (and getting to see even more of these thanks to the space telescopes) to the tiniest flower, there is much to wonder at and admire. But you do have to have an open mind and an appreciative heart to see this, I think.

So in your setting, do your characters see the wonders around them or do they take these for granted because they are always here? Would they suddenly realise how much these things mattered if they were taken away for some reason?

Wonders also span the scientific world in terms of discoveries in so many fields, including medicine. What would be the equivalent in your setting?

What is the view of your Joe Public here? Do they appreciate the wonders around them or do they need these pointing out? Who benefits the most from wonders where discoveries happen and new inventions occur? Do the benefits get down to the ordinary people?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Writing Tip: block out pockets of time where you will have brainstorming sessions for things like titles, opening lines, blog ideas etc. You will be glad of these later. pic.twitter.com/iEYcGouevV
— ACW (@ACW1971) May 8, 2024

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Writing Tip: I go through my notebooks regularly to see what I came up with for my brainstorming sessions. The ideas I still like, after time away from them, are the ones I then write up. pic.twitter.com/ThyZuihJxk
— ACW (@ACW1971) May 9, 2024

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Writing Tip: I like to mix up how I trigger ideas for blogs and stories. It keeps me on my toes. It’s fun too. Don’t forget the random generators, story cubes, books of prompts etc. I use them all. pic.twitter.com/ttf5NoROvp
— ACW (@ACW1971) May 10, 2024

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Artistic Inspiration, by Allison Symes – Friday Flash Fiction https://t.co/JMAXkd7VZb Pleased to be back on FFF with my latest 100-worder, Artistic Inspiration. This one is inspired by the old Tom and Jerry cartoons (always worth watching). Find out why via the link. pic.twitter.com/pzf9fCTVaV
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) May 10, 2024

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Questions and Answers In Writing https://t.co/Ldba3zApDC Delighted to share Questions and Answers in Writing for CFT. I look at the value of a simple but timeless structure for writing, which works just as well for non-fiction as it does for fiction. Hope you find the post useful pic.twitter.com/4Vcmrp87cM
— Allison Symes (@AllisonSymes1) May 10, 2024

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