Tag: writing advice

Book Launches and Associated Activities

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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. A huge thank you to Keith Hinchy for taking and giving permission to use shots he took from the Swanwick Prom. More below.Many thanks also to Babs Trevitt for the image of me taking part in the Swanwick Open Prose Mic Night.
Talking of Swanwick, I had a fabulous time at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. The launch for Seeing The Other Side went brilliantly. Sold two-thirds of my stock at the launch and the rest a day or so later. First time I’ve had a sell out. So thrilled. Pleased I also sold copies of From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping The Flash Fantastic.
It was a joy catching up with friends and chatting to new people to Swanwick. Hope to see them again there next year. Resuming normal home life – and the dog did mug me on my return!

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Pleased to be back on Authors Electric with Book Launches and Associated Activities. This one was a particular joy to write up given my recent launch for Seeing The Other Side at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick.

I also talk in this post about what I learn from other launches I go to, what authors hope will happen at them (and onwards – I often note a rise in my Kindle sales a few days after an event), and share some tips I think will help any writer prepare for their book launch.

Hope you find this useful. My last launch was in 2020 as, aside from anything else, I’m thrilled to bits to be able to get out and about for book events in person.

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Well, it is my first full day back at the helm after a fantastic few days away at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Am I shattered? You bet. It was nice Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal again today though.

Writing wise, it’s Monday so it’s time for my Substack story for the week after my break. Hope you enjoy Stuck on Q. This one isn’t just for Scrabble players, honest!

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Lovely to be back at church this morning and taking the dog out again afterwards. The latter is probably the most exercise I’ve had this week! Nice to be back at my desk “properly” and am looking forward to cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly. Also nice to bring back some lovely books of prompts from Swanwick. Know they will be a great help.

I use prompts from a wide range of sources, including books, and will take something I like and put my own spin on it. Sometimes I will splice prompts and get a new one from two put together like that.

Story cubes are brilliant too. So many combinations available, depending on how many cubes you have. You won’t run out of the random generators any time soon either and with almost all of them you can set your own parameters, which again increases their usefulness to you and the ideas available.

Prompt Tip: If you use the generators, don’t generate too many in one go. You’ll feel swamped and that stifles creativity. Limits are so useful. They make you think more deeply and yes I know I’m biased here being a flash fiction writer but it is true nonetheless.

For books of prompts, pick out a few you think you’d like, say three or four. By the time you’ve done that, you should find there is one which is “grabbing” you so that’s the one to go for.

It takes a few days to recover from a fabulous time at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick but am slowly getting there. It was nice for Lady and I to get back to walking together and we even caught up with her Hungarian Vizler pal. It’s the first time we’ve seen them in a good couple of weeks as everyone is getting out earlier than normal for dog walking and we all have different ideas of what early is!

Talking of Swanwick, my Chandler’s Ford Today post next week will be Swanwick 2026 and Book Launch For Seeing The Other Side. Am looking forward to sharing that one next Friday.
Will be resuming flash fiction Sunday tomorrow and it will be lovely to get back to that again.

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One of the joys of The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick is the end of school party. Many thanks to Keith Hinchy who took these (and many other) fab shots.

June Webber and I had a great time at the disco. We often get together online the rest of the year with other Swanwickers (it is one of those things where people drop in as and when) but it is special to be able to get together in person.

Fabulous way to wrap up another year’s school. Writers spend so much time at their desks.

Just sometimes we get up on the dance floor too!

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It’s Monday, it’s marginally cooler than last week, I stress the marginally, but it does mean it’s story time.

Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube – Scrabbling Around. The eagle eyed amongst you may spot a connection to my Substack story this week in terms of theme.

Is Linda really cheating at Scrabble, as Mark suspects, or is there something else going on? Find out here.

Looking forward to resuming sharing my Substack and YouTube stories. Now just to get on and write them which I’ll do shortly.

Sometimes when deciding where to start, I will think about the mood of the stories I want to tell. Funny, dark, or somewhere in between? Sometimes I’ll think about the character type I want – someone who is overdue their comeuppance or someone worthy of support getting that in an unexpected way?

It pays to ask yourself a few questions as to what you want your stories to be and what impact you’d like them to have on readers. From there, you can start to outline situations and/or characters and off you go with your first draft.

Happy writing!

The highlight for me at Swanwick this year was of course the book launch for Seeing The Other Side, but it was closely followed by the Open Prose Mic Night.

I love these. I get to hear a marvellous range of stories and, when I take part as I did again this year, I can highlight something about what flash fiction is and can be simply by performing some of my stories. I hope I get to introduce some folk to the form this way.

It is another reason why I include reading work out loud as part of my editing process. I know a story has got to read well on the page and out loud for Mic Nights and the like.

It is amazing what errors you can pick up simply by reading your story out loud and if you record it on Zoom and play it back, you can (a) get your timings right which always goes down well with a Mic host and (b) you will take in the story as the audience would.

That in turn helps you spot what might be missing, what doesn’t flow as well as you might like and so on. Gives you a chance to put all of that right before you do perform the pieces. Can’t recommend doing this highly enough.

GOODREADS AUTHOR BLOG – Reading Time

I suspect most of us would like far more reading time than we have got. I think it’s part of the territory of so many books, not enough time, and having other wonderful responsibilities. Time doesn’t stretch that much.

The irony for me as I write this is I’m off to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick where there will be so much love and appreciation shown for the written word in all its forms.

Yet most of us will be busy catching up with friends, learning from the writing courses and so on to get much actual reading done while here!

I expect most of us will bring home new delights from the Book Room though! The To Be Read pile never goes down much, does it?! But then maybe that is as it should be.

I find it encouraging there will never be a shortage of good reading material.

And now I’m back from Swanwick, I can confirm I have brought more good reading material home with me! Sorry, couldn’t get to post this last week while away but will now resume weekly posts.

Ironically it was due to being at a place where every writer loves books, their own and others, and we spent a lot of time celebrating the fact, as well as learning more about our craft.

Now back home again, we can resume our usual reading with more material to add to the mix but then that’s never a problem, is it?

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AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Having A New Book Out

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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.
A huge thank you to Rosemary Johnson for sharing a reel she created on my behalf on Instagram, one platform I’m not on at the moment. Also a huge thank you to my Slimming World consultant for letting me read a SW related story from Seeing The Other Side at our group session – marketing takes many forms!
Hope you have had a great weekend. Cooler here which is welcome. Writing going well. So looking forward to book launch events for Seeing The Other Side.

 

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Bonus Post

A huge thank you to Rosemary Johnson for posting a reel about my Seeing The Other Side on Instagram.

Lovely day here. Lady caught up with her Hungarian Vizler pal today. The dogs haven’t seen each other since the heatwave started and the Vizler is considerably older than Lady so would have found the heat even harder going. The dogs were delighted to see each other. It does seem to be dog reunion week so far.

Writing wise, I’m going to be sharing one of my stories from Seeing The Other Side at my Slimming World group tonight with the consultant’s blessing. This particular tale will have resonance with everyone there and I’m looking forward to sharing that. (Whether it leads to book sales remains to be seen!). Glad to report the reading went well!

Have also been getting on with some admin which will end up hopefully giving further publicity to my new book via a website and in house journal. These are nice tasks to be getting on with!

And I’m also looking forward to meeting up with members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week. Am delighted one member has had a story broadcast since we last met.

Marketing Tip: Think about what you’d enjoy doing. It pays to plan things out. As I’ve mentioned prepare some material so you are ready to tell others what your book is about and remember this is an ongoing process. It can’t be done all at once, which is as well really.

Fantastic start to the week for Lady as she got to play with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal. The dogs haven’t met up properly since the heatwave started for obvious reasons. They were overjoyed to see each other. And I had a good natter with the Ridgeback’s human mum so that got the week off to a good start for me too.

Writing wise, it is time to share the story I put on my Substack yesterday. Hope you like my A Good Show.

Look out for my YouTube story this week, If I’d Known, because it links to the Substack one. Good fun to do and I hope you like both of them.

Meantime, it is indeed time for a good show…

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Hope the weekend has gone well. So much cooler, a lot nicer to be honest. Back to normal walks for Lady today for the first time in what seems like forever. She’s enjoyed that but I do know she’s missing her dog friends. Am hoping we’ll catch up with some of them at least this coming week. We did!

Writing wise, I’m glad to report I will be having a blog tour for Seeing The Other Side. Likely to be in September. More news as I have it. Hope to get on with some admin relating to promoting the book later today which will include working on my newsletter, which will be out again on 1st August. To sign up for that, just head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

While there if you head over to my books page, you will see I’ve added in recent publications including the new flash fiction collection to that. This kind of admin I never mind doing!

And it won’t be that long before I’m off once more to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Am so looking forward to seeing everyone again and this year will be extra special given it will be the first time I’ve had a launch here.

A writer’s life is made up of special moments – over time you realise how important it is to make the most of them because you can’t know when the next will be. It does help a lot to know you need to see all of this as a long term investment in your writing.

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Thankfully it’s cooler today though we still have to be careful with Lady. But at least there’s a decent breeze which helps a lot.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Summer Reading for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. I’ll be looking at what I like to read over the lighter months of the year and flagging up flash fiction and short story anthologies as good reads, especially if your reading time is more limited due to other commitments.

And, yes, I’m biased here obviously, but I do like to include the shorter forms of fiction, as well as the longer ones, in my overall reading “diet” and highly recommend this. I’ve discovered some great authors this way.

Short Fiction Tip: What is the one single thing which matters to your character(s)? (For flash it will often be one character). Focus on this and why it matters and you have an excellent framework for your story.

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Another cooler day which is most welcome. Certainly Lady has been appreciative of it.

Flash Fiction Tip: Don’t be afraid to start with the ending first. In many of my tales I know this first and then work backwards to get to a starting point.

But when I do things this way, I know why the ending is the way it is. That matters because it conveys truth and it is easier to work backwards to the starting point for my character because I will already know why they have concluded the action in the tale the way they have.

Motivation matters. I do think of my characters as if they were a cast. Are they the right fit? Do they have the right motivation to do what has to be done for the tale to make sense? I find this helps.

Not so hot as it has been which is a relief but still hotter than I’d like. And it’s Monday which scuppers most things anyway. So it’s definitely time for a story and my YouTube one this week links up with my Substack one (see my author page for the link for that). See above.

Hope you enjoy my latest video, If I’d Known.

Some people have to learn their lesson in life the hard way but for this guy it involved a bear, a girl and a woman who was more than she appeared to be. Find out more here.

 

Will be cracking on with flash fiction Sunday shortly with the weather cooler and pleasanter. It is hard to focus in a heatwave (though having shorter pieces of writing to work on does help!).

I never know exactly what I’ll be writing for these flash sessions and that is the fun of it. The challenge to come up with something interesting is an ongoing one and should be – it keeps me on my toes. I usually know what mood of story I’d like to write though. I find that a useful starting point.

From there it is a case of working out which kind of character would best suit that mood and then I need to know something about the character themselves to convince me this one is interesting enough to write up. Then I get drafting.

Sounds complicated? It isn’t really. What I have found is that, over time, you do develop a better instinct at what character would best suit a story and what is fascinating about them to have them as your “star”. Definitely instincts worth cultivating.

Quiet weekend this time and a cooler one. Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow. Also looking forward to sharing readings from Seeing The Other Side in due course. It’s lovely having more material to choose from!

I’ve often recommended reading your work out loud as part of your editing processes. (Yes, there is definitely more than one!). I’ve found doing this helps me spot missing words. It also flags up clunky dialogue and where you think you’ve put a crucial element to the story in somewhere and then realise you haven’t.

You haven’t missed this before because, of course, you know the story inside and out so it won’t necessarily stand out to you that you haven’t put in the necessary elements to make it clear, but your reader doesn’t. Reading your work out loud and ideally playing it back means you can take in the tale as a reader would and it is so enlightening.

For longer works, it is still possible to do this though it would pay to break it down into scene and/or chapter segments. There’s nothing to stop you making notes on what works and what doesn’t as you go through the whole of your book a piece at a time and then come back to the correction stages only once you’ve gone through the whole book. Your notes will show you what needs work and where. That will save you a lot of time later.

Goodreads Author Blog – Having A New Book Out

It’s always a special moment for an author when they have a new book out. I’ve had the joy of this recently given my third flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side, came out on 16th July 2026.

As I write this, I’m happily arranging book events and updating certain records, including my website, to show off my new creation, of course. This kind of lovely work will go on for some time.

But for a writer, the moment you hold your new book in your hand is the special moment, I think. All the work, all the edits, and here the final result is – you’ve done it!

But now the hard work begins in promoting your book and any others you may have out. It’s also the time authors most appreciate reviews, especially here on Goodreads.

Other than buying a book from an author, the next best thing you can do to support them is to leave a review. It doesn’t have to be a long one. It does have to be honest.

So if you know someone with a book out, do give them a review. It helps more than you know. I use quotes from reviews I’ve had so far on my other two books (From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping The Flash Fantastic) as part of my marketing.

It shows readers this is a real author, someone else read their work and liked it, so it is worth them checking it out.

And you are encouraging reading too when all is said and done. That has to be a good thing!

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Marketing and Writing

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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. MANY THANKS TO ADRIAN SYMES FOR FILMING ME OPENING MY COPIES OF SEEING THE OTHER SIDE – SEE BELOW.
Hope you have had a good week so far. Cracking one here. My copies of Seeing The Other Side are now with me and look wonderful. Have had to switch to a hot weather schedule for Lady again (and will probably have to do so again next week).

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Delighted to share Marketing and Writing on Chandler’s Ford Today this week.

I look at balancing writing and marketing time, which is never easy to get right. I look at marketing you can enjoy (honest!) and share tips about writing about the book you have written, which can seem such a strange thing to have to do.

Hope you find the post useful. Am very much writing about what I know right now!

Marketing and Writing

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Many thanks for the lovely responses to my sharing of the “author opening box of books” video I posted yesterday. See below. Much appreciated, folks.

Am continuing to keep Lady out of the heat. She’s doing fine but loathes this temperature. I’m no fan either.

Writing wise, I’m sharing Marketing and Writing on Chandler’s Ford Today this week, both topics being at the top of my agenda right now. Link up tomorrow. I’ll be sharing tips which I hope will prove useful. See above.

There could only be one post on this page from me today and I’m glad to share my news via my YouTube channel. A huge thanks to Adrian Symes for filming this. It’s the kind of marketing which is difficult to do on your own!

Am delighted to share the classic “author receiving their new books” video. This has been a long time in coming but am so glad to share this now. Says it all!

A huge thank you to Gill James and all at Bridge House/Chapeltown Books. I know I’m biased but I think Seeing The Other Side looks fabulous and it is a joy to have my copies to hand. Now to start organising events (and I will have news to share on the Swanwick one soon too).

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Another hot day here and Lady remains on the hot weather schedule. She’s doing fine. Have come across a few stories about dogs dying from heatstroke. Am not taking the risk. Pleased to say she’s sensible and, unlike my other two collies, I don’t have to persuade Lady to drink water. She’s pretty good on that.

Writing wise, I’ll be doing various bits and pieces over the weekend including marketing work, which given my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week is called Marketing and Writing is apt! Have also added a copy of my Seeing The Other Side to the shelf where I keep my works, the anthologies I have work in, and books written and signed for me by friends.

Also pleased to report I will have another super interview coming up on Chandler’s Ford Today in due course. More news on that nearer the time.

Hope today has gone well. Appreciated my swim today! Another hot one here.

I now have details of my book launch at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick for my Seeing The Other Side but I’ll share further details firstly in my author newsletter on 1st August and then here after that. It makes sense to me to share the news in the week running up to it happening! Am glad it is all set up though and am looking forward to this a lot.

I also hope to share a few stories from the book at the launch and at the Open Prose Mic Night Swanwick runs, assuming my name is drawn out of the box. There can be a waiting list. Mind you, the Prose Night is something I try not to miss, whether I’m taking part or not, because it is fabulous listening to a selection of works by other writers and there is something wonderful about being read to by someone else for your entertainment.

Great day here – I now have my copies of Seeing The Other Side. So pleased about that. Will have news soon about launches, both the one planned to be held at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, and one which Bridge House Publishing will do online.

It is such a joy to hold my author copy and see my work in print once again. That buzz never leaves you, no matter how few or many books or other publication credits you have.

It is great to see work come to fruition when all is said and done.

Fairytales With Bite – Fairy Godmother = Acrostic

F = Fantasy figure, usually has a heart of gold but not always.
A = Always has a magic wand or several to hand.
I = Imaginative in many ways, likes old school traditions in others.
R = Respects those who try to be kind, curses those who are not.
Y = You cross this figure at your own risk.

G = Granny like sometimes, attractive young woman at others but don’t be fooled by appearances.
O = Old magic as well as new is like drawing breath to her and she uses both types at will.
D = Drawn to helping those deserving of help, drawn to teaching the arrogant a lesson the hard way.
M = Magic used with the right motivations behind it is what keeps her going.
O = Opponents are soon shown the error of the ways; where she can’t beat them, she’ll neutralise what they do.
T = Threats are no deterrent and she never makes any herself unless she knows she will carry them out.
H = Hotheads are soon made to cool down with her aptly chosen spell.
E = Endings, where she is involved, are usually on the happy side, unless you are her opponent.
R = Remember her powers, remember respect, all will be well.

Allison Symes – 8th July 2026

This World and Others – Bending The Rules

I’ve long had a soft spot for characters who bend the rules, especially when they’re doing so to help someone else and there is no other obvious way forward. I’ve written characters like this myself.

But what makes a character even think about doing that in the first place? They must know deep down that, given certain circumstances, this is what they would do.

Often with my fairy godmother kind of character, they’ve long had issues with some of the petty rules and regulations they have to follow. Now sometimes with my characters, those rules really are petty. Sometimes they’re not and it is my character who is the problem. Both kinds of attitude are fun to write up into stories.

But knowing what motivates your character here is vital. It won’t be convincing if they seem to break the rules or bend them for no apparent reason. There will be a reason somewhere and it doesn’t have to be one you or your readers agree with but it has to be one they can understand your character having.

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How Using Nature Can Enhance Your Fiction

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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. Nice one here. So pleased my book order for Seeing The Other Side is now in and am looking forward to receiving these. Lovely Zoom with writing friends and a great meal out with family made the weekend especially nice. Lady doing well too though we will have to watch the temperatures again this week.

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Pleased to share my latest Writers’ Narrative post – How Using Nature Can Enhance Your Fiction.

Nature inspires so much fiction but it can also help inspire ours too. You can also show so much about your characters just by revealing what their attitude is towards the natural world around them, no matter how fantastical a setting they might be in.

I share useful tips as to how you can use nature effectively in your own work.

I hope you find the post useful.

Hope you’ve had a good start to the week. It was okay in the park this morning for Lady but for the rest of this week, it will be back to the early shift. So hot this afternoon so we’re staying in. None of us will be sorry.

Writing wise, I’m delighted to share my Substack story which I shared on that platform yesterday. I hope it makes you smile. Hope you enjoy Melting. The fact it is due to be another hot week where I am inspired this one though there are other circumstances where melting can occur.

Mind you, just looking at the image I chose for this story makes me feel a bit cooler and I hope it does the same for you!

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Hope you’ve had or are having a lovely Sunday. Starting to warm up here so will have to be careful with Lady again, though we did get her out earlier today when it was fine. Having said that, we now have a hot weather routine to follow and she was fine with that. We had wondered if she’d be restless, not being able to exercise as much, but not at all which tells us we got this right. She did briefly see her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal in the distance earlier. Think both dogs were wondering why the other was going the wrong way!

Writing wise, I’m cracking on with various blog posts, will be getting on with flash fiction Sunday shortly, and other writing tasks such as my next newsletter. I’ve found it helpful to draft the latter over the whole month so there is no last minute panic. Had a lovely Zoom meeting with writing pals last night, which was fabulous. A good boost to morale.

Pleased to say I was invited to submit a blog post by another author where I talk about flash fiction formats. Hope to share the link for that next weekend.

Blog Tip: It’s not a bad idea to have, say, up to 500 words prepared on what you write and why you love the writing you do. There is always a home for this – on your own website, guest blogs and so on. It also means when you meet up with other writers for the first time you have a rough idea of what you will say when folk ask about your writing, as they do.

I found networking easier to handle on realising it is talking about something you love – writing – with others who have the same love. And it’s not long before good conversations start because naturally you will ask about what they write and things take off from there. It has always been my experience this is the case and it is such a positive one.

But having something in mind to say here is useful. Helps against your own nerves especially if you’re going to a writing event for the first time.

Hope your weekend has got off to a good start. Not bad here. Busy evening so am posting early.

Will be sharing Marketing and Writing on Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Will be sharing thoughts and tips as to how balance these two halves of the writing life. Both are very much in my mind right now given the imminent release of Seeing The Other Side, of course.

Writing Tip: I use an old school diary to plan out when I must have work in by when. It’s not fool proof. It is still possible to miss things (guess how I know but I also suspect this happens to most writers at some point!) but it reduces the chances of you doing so considerably. It also means when there are extra competitions I’d like to try, I can figure out how I could do this around my existing writing commitments.

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am thrilled to say the paperback of my Seeing The Other Side is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Woo-hoo! Delighted to see that now on there. Am expecting my copies to come in either later this week/early next week.

After 16th July will come the work of setting up events, updating my records on the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, updating my records on The Society of Authors website, updating my own website and much more.

I also hope there will be a blog tour.

Watch this space as they say and the great thing with all of this? It will be fun!

 

It’s Monday and another hot one where I am so that led to the inspiration for this one. Hope you like my latest here on YouTube – Too Hot.

Sometimes arrogance can cross dimensions but it still doesn’t pay off. Find out how and why here.

Beginning to get seriously warm again. Am grateful I write in the cool (or relative cool anyway). Will be writing some flash fiction shortly.

I sometimes decide I will write to a specific word count on my flash fiction Sundays. At other times, I know I’ve got a topic in mind so will focus on that. I have found that for Substack and YouTube, both work best if I keep my tales up to about 100 words (also known as drabbles).

Suits me. Keeps me working on the form of flash fiction which led to me discovering what a great format flash is and to now having three books to my name. Let’s hear it for the drabble!

Nice day here. Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday tomorrow. Will shortly be penning a guest blog about flash fiction formats. That will be going out on another platform and I will share the link as soon as I have it. Am very pleased to have the opportunity to do this (and a huge thanks to the author concerned for inviting me on – more details later).

I always like to celebrate flash fiction, not least when I have a new book out (can’t imagine why!), and I still think it is a great form for drawing in the reluctant reader or those who prefer short reading sessions. Flash is ideal for these.

And even if you write longer works, flash is also ideal as a warm up writing exercise. The great thing here is you can polish these stories up and get them out there too if you wanted to do so.

Goodreads Author Blog – Ordering New Books

I’ve had the great joy this week (first week of July 2026) to put in an order with my publisher for my stock of my new flash fiction collection, Seeing The Other Side. The book is due out on 16th July and the ebook version is already available on Amazon for pre-order (and since this post went out on Goodreads originally, the paperback is now  up there too). I should receive my paperbacks in a week to ten days’ time. My publisher’s delivery system is very good. Last time I was able to do this for my own collection was for Tripping The Flash Fantastic back in 2020. It has been a while then! (All sorts of reasons for it too and the pandemic didn’t help).

All of this led me to wonder about ordering new books. Now I do use the online retailers including people like Waterstones, Hive, Bookshop.org, Bridgetown Cafe Bookshop (which is my publisher’s online shop) and others.

Now in common with all indie presses, my publisher uses print on demand. It’s a great idea. No storage costs, no distribution costs, kinder to the environment and so on. One slight snag it is can show up on screen as not being in stock. Please ignore this. If you order it, the retailer will get it in quickly and then the book is on its way to you.

I wish they didn’t do this. Print on demand books are never in stock so to speak but they are readily and easily available. I’ve never had any problems when I’ve ordered books like this from other authors.

It is a joy to order new books of mine as a writer. I enjoy ordering books from other authors whose works I know I’m going to like I often use ebooks by them as a way of finding whether I like their work or not incidentally.

I do like the fact there are online retailers such as Hive and Bookshop.org who also help independent bookshops. Every purchase you make on them has a proportion going to an independent bookshop you nominate – fabulous idea. You can also arrange for your ordered books to be collected from those bookshops or delivered straight to your home. Lovely to have the choice like that.

So let’s hear it for ordering new books. I also think it is great to have a variety of ways in which to do this.

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What I Look For In A Good Writing Advice Book

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Hope you have had a good few days. Lady has enjoyed catching up with her closest friends this week. I’m thrilled to say I have now put in my order for Seeing The Other Side with my publisher and can now start organising various things. More news to come in due course but things are happening, which is great.

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Another lovely day and Lady has made the most of catching up with her two closest pals this week. Good to see. Swimming was especially nice today too.

Writing wise, I’m pleased to share What I Look For In A Writing Advice Book for Chandler’s Ford Today. I share tips and hints as to how to narrow down the search so you find what you really want/need. Plus bear in mind what you need from a guide will change as your writing develops.

I also share what I like to see in any writing guide I go for and what I feel the purpose of a good writing guide should be.

Hope you find the post useful.

What I Look For In A Writing Guide

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Lovely day today. Lady caught up with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals, I had a lovely swim later, and then this afternoon I’ve put in my book order with my publisher for Seeing The Other Side. Hope to receive these in about a week to ten days time. So looking forward to receiving them. Looking even more to taking them to events such as Swanwick to sell them!

I also hope there will be a Bridge House/Chapeltown Books online launch. More news on that when I have it. But things are happening… it is a great buzz!

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing What I Look For In A Writing Advice Book for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up tomorrow. I hope this will prove useful as there are so many wonderful guides out there. Half the battle is in working out what you need/know you are likely to need but more on this in my post. See above.

Pleased my author newsletter went out promptly this morning (1st July). I met a friend at the park who subscribes to it and he congratulated me on the forthcoming Seeing The Other Side as I was walking Lady. That was a nice surprise.

Lady had a nice surprise too. As well as catching up with her Hungarian Vizler pal, she saw her Rhodesian Ridgeback chum too for the first time in a week or so. Basically, everyone stayed out of the sun last week and rightly so. Lady was good about her routine change but she did miss her pals. Had a great time today though.

Writing wise, I’m hosting an ACW group this evening. I’ll be writing various bits and pieces in the lead up to that. Am having fun designing various things on Vistaprint too. Marketing can be fun, sometimes at least, honest.

For one thing, it is always a joy to put the newsletter together. A huge thank you to my subscribers, your support is much appreciated.

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Pleased to say I put in my book order with my publishers for Seeing The Other Side yesterday. Things are happening!

Also it’s just over a month to The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick which is one of the highlights of my writing year. It will be especially nice to have a new book of mine there this year. I hope to report back later on Chandler’s Ford Today as to how my launch at Swanwick went.

I also hope to have news of my publisher having an online event for the new book soon too. Plus there will be other events. Watch this space as they say but it is so nice to be thinking of these kind of things again.

Last time, 2020, was a long time ago and it was online only. So much has changed since then and at least some of it is for the better. It will be lovely to have in person launches again for one thing.

Hope to crack on with more flash writing over the weekend too.

Hope today has gone well. Lovely one here. As mentioned over on my author page, I’ve put in my order for my copies of Seeing The Other Side and should receive those in about a week to ten days. So pleased with this.

Am looking forward to sharing stories from this new collection of mine at Open Prose Mic Nights too. I shared one at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick last year and it went down so well. So am hoping for a good response to the book as a whole, naturally enough!

And as I’ve mentioned, having a new book out very shortly does mean I can flag up the form of flash fiction too, which is always a joy to do. It is a wonderful challenge to write and I am so grateful to CafeLit for flagging it up to me via their 100 word challenge. I am so glad I went for that one!

Hope your day has gone well. Still appreciating the cooler weather here, especially since it is due to heat up again at the weekend.

Flash fiction wise, I hope to get back to writing for competitions later this summer. My main focus does have to be on Seeing The Other Side coming out. Once I know I can get my book order in, I can start arranging things like blog tours, in person events and so on. It will be lovely getting on with this kind of thing again. Matters were different back in 2020 when Tripping The Flash Fantastic came out – everything had to be online for a start.

I’m also using the opportunity of having a new book out to update my business card. Fun to do. I will be updating my website in due course too – I have a books page on there where I list my publications and the anthologies I’ve been in. Will share the link specifically to it once the update is done. But this kind of background work is nice to do and I like to see it as making progress. Every writer wants that.

Fairytales With Bite – Beginnings, Middles and Endings – Character Careers

How do your magical characters see themselves in terms of how their careers are going? Are they at the beginning, middle or even end of their careers?

I’ve sometimes written flash fiction regarding fairy godmothers who know they’re about to depart their life but have one final flourish before the big goodbye. I’ve always had a soft spot for those characters who know they cannot go on for much longer but do have one final gift to give. I do think that’s so appropriate for fairytales.

If your character is at the start of their magical career, after a suitable training and education, where do they think their career will take them? Will it work out as they think or will they discover that perhaps one magical career isn’t for them after all but another one is? It happens for us – why not for them?

If they’re in the middle of their career, are they pleased to be where they are or disappointed they haven’t made further progress? If the latter, what has got in the way and could they be unwittingly blocking themselves here? That happens for us too!

Definite story ideas here.

This World and Others – The Jobs Market

What is the state of the jobs market in your setting? Does your setting cover magical and non-magical careers or if it focuses on the magical only, what would they need to import to cover those tasks magic isn’t suitable for?

There would be some interesting stories for your setting in working out what can’t be done magically, how your setting discovered this, and what they have to do to overcome the issue.

Also, could your setting discover too much magic can damage their environment so they have to find ways of limiting its usage and to have other ways of doing more manual things, which could be done another way. Magic is a form of power/energy after all and every form of those things do tend to have their downsides!

What would your characters be looking for when it comes to seeking work themselves? Who organises the job market and are certain jobs only for certain species? What would be the reasons behind that?

Has anyone challenged it or is this something your character might do? What would they be seeking to achieve – equality for themselves, their species, or something beyond that such as a wider recognition the jobs market shouldn’t be a closed shop, so to speak?

Again, story ideas there.

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Using Dates in Fiction

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Hope all well. Has been so hot here over the last few days. Gosport in Hampshire has recently shattered a heat record. We’re taking Lady out early and then keeping her in. She’s doing well but isn’t keen on this level of heat.
Writing wise, am progressing okay but will find it easier to progress more when the temperature comes down a bit!

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Pleased to share Using Dates in Fiction on Chandler’s Ford Today this week.

I look at various ways of using dates in our stories including usages in historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy where the dating system may well be so different to ours, and I ask what dates can mean to our characters too. There will be plenty of ideas to be written up around that last thought alone.

I also look at using dates to create settings, time frames and time/dates as a plot device. I discuss dates for the writer too.

Hope you find the post useful.

Using Dates in Fiction

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Another scorcher of a day, another quiet one for Lady though she is managing well and drinking plenty of water, as are we.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Using Dates in Fiction for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Lots of useful thoughts here which I hope will trigger plenty of story ideas. Link up tomorrow. See above.

Will be hosting another online group for the Association of Christian Writers next week and am looking forward to that. Plus my next author newsletter is due out on the same day, next Wednesday. How can it be almost July already? Mind you, I have great reasons to look forward to next month. More to come when I have it.

Character Tip: You know your character. You know what they’re capable of and why. Now think of something they might say or do which would catch you and readers off guard. This can bring in great twists to your tale and show you even more about your creation.

If you know, for example, your character is scrupulously honest because they were let down big time by continual lies earlier in their life, readers will understand that. But what if your character then does go and lie, especially if this seems to come out of the blue? I would immediately want to look for the reason in the change of behaviour and there will be at least one.

On this example, I would wonder if they were shielding someone else. Also I will go back and look through the story to see if there were any hints something unexpected might come. There usually is something on a second read.

Crime stories do this all of the time but it can work just as well for other forms of fiction. Incidentally the hint can come in a variety of means such as the character admitting they could do anything to protect someone they love or had done so in the past etc etc.

Wow, it’s been so hot. Hope you are all well and taking good care. Lady out early and then home again for the rest of the day. She’s not sorry. Neither are we. Will be the same again tomorrow and probably Friday too.

Writing wise, I’m trying to start my writing sessions earlier than usual because I do find the heat has a direct impact on my concentration levels (and I drink loads of water etc because I should and because it aids concentration). So it is a question of doing what I can and be as comfortable as possible. Let’s just say I’m already looking forward to a swim tomorrow!

Still the good thing with writing flash fiction and short stories is I can write in short stints and still get plenty done.

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Today would have been my father’s 89th birthday. Dates and anniversaries can be wonderful things, sad ones, funny and much more.

Funnily enough, I discuss Using Dates in Fiction for my Chandler’s Ford Today post this week (see above) but dates/anniversaries are wonderful things to write flash fiction around. They make for a good “peg” to hang the action on.

What, in your story, makes this date/anniversary stand out especially? What has happened to make it more memorable than usual? What does your character make of an anniversary someone else wants to celebrate but they do not?

There are plenty of ways to use dates in stories and, yes, there is such a thing as a random date generator out there. Mind you, the old school way of picking a page at random from your diary and using that date as a focus for your story would also work well!

Hope you’re all keeping well and as cool as possible. Lady managing okay but she loathes this heat and I can’t say I blame her. I heard on the radio earlier that visualising cooler things can help. Hmm… can’t say it’s worked for me so far.

But talking of visualising, when you create your characters do you tend to visualise what they look like? It isn’t the first priority for me. I like to hear them speaking. (I don’t know whether that is because of my life long love of radio coming into play here or whether, back in the day, on the old TV sets you tended to get the sound through first and then the picture). I do get a clearer picture of my characters once I know how they speak though.

This is the joy of the creative process though. Different things work for different writers. It is a question of finding what works for you, I think. (And if one way doesn’t seem to hit your creative spot, then it’s time to try another. You will find what’s right for you writing wise but it can be a question of trial and error).

I don’t tend to use weather much in my flash fiction and short stories. Certainly I’m not planning to write anything about the current heatwave. Not sure there is much of a story in getting my characters to reflect my views – I don’t like this! Mind you, being a dog owner does colour my views here. Both Lady and I much prefer a temperature in the lower twenties.

But you could use the thought of something colouring a character’s views to come up with some interesting story ideas. If a character is kind and generous but won’t be towards another character, there will be reasons (and stories) behind that, for example.

The good thing here is you get to decide what would colour your character’s views (and therefore attitudes and behaviours) and by how much. Can you get a character with a strong opinion which goes against the grain for the other characters in your story to come across as having good reasons to be as they are and even be a sympathetic character?

It would be a good challenge.

Fairytales With Bite – Magical Words

Now I know I’m biased as a writer and editor but I do believe words are magical in and of themselves. When I think about how many stories I’ve loved, and continue to love, I believe I have a good point. Stories are so much part of what makes us human.

But what about our characters who are anything but human? Which stories and/or words would they consider to be magical and why? What impact do these things have on them? How have they shaped them? Would your character’s favourite stories bear any resemblance to those we have here? (It is amazing, for example, just how many variants of the Cinderella story there are and how far in time it goes back too).

Who would have written the stories your characters love? How did they get to be such a special part of your character’s world? Has anyone ever tried to suppress and/or rewrite them to suit their purposes?

Who would be considered to be the overall guardian of your setting’s magical words and stories, how did they get that role, and how good a job do they do? Definite story ideas there.

This World and Others – Literature with Meaning

I believe all literature has at least some meaning. Even the funniest, frothiest of stories have meaning simply because they are great at helping people escape for a while. For me, that is the definition of a good read. I often will not want “serious” reading. I want to be entertained and I see nothing wrong in that.

So when I look for meaning in any story, I am looking for the impact it had on me, for good or bad. I know there are some stories I won’t be reading again because the impact they made on me was I’ve read this once, I don’t need to read it again. Incidentally another definition of a good read for me is wanting to re-read tales.

Anyway, in your setting, especially if it is nothing like our own dear planet, what would your characters see as literature with meaning? Do they read it themselves or only do so when they have to (at school for example)? Is literature readily available to all or only to the select few? If the latter, can literature somehow “escape” by devious means so others can get to see it and, if so, who would be behind that and why are they doing it?

Literature has impact. Not everyone welcomes that here! This could apply easily to other settings. What would be the story of your character who is an author who writes something they know their regime won’t like it? What drives them to do it? Do they get their work out there? Is the impact as expected or not? What would the literature getting out to the masses do to your setting? It could change so much.

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Publication Thoughts – Seeing The Other Side by Allison Symes

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Hope you have had a good few days. Pretty busy here and Lady has had a fabulous time catching up with her Rhodesian Ridgeback pal this week. Hasn’t seen her for a bit. Writing going well. Seeing The Other Side will be out soon.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler chum today before it heated up in the afternoon so that was fine.

Am delighted to share Publication Thoughts – Seeing The Other Side on Chandler’s Ford Today this week.

My third flash fiction collection is shortly to be published by Chapeltown Books (Bridge House Publishing). I share the book’s blurb, look at what is in my new collection, and discuss the importance of book covers. I look at what happens next and share thoughts and tips I hope will prove useful to other writers approaching their own special publication days.

I also flag up the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society. See the post for why. Hope you enjoy the post and there will be more news on my third book in due course.

Publication Thoughts – Seeing The Other Side by Allison Symes

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Delighted to share my latest post on Authors Electric – Publication Day Thoughts. I discuss launches (both in person and online) as well as whether I enjoy the marketing side of the writing life.

I am looking forward to creating bits and pieces to go with my book launches as and when I have them. It has been a while since I last got to do that.

Hope you enjoy the post and find some useful pointers for your own launches too.

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Hope today has gone well. Lady had a fabulous time with her two closest chums, the Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback. It seems to be quite a day for the latter as we met another one in the park and three more on our afternoon walk. A bit like London buses – none for ages and then…

Looking forward to catching up with folk from the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later tonight. Plan is to look at how to use questions for themes, titles and more. Hopefully we’ll get some ideas jotted down, maybe the start of some flash pieces.

Writing wise, I’ll be writing “bits and pieces” around the group meeting. These odd pockets of time have proved useful to me in the past. I’ve often drafted the start or even full flash pieces in these slots and later, after further work, have had some published.

I suppose also that given I’ve always had time slots in which to write (other duties have had to be sorted out first), I want to get to my desk for these and just get on with the writing. It’s not a bad habit to have fallen into though. I want to hit the ground running when I write.

I guess it has taught me to make the most of the writing time I do have.

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It’s looking to be a hot few days over the weekend and into next week so Lady will be playing things nice and cool. Am so glad writing is something I can do in the cool!

I like to mix up how I find topics for flash fiction. I do have favourite themes. One liners (including those I overhear!) can inspire ideas, as do books of prompts, the random generators, something I spot when out and about with the dog and much more besides.

I think it is a case of being open to the thought of there being potential ideas all around you. I also think you do have to write what you care about. I love reading funny tales so often write them. I love fairytales where tables are turned on the arrogant and often write these too.

As well as discussing Publication Day Thoughts over on Authors Electric today, 18th June, I’ll be looking at the same topic in greater depth for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Link up for that tomorrow. I’ll be sharing more thoughts and tips in the CFT post which I hope will be useful to other writers. See above.

More news to come on Seeing The Other Side as and when I have it.

It will be so nice having a third book with my name on it out there. It does validate the work put in and each publication is very special to its creator. It also gives me a great chance to celebrate flash fiction as a format. I am so glad CafeLit issued that 100 word challenge all those years ago. I am even more glad I responded to it!

Flash is a great format for when you are short of time to write but also I think many people write it without necessarily recognizing they have.

If you ever take part in writing exercises at workshops or other events, you almost certainly are writing flash because you normally have five to ten minutes in which to write. You’re only going to write up to 150 words or so in that time. Why not polish them up later and submit them somewhere?

One of my stories in Seeing The Other Side started life as a writing exercise at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick.

Fairytales With Bite – Developing Characters

One of the things I love most about any fiction is seeing how characters develop over the course of one flash fiction piece, one short story, one novella, or one novel. Stories need conflict and resolution. I expect a character to change in some way over the course of a story, no matter how short or long that is.

Characters in a magical setting and/or with magical abilities need to develop too. Does your character improve on their magical skills as their story goes on? Is it a case of them having to do this to survive? Those without magical gifts but in a magical setting must have something to help them navigate their world when it seems they must be at an automatic disadvantage. So what do they develop? What do they have which is useful to everyone else which helps their survival?

In my new flash collection, Seeing The Other Side, I’ve written some linked flash where the character and/or the setting appears in more than one story. The character can have a different “lead” in each link. Each story stands alone but the links put together form their own arc too. Here you get to see the character develop over the links in the chain. It means I can reveal a bit more about them with each story in the chain. These were great fun to write and I hope to do more of this for future books.

But if the character only appeared in one flash piece, they would be different by the end of it to what they were at the beginning. The situation I’ve put them will make them develop. You get to decide, of course, whether or not that is in a good way.

With a magical setting and/or characters, you can show that development in terms of how magic improves/gets worse. You can also show development in a non-magical way around them.

The classic fairytales show proud characters being brought to their senses. They needed to develop humility and being the victim of a curse which could only be freed by love (Beauty and the Beast) is the development they needed to get to where they needed to be overall. Your characters don’t need to see the development as positive by the way though they might later.

This World and Others – Developing Worlds in the Short Fiction Forms

In the short fiction forms, there isn’t any room to show much in the way of your world and its development. But you can still show enough to help your readers form a good picture of your setting and your characters.

It is a question of picking the right detail to share. If I need my setting to be a river based one, and my characters live and work around the major rivers, I will show the characters doing just that. There could be mention, for example, the River XXXX is the major trade route between rivers YYYY and ZZZZ.

Seeing the characters in their environment will make the setting clearer to readers. Seeing them emerge from, say, a hobbit hole (I love those in The Lord of the Rings and think I’m the right height to live in one!), gives you some idea immediately of how tall or otherwise your characters are. It is a question, I think, of choosing what the reader needs to know. They can then fill in the gaps around that (and I know I love doing this when reading stories by other authors).

If your character is not from this world and doesn’t look humanoid, you will need to share a little of what they do look like. If, for example, they have six legs, the world setting they’re in might make that essential and you can show something of what that is. What you can’t do is show everything.

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A Change of Scene

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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 WAS A PHOTO FROM SCOTLAND IN MY CHANDLER’S FORD TODAY POST THIS WEEK.
Hope you have had a good week. The first one back after a holiday always seems a bit odd but Lady and I have loved catching up with friends. Am resuming my usual writing routine too and have a lovely Bridge House Publishing Zoom event to enjoy too. a bit more on that below…

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Hope your day has gone well. Another gloriously sunny day here. Bit of a contrast with last week when I was wrapped up in a coat walking along the gorgeous Golspie beach!

Am delighted to share A Change of Scene for Chandler’s Ford Today which I hope you’ll find useful.

I look at the purposes of a change of scene for your characters and share thoughts on how you can keep these parts of the story as riveting to read as the rest of it.

Another good reason to read in and out of your genre, contemporary and classic works, is to learn from other authors and how they handled their changes of scene when characters need to take some “time out” ahead of the next big action/happening in the tale.

I also look at how changes of scene can help develop character realism. We need breaks. So will your story stars.

And if you get to have changes of scene (holidays etc), I hope you and your writing come back reinvigorated!

A Change of Scene

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21st May 2026
It’s strange how the time goes. Today is the ninth anniversary of Dad’s passing.

On a happier note, Lady and I made sure we made the most of the lovely sunny day today. Lady and I loved our time in the park, especially as she saw her Hungarian Vizler pal again. One great thing about dogs is over time you can see close bonds form between friends and it is always nice to see.

I’ll be sharing A Change of Scene over on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow (see above) and after that will come a wonderful interview with Esther Chilton about her latest children’s book, Myths and Magic. This is book two in her six book series, Saffy’s Secret Quest. More to come in the interview and I’m looking forward to sharing that.

Nearer to that – today in fact, 21st May – I’ll be “off” courtesy of Zoom to a book launch event being held by Bridge House Publishing. These things are always fun (and I hope to have news on my own account here later – watch this space as they say). It was a great event which I loved, a little more on this below.

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady enjoyed catching up with her Hungarian Vizler pal again and we saw our neighbour’s lovely Golden Retriever too.

Will be sharing A Change of Scene on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. See above. I go into more depth on this topic than I could do for my recent Authors Electric post (though do see that as a useful intro!).

For CFT, I’ll be sharing tips on how to make changes of scene continue to be an interesting read for your readers. The danger with a change of scene is that is the point where a reader could switch off, which is the last thing you want. More on this on Friday.

Also looking forward to the next meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group next week.

And it won’t be that long before my next author newsletter goes out. I share news, tips, story links and more here. One lovely thing about flash fiction writing is so many of the tips for it can be applied to longer forms of fiction too. If you’d like to sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Talking of which, a huge thank you to my subscribers too – your support is much appreciated.

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Loved attending the Bridge House Publishing book launches on Zoom last night (21st May 2026). Nice to catch up with old friends online and to meet new people, especially flash fiction writers new to me. It was a great event and I hope everyone does well with their respective books, one of which I worked on as editor. It’s always a joy to see books you’ve worked on like that be published.

Part of the conversation last night was on the challenges of flash fiction but also in recognizing writing it regularly is such a good discipline. I’ve mentioned before it teaches you to edit well, to think more closely about word selection for maximum impact with minimum word count usage, and more.

It is also a fabulous warm up writing exercise ahead of longer work and the great thing here is these exercises could go on to be published work with further revision. At least one such story of mine will be in my forthcoming Seeing The Other Side.

Moments in time can make for intriguing flash fiction tales. You have to focus on one special moment – the word count tends to dictate that – but there can be such a powerful impact from this as the focus is intense relative to the length of the story. No waffle room either (which is always a good thing).

So why not give some thought to what would be a specific moment in time your character(s) would want to recall and why. You can also write stories around those things they’re desperate to forget but are forced to face up to again.

Hope you can get some good drafts out of those thoughts. Happy writing!

I often find a one word topic can be a great theme for flash fiction (and would also work for longer fiction forms). Often they’re the basis for many a writing competition too and you may find yourself writing often on themes which particularly appeal to you. Some of the one word topics I throw out for consideration are:-

Justice
Mercy
Love
Revenge
Ambition
Security
Greed
Pride

I suspect if you wanted to, you could put all of those things into one story! Certainly they often turn up in novels. But why not pick one of these at a time and write a flash fiction story around it? (If members of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group read this, you could see this as additional writing exercises!).

Now thinking about it, I’ve often written to many of these themes. Sometimes they combine too. Justice combined with mercy is a popular one. I haven’t written so much about a character’s need for security. Hmm…. maybe I’ll make a note to change that!

Fairytales with Bite – Improving Skills

In any walk of life, most seek to improve their skills and get better at what they do, possibly with an eye on promotion and even better prospects. So why shouldn’t this apply to your magical setting?

What skills do your characters have they wish to improve? How have they improved in the past? What kind of training is given in your magical world? I’m working on the premise here it is better for your magical government to have magic which is controlled rather than having it not controlled at all or controlled badly.

Could other characters get in your lead’s way and, if so, what are they hoping to achieve by doing that? Does the wish to improve skills indicate a real desire to learn and get better or is there hidden ambition behind all of that? Another character’s wish to stop someone improving doesn’t necessarily have to be out of bad motives such as jealousy or resentment someone else can improve while they possibly can’t or have to wait longer to do so.

What fuels your character’s desire to improve? Are they worried about being left behind? Are they the main breadwinner so have to improve as much as possible to ensure their continued employment?

Definitely story ideas here.

This World and Others – Learning from Past Mistakes

Linking in with Fairytales with Bite above, one key way to improve skills is to learn from your past mistakes. Am sure The Sorcerer’s Apprentice did this! (Indeed, have written some flash stories around that thought).

How well or otherwise does your character learn from their past mistakes? Do they do this willingly or does it take someone else/a major incident to wake them up to the fact they have made mistakes? (We all know folk like that – fiction reflects life. It doesn’t flatter generally either).

Does your character go on to better things/being a better being due to learning from their mistakes and, if so, how? Are there mistakes they tend to repeat?

Also, give some thought to the mistakes your magical society has made. What can your characters learn from those? What can they do to make things better for the future of their society?

Again, story ideas there.

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Story Essentials

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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 was one photo from the magnificent north-east Scottish coast.
Hope you have had a good week. Lady and I have been out and about and the writing/editing continues to go well so, for differing reasons, we both think we’ve had a good and enjoyable week. Plenty to share further down including thoughts on Story Essentials and useful marketing and character tips.

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Delighted to share Story Essentials on Chandler’s Ford Today this week.

I look at the classic structure of story beginnings, middles, and endings. I also look at the other crucial ingredient to any successful story – interesting characters. I share what I think can help make them be interesting to potential readers. The role of character motivations and attitudes plays a huge role here.

Hope you enjoy the post and find it useful.

Story Essentials

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Hope your Thursday has gone well. Sunshine and showers again. Lady tired out after her exercising today and is currently snoozing as I write this. It’s always good to see a contented dog!

Don’t forget I’ll be sharing Story Essentials on Chandler’s Ford Today. Link up tomorrow. See above. I will discuss story structure (the classic beginning, middle and ending), and look at the vital role characters play. Hope you will find the post useful as it is written with any kind of fiction in mind.

Having a story structure in place may sound boring, you just want to get on and write, right? But I’ve found having one saves me a great deal of time in writing the piece and in editing it later simply because I already know the structure will work.

Marketing Tip: The good news here is marketing doesn’t have to be done all at once. What you can do is focus on the marketing you are going to do and ensure all is well prepared for that.

For example, I know I’ll have plenty of marketing to do when Seeing The Other Side comes out. I’ll be looking at launches, perhaps being a guest on blogs and all of that kind of thing. But I can do this a piece at a time. It takes the pressure off. It means I’ll enjoy every part of the marketing I’m going to do (and I believe you as a writer get so much more from this when you enjoy what you’re doing here).

Also marketing is genuinely always an ongoing thing. I’m always going to want to promote my books and anthologies in some way long after they first came out/are due out.

Hope the day has gone well. Mixed bag weather wise again though as I type this, the sunshine is out again. Lots of lovely walking with Lady today.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to interviewing Esther Chilton about her latest children’s book, Myths and Magic, on Chandler’s Ford Today later this month. There will be plenty of interest and tips here. Look out for this towards the end of the month.

Character Tip: Characters make or break a story for me so I have to believe in them to care enough about them to find out what happens. This, for me, means I need to understand their motivations for doing what they are, even if I don’t agree with the actions.

I especially love those characters where some of their back story is dropped in, as that can highlight what drives them. I don’t need to know everything though. I just need to know enough.

And how much is enough? That will depend on the length of the story to a certain extent. If it is a flash piece, I won’t need to know nearly as much as I would for a long short story, novella or novel.

For flash work, I like to use character thoughts to show something of their motivations because these also reveal their attitudes at the time too.

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Have just had news from an ACW friend about a potential competition so hope to look into that over the next few days or so and see if I can do something with it.

Networking helps writers in so many ways and this is just one of them. Nobody can know every single competition there is available but together we can share news of what we do know – it will indeed be news to someone else.

I’ve made good use of tips like this in the past and I do spread the word about the wonderful CafeLit whenever I can too. They were my introduction to flash fiction. It’s paid off!

I look for ideas for flash fiction stories all of the time. I opt for timeless topics as much as possible too. Right now I’m especially enjoying being out and about with the dog so I suspect at some point I’ll write a piece based around a walk which will be life changing in some way for my lead character.

The ordinary things of life can and do spark story ideas. Most of hate having to do housework yet see it as a necessary evil. So you could give some thought to what your characters would consider natural evils they have to cope with in some way. There could be potential for funny stories here too.

As well as using prompts, random generators, proverbs etc., I sometimes look at old scenic photos of mine and then weave a story around that. What characters could live here? What would they do? What issue do they have to resolve?

I think it’s a question of keeping your mind open to the thought there are plenty of ideas out there. The trick is working out which would best suit you and your style of writing.

I’m looking forward to the release of Seeing The Other Side next month, naturally enough. One reason why is having new material to share at Open Prose Mic Nights, such as the one The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick put on. I did read something from the new book last year and was pleased it went down well.

I like to mix up the moods of the stories I read at these things and the word counts too. So I will read a humorous piece, a grimmer one, a short 50 worder, a 100 worder or two and so on, depending on how much time I’ve been given.

Flash works so well for these things. It also makes it easier to stop on a “high” and top tip here, it is always better to come in at slightly under your allotted time rather than to go over it. Going over it at all is not really that fair on others still to read and it is always best to go out leaving your audience wishing they had heard more. For one thing, they can go and buy your book, can’t they?

Fairytales with Bite – Magical Wilderness

Recently, I’ve had the joy of escaping to a part of the country which can be considered to be Wild Britain – the north-east coast of Scotland. It is a magnificent mix of moorland, mountains, coast, and farmland. Lots of lovely walking done with other half and the dog. A real break from it all.

In your magical world, what areas would be considered to be wild? Is this because of the natural geography, flora and fauna or because the area has untamed magic none of your characters can harness, yet alone control? If the latter, how did the area become magically wild at all? Was there a curse and, if so, what was the story behind it?

Alternatively, are there areas in your magical setting where magic cannot be? If so, how did this happen and has anyone tried to change the status quo here? (Bound to be consequences and interesting stories here from where people tried and failed. Could form the legends in your magical setting’s fictional history).

This World and Others – Calming Areas

I think we all need our areas of calm. For me, this is often in the swimming pool. I can’t get emails or phone calls there! Plus the exercise is beneficial and can help create a sense of calm because it makes me feel better in myself for having done this.

Holidays where I can get away from it all help here too but even in my immediate area, there are physical places, including in my own garden, which are just good places to be.

So thinking about our characters, what calming areas/things to help them would they seek?

Where would they go to get away from things, locally to them or otherwise? What makes these areas special for them and can getting to them for a while be the catalyst they need to resolve the issues they’re facing?

Definite story ideas there.

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Templates

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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. Weather more changeable but Lady has been having fabulous times in the park with her closest chums so all well there. Glad to say my story did go out on Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show on Tuesday 24th March. Links below

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Am pleased to share Templates on Chandler’s Ford Today. I share thoughts on what you could put in your own template to help you flesh out characters and/or settings. All of the questions I share here will help you come up with story ideas.

I also look at the advantages and disadvantages of templates. I see them as a helpful way in to creating a new character and/or setting. Sometimes it is useful to know the setting first and then you can work out who would populate it. Often settings can almost be like characters in their own right – for example, think of the moors in Wuthering Heights or Dickens’ London as shown in Oliver Twist.

I also mix up the questions I use in templates to avoid them becoming formulaic. Hope you find the post useful.

Templates

 

Hope today has gone well. Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler chum today – the dogs are always pleased to see each other. It’s lovely to see.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Templates on Chandler’s Ford Today this week – link up tomorrow. See above. I’ll be looking at the usefulness of these things (and also discuss some disadvantages, not everyone gets on with them for one thing). I’ll also be suggesting ideas for your own templates. Hope the post will prove useful.

Am glad to say I now have the link for the Hannah Kate Spring Equinox show on North Manchester FM on Mixcloud. I hope to catch up with this myself at the weekend but highly recommend a listen because I love the stories on these shows though I will admit to bias being on the show and knowing someone else who is but it is a good bias to have, I think.

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Lady had a fabulous puppy party this morning with her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback friends and Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. All four dogs went home tired and happy.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meeting later on tonight. Our theme this time is sixty. There are various ways to incorporate that thought into stories and we will be looking at some of those this evening.

I hope to catch up with Hannah Kate’s Spring Equinox show over the weekend but many congratulations to all of the writers who had work featured here. I always enjoy catching up with these shows and listening to all of the stories – fabulous entertainment.

Writing Tip: Character names can be used to reflect something of their age and likely social status but the main thing to watch when having more than one named character in tale is to ensure the names are different enough so it is easy for readers to tell who is speaking at any given point.

Also it helps not to have the same initials. If Jake and John are in the same tale, it could be easy to confuse these unless there are other clear points of difference such as in the manner each of them speaks and the type of vocabulary they use.

A good editing tip here is when you read through your work, can you tell the characters apart easily? You should be able to do so.

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Earlier this week at the meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group, we looked at the theme of Sixty. I chose that to fit in with my special birthday (couldn’t resist it!) but it does lend itself to stories based on diamonds, special birthdays and anniversaries. You can also just use the number itself as part of a story such as part of an address, a sum of money and more.

I also set the group some exercises, one of which was to write to sixty words exactly including the title. My story for that session, to show as an example, is below. Hope you enjoy it.

My Hero by Allison Symes

I can’t say I like his handiwork but he leaves me gifts. He doesn’t do that for anyone else. He comes and sits on my lap when I feel sad. Then goes out and kills as many mice as he can find and brings them all to me.

I possibly shouldn’t have called my rough diamond Mr Tiddles.

Ends
Allison Symes – 8th March 2026

Word Count including title = 60

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The next best thing any reader can do after buying an author’s book is to review them, of course. A lovely one for my Tripping The Flash Fantastic includes the following quote.

Fabulous collection of poems and flash fiction. Some made me giggle, some made me gasp, all surprised me! I found it a real page turner, as the stories had such unexpected twists and turns!

Many thanks to my lovely reviewer here. Reviews like that reassure an author they’re on the right lines. I look to entertain with my flash and short stories so it’s good to know that is happening!

The great thing with reviews is they don’t have to be long, which is so apt for when you’re reviewing a flash fiction collection.

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Looking forward to joining in with some of the exercises I’m setting for tonight’s meeting of the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. Always good fun this and I get more drafts down so nothing to dislike there. Hopefully these will end up later on being polished up for competitions. Am hoping to get to write some further drafts over the weekend as there are competitions coming up in May and beyond which I always have a go at and I do like to start early. It means I get enough time to rest my drafts to assess them properly well ahead of deadlines.

I also make a point of mixing up the kind of writing exercise I use because it keeps me on my toes and I get to create more stories this way. I must admit though I do have a soft spot for the opening line kind.

Fairytales With Bite – A New Era

This topic came to mind as I’ve recently celebrated a landmark birthday. You know, the kind of one which marks the end of one decade and the beginning of another.

So how would your magical characters recognize what was a new era for them? Does your setting mark time in a similar way to ours but, if not, how do they do so? How would their eras correlate to what we would recognize as that?

Now I see my next decade as a promising one in that I hope to continue to develop my writing and hopefully have more success with it. But how would your characters see the passing of another decade (or the equivalent)? Do they worry about aging and, if so, why? Would magical powers decrease with age and that is why nobody really wants to think about getting older and what it would mean there? (There are clear parallels with us here).

Is your magical setting a benevolent one or a dictatorship? That would colour the views of your characters as they enter a new era. They may want more of the same or a complete overthrow of the regime. Good story thoughts there.

And a character’s view to aging, whether they’re magical or not, can also highlight other attitudes of theirs. If they worry about aging, could it because they know how older beings are treated? Again, good story ideas there.

This World and Others – Leaving the Past Behind

Landmark birthdays can give cause for reflection as you look ahead to the decade to come and ponder on the one you’ve just left behind. I don’t think it is entirely possible to leave the past behind. You always carry some of this with us and so should our characters. But there are times we want to not be held back by damaging things from our past and that again can often be the case with our characters.

When it comes to magical or alien characters, what kinds of things would they want to confine to the past and why? Would they have the same or similar regrets to us or would theirs be different due to their nature and/or environment?

Leaving the past behind can throw up interesting areas to explore for historians and archaeologists. What would count as archaeological finds on your setting? Would it be anything we’d recognize? Sometimes discoveries from the past can have impact on what is known now. For example, the finding of the remains of King Richard III has done this. Are there things from the past your world and/or characters wish had stayed hidden?

Definite story ideas there.

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