Tag: writing tips

Thoughts on Editing

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

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

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

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

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

Thoughts on Editing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fairytales with Bite – Seasonal Magic

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

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

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

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

This World and Others – Times

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

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

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

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

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Tips, Writers’ Narrative, and Defining a Good Read

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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. Image of me holding Creativity Matters, From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic was taken by Adrian Symes. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes. A huge thank you to The Chameleon Theatre Company for permission to use the photos in the bonus Chandler’s Ford Today post shared below.
Hope you have a good weekend. Mine encompassed the glamour of wood treating a fence panel to getting on with my writing. Both creative in their way though, I suppose!

Facebook – General

Today has been somewhat soggy but Lady didn’t mind. She got to see her Hungarian Vziler pal again today and Lady never frets about the rain. She’s got a good coat, she can shake it all over Mum, so why worry?

Writing wise, hope to share some exciting news soon. Looking forward to being able to do that. Watch this space as they say.

Apologies for forgetting to put a title to my June newsletter – oops! But many thanks to all my subscribers. Your support is much appreciated. Other than that little faux pas, I have found the transfer over to MailerLite to be painless, I’m glad to say.

Character Tip: Whatever kind of character you create – and I have many non-human ones in my cast list – they still have to be understandable to readers.

So motivations and wants need to be clear and we should be able to see why someone would do something. Nothing is to “come out of the blue” – nobody ever believes that.

Hope Monday hasn’t been too bad. Busy one here as always. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today so her week has got off to a good start.

Writing Tip: Want a quick easy outline for a story? Just ask two questions.

  1. What does your character want?
  2. What gets in their way?

In fleshing the answers out to those, you will be off to a flying start with your outline and the resulting story. All stories need a structure and those two questions give your tale a great “backbone”.

Hope the weekend has been a good one for you. Still can’t quite believe it’s June already.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Thoughts on Editing for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. It is always a timely topic and I share tips which have proved useful for me as a writer and as an editor.

Looking forward to popping along to The Chameleons’ Open Evening later this week too.

Pleased to say my author newsletter went out again today. It’s only the second one I’ve sent using the new service provider. All well so far and pleased to be able to schedule it too.

Glad to catch up with some friends from Swanwick on a Zoom session last night. Good way to keep in touch.

31st May –  First Post – Bonus Chandler’s Ford Today post
Two posts from me tonight. First up is a bonus Chandler’s Ford Today post. As you know, I often go and see plays performed by our excellent local theatre company, The Chameleons. They’re celebrating their 60th anniversary this year and are holding an Open Evening next weekend (Saturday 7th June). More details in the post but if you can get along, they will be pleased to see you.

The Chameleons – Open Evening – 7th June 2025 – Celebrating 60 Years of Drama

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31st May – Second Post – June 2025 edition of Writers’ Narrative

Second post and I’m pleased to say the June edition of Writers’ Narrative is now available. See link below.

The theme is on Worldbuilding (which comes into various forms of fiction and not just fantasy and sci-fi – e.g. crime fiction has to set its world too, you need to know era for one thing).

I share Five Top Writing Tips, useful for whatever you write. Do enjoy a cracking read.

 

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Flash fiction helps with other forms of writing in all sorts of ways.

Writing to one line sentences, as I set recently for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group, can be used to help practice writing straplines. Longer flashes (say up to 500 words) can be used to help get you used to writing to the word count needed for a synopsis.

Plus it can be used as a warm up exercise ahead of your main writing work and, as I’ve mentioned before, you could polish those pieces up and get them out for competitions etc.

Well worth trying. I find writing flash to be an absorbing challenge.

It’s Monday. Time for another story. Hope you like my latest one on YouTube – Taking Time.

Can the old Master of Time live up to his reputation when put to the ultimate test? Find out here. This is one of my fairytales with bite.

 

Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday afternoon shortly. Need to look out some more competitions soon to have a try at but that may well need to wait until next weekend. Am happily busy elsewhere, writing wise.

I’ve always loved the way The Bridport Prize describes flash fiction – as the “art of just enough”. Sums it up so well. Inference is a powerful tool in the flash format. Picking the right telling detail about your character and/or setting can leave much else to be inferred but readers will pick up on this.

I know I love it in any length of story when an author doesn’t tell me every single thing. I like to work things out. All that is needed are the right clues to do that.

Flash fiction writing is great practice in working out what you do need to reveal and what you can leave to be implied. As such it is an excellent writing exercise. But the better news is there are opportunities for being published and competitions for those flash pieces you come up with.


Had a lovely morning wood treating a fence panel – I know it’s all glamour here! Lady was enjoying the cool indoors. (I also cannot trust her to not want to stick her nose in the wood treatment pot. She is a curious animal but sometimes there is such as thing as too much curiosity!).

Writing wise, pleased to say the June 2025 edition of Writers’ Narrative is out – theme is Worldbuilding. Every fiction writer does this to a certain extent. Even in flash fiction I have to show a reader where my story is, sometimes indicate era and so on. Link to the magazine shared via my author page. See above.

Last but not least, my author newsletter is out tomorrow. Can’t believe we’re almost at June already. I share news, tips, and links to my flash stories online in the newsletter. To sign up head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

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Goodreads Author Blog – Defining a Good Read

How would you define a good read? For me, it is any story of any length and genre, where I have to read through to the finish. Usually it is the character which grips me. Sometimes it’s an intriguing premise. The very best stories have both of those.

But I have been just as entertained and gripped by a well crafted 100 word story as I have been by the other end of the scale, a 100,000 word novel.

I like a wide variety of genres though my favourites are fantasy, fairytales especially, history (fiction and non-fiction) and crime.

Thankfully I have not abandoned many stories of any length because they haven’t engaged but in those cases where it did happen, I know it was because I wasn’t convinced by the characterisation, yet alone gripped by it. Still in a way this is useful. I know what I like and dislike here so I can avoid making the same mistakes in my own work.

Life is too short to not have good reads in your reading pile!

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Inspiration Ideas

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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 time had here – made the most of the glorious weather. Writing wise, am busy preparing the next author newsletter and a fabulous author interview for Chandler’s Ford Today. More details on that next week. Meantime, I write on (and that is just how how I like things to be).

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Pleased to share Inspiration Ideas on Chandler’s Ford Today this week. Hope you will find it useful.

I share tips on making the most of being out and about over the next few lovely weather months (well, they usually are most of the time, can’t say fairer than that!). The best thing of all is the tips I share here apply just as well if you’re not venturing far from home this summer. The idea behind all of the tips shared here is to spark your inspiration and that is always useful.

Inspiration Ideas

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Lady and I again spent plenty of time in the glorious fresh air and sunshine today. Had a fabulous time. Not too hot, pleasantly warm – just how we both like things. Has tired us both out nicely too.

Writing Tip: Think about how you can use how the good weather makes you feel for characters in your stories. Also could the weather get in their way at all?

Could good weather (dry, pleasantly warm, lots of light etc) be a disadvantage to them? Are they of a species sensitive to light levels for instance? How do they manage their “condition” here? Light isn’t always avoidable! How can your characters here get on with other species for whom light isn’t an issue?

Lady and I were out and about enjoying another glorious day. Hope you have had a good day too. Spring is at its finest right now, I think.

Writing wise, I’ll be sharing Inspiration Ideas for Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. This post will include hints and tips for making the most of being out and about this spring and summer too. See above.

Next author newsletter will be out before we know it. To sign up for writing tips, news, story links and more, do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Newsletter Writing Tip: I find it a great help to write sections of my newsletter during the month. It avoids a last minute rush (and forgetting to do one at all). I also find it useful to think of a rough theme for the month as that will give me ideas for the different sections I write. I also love newsletters which have a theme running through it and find these grip me more when reading them.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Pleased to be back on Friday Flash Fiction with my new tale, Rivalry. Two fairies are up for a top godmother job. One of them has a wand which keeps backfiring but she knows this is no coincidence. Who will prevail and get the top job here? Are more dirty tricks involved? Find out here.

Hope today has been a positive one for you.

I like to mix up themes for those places where I submit flash fiction regularly. I deliberately write lighter pieces, darker ones and then go back to light again. I like a good mixture in which I read here, as well as what I write myself.

When I am deciding on the mood of a piece, I start by outlining my character because I need to find out why they would be best suited for a light or dark piece. There should be good reasons behind your character’s approach to life (and therefore what they are likely to do and say).

Hope you have had a good day.

Don’t forget my two flash collections (From Light to Dark and Back Again and Tripping the Flash Fantastic) are available via Amazon but you can also get them from The Bridgetown Cafe Bookshop. This is the online shop for my publishers and this link (see below) also means you can buy from independent booksellers such as The HIve (UK) and Barnes and Noble (US).

Wherever you buy from, and not just for me, do leave a review. Brief is fine (and for flash collections suitably appropriate I’d say!).

Fairytales with Bite – Getting Away From It All

One of the joys of getting away from it all is to have a break from the normal routine. So what would your magical characters do to get away from their normal routine? Where would they go? Can they really escape their magical work? Or would it be a case of reducing their magical usage to the bare minimum so they recharge that way? At least they wouldn’t be on call all of the time…

Are there special places the magically inclined can go to recharge? How would these places be protected from those who would want to take advantage of magical characters being on their “down time”?

Also how eager or otherwise are your magical characters about returning to their normal lives again? Did the down time do them good, make them more efficient than before etc? How would that impact on their usual roles?

This World and Others – Exploring Other Worlds – Encouraged or Not?

Does your alien (sci-fi or fantasy) world encourage the exploration of other words or is this strongly discouraged? What are the reasons for the attitude here? Has exploration ever taken place and did it go well or otherwise? Sure to be story ideas there!

What similarities does your setting have with Earth? Could humans ever reach your setting (via time travel, portals, or extending our current scientific abilities for space travel?). Or has your world taken steps to ensure that cannot happen?

How have they encountered humans before to make them want to take those steps – or are they relying on things they have heard about us? We may not be considered the best species everywhere! Mind you, many of us here don’t believe that either or at least feel we could do a lot better than we are!

Where exploring other worlds does happen, which are considered worth exploring by your home setting and why? What is your setting hoping to achieve or gain from this? Again, sure to be story ideas there.

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What Makes A Story Work

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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. Image of me at a local book fair taken by my lovely editor at Chandler’s Ford Today, Janet Williams. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes.
Hope you have had a good week. Continuing to enjoy the lovely weather, as is the dog. My camellia (a pretty pink) is now beginning to come out. Looks great. Writing wise again have been busy on Zoom but also doing plenty of “bits and pieces” around this. Has been a good writing week to date.

Facebook – General and Chandler’s Ford Today

Hope you have had a good day. Gorgeous weather here.

Delighted to share What Makes A Story Work for Chandler’s Ford Today this week. I look at the role of dialogue and description, what you take in from stories you read, understanding the characters, and much more besides. Hope you find the post useful.

What Makes A Story Work

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3rd April 2025 – 1st post – META protest

Two posts from me tonight.

First up, a protest against outright theft by META. I am standing with #TheSocietyofAuthors against the theft of authors’ books to train AI #dothewritething.

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3rd April – Second post

Just to say I’ll be sharing What Makes A Story Work on Chandler’s Ford Today tomorrow. See above.

Am looking forward to sharing my next CFT post on 11th April too as it is on a topic every writer will identify with. More details nearer the time.

Have had a good week on Zoom again and an looking forward to another webinar on Storytelling next week. I do think Zoom with its ability to allow people to join in with various writing and other events online has been one of the few positive things to come out of the pandemic. I’d not used it at all prior to that. And it’s thanks to Zoom I’ve rediscovered the joys of PowerPoint, which I use for my Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group meetings.

Writing Tip: Do your characters have catchphrases? These can be useful but I’ve found it best to use them sparingly, especially in short form writing. What you don’t want is for readers to get sick of the things. Even the famous comedy characters didn’t use their best known sayings all of the time.

Hope you had a lovely day. Lady had a fabulous “puppy party” with Her Hungarian Vizler friend and Coco, the lovely Labradoodle, though it was more a case of Lady and Coco doing the running around.

Will be sharing What Makes A Story Work on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. See above. You do pick up so much about this topic simply by reading lots of lovely fiction!

Glad to say my author newsletter went out yesterday. Definitely not an April’s Fool!

Writing Tip: I like to build up a “stock” of flash fiction and blog pieces for later use. I find this pays off a lot during those frantic times when I know I haven’t got much writing time. So when I haven’t a particular writing task to do, I will spend some time writing these because I know it will come in useful later.

So if you are “stuck” for something to write, why not try this? Use a writing exercise or a random generator prompt to start you off (it’s amazing how many of those can also be used for non-fiction).

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Am back on Friday Flash Fiction but this time with a story, It Was There, which comes in at just over the 300 words mark. It is my second entry for the Andrew Siderius competition FFF are running. You could have one story on one theme for the 100 words category and then use the other theme (two are always set for this) for the longer word count category which is what I have done. Hope you enjoy the story.

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal again today. Good time had by both.

This doesn’t just apply to flash fiction, of course, but do ensure you keep to the right word count for competitions you enter. (This may not apply to novel competitions so much though most would be expecting a word count there of 80K to 100K words). What you don’t want is for a good story to not make the cut because of a rule infringement like that.

But I have found it pays to get the story right first and then worry about the word count. Sometimes I’ve had to put a story which is right but cannot make the word count requirement aside and save it for another competition with a higher “allowance”. It happens sometimes. But I usually do get to use that story in another place later on.


Another lovely sunny day. So nice to be out and about with the dog at the moment. She appreciates it too.

Now getting out and about in the fresh air does us good but how could you apply this to a flash fiction story? Could you get your character going out on their normal walk but with something different happening during it? How would they react to this? What would trigger the “something different”?

Equally if your character goes a different way to their normal walking route, why do they choose to do this? Are they trying to avoid something or someone? What do they notice which they might not have done had they stuck to their normal route and how would this impact them? Does it make them change their thoughts about something or someone?

Story ideas there I hope!

Fairytales with Bite – The Natural World in a Magical Setting

When your setting is a magical one, what would the “natural” world look like? Would this be considered to be any form of life which wasn’t magical in some way? Or would it be the natural backdrops against which your stories are set?

What would your magical characters make of the natural world around them? Do they care for it or treat it with contempt (and is there a natural backlash from that attitude)? Would some of your magical characters care for the natural world – I.e. they would be our equivalent of environmentalists, naturalists etc?

Would your younger characters in the equivalent of schools study their natural world or it is of little interest because it isn’t magical in itself?

Now I would say the natural world is magical in itself when you think about how beautiful it is but would your stars of your setting take the same view?

This World and Others – Environments

What kind of environments does your setting have? Are they similar to what we have? If not, how do they differ? What kind of atmosphere does your setting have? Do your characters need oxygen, water etc? If not, what do they require instead and how are these produced? Are these things produced naturally or do they have to be manufactured and if the latter how is that done?

Do your characters live in what we would consider to be a pleasant environment or is that the privilege of a few? Is your setting’s overall environment better or worse than what we have here, especially in terms of things like pollution? Has your setting been better in the past and, if so, what changed?

What would your world consider to be “science”? It is approved of by those who are magical or do they see this as being too like humanity for comfort? Could there be snobbery against science here? How would the working environment be in your setting if this is the case?

Those who are scientists as we understand the term could have a hard time indeed here in terms of being “socially acceptable” and being able to get anything they do accepted by those around them.

Environments don’t have to be comfortable!

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Relatable Characters

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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. Lovely one here and even more spring flowers emerging. Good to see. Lady enjoying the better weather too. Busy on the writing front but had a productive weekend, which always pleases me.

Facebook – General

Hope you’ve had a good day. Another lovely sunny one here.

Looking forward to going to an Association of Christian Writers Zoom session tonight. The talk sounds interesting.

Won’t be getting much writing done today due to that but I do go to these things, when they’re of interest, when I can. I see all of this as part of what you do when learning your craft, looking to develop further etc. Investment in time for your writing is seldom wasted.

Plus it will be lovely to see ACW friends online again! One of the aspects of the writing life I love is the social side to it – online and in person.

Another lovely day and Lady got to see her Rhodesian Ridgeback and Hungarian Vizler pals today so win-win all around there. How come it is the end of March already?

Author newsletter out again tomorrow. Will be looking at humour as my topic this time.

Writing Tip: You’re tired. It’s been a hectic day. (Mondays always are for me). The thought of writing much seems to fog your already tired brain. So focus instead on writing little bits.

It’s what I use Mondays for with my writing. I add bits to my newsletter, start drafting blogs and flash pieces (but with no pressure to get these things completed that same day). I see this as building up my stock of material I will complete later on.

And the funny thing? I always feel better for having written those little bits. Creativity is good for you, even in small amounts.

Another lovely sunny day with a promising week ahead. Lady and I plan to enjoy as much of that as we can. Will be “zooming” around again this week as I have an online ACW event to attend on Tuesday evening and will be hosting another ACW group on Wednesday which is one I usually go to for a good old chat about all things science fiction and fantasy related.

Will be sharing What Makes a Story Work on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday.

Author newsletter is out again on Tuesday, of course. If you would like to know more about flash fiction and discover tips and story links do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Character Thought: What is the one thing you know your character wouldn’t dream of doing in normal circumstances but you then make them face it? What would their response be? It’s absolutely fine to drop your creations in the mire! I find it great fun but this could, of course, just be me!

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Am delighted to be back on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers, with my latest post – Relatable Characters. I share thoughts on why my favourite Easter stories resonate with me and also share tips on how we can create our own relatable characters. Hope you find the post useful.

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Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

Hope the day has gone well. Nice one here.

Character Tip: In getting to know your character before writing their story up, think about what would be a nice day for them and why. What would be a horrible day and why?

Both of these things have to have a reasonable chance of happening in your story. Think further about how they would handle each type of day and what that reveals about them. There will be insights here you will be able to use in your story. Your characterisation will be deeper and better for it too.

It’s a lovely sunny Monday but it has been hectic for me and it is still Monday when all is said and done. I share Garfield the cartoon cat’s attitude towards disliking Mondays in general. Time for another story from me on YouTube then. Hope you like my latest here – Craving.

What could my character be hiding in her food shopping she really cannot explain, especially since at her age she should know better? Find out here.

Hope you are having a lovely weekend. Happy Mothering Sunday to those who celebrate. Looking forward to flash fiction Sunday as ever. It’s a nice way to wind down after a busy week and I get more stories written – win-win there!

Most of the competitions I send flash pieces into don’t count the title as part of the overall word count you’re allowed. I am always pleased about this! It helps – a lot! 

But a useful tip for those places which do count the word title as part of the overall count is to reserve three to five words for your title. If you end up using less what you have “left over” could be used for the story itself if you need that.

Hope you are having a good weekend. Pleased to be out in the garden for a bit. Mowed the lawn and kicked the football for the dog. It does make quite a sight but it keeps Lady happy and away from the lawnmower. Am sure she sees it as an outdoor vacuum cleaner (which she also still sees as “the enemy”). I had hoped she’d have grown out of that but alas no!

Looking forward to catching up with friends on Zoom later on.

Writing wise, I’m a fair way towards another flash fiction collection in terms of word count. (Don’t yet know when the third one will be out but I have had the nod on it). Have a couple of stories I want to look at tomorrow as part of my flash fiction Sunday as I have competitions in mind for these. Both stories have now had the required “rest time” so I should be able to read them as a reader would. It’s the only way I find works for me which helps me spot the flaws. Then I can do something about said flaws!

Goodreads Author Blog – Beginnings

While true every story has to have a beginning, a middle, and an end, the beginning is what writers tend to focus on because we know readers won’t get to the middle yet alone the end if the beginning doesn’t grip them enough. No pressure then!

Also many of us study classic opening lines (from say Pride and Prejudice, 1984 and many more) to help us learn our craft here.

I know what I look for in a beginning, when I am reading, is to have a sense of setting and who the lead character is likely to be. I love stories which start with dialogue as that is like eavesdropping on an interesting conversation (here I can do this legitimately!). You also get a sense of the two or more characters involved in that conversation.

Basically, there has to be something which engages my interest immediately so have that “must know what happens next” moment.

With my own stories, my beginnings are rarely exactly the same as I first drafted them. When I come back and edit I can see how I can strengthen them so I do. Every word matters. I have to look for maximum impact on a reader. Hopefully that means they go on to have a great beginning with my stories and then discover what else those tales contain.

Every writer in history has had to do this. It is why the classics are the classics. Their beginnings have stood the test of time. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if as you read this, you can think of your own favourite beginnings to stories. I’ve done so in writing this.

Of course, I don’t think you can ever beat the classic fairytale opening of Once Upon A Time. That got me into reading fairytales, fantasy, and reading in general so plenty to like there!

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Writing Progress, Word Counts and Anthologies

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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 image from the 2024 Autumn Gathering run by the Association of Christian Writers. The shot ties in nicely with my belief it is good to write first, edit later. See further down.
Hope you have had a good weekend. Lovely one here. Good weather, able to wear plimsolls and lighter coat rather than boots and heavy dog coat. Nice to see more flowers out. Plenty of stories submitted over the weekend too.

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Hope your Tuesday has gone well. Nice one here and Lady saw her Hungarian Vizler chum again.

Enjoyed a writing related Zoom last night. Looking forward to the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group meeting on Zoom later in the month. The use of Zoom was one good thing at least to come out of lockdown as it has given alternative ways of having workshops etc and I was especially glad to have these during that dreadful time.

I’m glad to continue to enjoy online and in person writing events. Certainly the Flash Fiction group couldn’t meet in person so Zoom has made more things possible writing wise which I welcome.

Hope you have had a good start to your week. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler and Rhodesian Ridgeback pals today and it has been another fine day too. So win-win all around there.

Writing wise, I’ve had a productive weekend. Got three stories off to various places. Hope to be drafting more later this week. Made progress on my long term project and I hope to get that submitted this week.

Also later this week, I need to put up a couple of blog posts for different places which are due to appear mid month roughly and latter end of the month respectively. Texts for both need editing and then I’ll create some pictures to go with them but, as with my stories, I draft the blogs and rest them. Then I can see where I need to improve things and there always is something to improve.

I never mind this. It’s the nature of writing.

Another nice day, more butterflies out, and I even spotted a very early bluebell (outside a neighbour’s place). Lady enjoyed her time in the park but this is where I am grateful she does not share one trait with my first dog, Gracie. The footballers were out today and Gracie would have wanted to go on to the pitch to join in. Lady gives them a casual glance and then resumes playing with her own ball, thank you!

Looking forward to starting flash fiction Sunday afternoon shortly plus I hope to review and send in a longer short story. Did so too!

One Liner Tip: Ideally keep short and snappy. Think character and action in one short burst, which a reader will know has to led on to something. The reaction from a reader has to be somethlng like now what? Only way to find out – read on, so they do just that to find out what does happen.

For example, how about The dragon blew but no flame emerged. I know I would want to read on to find out what happens next and what does the dragon do?

A lovely sunny day. It was nice to wear lighter clothes, a body warmer and plimsolls (instead of heavy dog coat and boots, makes such a nice change!). I also spotted my first butterfly of the year (believe it was a Cabbage White). Lady loved the weather and her time in the park too.

Writing wise, I will be sharing Writing Competition Tips on Chandler’s Ford Today next week and then after that there will be a wonderful author interview with fellow Swanwicker, Joy Wood. More details on each of these nearer the time.

Have a couple of submissions I want to get out by the end of the weekend. Am also working on a presentation for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group later this month.

Writing Tip: Think about how you can show us your characters in action, so to speak. Rather than get them to run quickly up a hill, get them to race up. You save on word count (important for flash writers especially) but raced is more definite than ran quickly. I can run quickly compared to a snail but that does not say much, I can tell you!

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Write first, edit later is one of those tips I wish I’d picked up sooner than I did especially since I now do this all of the time.

For flash especially I just get the story down, sort out any problems with it after having a break from it, and then worry about the word count. I know I have to get the story right first and then I can figure out what to do about the word count.

I often find, when I know I want to write 100 word stories, my first draft usually comes in at 150 or 160 or thereabouts. But usually better ways of phrasing things help me get that count down without losing anything important from the story.

It is the way of it though that I can’t find better ways of phrasing things until I do get that first draft down!

It’s Monday. It’s a lovely sunny one where I am but it is still Monday when all is said and done. Time for a story then, a darker one this time. Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube called Book Ends.

Is Sheila the helpless old lady she seems to be and where do her book ends come into it when she is faced with an aggressive burglar?

 

Hope the weekend has been a good one. Nice one here.

Drafted a flash piece (a 500 words maximum piece) I hope to submit next weekend. Have stories to review and send in later on.

I am looking through the Flash NANO pieces I drafted last year. One or two I’ve already polished up and sent off but hope to come back to the others in cue course. Most I know I can use.

There was only one I know for sure won’t be seeing the light of day but that’s fine. A duff piece is a duff piece. It was a good exercise to try but nothing more.

How do your characters respond to the seasons? Today has been a lovely spring day where I am and it lifts the mood. How could you use this to help your characters achieve more than they might otherwise have done? Equally can you use geographic and climate conditions to get in the way of your characters and could magic and/or science be used to make this happen deliberately?

Flash Tip: Why not write four stories about one character but set the tales in the four seasons? Compare and contrast your character’s attitude and actions due to whichever season they’re in. Could be some interesting linked flash stories here.

Goodreads Author Blog – Story Competitions and Their Anthologies

I’ve been privileged to have stories of mine win competitions and appear in anthologies as the prize. Separately, I have had work in other anthologies brought out by independent presses (as these are a great way of highlighting what they publish).

Why mention that? Simply because I want to commend anthology reading. There is the obvious reason I’m in some of course, but I have found reading these books has introduced me to authors I would not have known about otherwise.

I’ve also found reading some of those authors’ short works has encouraged me to engage with their novellas and novels but all because I discovered their work in an anthology first.

Plus I want to encourage short story reading as part of an overall reading “diet”. We celebrate stories here in all their forms so why not check out the shorter forms in a convenient book form?

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Writing Tips and Characters and Development

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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. Lovely to see some sunshine out. And more proof spring really is on its way. Lady has loved that too. Writing wise, have been submitting stories, am prepping another one for a competition, working on blogs and am working on a author interview which will be on Chandler’s Ford Today in due course. All good! Hope your week goes well.

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Another lovely sunny day and again Lady had another puppy party with her best pals. All dogs went home tired but happy. Enjoyed my swim too. Good to see more spring flowers out. And yes it is good to be reminded the natural world is far better than anything else, especially at the moment.

The other thing which is better is creative writing, of course, or indeed any form of creative art. Hats off to those who can draw anything because I can’t! Enjoying classical music more than ever at the moment – it does calm.

Writing Tip: Dialogue in fiction has to resemble natural speech but cannot be an exact replica of it. Why? Simply because we all um and ah too much and that would so boring to read in print! The odd one or two, yes, but no more.

Hope your Monday has gone well. Another lovely sunny day today and Lady got to have a puppy party with all of her best pals – the Rhodesian Ridgeback, the Hungarian Vizler, and Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. All of them had a great Monday! They had a great Tuesday too – see above!

Had a good writing weekend with plenty of work done. Looking forward to the week ahead. Creativity of any sort is good for you, I think. It makes you focus on something positive.

Plan to review a story later this week and then hope to submit it by the weekend. The story is pretty much there but a final review before submission pays off. I see this as my final, final check. Usually it is just to confirm all is okay. Occasionally I pick up an error (the lesser spotted typo!) and I can then amend it, of course. But I factor in time to allow myself to do that and this is another tip I picked up from years back which I continue to use.

Lovely sunny day. Was good to be out and about with the dog, both of us enjoying that.

I’ve picked up a lot of writing tips along the way, as you do, and most of them I still use regularly. Most transfer happily to all forms of writing such as write first, edit later. That one has been a game changer for me.

I remember trying to get each sentence right before moving on to the next and all I managed to do was hamstring myself. I found myself enjoying writing much more when I knew it was okay to write a rubbish first draft, it is what the first draft is for, and it was fine to come back and sort it out later. I’ve not looked back since.

Having enough time away from a piece before judging it properly is another tip I use constantly and again I find it pays off. You can‘t judge something properly the moment you’ve finished writing it.

I found I either I thought it was the greatest thing ever written or, much more often, this is total rubbish, neither of which was true. It was work with promise which needed tidying up, pruning etc. And many of those pieces have gone on to be published thanks to going through that process.

1st March – Newsletter
Glad to say my author newsletter went out earlier today. I know. How can it be March already? I looked at titles as my theme for this one. I sometimes use those pockets of time we all get to brainstorm ideas for title, opening lines etc. I review them later after a suitable break and write up the ones which still make me feel I have simply got to write this one up.

Writing wise, I’ll be looking at The Benefits of Writing Exercises for Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Link to go up on Friday.

Character Tip: We all have certain attitudes towards things, based on personal experience, to an extent how we were brought up, faith (or lack of) and so on. But there will be reasons behind those attitudes so what reasons do your characters have for the attitudes they have? Can anything/anyone make them think again or are they right to take the view they do? Plenty to explore there for story ideas.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Despite the news, it’s not been too bad here.

Flash Fiction Tip: Focus on the lead character and what they do because that is your story. You have to focus on what is the most important thing. I can’t give you chapter and verse in any flash tale, there isn’t the room for it, but I can show my lead character doing one particular thing and that having a pivotal impact on them.

Naturally that will make the reader react but what is fun is deciding what that reaction is likely to be and then working out how to achieve it through your character. So if I want to make a reader smile, I’ll probably get my character doing something a bit daft.

This is one reason I went for a lighthearted story on YouTube yesterday (Socks) aside from feeling we could probably do with some lightheartedness right now.

It’s Monday. It’s a cold but sunny Monday where I am but nothing takes away from it being Monday. Time for another story on YouTube from me then. Hope you like my latest here – Socks. Time for a light hearted one I think!

My character comes up with one plausible explanation for why socks go missing, though it doesn’t seem to please her husband. Find out why here.

Almost time to start my flash fiction Sunday! Have picked a random word from a generator to use as my prompt for this afternoon’s stories. I like doing this because I can often get more than one story out of one generated prompt (or any other kind of prompt come to that) and I can change the mood of the stories too. So I may end up with one funny one, another will be a deadly serious tale, and all from the one prompt. I call this a win!

I have found it to be true the more you write the more ideas come to you. I see this as working the old imagination muscle and it is fun to do. Writing exercises, as I will be talking about in my Chandler’s Ford Today post next week (The Benefits of Writing Exercises), are a great way to work that muscle and are great if you don’t know where to start with your writing. Find a set prompt and give it a go.

Hope your weekend is going well. Pleased to see more daffodils out in my garden and more crocuses emerging too. I have always loved spring but am finding it especially cheering this year to see things like this emerging and reminding me there is a better world out there – the natural one.

Looking forward to Flash Fiction Sunday afternoon – I get quite a bit done in this and it is a highlight of my writing week.

Flash Writing Tip: I find it useful to work out who my character is (broad brush strokes here). For example, I know my character is a lady of a more mature age, likes certain colours in her clothes and other colours for her handbags etc. I then work out the kinds of attitudes they are likely to have.
In this case my character is likely to hate certain colours and won’t wear them.

From there I can work out what kind of events those attitudes could lead them into. Again in this case, I could put this lady into a situation where she must wear a hated colour and cannot get out of it so how does she handle this? Good potential for humour here too but you can mix up the mood as well here.

I can decide if I am going to get a laugh out of my character or take a more serious view in getting her to see how her attitudes can cause conflicts with others and over something relatively silly too. Does she change her ways?

Goodreads Author Blog – Characters and Development

One of the things I love about reading series novels is you can see how characters develop over time. The master on this for me was Sir Terry Pratchett with his Discworld novels. The development of Sam Vimes is magnificent. Start with Guards! Guards! and work your way through to Raising Steam. Men at Arms is an excellent police procedural as well as a funny fantasy and I think it is where you see Vimes come into his own so much more.

Now for short stories and flash fiction this kind of development is harder to do because you literally have far less of a word count to do this in but it is possible. You can have linked flash fiction/short stories where the same character turns up in more than one story, for example. Each flash piece/short story must stand alone but when you read the two more more together you should be able to see how the character has developed, whether it is for good or not.

The advantage to the novel is you can see how the character develops over the course of one novel. A lot can and does happen over one book and even more in a series.

But whatever type of fiction you go for, it should be the characters who grab you and make you keep on reading. I know they do for me. I want to see how they develop and change even if I don’t always agree with how they do so.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Publication News and Character Voice

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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 had a lovely weekend. Good one here despite the weather. Managed to get some stories submitted for competitions. Hope to look at a good competition guide I have to pick others to have a try at soon. All good for encouraging the imagination.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Murky and grey again today but not as cold as yesterday. Lady and I weren’t sorry about that.

Don’t forget I’ll be interviewing the great Gill James on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday to discuss her new book, Natascha’s Story. Gill is author, editor, and publisher and is the brains behind CafeLit, Bridge House Publishing, Chapeltown Books and more.

As well as discussing writing for the younger end of the children’s market. Gill will be sharing thoughts and advice which will be useful to any writer so do check this out when the post goes out later this week.

Writing Tip: If you’re thinking of having an author newsletter, think about what you would want to see in it if you were receiving it rather than writing it. Seeing things from the viewpoint of your audience is so useful (and for your fiction and non-fiction writing elsewhere too).

As well as the content itself, think about how you would want the newsletter to look. Keep it uncluttered but with plenty of interesting things for your reader such as text boxes, bullet points, photos (suitably sourced of course so either use your own or use a free to use photo site such as Pixabay), and white space to make it a pleasure to read.

Gaps (white space) matter because what you don’t want is a huge block of text hitting your reader in the eye. Trust me, it’s off putting and won’t make readers want to read on.

Publication News – 10th February – Freedom on CafeLit
It’s a lovely start to the week for me as I have a new story up on CafeLit called Freedom. Hope you enjoy it. Find out here if Goldilocks really is a reformed character or not.

Hope the day has gone well for you. Busy one here so it is now especially nice to be back at my desk and start writing. Have a couple of stories to review this evening ahead of submitting them for competitions.

Character Tip: How do I know when I have got my character’s voice right? It’s when I can write their dialogue knowing this is exactly what they would say given the circumstances I’ve put them in. Everything rings true.

Sure, later, I’ll tidy that dialogue up as there will be things to strengthen and correct but I will know I’ve got the voice right. This is another reason why I need to know their major trait because a lot of their attitudes and therefore what would say and think comes from that.

Another grim and drizzly day. Lady and I made it around the park in record time. Even she wasn’t sorry.

Writing wise, I’m looking forward to sharing a fabulous author interview with Gill James on Chandler’s Ford Today next week. Amongst other topics, we’ll be discussing the joys and challenges behind her latest book, Natascha’s Story, which is aimed at they younger end of the children’s market. Plus Gill will be sharing wonderful writing and marketing tips plus much more besides. Do look out for this next Friday. Plenty for writers of all genres to enjoy.

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Pleased to have got stories reviewed and submitted over the weekend. This coming weekend, I hope to look through and pick a couple of other competitions to try.

Plus I will need to think about stories for competitions I usually enter soon too. With competitions coming up in May, June etc it is about now I will look through stories I’ve already drafted and check to see if any are suitable. Often I find something which is and so polish that up and send it in.

Sometimes I will think not and create something new but I do make sure I write new stories throughout the year so I always have a stock to refer to like this. I’ve found it pays (and it is lovely when I find a story which will suit a competition theme – think square peg and square hole here! Very satisfying whether or not it goes on to do anything in the competition itself. You can only give these things your best shot and you do have to be in it to have any chance of winning it).

It has been a grey murky Monday,. But I was cheered by having a story up on CafeLit today (see my other page for the link to that – see above). But of course I am also cheered whenever I share another YouTube video. Hope you like my latest on here called Proportion.

Has Glenda blown things out of proportion or have she and Dave really got a witch stuck in their chimney, broomstick and all?

 

I enjoy submitting stories regularly to Friday Flash Fiction because it has (a) got me back to writing 100 word stories regularly and (b) I like having a deadline (to be in for the following Thursday) to stick to as I find having any deadline means I am more likely to get something written and submitted. 

Competition deadlines are useful for the same reason. You know you have to meet the date to have any chance at all.

Many thanks too for the comments in on my latest story on FFF – Come Back.
It’s going to be flash fiction Saturday afternoon for me this week as I’m out at a village/church event tomorrow. I do hope the weather picks up a bit in time for that!

The challenge of flash fiction is in coming up with so many different and interesting characters. It is the bit I enjoy the most as I’ve always loved creating people for stories.

The first thing I need to know is what makes my character tick because from that I can work out whether they’ll be interesting enough to write about. It is a bit like casting the right person for the right role in a play. Get it right and it will work seamlessly. If you don’t, however, readers/audience members will find your character hard to believe/get behind. (And you as the writer will find to harder to write the story up with any enthusiasm).

When I know what makes my characters tick, I want to feel like I cannot wait to write their stories up. This is a great sign. It shows you that you do have something to work with here and you will be more inclined to get on and do it.

Certainly this has been my experience. So a little time taken out to work out the character first pays dividends, I find.

Goodreads Author Blog – Books, Books, Books

Of all the inventions created by mankind, books are one of the best. I cannot imagine a world without books. Nor do I wish to be able to do that.

Books entertain, educate, inform, can show us plenty about this world we won’t get to find out any other way (not all can travel as freely as they’d like for example), and take us to worlds which will never exist but which are fun to visit for the purposes of a story. I’m thinking Middle Earth and Discworld amongst many others for that!

I never mind about the book’s format. I just want a good story for fiction. For non-fiction I want an interesting narrative which keeps me gripped by the subject. Most of my books are paperback (my favourite format) but I cherish my hardback, audio books and ebooks just as much. All have their advantages.

I have various books I re-read during the course of a year, though for some if I have the story as a film, I will take the story in again that way. I often rewatch Hogfather by the late great Sir Terry Pratchett. I can then read another book by him or another author, having taking in a story I know I will want to take in again at the right time of year, in this case just ahead of Christmas.

But I fervently believe you have to have the books in the first place!

And if you want to check out books and authors new to you, why not check out what your local library has to offer? They are full of the most marvellous books, books, books!

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Questions, ALCS, and Publication News

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Hope you had a nice weekend. Weather was lovely on the Sunday. Pleased my snowdrops are coming out. These are always one of the first signs of spring on the way. Had a fabulous time at the pantomime last week (oh yes I did!) and am looking forward to sharing more about that on Chandler’s Ford Today on Friday. It’s a joy to support local theatre too.

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Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady had a fantastic one in that she unexpectedly got to see and play with Coco, the lovely Labradoodle. Two tired and happy dogs went home!

Writing Tip: Questions are useful for story writing.

Firstly, you can use them as a title. The fact it is a question will help intrigue readers because the story will have to answer it and there is only one way to find out if that happens – read the story.

Secondly, you can use the question as a theme for your tale so it may not appear in the text itself but you will use it as a structure to help you write it.

Thirdly, you can get your character to ask the question and then have them or another character answer it but you will see there is a structure built in right away. I like questions in stories just for that reason.

Hope Monday hasn’t been too bad. It’s not my favourite day of the week though today was okay and Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal so she was pleased.

Just a quick note to writers who have articles in magazines with an ISSN number (such as Writers’ Narrative which had its February issue come out on Friday – see link below if you missed it).

Don’t forget if you are a member of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) you can list your articles here and these will add up to what ALCS will distribute in due course. More information about who ALCS are, what they do for writers, and how you can join up can be found at their website at https://www.alcs.co.uk/

A little admin and you can earn some money from articles you write for ISSN numbered magazines so do consider this.

 

Hope you’ve had a good weekend. Nice to see some sunshine. Lady and I have appreciated it when out and about.

Writing wise, I’m planning to share a review of Cinderella as performed by the excellent Chameleon Theatre Company as my post on Chandler’s Ford Today next week. There will be a fabulous author interview the week after that.

As ever, have enjoyed a big stint writing stories as my flash fiction Sunday afternoon though some inevitably end up being longer short stories. I say inevitably because sometimes a character develops and I know I need more than 1000 words in which to explore their story properly. That’s fine. I will just find a suitable market for that story in due course.

1st February – second post

Second post from me tonight is to say I’m thrilled the new edition of Writers’ Narrative has come out and the theme is on non-fiction. I have two pieces in here. One is Writing Non-Fiction: Hints and Tips and the other is Using Fictional Techniques for Non-Fiction.

The magazine is packed full of wonderful articles and useful information but don’t just take my word for it. Check it out at the link below and remember it is free to subscribe to it. Apologies link is in twice this week but it IS a fab read. Don’t just take my word for it though!

1st February – 1st post
Two posts from me on here tonight. First up, just to say my author newsletter went out today. I was looking at the idea of using popular themes for this one. Hope you find it useful.

If you don’t already subscribe, it is easy to do so. Just head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Many thanks to all of my subscribers, your support is much appreciated.

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Pleased to say I will have a new flash fiction tale on CafeLit next week. Will share more details nearer the time.

As well as writing flash fiction, I of course, read it and am currently enjoying a wonderful book full of marvellous pieces (Flash Fiction Magazine bring out book length anthologies. Well worth a look).

Naturally, you can also check out mine at my Amazon link which is https://author.to/AllisonSymesAuthorCent

It’s Monday. It has been murky. It is cold. It is still Monday. You know what that means. It is time for a story. Hope you like my latest on YouTube – Mistaken Identity.

Stella was sure she’d recognized Mary but the woman insisted she was called Jane. But if Stella was right, Mary was in the wrong place in the wrong time and why is there a gunshot?

 

I often set exercises for the Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction Group. Some of these I prepare my answers to in advance because sometimes it is useful to see an example already laid out. Others I write my answers to on the night because I love the adrenaline rush of writing to a prompt given with little notice. I find I just want to get on with getting a story down. I know I can improve it later.

And that is the secret to these things. Don’t worry about getting it perfect. That can come later. Just get something written to the prompt. Everyone knows this is a just a very rough first draft. Nobody gets it perfect first go. That thought has cheered me a lot over the years and it still does!

Hope you have had a good day. Cold and murky but at least the dog and I didn’t get a soaking today. We always count that as a win.

Am building up a nice compilation of stories for a potential fourth flash fiction collection. Will add to that when I enjoy my usual flash fiction Sunday afternoon tomorrow!

Am currently resting a longer story for a competition but hope to review that and get that sent off in the next week or so. I so welcome email submissions. When I started out, everything had to go by post. Email for this kind of thing save so much time and money and you know for sure your story has reached its destination okay.

Having said that, every so often I receive a lovely letter in the post from a dear friend -and there is something so special about that. (You can’t beat postcards either).

Incidentally, I have sometimes used the letter format for a flash story. Why not give it a go and see what you can come up with? They’re fun to write. This format is also a great way of ensuring you do have a strong character voice because it is vital to have that to make this format work. You do have to know the kinds of things your character would come up with. But that is huge fun to work out!

Goodreads Author Blog – Watching Stories

I’ve just enjoyed watching a fabulous pantomime, Cinderella, staged by my excellent local amateur theatre company. It was a wonderful evening’s entertainment (oh yes it was!).

Most of the stories I enjoy I do take in via books of various formats – paperback, ebook etc – but there is a case to be made for watching stories on the stage, via film, and listening to them too via radio and audio books.

But watching stories I think is especially interesting. Is what you are seeing on the stage or via a film matching up with what you’ve already imagined if you’ve already read the book or story the production is based on?

For Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, the answer to that was yes. The pantomimes are faithful to the original fairytales too though they do bring in extra characters like Buttons. But nothing spoils the original story. And that matters. In an ideal world, those who don’t read much will watch stories and maybe be tempted to check the original books out. I would like to think this happens, at least sometimes.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Link shared above. Hope you enjoy the magazine.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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Creating Characters, Famous First Lines, and Writing Tips/Exercises

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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 the weekend was okay. Stormy weather here – thunder, hail, the works. Perfect weather for staying inside and getting on with the writing though. Even Lady hasn’t been sorry to get back home from her walks the last couple of days or so. Am seeing more signs of spring emerging though which always cheers me.

Facebook – General

Hope you’ve had a good day. Lady got to see her Hungarian Vizler pal today. I had a great swim but now it’s more than time to be back at the desk again.

Don’t forget my author newsletter will be out on Saturday. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Looking forward to sharing my blog post, Getting There, on More Than Writers, the blog spot for the Association of Christian Writers tomorrow.

Writing Tip: Flash fiction comes in a great range of word counts and formats up to the 1000 limit. Why not have a go at a one line story? It can be done! Here is one of mine.

Glenda, not having wish granters encroaching on her patch, thank you, and having sealed the genie back in his lamp, grinned as she kicked the wretched object into the sea.
Allison Symes – 28th January 2025

Have fun drafting one-liners like this. Sometimes you could extend them for a longer story. Equally leave them as one-liners and share on posts or via your website as extra reading for your audience (but just bear in mind they will count as being published. I only share here or via my website what I am happy not to share elsewhere).

Hope Monday hasn’t been too bad. Weather frightful. Caught in hail though thankfully it didn’t last long. Lady did manage to play with her pal Coco, the lovely Labradoodle, so that made the world all right for both of those two.

Very pleased with writing done over the weekend. Have sent a story off for consideration. Picked a story I wrote a while ago which I know could suit a competition. And I did manage to get plenty of blogging done too (to appear at future dates). Also enjoyed Flash Fiction Sunday. Will share my new piece for YouTube shortly over on my book page.  See further down.

Today I’ve completed a survey for the Society of Authors regarding my thoughts over AI. I don’t fill in every writing survey I am sent but this one definitely warranted my attention. They’re emailing all members about this so if your belong to the Society it might pay to look out for this. I saw it as a chance to have my say.

Stormy again here. Took Lady around the park in record time today and even she wasn’t sorry to get back home again. This is about as common as gold dust in these parts – I.e. not at all. Keep safe, everyone.

Looking forward to starting flash fiction Sunday soon. Plus one of my two story competition drafts I have now edited and I hope to submit this later on before turning my attention to the other one. And, yes the gap away did help me spot something which could be strengthened. The break away from a piece of work does pay off.

Busy week coming up but I am looking forward to seeing my local theatre group, The Chameleon Theatre Group, perform Cinderella later this week. That will be fun.

Hope the weekend is going okay.

Writing wise, I’ll be talking about Adaptations for Chandler’s Ford Today next week, ahead of my going to see an adaptation of Cinderella performed by The Chameleon Theatre Group. A review for that will follow. Am looking forward to doing that as the show, I know, will be such fun and I’ll enjoy writing the review because I try to convey something of that fun in the write up.

Don’t forget my next author newsletter will be out again soon. I discuss all things related to flash fiction and short stories, share tips, story links and more. To sign up do head over to my landing page at https://allisonsymescollectedworks.com

Facebook – From Light to Dark and Back Again

I need to create characters continually for my flash and short stories, though I do sometimes re-use some in linked tales. This is why I find a simple template useful for this. I can then add or take away from that template as I see fit which in itself helps me create characters who are not formulaic.

For example, for one template, I might “ask” my character what would they never want to do (and then almost certainly I would make them face having to do that thing in a story. Great drama).

For another one, I might “ask” what they find funny and what they don’t and again set them in a situation where this comes out and moves the story on. There will be consequences from what they find funny or not. I will make sure of that.

But in writing down the question to “ask” I find I have to answer it and I also get to start hearing my character’s voice in “their” response.

It’s Monday. It’s stormy. There has been hail. There has been a soggy dog walker (me!). Definitely time for a story then Hope you enjoy my latest on YouTube -Being Careful Enough.

When you go to so much trouble to make a new life for yourself on your new world, you know you can’t be careful enough. You know there are portals out there designed to drag you straight back to what you consider to be hell. Find out here how Shiraz, who decided to name herself after a grape, fights back against all attempts to drag her “home”.

Writing Thought/Exercise: Why not have something unexpected arrive in the post, yes good old snail mail, to your character? What is it? Why is it unexpected? Is the delivery a welcome one or not?

Earlier this week I had a pleasant surprise arrive on my mat – a certificate from the National Blood people enclosing my “I’m a 75 donor” certificate and badge. Will happily plug them too – if you can give blood, why not do so? Lives are changed by it (and there are story ideas here too. You could tell a tale about the donor or recipient or both.).

Sometimes with a flash piece, I start with a title (often having picked one to work up from my notes. I use pockets of time to brainstorm ideas for titles, opening lines etc. It pays. It also means I know I can always find something I am likely to want to write up). The title often gives me clues as to the kind of character needed to fit it.

Sometimes I start with a drafted opening line which then usually inspires ideas for the title and the character to fit it.

It’s not a bad thing I mix things up like this. It is good practice for competitions given some of those give you a set opening line to work with, for one thing. For another, it keeps me on my toes and it means I have more than one way into crafting a new story.

Goodreads Author Blog – Famous First Lines

Famous first lines (such as It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife – Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice) are often used to show writers how to hook your readers from the start. I like to think of it as hitting the ground running. And it I something I try to do with my flash fiction and short stories.

I know when I’m reading I want that first line to draw me in either by setting up an intriguing setting or a character whom I simply have to know more about. Only one way to do that of course – read on.

Naturally that sets a challenge to me to make sure I’m doing something similar when I’m writing. But then this is why writers do have to be good readers too. You do learn from what you read. Gives us the perfect excuse to get our heads in a book as often as possible – I like this!

Of course the best first line in the world cannot support the whole of the following story on its own – the rest has to be pretty good too – but as a way of drawing readers in, you can’t beat it. People look at book covers, the blurb, and the first line. If they like all of that, they are more likely to buy the book.

And from a reader’s viewpoint, great first lines stay with you.

WRITERS NARRATIVE SUBSCRIBER LINK

Next issue due out any moment. Hope to share in next post.

AMAZON AUTHOR CENTRAL – ALLISON SYMES

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