Allison Symes

About Allison Symes

I'm a published flash fiction and short story writer, as well as a blogger. My fiction work has appeared in anthologies from Cafelit and Bridge House Publishing.

My first flash fiction collection, From Light to Dark and Back Again, was published by Chapeltown Books in 2017.

My follow-up, Tripping the Flash Fantastic, was published by Chapeltown Books in 2020.

I adore the works of many authors but my favourites are Jane Austen, P.G. Wodehouse and Terry Pratchett.

I like to describe my fiction as fairytales with bite.

Verbs and Verbosity in Fiction

July 1, 2022 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credits:-

Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Screenshot taken by me, Allison Symes.

Now you might think one of these has an obvious place in any kind of creative writing and the other definitely not.

On the face of it, quite right too. Ironically, though there can be a place for some judicially placed verbosity but more on that shortly.

Verbs are, of course, part of the writer’s creative toolbox, along with the various component parts of our language. I use them to trigger story ideas. How?

Tags: am writing, character traits, characterisation, creative writing, fiction, outlining, verbosity, verbs, writing advice

Underlining in Fiction

June 24, 2022 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

What do I mean about underlining in fiction?

Simply it’s how to emphasize a point to a reader without repeating yourself. It will be as the reader looks back at the story they will realise certain points were emphasized without them being aware of it. Otherwise known as planting information!

Tags: am writing, creative writing, inference, planting clues, tips, underlining in fiction, writing advice

The Rule of Three In Fiction

June 17, 2022 By Allison Symes 4 Comments

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

The Rule of Three is a classic in all fiction. It is one of the basic building blocks for successful story writing. It’s not new. Think about Jesus talking about the parable of The Good Samaritan. Two people walk by on the other side from the poor robbed man. The third one, the Samaritan, not only stops but helps the victim.

Tags: am reading, am writing, classic fairytales. The Good Samaritan, creative writing, creativity, story structure, The Rule of Three, the three act structure

Travelling Workshops

June 10, 2022 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credits: Some images via Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Others directly from Pixabay. All other photos taken by me, Allison Symes, from the Scottish Association of Writers’ conference, the London Jesuit Centre and the Association of Christian Writers Golden Jubilee weekend.

It has been a busy year to date and we’re only up to June. Earlier in the year I was at the Scottish Association of Writers’ Conference where I ran my flash fiction workshop. I also judged their Margaret McConnell Woman’s Short Story competition.

I’ve been on my travels again recently (and am enjoying getting good use out of my railcard once again. I am the woman who bought a new railcard two weeks ahead of the first national lockdown in 2020 in good time for going exactly nowhere – oops!).

[Read more…] about Travelling Workshops

Tags: Association of Christian Writers, creative learning, creative writing, Finding Your Voice series, flash fiction workshop, The London Jesuit Centre, workshops, Worth Our Weight in Gold weekend

Settings and Simplicity in Fiction

June 3, 2022 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Setting often act like characters. Many stories wouldn’t work without their settings. It is as true for The Lord of the Rings and the Discworld series, as it is for Wuthering Heights and A Christmas Carol. Can you imagine the latter happening outside of London, for example? Writers can exploit settings to get more from their tales/characters.

Tags: am writing, characterisation, characters, clarity, creative writing, settings, simple writing

Reading, Rhythms, and Resolutions in Fiction

May 27, 2022 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Now there’s an interesting combination of topics for the letter R in my In Fiction series.

Tags: am reading, am writing, books, creative writing, reading, resolutions, rhythms, stories

Questions In Fiction

May 20, 2022 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

I use questions a lot in my storytelling and, to a certain extent, for blogs like this. How? Well, it is appropriate I set a question to start this piece!

[Read more…] about Questions In Fiction

Tags: am writing, creative writing, questions, questions as story structure, using questions to set themes and titles

Paragraphs and Punctuation in Fiction

May 13, 2022 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. One photo directly from Pixabay.

Paragraphs and punctuation may not be the most immediate things to spring to mind for the letter P in my In Fiction series but they have important roles to play in creative writing.

Tags: am writing, competitions, creative writing, grammar, house style. publishers, paragraphs, punctuation

The Dragon of Wantley – Chameleon Theatre Company – Review

May 6, 2022 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

Image Credit: Many thanks to The Chameleons for kind permission to use their pictures here. Photos of the programme taken by me, Allison Symes.

It was a pleasure to be back at Ritchie Hall in Hursley Road to watch The Chameleon Theatre Group perform their postponed pantomime, The Dragon of Wantley. This was originally due to be staged in January.

Janet and I had a wonderful evening which was full of laughs. Comedy can be a real tonic at times (as can farcical comedy which pantomime excels at) and I must admit I walked home, feeling cheered and uplifted for watching a fabulous show. After the last couple of years, a good laugh was exactly what was needed.

Tags: Chameleon Theatre productions, local theatre, pantomime, review, Ritchie Memorial Hall, The Chameleons, The Dragon of Wantley

Originality in Fiction

April 29, 2022 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Is there such a thing as original fiction? Hmm… you may think that’s an odd question for me to ask and the answer to that must be “yes”.

Tags: am reading, am writing, author voice, creative writing, fiction, finding your writing style, non-fiction, originality in fiction

Names In Fiction

April 22, 2022 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

Image Credits: Most images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. Some directly from Pixabay. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books.

Names are as important in fiction as they are to us in life. Names give us a sense of who we are. They are a major part of our identity and names can reveal so much about ourselves.

Names can indicate someone’s likely social class, whether they’re traditionalists or not, and something of their family background too. Writers can play on that to help add depth to their characterisation. Names can also indicate the genre of a book. Well, you’re not going to find the likes of Frodo Baggins turn up in a Jane Austen novel, are you?

[Read more…] about Names In Fiction

Tags: am writing, creative writing, fiction, inspiration for names for characters, naming characters, non-fiction, writing advice, writing tips

Making Characters Real In Fiction

April 15, 2022 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

It is the irony of all fiction writing that, while everyone knows the stories are made up, people want characters they can believe.

These characters must be true to life so a story writer’s job is to make their characters seem real enough that, if the situation could happen in reality, these would be the characters who would also exist in reality.

Tags: am writing, characterisation, characters, creative writing, realistic characters

Laughter in Fiction

April 8, 2022 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Laughter is one of the great joys of life and it has a huge range. This is reflected in fiction too. There are the laugh out loud stories, those wonderful moments of irony, slapstick, the great one-liners and so on. What matters in stories is that humour arises naturally out of the characters and the situations the writer has put them in (and often the greater the height from which the author has dropped their characters in it, the better).

Forcing humour never works. Something is funny or not, as the case may be. When I interviewed Fran Hill and Ruth Leigh on this topic, their insights showed how difficult writing writing humour can be though both ladies manage it magnificently despite writing in different genres. Fran writes memoir with humour. Ruth writes women’s fiction with humour.

[Read more…] about Laughter in Fiction

Tags: am reading, am writing, characterisation, creative writing, funny lines, humorous fiction, P.G. Wodehouse, Terry Pratchett

Kindness and Killing in Fiction

April 1, 2022 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

My topic this time for the In Fiction series is a study in contrasts.

Kindness and killing feature heavily in fiction, the latter particularly in the crime and horror genres. Kindness turns up in the classic fairytales and in fantasy and will often be those moments in a story when our hero/heroine has to rely on someone else to help them through a difficult time. It is that break, that help, which enables them to go on and successfully complete their quest etc.

This acts as a reminder to us that no man is an island, we all need help and kindness at times, and that kindness can reinvigorate us. Fiction should reflect that.

Tags: am reading, am writing, books, character motivations, crime, fairytales, horror, killing, kindness, kindness rewarded, stories

At The Scottish Association of Writers Conference

March 25, 2022 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credits:-

Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books/Bridge House Publishing. Photos from the Scottish Association of Writers Conference taken by me, Allison Symes.

I’ve recently returned from the Scottish Association of Writers (SAW) conference, which was held at the Westerwood Hotel, Cumbernauld from 18th to 20th March 2022.

How come a Hampshire based lass ended up here? Two reasons really:-

1. I am a member of History Writers, an online group only meeting once a month on Zoom. This group is affiliated to SAW. I gave a talk to them this month on historical flash fiction. I have written some historically based pieces, hope to do more, and have a general interest in history anyway.

2. Wendy H Jones! I know Wendy thanks to the Association of Christian Writers and she is president of SAW. She also set up the History Writers group. Now I’ve mentioned the importance of networking as you make wonderful writing friends and opportunities can arise too. Let nobody say I don’t take my own advice!

Wendy H Jones. Image kindly supplied by her.

Wendy invited me to judge one of SAW’S competitions – the Margaret McConnell Woman’s Short Story – and to run a flash fiction workshop. I was only too pleased to accept.

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Tags: Allison Symes, am writing, competition judging, flash fiction, flash fiction workshop, networking, Scottish Association of Writers, writing conference

Journeys in Fiction

March 18, 2022 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credits: Some images directly from Pixabay. Other images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos and one photo from Allison Symes.

This post is timely because by the time this goes out I will be up in Scotland again for the Scottish Association of Writers’ Conference. I’m running a flash fiction workshop there and have judged one of their competitions (the Margaret McConnell Woman’s Short Story).

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I hope to interrupt my In Fiction series to report back on how things went soon. And yes I loved the train journey (Waterloo, King’s Cross, Edinburgh, Croy) – the scenery on much of the route is amazing. It’s the second time I’ve been up to Scotland in the last few months as I was at the Brechin and Angus Book Festival back in November.

[Read more…] about Journeys in Fiction

Tags: am reading, am writing, characterisation, creative writing, internal journeys, journeys in fiction, point of change, questions

Imagery In Fiction

March 11, 2022 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Book cover images supplied by Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing.

They say that a picture is a thousand words but don’t discount those words. For one thing, one thousand words is a flash fiction story! An artist paints with oils, watercolours etc., whereas a writer paints with words. And those words can make a powerful impact on readers.

By inventing characters readers can identify with, we can use those characters to convey deep truths in what we get them to say and how we get them to act. We can also use those characters as representations. Allegorical tales are the classical example of this.

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Tags: am reading, am writing, book covers, fiction, imagery, painting with words, red herrings, specific details

Human Behaviour In Fiction

March 4, 2022 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

One aspect of fiction, whatever its genre or length, is it does reflect on our behaviour. It isn’t flattering either, most of the time. The classic fairytales, for example, call evil out for what it is and the kind of evil shown in them (such as cruelty to step children) is something we see only far too often for real.

Stories tell us what we know. Even in the most fantastical of settings, there will be something we can identify with (otherwise, why would we read such things?).

And human behaviour is the direct reason for any story. We use stories to try to make sense of the world we know (and perhaps more than ever in crisis times such as the one we’re going through now with the situation in Ukraine).

Tags: am writing, big themes, characters, creative writing, fairytales, fiction, heroes, human behaviour in fiction, stories, villains

Geography in Fiction

February 25, 2022 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

Geography may seem unglamorous but it plays a major role in many great stories. The Lord of the Rings would not work without its geography of The Shire, Rohan, Gondor and, of course, Mordor. (I’ve always loved the map at the start of the book too).

Wuthering Heights wouldn’t be the same without its geography and The Hound of the Baskervilles would not work nearly so well if the story wasn’t set in a bleak setting (to intensify the mystery as to what the hound is given it’s easier to hide something monstrous on a moor!).

[Read more…] about Geography in Fiction

Tags: am reading, am writing, changing role of geography in fiction, cli-fi. fiction, geographical impact on stories, geography in fiction, implying setting, settings

Frameworks in Fiction

February 18, 2022 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Some images directly from Pixabay.

The definition of framework is an essential supporting structure of a building, vehicle, or object. Well, that can be extended out to include stories. They need a structure to make them work.

Tags: am writing, creative writing, fiction, frameworks, planning your writing

Allison Symes

About Allison Symes

Image Credits:-

Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

Screenshot taken by me, Allison Symes.

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Image Credits: Some images via Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Others directly from Pixabay. All other photos taken by me, Allison Symes, from the Scottish Association of Writers’ conference, the London Jesuit Centre and the Association of Christian Writers Golden Jubilee weekend.

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Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. One photo directly from Pixabay.

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Image Credit: Many thanks to The Chameleons for kind permission to use their pictures here. Photos of the programme taken by me, Allison Symes.

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Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

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Image Credits: Most images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. Some directly from Pixabay. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books.

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Image Credits:-

Some images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Book cover images from Chapeltown Books/Bridge House Publishing. Photos from the Scottish Association of Writers Conference taken by me, Allison Symes.

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Image Credits: Some images directly from Pixabay. Other images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos and one photo from Allison Symes.

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Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Book cover images supplied by Chapeltown Books and Bridge House Publishing.

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Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

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Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Some images directly from Pixabay.

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