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What You Need to Know About Character Creation

April 18, 2025 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos

As I write a lot of flash fiction and short stories, I need to create a lot of characters. I do re-use some but not many compared to the numbers I’ve created in total. My characters often have one story in them, though occasionally one may play a “bit part” role in another tale.

For me, any good story of whatever length is all about what happens and, specifically, what happens to the lead character. I must know what happens to them. I must care about what happens too, even if they’re a villain and I am hoping their evil plans will fail. I also need to know whose story it is.

Tags: am reading, am writing, character attitudes, character creation, characterisation, creating characters, creative writing, dialogue, fiction, flash fiction, positive and negative sides to traits in characters, short stories, situations, what you need to know when creating characters

What Makes A Story Work

April 4, 2025 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credits: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images

You take in what makes a story work subconsciously. Even as a child, when I read the classic fairytales, I knew on the third time of something occurring, there would be a different result leading to the happy ever after ending. I had no idea that was the Rule of Three in action. I just knew if this didn’t happen, there was something wrong with the story. I also knew early on I had to want to find out what happened to the characters so there had to be something interesting about them to grab my attention (and just as importantly keep my attention going).

Tags: am reading, am writing, beginnings middles and ends, creative writing, description, dialogue, fiction, keeping the reader interested, learning from what you read, understanding characters, what makes a story work

The Writer’s Wish List

February 28, 2025 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credit: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos, with some directly from Pixabay.

Picture the scene. You discover this dodgy lamp. You polish it. A genie appears and grants you the ability, as a writer, to create your own wish list. You can have five items on it. Better still, all of those wishes will be granted. The only rule here is no wish should be harmful. You think fair enough and then compile what you would wish for.

So what would I choose and why?

Tags: AI and creative writing, am reading, am writing, handling rejections, learning your writing craft, useful writing information, writer's wish list, writing journey, writing scams, writing sources

Making the Most of Your Writing Time

January 17, 2025 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

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

Making the most of writing time is always a timely topic. Every writer will have their own answer to this.

Tags: am reading, am writing, creative writing, making the most of your writing time, planning your writing, productivity

Story Tips

January 3, 2025 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

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

I catch up with a lot of stories during the Advent and Christmas periods but not always via books (of any format).

[Read more…] about Story Tips

Tags: am reading, am writing, characters, creative writing, learning your writing craft, story writing tips, writing advice

New Year, New Writing Hopes

December 27, 2024 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credits: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, as were the two photos from The Hayes, Swanwick from 2024.

I know it is a little early but Happy New Year to you all. I hope 2025 proves to be a good year. It would be nice to have less grim news but I think that may be something I will have to put on a wish list somewhere.

Tags: am reading, am writing, Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group, editing, evaluating your writing, Happy New Year, having a writing agenda, new writing year, story competition judging, The Writers' Summer School - Swanwick, the writing journey, workshops

Bridge House Publishing Celebration and Broadcasting News

December 20, 2024 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credits:-

One image created in Book Brush using a photo taken by Lynn Clement and a screenshot taken by me, Allison Symes. Other images from the Bridge House Publishing Celebration Event were taken by Debz Hobbs-Wyatt, Lynn Clement, and me, Allison Symes. One image from CFT archives. Two other images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos.

It’s a lovely way to finish my Chandler’s Ford Today posts for Christmas by sharing festive related writing news.

Tags: Allison Symes, am reading, am writing, Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group, author update, Bridge House Publishing Celebration event, Christmas story by Allison Symes, festive flash fiction, Friday Flash Fiction Christmas Competition, Hannah Kate, networking, North Manchester FM, Tact by Allison Symes, The Best of CafeLit 13, Theodore Bullfrog, Three Minute Santas flash fiction show

What I Look For In A Good Story

December 13, 2024 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

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

Everyone has their own tastes in books and stories, of course. The publishing and literary world would not be so interesting and extensive if we all read the same thing. Genres would disappear and creative imagination would be limited to whatever it was we all read. But there are elements in books and stories which cross all genres. These are the things I look out for whenever I read any kind of story, regardless of its word count.

Tags: am reading, am writing, books, characters, flash fiction by Allison Symes, gripping reads, long fiction, plots, short fiction, stories

Behind The Curtain with Anita D Hunt

September 27, 2024 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credits:-

Many thanks to Lynsey Adams for supplying book cover, blog tour, and author pics. Many thanks to Anita D Hunt for supplying images from Cornwall relating to Behind The Curtain. Images of Anita from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, were taken by Keith Hinchy. Other Swanwick images were taken by me, Allison Symes, as was the screenshot of Anita’s fascinating memory workbooks. Other images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images with some directly from Pixabay.

It is with great pleasure I welcome debut novelist and fellow Swanwicker, Anita D Hunt, to Chandler’s Ford Today. Anita’s novel, Behind the Curtain, is a domestic noir published by SpellBound Books.

The novel was launched at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick following its release in paperback on 2nd August. Anita had the joy of signing copies in the Book Room, almost literally hot off the press.

Tags: am reading, am writing, Anita D Hunt. Behind The Curtain, author inspiration, blurbs, book blog tours, book launch, Cornwall Writers, creating characters, crime fiction, domestic noir, Lynsey Adams, marketing, Reading Between The Lines Book Vlog, Spellbound Books, The Writers' Summer School - Swanwick, themes, writing groups, writing journey

Swanwick 2024

August 23, 2024 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credits:-

Many thanks to Jen Wilson, Penny Blackburn, Val Penny, Keith Hinchy, and June Webber for images from Swanwick. Other images from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, were taken by yours truly, Allison Symes. Other images created in Book Brush using my photos.

When this post goes out, I will be back home, having recently enjoyed another lovely week at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, which is based at The Hayes, Derbyshire. This week sees me immersed in the world of writing, which is just one of many reasons I adore going. It is also the place from where the only German prisoner of war from World War Two successfully escaped and fled back to Germany.

On the writing front, delegates are free to choose which courses and workshops they go to and there is a wide range of topics to choose from too. There is something to suit everyone, no matter where they are at in their writing journeys.

There are four part and two part courses to choose from, as well as the one hour workshops, plus I find I always learn something useful, as well as enjoying being entertained, by the after dinner guest speakers, who are all renowned in their fields.

[Read more…] about Swanwick 2024

Tags: am reading, am writing, Continuing Professional Development, courses, creative writing, networking, residential writing school, The Hayes, The Writers' Summer School - Swanwick, workshops

Having a Superpower

June 14, 2024 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

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

I run a monthly Zoom workshop on flash fiction writing for the Association of Christian Writers. It is great fun to do and the online aspect helps so much as the members live several hundreds of miles apart so we could never get together in person.

I usually set a monthly theme and then set exercises based on that. Sometimes I will prepare an answer to an exercise to show as an example but most of the time I will write on the night of the meeting with the other members.

[Read more…] about Having a Superpower

Tags: am reading, am writing, Association of Christian Writers Flash Fiction group, creative writing, limiting character powers and why, live writing, problems with fictional superpowers, setting writing exercises, superpowers, writing exercises

History – Fact and Fiction

April 19, 2024 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credits:-

Images created via Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Some images directly from Pixabay. My book cover image from Chapeltown Books.

Earlier this month, I had the great pleasure and privilege of presenting to an online history group a PowerPoint on Josephine Tey (author of The Daughter of Time) and Philippa Langley (co-author, with Michael Jones, of The Search for Richard III: The King’s Grave, and, more recently, The Princes in the Tower, where she is sole author).

Tags: Agent ZigZag, am reading, am writing, Ben Macintyre. Operation Mincemeat. Double Cross, checking research, historical fiction, historical non-fiction, history, Josephine Tey, making history interesting, Philippa Langley. The Princes in the Tower. historical flash fiction, research, The Daughter of Time

New Year, New Writing Format for Val Penny

January 12, 2024 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Writers often mix up their writing formats. It keeps us versatile and is fun. It is fabulous for readers too.

One author who has done this again recently is Scottish crime writer, Val Penny, who is best known for her DCI Hunter Wilson series (also called the Edinburgh Crime Mysteries). Her latest book, Hunter’s Christmas and Other Stories, is Val’s first collection of short stories. It stars her lead character but also others, including characters new to Val herself.

Tags: am reading, am writing, changing writing format, Hunter's Christmas and Other Stories, new short story collection, novels, publication news, short stories, Spellbound Books, Val Penny

Approaching A New Year

December 29, 2023 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

Image Credits:-

Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Screenshot of December 2023 Writers’ Narrative magazine taken by me, Allison Symes, as were the photos from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Images of me at the Book Fair at The Hilt taken by Richard Hardie – thanks, Richard. Many thanks to Julia Pattison for the photo of me at my editing workshop in Swanwick in August 2023.

First and foremost, may I start by wishing you all a Happy New Year.

How do you approach a new year? I think it is safe to say, given how 2020 turned out, many of us may approach the new time period with some trepidation. I know I do. But if I look at this from writing and reading viewpoints, the outlook is far more sunny!

Tags: Allison Symes, am reading, am writing, author news, new writing and reading year, New Year, reassessing goals, The Book Fair at The Hilt, The Writers' Summer School at Swanwick, Writers' Narrative, writing goals

Triggering Writing Ideas

November 17, 2023 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credits: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. One image directly from Pixabay.

As I write a lot of flash fiction and short stories, as well as posts like this, I always need to find ways of coming up with ideas. It is also sensible to have a variety of methods to find ideas because (a) it keeps things interesting for you as the writer and (b) you don’t run the risk of becoming stale.

Why the latter? If you only use one or two methods to trigger ideas, at some point you will find the well you draw from dries up! Your wells of inspiration need to be topped up continually and using different ways to come up with ideas helps with that. Also this approach gives you spare wells! That to my mind is always a good idea in itself. It also keeps you on your creative toes, which is another good thing.

Tags: am reading, am writing, competitions, creative writing, Flash NANO, prompt books, prompts, random generators, reading, triggering writing ideas

Stories Based On Stories

November 3, 2023 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credits: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay images. Images of book covers from Bridge House Publishing. Many thanks to Dawn Kentish Knox and Paula R C Readman for their images of me at previous Bridge House Publishing Celebration events. Am looking forward to trying to get some more photos – the event is a great way to celebrate books out.

I was sorry to hear The Chameleon Theatre Group had to cancel their production of Terry Pratchett’s Wyrd Sisters (based on the play written by Stephen Briggs who wrote the Discworld plays with Terry Pratchett’s blessing).

As well as looking forward to seeing my first Discworld play, I was especially looking forward to this story as it is a strong one and a classic example of a wonderful tale based on another one. Wyrd Sisters is based on Shakespeare’s Macbeth but with the Discworld version, it is the witches (Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick) who are the heroines.

Tags: am reading, am writing, books as inspiration, creative writing, stories based on other stories, why writers write

Scene Setting

October 27, 2023 By Allison Symes 4 Comments

Image Credits: Most images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Northumberland photo taken by me, Allison Symes. Images of my book covers from Chapeltown Books.

Scene setting is one of the invisible “tools” a writer uses to make a convincing story though it can apply to non-fiction work too. What it involves is working out what a reader needs to know and then figuring out the best way of getting that across.

[Read more…] about Scene Setting

Tags: am reading, am writing, creative writing, description to set scenes, dialogue to set scenes, locations to set scenes, scene setting, writing advice

Author Interview: Jennifer C Wilson – The Joy of Writing Groups and Workshops

October 20, 2023 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credits:-

Many thanks to Jennifer C Wilson for author/book/writing circle pictures. Other images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Screenshots and images from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick taken by me, Allison Symes.

It is with great pleasure I welcome back Jennifer C Wilson to Chandler’s Ford Today. Jennifer is the writer of the Kindred Spirits series which crosses history with ghost stories. She also writes historical and romantic fiction (The Warrior’s Prize, The Last Plantagenet amongst others) and has written non-fiction book too (A Novel Approach). She has also contributed to many anthologies.

Jennifer also runs a writing group – the North Tyneside Writers’ Circle (NTWC) – so for this post, we will look at the joys and hard work behind doing that and why groups can be so beneficial to writers, regardless of where they are “at” in their writing journey. There is also a National Association of Writers’ Groups – individuals as well as groups can join. I share the link further down.

Tags: am reading, am writing, Black Coals White Sand, contributing to a writing group, creative writing, Jennifer C Wilson, Kindred Spirits, making the most of a writing group, North Tyneside Writers' Circle, workshop preparation, workshops, writing development, writing exercises, writing group anthologies, writing groups, writing support

The Writing Community

October 6, 2023 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

Image Credits:-

Most images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Many thanks to Julia Pattison for taking the image of me at my editing workshop at The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick. Many thanks to Wendy H Jones for supplying the Writers’ Narrative image (which I’ve added text to). Screenshot taken by me, Allison Symes.

One of the joys of the writing community is it is supportive. Given most of the time you are at your desk, writing alone, having your fair share of rejections or not hearing back on competition entries and so on, that support is wonderful and vital. We all need a lift at times.

As well as writing events and conferences, which are fabulous ways to get to know other writers, there are a number of writing communities online. There are monthly groups which meet up in person such as the Hampshire Writers’ Society, which meets in Winchester.

Tags: advice, Alliance of Independent Authors, am reading, am writing, Continuing Professional Development, Hampshire Writers' Society, networking, the writing community, tips, Writer Beware, writing scam information

Quizzing Your Characters

September 29, 2023 By Allison Symes 2 Comments

Image Credits:-

Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Screenshot re Hannah Kate’s Hannah’s Bookshelf show on North Manchester FM was taken by me, Allison Symes.

I can guess what you’re thinking. How can you quiz characters, which are literally figments of my imagination?

Fair point but I find it a useful way to work out what my characters are made of before I put them into a story. I need to know who they are before I work out what they’re going to be getting up to in my flash fiction or short stories.

Tags: am reading, am writing, characterisation, interviewing characters, outlining, pantsers, planning your characters, plotters, working out what you need to know about your characters

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Image Credits: Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Screenshots taken by me, Allison Symes, as were the two photos from The Hayes, Swanwick from 2024.

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Many thanks to Jen Wilson, Penny Blackburn, Val Penny, Keith Hinchy, and June Webber for images from Swanwick. Other images from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick, were taken by yours truly, Allison Symes. Other images created in Book Brush using my photos.

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Images created via Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Some images directly from Pixabay. My book cover image from Chapeltown Books.

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Image Credits: Most images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Northumberland photo taken by me, Allison Symes. Images of my book covers from Chapeltown Books.

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Many thanks to Jennifer C Wilson for author/book/writing circle pictures. Other images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Screenshots and images from The Writers’ Summer School, Swanwick taken by me, Allison Symes.

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Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Screenshot re Hannah Kate’s Hannah’s Bookshelf show on North Manchester FM was taken by me, Allison Symes.

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