Shutterstock / 13_Phunkod©“The People’s Friend” Writing Hour is held every Tuesday at 11 a.m. on Twitter and it’s always a brilliant time! It’s a time when we can get together with writers for a chat.
Every week we summarise everything that went on for those who missed out.
This week we chatted about over-hyped books, literary travel and fictional detectives.
How are you today? How is the weather? What is your favourite weather-related song?
Thankfully, it’s cooling down for most people and we’re starting to see some much-needed rain. We had thunderstorms in Dundee on Sunday!
Have you ever started writing in the middle section of a story and then worked on the beginning and the end?
It’s always interesting to read about how people approach stories from different angles.
Some start at the beginning, some at the end. Others said that they have started with a scene in the middle and worked around it.
A few of you mentioned that a scene in the middle eventually became the beginning of the story.
Not really, but sometimes I’ve realised that I have started the story in the wrong place. So the middle has ended up being the beginning.
— Alison Wassell (@lilysslave) August 16, 2022
This is a really good tip. Sometimes, it takes a while to warm up to writing a story.
On editing you might find that you can cut the beginning and that the story really begins somewhere further along once you hit your stride.
Which book did everyone else rave about, but you didn’t actually like?
Reading is so subjective. Even the most mainstream books, books that have received prestigious awards and ‘canonical’ classics will be unreadable for some.
That’s part of what makes a discussion about books interesting and surprising!
Have you read about a town or city in a book, then actually visited that location?
It turns out that this is something a lot of you like to do!
Based on your answers, I put together a list of literary inspired holiday ideas.
Bath – Persuasion by Jane Austen
Edinburgh – The Prime Of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
Ambleside, The Lake District – Fell Farm series by Marjorie Lloyd
Oxford – Inspector Morse series by Colin Dexter
Whitby and Carpathians – Dracula by Bram Stoker
London – Walks Through Regency London by Louise Allen
Cephalonia – Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières
Frenchman’s Creek, Cornwall – Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier
Venice – Miss Garnet’s Angel by Sally Vickers
Raasay – Hallaig by Somhairle MacGill-Eain
Pompeii – The House With The Golden Door by Elodie Harper
Italy and France – After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
Rome – Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Now, this is a literary world tour I’d love to go on!
What’s your good writing/reading news this week?
We love hearing about your latest successes. There was lots of good news this week, including:
A5. Last week, I got a short story acceptance from The Friend. It was actually inspired by a writing prompt during this twitter hour 🙂 #PFWritingHour
— Kitty-Lydia Dye (@KittyLydiaDye) August 16, 2022
A poem published in PF special, been too hot to edit, so have been jotting notes and creating new poetry, also worked on designing crochet creatures.
— Angie Keeler (@keelerangie) August 16, 2022
If a crime had been committed in your town, which fictional detective would you like to investigate it?
We had four runners-up with three votes each – Hercule Poirot, John Rebus, Frank Columbo and Jimmy Perez.
But the detective in highest demand is . . . Miss Marple, of course!
We would LOVE to see how this team of world-class detectives might work together . . .
We’ll see you at our next Writing Hour on Twitter — 11 a.m. on Tuesday 23 August, 2022.
Or click here to see our previous roundups.
Abigail Phillips Abbie is the newest member of the fiction team at the "Friend." She loves how varied the role is - every day is different and there is always a new story to read. She is keen to work closely with established writers and discover new writers, too.
