In many respects the story that this week’s Story Starter image suggests is obvious.
And an every day story of country folk – wait a minute, that sounds familiar! – would be welcome, as would a contemporary drama in a rural setting. (There I go again….) I don’t know if People’s Friend readers are fans of the Archers, but I do know they’re fans of the serials of Kate Blackadder, and the period farming tales we’ve featured by Pamela Kavanagh and Joanna Barnden, among others.
Oh, and while I’m in this dreel, as it were – Scots word for furrow – I’ll just put in that Pamela has another of her brilliant serials starting in next week’s issue, set in a farming community in the 1870s in Cheshire. She’s my Writer of the Week here next week, and describes the story and talks about her writing. So do pop back on Monday, won’t you?
And Kate Blackadder’s working on a new serial idea, too, set in a modern Scots farming community. More on that in due course.
Joanna? I’m prompted to make a mental note to contact Joanna because I haven’t heard from her for ages, and I really miss her stories.
A Story Worth Telling
But back to today’s image. While I appreciate that sometimes the obvious story is the one worth telling, I’m always on the look-out for the non-obvious, too. So think laterally to themes like ploughing your own furrow; sorting the wheat from the chaff; tilling the soil; sowing seeds; harvest to come, etc , etc…. Toil from dawn till dusk. A clash of cultures. Solitude. Survival.
What else does the pic suggest? You’ll think of lots of things, I know, and I’m agog to see what.
I read a story this week that had been inspired by a past pic, the bike chained up by the river, and the writer had even managed to include the puncture and the tyre iron pinging out of the cyclist’s hand into the water!
Over to you….
Shirley Blair Fiction Ed Shirley’s been with the “Friend” since 2007 and calls it her dream job because she gets to read fiction all day every day. Hobbies? Well, that would be reading! She also enjoys writing fiction when she has time, long walks, travel, and watching Scandi thrillers on TV.
