Behind The Scenes: Our First Twitter Chat


Every day’s a school day, as they say. Well, I’ve had a school day today.

Some of you joined us this morning from 11 till 12 for our first #PFWritingHour – a Twitter chat.

It was something very new for me. I even had to pop over to our digital guru Karlie’s desk just now to find out if that’s the right thing to call it. Seems it is, so look how much I’ve learned already!

Have you ever taken part in one of them? I hadn’t. To be honest I don’t spend much time on Twitter, so I’m not very good at it. But the Fiction Team’s Tracey is quite the Twitter queen, so between her and Karlie, they kept me right. And Alan joined in, too, of course.

The team’s Lucy couldn’t this time. She was off on a training course, having her own school day learning about Excel spreadsheets….

Why? Well, lots of reasons. We need to keep track of loads of information as your stories pass across our desks, and have a number of different spreadsheets that help us keep on top of everything. We are very well organised.

Our first Twitter chat Hour

But back to this morning’s event. I didn’t know what to expect. One or two people joining in? Dozens? Hundreds?

It started quietly with our first question: What made you become a writer? And the replies that came back were lovely. Mostly they were about always having wanted to. That’s something I know I can identify with, and it was great that it struck the same chord with so many.

Others had always loved reading and wanted to have that same impact.

We talked about inspirational writers, writing ambitions, writing success … It was a good fun thing to do, and we’ll be back next week.

Same time, same place. See you there?

Follow us on Twitter @The FriendMag for this writing hour and much, much more!

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.

Behind The Scenes: Our First Twitter Chat

Every day’s a school day, as they say. Well, I’ve had a school day today.

Some of you joined us this morning from 11 till 12 for our first #PFWritingHour – a Twitter chat.

It was something very new for me. I even had to pop over to our digital guru Karlie’s desk just now to find out if that’s the right thing to call it. Seems it is, so look how much I’ve learned already!

Have you ever taken part in one of them? I hadn’t. To be honest I don’t spend much time on Twitter, so I’m not very good at it. But the Fiction Team’s Tracey is quite the Twitter queen, so between her and Karlie, they kept me right. And Alan joined in, too, of course.

The team’s Lucy couldn’t this time. She was off on a training course, having her own school day learning about Excel spreadsheets….

Why? Well, lots of reasons. We need to keep track of loads of information as your stories pass across our desks, and have a number of different spreadsheets that help us keep on top of everything. We are very well organised.

Our first Twitter chat Hour

But back to this morning’s event. I didn’t know what to expect. One or two people joining in? Dozens? Hundreds?

It started quietly with our first question: What made you become a writer? And the replies that came back were lovely. Mostly they were about always having wanted to. That’s something I know I can identify with, and it was great that it struck the same chord with so many.

Others had always loved reading and wanted to have that same impact.

We talked about inspirational writers, writing ambitions, writing success … It was a good fun thing to do, and we’ll be back next week.

Same time, same place. See you there?

Follow us on Twitter @The FriendMag for this writing hour and much, much more!

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