For writers, time = place | JPF Daily


Hello Reader

An author I'm working with is writing a book about - whatever. (The subject of the book is not the point of this post.)

We have been discussing a period early in his career that could be very important to the book.

ARCHIVED EMAIL: links may no longer work, facts may have changed.

Periods of time, in a story, are often linked to particular places. And this author, once upon a time (see what I did there), had a job in Soho.

Specifically, at a place called House of Sandwiches:

It closed long ago, but the place hasn't been wiped off the face of the earth, so we went for a walk on Google Streetview to soak up the atmos.

If you are writing about a particular time, you may also be writing about a particular place. And if you're writing about a place, you too might like to tootle around on Streetview.

I challenge you to do it right now. Think of a place that is important to you. It might be a place you know well already. It might be a place you don't know at all (yet).

Then click this link to open Streetview, and search for that place. What do you notice?

If you can't work out how to go from the "map view" to Streetview, you can watch me do it here.

Till next time.

JPF


Writer Mentoring

Writing is easier when you don't do it alone.
To help you get your book done, fast, I'll read up to 5,000 words each... Read more

​

​

John-Paul Flintoff

📖 7 Books in 16 languages 📚 including: How To Change The World A Modest Book About How To Make An Adequate Speech.

Read more from John-Paul Flintoff

Hello Reader Greetings from Umbria in Italy, where I’m working this week with my friends at The Idler Academy. As usual I’m drawing pictures, in intervals between sessions teaching rhetoric and impro. But im also thinking of Special Projects members, of whom there are several new one this month. Hello!, members new and not-new. Thank you for putting your trust in me. I’m writing this email on my iPad, and have a strong suspicion it may raise as many new questions as it answers old ones. If...

Last anti-depressant in the last box

Hello Last week, without giving it a lot of thought, I posted on Instagram a photo of the last pill in my last packet of anti-depressants. I'd originally taken the photo, and marked it up, as a kind of mini-celebration to share with people in my house. Obviously (?), I felt a bit exposed sharing this on Instagram, but why the heck not. After all, I’ve posted all kinds of things about having been mentally fragile in the past. Indeed, I've stood in front of huge numbers of strangers in busy...

Hello Reader Recently (*in the summer), I invited a handful of splendid individuals who happen to read this newsletter to give me one item of news - something on their mind - in ONE sentence beginning with their full name. I insisted there was no hierarchy of significance or mood, and was delighted to receive the following, some of which may be out of date by the time you read this: (Click on the links, where they are supplied, to find out more about the various splendid individuals.) Tracie...