Allison Symes's Blog - Posts Tagged "letters-as-a-writing-device"
Books Of Letters
I love books of letters. I have books of letters by Evelyn Waugh (his own and those he exchanged with Nancy Mitford) and P.G. Wodehouse on my shelves (real and electronic). Yes, the letters do shed insights into the writing life which are fascinating and useful.
I also have a book of letters by Jane Austen and I must finish reading that so this post has proved useful in reminding me to do so!
I do so wish Agatha Christie had done this though. Am sure her letters would have been insightful. Having said that her The Moving Finger does have its plot focus around a string of poison pen letters so she brought them into her fiction at least!
What I like about letters are they do show something of the writer and the recipient. I’ve made use of this as a wiring technique in my Punish The Innocent (From Light to Dark and Back Again).
Good fun to do and it makes for a freshing change of story format but one I think best done sparingly. You do have to have strong characters to carry this off successfully.
Maybe that is why more writers haven’t produced books of their letters. They would rather get their characters to show you something of themselves rather than of the writers themselves.
What do you think?
I also have a book of letters by Jane Austen and I must finish reading that so this post has proved useful in reminding me to do so!
I do so wish Agatha Christie had done this though. Am sure her letters would have been insightful. Having said that her The Moving Finger does have its plot focus around a string of poison pen letters so she brought them into her fiction at least!
What I like about letters are they do show something of the writer and the recipient. I’ve made use of this as a wiring technique in my Punish The Innocent (From Light to Dark and Back Again).
Good fun to do and it makes for a freshing change of story format but one I think best done sparingly. You do have to have strong characters to carry this off successfully.
Maybe that is why more writers haven’t produced books of their letters. They would rather get their characters to show you something of themselves rather than of the writers themselves.
What do you think?
