Born from a serendipitous mix of friendships, shared passions, and a touch of spontaneity, Friday Ink Collective is a vibrant group of six writers united by the Friends Who Write competition. The collective began when Alpin stumbled across an ad in a Bloomsbury bookshop, sparking the idea of forming a team. Connections quickly grew: Alpin and Simge’s longstanding friendship from university, Bella and Izzy’s bond from their own studies, and Lexy and Tilly joining via a Queer Filmmakers WhatsApp group.

Meet the team members: Bella Thompson, Izzy, Lexy, Pino, Simge, and Tilly Upton

The Origin of Friendship

Friday Ink Collective is a true rag-tag-thrown-together group. Alpin and Simge have been friends since University, and both moved from Turkey to London, where Simge met her partner, Lexy. Similarl,y Izzy and Bella are friends from University. After Alpin found an ad for Friends Who Write in a Bloomsbury bookshop, thoughts began about who could be in a group. Lexy posted about it in a Queer Filmmakers WhatsApp group, where Bella got in touch, as well as the 6th and final member of the group, Tilly. Learning more about the competition and sharing a love for creating, Friday Ink Collective was born in a WhatsApp group on 24th October, and so far, we’ve managed to encourage each other, share work and (hopefully) have an in-person drink session in the works soon!

Behind the Name

Discussions about a potential name came about quickly; going back to the romanticism of ‘writing’, we wanted a name that captured the spirit of what we were trying to do. Our minds immediately went to pen and paper. With a bit of brainstorming, googling synonyms and some prompts from our favourite A.I. friend, we landed on the name Friday Ink Collective, as it perfectly captured the sense of community, creativity and that ever-looming Friday deadline we’ve come to know, love and fear!

Writing Roadmap

  • Lexy — I have little planned for what I’m writing week by week, but for me, that’s the main joy of this process. Areas I’m interested in are mostly fictional storytelling and queer stories. I’m excited to see what I come up with week-by-week as, so far, it’s been very unpredictable and an exciting way to write. Read her recent submission here: Death Row: 52 (Part 1)
  • Bella — I’m hoping to use the platform as a jumping-off point for some scripts I want to write, workshopping different ideas and exploring characters more through the stories I write 🥳🙂‍↕️ Read her recent submission here: Morning, bus journey
  • Simge — I’m an engineer working in corporate. Writing is a way for me to connect with my brain and process things; that’s why I love writing personal things and hope they will resonate with people! Read her recent submission here: My Inner Frenemy
  • Tilly — to explore people’s behaviour patterns and what makes us, us, which is pretty much the theme of all y work. Read her recent submission here: The Appeal of Fear: Understanding the Popularity of Horror and True Crime in Times of Anxiety
  • Alpin — to make sense of what’s going on around the world and in my own life. To create the links between my feelings and real-life events. Read her recent submission here: Would You Leave Omelas?
  • Izzy — I am hoping the structure of the friends who write journeys and being in a team to be held accountable will push me to publish my work and finish pieces rather than always having loose ends and avoiding projects. I want to use the process to try writing whatever genre or topic I feel and let myself loose to explore fiction and nonfiction. Read her recent submission here: I confess to being a mess (no, seriously).

This team spotlight was co-created by all team members and edited by Julia and Wanshu.