How I Write

Key elements of the process

What's the secret to being a writer? Where do your ideas come from? What are your habits and rituals, your tricks of the trade?

The simple truth is that writing is both easy and hard. Easy in that, as Terry Pratchett once said, it's indoor work with no heavy lifting; but hard because what's in your head has to make it to the page, and in a way that will engage a reader – make them feel something as they read. And that's not necessarily easy to do. A good day's writing feels triumphant. A bad day will see you going over the same handful of sentences again and again, trying to make them work, and failing.

The single most important tool in the writer's kit is, I think, to be determined enough to write regularly: every day if possible. It's also worth remembering that even a bad day's writing can be improved when you rewrite, and that, as Hemingway told us, rewriting is central. No-one nails it on the first try, and rewriting should be the second tool in the kit.

Beyond that, I think it's about listening to and following your characters – something I talk more about in some of the blog entries and in the newsletter. For me, characters are far more important than plot.

A word after a word after a word is power

Margaret Atwood
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  • Find your time

    For me, mornings work best for writing; evenings for reading and rewriting. You may be a morning person or a night owl and it doesn't matter, so long as you find the right time and make it your own.

  • Clear your space

    Whether it's the room around you or the distractions on your laptop screen, the world outside the story tends to pry at your attention. So far as possible, make yourself a clear, distraction-free writing space. It doesn't have to be big, it just has to allow you to be in the world of the story.

  • Coffee is your friend!

    Or at least, it's mine. A really serious cup of coffee in the morning makes a surprising difference: that looming deadline? That intractable plot problem? Coffee's there to help.

Let me live, love, and say it well in good sentences

Sylvia Plath

Tools of the trade

What I use day in, day out

MacBook Pro

The window onto my world

I love the romance of longhand writing: a pen nib on thick paper, the smell of ink. But the truth is that I write everything on my MacBook. For screenplays, it's vital; and for novels it helps me to see the words as if they were in print – which in turn helps me read them as if they're new (and thereby see if they work).

(Oh, and yes, the stickers are important; because a Mac without stickers has no mojo, and mojo is vital.)

WriteRoom

Novel-writing software

This is the word-processor I use for the actual writing process – before editing and reworking begins. It's very clean and distraction-free: no menus, no clutter on the screen. I have it set to an amber on black display which reminds me of old CRT monitors from the 1970s.

Final Draft

Software for screenwriting

In the old days, you pecked away at a portable Remington and stacked up page after page of sweat-stained Courier 12-point. The story goes that Samuel Goldwyn would prowl the MGM writers' lot, listening at the cabin doors; and if he didn't hear a typewriter rattling away, he fired whoever was inside. Now, though, we have Final Draft (which, yes, prints in Courier 12-point).

Books

Because writers are readers first

Books are an absolute good. As readers, we're transported by what we read; as writers, we learn from it too. You can never have too many books (or guitars, or keyboards).

The only kind of writing is rewriting

Ernest Hemingway

If you want to be a writer...

...then these are the places to start.

Write every day

...or at least, have a very clear schedule and stick to it. Steinbeck used to write 500 words a day, which isn't all that much; but he wrote every day, weekends and holidays included, and he never left his writing desk until those 500 words were done.

Hear your characters

Sometimes you're in control of what you're writing. Sometimes your characters decide that they have ideas of their own. This really happens; it's very strange; and you absolutely need to listen to them when it does.

Read the good stuff

Programmers have a mantra for when a program gives bad results: Garbage in, garbage out. Writing is the same. Fill your head with the kind of writing you love and to which you aspire.

Grab the newsletter!

...because you never know what it will bring! From random musings to frustrating dead-ends to breakthrough moments, if you're interested in the process, you might want to sign up.

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