Resources on writing

Books about craft

Some favourite books about writing (and reading):

• How Fiction Works, James Wood, Random House, 2009
• Craft in the Real World, Matthew Salessas, Catapult, 2021
• Dancing at the Edge of the World, Ursula Le Guin, Grove Press, 1989
• The Writing Life, Annie Dillard, Harper Perennial, 2013
• The Writing Book: A Practical Guide for Fiction Writers, Kate Grenville, Allen & Unwin, 2020
• A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders, Penguin Random House, 2021
• Reading Like a Writer, Francine Prose, Harper Perennial, 2007
• Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg, Shambhala, 2016.

Here are some other people’s suggestions:

Essential books for writers (Centre for Fiction)

Ten of the best books for writers (The Creative Life)

40 best books on writing (BookFox).

Software and tools

I use Scrivener for drafting and revising, because it’s so easy to move things around and see your outline. Its metadata functions are really powerful. It’s built for writers.

At the last minute, when editing, I move the manuscript from Scrivener into Microsoft Word.

I back up all my files with Dropbox, which saves automatically and then syncs across my different machines. You might have access to some other cloud system, but whatever you do, back up, back up, back up!

I gather research notes, scribbles, and resources in Evernote – it comes with a handy web clipper which lets you save web pages – again, it syncs up across different devices.

And I use good old pencil and paper notebooks all the time too.

Writing routines

Morning pages

For years, when I was drafting, I’d often get up early and scribble, longhand, with a pencil in a notebook – before breakfast but not before coffee.

Recently, I’ve started doing this as an intentional way to start the day. It’s recommended by Julia Cameron as part of her book, The Artist’s Way. You write three pages, longhand, before you do anything else. Three pages. That’s all. It might be fiction, it might be a blurt about something that kept you awake, it may be anything. You simply write. Cameron says it “clears the slate” and for me it oftne generates a part of a scene or a bit of dialogue.

I review my pages each Saturday, highlight anything that needs to be typed up or added to my To Do list and, being me, I have a whole colour code highlight and tab system. So it adds to the drafting without me really thinking that’s what I’m doing. If a new idea or a new bit of one of several projects crops up, I write it in my pages, but it could just as easily be notes about the vegetable garden or a replay of an argument I lost years ago. Morning pages get the crap and the half-awake creative thoughts out of your brain and onto paper.

Sprints

I swear by the Pomodoro method developed by Francesco Cirillo – 25 minute writing sprints, with five minute breaks. You don’t do anything else – just write. This time period, Cirillo concluded, is the one that allows you maximum focus. After 25 minutes, your mind starts to wander.

Sprints aren’t a race against anyone else, just a burst of focused time. You need a timer – I have a little app called Pomodairo on my laptop but you can use your phone clock or, indeed, a kitchen timer, which is what Francesco Cirillo used.

I combine the writing sprints with two other methods I recommend.

Shut Up and Write

Shut Up and Write began in San Francisco in 2007, developed by author Rennie Saunders. The idea is simple: you gather writers together, check in with each other, do a Pomodoro writing sprint, together but in silence, and when it’s over, you chat a bit about how you went. Then you shut up and write again for another 25 minutes, and maybe a few more cycles of shutting up and writing. Together, in a cafe, or online, or in a meeting room. Whatever works.

I meet up with a couple of friends to do Shut Up and Write together twice a week. We’ve been doing it for years, since we did our PhDs together, but mostly meet online nowadays. There may be a little more talking than the standard five minute breaks but that’s OK. We usually get a couple of sprints in. I’ve also hosted Shut Up and Write sessions for postgrads, for colleagues, for academics, and on all of my retreats. It’s magic.

You can find regular online Shut Up and Write sessions now at lots of writers’ centres and at universities, or you can join the online communities. Or start your own.

Two Golden Hours

Then there’s what Hugh Kearns from ThinkWell calls Two Golden Hours. Again, this harks back to my PhD days – you block out at least two hours on as many days as you can, you assume the position, and you just write. I do four Pomodoro sprints within the two hours.

These are all ways of keeping focus, and I find they are very productive for me, especially when I’m drafting. I don’t look at the phone, or put on a load of washing, or check social media or emails, or even look up words or information I might need. If I get stuck, I simply type an asterisk, keep going, and go back to sort that out later.

We’ll use some of these techniques in our weekend retreats, so you can experience it for yourself.

Retreats and residencies

I even use these methods when I’m on a writing weekend with friends or a residency, although if I’m in a room by myself with no distractions, once I get started I just keep going until I get hungry.

Of course, going on retreat is the ultimate writing routine, and there are lots of different ways of doing it. I sometimes go on a weekend away with my Shut Up and Write buddies, and we rent a house, write all day, eat out, and sit around. Some people I know rent a hotel room for themselves for the weekend, take off in a campervan, or stay at a friend’s holiday house. I’ve loaned my house out to writer friends when I’m away, so they can have their own residency. Or you can simply lock the door and stay home.

I’ve made this free guide for you, to help you plan your own getaway or find a retreat or residency to suit you.

There are divine places like Varuna, where you live for a week or two, write in silence all day, then someone cooks you a fabulous meal shared with other writers – most of whom you’ve never met but who may well become friends. Sites like ResArtis list a huge range of paid and invited artist residencies around the world.

My New Page Writing retreat intensives are different, guided, and informed by best practice writing and teaching techniques. The Writing Challenge weekend uses some of these methods to really focus our minds on producing new words, while other retreats include formal masterclasses, workshopping, and other guided activities, including shared Pomodoro sprints. You can find out more about them all here.

The main thing is to find what works for you. If you have an intense job, or small kids, or face a long commute to and from work, you might have to squeeze in whatever time you can find – before anyone else wakes up, on the train, in the quiet of the evening. I wrote my first book mostly in my work lunch breaks in a noisy noodle place in Auckland.

Writers gonna write.