Fiction
Novels
+3
May 13, 2025
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7 min read
On models, liberators and guides
[FROM THE ARCHIVE] On the basis that you’re supposed to write the books you want to read, that’s precisely what I’m setting about doing.
Novels
+4
Apr 1, 2025
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5 min read
On Miss Marple, class and human nature
[FROM THE ARCHIVE] I don’t fall asleep easily, so for years, I’ve listened to audiobooks and radio plays in bed — now I’ve got an elasticated headphone band to make it a more comfortable experience.
Novels
+4
Mar 18, 2025
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7 min read
On professionalism and the (super)market
[FROM THE ARCHIVE] What does it mean to be a “professional” writer? Is it that you devote lots of your time and effort to writing? Or that you get paid for writing?
Novels
+3
Feb 4, 2025
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8 min read
On knowing when something is finished, or not having written a 90,000-word novel in a month (Part 6)
Maybe there’s an interesting distinction for us to make between something that’s finished for now and something that’s finished for good.
Novels
+3
Nov 7, 2024
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4 min read
On writing a 90,000-word novel in a month (Part 5 of 5)
If there's one thing I'd like to leave you with at the end of this special, exhausting, exhilarating month, it is this — say yes to your writing by saying no to something else.
Novels
+3
Nov 3, 2024
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7 min read
On writing a 90,000-word novel in a month (Part 4 of 5)
107,910 words, and still nowhere near finished — but for now, I’m content to keep wandering across the universe of this strange, sad, redemptive novel.
Novels
+3
Oct 27, 2024
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8 min read
On writing a 90,000-word novel in a month (Part 3 of 5)
I’m now required to write characters whose attitudes, opinions and experiences do not correspond to my own, in three overlapping areas: sexuality, religion and politics.
Novels
+3
Oct 20, 2024
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8 min read
On writing a 90,000-word novel in a month (Part 2 of 5)
I wrote my first ever sex scenes this week. Every aspect of these scenes could be viewed as a template for the kind of questions we need to ask ourselves about every single thing we write.
