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There is a strange pressure to believe that every opportunity must be pursued. Every reader.Every platform.Every conversation. As if the value of a story could somehow be measured by the number of people who have seen it. I have never believed that. Books have always found their way through quieter paths. A recommendation from one … Read more

There is a point in the evening when coffee becomes dishonest. The cup says work. The clock suggests otherwise. I have ignored this distinction many times. Writers are good at pretending the day has not ended simply because the document remains open. One more paragraph. One more page. One more attempt at the sentence that … Read more

I spend a great deal of time sitting at a desk. This is partly because I write. It is also because everything I need has gradually migrated there. Notebooks. Books. Coffee. More notebooks. A pen I dislike but continue using for reasons I cannot explain. The desk has become efficient. This is the problem. Efficiency … Read more

I have written five books. The coffee machine has been present for all of them. This feels worth acknowledging. Writers receive most of the credit for books. Occasionally editors. Characters, if they become popular enough, begin behaving as if they wrote the story themselves. Nobody mentions the appliances. This seems unfair. My coffee machine has … Read more

I went back to the beginning. Not metaphorically. Writers do enough things metaphorically. I went to London. By then, the first book had been behind me for some time. Other cities had arrived. Other rooms. Other questions. The story had travelled far enough that returning to where it began felt strangely like visiting a place … Read more

Research sounds responsible. This is useful. It allows a writer to spend four hours reading about railway timetables and describe the afternoon as productive. Sometimes it even was. The problem with research is that it rarely knows when to stop. You begin with a simple question. How long does the journey take? Ten minutes later, … Read more

I knew how the story ended. This was comforting. There were notes. A structure. Several arrows drawn between scenes with the confidence of someone who believed arrows could prevent future problems. The final pages existed in my head long before the first ones were finished. Then, one evening, the ending stopped working. Nothing dramatic happened. … Read more

I used to check the page count constantly. This was not helpful. Still, I did it. Write for twenty minutes. Check the page count. Move a paragraph. Check the page count. Make coffee. Apparently check the page count again, in case the document had continued writing without me. It never did. Page counts are seductive … Read more

Some characters understand their role. They arrive. Say what the story needs them to say. Perhaps serve coffee. Then they leave. I appreciate these characters. They are professionals. Others are more difficult. They appear in a scene with one purpose and immediately begin behaving as if they have signed a long-term contract. The person behind … Read more

I would like to begin every writing day by walking through the city I am writing about. This would be useful. It would also require an unreasonable travel budget and a deeply understanding airport security department. So I use other methods. Maps. Photographs. Street views. Train routes. Weather records. Restaurant menus. Videos filmed by people … Read more