A Writer's Diary Podcast

When you're working on a story, it's likely you'll begin with an instinctive go at POV. You'll feel you need to be close to the action, say, and will default to the first person.Later on in the writing, though, you may realise that you've been inconsistent. Sometimes you're writing as if your narrator can moralise about the action, and sometimes they're still having their head spun.These three simple questions, with explanations, will help you clarify any Point of View - and so make it easier to write consistently. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

It's very easy, when you're starting to write, or starting on a new project, to get hung up on tone, style and voice.Are they different? Should you concentrate on one rather than the other? How do they fit with Point of View?Here are some simple distinctions between tone, style and voice, and some advice about how to sidestep confusion. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

When I started out teaching Creative Writing, I had a few things I promised myself I'd never say to students.For example, Show, Don't Tell.The main one was likening writing to painting, and telling my students that they needed to do the equivalent of learning to draw.I've turned round completely on that. You need to learn to draw, and for writers that means learning to understand and do different Points of View. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Point of View is deeply linked to Time - not just blank time passing, but time that's full of events in a character's life.Today's podcast demonstrates that with a memory exercise concerting dialogue.We're all happy to read long scenes recalled years later by First Person Narrators, but how good would you be at remembering all those he said, she saids? Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Why should you be bothered thinking about Point of View in writing? Why not just launch into breathless your close First Person Present Tense narrative?Well, in my experience because Point of View's going to become a major issue, and anxiety, and blockage in about two week's time - if it isn't already.A Complete Guide to Point of View will help you map out the territory ahead, and make some choices about what equipment you're going to need, and whether this is really the right mountain to climb. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today's podcast is a pitch for On Drafting. I've been working at how to get the idea across to editors. This is my first go, and I'm looking for feedback.Maybe the tone's completely wrong, or maybe there's something can be rescued.It's better than asking ChatGPT, though. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Are you lucky enough to have somewhere in your flat or house that's dedicated to writing? Even if there's an ironing board or an exercise bike in there, too?What's necessary for you - or any writer - about having this privileged space? Well, a writer can't live with thieves or spies... Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Do you like to write in cafes? Is that because you want people to see you, hard at it, or because you need people around you who might just be working on their novels or memoirs?Here are a few thoughts about street photography, addicted note-taking and what to say if someone catches you taking down their juicy dialogue. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

There are writers who famously preferred to be horizontal, sheet-surrounded and cosied up with cats, in order to write.They weren't necessarily bed-bound, but they found this truancy from desks, day clothes, and anything clerk-like to suit them best.Proust, Colette, Mark Twain. And, going out to ask about my reader's writing habits, I've discovered that they are comfortable between covers of both sorts. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Wordprocessing can be great, useful and liberating. But it has many pitfalls. Not least of these is watching that wordcount slowly rise, and thinking you're a bad person if it doesn't get to a round number.Some advice on right attitude to working on the screen, in the world of pain that is or isn't MS Word. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Have you ever lost work to accidental document deletion as you sneezed? Or a coffee tsunami across the keyboard? Or because someone ran off with your laptop?Here's my advice - from my own bad experience. Obvious, maybe. But you'll thank me if this serves as a reminder to back your work up multiple times. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Here's an exercise to get you started on taking notes in a notebook.It might seem the most minimal thing - observing what's right in front of you. But I think it's fascinating how few writers seem to have done this.Two exceptions are the poets RF Langley and Arun Kolatkar. Both of whom knew how to sit and stare. And take notes. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Don’t let your selfishness get in the way of your creativity. You may not be equally capable of the whole job. Perhaps you’ll be more completely fulfilled by only doing half the work or a quarter or the tenth.Why not go out and find a collaborator, rather than feeling you have to do every single thing yourself? Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Do you find the physical bit of writing - scribbling or typing - an obstruction to your flow? Maybe you're thinking of using dictation software - of letting the dragon into your workspace?Here's some thoughts I've put together for my writing manual, On Drafting, about the history (Henry James) and future (AI) of speak-writing prose. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Good old 'desktop computers' - like 'wordprocessing software' they sound completely out of date.But they're having a resurgence, and there are some very good reason for using something big, formal, and at eye level, rather than something warm in your lap that makes you curl over like Nosferatu looking at a newborn baby.Desktop vs laptop, where do you sit? Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Laptops - you hardly even notice them any more. Not unless your coffee's just dripped through the keyboard, narrowly missing your hard drive. They're just where you are, when you write.Today's entry takes a closer look at these means of production, and at the wordprocessing software (yes, I know that sounds old-fashioned) that limits us without us noticing. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Do you have a desk? Does some cruel employer (yourself?) force you to hotdesk? Or is all you need a laptop on your lap?Today's podcast is about that most taken for granted piece of a writer's kit - the surface beneath the writing surface.Welcome to the desktop world. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today I'm talking about typewriters - not my current means of production, but definitely where I first began.What are the virtues of bashing out a sentence on a mechanical typewriter of the sort Tom Hanks would lust after? And what are the downsides of fitting yourself in to a stereotypical image of The Writer? Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today I'm trying to figure out - with your help - what to say in the writing manual I'm putting together about Notebooks.Fittingly, what I have so far are just some notes. I'm looking to get them into better shape, but perhaps that would be perverse. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today, I'm on paper.This is a writer's workplace, if they're not using a screen, and so it's important to get your right.You probably have a favourite paper already. If not, here's some advice. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Smart pens are today's subject I'm tackling for On Drafting, the writing manual my readers and listeners are helping me write.What are the advantages of a digital notepad, and how resilient are they in the long run? Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today's entry in the Writer's Diary has a go at gel, fibretip, rollerball, and fineliners. I love them, but god they're environmentally disastrous. (See fountain pens for an alternative.)How far do each of them write? I found some stats. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today's entry is firstly a response to the suggestion I should just get on with it. You're doing a book about drafting, help me get on with my drafting.I have a few words, not so stern, about impatience. Then I move on to those impatient means of writing - ballpoint pens. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today's entry is on erasers and erasing, rubbers and rubbing out - if your writing is done in pencil. I'm not giving advice on good or bad brands.Instead, like a maths teacher, I am going to advise, 'Show your workings out.' Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Attempting to go even further into the minutiae of writing, today's entry is about pencil extenders.If you have a beloved pencil, now too short to hold, this may be the solution.But extenders really represent an attitude to writing.Do anything you need to keep going with what works. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today's entry makes a few small points about the small points left behind by pencil sharpeners.It's amazing how attached writers can be to their means of production, and how passionate in defending their choices.Here are mine. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today's entry is about mechanical pencils. Probably preferable to wooden pencils, but maybe not.They break and can't be fixed.I admit, I don't love them as much as pencils. They don't smell as nice, for a start. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today's entry is simple enough - pencils.What's good about them. And I really can't find anything bad about them.The big question, however: to use the eraser or not? Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

I was interrupted by three things I read, and one thing I had to do, and so today's entry is about that.Those three things I read were Roger Hallam's blog, 'The Elite Death Project', Anna Kornbluh's book 'Immediacy' and an article by Fiona Harvey, Guardian Environmental Editor, titled 'Biodiversity Collapse Threatens UK Security, Intelligence Chiefs Warn'.All discussed and linked to here. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today's entry is on fountain pens.I love them, use them, recommend them.Here are some reasons why they are so good for everyday use. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today I'm beginning a series of entries about what writer write with - pens, pencils, laptops.Rather than the ubiquitous ballpoint, I'm starting with dipping pens, which have unexpected advantages (and some clear downsides).What do you write with or on? Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin.Today's entry is about writing posture. If you're in this writing milarky as a long game, you'll need to be ergonomically sussed.Not like one of those copyright free images of writers sitting cross legged with a cup of matcha. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Are you constantly distracted by your phone?Have you found out the secret of overcoming or working through this?Today I share some advice in a draft chapter from On Drafting, the writing manual you're helping me write. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Who are the ghosts that haunt your writing space, or your mind as you're writing?Is it Lydia Davis or Tolstoy? Dickens or someone I've never heard of?Today's entry is another go at an introduction to On Drafting, the writing manual you're helping me write. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today, following up on my Guardian review of Elizabeth McCracken's writing manual A Long Game: How to Write Fiction, here are a few, slightly freer thoughts about it.tl;dr - I recommend it. It's very good. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today I'm talking and writing about how to keep going with writing when you're feeling down.I think this is something most writers face every single day, and these are some first draft thoughts on good reasons for going on. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today's subject is writing in the dark - what Donald Barthelme called (in a famous essay) 'the not knowing'.I'm starting with an even more famous quote from Henry James, and talking about what it feels like to be lost and perhaps bewildered. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today I share three exercises that might work if you don't have any idea what to write next.The first is based on something I do in Creative Writing workshops, encouraging students to write the worst dialogue ever.The second comes out of a trip I paid to Foyles Bookshop in London.And the third is inspired by the very inspiring Wes Anderson, and his plain yellow notebooks. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

What are my principles as a teacher of writing?I tried to get them down on a single page, and succeeded.There are five different principles, and here they are. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Here I'm sharing a draft opening to my writing manual. It talks about different writers different ways of drafting. Perhaps one of them is similar to yours - but I'd be surprised if you drafted like Proust, Flaubert or Kerouac. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Here's a bill of fare, a draft contents section, and a sneak preview of what's coming up in the next few weeks and months.How does this compare to what you know about a book when you begin drafting it? Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Today's podcast is about who you are on the page. Is it the writer described in your blurb, or is it a person you've decided to be, for the purposes of what you're writing? Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

What do we think about before we start writing? What context are we writing in? For me, Climate (to call it that) is front and centre. Here's what I've got to say about acknowledging that's the ground I'm on. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe

Hello, Happy New Year and welcome to Writer’s Diary 2026.This is slightly different.As you can tell, I’m going to be speaking, as well as writing, and the subject this year is going to be writing a book, which I’m going to be starting doing.You can hear a train go by.I’m going to be starting doing that, and I’m going to be asking for your help, and I’m going to be bouncing things off you, doing writing exercises, trying those out,Because.I’m aiming by the end of this year to have written a book and the working title at the moment is either The Page or On Drafting or something like that.On Drafting: The Page or The Page: On Drafting something like that.And the idea is that I’m going to be trying out some of the things that I think would be useful — right from the start — for a writer who was mainly wanting to concentrate on what they do every day when they sit down and they open up their laptop or they get a sheet of A4 or they carry on from where they were before.And some of the things that I’ve learned and some of the things that I’ve taught are very much based on that.Most of the stuff that I end up saying to students is really, really detailed advice about how to address the page, how to think about what you’re doing before you do it, and I guess, most of all, how to rewrite.So the first thing I’m going to do is ask you directly what would be useful for you.What are the things that you find puzzling or difficult or annoying?When you are sitting down and you’re trying to write something, or you’re writing something and finding it’s really, really easy, and then when you go back, you see it’s not what you thought it was at all.What are the questions that you have that you think a writing manual, a new writing manual to join the many many writing manuals that are out there?What would be useful for you?What would address the questions that you have?I’m going to leave the comments open and I’ll take what comes there and I’ll try to do a day on anything that seems collectively a puzzle, collectively a difficulty, collectively an annoyance.I know that you’d probably like to start with something, so I’m going to start with one of my favourite writing exercises.If I do a masterclass or I do something with a group of people that I’m only going to see once.But this is something to come back to as well, and I’ll remind you of it later.So it came from Scarlett Thomas, the novelist.And what you do is you get a notebook, something that you’re going to keep rather than a piece of paper you’re going to lose, or you open a note on your phone, and you make a list of ten numbers, one to ten, down the left-hand side.Or you just start numbering things as you go along.And for each of them, beside each number, you put, without thinking too much about it, you’re doing it pretty quickly.You put a current obsession of yours, something that you are thinking about a lot, whether you want to or not.These aren’t things that you necessarily think are good subjects or something that you’re particularly pleased that you think about.But they are things that keep popping into your head.They are things that obsess you.So write down your ten current obsessions.The idea of this exercise is that you come back to it later.You put it aside, you forget about it and I’ll remind you in a couple of weeks and you can do it again.And once you’ve done it maybe three times, you look at the lists you have and you see what it is that has been obsessing you constantly.And you come back to those things and you think, Well, (here comes a siren) maybe I can write something with those as my subject, with these things as my start.So that’s where we start (as the police siren fades away).Write down your 10 obsessions, and I will see you tomorrow. Get full access to A Writer's Diary at awritersdiary.substack.com/subscribe