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25 Insights on Becoming a Better Writer ::
Tips :: 99U
When George Plimpton asked Ernest Hemingway
what the best training for an aspiring writer would
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be in a 1954 interview, Hem replied, «Let’s say that
he should go out and hang himself because he finds
that writing well is impossibly difficult. Then he
should be cut down without mercy and forced by
his own self to write as well as he can for the rest of
his life. At least he will have the story of the hanging
to commence with.»Today, writing well is more im-
portant than ever. Far from being the province of a
select few as it was in Hemingway’s day, writing is
a daily occupation for all of us -- in email, on blogs,
and through social media. It is also a primary means
for documenting, communicating, and refining our
ideas. As essayist, programmer, and investor Paul
Graham has written, «Writing doesn’t just communi-
cate ideas; it generates them. If you’re bad at writing
and don’t like to do it, you’ll miss out on most of the
ideas writing would have generated.»
So what can we do to improve our writing short of
hanging ourselves? Below, find 25 snippets of insight
from some exceptional authors. While they are all
focused on the craft of writing, most of these tips
pertain to pushing forward creative projects of any
kind.
1. PD James: On just sitting down and doing it… 
Don’t just plan to write—write. It is only by writing,
not dreaming about it, that we develop our own
style. 
2. Steven Pressfield: On starting before you’re
ready… 
[The] Resistance knows that the longer we noodle
around «getting ready,» the more time and oppor-
tunity we’ll have to sabotage ourselves. Resistance
loves it when we hesitate, when we over-prepare.
The answer: plunge in.
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Behance

3. Esther Freud: On finding your routine... 
Find your best time of the day for writing and write.
Don’t let anything else interfere. Afterwards it won’t
matter to you that the kitchen is a mess.

4. Zadie Smith: On unplugging... 
Work on a computer that is disconnected from the
internet. 
5. Kurt Vonnegut: On finding a subject... 
Find a subject you care about and which you in
your heart feel others should care about. It is this
genuine caring, and not your games with language,
which will be the most compelling and seductive
element in your style. I am not urging you to write a
novel, by the way -- although I would not be sorry if
you wrote one, provided you genuinely cared about
something. A petition to the mayor about a pothole
in front of your house or a love letter to the girl next
door will do. 
6. Maryn McKenna: On keeping your thoughts or-
ganized... 
Find an organizational scheme for your notes and
materials; keep up with it (if you are transcribing
sound files or notebooks, don’t let yourself fall
behind); and be faithful to it: Don’t obsess over an
apparently better scheme that someone else has.  At
some point during your work, someone will release
what looks like a brilliant piece of software that will
solve all your problems. Resist the urge to try it out,
whatever it is, unless 1) it is endorsed by people
whose working methods you already know to be
like your own and 2) you know you can implement
it quickly and easily without a lot of backfilling.
Reworking organizational schemes is incredibly
seductive and a massive timesuck. 
7. Bill Wasik: On the importance of having an out-
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25 Insights on Becoming a Better Writer :: Tips :: 99U
line... 
Hone your outline and then cling to it as a lifeline.
You can adjust it in mid-stream, but don’t try to just
write your way into a better structure: think about
the right structure and then write to it. Your outline
will get you through those periods when you can’t
possibly imagine ever finishing the damn thing —
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at those times, your outline will let you see it as a
sequence of manageable 1,000 word sections. 
8. Joshua Wolf Shenk: On getting through that first
draft... 
Get through a draft as quickly as possible. Hard to
know the shape of the thing until you have a draft.
Literally, when I wrote the last page of my first draft
of «Lincoln’s Melancholy» I thought, Oh, shit, now I
get the shape of this. But I had wasted years, literally
years, writing and re-writing the first third to first
half. The old writer’s rule applies: Have the courage
to write badly. 
9. Sarah Waters: On being disciplined... 
Treat writing as a job. Be disciplined. Lots of wri-
ters get a bit OCD-ish about this. Graham Greene
famously wrote 500 words a day. Jean Plaidy ma-
naged 5,000 before lunch, then spent the afternoon
answering fan mail. My minimum is 1,000 words
a day – which is sometimes easy to achieve, and is
sometimes, frankly, like shitting a brick, but I will
make myself stay at my desk until I’ve got there,
because I know that by doing that I am inching the
book forward. Those 1,000 words might well be rub-
bish – they often are. But then, it is always easier to
return to rubbish words at a later date and make
them better. 
10. Jennifer Egan: On being willing to write badly...
 14. Geoff Dyer: On the power of multiple projects...
[Be] willing to write really badly. It won’t hurt you
to do that. I think there is this fear of writing badly,
something primal about it, like: «This bad stuff is
coming out of me…» Forget it! Let it float away and
the good stuff follows. For me, the bad beginning
is just something to build on. It’s no big deal. You
have to give yourself permission to do that because
you can’t expect to write regularly and always write
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16/08/2012 10:51
well. That’s when people get into the habit of waiting
for the good moments, and that is where I think
writer’s block comes from. Like: It’s not happening.
Well, maybe good writing isn’t happening, but let
some bad writing happen... When I was writing «The
Keep,» my writing was so terrible. It was God-awful.
My working title for that first draft was, A Short Bad
Novel. I thought: «How can I disappoint?» 
11. AL Kennedy: On fear... 
Be without fear. This is impossible, but let the small
fears drive your rewriting and set aside the large
ones until they behave – then use them, maybe even
write them. Too much fear and all you’ll get is si-
lence. 
12. Will Self: On not looking back... 
Don’t look back until you’ve written an entire draft,
just begin each day from the last sentence you wrote
the preceeding day. This prevents those cringing
feelings, and means that you have a substantial body
of work before you get down to the real work which
is all in... The edit.

13. Haruki Murakami: On building up your ability
to concentrate... 
In private correspondence the great mystery writer
Raymond Chandler once confessed that even if he
didn’t write anything, he made sure he sat down at
his desk every single day and concentrated. I un-
derstand the purpose behind his doing this. This is
the way Chandler gave himself the physical stamina
a professional writer needs, quietly strengthening
his willpower. This sort of daily training was indis-
pensable to him. 
Have more than one idea on the go at any one time.
If it’s a choice between writing a book and doing
nothing I will always choose the latter. It’s only if I
have an idea for two books that I choose one rather
than the other. I always have to feel that I’m bunking
off from something. 
15. Augusten Burroughs: On who to hang out with…

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25 Insights on Becoming a Better Writer :: Tips :: 99U
Don’t hang around with people who are negative
and who are not supportive of your writing. Make
friends with writers so that you have a community.
Hopefully, your community of writer friends will be
good and they’ll give you good feedback and good
criticism on your writing but really the best way to
be a writer is to be a writer. 
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16. Neil Gaiman: On feedback... 
When people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t
work for them, they are almost always right. When
they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and
how to fix it, they are almost always wrong. 
17. Margaret Atwood: On second readers... 
You can never read your own book with the inno-
cent anticipation that comes with that first delicious
page of a new book, because you wrote the thing.
You’ve been backstage. You’ve seen how the rabbits
were smuggled into the hat. Therefore ask a reading
friend or two to look at it before you give it to anyone
in the publishing business. This friend should not
be someone with whom you have a romantic rela-
tionship, unless you want to break up. 
18. Richard Ford: On others’ fame and success... 
Try to think of others’ good luck as encouragement
to yourself. 
19. Helen Dunmore: On when to stop... 
Finish the day’s writing when you still want to conti-
nue. 
20. Hilary Mantel: On getting stuck... 
If you get stuck, get away from your desk. Take a
walk, take a bath, go to sleep, make a pie, draw, lis-
ten to music, meditate, exercise; whatever you do,
don’t just stick there scowling at the problem. But
don’t make telephone calls or go to a party; if you
do, other people’s words will pour in where your
lost words should be. Open a gap for them, create
a space. Be patient. 
21. Annie Dillard: On things getting out of control...

A work in progress quickly becomes feral. It reverts
to a wild state overnight... it is a lion growing in
strength. You must visit it every day and reassert
your mastery over it. If you skip a day, you are,
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16/08/2012 10:51
quite rightly, afraid to open the door to its room.
You enter its room with bravura, holding a chair
at the thing and shouting, ‘Simba!’ 
22. Cory Doctorow: On writing when the going gets
tough... 
Write even when the world is chaotic. You don’t
need a cigarette, silence, music, a comfortable chair,
or inner peace to write. You just need ten minutes
and a writing implement. 
23. Chinua Achebe: On doing all that you can… 
I believe myself that a good writer doesn’t really
need to be told anything except to keep at it. Just
think of the work you’ve set yourself to do, and do
it as well as you can. Once you have really done all
you can, then you can show it to people. But I find
this is increasingly not the case with the younger
people. They do a first draft and want somebody
to finish it off for them with good advice. So I just
maneuver myself out of this. I say, Keep at it. I grew
up recognizing that there was nobody to give me
any advice and that you do your best and if it’s not
good enough, someday you will come to terms with
that. 
24. Joyce Carol Oates: On persevering... 
I have forced myself to begin writing when I’ve been
utterly exhausted, when I’ve felt my soul as thin as
a playing card, when nothing has seemed worth
enduring for another five minutes... and somehow
the activity of writing changes everything. Or ap-
pears to do so. 
25. Anne Enright: On why none of this advice really
matters... 
The way to write a book is to actually write a book.
A pen is useful, typing is also good. Keep putting
words on the page. 
--
How About You? 
What great writing tips have helped you change
your ways?
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