Habits of Highly Effective Writers #6: Finishing

Two people are chatting. 'I'm writing a novel,' says one, whereupon the other says: 'Yes, neither am I.' (Peter Cook)

In 2020, I started writing a novel. I know, I know. Neither are you. It was based on two characters I created for a play I wrote called The God Particle, about a vicar and a quantum physicist. I wrote the first 12000 words of the novel. And then I rewrote them. And then I stopped. Why?

There were a couple of reasons. The first was that the opportunity to pitch for some work came along that I was excited by and offered me a chance to expand my skills – and get paid. So I threw my time into pitching for an episode of this TV series. I managed to get commissioned and wrote it. It's being filmed later this year. 

The economic realities were that this was more likely to pay off, and pay better, than a novel. I also reckoned that a lot of other people were using lockdown to write novels. The stack of novel manuscripts would be higher than ever by the end of the year, so an already difficult task of having a novel published had gotten even harder. So I hit pause on the novel.

I was ditching it - as I suggested in the previous post - but I was okay about walking away, knowing I wouldn't have time to go back to it for a while. I had to write a non-fiction book in which I have established myself a little more (the comedy/religion niche). That book, called The Gospel According to a Sitcom Writer, is out in June this year. And then I developed and produced my own video course called Writing Your Sitcom.

So what do I do in 2021? The first thing I’m going to do is going back to the novel. I’m going to finish it. Why?

I know I said to ditch projects that are just hanging around, feeling stale and holding you back. I still say that. But absence can make the heart grow fonder. The idea might still be nagging away at you. It might turn out you are passionate about that idea after all. In which case, go back to it. It's fine. There are no rules here.

Your Writing Slate

If you’re serious about being a writer, you need a number of ideas in various states of development. You need a spec script to show what you can do, and that you can execute your idea and show your voice. But you also need another strong idea to talk about in meetings. And ideally you need one more that can be that final Hail Mary pass once your first two ideas have been rebuffed.

So, having urged you to ditch a project and start something new – I’m also saying you can go back to something you abandoned last year, or a few years ago, if you feel you have unfinished business. It may be that you have fresh eyes and new ideas on the problems that caused you to give up on it in the first place. It may be that it feels ‘of the moment’.

But it may be that it feels redundant, stale or dull. In which case move on.

Timing

Timing is important. An idea that felt like an orphan a few years earlier can suddenly feel ‘of the moment’ and find a home.

If Richard Hurst and I had pitched our bomb-disposal comedy, Bluestone 42, to BBC3 a couple of years earlier, when the war in Afghanistan was really costly in terms of human life, it would have seemed in really poor taste.

If we’d pitched it a couple of years later, if would have felt like we’d missed the boat. Ideas have a timeliness about them.

Maybe now is the time for that old idea. Or a new idea. But timing is important.

But there is another reason to pick up something back up and finish it.

You may be an inveterate starter. And not a finisher.

In which case, you plan to finish something and make it as good as you can, rather than being distracted by the shiny new idea.

Know Thyself

Are you the kind of writer who loves the new thing? That’s me. I have no trouble filling a blank sheet of paper with dozens of ideas, stories or characters. But I get bored of them quite quickly. Once I’ve outlined the story, or written the first draft, my interest starts to wane. I’m not a completer-finisher. So I need to recognised what sort of writer I am – and make adjustments to my strategy accordingly.

I need to finish things. And not only ‘get them done’ but spend more time polishing them and making them as good as I can. Maybe that's something you need to do to be a better writer.

No script is perfect. (Except Toy Story 2). Everything can be improved, normally by making it tighter. But there are many other tweaks, tucks and trims that can be made. And of course, you might to be honest about the fact that the Second Act really doesn’t work, and you can’t just paper over the cracks, but tear it all down and start again, at least on that section.

So that’s one of the reasons I’m going back to my novel. I need to finish more things. Plus, I’ve done most of the hard work in terms of the characters, story and research. Wish me luck! And best of luck with that novel you're not writing either.

One Last Thing

If you have a script that needs finishing, improving, tightening or tweak, I've produced a PDF called 7 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Script Right Now. It has clear action points and specific things to do that should lift your script and make is sparkle. Get it here.

But if you're thinking no amount of spit and polish is going to improve that script and you want to start again, why not consider doing my Writing Your Sitcom course? Now could well be the time to invest in your career, and a new script that shows what you can really do. More info here.

Habits of Highly Effective Writers #5: Ditching

In the last post, I suggested you that if you want to be a better writer, you need start writing and keep writing. In fact, make a habit of writing.

Now I’m telling you to stop writing.

I don’t mean stop the habit. I mean stop trying to write that thing you’ve been writing for ages that isn’t really going anywhere.

Lots of people will tell you to keep going. See it through. Your friends, your supporters and maybe some fellow writers might be cheering you on. Maybe this is the year to finish that script.

But maybe it isn’t. Maybe it’s time to ditch it. Park it. Throw it in the lake. Or at least drag and drop into a folder marked ‘Archive’ or ‘Former Projects’. Maybe now is the time start something new, fresh, exciting or timely. And something that will show what you can do as a writer.

Reasons To Bin It

You may be emotionally invested in that sitcom idea or comedy drama script for a number of reasons. Maybe it’s the first idea you thought of. Maybe you’ve ploughed hours and hours of thought and work into it.

But consider this: in all likelihood, days and months of work lie ahead.

Is it really worth that kind of investment of time and energy?

Is this the story you really want to tell?

Is this the script you really want to develop, write, rewrite and show to people who can actually read?

If your script is really feeling a lot like homework or a chore, there’s a chance that the idea has gone stale, or was never that great in the first place.

It’s not distinctive. It’s not you. It’s not now.

Maybe it’s time to ditch it. Start again with something else altogether. Or, at the very least, go back to the original idea and work out a better way of expressing it.

Happier Times

You might have had the idea in 2012. That was the year of the London Olympics. The UK, at least, was a fairly happy place, especially after the opening ceremony and then we started winning medals. Remember Super Saturday? Aah.

Back then, social media and politics hadn’t quite ripped us fully apart. We were still members of the EU and no-one seemed to mind all that much. There wasn’t a pandemic. People felt differently about a range of issues. If you’re going to pitch your sitcom or comedy drama at someone in 2021/22, is it going to feel dated? Or oddly out of time? Maybe that’s why you’re struggling to write it.

You may be struggling to write that script because writing is hard. That’s a given.

But why not start something else? Dream big. Start again. Ditch that project that’s been hanging around for years.

Okay, I get it. You don’t want to do this. Let’s have a quick look at some of the reasons for that.

Get Out The Plunger

You might be worried that you’re not going to come up with anything else. I shouldn’t worry about that. You will. The current idea may blocking lots of others. So get out the plunger, flush away the blockage and see what happens. If you’re going to be a writer, you have to be the sort of person that has more than one idea. If you aren’t, then writing probably isn’t for you. So maybe take up sculpting, crochet or hill-walking.

Your Story

Are you reluctant to let go of this idea because it’s 'your story’? If so, that makes it more compelling. That's good. Personal perspective is more important than ever. Producers aren’t just looking for writers but ‘voices’. That’s one of the key elements of my new video course, Writing Your Sitcom. The ‘your’ is important.

Be honest. You have more than one story, and one set of circumstances. One identity doesn’t define you. Or at least it shouldn’t. You have a gender, an ethnicity, a network of communities, a perspective, a bunch of passions, a past and a future. There’s so much to write about. Make a list.

What Kind of Pony Are You?

If you want a career as a writer, you need to be able to write characters from all backgrounds and viewpoints. Otherwise you are essentially a one-trick pony. You’re trying to build a career. You need to be the kind of writer who can write on multiple projects.

In my career (I give as an example rather than brag), I've written Radio sitcoms about codebreakers and management consultants; TV sitcoms about a bomb disposal team in active war zone, an Asian family, a superhero and an unmarried women, CBBC sitcoms, CBeebies pre-school shows and an episode of a 45-minute murder mystery. And several nativity plays.

It’s unlikely you’d be able to make a living writing purely your own material, especially if that material is essentially just ‘your story’. That pony is lovely, but soon we’re going to want to see more than the one trick.

If you have a strong voice then you need to work out a way of demonstrating that, along with writing talent. Consider this: maybe your first idea isn’t the best way of doing that.

Take Action

Take a long hard look at that thing you’ve been working on for ages. There’s a chance that it’s holding you back. You’re holding it so tight it’s starting to cut you. What happens when you let go? I should give that a try if I were you.

Time for some Marie Kondo. Hold it in your hand. Does it bring you joy? If not, say ‘thank you’ and chuck it.

If, in a few months’ time, you can’t bear to parted from that original idea, maybe there was something it.

Maybe that's the time for that idea after all. Let it earn its place back in your life, in your diary and in your imagination. And get to work on it with renewed vigour and insights.

I’ll leave you to rummage through the bin bags.

In the next post, I’ll suggest why you might want to persevere with that idea.

But for now, I’d like to just mention my new video course which has just launched. It's called Writing Your Sitcom. If you're looking for a fresh start, or don't want to keep making the same mistakes again and again, I break down the whole sitcom writing process into 12 manageable steps. None of them are easy. This blog keeps telling you how difficult it is. But it points you in the right direction, gives you clear ways forward and keeps you going. Plus there are monthly Zoom chats with me and other course members so we can find out how everyone's doing. How does that sound? More details here at The Situation Room on Youtube or see below:

Habits of Highly Effective Writers #4: Writing Part 2

In Part 1, we looked at the motivation for writing, both right and wrong. Here in Part 2, let's look at the business of actually writing. How is going to happen more consistently in 2021?

What’s my advice to aspiring writers?

It seems rather silly, but I’ll say it anyway: Write.

It is surprising how many people talk about wanting to write – and genuinely do want to write – but don’t actually write. Why?

Feel the Fear

A common barrier to putting finger to keyboard is fear. What if it’s no good? I can help you there. In fact, I can let you into a secret.

Come closer.

(whisper) It won’t be good. Not at first. Your writing will probably not be very good for a while. (normal voice) Why would it be? Writing looks easy. But what you see isn’t writing, but typing. Typing is easy. Writing is hard.

Like anything, you only get better at writing with practice. No matter how good you are at the start, and how successful you are later on, your early work will make you cringe. This is unavoidable. The early stuff often has a freshness, novelty or even naivety that is appealing, but also some big clunking mistakes. But you can’t get experienced and grizzled and embarrassed about your early stuff without making a start now and getting that early stuff out of the way.

Start Anyway

Start writing. Some of it will be good. Now and then, I stumble across things I wrote nearly two decades ago and am surprised I managed to think of that joke or have that idea. But as a rule, I avoid all my previous TV and Radio series. In fact, there are many episodes of radio that I've not heard since being at the recording in front of then audience. I've not heard the final edit, the first transmission, the CDs I've been sent or the MP3 or versions on Audible. All I see and hear are the mistakes, the scenes that don’t end right and the jokes that don’t land.

There was even worse stuff on my hard drive that never made it off the screen. So here’s another secret. Lean in.

Oh, you were. Sorry, can you move back?

Thanks. Here's the secret: You don't need to show anyone.

You can write and write and not show anyone the results. For ages. If ever. No-one needs to read it.

But you need to write it. If you want to be a writer, if you have a story to tell, if this is something you want to master, you do need to write. Something. At some point. Soon. And regularly.

The Mood Will Not Take You

If you want to improve you will need to write a lot. That's means regularly. If you only write ‘when the moods takes you’, you will probably discover the mood doesn’t take you very often, or quickly changes. Any experienced writer knows that you just keep writing.

Some days it’s good. Some days it’s bad. You rewrite the bad stuff on the good days. And some bad days turn out better than you thought. And sometimes you delete the whole thing. But you keep writing. Go back and improve it another time. But you can’t readily improve a blank page. You need to write something. Then you can rewrite it.

Making Time

You will only write if you make time for it. This doesn’t just happen. Everything takes longer than you think it will. The urgent always squashes the important. You need to get into the habit of writing at a particular time of the day or week. Make that happen.

Can you write something every weekday first thing in the morning? That’s what I try to do. I’m freshest in the morning. I try not to agree to any meetings or phone calls in the morning unless they are unavoidable. I try and get as much written as I can before lunch.

Unless I’m really up against it, I find I can’t write for more than a few hours a day anyway. I’m not alone in that. If you can write for three or fours hours in a day, you’re doing really well. From reading about the habits of other professional writers and authors, most tend to find that they write best in the morning, and do other things in the afternoon.

After lunch, I try to get out for a walk or do something else. When come back I edit podcasts, answer emails, edit YouTube videos, Tweet, take meetings, do my accounts and crunch admin. I’m not frustrated when I do those things because I’ve actually written something in the morning and I’m not chasing the day.

Writing Zones

Recently, I’ve tried to have two zones in my office. One zone if for writing in the mornings, with lots of natural light and a good view. That’s how I’m writing this now – using my old laptop which does fine for this sort of thing. (Full disclosure: I’m rewriting this on the kitchen table in the afternoon.)

In the afternoons, I use my newer computer which is better for heavy lifting, like processing videos for my YouTube channel, The Situation Room. When I write, I try to have the email apps closed, and turn off notifications. Every morning, I get a reminder from myself which says that I can’t look at Facebook until 4pm. All of these things are distractions that have to be shut off for those precious few hours when I get the business of writing words done.

It's Alright For Some

What I’ve just described is like an impossible luxury for some. I get it. I realise how blessed I am to make a living as a writer. But firstly, I didn't used to be writer. Like everyone else, I used to want to be a writer and had to figure it out. Richard Bach (no idea) says, “A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.”

My writing principles apply to writers in all situations. You can’t write at a kitchen table with people coming and going and constant interruptions. It’s just too hard. Either go out to a café (pandemic permitting) and put in headphones. Or go to another room in the house. Upstairs. Quiet. Or put on over-the-ear headphones. Figure it out.

But here's what you really need to do:

Tell Someone

Tell members of your family, or housemates, that that is what you are doing: writing. For a specific period of time. They almost certainly want you to succeed at your writing (to stop you going on about it, if nothing else). But they don’t know how to support you. They can do that by shutting up and going away and letting you write for a couple of hours. Or even just 45 minutes.

But they won’t know to do that unless you tell them. And they won’t know when to do that unless you inform them of your writing time. Do it.

This, in turn, gives you an extra incentive to write. If people you love are making allowances for you to take time to write, you’re now morally obliged to actually write something. So turn off notications – switch of your router or wi-fi if necessary – put your phone in another room and write. (Remember it will be bad. So don't get frustrated. Write anyway)

Repeat the process as many times a week as you can for three months. Then a year. And you will have written something substantial. And there's a chance it doesn't suck.

Take Action

If you’re fitting your writing around raising kids or a full time job – or both – do three things:

First, find two or three times in the week to write, even if it's twenty minutes at a time, and put them in diary or planner.

Then, second: tell people you live with that that is your time to write. Give them the chance to support you in your endeavour. Ask your other half to take the kids out of the way or put on Disney+. Tell your other half you won’t be watching TV on Thursday nights (so they can watch that boxed set you never fancied) because that’s when you want to write. And you want to write Netflix, not just watch it. Put some time in the diary, and pour concrete around it.

Third, turn off notifications, switch off your phone, and write.

Do this and you might find you’re writing for 1-4 hours a week. Could you manage an hour on Saturday too? Take Sunday off. Rest.

Eventually, but suddenly, you’ve written something. That’d be good, wouldn’t it?

One More Thing

This is all takes time. That's one emphasis of my new video course, Writing Your Sitcom. Creating a 5000 word sitcom script that you don't hate takes many many hours over many many weeks. That's why it's a 12 step course which breaks it all down into manageable chunks that you can act on, rather than packing it into a frenetic weekend. 

You can watch each video as many times as you like, learn each lesson and build your script in your own time at your own pace. It's all there. Just set aside time to watch the lesson, and grab the notes, and view it. And make your own notes.

Do the set homework in your own time - which is geared around writing your script, rather than arbitrary writing exercises. But it's all meant to make you a better writer.

There are even monthly Zoom chats with me included, to check on progress and ask me anything you like to make you're not going mad (or establish your script, at least, is not the primary cause).

And after a few months, you might have a script you can bear to put your name on and send to someone. Worth a look?

In the meantime, keep checking back for updates on this blog, which will be updated frequently in 2021. Follow me on Twitter for updates.

Habits of Highly Effective Writers #4: Writing Part 1

Writers read, listen, observe, think and make notes. We've covered that. They also, er, write? So let’s think about actually writing – in two parts. We need to distinguish between motivation and practice. In this post, we will deal with motivation.

What's My Motivation?

Lots of people say they want to write, or be a writer, yet somehow don’t write very much. If anything. Why is that?

People like the idea of being a writer. In a poll in 2015, the most desirable job turned out to be 'author'. Anyone who actually writes knows that most authors make very little money and that writing itself is extremely difficult and frustrating. People tend not picture screaming at a piece of flip-chart paper which highlights the deep flaws in the second act. They don’t think about the relentless grind of having to write a certain numbers of words a day by a particular deadline.

Romanticised views of the writing life never die. They just get rewritten. There used to be the image of the artist in their chilly garret hammering out a screenplay on a typewriter. Now that image has become sitting in a warm, semi-deserted café, sipping an espresso while writing a great novel.

JK Rowling went to cafes to write her much rejected first novel about Harry Potter. We know. It’s a good story. And these stories can inspire you or get you out of bed once or twice, but in the long run they are deeply unhelpful.

Be honest with yourself: Do you want to be writer more than you actually want to write?

If you don’t want to write, or enjoy any part of it, or continually find excuses to not write, there’s a good chance you should probably find another craft which you make take to more readily. Consider something else.

That’s right. I’m telling you to give up now.

And I’m telling you that because no-one else will.

It’s not that I’m trying to scare away the competition. It's too late for that. Apparently writing is the dream job for 60% of the population. I’m just trying to spare you frustration and agony.

Maybe you're eying JK Rowlings millions. She might even be sitting on a billion. Writing could be your path to riches. And hey, children’s books are short. How hard can it be?

Stop.

Let me tell you now that if want to make money, virtually anything else is more profitable for the amount of work, pain and rejection that lies ahead. JK Rowling’s story is inspiring and remarkable because it so rarely happens, and so rarely makes one person so fabulously wealthy. And let’s be honest, her net worth is probably on 15% book sales, and the rest is merch, movie rights, spin-offs, apps, games and general Pottermania.

What We Learn from JK Rowling

Don’t miss the main point of JK Rowling’s story: It is that she had a story to tell, and she had built a world, a Potterverse, and she wanted to share it. She wanted to write about it. She had to, despite deep personal inconvenience. It would have been far easier not to have bothered, or just talked about it, or blame her own life situation. But she wanted to write more than anything else in the world. So she found a way.

The money was a bonus, not the motivation. Writing was something she had to do, because in the short term, what she was doing made very little sense.

So take a moment now to think whether you want to actually write, or whether you like the idea of being a writer. The two are as far apart as enjoying travelling and actually being the driver of a steam train.

What Will You Write?

If you really do want to write, and you're still reading, and I've not put you off, great. Next job. Think about what you want to write. What story do you want to tell? What genre do you want to write in? What medium? What format?

Don’t chose something just because it seems the easiest in which to progress. There are no shortcuts. And writing’s too hard to be cynical. You need to write about what you want to write about. What you are passionate about. Or interested in. Or excited by.

This blog is about sitcom writing, primarily, so let's use that as an example. In a sitcom context, it’s easy to be in love with the form, think of a new situation, assemble some characters and start writing scripts. Well, not easy, but comparatively easy. But that won’t do. That’s just essentially fan fiction (see YouTube video below).

It's also easy to learn that hardly anyone is writing studio sitcoms, and you heard that they tend to be looked upon more favourably. So you want to get ahead by writing one of those. Or you heard that they still want another Fleabag, so you're trying to write one of those.

Don't. It's too hard and time consuming to write a script that you don't truly believe in. You need to ask yourself hard questions. What do you want to write about? What is your sitcom?

Writing Your Sitcom

That’s the emphasis of my new video course, Writing Your Sitcom. The 'Your' is important. It has to be your sitcom and no-one else’s. Something that is cynically engineered, or generically put together, won’t cut it. And that script won’t get you work and help you progress. And who's got time to waste writing a script that isn't going to get you anywhere?

That's why I've put the course together. It starts from scratch and takes you through the process of helping you create a sitcom that shows what you can do, and will demonstrate your voice and perspective, because all that stuff is more important now than it ever has been.

So if you're new to this, and determined to write a sitcom script, this course is for you. And if you've been around the houses a few times, and nothing seems to be working, maybe you need a fresh approach. So why not take a look?

In the meantime, keep checking back for updates on this blog, which I hope will help you along the way. Next time, we’ll look at the actually process of writing and developing some habits that might actually make that possible and more productive.

Habits of Highly Effective Writers #3: Making Notes

Writers don’t just write. They read. They listen.

They also observe. They think. And remember.

Your memory might need some help.

A few people have photographic memories, or brains like an index card system. Good for you. The rest of us have to write stuff down. But have we made that a habit? Have we made a plan to do that?

We see things; we hear a turn of phrase; we read something intriguing; we have a thought; we need to record it. It might not be profound in itself, or even original, but it is noteworthy. So note it, and come back to it another time.

For many, the blank page is terrifying. Where do you start? What are you going to write? One is rarely inspired with the right ideas at the right moment. You need to starting points. You need boosters. You need a spark to ignite something. That’s what these notes are. Sparks that might catch.

My main job is writing sitcom episodes – and helping others to do so. When developing characters, stories and plots, you don’t want to be sitting gazing into space thinking, or at least not for too long. You might produce a few ideas that, but you don’t need a few. You need dozens. Hundreds. The hope is that one of these ideas will be exactly the right shape, size and tone for the moment. The way to generate these ideas is to make notes and then start working through them when you need to turn vague ideas into paper-based reality.

Relying on scraps of paper stuffed into your wallet is not a long-term solution.

If you want to develop the habit of taking notes, you need to a system that will work wherever you are. The options are fairly obvious.

These are some of my notebooks

Option 1: A notebook

Do you have one? I do. Several (see pic)

Even more crucially, do you know where your notebook is? I probably don’t.

Do you have a pen handy? I almost certainly don’t. Get a notebook and pen. Even better, get a notebook which has a slot for a pen.

Don’t get a notebook that’s so nice and expensive that you don’t want to spoil it by writing in it. Get a cheap exercise book or make a wad of paper with a bulldog clip. And have it in your bag. (TK Maxx sell very nice notebooks, including Moleskine ones, for a fraction of the price you’d pay elsewhere, if you have a rummage. You are welcome).

So get a note book. Somehow attach a pen so you can always write in this notebook. And make notes.

As I’ve hinted, I’m hopeless with physical notebooks and pens. I also worry about losing notebooks and ideas, which are the basis of much of my income. So I also use an electronic option. In fact I use two electronic options:

Option 2: Notes App

Even if I have a notebook handy, I won’t be able to find a pen. But I do have a phone and a thumb. So I make heavy use of the Notes app on my phone.

If you’re unable to type for whatever, it does a pretty good job of taking dictation and turning it into text. (Andy Riley told me that.) In fact, even if the text is garbled and some words are transcribed incorrectly, you can still remember the overall point of the note. You could correct it later too when you’re not driving or washing up.

There are at least two upsides of making notes this way.

The first is that they are backed up, and magically appear on my desktop app, so they are accessible.

Secondly, they are searchable. If there’s a key word on half-remembered idea, I can search for it and will probably find it. Probably.

Option 3: Tablets

For quick ideas that occur to me while walking or reading, I use my phone. To make other notes for more long term projects, especially if it’s collaborative, I use an iPad, an Apple pencil and the Notability App, but there are lots of alternative tablets and apps. I rarely share these notes (my handwriting isn't pretty), but I could if I needed to. I might type them up later and if I’m on a busy train, I can see the notes on a screen via my Dropbox and I can type away, without taking up extra table space. Handy. And it's these marginal habits than can make a difference, and make you more productive. So give them some thought for the coming year.

As I’ve said, I have serious trouble keeping hold of pens and pencils. And after losing two different Apple pencils, I hit upon the idea of an iPad case that has a slot for the pencil. In fact, my friend Freya suggested that. And now it’s yours. You are welcome.

My new video course, Writing Your Sitcom, launched soon, but for now, if you have a script a polish before sending off to the BBC Writersroom or an agent or producer, I've produced a PDF of 7 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Script Right Now. Get it here.

Habits of Highly Effective Writers #2: Listening

We're looking to form better habits in the new year. Last time, we looked at how writers are readers. And I’ll be honest. This post is also about reading. Except a different kind of reading: listening.

After all, how much time do you make for reading during the day? Probably almost none. Maybe there’s a commute. Or used to be. For many of us, we read in bed, and that’s about it. And that's not a lot of reading. It's not enough.

That doesn’t have to be the case. Before we get onto listening, you could read one evening a week instead of watching TV. The pictures on Netflix are good, but even better in your head. You could cancel Netflix for three months and read instead. New habits are hard to form if you don't make an early change that reinforces the habit. And the boxed sets will all be there when you go back to it. And also, do you need to watch 2hrs+ of TV a night?

Listening Is The New Reading

Someone tell her about phones

You can read when you’re washing up, driving or balling socks. You can listen to the best voices reading our finest books. In fact, decent voices reading perfectly serviceable books is superior to the 24 hour news cycle, which doesn’t get you anywhere. It’s a news cycle. The clue is in the title. It gets you back where you started, except slightly angrier and more stressed. Why not listen to Treasure Island? Or Daniel Deronda? Or Hard Times?

Audible’s fab and just works. It has pretty much cornered the market, but there’s a free public domain version called Librivox (there's an App for that), in which enthusiasts read aloud books that are out of copyright. Worth a go.

I’ve been hooked on audio for years. I don’t listen to any news or broadcast radio and haven’t for at least a decade. I’ve been listening to podcasts.

But if you're not careful these can have the same effect as news, commenting on recent cultural developments and stoking anxiety or rage. You end up listening to similar podcast and we're back to the algorithm and the echo chamber. You're a writer. You need to get out of that space. Take decisive action.

Delete All

Overcast App

A while back, I deleted the Podcast App on my iPhone. Podcasts, downloads, everything. It's a truly awful app and Overcast and Pocketcast are much better. But I wanted to start again and try new podcasts on a new App rather than returning to the same voices saying the same things over and over. The Bible, surprisingly, warns against being a dog returning to its vomit. Did you know the Bible said that? Have you read the Bible? Try that. If you have, have you read other foundational texts like Pilgrim's Progress (which I have read and dislike), Paradise Lost (which I've not yet read but realise I need to). Or the holy books of other faiths?

Alongside the bonfire of the vanities on my podcasts, I’ve increased the number of audiobooks I listen to. The other day, I even bought Simon Armitage reading his own translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Why don’t you make an impulse purchase like that? And then listen to it? While you clean the kitchen or dig the garden? And I'll listen to Milton's Paradise Lost.

Ingest more books. Make time to read them. Listen to them. Buy some decent wireless headphones and listen to more proper books.

If you have a script a polish before sending off to the BBC Writersroom or an agent or producer, I've produced a PDF of 7 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Script Right Now. Get it here.

Habits of Highly Effective Writers #1: Reading

If you want the year ahead to be a better year writing-wise, consider changing some of your habits.

I’ll be making some suggestions over the next series of blog post. Ignore, use, abuse and plunder them. One size never fits all. They are a little brusque and that is deliberate. But I hope they are practical.

As we proceed, you will note only one of them is actually about actual writing.

But for now let’s start with the bedrock of writing: Reading.

Read More Books

Writers are readers. This is a given. You want to write words. Why should anyone read your words if you’re not prepared to read anyone else’s?

Ideas comes from books. An argument can be carefully constructed with facts and evidence, unlike on the internet where facts seem to get in the way. Writers are interested in ideas. Stories and characters are about ideas, after all. Characters incarnate ideas and perspectives.

The written word also expands our minds since it is a very flexible medium. The writer has total control over what the reader experiences, and therefore the reading experience can take you places hitherto unexplored.

Moreover, published books show how the written word should be written. You learn so much about the art of writing just by reading. So, that's why I say again: Read more books this year.

How to Read More Books

If you find it helpful to set a target, do that. Make a list. If you're the competitive type, compete against yourself. Write a list of the books you read last year, and then try to read more books this year.

Don’t just read more books. Read fewer books if you like. But try and read better books. Some trash is fine, and might be educational or inspiring. But read a few classics. A class was invariably written decades and centuries ago, and has subsequently been declared a classic. This means you will be looking through a clear, reveal window of a time when people were the same, but they thought very differently. Look through some new windows this coming year.

Read More Widely

If you read mostly fiction, read more non-fiction. I’m the other way around, and have to make myself read more fiction. I’m glad I have. And I read plenty of novels that I liked. And plenty that I didn’t like. I even gave up on a few of them, but I’m glad I started them and gave them a hundred pages before bailing.

What happens if don’t need to read books to the end?

Nothing. Nothing happens. You don't have to read books to the end.

If you’ve ever written a book, you might be more inclined to do so given you know how much work has gone into that book. But slogging on to the end of a book can just be a waste of time. Sometimes it’s worth it. I would probably have given up on A Gentleman in Moscow half way through if my wife hadn’t insisted it was worth continuing. I’m glad I did, although I maintain the book is still at least 50 pages too long, if not 80.

A few years ago, I gave up on Gilead after a hundred pages (nothing was happening and I was assured that nothing was going to happen) and I'm fine with that.

It's not just taste about pace. Sometimes books are just too long or poorly edited. Non-fiction is often guilty of being too long, especially in books about ideas (rather than biographies). Perhaps there is a need to deliver perceived value, but often the thesis is set out clearly in the first eighty pages, and thereafter there is a law of diminishing returns. I’ve been recommending The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt to everyone over the last five years, but even I would admit that 90% of the value of that book is in the first 120 pages or so.

Warning: Don’t Let Your Pile of Books Get Too High

A big pile starts to feel like homework.

Try to buy only a book or two ahead. It’s exciting to get a new book, and that’s when you want to read it most. If you’ve got a stack of nine books, you’re not going to get to this new one for a few months, and the fire of excitement may have dimmed. You might not even remember why you bought the book. Make a list of books you want to read and buy them as you go.

Beat the Amazon Algorithm

Amazon is a never-ending flowing river of books, and the algorithm is smart, but pretty soon, you’ll reading similar overlapping books if you just rely on their recommendations. Avoid this. Here's how:

Ask your friends in person or social media for book recommendations, especially asking for books that surprised them or that they encountered randomly. What was their favourite book of last year? Or ever? Ask people you don’t know very well for book recommendations, as you might get some outliers that way, and you may end up reading a book that changes your life, or opens up a whole new area for you.

Get recommendations from magazines that review books, or weekend newspapers. You don’t even need to read the review, or prejudge it based on the reviewers comments, but these book sections just bring new books to your attention. You might stumble across a new book about oak trees, quantum computing or the Raj that you suddenly want to read. This is the kind of book that would otherwise not have entered your echo chamber. Buy it and read it, remembering you don’t have to read to the end.

Browsing Books

You might want to browse a book first, or check it out. You can often read the first chapter of a book using Kindle Samples on Amazon. You get the first part of the book sent to your kindle or Kindle App for free. I use this function a lot, especially with non-fiction. Usually I’m checking the book is about what I think it’s about. I’m also making sure the writing style doesn’t grate with me for whatever reason.

Alternatively, pandemic permitting, go to an actual bookshop. Remember those? Have a good look around. But also make an arbitrary rule to pay special attention to books with, say, red or blue covers. Go to a section you never normally go to. Mix it up.

You’ll find an even more esoteric collection in second hand bookshops, charity shop or bric-a-brac stores. Pop in and see what they’ve got. It might only take five minutes to have a flick through their book section. The book might only cost 50p. What have you got to lose?

Writers read. If you want to improve your writer and have more to write about, read more and read wider.

If you have a sitcom script needs a polish before sending off to the BBC Writersroom or an agent or producer, I've produced a PDF of 7 Things You Can Do To Improve Your Script Right Now. Get it here.