Why you should write in your pyjamas, plus a workshop and new books

Write in your pyjamas
A couple of weeks ago, I was back at Arvon’s Totleigh Barton in Devon tutoring with the lovely Jen Hadfield. We were talking about our own writing habits, and discovered that one process had given us both a creative jump start.

Early in our writing lives, Jen and I both read Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. Have you read it? I discovered it through a colleague at the film company where I was working at the time – it had inspired her to get on a plane and leave New York to come to London to start her own creative career. It’s one of those books that’s ideal to read when you desperately want permission to be creative, but don’t think you deserve it, can’t find the time to do it, and are filled with insecurities about your creative self.

Anyhow, Julia Cameron recommends writing morning pages. As soon as you get up, you write three pages, longhand, about whatever’s on your mind. You write them as fast as you can, without censoring yourself, just letting a stream of consciousness come pouring out through your pen. It’s a detoxifying brain dump. There’s a video clip of Julia Cameron talking about how to do morning pages on her website.

The thing they did for me was to get me into the habit of writing first thing in the morning. I did them for a few years, then didn’t need them anymore – I’d got a rock-solid habit of waking every day at 6am and writing fiction. There are two reasons why I recommend writing first thing like this: firstly, you get your writing done before all the other commitments in your life get in the way. It’s much harder to write later in the day when there are emails to be replied to, mundane chores to be attended to, and you’re knackered from a day’s work and just want to watch Great British Menu and drink a bottle of red wine; secondly, just after you wake up, you’re in that magical, liminal state, where your unconscious mind is more present. When you’re writing fiction, your unconscious mind does all the really great stuff, the original leaps and connections that surprise and delight you when you see yourself type them and feel like you’re actually in the back seat and not driving at all. Have you had that experience – it’s the best, huh? I’ve found that my own internal critic who hates everything I do tends to wake up much later in the day – the lazy git – so I get my best work done while he’s still asleep. So that’s why I write in my pyjamas, and on a good day now, I don’t get dressed till mid-morning.

Word Factory Workshop
In a few weeks, on Saturday 27 April, I’m going to be talking about a strategy for editing your fiction at The Art of Story Writing – a workshop from the brilliant Word Factory, along with Michele Roberts, Cathy Galvin – creator of the Sunday Times EFG award and short story champion, and agent Carrie Kania. You can book your place here – your ticket also includes entry to that night’s Word Factory gig at the warm and intimate Society Club in Soho, featuring Lionel Shriver. It’s going to be an awesome day – I’m looking forward to it already. If you’re a short story fan, you should definitely follow Word Factory on Facebook to find out when their monthly event tickets go on sale – they sell out every time and well ahead of the event itself.

New anthologies
I love writing short stories in response to interesting and challenging briefs, and I’ve had a few of those recently. Two of these anthologies have just come out: The first is Biopunk from Comma Press – an anthology of short stories about the potential ethical consequences of current bio-medical research. The second is Beacons from Oneworld – an anthology of short stories looking at the environmental shit-storm we’re heading towards. Click the links above to find out more.

Have you heard The Goat Rodeo?
Before I go, I just wanted to share with you a brilliant album I’ve been listening to recently. I love a great creative mash-up, and this is one of the best: The Goat Rodeo – have you heard them? The Goat Rodeo is cellist Yo-Yo Ma, bluegrass fiddle player Stuart Duncan, double bassist Edgar Meyer, and mandolinist Chris Thile – they come from such different musical backgrounds, but together they sound like nothing else I’ve ever heard. Here’s a video clip of one of my favourite tracks from the album, Attaboy. Enjoy.