by Anna Vaught | Apr 12, 2022
What does it mean to be productive? How can writers keep going when it feels like everything is stacked against them? Novelist, essayist and short fiction writer Anna Vaught shares the alchemy of gentle productivity that helps her keep writing. Six years ago, I...
by Bec Evans | Sep 2, 2021
Oliver Burkeman’s new book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time and How to Use It explores how to build a life of creativity, productivity and meaning when we have limited time available – and even less control over that time. I caught up with him to ask what that means...
by Chris Smith | Jan 29, 2021
June the 18th 1858 should go down in history as the day when one of the world’s most influential, revolutionary books was finally sparked into life. On that day the English naturalist Charles Darwin – who was little known at the time – was opening his morning mail...
by Bec Evans | Jan 6, 2021
Visualising success can feel a bit woo-woo, but research shows that mental practice is an component of expertise. “I shall be a bestselling writer” wrote Octavia E Butler in 1988. She is not alone in fantasising about writing chart-topping books – I’d wager most...
by Chris Smith | Oct 27, 2020
Back in 2009 writer Neil Gaiman was replying to a fan who’d contacted him through his blog. Gareth – the fan – wanted some advice, and to have a bit of a moan. Not about Gaiman but about George R.R. Martin, the massively successful author of the A Song of Ice and Fire...
by Bec Evans | Sep 28, 2020
Mason Currey compiled over 300 mini-biographies of the day-to-day working lives of writers, artists and creative minds in his bestselling books Daily Rituals and the second volume Women at Work. We ask him about the inspiration and obstacles people face with creative...
