Hello dear Off-Topic Readers,
So many of the avid readers I know also write in one form or another1, so on the basis that maybe you do too, I thought I’d share some books and podcasts that I enjoy around that. But even if you don't write yourself, perhaps you’re as fascinated as I am in hearing about the processes involved and quite a few of the recommendations that follow are also just interesting from a reading perspective (I think, anyway).
I read The Writing Life: Writers on How they Think and Work several years ago now, so can’t remember specifics, but do remember my overall enjoyment in it. It’s a collection drawn from the ‘The Writing Life’ Washington Post column and introduces each author with a short biography and then their personal thoughts and anecdotes as they discuss their life as a writer. Each case study offers quite different insights - some on how they discovered they wanted to write, others on the process itself, how they undertake research, or cope with feelings around failure. It features authors from Joyce Carol Oates to Carol Shields, Julian Barnes to Susan Minot, and lots I didn’t recognise in between (naturally, there’s a bias toward American writers).
I’m only a short way into Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them, but I love how Francine breaks apart a passage from a classic text and then analyses the way it handles character, dialogue, sentence structure etc (it’s just like being back in my A-level English classroom). I think it stands up as a book solely to improve the way we read (as well as write). I often find myself racing through a novel propelled by the story, my brain spiking occasionally on a particularly beautiful sentence, but I’m probably guilty of missing a lot of the more nuanced stuff. So this book naturally guides the reader into slowing down, saying, Here, look at this bit. And see what the author is doing there, too. For me, so far, the only improvement would be to have more contemporary authors mixed in there too.
I’ve subscribed to Mslexia magazine for quite a few years now - I have no idea how often it’s published, only that it arrives through my door on a semi-regular basis and always feels like a welcome treat. Actually, I’ve just looked it up - it describes itself as ‘a magazine for women who write’ and ‘a quarterly masterclass in the business and psychology of writing.’ It includes book reviews, trends in publishing, writing advice, as well as showcasing work from its readers. I really enjoy the editorial pieces and there’s always a good round up of poetry / flash fiction / short story / novel competitions to enter if that’s your thing too (Nb. I think this aspect is probably quite UK-centric).
Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg - a series of bite-sized essays, this is probably one of my favourite books about writing. It’s not an instructional book that attempts to teach the mechanics of how to build character/plot etc, but rather a collection of ideas that challenge the reader to think and in turn perhaps become a better writer.
A bit of a random one, but I love The Guardian’s You Be the Judge column for getting an insight into the intricacies of other people’s lives and the nitty-gritty of their day-to-day bickering - the things you don’t see when a house and its inhabitants have been tidied for guests. It usually features partners / flatmates who have dramatically opposing ways of doing a particular thing - one week it was about someone’s partner who insists on returning the eggshells to the carton along with the unused eggs. I have no words for that, but that’s really the joy of it2. I think it’s sometimes hard to imagine quite how differently we all do things and so this kind of detail is just delicious (or perhaps not) for opening up your mind to that. And I always feel a peculiar fondness for the people who feature - it’s never the big my-husband-had-an-affair-with-the-vicar’s-wife stuff, but the everyday details that seem to reveal so much about a person and their attitude to life. Wonderful.
A Writer’s Journal Workbook by Lucy Van Smit - let’s just start by noting that this book is a beautiful Tiffany blue and that in itself makes it quite lovely. But on to its contents. There’s something about workbooks and those prescriptive blank spaces left for the reader to fill in that I just don’t like - it all feels oddly infantilising. But despite objecting to the format, I really love what Lucy’s put into this - many of the prompts are designed to set the reader thinking and to engage their observational skills, and around that, I like what she has to say about writing - she comes at it from all angles with lots of valuable ideas, often embracing a bit of woo (although with foundations in solid research). Also excellent, it’s packed with fantastic quotes on the subject of writing taken from a wide range of sources. Btw, The National Centre for Writing produces a podcast called The Writing Life, where a recent episode featured Lucy talking about this journal (she seems like the loveliest person).
Bird by Bird: Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott. This is slightly more instructional than the Natalie Goldberg, but still very much on the generalised/theory side of things :) Anne is open, messy around the edges, and shares her insights with humour and generosity. It’s a book that leaves me wanting to write. And yes, those are really all the things I can remember, apart from that it’s good. I wish I had a brain that retained certain types of information better. I’m sure reading reviews by people who can remember things might give you a better insight if you’re interested though.
This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, by Ann Patchett - a book of her (totally wonderful) essays, which happens to include a long piece on the subject of writing. I found Ann’s tone a little sharper than usual in this (I sensed a slight impatience, which I think may come from aspiring writers often asking too much of her), but it’s excellent. There’s also an especially good essay about Ann taking the exam/physical trial to join the New York’s police force (at least I think it was NYPD - it could have been somewhere else…) and is an impressive study on determination.
My daughter gave me Will Storr’s The Science of Storytelling, which is a really interesting read (and for anyone with younger children pained by time passing too quickly - I always was - this is the kind of loveliness you have to look forward to. I don’t think anything makes me feel more special than my children not only choosing books for me, but ones that are so exactly right for me). It is actually so spot on, that I’d already read the hardback a few years ago…but I felt too attached to my daughter’s copy not to keep it3. Because really, it is the best of copies. Again, worth looking at some reviews - I just remember thinking how good it was.4
Hattie Crisell hosts an excellent podcast, In Writing, where she interviews writers about their process - that’s a link to the online version, but you can also subscribe through your regular podcast app if you have one. For anyone who adored Sorrow & Bliss, note that there’s an excellent interview with its author, Meg Mason.
Finally, The London Writer’s Salon went online during the pandemic and now host hour-long worldwide writing sessions, where you can join them up to four times a day. Although there’s a brief period of chat right at the end, most of the session takes place with microphones muted. There’s something about seeing everyone silently sitting at their desks writing away that forces you to put your pen on the page and just get on with it - so helpful if you’re struggling to focus.
Nb. I had a funny thing when I glanced up the first time and it seemed like some of the writers were staring right at me, even though the screen is so packed with people-containing boxes this would be unlikely. I decided to assume many people look into the distance* for most of the hour and use it as thinking time….but then had an exciting Eureka! moment when I realised they were probably looking at their screen whilst typing (as opposed to writing in a notebook). Seriously. Sometimes my brain feels like it’s ploughing through treacle 🙈.
* Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Adam Duritz is particularly vocal on this matter suggesting, If you've never stared off into the distance, then your life is a shame - I think Mrs Potter’s Lullaby is a slightly lesser-known Counting Crows song, but it’s one of my absolute favourites. Adam will now play out my footnotes if you’d like to leave it running in the background ;)
I’d love to hear if you have any thoughts or recommendations - please do leave a comment :)
With thanks for reading and wishing you a giant ice-cream scoop of happiness,
Florence x
Although I think many of us only admit to it sheepishly. Myself included.
Also, I am big on egg box recycling and this habit would prevent that. We return them to the farm shop to be used again, although I am appalling at remembering to actually pick them up as we leave the house and so sometimes end up with a towering pile of about 40 boxes 🙈. I think this is akin to delivering a golden egg[box] when we eventually do remember. And yes, even I am surprised by how eggs find their way into EVERY newsletter...I genuinely don’t know how it happens.
I feel I should probably admit to my own bad habits in this department though (which don’t involve putting the shells in the boxes), as my husband likes to imagine I run a cookery show called Splaticate, because every day when I make our lunch, I drop the just-cracked shells directly onto the work surface. ‘Why can’t you put them straight into the recycling pot?’ he asks. Because I don’t want that stinking box open next to my beautiful freshly cracked eggs, obviously 🤷🏻♀️. And while we’re on kitchen crimes, I will also happily go to bed without doing the washing up if we’ve had friends over - I actually quite like coming down the next morning to the remains of a lovely evening and washing glasses thinking of the fun we had, but he finds this absolutely incomprehensible and can barely be peeled away from the dishwasher even while people are still here. Nb. I feel I should really only expose my own foibles in my newsletter, but my husband is certainly not the patron saint of cleaning. In reality though, I think we both find the cat’s habits more irritating than each other’s - she has single-pawedly attempted to ruin nearly every nice thing we own…although that’s a misnomer because she actively involves both paws, because why limit herself? Dogs are so much easier.
If you’re local and would like my hardback copy (that is good, but not quite as good as the daughter-bought one), let me know and I’ll get it to you :)
It’s funny, isn’t it - I can see how one might think, What’s the point in you reading something if you can’t remember it later? But I think the point is that the bits that really resonate, shift my perspective slightly or prompt me to race off down a particular path, and it’s probably that shift/action that’s of value and is what’s left with me, rather than clarity over recalling exact contents. Although I would love to have both!
Florence, I love listening to the Penguin podcasts. Interviews with authors I love and some I've not heard of.
Have you tried the Death of a Thousand Cuts podcast? It's a weekly thing (I assume, I'm only a dozen in and there's lots more) where the host takes an opening piece of prose submitted and, well, demolishes it*. And deservedly. It can be toe-curling, but the prose can be toe-curling too and listening to it makes you feel a lot better about your own instincts. Not all the submissions are terrible - the ones I've listened to there's been one that you actually want to hear more from.
*Is very very rude but also very very informative. You can hear that it sucks, but the host pinpoints specifically why, and how it could be better, and makes you (me) go "ohhhh, that's why".