The airy, modern home shared by Val McDiarmid and Joe Sharp on the outskirts of Edinburgh is surrounded by greenery and looks as if it was designed to provide enough space for two minds to think. Both women are high achievers in their respective fields, a Scottish power couple made up of a crime queen
“It’s just a question of whether you’re looking through a telescope or a microscope.” This first appeared in Lit Hub art of writing Newsletter—Sign up here. Article continues after ad I don’t work on an epic scale, although my ambitions run more to epic proportions than I’d like to admit.It is a question of focus.
Let’s be honest about something: The fact that writing is hard has nothing to do with how talented you are, how many ideas you have, or how much you want to complete your novel. Writing is hard because your human brain, which has been running and updating biological human survival software for about 200,000 years,
IIn late February 2022, Charlie Walker set out on a hiking holiday in Northern Siberia. In temperatures as low as -50C, they intended to sail a thousand miles north along the frozen surface of the Lena River, then across the solid Laptev Sea to the port city of Tiksi, before eventually flying to London. “The
In August 2021, I could not study. I had just had a miscarriage—my second within six months—and every time I picked up a novel, I would become disoriented, the words jumbled up, almost incomprehensible. I complained about this to a friend of mine. “I don’t know what to do,” I said. “It’s like my brain
Fiona Sampson explores the ways we can combine reality with fantasy Where is “literariness” in literary biography? With the book’s subject—or its author? Traditionally, it is associated with both, and also the third element. Literary biography also cares about the writing that originates from its subjects, and has been so since perhaps its founding text,
A few summers ago, when the Supreme Court was deciding whether abortion would remain legal, I was writing a novel about Bobby Kennedy. Article continues after ad During the day, I was a twenty-first century woman whose body was endlessly, furiously debated by politicians and regulated by the state and there was very little I
5am and it’s me and the birds. This is how I like it: when the house is sleeping. Outside, the low rumble of sanitation trucks. A lone scooter screeches down the block. Sometimes helicopters hover. A different kind of writer might pause to name the local birds (mourning doves, blue jays), open an ornithology app,
This first appeared in Lit Hub art of writing Newsletter—Sign up here. Article continues after ad A typical song begins with a short introduction that establishes the setting, moves into a verse that moves the narrative forward, moves through a bridge or B-section that complicates matters, and arrives at a chorus that provides emotional release.
Let’s say that during my twenties, all I did – literally – was write; All I could do was hope that my parents would read this, see me, grow up and care. Let’s say that during my twenties, I published three books in three genres and each time, my life got significantly worse. When book