Show up, love the process, don’t follow trends: insider tips on how to write a book
If you have a book in you, a novelist, an agent and a publisher each share their top three golden rules for getting it out
Why I quit
I couldn’t put a boring book down. Now I take pleasure in saying enough is enough
Callum Bains
Last year, I finally realised that my habit of seeing everything through to the end was just a colossal waste of time, says Callum Bains
AI prompts can boost writers’ creativity but result in similar stories, study finds
Ideas generated by ChatGPT can help writers who lack inherent flair but may mean there are fewer unique ideas
April 2024
A new start after 60
A new start after 60: after a decade of rejections, I got my first novel published. Now I’ve got my dream, I won’t stop!
Martha Mills young writers’ prize open for entries
November 2023
A new start after 60
A new start after 60: I lost my sight, fell in a canal - and became the writer I’d always wanted to be
When his vision failed, Roger Cowell knew he needed to find a different way to live. So he put pen to paper, and the words poured out of him
September 2023
A new start after 60
A new start after 60: My job threatened to make me ill – so I moved out of London and started a magazine
Mich Maroney, 61, moved to West Cork and launched Swerve, a literary and arts magazine, in 2022. Now her cottage in Skibbereen has become a creative hub
August 2023
Don’t sweat that deadline; time-wasting can be time well spent
Emma Wilkins
It’s not only creatives whose work can be fuelled by a bit of downtime
July 2023
Winners of the inaugural Martha Mills prize for young writers announced
Judges praised the ‘staggering amount of talent on display’ in entries to the competition launched by the London Review Bookshop for writers aged 11 to 14
April 2023
Top 10s
Top 10 first lines in fiction
The first words of a story have to do a lot of work in snaring the reader. Novelist Liz Nugent considers some of her favourites
January 2023
In brief: The Cloisters; My Trade Is Mystery; Sweat: A History of Exercise – review
A tense whodunnit unfolds in New York’s Metropolitan museum; poet Carl Phillips imparts life lessons for all; and a study of our need to keep in shape
December 2022
Struggling authors know writing is a rich person’s hobby
Dear year 12: if you’re going to start a career at the end of the world, you may as well follow your dreams
Anna Spargo-Ryan
Horribly low pay is pushing out my fellow authors – and yes, that really does matter
Joanne Harris
Writers’ earnings have plummeted – with women, Black and mixed race authors worst hit
July 2022
Other lives
Zulfikar Ghose obituary
Other lives: Poet, novelist and literary critic who was also a university lecturer in creative writing
March 2022
‘I couldn’t face the resentment and rage’: can artistic couples have successful relationships?
‘I felt different as a child. I was nearly mute’: Elena Ferrante in conversation with Elizabeth Strout
January 2022
Jami Attenberg: ‘Rejection gave me a fresh start, a new year’
The American author on how one professor’s criticism gave her the boost she needed to find her own way into a writing career
December 2021
‘Don’t start a sex scene when your mother-in-law is visiting’: how I wrote a novel in a month
In November, Guardian writer Tim Jonze joined half a million others taking part in National Novel Writing Month. Could he get to the end – and would it be any good?
