mick jackson’s top writing tips
Mick’s first novel, The Underground Man, was shortlisted for The Booker Prize. He has since published a further three novels and three collections of stories, all with Faber and Faber. He teaches on the Brighton Creative Writing Programme. Here are his top writing tips.
Quite often I try and encourage my students to do something ‘different’. We spend so much energy studying what other writers have done / what publishers want / etc that it’s easy to find yourself trying to replicate what’s already out there. Working on something that’s uniquely yours might have the benefit of making your work stand out from the crowd. You’re also more likely to enjoy writing it.
Get to the end of the story. Early on, it can be very hard to work an idea through to completion but if you’re not careful you can end up having lots of half-finished stories (and are possibly avoiding people reading and responding to them along the way). Give yourself deadlines (eg writing competitions) to encourage yourself to get a piece over the line. Then at least you’ve got something to return to later and edit and you’ll be developing your understanding of structure and shape.
If you can, try and have at least a couple of ideas on the go at any time. That way, if one of them grinds to a halt you can always direct your attention to the other one, rather than just bash your head against a wall.
One of my favourite quotes is attributed to Pablo Picasso: ‘Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working’. In other words, there’s more chance of you actually writing something if you’re sitting at your desk.
One of my other favourite quotes is from Alice Munro: ‘Every story is two stories’. I’m not sure of the context of the original quote but it works for me in that quite often I’ll have an idea that seems strangely static until a second idea comes along and crashes into it … then suddenly there’s energy, interaction and things start to move along.
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