How to write like a Booker-nominated author

‘A good writer needs a good rubbish bin,’ said Richard Flanagan, speaking backstage at London’s Guildhall after winning the Booker Prize in 2014. ‘I don’t think I’m much of a writer, but I’m a better re-writer,’ he added wryly. 

Jokes aside, Flanagan’s sentiment captures something essential about writing life: it is rarely straightforward, but shaped by habit and a constant urge to improve. 

Perhaps you are working on your own book and looking for inspiration, or simply curious about how real writers get words on the page. So, if you’ve ever wanted to get inside the mind of a Booker or International Booker Prize-nominated author, you’re in the right place. From silence and structure to cats, coffee, and carefully built routines, we’ve gathered 12 pieces of advice from fiction’s most acclaimed writers.

The early bird catches the worm  

Chigozie Obioma, author of The Fishermen 

‘I like to write very early in the morning. Nowadays, I write early in the sunroom attached to the side of my house in Athens, Georgia. I watch the sun in its rising, and that does something to my mind. I mostly need a stack of long papers and ballpoint pens, 10-point impression. I am not sure why I need to have that specific pen, but this is what I am most comfortable with. I don’t use the laptop until I need to type out what I have written.’ 

Find your writing sanctuary 

Tiffany Tsao, translator of Happy Stories, Mostly (written by Norman Erikson Pasaribu)

‘I’m not sure if I have a “favourite” place to write, but I have a place where I write most efficiently: the State Library of New South Wales. During the final throes of completing my most recent novel and translation project, I would head down to its bottom levels and type and type, breaking only for lunch.’ 

Keep your writing space simple 

Tim Winton, author of The Riders 

‘All I need is a chair and a table, paper and pencil. I’ve worked in caves, on boats, by campfires, but the easiest place to get stuff done is in a quiet room.’ 

Give your book the time it needs 

Sebastian Barry, author of Old God’s Time  

‘I try to set aside a year just for reading and dreaming – that peculiar dreaming of writers. Then a year to write the book, and then a year to reconsider, edit, make raids on the text as it were. Like Billy the Kid. Pat Garrett would be the doubts and worries (quite important, if dangerous). I wait for the book essentially and once it starts, I try to give it its head, as judiciously as possible, hoping it won’t go and gallop off a cliff.’ 

Embrace your writing quirks 

Samanta Schweblin, author of Little Eyes 

‘I’m a morning person (or a night owl, if necessary), but my head isn’t good for writing in the afternoon. The first thing I do before starting to work is put my hair back in a tight ponytail. There’s something about that kind of rigidity in the body that frees the mind, that makes it run faster than ever. It’s as if, when the body is trapped, the mind tries to escape as quickly as possible. It’s silly, but I’m aware that I can no longer write if I don’t tie back my hair. I don’t need silence – I can write when I’m travelling, or in a café, or in a waiting room. I do need some white noise around me, otherwise I have trouble concentrating. I almost always write on the computer, but sometimes, to clarify ideas, I write by hand for a while.’ 

Find a writing community 

Megan McDowell, translator of Little Eyes 

‘From 10am to 1pm, Monday through Friday, I have an online coworking group that includes Samanta and four other people. They’ve become fundamental to the organisation of my workday, and I don’t know how I got anything done before I had their little faces keeping me company over Zoom. Aside from them, I need: my laptop, my reMarkable [tablet], two cups of coffee, and a fan (it’s hot these days!).’ 

Write your way through uncertainty  

Marlon James, author of A Brief History of Seven Killings

‘I never remember the process of beginning a book. I remember ending them. I never remember beginning them. And I keep going, oh man, I forgot that this is hard. I don’t like this at all. Figuring out whose story it is, what voice it should be in. Is it third person, second, first? And I don’t have an efficient way of doing it. All I can do is keep writing until I go, this isn’t working, and start over.’ 

And a cat helps, too… 

Claire Keegan, author of Small Things Like These 

‘I write at home. [Small Things Like These] was written in my sitting room overlooking the Wexford coast, and was completed during lockdown. I wrote for several hours every night and morning during those 18 months, as my fellowship at Trinity College was cut short when the pandemic began and I didn’t have the usual commitments to my students.  

If it was at all cold, I kept the fire going. It’s nice to have a fire in the room you’re working in. Long, dark mornings can also be a great help. And a young ginger cat came straight up to me out of the bushes and moved in and slept on an old sheepskin on my desk, as though that’s where he wanted me to be. In the finish, for that final year and more, I was probably averaging eight hours a day at the desk, something I’d never done.’