We’re used to receiving writing tips from the experts but what about hearing from someone in the thick of it, metaphorically throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks? When you’re working hard to see which pitches lands with publishers, which formats and genres are best suited to you, which environments and experiences are inspiring you, it’s nice to take stock and share advice, one writer to another.

‍1. Practice

Writing can be like entering and inhabiting a subspace where words and ideas flow, but there’s also a muscularity to it. Talent needs to be exercised. If an idea hasn’t come to you recently, seek one out. Make something of a feeling, an observation or an experience. Distil it, expand it and give it light.

2. Community

Find other writers, perhaps ones engaged in completely different projects and genres to you, to talk about your process with and be mutually encouraging and helpful. Go to libraries, museums and literary talks and have conversations with the other visitors enjoying these environments or who work there.

3. Challenge

Enter a competition. Poetry, flash fiction or short story – it doesn’t matter. Dedicate yourself to the act of writing and view the deadline, the word count, the confines of a format, the rules of submission, as a driving force and positive energy rather than a pressure. Relish the task.

4. Work

Try and incorporate creative elements into your working life. If your job is in a relevant or associated field, so much the better. Let your daily output be a testament to your wider ambitions. Surprise and delight your colleagues and clients with your powers of description and clarity of expression.

5. Experience

Search for and actively engage in experiences that will bring you into contact with stimulating people, or that will ignite you personally. Try something new, probe the edges of your comfort zone or indulge a latent passion. Be neither mentally nor physically sedentary.

6. Celebrate

The literary world is awash with festivals. Make time to go to one. At least one. You don’t have to see the big names, a fringe event or a free workshop might prove just as illuminating. If timings don’t align, visit the locations of these events and soak up the surrounding bookshops and café culture.

7. Creatives

Creativity takes many forms. Talk to other people involved in their own form of alchemy, compelled to express themselves in the things they make and choose to share. Art, music, fashion, photography, carpentry, cooking. Dedication to a chosen craft is a point of synergy to be explored and discussed.

8. Feedback

Share your work. Expect and be prepared for honest opinions. The greatest supporters will want the best for you by gently challenging you, offering alternative viewpoints and pushing you to be the most authentic version of your creative self. Listen to them.

9. Pitch

If you don’t try, you won’t know. Magazines, journals, websites, even companies associated with the subject matter you’ve chosen or directly referenced by it, could be desperate for the content you’re producing but they won’t know it exists unless you approach them. It’s a discipline, keep it up.

10. Joy

Remember why you’re doing this. It’s soul nourishing and something you’ve got to do. It feeds your inner joy, the warm light that stays with you no matter what’s going on at a surface level, the circumstances or emotions of a particular day. Breathe and live your life’s work.

11. Read

Pithy prose or witticisms, prize-winning fiction or page turners, absorb and digest it all. If you were inspired by great authors to begin your writing journey, let them continue to carry you now. Discover new voices or read first novels. Let their published words be a beacon to you.