Toby Litt

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Toby Litt

@tobylitt.bsky.social

Writer. Activist. Head of Creative Writing at Southampton University.
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I first met Anne Hawk when I interviewed her for a place on a Creative Writing MFA. I thought she was better off just writing her novel. And she has done. And it's great. open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On The Pages of the Seaopen.substack.com by Anne Hawk
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When you find yourself self-doubting your self-doubt, it's time to write something about it. open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On Performative Vulnerabilityopen.substack.com for Self and Others
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Did you just give yourself chills?
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Why don't we value children's art? Does this mean we'll never really value AI art? Or snail shells? open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On What's Worth Looking Atopen.substack.com and What Isn't
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What's your absolute worse noise distraction? What stops you being able to concentrate? open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On Background Noiseopen.substack.com as Distraction
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As a distraction from bigger matters, I've been noticing the oddness of what's right in front of me. The desktop world. open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On the Desktopopen.substack.com Such a Strange Dated Place
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Should a writer aim to make a reader cry? Isn't that an illegitimate aim? I don't think so. open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On Making the Reader Cryopen.substack.com and Meaning To
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Do you really want 10,000 new novels by your favourite writer? AI questions, discussed. Contributions, welcomed. open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On Ten Thousand New Lee Child Novelsopen.substack.com and then Another Ten Thousand
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The Complete Guide to POV continues. Today it's the third person plural future tense and it's the fabulous Thomas Morris (Editor-at-Large of The Stinging Fly magazine). open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
The Complete Guide to POVopen.substack.com Third person plural future tense
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I had a lot of fun with this very hard writing challenge for Ian McMillan and Radio 3/4s TheVerb. The restriction is to tell a story only using the letters - a c e i m n o r s u v w x z. Ascenders h, l, t and descenders p, q, y are banned. I call it Flatglish. open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On Writing a Very Flat Story Using Only the Letters Without Ascenders and Descendersopen.substack.com a c e i m n o r s u v w x z
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Could you write a story based on an unresolvable paradox? Another of the Very Difficult Writing Challenges set me by Radio 4's The Verb and that dastardly Ian McMillan. Here's my go at a kind of Liar's Paradox, with spies - open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On Writing a Story Based on a Paradoxopen.substack.com and Spies
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The same story twice, but with a telling difference. Another of those very difficult writing challenges set me by Radio 3/4's The Verb and literary trickster Ian McMillan. open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On the Subtle Differences Between the Definite and Indefinite Articlesopen.substack.com 'The' and 'A'
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Oh, this very difficult writing challenge from Ian McMillan and Radio 3/4's The Verb almost did me in. Write a palindromic story, they said. Have it make sense whether you read it start to finish or finish to start, they said. By next Wednesday, they said. open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On Writing a Story that Can Be Read Backwards as Well as Forwardsopen.substack.com A palindrome
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What was I thinking? Trying to write a story to satisfy Ian McMillan and Radio 3 The Verb's insatiable desire for literary experiment. A story in which every consonant has to be followed by a vowel, and vice versa. A story in the imaginary language, Japanglish open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On Writing Only with Alternating Vowels and Consonantsopen.substack.com Japanglish
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Oh, this very difficult writing challenge from Ian McMillan and Radio 3/4's The Verb almost did me in. Write a palindromic story, they said. Have it make sense whether you read it start to finish or finish to start, they said. By next Wednesday, they said. open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On Writing a Story that Can Be Read Backwards as Well as Forwardsopen.substack.com A palindrome
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The same story twice, but with a telling difference. Another of those very difficult writing challenges set me by Radio 3/4's The Verb and literary trickster Ian McMillan. open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On the Subtle Differences Between the Definite and Indefinite Articlesopen.substack.com 'The' and 'A'
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Could you write a story based on an unresolvable paradox? Another of the Very Difficult Writing Challenges set me by Radio 4's The Verb and that dastardly Ian McMillan. Here's my go at a kind of Liar's Paradox, with spies - open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On Writing a Story Based on a Paradoxopen.substack.com and Spies
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What's it like taking a Creative Writing PhD, and flipping back and forth between creative and critical writing? Isn't it riding two horses at once? open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On Creative and Critical Writingopen.substack.com and Trying to Do Both
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Over the years, Radio 3/4's TheVerb and presenter Ian McMillan have set me a number of Very Difficult Writing Challenges. The first of them was this - Tell a Story Without Using any Verbs Why don't you give it a try? Here's my go - open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On Telling a Story Without Using any Verbsopen.substack.com A Very Difficult Writing Challenge
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Thinking of doing a Creative Writing PhD? I'm not saying 'Don't', but I am saying this - open.substack.com/pub/awriters...
On Creative Writing PhDsopen.substack.com Pros But Also Cons