Ask the Author: Toby Litt
Answered Questions (8)
Toby Litt
It hasn't been much of a routine since my children were born. I'd say I write whenever I have the opportunity, but can't be fussy about starting at a particular minute. (I used to like to start at 9am.)
I don't write to a wordcount. Sometimes I try to get a number of pages done - one to four, handwritten. But each book is different.
As for evolution, I think I am happier to do scrappy but energetic first drafts now, because they're less stressful to rewrite.
I don't write to a wordcount. Sometimes I try to get a number of pages done - one to four, handwritten. But each book is different.
As for evolution, I think I am happier to do scrappy but energetic first drafts now, because they're less stressful to rewrite.
Toby Litt
Patience took a long time to write. With long gaps when I wasn't writing. It's out today, in fact.
It's been well reviewed so far. Fingers crossed.
I lived in Prague for two and a half years. That was a great time. I'm hoping to publish something about it, one day. During that time, I wrote three novels. One - The Prague Metro - may come out in the next long while.
Good luck with Bohemia Beach.
It's been well reviewed so far. Fingers crossed.
I lived in Prague for two and a half years. That was a great time. I'm hoping to publish something about it, one day. During that time, I wrote three novels. One - The Prague Metro - may come out in the next long while.
Good luck with Bohemia Beach.
Toby Litt
Hello Trev. It's a very interesting subject. I put most of the interesting stuff I found out about William Litt in the book, but there was a whole load more I couldn't include. Was there something specific? If you'd like to be in touch, it's best for you to email me c/o Birkbeck College. If you search for me in the English and Humanities Department, it's easy to find my email address. t
Toby Litt
My most recent book is Wrestliana. It's a memoir about me, my father and my great-great-great grandfather - William Litt - who was a champion wrestler, writer, smuggler and exile. My father told me about him when I told my father I wanted to be a writer. It's all in the book.
Toby Litt
By wanting to go back and do better things I've written, or failed to write, before. Most of the things I've finished have grown out of the very messy compost (polite word) of things I've failed to finish.
Toby Litt
I'm finishing off a novel called Patience that I started over 10 years ago.
It'll be out in August 2019.
After that, another novel.
It'll be out in August 2019.
After that, another novel.
Toby Litt
It's the usual advice: Read as passionately and as closely as you can.
If you really love a paragraph, copy it out, or re-type it. Get a sense of the shape of the sentences. How one glides into the next, or crunches against it. Listen to it. Smell it. Taste it.
And don't be afraid of imitating it.
If you really love a paragraph, copy it out, or re-type it. Get a sense of the shape of the sentences. How one glides into the next, or crunches against it. Listen to it. Smell it. Taste it.
And don't be afraid of imitating it.
Toby Litt
Getting away from having to be myself, in words.
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