Toby Litt

On Mechanical Pencils and their practicalities

Any devotees of rOtring out there?

This may not be my last word on the subject, but it may be your first.

On Mechanical Pencils

open.substack.com/pub/awriters...

Blackwings seem to be winning on the pencil front.

I have a Tikky and a 30 rOtring.

What's your favourite pencil - the best you've every owned?

Today's diary entry on Substack covers the practicalities of writing with pencils.

(Yay, write upside down, hanging from a tree.)

Yes, I've got one of those, too. Just dug it out. I'll be covering sharpeners in the next few days. Thanks for the reminder. Hope you're well.

Every sounded nicer than ever.

What's your favourite pencil - the best you've every owned?

Today's diary entry on Substack covers the practicalities of writing with pencils.

(Yay, write upside down, hanging from a tree.)

Our graduates write books — published by the likes of @fitzcarraldoeds.bsky.social, @grantabooks.bsky.social, Peninsula Press — set up their own magazines and journals, edit others (The White Review, RIP), do PhDs, and also become primary school teachers. All good things.

They are rare. How did you find yours?

Are You Sitting Comfortably? If not, we can't begin

If you're a writer, how and where do you write? What's your posture like? How's your spine holding up?

Any advice for others?

Are You Sitting Comfortably?

open.substack.com/pub/awriters...

Are You Sitting Comfortably? If not, we can't begin

If you're a writer, how and where do you write? What's your posture like? How's your spine holding up?

Any advice for others?

Are You Sitting Comfortably?

open.substack.com/pub/awriters...

Yes, do. Thoroughly recommended.

This book sounds great and I want to read it immediately

On Distraction and Overcoming It or Giving In to It

Look, I'm here, rather than working.

How do you cope with/limit/work through the distraction of your screens?

Today's diary entry way over yonder on Substack.

On Distraction and Overcoming It

open.substack.com/pub/awriters...

A Long Game by Elizabeth McCracken review – here’s how to really write your novel The novelist and writing tutor delivers bracing advice that demolishes familiar ‘stick to what you know’ nostrums

I said I'd share the link when the The Guardian posted my review of Elizabeth McCracken's whipsmart writing manual, A Long Game: How to Write Fiction. (Following their publication of an extract.)

So, here it is -

www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...

On the Ghosts Haunting Your Writing Space Even if you don't know they're there

Today's entry in the diary is on the Ghosts of the Desk.

Who haunts yours?

open.substack.com/pub/awriters...

On Elizabeth McCracken's A Long Game: How Write Fiction A mini-review

I've also spoken about it in today's Writer's Diary over on Substack.

awritersdiary.substack.com/p/on-elizabe...

A Long Game by Elizabeth McCracken review – here’s how to really write your novel The novelist and writing tutor delivers bracing advice that demolishes familiar ‘stick to what you know’ nostrums

I said I'd share the link when the The Guardian posted my review of Elizabeth McCracken's whipsmart writing manual, A Long Game: How to Write Fiction. (Following their publication of an extract.)

So, here it is -

www.theguardian.com/books/2026/j...

Dreaming of writing your novel this year? Rip up all the rules! After 35 years of teaching fiction writing, the prize-winning author shares her wisdom. First tip? Don’t write what you know…

I was very glad to be asked to review Elizabeth McCracken's A Long Game by @theguardian.com

No spoilers, but they should be publishing what I wrote soon.

Here's a taster - just the right kind of thing to read if you're starting a new piece of fiction.

www.theguardian.com/books/ng-int...

There will be 5 minute daily-ish podcasts, with advice, writing exercises and answers to subscribers' questions.

We're Starting to Write a Book A Writer's Diary enters the New Year with a new project and a new sound.

New Year, New Writer's Diary.

This year, I'm going - with my subscribers' help - to draft a writing manual (working title is 'The Page: On Drafting').

I'll be podcasting and writing about it on my Substack.

Together, hopefully, we can write our books.

open.substack.com/pub/awriters...

Ongoing decimation of British universities part 252:

Apx. 1000 academic staff at University of Essex just received formal ‘risk of redundancy’ letters via email.

Please share @ucuessex.bsky.social @ucu.org.uk

I gave up and walked away - letting the world's most boring man get on with taking his surely boring photographs.

It took me a number of years before I realised Martin Parr had just, in that moment, demonstrated his secret technique.

I asked him another question, about cameras, and the answer was on a Marvin the Paranoid android level of focussed tedium.

I couldn't bear it. The burden of being interesting rested entirely upon me.

And he said something like, 'Oh, there's a way of doing it, a technique, but I'd never tell anyone.'

I tried to continue the conversation, but within a couple of moments, and I can't say how, he had become the world's most boring man. He radiated conversational tedium. He was incandescently grey

RIP Martin Parr.

I have a story, from the one time I met him. At the Port Eliot Festival. It gave, eventually, the secret to his genius.

We were standing under a tree, chatting, and I was asking him about how he worked? How he got people enough at their ease that they'd forget he was there?

YouTube video by Humanities Southampton F. T. Prince Memorial Lecture 2025: Dr Mary Jean Chan ¦ University of Southampton

"For the overwhelmed poet, this poetic artifice is deeply enabling, allowing what was previously unspeakable to finally be spoken."

'the overwhelmed poet'!

This year's FT Prince Memorial Lecture by Dr Mary Jean Chan was outstanding.

You can watch it here -

youtu.be/LO3gjO0I0s4?...

YouTube video by Humanities Southampton F. T. Prince Memorial Lecture 2025: Dr Mary Jean Chan ¦ University of Southampton

"For the overwhelmed poet, this poetic artifice is deeply enabling, allowing what was previously unspeakable to finally be spoken."

'the overwhelmed poet'!

This year's FT Prince Memorial Lecture by Dr Mary Jean Chan was outstanding.

You can watch it here -

youtu.be/LO3gjO0I0s4?...

At COP30 in Belém do Pará, more than 50,000 people made history with a clear, unified message:

“It is time to bury fossil fuels and build a clean, just future.”

Today, we symbolically laid fossil fuels to rest. ✊

Thank you. This has made my day.

Hopefully @law-and-humanities.bsky.social can answer this for you.