1. Use one document for all your rough work

This might be one electronic document or one notebook (or, at a push, one of each). This allows ideas to cross fertilise and prevents you from organising ideas prematurely. At some point, you might want to extract passages and ideas to work on separately, but use this one document as your initial receptacle – a box to chuck all your ideas in.

2. Prompt, don’t plan

Planning is an important part of the writing process but try to avoid planning too far in advance. It’s important to let the writing dictate its own path however surprising or unexpected that turns out to be. One way to keep on top of your ideas is to use prompts rather than plans – a simple list of things you want to write about in general or in relation to a specific project – a list of scenes, characters, themes, settings, anything you feel drawn to. Use this as a starting point for your writing sessions. Choose something off the list, write it, score it through.

3. Write what you don’t know

Writing about things we don’t know forces us to use our imaginations and reach for language and story in new ways. In early drafts, research lightly, just enough to get you started and to spark your imagination. There will be time to research more deeply and to correct, if necessary, later.

4. Find your own routine

Stop waiting for an ideal time to write (there isn’t one). Get into the habit of looking for opportunities – gaps of time here and there. Long stretches of time are helpful, but this isn’t the only way to work. Many writers don’t write every day or in consistent schedules – they snatch time. Look at your schedule – where can you carve out time? You can cover a lot even in half-hour chunks. Over time, that work accumulates.

5. Play

Did you write as a child? Do you remember how fun that was? Did you draw maps of the settings for the stories? Sketch the characters? Children are great project managers, approaching creative work with dedication and a lack of self-consciousness. This is what you want to aim for in early drafts. Shelve your self-critical self and find your inner child.

Megan Bradbury

Megan Bradbury is a British writer, tutor and mentor. Her debut novel, Everyone is Watching (Picador, 2016), received widespread critical acclaim. Praised by Ali Smith as “a beating heart of a novel” and described by Eimear McBride as “kaleidoscopic,” the book was longlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize and named one of The Guardian’s Best Books of 2016.

A graduate of the University of East Anglia’s MA Creative Writing Prose programme, Megan has received the Charles Pick Fellowship, an Author’s Foundation Award, multiple Arts Council England grants, and the Escalator Literature Prize. Her writing has appeared in The Irish Times and the Times Literary Supplement, and she has extensive experience as an artistic collaborator across a range of creative projects.