Author Archives: Matt Hill
You’re a writer and nobody really cares*
There was no way to prove — actually prove, really prove — that that man was me. The story was familiar — I knew I had written it — but that name on the paper still was not me. It was a symbol, a name. It was alien. And then I realised that even if [...]
Posted in Writing 22 Comments
Manchester 10K
I’m doing the Bupa Great Manchester Run to raise a bit of cash for the National Literacy Trust this Sunday.
I hated running. Really. I bobble at the best of times, don’t I; a bunch of pale meat with noodles for limbs. That’s why when I’m really motoring – which is more of a wonky canter, [...]
Nine ways to trick yourself into writing
After last week’s moan about writing anxiety, I spent the days since tricking myself back into writing. Has it worked?
Well, I’ve got myself 4,000 words for the trouble. Below, I’ve listed what I think I did better. It’s not a methodology. It’s not life-coaching for writers. But it’s something.
Use Microsoft Notepad, not Microsoft Word
Notepad looks [...]
Posted in Writing 25 Comments
Half a thought on new writing
I am pregnant with a story.
It’s overdue, but I can’t get myself into labour. It won’t crown. It’s kicking my belly but it doesn’t want to play. It’s a distraction; I feel it most of the time. It’ll be the third time. The first time it was diarrhea. The second was a textbook delivery — [...]
Posted in Writing 19 Comments
Manchester snow
Manchester’s had more snow than anyone remembers. We woke to drifts a foot deep in places, and transport that scarcely worked. But there’s no meaningful way to write about snow without cliche — no point, even — not least when so many pictures have already coloured our day. The south’s next. Here’s hoping they have [...]
New flat
I’ve moved in with a girl whose legs I fancied in school. It’s a kind of deferred success.
Back then, 13 years old and sprouting limbs, I asked her out. She wouldn’t mind me saying her hair was kind of weird. It went all up and out — a hair-sprayed mushroom cloud – but she had [...]
Posted in Living 6 Comments
Somewhere-in-Furness
We overtake the ghost of winter floods on the motorway North – a lorry with Cockermouth written all over its flanks. Past Lancaster, and the digital boards start shouting about closed bridges. Later, while the night tips fully into black, we see a couple of dented road signs. And that’s all. We wind up staying [...]
Posted in Places 4 Comments
Getting unpublished
Let’s get dramatic. In July, my book was unpublished.
It fell from the pre-order listings of a dozen online book shops, was deleted from Nielsen Bookscan. The galley proofs were unbound, de-covered and bleached back to white.
Reps got in their cars after really successful meetings with booksellers — who liked and loved and wanted to see [...]
Like Bees to Honey | Chapter 17