Literary Birthday -Andrew Motion, 26 October

Happy Birthday, Andrew Motion, born 26 October 1952

Andrew Motion: On Writing

1. Decide when in the day (or night) it best suits you to write, and organise your life accordingly.
2. Think with your senses as well as your brain.
3. Honour the miraculousness of the ordinary.
4. Lock different characters/elements in a room and tell them to get on.
5. Remember there is no such thing as nonsense.
6. Bear in mind Wilde’s dictum that “only mediocrities develop” – and ­challenge it.
7. Let your work stand before deciding whether or not to serve.
8. Think big and stay particular.
9. Write for tomorrow, not for today.
10. Work hard.

Sir Andrew Motion was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2009. 

From Writers Write