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Hey Reader,

Professor Sir Terry Pratchett, one of the most successful authors in the world ever, continues to delight me with his Discworld series. I’ve read every single book, except the last one (because I can’t quite face it yet) multiple times.

One copy of Pyramids has fallen apart it’s so well loved.

On the face of it, Terry Pratchett was a fantasy author —

— but to assume his books were simply about witches and wizards and elves and goblins and a flat world floating through the universe on the back of four enormous elephants and a giant galactic turtle would be to miss the point.

Powered by rage and an unerring and unending sense of justice and fairness, Sir Terry wrote about people. The absurdity and hilarity and joy and delight and sorrow and fear and rage and bullshittery of it all.

Who better to take some writing advice from?

Yes, I’m a nonfiction book coach. Yes, I write (mostly) nonfiction. But that doesn’t matter. His musings on writing apply to everyone who writes.

#1 Meet people and watch them live

Terry Pratchett spent his formative years as a reporter on a local paper, and later as a press officer for several nuclear power stations. He saw things. He remembered them and wrote about them.

Get out of your familiar places and meet people. Ask them questions. Listen.

#2 Read everything that may possibly be interesting

We don’t know what’s going to be interesting until we try it; there’s always an idea or story there. One of my favourite books is a religious tract on insects. It’s glorious.

Read widely, in and out of your genre, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, podcasts, movies, TV… and make connections.

#3 Then write a lot

Terry Pratchett believed in the goddess Narrativia, who would throw ideas at him—once he’d read and read and researched and thought and done the work. We have to do the work.

#4 Write a lot and do it in public

The Carpet People began as a serial story in the children’s corner of his local newspaper. An agent noticed, and he turned it into his first published book.

Write and write and write — then publish it, online, on your blog, on LinkedIn and Instagram and wherever you want. Release it for people to see and read, and magic happens.

#5 Turn things around

Tiffany Aching, Pratchett’s teenage witch, digs into things. Take Hansel and Gretel. In The Wee Free Men, Tiffany says, “Excuse me? No one has an oven big enough to get a whole person in, and what made the children think they could just walk around eating people’s houses in any case?”

Don’t take things at face value. THINK about them and present them in a way that perhaps your readers haven’t considered. Most people do not like to think, so if you think out loud, you’ll be interesting.

#6 Stand for something and do it out loud

He’s not saying to be contrary for the sake of it. He’s saying stand up for what you believe is right and say it out loud and ignore the haters.

If you’re pissing someone off, you’re doing something right. If you upset no one, you’re not doing anything at all.

#7 A plan can be helpful but you don’t NEED one

Not everyone works well with a plan or a detailed outline. But it can be helpful. Have a destination in mind at least…

#8 Write the ending first

It might not end up being the ending you use, but it gives you something to aim at — and it’ll help you get 15 or 20,000 words out.

#9 “You have to know what works”

It’s not enough to read in and out of your genre; know what works, and why. Read the most successful authors in your genre — why are they successful? Study your area — and try it yourself until you discover who you are as a writer.

#10 It’s not the ideas that are important

I know, right? But wait.

Everyone has thousands of ideas, all the damn time. Some are terrible, most mediocre, a few amazing. But we have to write them down or they don’t count for anything.

The thing is, knowing these principles won’t write your book for you. Knowing them won’t even get you started.

What will get you started is clarity — on what your book is actually about, who needs to read it, and how you’re going to structure it so the writing doesn’t feel like pushing unconstrained custard uphill.

That’s the secret step most writers skip. They read the advice, they get inspired, and then they sit down to a blank page with no map and wonder why it’s so hard.

If you’re ready to stop banging your head on the desk and start writing, my Book Breakthrough: Unlocked might be just what you need. It’s a 90-minute session where we nail down your Big Idea, build your Reader Journey, demolish your mindset blocks, and create a one-page Blueprint you can reference every time you sit down to write.

You’ll leave with absolute clarity on what you’re writing and a realistic plan tailored to your brain and your life.

TTFN,

Vicky 🫡

p.s. References

“A Life in Writing,” The Guardian.

“Terry Pratchett Interviewed,” Writers Online.

“Terry Pratchett 1948-2015,” The Paris Review.

“And the magic begins…” The Irish Times.

And, of course, everything Terry Pratchett has ever written, that I could get my hands on.

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