Quantity over quality

It's only me again – Iain Broome – sending you another edition of the Draft Mode newsletter. You can access the vault here.

I'm still in the depths of school summer holidays, so I shall keep this intro brief once more. To give you some quick parenting insight, we've been home all day today and my fancy watch tells me I have walked 7,000 metres. In my own home. 😬

Quick future-news: I'll be sending you my sort-of annual survey where I check in to ask you what sort of stuff you'd like to see and read in the newsletter. Keep an eye out for that.

Until then. Many warm embraces. Enjoy the links below.

Iain

PS A big high-five and brief, awkward pause afterwards if you are one of the lovely people who signed up after finding Draft Mode through the For The Interested newsletter. You are very welcome here. We have biscuits.

PPS We don't actually have biscuits, but if there was a way to make that happen I totally would.  

Links of the week

Every issue I collect and share the best advice, apps and other shenanigans that I find on my internet travels. Find something useful? Subscribe for free.

Paperlike for iPad: write and draw like on paper

I've been doing some design and note taking using my iPad and Apple Pencil. It's really quite nice, but not at all like paper. Not really. Which is why I am interested in Paperlike, which protects your screen, but also has a matte finish that supposedly makes it feel like paper. Have you tried something like this? Let me know what you think. Ali Abdaal says Paperlike is great.

Ray Bradbury’s Greatest Writing Advice

Today would have been the 98th birthday of Ray Bradbury, the greatest sci-fi writer in history, who (by no small coincidence) also happened to know a thing or two about writing. Like many American …

Literary HubEmily Temple

Ray Bradbury would have been 98 this week, so Lit Hub has collected a whole load of writing advice and popped it into one long article. And you know what? It's absolutely full of useful, practical nuggets.

On quantity over quality:

If you can write one short story a week—it doesn’t matter what the quality is to start, but at least you’re practicing, and at the end of the year you have 52 short stories, and I defy you to write 52 bad ones.

This is such a great way of putting a very simple concept. Far better than shouting at people to just write. Pick a repeatable target. Keep hitting it.

10 books to help you finish your writing

A smashing collection of books for your reading list put together by the ace folk at Prolifiko. I've only read one of them – Keep Going by Austin Kleon – so I'm going to stop writing immediately and dig into some of the others. I'm kidding! These look great.

How I Got My Literary Agent

Author, Adam Simcox explains how he got his literary agent. Spoiler: it wasn't his first novel and he went through many rejections. I think reading these stories can be useful if you think it's never going to happen. It can happen! I found this on the blog of J.S. Clerk, who has a whole bunch of similar interviews.

10 strategies to use YouTube and TikTok to build your online presence

As some fancy author type, you may scoff at me sharing this from the ConvertKit blog. But I tell you, if you have the time and inclination to build an author platform using video, these are all useful things to know. The advice not specifically for writers, but it is super practical.

5 Best Index Card Apps for iPad

This post was how I found the Paperlike, by the way. Hooray for content marketing! If you like index cards but fancy trying a digital way of doing things, here's some good suggestions. Handy for book planning and brainstorming.

Tweets of the week

Tweets are but forlorn toots from the rustiest of trombones. But some of them are quite good. You can follow @iainbroome and @DraftModeHQ on Twitter.

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Draft Mode is a weekly newsletter by Iain Broome, author of the novel, A is for Angelica. Join 1100+ subscribers and start receiving the tools and tips that help you improve, publish and promote your writing. Subscribe for free.