This Might Work

Becoming a Writer by Dorothea Brande was published in 1934 and is still one of the most loved writing manuals. Hilary Mantel told writers it was the only book on writing you needed to read. In this episode, Bec tries one of Brande’s strangest tips: inducing an ‘artistic coma’. You lie down in a dim room, drift between sleep and waking, then go straight to your desk when you feel the urge to write....

It’s easy to get stuck when we’re preoccupied with what the finished thing will be. Bestselling author Cathy Rentzenbrink shares her advice to 'write around' the writing: head out with a notebook, a five pound note and a simple prompt, and let go of whether the words will make the final draft. Willing guinea pig Helen Meller puts it to the test on a project about a lost silent film of Wuth...

Editing our own writing is hard when we're too close to the words. Journalist and editor Susanna Schrobsdorf shares a simple, free technique she learned at TIME magazine: read your work out loud, then find a 'willing victim' to read it to. Business writer Bruno Sellen puts it to the test on a report he's finishing, and we hear how David Sedaris uses a live audience as his first edi...

Nominated for the Man Booker Prize, the novelist Wyl Menmuir credits the sea with transforming him from a distractible city-dweller into a working writer. Bec explores the 'blue mind theory' behind why water calms our minds and unlocks creativity - then sends retired teacher Nancy Harris McLelland on a 12-hour round trip across Nevada to test it for herself, with surprising results. Featur...

To close series one, we're revisiting six writers' advice and the experiments it inspired - from Oliver Burkeman's ‘massively eccentric' approach to editing (delete the document, retype from scratch) to Mason Currey's cut-up-your-draft-with-scissors method for finding new connections in your work. Along the way: Emma Gannon on artist dates and solo creative boosts, Benjamin Myers on the writing ad...

What if the way to finally finish a stalled piece of writing wasn't planning, but four hours of writing without stopping to think, edit or look back? In this episode of This Might Work, host Bec Evans explores the developmental free-writing method created by Peter Elbow, the legendary writing teacher who died in 2025 and whose 1973 book Writing Without Teachers changed how we think about getting w...

What if the answer to a stuck or stalling writing project wasn't to sit back down at your desk - but to pick up a pair of scissors? In this episode of This Might Work , host Bec Evans explores the cut-and-reassemble method developed by Mason Currey, bestselling author of Daily Rituals , who turns redrafting into what he calls a funky art project. Then she puts it to the test with Harriet Mason, a...

What if the answer to a stuck writing project wasn't more time, more planning, or more thinking - but six minutes and a scrappy piece of paper? In this episode of This Might Work , host Bec Evans explores 'exploratory writing', a daily practice developed by author and publisher Alison Jones that uses questions to discover what you don't yet know. Then she puts it to the test with Margaret O'Brien,...

The author and journalist Benjamin Myers ignored the writing advice he was given aged 22 - and went on to publish fourteen books. In this episode of This Might Work , host Bec Evans explores what time of day we do our best creative work, talking to the award-winning writer about his late-night writing habit and how it shaped his early career. Then she puts the idea to the test with Louise Tondeur,...

When writing isn’t working, the instinct is usually to try harder and spend longer at your desk. But bestselling author Emma Gannon learned after burnout that creativity needs time away from work. In this episode of This Might Work , Emma shares her solo creative boosts, inspired by Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way . Host Bec Evans puts the idea to the test with writer Aimz Rushton, who is struggl...

The writer Oliver Burkeman types out every draft from scratch - then deletes the original. In this first episode of This Might Work , host Bec Evans puts Burkeman's 'starting afresh' technique to the test, following writer and literacy educator Elizabeth Morphis as she uses it to revise her book - across a transatlantic flight, a sleepless night in Athens and the journey home. Does the discomfort...

This Might Work is the podcast that puts writing advice to the test. Each week, host Bec Evans takes a creativity tip from a writer, artist or thinker – and gets a real writer to try it out on a real project. Oliver Burkeman, Emma Gannon, Mason Currey and more have their methods road-tested to find out what actually works. Because writing advice is everywhere. The only question that matters is: wi...