Reading time: About one minute
Canadian writer Nicholas Ruddock says that writing is neither easy nor hard. Instead, “it’s a million steps between”….
Nicholas Ruddock is a Canadian physician and writer. He has published three novels, The Parabolist, Night Ambulance, and Last Hummingbird West of Chile (audiobook by Gerard Doyle 2025), short stories in How Loveta Got Her Baby, and, forthcoming in November 2025, from House of Anansi, Planet Earth, a collection of international-prize-winning short fiction.
I was excited to talk to Nick about how he approaches writing.
Q. Roughly how much time do you spend writing every day?
Zero to four hours.
Q. What’s a simple activity or habit that makes you a better writer?
Reading. For example, Nabokov, Saramago, Chekhov, Dostoyevsky, Faulkner, McCarthy, George Saunders, Alice Munro, Mavis Gallant. All the stylists and the chance-takers. I also use physical exercise for mental clarity.
Q. What interferes with your writing?
The internet, as deadly as drug addiction. Otherwise, I’m fine. I can write at the kitchen table surrounded by pandemonium.
Q. How do you persuade yourself to sit down to write on days when you really, really DON’T feel like doing it?
That’s easy. I don’t persuade myself. Or, if I have chosen a deadline for a submission, that’s a nudge, and when started, I keep going.
Q. Is there a particular motto or saying that you’ve found helpful for writing?
Elmore Leonard’s advice to just use “said” for dialogue. No “replied” or “murmured” or “chortled.” No adverbs either — “he laughed begrudgingly.”
Q. Which stage of the writing process do you enjoy the most: researching, writing or editing/rewriting and why?
Writing, to find out what’s going to happen. Then editing, to make sense of what’s on the page.
Q. What are the best books you’ve read (either fiction or non) in the last five years?
I Served the King of England by Bohumil Hrabal. Milkman by Anna Burns. Foster by Claire Keegan.
Q. What book are you reading right now?
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides.
Q. What do you think is the biggest misperception that new writers have about the act of writing?
Either that it’s easy or it’s hard. It’s a million steps between.
