Reading time: About 2 minutes
Todd Medema says that building a 15-minute-per-day writing habit allowed him to finish his book — and to find inspiration in everyday life…
Todd Medema is the author of How to Surf a Hurricane, a hopeful climate heist. He works in climate (product management in clean energy) and is deeply familiar with climate anxiety and he wanted to do something to help. He figured the best way to do that was to write a fast-paced thriller that showcased how people around the globe could come together to adapt and thrive.
I was excited to talk to Todd about how he approaches writing.
Q. Roughly how much time do you spend writing every day?
I write for at least 15 minutes a day. Often longer, but the important thing with any habit is to do it every day — and I’ve found 15 minutes to be doable even on difficult days.
Q. What’s a simple activity or habit that makes you a better writer?
Taking the time to interact with the people around me more, especially people I wouldn’t normally talk to. Learning their life stories, how they speak, all of these details that can be pieced together into characters to make them more interesting and believable.
Q. What interferes with your writing?
Perfectionism. Feeling like I have to get it right on the first try is the fastest way to kill my creativity. That’s when I learned about the artist vs editor mindset and accepted embracing imperfection in art mode, to be edited and polished later.
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 where the 15-minute rule helped me a lot. Even on days I was really tired or busy or sick, I could sit down at a keyboard for 15 minutes to not ruin my streak!
Q. Is there a particular motto or saying that you’ve found helpful for writing?
Many, but this was the first: “A good science fiction story should be able to predict not the automobile but the traffic jam.” ― Frederik Pohl. Writers aren’t here to just build worlds, we’re here to help people imagine themselves in them. (And it doesn’t all have to be negative! The traffic jam, yes, but also Formula One racing and autonomous tractors).
Q. Which stage of the writing process do you enjoy the most: researching, writing or editing/rewriting and why?
It’s a tie between research and writing. I love both for different reasons: using research to learn about our world and imagine what could be, and seeing how my characters interact and grow when writing.
Q. What’s one of the best books you’ve read (either fiction or non) in the last five years?
The Pillars of the Earth trilogy by Ken Follet. It’s an incredible piece of historic fiction that educates through richly-intertwining stories. It was a huge inspiration for How to Surf a Hurricane: Originally I wanted to write just such an interwoven trilogy. I had to scale back my ambitions once I realized how hard that would be, but I think starting with that ambition made the final story much richer — kind of like reducing stock into a sauce in cooking.
Q. What book are you reading right now?
Enshittification by Cory Doctorow. I love his science fiction stories, but apparently he also does super-well-researched non-fiction on the state of tech and how we can make it less shitty. I’m learning a lot from the book and am so impressed by his range!
Q. What do you think is the biggest misperception that new writers have about the act of writing?
The endurance it takes. I thought writing was riding waves of inspiration when they struck… but you have to make that inspiration. Writing every day is what keeps the story at the top of the mind and opens you to get inspiration from the world around you.
