3 Writing Tips From Terry Pratchett

When you’re looking to view the world upside down, that’s the time to pick up a book by Sir Terry Pratchett.

Pratchett is renowned for his sharp satire and thought-provoking humor, which is evident in his fantastical world and characters. His everyday tools include parody, irony, and comedic comparisons, which he uses brilliantly to critique the evils of social institutions such as religion, politics, media, and more.

---

Another aspect of his writing that is often celebrated is his versatile writing style, which is both layered and straightforward, yet accessible.

He was one of those writers whose stories transcended age. In a 1992 BBC interview, when asked about whom he considers his average audience, Pratchett said, “I wish I knew. The youngest fan letter I’ve got, if you understand what I mean, was from a girl, age 7, and the oldest one was from an 85-year-old academic in Oxford, and they both were about the same book.”

  

His writing is so relatable because, as a writer, he effectively conveys themes through meticulous layering, allowing readers to choose their level of indulgence—surface-level comedy, adventure, or a deep dive into philosophy and ethics.

In this article, we’ve broken down Sir Terry Pratchett’s top three writing tips that are sure to come in handy for writers, both experienced and beginners, across genres.

Writing Tips from Sir Terry Pratchett

1. Believe In the Lies of Your Fiction

In his BBC interview, while defining fantasy, Pratchett said, “Nearly all fiction is fantasy.”

Speaking later to Sky One, Pratchett said, “We need to train our imagination on the little lies: The Tooth Fairy and the Hogfather, so we can believe the big lies, like justice, truth, and by taking them seriously, make them into something that is real.”

  

Pratchett’s writing has always reflected conviction, despite the seamless absurdity, and he has an interesting theory behind it.

Speaking to Sky One, he said, “We’re a chimpanzee that’s good at telling stories. And one of the stories that we tell ourselves is that we are actually thinking people. But our fantasies are very, very important. For example, we have a fantasy which is called ‘justice.’ It has no existence anywhere else in the universe as far as we know, but we have created the concept, and people fight and die for justice.”

As fiction writers, we are expected to tweak reality into something interesting, never seen before. In fiction, all that matters is how convincing the storytelling is.

Think about why you believed in Santa Claus as a child. Did you ever see him climb down the chimney, or eat the cookies you laid out for him on Christmas Eve? Or even the monster that your mother told you would eat you up if you were awake past your bedtime?

There’s no shame in admitting that we’re constantly guilty of judging a character’s idiosyncrasies, actions, and situations, trying to balance everything out with logic. But that way, we’re limiting our imagination.

“And what makes us human is really our imaginations,” Pratchett said.

Starting with this practice, it might feel like you’re singing altogether out of tune, but that’s on purpose! Let it flow because let’s not forget an octave consists of minor and suspended notes too.

2. Use the Clichés to Your Advantage

Apparently, Pratchett’s core principle around world-building is about using clichés to his advantage. In many of his interviews, he discussed creating the entire Discworld based on this core theory, and the series comprises over 30 books.

“The shapes of stories have a big influence,” said Pratchett. “We know this because we imagine this in our fairy stories. We just know that if the third son of a king goes off on an adventure, he’s going to succeed where his two brothers failed. We just know!”

If you want to shake things up, lend a quirky lens to enjoy familiarity like Pratchett did with Hogfather and Discworld.

While he borrowed his flat-world theory from an Indo-European myth, his fantastical beings and their society bear a striking resemblance to those found in our world, quite literally. Unlike most other fantasy books, the stakes of his characters are not imaginative—only their powers are.

“Many of the problems of Discworld and the motor for a lot of the plots are things that we would recognize,” Pratchett said in an interview on Seattle Channel in 2006.

  

As writers, imagination rooted in familiarity is something that we often overlook in our writing. Pratchett said that this technique has always worked wonders for his writing.

3. Read Everything

While talking about his writing inspirations with Seattle Channel, Pratchett said, “My influences come from absolutely everywhere, and I have to say often—usually, in fact—not from fantasy.”

Reading is one of our most basic duties as writers. Reading not only gives us insights but is also proven to spark inspiration. Many of us are guilty of reading specific genres just because we’re working on it.

But that’s just a fancy way of limiting your perspective. Read everything that you can get your hands on to induce versatility both in your stories and writing style.

Which tip will be most helpful to you? Let us know in the comments!