Our recent sit-down with Trinidadian-Canadian writer and musician Antonio Michael Downing provided some of the most profound, practical, and sensory writing advice we’ve ever had on the show.
Antonio, author of the critically acclaimed memoir Saga Boy and the brilliant coming-of-age novel Black Cherokee, merges the rhythm of music with the mechanics of literature.
If you missed the live show or want to bookmark his incredible insights, here are the core writing lessons we took away from our chat.
1. Learn the “Economy of Words” from Songwriters.
Before you dive into complex literary structures, remember that storytelling is in your blood. By the time you are five years old, you understand the basics of a story. Antonio urges writers to look at music—specifically hip-hop and brilliant lyricists—to master the “economy of words.”
A songwriter only has three minutes to give you a protagonist, a conflict, and a narrative arc. Antonio used a line from The Notorious B.I.G. as a prime example: “That’s when Ron vanished, came back speaking Spanish / Lavish habits, two rings, 50 carats.” In just two lines, the writer has established character, mystery, sudden wealth, and an entire off-page adventure that gets the reader asking questions. Study the opening lines of your favorite songs to see how quickly they hook you and establish an emotional space, then bring that ruthless efficiency to your prose.
2. Hypnotise Yourself: Ritualise Your First Draft
One of the most fascinating parts of Antonio’s process is his dedication to writing his first drafts completely longhand. But it isn’t just about avoiding a glowing screen; it’s about sensory hypnosis.
To easily access the elusive “flow state,” Antonio ritualises his physical workspace:
The Sacred Tools: He buys a beautiful leather-bound journal and a high-quality fountain pen.
The Strict Rule: That pen and notebook are used only for writing the novel. You cannot use the pen to write a grocery list or jot down a phone number. It is sacred to the story.
The Sensory Trigger: The smell of the leather, the weight of the paper, and specifically the scratching sound of the fountain pen act as physical triggers. By repeating this ritual at the same time every day, the brain is automatically hypnotised into entering the world of the book. Your body learns that when you pick up that specific pen, it is time to write.
3. Ditch the Word Count: Treat Writing Like Gardening.
When asked how he tracks his 800-words-a-day targets while writing longhand, Antonio offered a liberating perspective: he doesn’t focus on strict daily word counts.
He likens writing to gardening. When you go out to your garden, you don’t get angry at the tomatoes for not growing enough that day. That isn’t your job. Your job is simply to create the optimal conditions for the tomatoes to grow. In writing, your job is to show up for your book every single day for a set period of time and be available to the story. If you create the right conditions, the word count will naturally follow.
4. Reverse-Engineer the Books That Make You Cry.
How do you find your unique author voice? According to Antonio, you don’t find it by worrying about sounding like someone else; you find it by deeply studying what moves you.
When Antonio read Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, he thought the first six chapters were boring, with seemingly nothing happening but soldiers drinking. But by the seventh chapter, he found himself in tears. His reaction as a writer wasn’t to move on; it was to reread those seven chapters again and again to reverse-engineer how Hemingway achieved that emotional devastation.
Tease apart the passages that affect you. Map them out until they are in your DNA. Once you understand the mechanics of how great writers manipulate emotion, those tools will naturally filter through your own unique experiences and emerge as your distinct voice.
5. Write What You Don’t Know (But Do the Work)
Pushing back against the old adage “write what you know,” Antonio encourages writers to write what they don’t know to avoid writing boring, repetitive books. His novel Black Cherokee features an Afro-Indigenous female protagonist in the 1990s American South—vastly different from his own background.
The key? You have to get it right. If you step outside your own experience, you must honor the culture you are writing about:
Consult the Experts: Antonio reached out to leading historians and read 24 dedicated books on the specific history of the Black Freedmen and the Cherokee Nation.
Immerse Yourself: He took southern soul food cooking classes so he could accurately describe the dishes his characters cooked.
Approach with Humility: Treat the history and culture exactly how you would want someone to treat yours.
Ultimately, your goal is to write the book that only you could write. It requires combining your unique outsider perspective with deep, respectful research.
To hear the full conversation with Antonio Michael Downing, including his thoughts on why the 1990s is the perfect literary era, watch the full replay here:
You can listen to it as a podcast episode at the top of the page, or, where you get your podcasts.
Keep writing, keep showing up to your garden, and we will see you next week!
