‘Ideas need space to breathe’: how Liv Little protects her creativity

The novelist, screenwriter and founder of gal-dem on slowing down, shutting out distractions and finding the conditions in which her best ideas can grow

Liv Little, 32, is a novelist, podcaster and screenwriter. In 2015, while at university in Bristol, she founded the online magazine gal-dem, for women and non-binary people of colour, eventually stepping back from the project to focus on her own writing. Her 2024 debut novel, Rosewater, was shortlisted for the Nota Bene Prize. Here, she discusses her creative practice – and how using a reMarkable paper tablet has helped to unlock her imagination.

There are so many ways to be distracted from creative work. I have to be very strong not to keep looking at emails and texts. Although I have gotten better at it over the years. What I like about the reMarkable Paper Pure is that, while it is technology of course, I call it “benevolent technology” because it’s completely – and refreshingly – free from notifications.

Running gal-dem in my early 20s was very demanding – and even though I loved it, it proved just impossible to juggle everything.

• ‘Whenever I start a project I have to be in nature’

People don’t realise that stress can be a block to creativity. My creative brain cannot reach its most imaginative, almost dreamlike, state when I’m in a period of heightened stress. It’s something that I’ve really had to work on managing. Many health-related issues are closely connected to a frazzled nervous system. In this era of constant distractions, we need tools and coping mechanisms to maintain calm creativity.

I’m much better at it now than I was when I was 21, which is when, ironically, I thought I could cope with anything. If you take on too much you realise that, eventually, it does take its toll. Now, I work slowly. I’m methodical, and it can take years for a project to unfold. It was nearly six years from my book deal to my first novel, Rosewater. My brain will fixate on one idea for a long time, and that’s all I can see. And when I force my brain to act in a way that doesn’t come naturally, the end result doesn’t work. It’s not authentic. Ideas need space to breathe.

Writing fiction requires your creative brain to be free from the notifications of daily life, but you also need a place to capture ideas when they come to you. The paper tablet is the perfect tool for this. My next book is actually going to be nonfiction, so the reMarkable Paper Pure will be hugely useful when it comes to note taking. You can download pdfs and annotate them, with the feel of writing on paper. It’s going to transform my research and editing experience.

Rosewater was about a poet who has to balance her quest for creative success with relationships and paying the rent. While that character isn’t me, it’s a position that many ambitious people can empathise with. Elsie, the protagonist, has a really strong sense of who she is, and writing about her helped me to find my voice. But sitting at a keyboard all day is physically demanding. Having something lightweight and tactile to write on like a paper tablet is a welcome break from being hunched over a keyboard. And it means not lugging around lots of notebooks. It allows me to work from anywhere, which is great because whenever I start a project I have to be in nature. I need to slow down, and notice the environment around me. Writing time should be sacred.

• ‘A paper tablet is a welcome break from being hunched over a keyboard’

However, my handwriting is so messy – some might say illegible – so I was initially worried that the handwriting conversion feature on the reMarkable paper tablet wouldn’t be able to decipher it. I mean, sometimes even I can’t work out what I’ve written, especially when I’m in a hurry to get my ideas down on the page. But it works perfectly, turning even my scribble into text, which I can then easily export. It’s such a great feature of the device. And I love that I can create checklists to keep me on track.

To be honest, I’m a bit of a technophobe, so I need things to be simple and intuitive. The reMarkable Paper Pure really works for me because it’s so straightforward, the functions feel instinctive. I don’t want to have to read a complicated manual in order to understand how to use it. And I don’t need to.

There’s something really nourishing and important about the act of writing. I have a friend – a poet – who always sends me a proper letter from wherever they are. But they’re the only person I know who actually writes longhand any more. I understand why: speed and convenience are important, too. But it is such a joy to receive something in that way. You don’t get that feeling from a text.

That’s one thing I particularly love about the texture of the reMarkable Paper Pure; it doesn’t feel like a screen. I was so surprised by how much it genuinely feels like writing on paper! So although it has the benefits of saving, organising and exporting notes, it also feels like it’s reviving the sacred art of putting pen to paper.

Made for Thinking
Find out more about replacing your notes and printed documents with a digital notebook that feels like paper at remarkable.com