Besides being a leader, a teacher, and an inspiration for his fellow prisoners, Bobby Sands was a prolific writer. He wrote numerous poems, including a poem about Castlereigh. He kept a log, written on scraps of toilet paper, about what life was like in the H-Blocks; this log was later published under the title "Day In My Life." Sands also wrote a brief allegorical piece called The Lark and the Freedom Fighter.

At night, prisoners would have sing-songs - they would sing to keep their spirits up and to remind themselves of what they were fighting for. They would sing Irish nationalistic songs, songs about life in the H-blocks, and songs of their own composition. To this practice Sands contributed "Back Home In Derry" a tribute to earlier Irish prisoners who were torn from homes and families to live in exile in the British penal colony in Australia - a topic which of course struck a chord with their present-day counterparts. He wrote another song as a present for a friend and fellow prisoner, a bittersweet piece titled "A Sad Song For Susan".

Sands, like the other fasting prisoners, wrote a brief autobiography for posterity. He also kept a secret diary for the first seventeen days of his fast. This diary was not just a catalogue of events detailing the strike from his perspective - instead, it was a statement of his thoughts, feelings, and beliefs in relation to the cause to which he had committed himself.