Gillie Bolton

Life-affirming writing processes can be fostered by a range of basic, physical, self-respecting ways. Here are some:

• Write about what you know about best. Be honest!
• Only write if it is meaningful to you, and you are enjoying and respecting it.
• Give yourself the luxury of paper, pen or pencil YOU LIKE: you don't have to write economically and politically correctly on second-hand paper. Make sure your lamp is in the right place.
• Choose the right working place (airy but warm) for you: the bustle of the kitchen, an impersonal library, a secluded study or bedroom. (I have written most of this on trains - a very safe environment for me.)
• Discover your own work pattern, the right times and pace for you: 6am or midnight ; in frequent half-hour snatches, or five days living, eating and sleeping it.
• Leave your work at a beckoning stage when you pack up at any one time - you will be much keener to return to it. Do not push yourself to finish a section to leave it neatly finished; it's deathly to have to begin from scratch every time you write.
• For example, I am about to turn my computer off now and go to a meeting (the train is just pulling into St Pancras). I have jotted a couple of notes to myself for me to work on later today. And I have left myself some straightforward, yet pleasing typing to do then because I know I will be tired.
• You can tell children / co-committee members / mother you are unavailable for half-an-hour /six months. Telephone bells can be switched off for a while too.
• Every writer has delaying strategies - what are yours? One successful novelist I know always knows when she is having a writing day - all her boring household tasks are done first thing in the morning. I have to prevent myself dealing with everything in my in-tray before I start writing - probably another reason why I like writing on train journeys - no letters screaming to be answered, telephone ringing, emails to be responded to.
• Pile everything else away from your desk. List and file your mind's clutter (dripping tap to be fixed, birthday present to buy). They'll all keep till later when you can give them proper attention.