If you want to be a writer then write

[John Dean]

I have just started work on a new DCI Jack Harris novel. I have a strong idea and a strong setting but, as always happens in writing, I get stuck from time to time. The cursor hovers over the page but nothing happens.

How do I get over the problem? Simple. I close my eyes and imagine myself there with my characters. What can they see, what can they hear, how do they feel? Once I do that, the cursor miraculously starts moving again.

All writers have ways of getting round the problem, making a cup of tea, taking the dog for a walk etc, and all can be useful but, as Mike Watson, a writer with whom I have worked for many years, always says ‘If you want to be a writer then write.’

He’s correct;  writing creates a momentum all of its own. It’s probably the best advice of all.