Health, Family, Work, Writing - Choose Three

I've been wondering a lot recently about what it takes to be a writer, and more specifically about the challenges of making space for writing in your life. Finishing an entire novel means putting one word after another on the page, relentlessly and painstakingly, until you're done. That means setting aside a regular slot of time for writing, be it every day or every week, as long as it's regular and as long as you stick to it religiously.

It also means finding a space to write. I don't know about you, but I need privacy and quiet to get my head together before I can effectively put words on the page. Some people can happily tap away at their laptops in the living room, surrounded by the chaos and tumble of family life. Some can happily scribble away on a notebook on the train in to work, oblivious of the hacking coughs of the other commuters or the tinny scritching coming from the headphones of the badly-shaven salesman in the cheap suit that's sitting next to them.

I find that I can't even listen to music while I write as it puts me off, so my only realistic chance of getting a solid hour to myself is waking up an hour earlier before work. That means dragging my bleary carcass out of bed at 6am every day, sitting my arse down in front of the laptop and forcing my brain to form some coherent sentences, regardless of what time I actually fell asleep or how often the baby cried that night.

In addition to this, I'm also on a bit of a weight-loss crusade at the moment. I'm hell-bent on regaining the washboard abs of my distant youth, so I'm hitting the gym during my office lunch breaks, leaving no time for writing at work.

So to all you aspiring writers out there who actually bloody write instead of just talking about writing (or writing about writing, as I'm so ironically doing here) - my hat's off to you. If you can juggle that burning need to write with the more prosaic (but no less demanding) requirements of health, work and family, then you're already a world ahead of those who are still only dreaming. I wish you the very best of luck.