You could write regularly in a notebook – or keep a diary – do you ever do that?’ ‘Not really,’ Susie shook her head. ‘Not for ages.’ ‘It might help you identify what you’re good at and what you’re interested in. You could try writing every day, about the things that happen, the things you think about. Use the diary to explore your feelings and mem

The second principle is to embrace radical incrementalism. The psychology professor Robert Boice spent his career studying the writing habits of his fellow academics, reaching the conclusion that the most productive and successful among them generally made writing a smaller part of their daily routine than the others, so that it was much more feasi

If you want to write and can’t figure out how to do it, try picking an amount of time to sit at your desk every day. Start with twenty minutes, say, and work up as quickly as possible to as much time as you can spare. Do you really want to write? Sit for two hours a day. During that time, you don’t have to write, but you must stay at your desk with

Sometime later you’ll find yourself at work on, maybe really into, another book, and once again you figure out that the real payoff is the writing itself, that a day when you have gotten your work done is a good day, that total dedication is the point.