It looks like a family day in the morning because one of the reasons that I like writing is because it gives me time with the children. So I have the whole child chaos thing to start with. So my head is kind of a bit of a jumble. And quite often these days I'll go for a walk. So I'll drop the children's school, go for a walk, clear my head, calm down, get the kind of mini-shire family life out of my brain,

during which time I'm also thinking about what I'm going to do that day, what I'm going to be

achieving. And I'm quite an organised writer these days. So usually on any given day, I'll have a

plan that's been drawn up a couple of weeks earlier, so I know what I'd got to do on any given day. And I have a very,

very detailed schedule of words. So nothing is really left a chance. So on a weekly basis,

I'll write five days a week and I will have to produce usually two and a half thousand words in my

writing day. So I know when I sit down in the morning that I need to produce

two and a half thousand words. I can't give up writing until I've done that. And if I haven't done

it by the time I have to pick the children up from school, I have to come back to it afterwards and

carry on. I drink a lot of tea. I eat too many biscuits. And I spend too much time in Twitter. So it's a really

question of self-discipline and I am disciplined about making sure that I achieve what I need

to achieve because at the end of the day it's a job. It's a job like any other job and nobody

else goes to work thinking, oh, see if I'm in the mood for it. I'll see how it feels when I get

there, you know?

And actually, too many people think writing is kind of this lovely thing where you can drift in and drift out of it and now you're in the right mood. And that's just rubbish because we have

deadlines. We're trying to earn money. We have other things that we need to do. And so the discipline

is incredibly important because, of course, you know, from when

you get the idea for a book approved to when you stop, usually your editor isn't kind of on top

of your or checking what you're doing. So the need for self-discipline is much greater than

in any other job really. And my day is very much about I do, I have a six hour day

to achieve what I need to achieve and some days are easier than others and some days I can

write more and some days I'm kind of struggling but I always get my work out done. If you're

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