One of the hardest things in writing can just be getting started. Whether it’s starting a new piece of work or at the beginning of a writing session to get the first few words out.

Another key factor sometimes is just to keep yourself going. I’ve got to a bit of a mid-narrative doldrums in my story at the moment. I don’t think it’s because of the story itself, but probably because some of my initial enthusiasm has drained a little bit, and energy levels have been a bit lower this week for a number of reasons – probably because it’s so damn cold!

So yesterday and today it has been a bit of a struggle. Today I got through a few paragraphs, and I thought “well maybe that’s enough for today”. But I kept going a bit further and the writing seemed to come a bit easier and picked up. I think once I got over the 20-30 minute mark my writing brain started to spark into life a bit.

I’m not saying the writing was great, but at least I felt a bit more inspired and got further through the narrative than I thought I would.

Don’t give up – an obvious but also very pertinent motto to have!