How to write: mind miles

Woody Allen said 90 per cent of success is showing up.

How true!

In the case of writing, it means that if you show up at your computer and put in the time writing, eventually it'll pay off for you and your readers.

I believe almost everybody can write because everyone has a story to tell and a unique voice that makes them unlike anyone who's ever lived on this planet before.

But it's not easy to sit down and create a 50,000-odd word novel. It takes months, at least: months of stretching your imagination to the limits, and testing your resolve.

One way to keep yourself fascinated is to write a novel set in a place you'd love to be. It should be a place you'd fly to if you could: if you had the money, the time off work, the freedom from the commitments of a family...

So clock up the mind miles on your 'flying machine' , aka computer.

A village in the Cinque Terre, Italy

In some of my novels, I've visited Wales often because it's 'the land of my fathers' and I adore it, and I've also been to Italy, another favourite.

Australia is my home and I have a free novel on Kindle right now, A Hard Man to Love. In that novel I didn't move many miles away from my desk, but I did do some time travelling.

A friendly spaniel in my Dad's village of Hook, Pembrokeshire, Wales