I was at a Sharman McDonald masterclass a couple of months ago and a young student asked her how to tackle the problem of “life” getting in the way of writing. She answered that she is at her most productive when she’s busy with other stuff, as she has to make the most of any writing opportunity that crops up in her day. She said that when her kids were young she was especially productive.

The masterclass coincided with the release of the Dylan Thomas love triangle drama The Edge of Love, which Sharman McDonald wrote, and so she talked a bit about Dylan, and mentioned his own attitude to life and writing. I’m paraphrasing here but Dylan would say, “I’m a poet; life is my resource.” In other words, if you write, you have to have something to write about, and in order to have something to write about, you have to live life.

But when you live life, life gets in the way of your writing. And right now, I don’t have any time to do either. I’m putting the bulk of my time and energy into another job that has just got manically busy. And suddenly the December 31 deadline seems quite tough.

I got feedback on the developments I’ve made in the last month or so, and the upshot is that we’re not coming from the same place right now. So it’s back to the drawing board. The joys of writing