When I first took a break from my career in banking to write full time, I took the decision to keep regular office hours. It was something I was used to and I soon realised that writing as a career is totally different to writing as a hobby in your spare time.

As much as I love doing it I also enjoy having weekends off and switching off each evening. I think that's very important otherwise the writing can take over.

That's not to say I don't suddenly think of something during the evening or weekend but usually I'll just note the thought down and come back to it during my writing day.

The worst thing is thinking of something just after you've closed your eyes to go to sleep at night. Fortunately I do keep a notebook in the top drawer of my bedside cabinet but writing down one idea invariably leads to something else. I've brought in a rule that I will only switch my light on to write notes three times. After that I force myself to switch off.

The other thing that I'm fortunate in is having an office in the third bedroom where the door can be closed when I'm done and this really helps with switching off. A number of years ago I had the opportunity to take a year out after being made redundant from my job. I did a short story writing course and also worked on my first attempt at a novel. At the time I was living in a small, two-bed roomed apartment where all the rooms came off of a tiny hallway. To get any light into this space I had to keep the door to the second bedroom open. This was where my desk was and so every time I walked through that hallway I saw the desk and I either began thinking about the stories I was working on, or I felt guilty because I hadn't been working on them that particular day. I wasn't ever able to switch off properly. Still, it was a lesson learned.

Today is Saturday and after I publish this I will not be doing anything else book related until Monday; and that feels great.