It’s 2007. A story is burning your brain, so you write it. You live it, breathe it, dream it. It won’t let you go. You wonder if you’ll ever see it in print. Whether you’ll ever walk into a bookshop and see your book there, ready to be bought.

Well, sorry kiddo. No. Not that book.

But others.

Oh, others come, do not fear. There are so many books inside you.

That one you write in 2007? Yeah. You’ll work out soon that you’re a planner and not a seat-of-your-pants writer and that 150,000 is really rather too long for a thriller. But you learn a lot from writing that book. You learn about characterisation, settings, dialogue… and yeah, plotting! You learn how to sit down and write, even when it feels hard. You learn how to write something, even when you only have ten minutes in the day to call your own.

And okay, that book doesn’t ever leave the laptop. And to be honest, the next one may never be published either (though perhaps it will, when you get the time). But the others? Oh, they get published. People buy them. Yes, indeed! People hand over money for something you have written and you know what’s even better? Many of them love what you’ve written.

Well, okay, some don’t, but you can’t please everyone all of the time. Grow a thicker skin.

So, hang in there, kiddo. I won’t lie to you and tell you it isn’t going to be tough. It is. There are good days… there are some absolutely brilliant days, actually. And there are some pretty rubbish ones. But you get there. You get there. Next year your sixth book will be published. Your sixth.

But none of this happens if you give up. So don’t.