So you've got a great idea, great plot, characters can out Shakesphere Shakesphere, and you're ready to go. So, what now?

The answer to that is simple - write. A 60,000 word novel requires at least three months on average, and that's before you factor in trivial stuff like your life, DIY at weekends, your partner and kids etc etc taking up your time.

Being faced with a blank page or screen is daunting, being faced with blogs, books, creative writing courses and the views of a million different experts on how to write a book, is not easy.

Now, to save you from that misery,to save you from spending two years in a creative writing course, and to cut through some of the bull spouted by these views, I'll offer my tuppence worth. And it is as simple as this: just write. There is no right or wrong way to write a novel, and not every novel has to be written with a view to selling millions of copies and having it turned into a series of blockbuster films.

Get those words down on a page. And if it is a steaming pile of brown stuff, don't worry. You've written that novel, and at the end of the day, that is an achievement in itself.