Psst. Want to know a secret? Okay, Friday night is probably not the best time for a confessional, it being the traditional night of making merry, but I bet loads of writers are still hammering away at the keyboard, albeit with a Friday night prop, like me, currently typing with a gin in hand. (It’s a skill, I know. I’ll teach you some time). Have you got one? A gin, or whatever other prop you need? Good. Because here goes with the secret:  I’m having an affair.

I know I shouldn’t be so crass as to announce this on the blogosphere, but it’s not just any old affair. It’s special. Like when Den cheated on Angie in East Enders way back when…  No, no, don’t go away! I mean it, it really is special.

But it’s not THAT kind of affair. (My private life is just that, thank you). In truth, I’m cheating on my current writing project, my second novel LAYLA, with another book. It all began recently: I’d spent a glorious three days (thanks to Arts Council funding) in Bexhill over Christmas to spend a solid amount of time writing without distractions (AKA children). But when I got back to my usual writing routine in the new year (I only have two days a week when my toddler’s at nursery), I just wasn’t feeling ‘her’ (Layla) –  inspiration was lacking. Then it hit me. When writing my first novel 4AM I’d been bogged down in a part-time sales job, as well as toiling away at some non-fiction writing gigs. Writing 4AM had been my excitement, a thrill I rewarded myself with from time to time; 4AM was, I now realise, my bit on the side.

Your own writing has to seduce you, I think. It should grip you, take you in its arms, give you a good smack on the lips, or whatever else gets you going. If it’s just another notch on the bed post, then why go to all that trouble? And so I’m embarking on that affair I mentioned, and hope this will help me become smitten with LAYLA all over again. But will I leave LAYLA for this Other Book? Probably not. I love LAYLA truly, madly, deeply: I’m passionate about painting my story of contemporary female experience through the neon brush strokes of the lap dancing world. But by starting a thing with Other Book, I hope that my relationship with the novel will be reinvigorated, and that inspiration will come flooding back.

I recommend every writer have a bit on the side. You might get down and dirty and try your, ahem, hand at some filth (as fashion dictates), or you may go for something more deep and meaningful (Graham Greene’s The End of The Affair springs to mind) but whatever you try, I hope for you, like me, it will end up in a hot bed of much needed inspiration. Meantime, I’m looking forward to having some fun.