I am so boring that I actually sat down and roughly calculated how many words I have written since leaving school. It comes out to something over 6 million. In fairness, about 4 million of those have involved careers in journalism, pr, advertising and copy writing. The balance is short stories, novels, the odd play and education.

Such a life long experience means that I am fortunate enough to have got beyond thinking about ‘writing’ and my brain can concern itself primarily with character, plot and all the other bits that make up a good story.