Managing my writing time is a lot easier now than when I had three children under five! I used to try and co-ordinate nap times – tire them out in the morning by taking them swimming and then hope they’d sleep or sit in front of Brum or Telly Tubbies for the afternoon. (Bad mother!) It rarely worked out that way though, so it was a constant juggling act, snatching fifteen minutes on the computer when I could and making notes in exercise books while feeding the baby pureed peaches.

They are all at school now, but even so I need to schedule my writing or find that my days simply disappear.

I don’t write during the holidays or on weekends but do try to be strict four days a week during the school term. That doesn’t always happen. Last week on my daughter’s first day back at school, I was just turning on the computer when the school rang to tell me she was vomiting and need to be picked up ‘NOW’.

However a typical school day looks like this: After I’ve dropped the children at the train station/school (normally in pyjamas except if I’m going to gym) I come home and spend half an hour tidying up, then I’ll fluff around answering emails, checking FB and Twitter. If I don’t limit myself to an hour, I can get carried away very easily and find it’s midday before I’ve even opened Microsoft Word.

One of my writer friends got so distracted working from home she rented a cheap office/room five kilometres away. Four days a week, she write there from ten til two, no excuses. Needless to say she has no internet connection.

I used to be far more disciplined when the kids were smaller because I had a finite amount of time. I never knew when one of the children would wake up and so I made use of the available time I had...and there was also no Twitter or Facebook to distract me.

Early on, I had a very strong motivation to keep writing, and that was to get published. Even on days when I didn’t feel like it because the kids or myself were sick, tired etc, I wrote through the tiredness and pain. I kept going because I never lost sight of my ultimate goal.

Now days I find it easier to make excuses...I guess because I know how hard it is. Sometimes I feel like I’m on a treadmill going nowhere. Thankfully, the good writing days outweigh the bad but ultimately I’ve learnt that writing is a solitary pursuit. No one can do it for you. To persevere you have to have faith and determination and set yourself a goal. Once you have your goal in mind you need to work towards it, like that proverbial carrot that’s dangling in front of you. Write every day even if it’s only for half an hour at three am. Sounds hard but that’s because it is.