One question I am often asked by people who want to write - adults and children - is this: How many hours a day do you commit to writing?

My answer is that despite commiting myself to writing every day, I don't have a set amount of time that I write. Instead, I give myself a minimum number of words that I tell myself that I have to write. For me, that number is one thousand. For you, it might be 500, 250, even as little as 100 words per day, just until you get into the habit.

The reason I began working this way is that there are so many distractions, and when you're meant to be writing, distractions can get very appealing. If I tell myself that I have to write at my desk for two hours, for example, I can find any number of things to do that will fill in that time. Research on the Internet, phone calls to my editor or other writers, answering emails, managing my banking and book-keeping, running my business, all these things are legitimate activities for a writer. And they all eat up time, until you get to the end of two hours, and you think, Oh dear, I've just done my two hours, but no writing has been done. Which is bad, when you're a writer.

If you choose a manageable number of words (as I said, for me it's a thousand) you can always do that. It's always within reach. It might take you all day, it might take you half an hour, but at least you will feel that you have achieved something as a writer. And what I often find is that once I get to a thousand words, I can't stop, and I end up writing two, three, even four thousand words in a day.

But if you choose a reasonable amount, you can come in from a party at 11pm, and still pull yourself together enough to knock off a thousand words. Every day. Without exception.