I mean 'continue' with what  I am writing at the moment, not continue writing at all.

I can only tell you how I know. How I have always known. There may be other ways and I may be doing some teaching of egg-sucking to grandmothers here, so forgive me if I am stating what you all know.

I have recently - post-Christmas - started 2 new books. One is long, a full-length crime novel (not a Simon Serrailler), the other is shorter and I am not entirely sure what it is exactly. I had been thinking about the first for over a year and made a lot of notes - and making notes is important. I have often said I`d rather lose an entire finished Mss. than the working notebook.

The second book has some elements which have been floating round for a long time but is mainly quite new and unscheduled, as it were.

The first book has ground to a halt for now. It just isn`t right. I don`t know why, but I know. I know because I have to drag myself to it and once there I don`t want to continue, I`ll go and change the kitten liter tray rather than continue.

The second, I cannot wait to get to and once I am writing it, I want to go on. I have a lovely thump of excitement in my stomach when I remember that I have started it, when I wake up, when I realise I can go back to it once I have emptied the kitten litter tray.

I have no idea at ALL why one is working and the other isn`t but my point is that you know you should go on with what you are writing when it excites you, you can`t wait to go back to it and it is going, or so you think anyway, really well.

And when a particular book does not attract you back,when you`d do anything rather than start again, when the whole thing is just draggy...then it`s time to set it aside, even if for the time being only.  Gut feeling. The book itself will tell you. Listen to it.

This is not the same as just procrastinating. Not the same as 'don`t want to work at all.' This is the thing you are working on telling you, if you listen to it.

It is probably the same thing my doctor sometimes says 'Listen to the patient and they will tell you what is wrong.' 

Listen to your book.