I`ve mentioned this before and even gave you a TTD about it - write for 20 minutes only. Not a second longer. It is worth another post about time as I am receiving desperate e-mails from  people saying they are in full-time work or have young children and cant devote the time they feel they should to writing. Note the word 'should' which is a banned word along wit 'ought' and 'must' - vocabulary of the inner Nazi. Do not worry if you have only a short amount of time... far better half an hour and focus completely and accomplish something in that time than two hours faffing about. Now the inner Nazi may say 'But if you do as much as that in half an hour see how much you would accomplish in three hours - or four - or eight.'  It ain`t necessarily so. I often accomplish far more in one focused half hour than a whole morning. I wrote my first novel at the end of every school day while doing four A Levels. I usually only had half an hour, and a big longer at the weekends but I knew that time was so sacred I really used it to the full.  Acres of time do not mean a huge and wonderful output. They can but they do not always. So don`t beat yourself up and use the short time well.

The other good way of using time is having a notebook with you and use the time if you commute or sit outside the school gates waiting or for fifteen minutes before you go to sleep... A.S. Byatt said that if she lost the only copy of entire finished novel it  would be far less of a disaster than if she lost her working notebooks and I agree..... you can spin and weave thoughts and ideas in a notebook.. write odd things about your character.. or ask yourself questions.

ASK QUESTIONS.

That is a really useful thing to do. I often find a notebook page that says

Where is this story going ?

Do I need to have chapter four ?

What on earth is X or Y (character) doing in this book ? Good reason ?

That sort of thing - then think about the answers..it really helps. This is where you are working and probably doing the most useful work but in bursts of 10 or 15 minutes.. or even 4 or 5 minutes. You can sort something out in that time or have a very good idea. Never underestimate the value of this sort of time spent well and never fall into the trap of thinking that somehow you are only working when you actually at your desk writing. You are working when you`re asleep in fact... a lot of problems and ideas get sorted out while your subconscious has a nice empty time to itself and you are not filling it up with other stuff. So value those small amounts of time and don`t worry if you do not have many long stretches. So long as once you have begun a book you can find an hour of concentrated time - with luck an hour a day - you`ll finish it.

Now TTD6

TITLES. I often make up titles or titles pop into my head, without any actual book in sight. I have dozens of titles in search of a novel. A good title can not only attract readers whereas a bad or dull one can put them off - a really great title can inspire you. So first, list the ten best titles of novels  - you don`t have to have read the novel, just list the title. It should make you think 'I want to read that' but also, 'I want to WRITE that.' Any novel from any era at all.

Now, make up six titles for novels you would like to write.  Or more if you can. Do ten and you are really coming on. Send them all to me when you`re done (mail@susan-hill.com). I`ll put them up - anonymously, as usual. No one will know it`s you except you.