The last two weeks have seen me travelling to New York, on a venture yet-to-be-revealed, and finishing the revise of next year's book. The latter was something I could do along the way, in spare moments in my hotel and at the airport. But something had to go to one side and it was writing the current book, which sat at 64K words (out of a probable 115K finished total) when I set off on my travels.

One follower on Twitter commented when I returned to the manuscript after two weeks: how do you get back into the story after a break like that?

<!--more-->Good question. When I was starting out in this craft I was doing two jobs: writing books and working as a correspondent for the <em>Sunday Times</em>. Sometimes I'd have to travel on assignments, for a week or more frequently, then spend a week writing them up on my return.

I still remember being terrified by this prospect. Would the book I was writing still be in my head when I found the time to get back to it?

The answer, I think, is definitely yes, provided it's a solid idea that's taken root in your head already. Stories aren't flimsy ghosts, ready to disappear on the faintest breeze. If they're to have substance they must <em>possess</em> substance. Weight and form and some kind of presence in your head. I can work on them without writing, of course, reading drafts, making notes, going through research and my book diary.

But even if I don't do a thing they will still be there when I return to the manuscript. In fact there's a strong argument for saying that works in progress improve from being abandoned from time to time. You come back to them with fresh ideas and perspective. Once-thorny problems seem simple to solve. Florid passages that escaped you when you wrote them stand out a mile and demand excision.

Writing's a marathon not a sprint. It doesn't worry me in the slightest if other pressures mean I have to set a project to one side for a while. And when this present book's done I hope to have time to put it in a digital drawer for a month or so before taking it out for a final revise before delivery.

So if you can't find the time you'd like to work on something don't worry. If it's good enough