Writer's block
Tres chic!

1. Clothing matters

Winter is a particularly important time when it comes to a writer's wardrobe: get some decent sheepskin slippers and fingerless gloves, your extremities will be grateful and your heating bill won't exceed your earnings :)

2. Never mind "writer's block", worry about "writer's face"

Writer's block can be overcome by a quick run, a leisurely walk or by banging your head against the desk. Writer's face will give you a deep groove in between your eyebrows that no amount of smiling will undo. You need to embrace the groove or get botox. But then you'd lose your writer's face - so how will people know what you do?

3. Classical music is your friend

Try listening to anything else and see how long it takes for you to put the words being sung into your work. The lyrics to "Welcome to the Jungle" have no place in a whitepaper on virtualisation. Listening to the William Tell Overture however, might help you write it more quickly.

4. Make time to get out and see people you know

Not doing so puts the milkman, postman and the lady at the village shop in grave danger of twenty minute tirades, and you in danger of looking ever-so-slightly manic every time you come into contact with another human being.

5. Green tea is useless

(c) rocketfuel.uk.com
There is a reason the Beastie Boys wrote the lyric "It's 50 cups of coffee and you know it's on." Ever been fuelled by green tea? I didn't think so.

6. Pen and paper is still king

Using a computer is the bona-fide best way to share your writing but nothing touches someone's heart like receiving a hand written letter. There's something about the way a pen has travelled across the page that tells you so much more than a character on a keyboard could do.  Having just taken down the Christmas cards, filled with the writing of people I know and love, this has never felt more true.