I was half human child and half sea creature, salt running through my veins

I was adamant that I was not going to be one of those writers who constantly drones on about their ‘process’ — don’t mind me, I don’t have any notions! I promise! — but when I made the decision to take this summer to refill the creative well before starting a new book in the autumn, I found myself becoming the very thing which I despise. (I’m so sorry.)

You might be wondering what all this talk of refilling the creative well means. My sports psychologist/father would liken it to taking a rest day between workout sessions. Letting a field lay fallow, my grandfather would have said, giving the soil a chance to regain lost nutrients.

A few years ago, I thought I had an endless supply of creativity and imagination; that I didn’t need to tend to either in order to replenish their stocks. Since then, I have come to realise that in order to create art, you have to be consuming art as well. This is an idea that is reinforced in The Artist’s Way, a book by Julia Cameron which aims to help aspiring artists work through any mental blocks around their work.