Glad to see the back of January? I am too – and it’s my birthday month. I don’t know what I’d be like if I didn’t have that to look forward to. The other day I was sat at my desk writing when my husband came in and asked me if I wanted to pull down the blind. It was lashing with rain, great sweeping sheets of it blowing across the garden. If I had been looking out of the window it would have been depressing but thankfully I was writing. It’s amazing how little you notice of the real world when you are otherwise engaged. I left the blind open, oblivious to anything but the dim light it managed to let into the room.

I suppose I like February because it makes me feel that  spring is nearer. And I like the neatness of the month, 28 days, a nice even four weeks. If I’m going to do anything or give up anything for a month I’m going to choose February. For the next four weeks I’m going on what my friend Lynne Hackles calls the C Plan. I like to keep life simple. Lynne’s full of good ideas, I’m still writing down my New Year Resolutions and putting them away in an envelope as she advised in one of her Novel Ideas columns in Writing Magazine a few years ago.

Why not give yourself 28 days to keep it simple. 28 days to write each and every day, 28 days to write for ten minutes each day, 28 days of keeping a diary. Start small.