My writing day: Jacqueline Wilson

‘I become my main character, scarcely aware that my own fingers are tapping away as I experience everything through her eyes’

I once wrote in a Lett’s School-Girl’s Diary “It would be so wonderful to be a proper writer when I’m grown up. Imagine what bliss it would be to stay at home all day and just write!” Well, I’m a writer now, proper or improper, but sadly I don’t often get to stay at home all day and write. I meet journalists, I go to endless meetings, I do charity work, I talk at festivals, I take part in conferences, I lecture at universities, I visit ill children, I open libraries, I talk on panels, I give interviews on radio and television, and I judge all kinds of competitions. It’s all very interesting and enjoyable, if a bit nerve-racking at times, but it’s ultra time-consuming. It’s difficult managing to produce two full-length books each year. I cope by writing early every morning – even Christmas morning.

I don’t get up that early. I feel exhausted simply thinking about a writer like Anthony Trollope, starting to write at 5.30 am every day, completing 3,000 words in three hours before marching off to do a full day’s work at the Post Office. I don’t even set my alarm, but my cat and my dog are very good at waking me up. I sort them out, make a cup of coffee, go back to bed, prop myself on my pillows and start typing on my laptop.

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