Other writers no doubt have their own rest and recharge routines, but for me, every December I stop writing for the entire month. Why? Because I find that, for some reason, by the time I reach that point in any given year, my levels of inspiration are running dangerously low.

Given that I spend the other eleven months of the year writing one thing or another, this one month recharge period has become a vital part of my writing routine.

That said I do not stop entirely. I still write film reviews, and occasional blog posts, although I try to have written as much as possible in advance, for the month of December. Nor does it mean that ideas do not occur to me. Indeed, I already have a decent outline for a novel I am writing first thing next year, so no doubt the details will be ticking away in the back of my mind during the Christmas period.

However, the fact that I chose not to write means that when I do finally get down to writing the afore-mentioned novel, it will have been brewing nicely for some time. I will feel a lot more inspired to write it having given a months rest and recuperation to the Dillon brain.

So, in two days time, I’m hitting shutdown on all major writing projects and enjoying a much needed mental break. Generally I am pleased with how my writing year has gone, so I think I deserve it.

“I must caution you that I am a writer. Anything you say or do could be used in my next novel.”

Muses are integral to any writing process, whether they inspire characters directly, indirectly, in part or in full. If a writer writes what they know, as conventional advice dictates, then their writing will be full of people who have inspired their work, consciously or unconsciously.

In my own writing, I have consciously written about people, and also unconsciously, realising that I had after the fact. For example, my wife – my greatest inspiration – consciously inspired elements of the three central female characters in my as yet unreleased fantasy magnum opus Goldeweed. However she also unconsciously inspired Meredith, or significant elements of her, in the George Hughes trilogy. Only after my mother pointed out the obvious connection between Meredith and my wife (after the first novel George goes to Mars) did I realise. Meredith’s defining characteristic is her fierce loyalty, and that comes directly from my wife. She also often comes up with the plan that saves the day, and generally has the best lines too, especially in the final novel George goes to Neptune. Again, this is very characteristic of my wife.

Love vs Honour is another example of a novel where the characters (and also situations) in some cases were inspired by people from my past.

There are dangers, however, of crowbarring unworkable elements into fictional characters if one relies too much on direct inspiration from real individuals. There is a balance to be struck. For example, earlier this year, when writing a supernatural thriller entitled The Irresistible Summons, I based the central character, and two other supporting characters, on friends of mine (in one case, my closest friend). For the central character I’d say about 70 percent is based on the muse in question, and the other 30 percent made up. At times I was tempted to make this protagonist more like her real-life counterpart, but it would have weakened the overall novel. The same was true for the supporting characters.

Elsewhere many of my novels (particularly Children of the Folded Valley) feature characters minor and major that are directly inspired from figures in my past or present. But they are always cloaked in fictionalised elements, mostly for the purposes of the novel but also very occasionally to differentiate sufficiently from real life incidents. This is to avoid potential offence being taken, should the real people ever realise they inspired the character in question. After all, I don’t always own up to people if they have ever ended up in a novel in some form, especially if their portrayal is less than flattering.

And make no mistake – some of the people I write about are deeply unpleasant individuals. An odious left luggage attendant in The Irresistible Summons is based entirely on a truly obnoxious person I once had the misfortune to encounter in Paddington railway station. In The Birds Began to Sing, Alice’s boss is an officious, corporate non-entity based very much on a person I know, though I suspect he would not recognise himself in print. Much more seriously, cult leader Benjamin Smiley in Children of the Folded Valley is also based on someone (now deceased) that I knew as a child. Of all my novels, Children of the Folded Valley contains more characters that are either composites or else directly inspired from people I know or knew than any of my other works.