Artists, such as we writers, are deep people. We spend a lot of time immersed in our minds. We constantly reflect on the actions, not just of ourselves, but of everyone that surrounds us. And we agonise for hours about the state of the world and what can be done about it (or even whether anything can be done about it).

When I think about activities that I can compare with writing, one that definitely comes to mind is gardening.

I can see a lot of similarities between writing and gardening. Firstly, they’re both highly popular recreational activities. Throughout the country (and the world) I can imagine lots of people spending the weekend at their desk creating stories or out in their garden.

Everybody loves action. Action is always the highlight of any visual storytelling medium, such as film or television.

Particularly on the big screen, the main thing people want to see is death-defying action. They want to see crazy, hair-raising stunts. The want to see long chase sequences that go on and on, consistently raising the ante and the fear factor.

There’s a writers group I’m in on Facebook.

Actually, there are several writers groups I’m in on Facebook. Not that I participate particularly actively in any of them. Generally, I kind of lurk. It helps to get a sense of what’s happening in several different subsets of the writing world. Maybe, just maybe, I might learn something useful. Plus, I’m a terrible stickybeak, always interested in poking around for information and seeing what other people are up to.

So 2021 is now well set. In many ways, things haven’t changed much. Covid is still around. Restrictions are still in place. I’m still working from home. But hopefully, there’s some light just around the corner. Vaccination programs are being rolled out around the world. All we can do is hope the vaccine is effective and starts to make a difference, allowing us to get back to some semblance of life as it was.