Really must pull myself together now, though.  I haven’t so much as opened Chapter Five for nearly a week, and I am at last beginning to feel tense about  the approaching deadline.   So updating this diary is my last job before I get back to work.  I have had to tear up my timetable and am now trying a different approach, which is to not let myself even check my email until I have written ten pages, let alone reply to any messages.  Not sure how long this particular discipline will last, but it feels as if drastic measures are called for!

I’d better go and get on with it, then. Sorry this is so short, but if I can’t report major progress by the beginning of May, I am going to be in big trouble … people think that sitting at home and writing all day must be a doddle, but at times like this it all feels much too much like hard work!