Maybe it’s not a good idea to read emails before you go to bed. I did last night. There was an email from my editor. The title seemed quite innocuous. A few thoughts about a synopsis I had sent her for a new series. Could I make one or two tiny amendments and rethink the character sketches as we had discussed on the phone – oh yes – this was just dropped in casually at the end – it might be nice to have a couple of sample chapters.

That probably doesn’t sound too bad. Except that to write a couple of sample chapters meant to me, that I’d need to pretty well research the whole eight book series and get it set in stone before I could move on to write the story. Let’s just say it wasn’t what I wanted to hear.

So, at two in the morning I woke up, wide awake, it seemed very bright outside. The moon must have been quite bright. And I lay there, trying not to think about the synopsis. the more I told myself to go to sleep and not think about it, more I did think about it.

In the end I gave in to it. Experience has told me I might as well. If I get a good idea in the night, I don’t mind sleeping late, because I know I’ve already been at work.

When I got to my desk at about 11, I had a pretty good plan in my head which I’ve been working out all morning. Of course I’ve done quite a lot of research on this project already, but to day I had to start refining it enough to create a convincing couple of opening chapters.

A few years ago, I’d have been in tears by now. I guess I’ve just had a lot of experience now and know what I need to do. Without the internet, I’d have had to begin by collecting up books and then I’d have to read them all and makes notes that would then have to be collated somehow, to create the foundations I need. But with the internet, I can flit around following up ideas and hunches, finding little snippets of useful information, checking their veracity and twisting them to my needs.

Now I’ve actually started the writing. and hope to have it all sorted by the weekend. I’ve got other things to worry about and want this little piece of work put to bed so I can concentrate on current jobs. Then I can let, what I call, the “Old Back Boiler” get to work on the synopsis over the next year or so, picking up information and building up the big world in which I will finally be ready to start the stories properly.

So, in a way, I’m procrastinating and putting off the project I should be working on, but I’m actually working really well on the project I’ll most likely be working on after the current on. Is that displacement activity?