Maybe it’s just the time of year, maybe it’s the times we’re in now, but over the last few days, a couple of people have told me that they are quitting writing.

It’s never been easier to get your writing out to people, but it’s never been harder to get paid for it. So I understand and while it makes me ever more glad that the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain is fighting the fights it can, I can’t disagree with anyone who gives up.

Look, since it’s you, I will tell you straight: I regard myself as a pretty complete failure in writing because while I’ve achieved a lot that I’m proud of, not to mention startled by, but I have not managed certain things I set out to do. And not only am I aware that the clock is ticking, but also that in today’s market, they are now a lot less likely.

Yet I can’t stop. 

There’s a line in a “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” episode — I think by series creator Aaron Sorkin but I can’t find it to check — where a writer character says he has to work in Los Angeles, because “in any other part of the country I’m unemployable.”

I can edit video and I’ve been paid to do so, but if you’re a video editor then I guarantee that you’re better than I am. Same with audio. I suppose I’ve produced events. I seem to go down well on radio lately.

But I’m always a writer, even in video editing I am using the same mental muscles as writing. I’m hired as a writer and even if I’m booked as a producer, really I am a writer because really, I’m a writer. Can’t do anything else.

I appreciate that I’m fortunate — not lucky, never lucky, but definitely fortunate – to be able to keep earning enough from writing. You and I are not going to get into a discussion about whether my writing is any good, so stop that right now.

And I’m discussing anything with either of the people who’ve told me they’re quitting because it’s their decision. I know for me that what I need to do is write a day at a time and see what happens.

This is a more sombre start to the year than I was expecting. But I’m still glad to have shaken off 2025 and there’s always the midterms to look forward to.