By Renee Liang

Tokushima, where I am currently living, is a little city of around 300,000 people tucked away on the island of Shikoku. It's a service and port town for agriculture and logging, and not exactly known for its cultural scene. Which is what makes it, theoretically, a great town for hiding in while working on a large (and daunting) piece of writing. By Renee Liang

Tokushima, where I am currently living, is a little city of around 300,000 people tucked away on the island of Shikoku. It's a service and port town for agriculture and logging, and not exactly known for its cultural scene. Which is what makes it, theoretically, a great town for hiding in while working on a large (and daunting) piece of writing.There seem to be two widely recommended approaches to creative endeavour. One is, to find the busiest creative hub you can afford (ie, New York, or - er - Auckland), attend all the arty things you can find, and impress as many people as possible, so that you can collectively bask in the interconnective aura of ideas.

The other way is to do completely the opposite and hide away somewhere in a log cabin in deepest Titirangi, refuse all visitors or admirers and pen that trilogy or book of verse that's been coalescing in your head all these years. There seems to be a great tradition of going away to nurse the creative muse in isolation, preferably somewhere where there's no mobile coverage, no broadband and definitely no friends.

Well, Tokushima neatly fits that bill, apart from the superfast internet that's been my downfall many a well-intentioned morning (and it pains me to admit this). Otherwise I speak barely any Japanese, and while some rather lovely river spots and parks are just a cycle ride away, the current frosty weather is enough of a discouragement that I stay indoors most days, nursing my teapot. And (sob), I have hardly any friends. Well, maybe one.

Of course, a useful byproduct of unfettered access to the world wide web is that I can waste my writing hours by researching some of the tactics that famous writers have used in order to keep on writing. For example, JK Rowling likes to book expensive hotel suites and then sign the statues. Another time-honoured stratagem is to go naked or to camouflage oneself in the bathtub. While I don't intend to emulate either of these techniques, there are numerous other sites which give much more practical, and deliberately conflicting, advice on keeping focussed.

Despite my flippancy, this time in self-imposed solitude has been excellent in terms of progress on my novel. Although I spend some of my time throwing shoes at George Bush, surfing for cult internet videos, trying to make sense of Japanese vending machines and researching the relativity science of Santa Claus, I've made good progress in my draft by using a couple of special focusing techniques.

Both of them involve potential embarrassment. Firstly, I keep a daily writing log online, where I post my progress (haven't done so well today!). And secondly, I ask someone I highly respect to set me a deadline and not to let me wriggle out of it. Of course, these techniques are based on my own admittedly rather warped psyche, so they may not work for others. I'd be pleased to hear any more suggestions - please comment below!

Anyway, I'd better get back to writing - and making dinner. Wherever you are in the world, have a wonderful Xmas - TalkWrite will be back in the New Year.

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18/12/08