When it starts to feel fun again

Writer's block, navigating bad days online and things getting better

If you’ve asked me what I’m working on at any point over the past year or so, I’ll probably have told you that I’m writing a book about car-free adventures. I signed the contract in the summer of 2021, just a few weeks after Coasting was published. It felt, at the time, like I had some momentum going. This is what real writers must do, I presumed, as I worked on the proposal for this new book before my first one was even released.

The project had fallen into my lap sort of by chance. Emily Chappell, aka arguably the internet’s favourite cyclist, had Tweeted saying she didn’t drive but wanted to go hiking, and why wasn’t there a book for that. Or something along those lines. I also didn’t have a driving license at the time so I sent the Tweet to my friend Kirsty, who’s an editor at Vertebrate Publishing, asking her to please get Emily to write this book so that I could buy it. But Emily couldn’t take on the project at the time so Kirsty asked if I fancied having a go at it. I said yes a…