Procrastination plays a big part. I often map out the broad arc of the story I want to tell in my head while I'm doing other things - particularly when I'm walking the dog with my headphones in - so when I sit down to write a scene I have a general idea of what is coming. From there, I crank up some kind of ambient music that reflects the atmosphere of what I'm writing about and just go ham writing it out. I try to let the characters take the lead in every scene, if that makes any sense, so that they are reacting to and progressing events as if things were playing out in real-time.

I'm very momentum-based, so I take a long time to get going and really struggle to continue where I left off if I have to pause for a bit. I'm also extremely self-critical when I read back over what I write, and often have to fight the desire to delete my recent work in a fit of insecurity.

After something is written I then comb back over it many, many, many times to try and wean out errors and improve the writing. The result is that I can pretty much recall the entirety of any chapter I've written - purely because I've reread the blighter so many damned times.

Dan Abnett, Michael Crichton, Aaron Dembski Bowden.

Steven Bell also needs an honourable mention here - were it not for his amazing run of Ms Marvelous stories then I would likely never have become engaged enough with SHIP fiction to attempt to contribute to it.