'Do you have any dating advice for writers'?

Dear Daniel,

I wondered if you have any dating advice for writers? As a brilliant and prolific author I’m sure you have no difficulties in this area, but perhaps you could share some tips for the rest of us?

Daniel says:

Dating as a writer is extremely difficult. There are multiple obstacles in our way; not least the very concept of time. There is no such thing as ‘free time’ for a writer – time spent dating is time not spent writing. Any moment when I am not writing is physically painful for me. I have on several occasions found myself groaning in Pizza Express, and trying to tell my date it is due to a fictional ailment (such as gout). And of course, just because I am not writing, it does not mean I am not thinking about writing. Halfway through a recent date, struck by sudden inspiration for a sonnet, I disappeared to the toilet for over forty minutes. On my return, I was once again forced to ascribe my writerly behaviour to an imaginary condition (IBS).

And then there is the matter of…