Dear Mary: What’s the cure for writer’s block?

Q. Do you have a solution for writer’s block, Mary? A friend is the best company in the world, but I haven’t been able to speak to her for months. I know she reads her emails but they bounce back with the generic reply that she cannot respond until she has completed an urgent piece of writing work. I suspect she is blocked because this piece of writing is important to her on an emotional level but she is also the authority on the subject and only 5,000 words are required.

— W.M., London W3

A. In writing it is often much easier to correct something bad than to begin something good. Why not ask ChatGPT to write 5,000 words and email the result? The clunky style and inaccuracies within the robot-written take on the topic should flood her with competitive self-confidence as she makes her way swiftly to the keyboard.

Q. We have no off-street parking where we live in south London so my husband installed a CCTV camera to monitor our car, which we usually park just outside our house.