WHAT IS THE JOB OF A WRITER?

I grew up watching my father be utterly consumed by writing for days on end, without rest, until he would collapse, but he lived to write and create and still does. Being a writer means something different to each of us. So how do you define the job and what do writers feel about what they do?

MOIRA BUFFINI: I love it. I love it. I escape into my work. There are times when it goes wrong and it can be extremely difficult but if you choose who you work with carefully and pick the projects that you are in tune with (which, as you go on, you get more and more opportunity to do), then this is a wonderful job. It's a privilege. You sit with your cup of tea in the morning and three hours pass before you know where you are. You completely immerse yourself in another world and in the experience of other people. That is writing.

LEE ARONSOHN: I hate writing. But writing has turned out to be the one thing I can do which people will pay me to do which doesn't involve anal sex.

OL PARKER: It's brilliant and I recommend it to absolutely everybody. It's a special way to have a life, meet people. How I describe it to people is that I write films, most of which don't happen. One of the weird things about the gig is that so much of what you do is failing upwards. I have friends who are 40 and they've made a living writing screenplays, yet have never had a produced credit or seen their name on the screen. It's an extraordinary thing. I had a seven-year period where I was writing films for Tom Hanks, for Jonathan Demme (who made Silence of the Lambs), and it was a heavy, high-powered and exciting time. I was flying to Los Angeles and whatnot, but I had absolutely nothing to show for it. I had money, but nothing was actually being made. It was great fun and completely unsuccessful. It became increasingly embarrassing seeing family and friends and having them ask, 'Anything?' It's a weird part of the job that rejection and failure are built into it.

JAMES DORMER: I make stuff up.

KEVIN CECIL: I am a scriptwriter, a script editor and a producer. As a writer, I work in a partnership with Andy Riley. What we do is quite varied. It might mean creating shows, collaborating with talent on a show for them or being part of a team as we are for Veep. We used to work on chat shows and sketch shows but these days almost all of what we do is narrative. Occasionally we still get to write sketches – it's like a treat.

PETER HARNESS: I love it and it's part of me. I have a compulsion and a need to do it. My relation to it changes every day and very often I feel like stopping doing it entirely and going and doing something else. Sometimes I feel it's very easy and I'm on top of the world, though sometimes it feels like the hardest thing that I could ever dream of doing. I've got a mercurial relationship to it. I think storytelling and coming up with stories and providing things to entertain and move people is a very worthwhile thing. It's probably worth all the stress and ups and downs.

KATE ASHFIELD: I would answer this question differently every day. I love it and hate it at the same time. Writing is so creative, just as acting is great when you have a great role. They can be the best jobs and the most fun. They are both also demeaning and humiliating and really hard ways to earn a living!

TINA GHARAVI: Being a writer (or cre