I climbed the ranks of my corporate company quickly and I enjoy my job, but when I read about boundaries and work/life balance I realise I don’t have that. I don’t feel overworked, but my career is very much part of my identity and takes up most of my headspace. Do you think that’s unhealthy? Gemma, 36, favourite Jacqueline Wilson book: The Story Of Tracy Beaker

“I’ll be honest: I may not be the best person to ask about this. I’m 78 and I still write every single day, even on holiday. The people who care about me say, ‘Why do you keep on writing? Why don’t you just enjoy yourself?’ It’s not just that I still have lots of ideas, but that I feel I would lose my identity if I had to say ‘I used to be a writer’ rather than ‘I am a writer’. This is genuinely what I like to do.

The main thing to watch out for is if your work isn’t going well and how that impacts your sense of self. I remember, long ago, I had a novel rejected. It came out of the blue and I was not expecting it. I felt very lost; it was about six months before life started being good again.

I took up cooking elaborate and very strange meals for the first time in my life, which mostly ended in disaster. I started randomly embroidering things on my denim jackets and my daughter’s dungarees. I even started paying more attention to my house, trying to make little corners more decorative. It was like the creative bit of me was desperately grasping at things to prove I could still create.

If you love what you do, you can get obsessive about it. I think it’s important to make sure you have plenty of other moments throughout your week where you can be ‘good’ at something: a good friend, a good addition to the pub quiz team, a good listener. That’s all the balance you need.”

“I didn’t have the easiest of childhoods”: Jacqueline Wilson solves your problems, from friendships to boundaries at work