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Writing is a lot like surfing, and surfing is a lot like writing. Fundamentally, both require discipline, and both reward us with accomplishment and that childhood exhilaration in speeding down a hill without falling off – the ultimate buzz.

This week's Write Space by G J Hancock.

That buzz is found in surfing. When all the right elements come together and you're at the crest of a perfect wall of sea green water, it forms up and begins to roll, powering the board along the face as you seamlessly carve a bottom turn, eye the wave's feathering lip above and push through it, sending buckets of spray air bound.

Writing can give you the same lift, though in a simpler form – pen and paper or your PC. Finding the right words and putting them in the right order to create a meaningful sentence, poem or lyric is as real and challenging an accomplishment.

Another facet writing and surfing share is risk. Both are personal activities. Some people only surf and write for themselves, not wanting to share what they do. But if you need to prove to yourself or others that what you do is good, you have to take the risk of exposing yourself.

Surfing different types of breaks (reefs or point breaks) or entering competitions will require new skills and poses the risk of failing. With writing you believe its good and begin to consider your chances of becoming a published writer. This means revealing your own unique - maybe odd - view on the world. You risk being labelled or put in a box. Or an asylum.

Both are frightening, but extremely rewarding and you should be encouraged to take those risks. Otherwise you'll never know what it's like to hit your head on a rock, or find your manuscript used as a door stop.