Plotting a novel lifeScratch a lawyer and you'll often find a frustrated novelist.

For most, the lure of job security and good, reliable income proves too strong, and writing remains an itch only partially scratched through beautifully drafted client letters.For others, the dream becomes a reality, with some leaving the profession to write full time, while others continue to practise law while knocking out novels in their spare hours.Whichever route they take, lawyers rarely turn their backs on the law, and most use their legal background in their new calling.

The master of the legal thriller, John Grisham - the writer of titles such as The Firm, and The Pelican Brief - is a former crime and personal injury lawyer, while erstwhile US attorney David Baldacci - now a full-time author - often draws on the legal world to enrich his storylines, such as in bestsellers The Simple Truth and Absolute Power.This practice is also embraced by English authors.

Holman Fenwick & Willan (HFW) partner Keith Michel admits that all four of his novels - the latest being the thriller Karakan - have been based on his experiences as an international maritime lawyer.Former Herbert Smith lawyer, Susannah Bates has just had her first novel, Charmed Lives, published, in which the central character, Kate, is a stressed out City lawyer.

And ex-Denton Hall - now Denton Wilde Sapte - lawyer Patrick Redmond has just seen the paperback release of his second novel The Puppet Show, which again features a lawyer in the starring role.Mr Michel, who still practises at HFW, says: 'I like to write about things with authority.

I don't have time for research, so all my material is written from my own experiences.

I am fortunate that I have done a lot of interesting cases and through them met a lot of interesting people.'Ms Bates used her encounters as a lawyer for the setting and the characterisations in her romantic novel.

She says: 'It made sense to set the novel in a world I am familiar with.

I definitely drew on my own experiences.'In some ways the main character is a more responsible, more together, better looking, more perfect version of me.'One of the book's characters is a male lawyer who flirts with Kate in private and puts her down in public - again reflecting real life.

Ms Bates says: 'This lawyer was six months less qualified than me, and he used to show me up for not doing enough preparation, which used to piss me off.

I expect he was a better lawyer than me, which also pissed me off.'Mr Redmond says The Puppet Show needed its main character to have a City job.

'It made sense for me to use the legal profession I know so well to make it as realistic as possible.'Legal training helps lawyers-turned-authors in more ways than just providing storylines.

Mr Redmond, who worked as an international lawyer for ten years at Lovell White Durrant (now Lovells) before moving to Denton Hall (as was), says it also gave him discipline.

'I was a very undisciplined thinker.

The legal training was great for giving me structure and the ability to analyse things.'He says there is an overlap between the skills of lawyers and those of authors.

'A lot of being a lawyer is the ability to write concisely and a lot of people who go into the law are interested in the arts and imaginative writing.

In some ways it's a profession where those things can be used.' Mr Michel agrees, to a certain extent.

'Lawyers are intrinsically quite dull, but writing things for clients helps in the discipline of writing for a wider audience.'However, Ms Bates, says she had to suppress her creative side as a City lawyer.

'It was a completely different side of my character.

Some kinds of law lend themselves to drama, but I was a banking lawyer.

I blocked out my creative side.

I was so fussy about drafting and letter-writing but in the wrong way.

Rather than worry about the legal implications, I used to spend an extra ten minutes on a letter to make it sound nice.'Mr Redmond agrees that at the start of their careers, lawyers' abilities to be creative are limited because they have to work according to the whims of their direct superiors.

He argues that lawyers use their creativity more as they get more senior.'Before I left I had to work on a PFI [private finance initiative] deal.

The public procurement rules hadn't been used before and they didn't really fit with the procedure.

I had to be quite creative about working within both, and seeing what I could get away with.'For Ms Bates, the compulsion to write became too strong and one year after qualifying, without a book deal or even a proper idea for a novel, she quit her job.

'I was pretty confident I could come up with something.

I really wanted to have a go.

I didn't want it to be something I always wished I had done.

It was a good time to take the risk - I have no kids, so if I failed, the only person who would suffer would be me.

'My colleagues were more nervous that I was going to go to a rival firm.

As it was they thought I was crazy - it became an office joke.'The daughter of a former Allen & Overy lawyer, Ms Bates, who is now working on her second novel All About Laura, has no regrets about leaving the profession, but nor does she regret her legal training.'Going into law seemed like a sensible thing to do rather than a burning desire.

I never got the thrill out of multi-billion-pound deals that others got, and I always wanted to write a book.'My social life has definitely improved, although my bank balance has plummeted.

I am doing something now that gives me enormous pleasure.

I love the sense of freedom.

As a lawyer you never feel your life is your own.

If you want to sell your soul to your employers, they will take it.'She says she misses the money, the camaraderie of office life - 'writing can be very lonely' - and the prestige that being a lawyer brings.

'People automatically think lawyers are bright.

I used to tell people I was writing a book and their attitude was "who isn't?" When I told them I was a lawyer, they'd ask when I was going to be published.'Mr Redmond - the son of a lawyer - left the profession after signing a book deal following the completion of the critically acclaimed psychological thriller, The Wishing Game.

'I miss seeing my friends from work on a day-to-day basis and initially it was difficult to be disciplined.

At a law firm the discipline is imposed on you, but as an author you have to make yourself work.'I like the flexibility of my life now - the hours for a lawyer are becoming longer and longer.

There was a joke before I left: "What do lawyers do in their leisure time? They commute".'I have no regrets about becoming a lawyer but it wouldn't be right for me for the rest of my life.

If you're not getting a buzz out of it, it can be very soul-destroying.'Mr Michel fits in his writing while commuting to work, or on the journey to see counsel.

'It's quite exhausting.

I am a family man with a heavy workload and a lot of other interests.

But once you set off on the road to writing a novel and put down the first line, you're locked in.

I have to write for at least an hour a day until it is finished.'He writes in longhand: 'I am an old-fashioned scribe,' he says.

None of his books contains graphic sex or violence or bad language, partly, he says, because his professional experiences have not lent themselves to this kind of dialogue.He is comfortable combining law with writing.

'I am not sure I am good enough an author to give up law.

I try hard to write good books, with moderate success.

But there's a lot of competition out there.

Anyway, I enjoy being a lawyer.'Lucy Hickman is a freelance journalist