‘There is no rule that says “this is the end of draft 1 and the beginning of draft 2”. Your work can and will progress uniquely to you…You can move on whenever you feel like it. Sometimes a fresh start is exactly what a manuscript needs.’

‘I have always been open to feedback, even if it hurts my creative pride. I know that somewhere in it is either a ‘gem’ I can use, or it can trigger my inner critique to emerge and see the manuscript with a different lens.’

“It’s our job as authors to ensure that we use every word, every technique at our disposal to tell our story in the most skilful, entertaining way.”

“For me writing poetry has always been a fairly personal act, and never been about editing for opacity and making a work easy-to-understand, but sometimes there are ideas and themes that I definitely want a reader to understand.”

“Constructive criticism invites the person whose work you are reading to consider a few other ways of approaching their work, or a sentence or a character.”