‘To me, being a writer is about being part of the world and reflecting it back to readers; you’re not going to be able to do that in a well-rounded way if you restrict yourself.’

‘In terms of written forms, comics have the most in common with poetry. I find people with experience in poetry tend to take to comics the quickest. Both forms share an emphasis on minimalism and efficiency evoking emotion. There’s also a shared reliance on very direct visual writing.’

‘Editing can be playful and intuitive but it’s also a time to hold up ideas, descriptions, sometimes specific words. When you edit, you step back to assess how well the text succeeds and to come up with ideas to improve what’s on the page.’

‘We are all used to sitting down at our own desks and fighting the urge to do other things, but in a classroom with ten other people writing beside you there is another energy that can deliver the seeds of new ideas.’

‘Never underrate the power of intuition when it comes to knowing what to write next. Trust in your subconscious and watch the magic unfold!’

‘We read non-fiction for information and also for emotional engagement. Does your topic have the potential to reach a wider audience because it has ‘big human issues’ to share? By this I mean issues about resilience, survival, love.’

‘It used to be that our biggest romance authors were huge overseas but not so much here, but I think audiences are changing and that will force publishing to change. The next thing I’d like to see changed is some of the snobbery that can follow commercial genres!’

‘Take care not to send the manuscript off to agents or publishers too early. Writers are so often guilty of this (me included!). We’ve worked so damn hard on our book, we’ve done so many drafts, surely it must be finished?! But it’s worth taking another break, giving yourself a cooling-off period, and then reassessing.’

‘Most readers are after compelling stories and interesting characters. The exploration of human experience is a never-ending source of fascination, and story is the great laboratory for articulating this experience.’