When we read the best stories, we don’t notice this delicate dance between dialogue and description. We’re consumed in the characters, the plot, the setting. But we’ve all read a book where we start flicking pages because the balance isn’t right.

Now, I’m a pragmatist and I love anything that makes my life a wee bit easier, but as someone who spends most of my time either teaching, translating, or writing, I can’t help but be confronted by the detrimental effects of AI on both us and the world around us.

Discovering the modernist and postmodernist scene was a game-changer for me: all those evocative images captured in as few words as possible. And often, these poets were just a little bit Queer.

There’s no reason why fanfiction can’t be seen as an amazing training ground for writers – and there’s also absolutely no shame in ‘only’ ever writing (or reading) fanfiction, whatever anyone tries to tell you.

‘Write what you know’ is said for a reason, even if people often take it too literally. In Coldharbour, I have written what I know, even though I don’t regularly raise the Dead or have brought a house down around me with a click of my fingers.

Why is Rebecca one of my favourite books? Well, the big twist holds up every time I read it, the protagonist’s anxieties become mine, and the atmosphere at Manderley is a heady mix of claustrophobia and lushness.

A writer will never get what they perceive as perfection first time. There’s a reason why a painting takes ages to paint, why actors rehearse repeatedly, why sculptors have to chip away and away until they realise their vision.