Is this something that you've always had? Have you always been able to like commune with yourself? Or is it something that you've developed through your writing? Or is it a new thing? Or is it just something that's intrinsic to who you are and how you relate to the world?

That's such an interesting question.

I mean, I think a few things happened when I was a teenager that showed me that knowing what you need can make such an enormous difference to your life.

When I was 14, my mom went through a really, really, really particularly bad year and attempted suicide a number of times that year.

And it got to the point where I, I was, I didn't know how I was going to keep, I didn't know how to keep functioning.

Like I, I was worried that I would drown with her basically.

And in the end, actually my dad lived in another country and in the end I had a conversation with him and said to him, I think, I think I need to be in a boarding school.

really

What do they tend to be? Is there like a defined set of, and you go, yes, I've heard this before, or are there things that ever surprise you?

Okay, I'll go through the top ones that I can think of that come up time and again.

Obviously, the number one thing is time because they're all working full time.

All of the writers I work with, they're either working full time or they're working part time and, you know, caring for family members, you know, kids and all sorts of things, right? They are not taking sabbaticals to write books, right? I think this is a really, really important thing to say.

Almost all of the books you love are written by people who are doing other paid work and other unpaid work at the same time.

This is so important to remember.

This is one of the reasons why publishing, being an author is so challenging because of the pay structures.

So what should people consider when they're looking for a boot coach? And that could be something formal, like are there qualifications and things like that that people can look for? Or are there other elements that people should be aware of when they're choosing their boot coach?