Oh, God, Alice. You’ve zipped me back to those “awkward teenage years.” Trying to please everyone. Like, as you’ve shown here, that’s gonna change things.

Anyway, my experience with this mindset went hand-in-hand with my writing style back then: “Edit as you write a draft.” Which is stupid.

A wonderful mentor-editor said to me, oh, about five years ago: “Write to length.” By which he meant, write it all out. Then put it away. Then edit. And edit again.

I think less about perceived audiences these days and just try to please my inner editor. The inner writer is a hack, but inner editor wouldn’t have any “work” without him.

Cheers my friend. Best to the hubs.