That's all young me would need to know. Some amount of wide-eyed plunging in is essential for the young writer. The naivete keeps you going and by the time you realise what a cesspool you're in, it's too late to back away. Then you learn the hard lesson: most of what you write won't matter.

That's what makes me wonder about writers coming up. You're far better informed about how the industry works, but you can also see so much more of the cesspool – or even all the extra-curricular work. If you told me I'd end up doing thousands of talks to kids in my career, I might have said 'NOPE'.

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