I want two or three people to put up their hands, say I’m brilliant and will probably get a book deal before I’m twenty, I’ll blush, and then we move on. Those people could be Justin, Sophie and Ruby, but they won’t be. Sophie never talks unless she’s encouraged to, Justin is deliberately withholding of praise because he thinks people take you more seriously if you never admit to enjoying anything, and Ruby doesn’t like me enough to put herself out there, I don’t think, although she’s probably my best chance. And when we read her story, I said really positive things. I look at her. Remember the nice things I said, Ruby. Remember.

‘I’ll start,’ PJ says.

This startles me. She never starts. She likes to go last so she doesn’t influence the discussion.

‘Great,’ I say. My mouth is very very dry. I grab my water bottle and chug down as much as I can. Which is a mistake, because I almost instantly need to pee and I’m giving my body more moisture—I’m basically forcing it to produce tears.

‘What many of you don’t know is that Brooke got some pretty harsh feedback from me when she first submitted her story. I told her I thought she could do better and gave her the weekend to rewrite it if she wanted to. This is not something I would say to everyone. It’s not easy to hear that kind of feedback, but I thought Brooke could handle it, and I was right. She went away, she didn’t have a tantrum, or maybe she did but she didn’t tell me about it, she didn’t email me and refute my criticism, she took on my feedback and she reworked her story, in two days, no less. And now it doesn’t matter whether the story is good or not because Brooke, you’ve shown you can take feedback, you’ve shown you can work hard, you can start over, you’ve shown dedication and that you’re not going to give up. These are very, very important skills for a writer. And you have them.’

My face is burning. The one good thing about her email had been that it was private. Now everyone knows my humiliation. But I sit up straighter and take the praise. I try to rearrange my face into a humble expression. I actually drafted several emails to her and had a tantrum, but I was too cowardly to send them. No one needs to know this.

‘Now let’s talk about the actual story. Brooke, it’s good. There’s a lot to be fixed, some of the transitions are clumsy, and I’m not sure about the reveal at the end, but overall, it’s good. You’ve nailed the voice, the dialogue is funny and authentic, and I believe in the characters.’