Here's a subtweet to stick in yer pipe: I will never regret being outspoken and honest, ever. I'm v unlikely to sit on my generations-old Cumbrian gobbiness because I'm talking to some gatekeeper or fancyperson. I am not grateful for crumbs from anyone's table. CAKE OR NOTHING.

#sorrynotsorry. I'm just really tired of there being this expectation that women writers will be quiet, dignified, meek, grateful, nice, not take up space, not draw attention to themselves, not answer back -- that that's all expected of us by default.

Me personally? I'm 6ft, built like a shed, covered in tattoos, swear at will (I firmly believe that no language is 'bad', the very idea is absurd), and have been perfecting the art of gobbiness since 1987. THE MEEK GRATITUDE SHIP HAS SAILED FOR ME, pals. Ain't never gonna happen.

It's bs like "be grateful we even read your book/poems/application/email/whatever" that keeps women writers down. Women writers go, "oh okay, sorry to bother you," and stop trying, while [most] men will rightly go "wtf no" OR "okay I'll take my stuff elsewhere, your loss."

Aspiring women writers! I have been working with your kind for a long time! And my advice to you is this! BELIEVE YOU DESERVE IT. DON'T LET ANYONE (friends, family, literary gatekeepers, whoever) TELL YOU OTHERWISE! YOU NEED TO BE YOUR WORK'S BIGGEST & MOST DOGGED CHAMPION!

So many of the lovely women writers I work with are SO GOOD AT WHAT THEY DO. They just don't, can't or won't believe it. They introduce new pieces with "sorry if this is rubbish," or "I'm sure this still needs lots of work, but..." WOMEN WHO WRITE, I beg you: stop this, please.

I have been there. I have thought, "oh god what if this is just so much tripe?" But the key thing is to stop saying it aloud, or writing it in emails, or allowing other people to say it to you, or allowing other people to make you feel you OUGHT to start from that place.

The place you must start from is this: I have something to say. I am willing to do the hard work of writing it down. I do not think it is perfect. I am willing to polish it, change it, hear feedback. But I believe it is valid. It needs to be said & I am the best person to say it.

Believe it because IT IS TRUE. The idea is yours. No one else will EVER be better qualified than you to put into words an idea that originated in YOUR head. Don't let anyone ever tell you otherwise. (Including and perhaps especially YOURSELF.)