“I can, of, course, see the temptations of not beginning. Chiefly, not beginning, sustains the belief that you are gifted, that the novel
– when you one day get round to writing it – will surpass all others, that you will suffer no rejections, that it will be published at once and be thereafter visible in every bookshop you step into, that you will never suffer a bad review or sit at a dinner party and hear the question, “So should I have heard of you?” Not beginning protects you from the shame of disappointment – no, shame – of reading what you have written and finding it rubbish. It also prevents you from an equally disturbing possibility: discovering that you can write.” Jill Dawson, The Guardian’s Book Season