“Your dreams can come true. You just need to write them…” Age seven, I folded eight sheets of paper in half and scribbled my first book into existence. It was about a sheep who wanted to leave the pen and explore the world. I think I’ve been writing the same story ever since. By fourteen, I submitted my first manuscript to agents. I’d written my first full-length, young adult manuscript, and thought that was all you needed to do to be published. I wrote three more books before I went to university. I spent endless hours on writing sites, exchanging critiques and unknowingly building the foundations of both my craft as a writer and my analytical skills as a developmental editor. Writes sought me out from other writing sites to give feedback on their chapters, even offering to hire me. I might not have been writing bestsellers, but I seemed to have an instinct for helping others to succeed. During my A levels, I studied dystopian fiction and fell in love. My coursework was a b...