Some reasons why letting friends read your writing is a very good idea

8. 8 January 2026

Instruction to AI: Woman with white, pixie-cut hair and a black jumper talking to a friend (black bobbed hair) via laptop video call with a backdrop of snow and hills (I don't know where to begin with how much is wrong with this illustration, though cool that I have a laptop that doesn't need a table and unfortunate to be right handed but have two left hands)

For the past few years, my friend Narissa and I have had regular Zoom (sometimes in-person) chats to talk about writing (among other things). She has helped me enormously, as a sounding board, for confidence, for ideas and for support. Today was our first chat since before Christmas. Before we started sharing our experiences and our writing, no one else had read much of my writing and it was something I didn’t think would be worth the discomfort of doing. It turns out that having people, even if it is friends (or family), reading your work is invaluable. Talking to her today, I realised that it would be good to have someone read the first three chapters once I’ve started actioning the notes I’m currently working on. I used to feel nervous about anyone reading what I was working on, but now it feels kind of exciting, though of course it’s nerve-wracking as I trust she would tell me if she thought it wasn’t working.

                I now feel delusional for previously thinking I didn’t need anyone to read my manuscripts (no one has read my second, third or fourth novels, though my friend Jon did read the first one, but a lot was different about me and what/how I wrote then). Narissa, Becky, Sarah S, Sarah B (twice) and Ann read all of my last novel and Chris, Nana and Fiona read the first few chapters. Each person gave me very different feedback, a lot of which I did act upon and most of which I hadn’t expected or even seen. One of many things that surprised me was when I asked people what they expected to find out about the main character. Nana, for example, works in banking and is interested in business. She said she wanted to know what would happen to Emma’s business. None of the other people who read it cited her new business enterprise as what they wanted to know more about (that was not a question I answered in the novel until Nana asked about it). Quite a few people said they wanted to find out what happened between Emma and Tom (Tom being a younger, possible love interest) but the reasons for their interest varied. It made me realise just how much we all read and connect with the elements of a book that we can relate to, ditto favourite characters or story lines. As the writer, you have no idea what your readers will most enjoy or want to read more about.

                I am genuinely looking forward to finding out what characters from Crime Writing for Beginners people most like and dislike. There are six people on the course and their tutor, Marie. As it’s a random group of people, they are in their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and seventies.

                Today, after a positive and enjoyable chat with Narissa, I did eventually manage to get through ten chapters again, but it was a bit of a struggle. However, that does mean, to my surprise, I have ten chapters left to go through and then I can start properly editing. I am enthusiastic about getting into it again and starting to make it work better.

Today’s photograph is of the first couple of slices of my sourdough loaf. I toasted it and had half a slice with butter and a poached egg and another half toasted with marmalade. I had another half a slice with marmalade as a morning snack too. I know I’ve banged on too much about my sourdough, but it really was sourdough perfection, just the right density and not too sour or too hard. Loaf number two has just gone in the pantry (fairly close in temperature to the fridge) and I’ll bake it tomorrow, probably in the evening again so it’s cool and ready to eat the next morning.

First cut of first ever homemade sourdough loaf