How do I know when I'm ready?

To share my work with someone else

We know how it feels to have an idea that you’re really excited about. A tugging, nagging itch of inspiration that you just have to get down on paper.

We both spend a lot of time thinking about our ideas before we ever put pen to paper. Sometimes it takes months before that initial spark feels concrete enough to try and capture.

We think that’s the point when ideas feel most fragile, when you’re in that liminal space between thinking and writing or drawing.

Sometimes it feels like we can’t talk too much about an idea then, even to each other, in case we scare it away, lose the essence of it or worse, it gets accidentally crushed by unwanted feedback.

All writers are different. Some plan meticulously, some don’t. Naomi falls somewhere in the middle but she is a big believer in just getting the first draft down, warts and all.

Other than a quick spell check, she won’t edit until it’s completely finished because she likes to look at the shape of the whole thing before working out what needs to change.

But even when an idea is pinned down in ink onto a page, and has been edited a couple of times, it can still feel delicate.

As creatives we pour so much of ourself into our work. It can be hard to share our stories and illustrations with others. What if other people don’t like it? What if they think it’s awful?

Should you even bother getting feedback from other people before you approach an agent?

The answer to the last question is a definite yes. In our experience it is always worth getting initial feedback. It’s hard to be objective about your own work when you’re so close to it so getting a new opinion can be worth its weight in gold.

Often a fresh pair of eyes will help you see more clearly what is working well and what needs improving. Feedback like this can really help elevate your work. That’s why working with a mentor can be so invaluable.

You only get one shot to approach an agent or a publisher so you really want your work to be the best it can possibly be before that happens.

So, how do you know when you’re ready to let someone else read your writing? Or look at your illustrations?

This is a question that can only be answered in two parts:

Part one is the answer Naomi gives to all her mentees when they ask her when they should send a text back to her, it’s also something that we personally follow too.

We only share our work with other people when…