On ruthless revision — and the one thing in a poem that must never move. A deep limestone cave chamber inside a British gorge, reminiscent of Cheddar Gorge You can revise a poem to death. I know, because I have done it. Not once. The usual advice is to be ruthless: kill your darlings, cut anything that isn't working. And there is real sense in that. Most first drafts are too long, too pleased with themselves, and carrying at least one line the writer loves for reasons that ha

There is a tarmac path up Orrest Head in the Lake District — a smooth, accessible route that allows everyone, regardless of ability, to reach the summit and share in the view. Self-publishing is, to my mind, the literary equivalent of that path. It is not a lesser route. It is a deliberately built one, designed to let more people through. The Old Gatekeepers and the New Landscape In the past, the traditional publishing industry functioned much like the central massif of the L