What she deems important is to grow a thick skin in order to overcome the criticism, and not to compare writing your first draft to reading someone's finished novel, which is advice that attendees can certainly make use of.

It was a great pleasure to attend the event, judging from the smiling faces on Zoom – it is safe to say that everyone enjoyed the evening. It was also a great opportunity for attendees to ask any possible questions that they had in relation to crime writing or writing in general – we all appreciated her advice of putting chocolate on our keyboards to motivate ourselves to get the writing done if nothing else works. A huge thank you goes to Denise Mina for taking part in this event and for creating such an enjoyable and comfortable environment online!