Quite a few times I get asked about the journey an author makes, the transition from initial idea to the story itself and one of the things which always amazes me is the degree to which most of those who email me are hang up over grammar, commas and fullstops and the length of each paragraph.

I am going to use an analogy here. Writing a novel, particularly a fantasy novel is very much like building a house and you are the architect. Your job is to make sure that the house really looks like a house that the load-bearing walls are where they are supposed to be and that the foundations are also exactly where they are supposed to be.

If you get hang up on the kiln temperature at which the bricks were fired you may end up forgetting the real reason you are there.

The analogy I use here is, of course, a little bit of sophistry. As an author you are solely responsible for every single molecule of the creation you are putting together which means you are not only the architect worrying over things like pace, structure and characterisation but also the editor looking at grammar, syntax and appropriate vocabulary.

That, however, does not mean that you are to wear all these hats at the one and same time because if you do you will find that your baby is going to be stillborn.

Here’s why: as an author creating an imaginary world you are in the thrall of a tune none of us quite understands and which only you can hear. You ‘see’ worlds, you hear characters and you understand the way they behave because you know them so well. When you write like this the trance you are under (for lack of a better word) is very delicate. Anything can break it.

Stop and think analytically worrying over commas and fullstops and the spell is broken and you find yourself, once again, devolving into the ranks of the mere mortals looking up into the clouds trying to catch glimpses of the story you could see so clearly.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t worry about editing and grammar and punctuation. Quiet on the contrary, as a novelist, you should be aware that the raw material of which your novel is put together is vital to its success, however, you should also know that there is a time and a place for doing the editing and it cannot take place at the one and same time as you are writing.

These two are two mutually exclusive activities competing for resources in terms of what your brain and imagination can produce and to actually try and do them at the same time is to succeed at doing nothing too well.

So stay faithful to your story and let your characters develop. Then go back and edit as if your life depends on it. That is the only way to succeed in your writing as an author.