What I’ve noticed about listening to these excellent stories is how much I’ve invested in them, It was my privilege to help edit about half of them and that was a learning curve in itself, so when I listened to those particular stories I found myself remembering so much of them and also crucially noticing new elements that hadn’t struck me before.

Even though I was less familiar with the stories that Cristina edited, I was still rooting for them, having read many earlier drafts of the finalists. And what a difference the music makes! The actors brought the stories gruesomely alive in ways I hadn’t anticipated.

The great thing of course about helping to edit stories such as these is that they came to Cristina and myself almost fully formed – the peer review function on the website having given the stories a good run for their money in the preceding months, and also – I hope – having desensitised newer authors to the delicate art of receiving feedback and acting on it. We’re all writers so we all get it – if someone doesn’t care for your work then it can hurt, but at the same time, what we write isn’t us, it’s our product and we all want to improve it. There’s so much writing out there now, we have to be sure that what we submit is the best it can possibly be.

Speaking of which, it’s good to see so many familiar names submitting for Twisted50 book 2. If you haven’t honed your story yet, get cracking! There’s still time. I have to tell you, I’ve read some very good first drafts, which can only bode well for the finished stories. It seems that the Create50 format is raising the bar for all of us as creatives and that is a very good thing.

Elinor Perry-Smith

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