The five writers to avoid...

1. The starters. They start lots of things, join lots of groups, talk the talk, but never quite manage to complete anything.

2. The non-starters. Those lovely people who are great friends and are fun to be around but they cannot write. At all. It is evident in every email they have ever sent.

3. Those who are convinced they could have been Dostoyevsky if only they had more free time. Pretentiousness kills just about everything – if they really are the next Dostoyevsky they should write by themselves…

4. Bullies. Enough said.

5. Those who are there just for the drinks, the food and the gossip. (These people are great fun - ask them to your book launch but don’t ask them to fix the plot!)