The importance of muttering while writing is underrated. People in cafes must think I’m insane but I’m usually too deep down in the story to know. I’m in a lockdown in a school or I’m being chased through the bush by a madman or I’m escaping from an immigration detention centre. And as the words flow I’m reading them to myself. I wonder if other writers mutter? I’m the first audience for the story and I want to hear it, feel it, to know if the pacing and intonation is right. I think I’m checking if it feels true. I’m…