Our Early Drafts Are Different from Our Crooked Toes and Knobbly Knees: Learn to Embrace the Difference

By Dinty W. Moore

For as long as I’ve been pecking away at the task of becoming a skillful writer, the resistance some folks have toward the practice of revision has genuinely baffled me. Why would someone not embrace a second (or third, or fourteenth) chance to get things right? Who wouldn’t treasure the opportunity to paper over early mistakes?

My being entirely enamored of revision has been a gift (more on that later), but as a teacher of writing—a mentor to eager and talented folks ...