thoughts on revision. and omelets.

A week ago, this draft was an egg. It had a beginning, middle and end. It had a structure and rising action. It had character description and setting. It had these things, but I knew that I could make it better. There were things that could be revised, other things to be cut entirely.

The first step to revising a full draft is to break that egg. Yes, it's messy. I have to tear down the structure to discover its weaknesses, figure out a way to fix them. Along the way, bits that I really liked –...