HOW TO EDIT: hack your draft to pieces

Photo by Joel Robison

In the frenzy of preparing to write my 6th novel, CORNERS, or 4th, really, counting SIREN SUICIDES as 1 story, I've been asked about editing. "How?" Cried a fellow writer. "How do you edit?" "Oh." I said. "It's very simple." I petted the writer. "Please stop tearing out your hair. When you get rich and famous, you'll have none left." Indeed. What a question. We all do it. Writers, I mean. Right? We all edit. Write and edit and edit and edit to death. But how? How do w...