Strip every sentence

A great writer is that way by intention. Each word is carefully selected to create just the right mood and atmosphere. Clarity and ambiguity are never left to chance but are by deliberate choice.

Weed out the unnecessary, the showy, the waffling and the cutesy words and phrases which cloud the issue skies and leave only the best.

Make every word earn its place in your manuscript, preferably with more than one reason for its particular use over another, more general, less specific word. The choice of sound, sense and sensitivity are chosen with the reader in mind rather than the writer. Less show, more beauty.


Stories as mirrors

Mirrors

When I can’t understand something important, I search, I research and I write. I write and write everything I know, everything I feel until clarity comes. Sometimes I don’t completely understand until my story is told. Sometimes I don’t understand the details even then.

What is a draft if not telling yourself the story. Rewriting and editing are for clarifying it all first in the mind of the writer so that the reader may ask the right questions to find their own answers.