The thing is, you can’t write your way out of the pit unless you know your story’s weaknesses and how to strengthen and repair them. Such a statement creates a paradox of sorts, because if you knew what was wrong and how to fix it before you started writing, you wouldn’t have written it with those weaknesses in the first place. This is why revision is so critical. For starters, we all do revision work, even before the book goes out to an agent or an editor. Even “polishing” is, in the truest sense, a form of revision, and as such we should subject it to the same rigorous standards … Continue reading Larry Brooks