Editing

Self-editing isn’t an optional, supplementary stage of writing. It is writing. It is in the edits, in stripping away all that is superfluous, self-indulgent or unclear, that truth begins to emerge

Sometimes, you feel like your story hangs together pretty well … until you re-read your whole draft. If there’s a tiny inconsistency (like a character changing eye colour half way), that’s pretty easy to fix. Sometimes, though, you’ve got an actually plot hole.

Revision is not a small puddle that you leap over in a couple of months of work. It’s more like the Atlantic Ocean. Pack your steamer trunk and a bunch of snacks because you’re going to need them.