On Revision: Killing My Favorite Sentences

On Revision: Killing My Favorite Sentences

Revision is the cruel kindness. It asks you to love your book more than you love your lines.

The Beautiful Sentence Problem

A sentence can be gorgeous and still wrong for the scene. It glitters, and everyone leans toward it, and the story quietly dies of neglect.

• Ask: does this sentence do work, or just decorate?
• Cut it. Save it in a folder called "beloved orphans."
• Read the scene without it. You will almost always be surprised.

The book I thought I was writing was never as good as the book that wanted to exist. Revision is how I let it.