Revision Day!

For the most part, I read and follow instructions. So when Professor King told me to put my finished story in a drawer, set a reminder for six weeks, and not think about it again; I did as instructed.

Yesterday my timer dinged on the short story I finished six weeks ago. I started my revisions last night. I did one read through for general purposes ("why did I use that word?", "that sentence is a word salad", "a whole paragraph of pronouns - yuck!", etc.) and then I started a read through with the intent of removing each and every word that wasn't absolutely vital. I hope to finish that tonight.

My next read through will be to look for five little words that sprout like dandelions in my writing. I'm going to mow those pernicious parasites down. (Maybe I should look for clumsy alliterations after that. Nah, not necessarily needed)