A writing journal: notes on drafting, revising and keeping a notebook
Subject: Revision
Entries filed under Revision deal with what happens after a draft exists: deciding what a passage is doing, removing the parts that are only decoration, and repairing sentences by reading them aloud. Structural cuts and rhythm work both live here, in that order, because a passage repaired for sound is wasted effort if it is going to be removed.
2 entries
- July 3, 2026Cutting a scene you love
The hardest cuts are never the weak passages. Weak passages go quietly. The hard cut is the one that works on its own and does nothing for the piece.
- April 9, 2026Sentence rhythm and the ear
Reading aloud is not a finishing flourish. It is a diagnostic, and it detects a specific class of fault that silent reading is structurally unable to catch.