Week 9:

I’ve come to realize if something doesn’t seem right, it probably isn’t. I just finished a rewrite of one chapter; which, I now know, didn’t move the story forward. That knowledge is hard to come by for the writer, but so critical to the editor’s eye.


Deleting back-story left me with a tighter chapter, but it’s difficult when the characters are familiar and the incidents mean so much to you, (hence, the exercise from Week 8 is so critical!)

Here are three questions every writer must ask:

1. Does this chapter move the story forward?

2. Is this chapter important enough to keep?

3. Does this chapter make me want to turn the page?

If you can answer “yes,” to all three questions, you’ve got a keeper. If not, it’s back to the drawing board…or in this case, BIC.