Behold, a brand new baby blog. (Wow was that alliterative! Sorry.)

Here’s what’s going to happen here. I don’t create a new blog for no reason. I know, because this is blog #9. But really, this one is about to become my favorite one. Why? Because I kind of like writing. And I love editing. I’m the kind of writer who secretly hates writing—because the first draft is so terrible—but who loves editing and rewriting. In fact, allow me to diverge for a paragraph or two on the subject…

The Beauty of Editing; Or, Manuscripts are Babies

Let me be honest here: babies aren’t very pretty when they come out. You gestate for three-quarters of a year and then push and push and push. And then someone tells you you’re pushing wrong, so you push some more and then voilà: an infant, birthed. It looks a bit like a scaleless lizard dipped in powdered sugar. Yikes. But there’s some nurse there who cleans the baby off, and then he looks like a human. Newborn:nurse::manuscript:copyeditor.

The manuscript matures with every round of edits until it is a disciplined, well-adjusted work that survives on its own and makes friends and influences people. Without the discipline of editing, you have a self-righteous little prat of a book that nobody wants to spend any time with.

Ahem. Moving on…

What Else You’ll Find on the Blog, Besides Editing

Stay tuned for the following:

What writer doesn’t need motivation? If you don’t, don’t tell me.

The beauty, wonder, mystery (and frustration) of diction.

Writing prose: short fiction and novels.

You do know what that is, right?

My favorites, tips (maybe), and perhaps some of my own.