Manuscript Revision: When less is more

What to prune from your manuscript to allow the rest to shine, plus more fiction-writing savoir faire from my curation bucket.

Hey, y’all—

Overwriting is essentially an issue of repetition, hammering readers with variations of the same idea—sometimes even more of our best stuff. It saps momentum by overdoing what’s already clear. It overcomplicates the narrative, obscuring the throughlines you’re working so hard to create.

• At the story level, overwriting repeats actions and idea…