Today I reviewed a piece of fiction I have been working on for eight years. Eight years. It’s a short story I’m very attached to, but I can’t get it to come out quite right. It’s not like I’ve been continually working on it for eight years, it’s just that I haven’t gotten it into the right shape in eight years. Sometimes the revision process doesn’t just feel endless, it is endless. I keep getting closer to my end goal, just not close enough. Every incremental set of changes advances me slightly less. Microscopic, diminishing return forward progress. Perhaps it’s time for a radical rewrite.
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