When your story is ready for rewrite, cut it to the bone. Get rid of every ounce of excess fat. This is going to hurt; revising a story down to the bare essentials is always a little like murdering children, but it must be done.

Do any men grow up or do they only come of age?

Are you sure self-pity is a luxury you can afford, Jack?

The devil's voice is sweet to hear.

To write is human, to edit is divine.

This is probably the single great subject of horror fiction: our need to cope with a mystery that can be understood only with the aid of a helpful imagination.

You see something, then it clicks with something else, and it will make a story. But you never know when it's going to happen.