Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it's where the game is won or lost. The idea is hard to accept. We all have emotional equity in our first draft; we can't believe that it wasn't born perfect. But the odds are close to 100 percent that it wasn't.

Decide what you want to do. Then decide to do it. Then do it.

All writers should strive to deliver something fresh-something editors or readers won't know they want until they see it.

Rewriting is the essence of writing well: it's where the game is won or lost. The idea is hard to accept. We all have emotional equity in our first draft; we can't believe that it wasn't born perfect. But the odds are close to 100 percent that it wasn't.

Clutter is the disease of American writing. We are a society strangling in unnecessary words, circular constructions, pompous frills, and meaningless jargon.

Today the outlandish becomes routine overnight. The humorist is trying to say that it's still outlandish.

The writers job is like solving a puzzle, and finally arriving at a solution is a tremendous satisfaction.