First draft: let it run. Turn all the knobs up to 11. Second draft: hell. Cut it down and cut it into shape. Third draft: comb its nose and blow its hair. I usually find that most of the book will have handed itself to me on that first draft.

“Some things are fairly obvious when it's a seven-foot skeleton with a scythe te…”

“The trouble with a target-rich environment is that it's useless if you don't kn…”

“Or -- and this she knew was a far more accurate way of looking at it -- the boo…”

“They shed a rather unpleasant glow that didn't so much illuminate, as outline t…”