Ready? Here�s the exercise:
*Print our a copy of a story that needs revision. With scissors, cut apart each paragraph. Dialogue sections may remain intact. Put your sections in a pile and shuffle.
*Now go through the pile and find the key scene and set it aside. Having trouble finding that key scene? Ask yourself what is the one thing the story centers around? It may be an important incident or a moment of change. What is the conflict?
*Go through your stack again and discard the sections that don�t have any relevance to the conflict or the key scene you set aside. If you find a paragraph that has some important or relevant sentences, keep those and cut away the irrelevant parts.
*After you�ve gone through all your sections, spread out the ones you decided to keep. Play with the order. Start with a new beginning. Try several beginnings. Change the ending. You might find you�re missing connecting scenes or transition sections. You will add those later.
*Once you�re satisfied with the order, tape your sections together. If you need to add details or expand scenes, you can add those now. Then retype and print your revision. Compare it with the original draft. Does it flow better? Is the conflict clear? Is the story stronger.
Now what about those discarded sections? If there are some sections you like, save them in a separate file. You might be able to continue those sections later in a new story. Discarding doesn�t mean you have to put those sections in the trash or set a match to them. Put them away for a while. You might see another, totally different story come out of those sections.
