149: Craft Workshop: How Writers Edit Drafts (Their Own and Each Other’s)

This week on Radio FreeWrite, we do something a little different. Instead of writing to a new prompt, we bring in a finished draft and talk through what happens after the writing part is over. We listen to a complete short story together, then start dissecting it to figure out where it’s strongest and weakest points are. Then, we chat about how it might grow.From there, the conversation wanders into line edits versus big-picture fixes,  giving feedback without rewriting someone else’s voice, and how stories stretch and break when they grow from flash into something longer. This is how writers talk with each other behind the scenes, when we're sitting on overturned tractor tires deep in the Maine woods with a tin mug of shine in our hands. IYKYKAnyway, whether you’re trying to revise your own work or figure out how to give better notes on someone else’s, we've got something for you here.Like this weeks episode and wish you could read as well as listen? Subscribe to our Substack for a summary of our opening discussion, a story from the episode, and a writing prompt!  Be sure to follow us on Instagram (if that's your sort of thing). Please do send us an email with your story if you write along, which we hope you will do. Episodes of Radio FreeWrite are protected by a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0) license. All Stories remain the property of their respective authors.