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It’s a funny thing, when you go back to edit older stories. You notice things that you missed the first few times around.

The terrible parts stand out, of course. Stark and prickly. It’s hard to say why you ever wrote them in the first place. It’s easy to yank them out by the roots to make way for new sentences that fit the flow of the story much better. Well, maybe not easy, but doable.

It’s always the good parts that catch you by surprise though. The things that made you think the story was worth writing in the first place. The subtle things. The parts that set off little parts of you like emotional sparklers.

Before you go back to edit, it’s hard to imagine those good parts will even be there. I mean, there was a reason that you moved away from the story. There was a reason it sat, untouched, for so long. It must be terrible. It just has to be.

It never is. There is always some core to the story that made you want to write it. Something that made you stick with it long enough to get it all down at least once.

They always say that you should kill your darlings. Fuck that. Pull the weeds that are choking your darlings. Clear a space for them to grow. Those great parts of your stories need tending.

Editing isn’t a hostile act. It’s creative and nurturing. It’s making sure that the great parts of your stories are free to flourish.