Turn your Manuscript Upside-Down and Inside-Out

Make a copy. Break it open. Find what effort missed.

Duplicate the draft. This time not only to back it up, but to mess it up. A book doesn’t behave, so why should you?

So, let’s do everything wrong.

• Start with the last line.

• Cut the part that holds it all together.

• Change the voice.

• Randomize the outline.

• Flip the meaning.

• Write what doesn’t belong.

This exercise is about shaking it loose. Letting something show up that won’t come when you're trying too hard or being too serious.

The sentence that pulls it together or the title that finally feels right usually appears when you stop trying to find it.

So make a copy. And ruin it beautifully. That’s where the book starts telling you what it is.

Sometimes the only way to read it differently is to turn the whole thing around.