It’s been an intense month for the How to Revise Your Novel students, but every lesson has been worth the effort.  Week 5 is about finding and understanding the conflict that’s already in the first draft.  Many of the surprises have been sweet.  One student expresses the joy of her discovery:

For the first time I can see there’s something worthwhile in there. Something more than just a silly story I wrote to entertain myself, and which my husband enjoyed. Something that could make this great. And I am going to dig it out. I just don’t know how yet. But that’s what the rest of this course is for. Once we’ve diagnosed the problems, we’ll learn how to discover the solutions.