26 Edit slow, edit tough, with a process both clear and cool. It's in the editing phase that you slow down, see what you have, and make it better. Having written a book on the process of revision I won't repeat the material here. I will say that there does come a point of diminishing returns. You can workshop or critique group something to death and reach a place where it isn't improving. At some point you have to send it out. How do you know what that point is? Create a process, a schedule, a checklist for yourself. (You'll find many suggestions for this in Revision & Self-Editing.) Make this process as clear as possible. Maybe it in- cludes sending your manuscript to several test readers, and if the majority of them like it, you go for it. If you get the same criticism from more than one reader, fi x it and then go for it. Maybe it means using Sol Stein's idea of triage as explained in his Stein on Writing. This is a good strategy, too, wherein you tackle the most important fi xes first. 84