A reader wrote asking for advice re book revision: "I wondered if you might be able to suggest a good book on revising the first draft of a novel. It's already become clear to me that I need to develop my characters up front better, before racing through the story (which is pretty strong). But when I spent a lot of time developing character, I ended up writing pages of biographical exposition right in the middle of the story! So I need to learn how to subtly interweave character revelation with storytelling, without letting it drag (which, to me, sounds about as easy as sticking an elephant through a pin hole!)"
"Francine Prose has a good book about how to read books for this purpose. I know this sounds like a much more labor-intensive way of learning, but I don't know of a how-to book that really answers this question."
