The longest minutes of my week happen when others critique my work.  Sometimes, to cope, I daydream about how the classics would fare after Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) evenings at the coffee shop.  Consider Madeleine L’Engle’s  A Wrinkle in Time.

      Draft one: It was a dark and stormy night. (Passive. Show, don’t tell.)
      Draft two: It stormed darkly. (Adverbs diminish the power of the verb.)
      Draft three: It stormed. (Borrrring.)
      …
      Draft 378: It was a dark and stormy night. (Perfect. Why didn’t you say that in the first place?)

       Journal entry: Writing is hard. (Passive. Show, don’t tell.)