Advice on writing

I read author blogs a lot. Some of the author blogs I read:

Neil Gaiman (author of Coraline and _The Graveyard Book_ among others!)
Shannon Hale (author of the Books of Bayern, _Princess Academy_ and _Rapunzel's Revenge)
Maureen Johnson (author of _The Bermudez Triangle
John Green (author of _Looking for Alaska_ and _Paper Towns_ among others)
Meg Cabot (author of the _Princess Diaries_ series, _Airhead_ series and tons, tons more)
Ally Carter (author of the _I'd tell you I love you, but then I'd have to kill you_ Gallagher Girls books)

In the month of April, Maureen Johnson and John Green have been blogging every day. Maureen's blog post for last Saturday answered some reader's questions, one of which is great for our writing club:

Amy asks: How do you deal with the internal critic when editing your book arrives? Or, if the annoying voice doesn't bother you, how did you frighten her off? Finally finished a first draft of a novel, but for the life of me, can't get through the next draft.

Maureen's answer to editing is hilarious, as usual, but basically breaks down as:
1. Take some time off
2. Read the whole thing
3. Now read it again
4. Now kill your darlings
(as in, kill off characters, rip out scenes and change lots).

I love it! Editing is hard, but soooo necessary.