As I prepared for my first classroom presentation on the creative writing process, I retrieved the stack of manuscripts that sat on top of my shredder, awaiting their fate. Instead, I put them in a binder, along with my other manuscripts (all for the same book) to show the children how much a story evolves and changes during the editing process. The next day, as I showed the class my binder of edited manuscripts, their jaws dropped open. “Whoaaa!” said one child. “That’s a