Your first draft is a petulant teenager, sure it knows best, adamant that its Mother is wrong. Your third draft has emerged from puberty, realising that its Mother was right about everything.

Writing a first-draft battle scene is akin to real combat—chaos, confusion, and you must keep your cool as you fire word bullets downrange.

Onecannot judge in advance whether or not the idea of the storyis worthwhile because until one has finished writing the storyone does not know for sure what the idea is; and one cannotjudge the style...