My wife is a quilter, and we frequently compare notes on our respective crafts. We’ve found there to be quite the similarity between the two.

Recently, I was watching her lay out her quilt’s pattern. She would move entire blocks to different locations to get just the right combination of colors and shapes. It struck me that it’s the same problem writers face when crafting their stories: trying to get their scenes and characters in just the right place so the reader can sit back and see the pattern of the larger piece.