Writing is an act of peeling. With each draft, each return to the page, the outer layers fall away—sometimes gently, sometimes with pain.

British author Edward Blishen offered a vivid metaphor: peeling an onion—difficult at first, then tearful, until something tender and true is revealed. This sacred process of uncovering the core, of reaching for clarity, meaning, and beauty—is the heart of the creative life.

In revision, there are no shortcuts. The soul must return again and again to the same sentence, the same image, the same wound. Each time, a new layer gives way. Each time, something deeper is asked. And sometimes, when the layers fall just right, the page breathes.

The onion, so often a symbol of flavor, is also a symbol of truth. With its veils and papery skin, it asks us to endure the sting, to stay with the tears. The deeper we go, the closer we come to essence.

Blishen’s Donkey Work reminds us that beauty emerges not from surface polish, but from brave, persistent excavation. From holding on. From sitting with the mess. From letting each reduction...each edit, each tear...bring us one step closer to something whole.