From Patricia Lee Gauch

Extraordinarily talented editor and writer Patricia Lee Gauch shares this:

I am always trying to get writers to get out of middle ground, this year, playing around with the word "transcend!": as a verb for writers. Understand your own capability to take a scene, like the last chapter of Wringer by Jerry Spinelli. There is a rhythm to it, but getting there takes what might be an ordinary scene, and brings it into the light. Middle ground is too close to mediocrity. Transcending in character or idea or moment gets the reader's heart beating.