“So, write and rearrange, write and rearrange, write and rearrange, and eventually you will begin to see the structure emerge. The harder you work, the clearer the structure will become. It will take on a shape that you recognize: a shape that never could have come simply. The difficulty had its purpose.” (Colum McCann, Letters to a Young Writer)
McCann repeats himself three times, the same instruction each time. That repetition names the actual work. One pass won’t find the right order. Several might.
Every sentence you write moves the narrative forward and reshapes what came before it. Through persistence, it goes further with each one. The difficulty did its work. It made the draft sturdier than the first version.
At some point the right order stops feeling like a guess. It surfaces after enough passes through the draft.
Try This:
Pick a paragraph you’ve revised more than once.
Set the first version next to the current one.
Name one specific thing the revision gave you that the first draft didn’t have.
R.A.R.
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Rolando Andrés Ramos 
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