A character talking is an action too.

The first draft of the novel may have been written in many different ways (e.g., typewritten, entered on a computer, scribbled in pencil), but now you need a printed version of the book (preferably double-spaced) and a pencil with a fresh eraser. You need a stack of blank paper that you will use to make notes, lists, internal schedules, and longer

And it’s not only human beings that are transformed by metaphor; anything in the writer’s realm can also be something else.

In poetry you have to see language as both music and content.

Overuse of metaphorical language will test a novel’s credibility.

The metaphor is the strongest imagistic intimation in the writer’s bag of tricks.

If your audience believes in the daily humdrum physical and emotional experiences of your characters, then your readers will believe in those characters’ reality and thus can be taken further.

My only ritual for writing is that I do it every morning. I wake up and get to work.

In your meticulous rewrite, one problem you will be looking for is flatness in the prose.