Revising Fiction: Making Sense Of The Madness

Revising Fiction: Making Sense of the Madness

With all the books, talks, classes, and workshops available on self-editing, a writer can quickly become overwhelmed by advice. In every work of fiction, there's so much to be concerned about: plot, characterization, scene structure, setting, backstory, dialogue, and pacing. You must maintain suspense, portray your characters' emotions, show events rather than tell about them, make effective use of comparisons, and achieve consistency of style and voice. You must avoid passive voice, information dumps, repeated information, digressions, clichés, and unnecessary words and phrases. Finally, you must mind the details of grammar, spelling, word usage, punctuation, and format. Whew! How do you catch it all? How do you know when you've got it right? How do you even know where to start? REVISING FICTION will answer these questions and many, many more. If you're tired of reading books and attending talks and conferences that don't give you what you need to improve your writing, Revising Fiction is the book you've been searching for. In this book, you'll find: a comprehensive treatment of the entire writing and revision process, from planning your novel, to first draft, through self-editing, to final product; a practical approach that makes the concepts fun to learn and easy to apply; hundreds of examples; over 150 passages of unpolished writing revised to correct problems; two full chapters of case studies; reading recommendations for those who desire a more intensive study of specific writing areas; and a self-editing checklist REVISING FICTION will give you the tools you need to bang your manuscript into shape, once and for all.