Book Review
Self-Editing for
Fiction Writers:
How to Edit Yourself into Print
Second Edition by Renni
Browne and Dave King
By Jean A. Schara
© 2006,
Jean A. Schara
This book helped me understand the big deal
about adverbs and adjectives. Maybe you've solved your adverb and adjective
problem years ago but you may have other areas of concern. What value might
you find in this book?
The book contains twelve chapters. In
addition to Chapter 1, Show and Tell, you will find the following:
The authors have included an appropriate
cartoon in each chapter, and the book's voice is comfortable and clear.
Appropriately, the authors chose Voice for the final chapter. They offer no
exercises for this chapter, because, as they say, there's no better way to
become an individual than to work on your own manuscript.
As you can see from the chapter titles,
each one discusses key trouble areas with writing, areas new writers may not
even recognize as problems. Experienced writers wrestle to keep these
trouble areas under control. Whether you are a new writer or an experienced
one, you can easily turn to your problem area chapter. If you have more
than one problem area (it happens), you can address them sequentially or in
any order you feel works best for you.
Each chapter focuses on a different element
of the manuscript. They discuss their subject matter with examples that
need improvement, a slightly better version, and a more desirable version.
Explanations accompany the examples. Then the authors provide a checklist
followed by exercises for you to practice what you've learned. You can
easily compare your work to the examples and evaluate whether you have a
problem or not--then, if you do, you can apply what you've learned to solve
it.
Additionally, the book contains two
appendices and an index. The first appendix, thankfully, contains answers
to the exercises. The answer provided is not the only possible one, but the
reader can see what one good answer might be. The second appendix lists top
books for writers, subdivided into books on craft, books on inspiration, and
reference books.
You could benefit from this book at any
stage in your writing, but it, as the title states, highlights the editing
stage. Use it when the first draft is complete and the work needs
polishing. After reading Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, I cut
thousands of redundant words from my work in progress and did so with
greater confidence than I might have before reading this book.
This book is flexible enough to be helpful
in nearly any way you choose to employ it. You could read Self-Editing
for Fiction Writers straight through, you could read it and work the
exercises, or you could skip around and do or not do the exercises. At 279
pages in trade paperback size, it won't make a very good doorstop. It cries
out for you to use it and wear it out. Make it a permanent resident of your
handiest reference shelf.
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to
Edit Yourself into Print (Second Edition)
By Renni Browne and Dave King
ISBN: 0-06-054569-0
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