World Famous Comics: Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print
By: Renni Browne, Dave King Publisher: Collins Average Rating: Binding: Paperback Label: Collins Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 288 Publication Date: April 01, 2004 Release Date: April 13, 2004
Amazon.com: There's not much of the old-style editing going on at publishing houses today. Renni Browne, veteran of William Morrow and other publishers, founded the Editorial Department in 1980 to teach fiction writers the techniques professional editors (many of whom have gone independent) use to prepare a manuscript for publication. In this book, she and senior editor Dave King share their accumulated expertise in a series of brilliantly compact lessons. One page from their simply and markedly improved version of a scene from The Great Gatsby alone would make a compelling advertisement for their techniques. Very highly recommended. --MTB
Product Description:
Hundreds of books have been written on the art of writing. Here at last is a book by two professional editors to teach writers the techniques of the editing trade that turn promising manuscripts into published novels and short stories.
In this completely revised and updated second edition, Renni Browne and Dave King teach you, the writer, how to apply the editing techniques they have developed to your own work. Chapters on dialogue, exposition, point of view, interior monologue, and other techniques take you through the same processes an expert editor would go through to perfect your manuscript. Each point is illustrated with examples, many drawn from the hundreds of books Browne and King have edited.
Self Editing I bought this as a gift and she said it had a lot of great tips and ideas that helped her out with her writing process.
To Be precise This book is about developing a writing style, not about techniques, the nuts and bolts of editing a first draft.
Invaluable Invaluable aid to carrying out a thoroughgoing, more objective review of your own work. Keeps to the point all the way through. No padding, no folksy 'You can do it' stuff, just good advice.
A Valuable Tool This book will teach you to find your mistakes before and after you write them. Heed it as you get your work published. You may indeed be the primary editor ... I know I was.
My only issue with this work was that it can be a little dry at times. Other than that, I still recommend it to all those honing the craft.
Wolfe
Read this and then go back to your manuscript After editing a pretty solid first draft of a mystery novel, setting it aside for several weeks, and reading a handful of craft books while considering what I'd already written, I was pretty sure that this highly recommended book wouldn't offer much incremental improvement. I was wrong, wrong, wrong. I finished this book, picked up my manuscript, and began cringing and marking up all manner of amateur mistakes I was sure I'd either not made or fixed in early revisions. The book offers solid examples of good writing and before/after examples of improved writing. The authors approach the sensitive topic of editing with respect for writers and the people who will be subjected to that writing. Checklists at the ends of all chapters are good quick-reference guides - I intend to copy them onto a single chart to post over my desk.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
