I heard about this book on NaNo EdMo, and it had good reviews.
Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is the must-have book for NaNo EdMo or editing in general (at least for me). It has a chapter about different things such as Characterization and Expositon, Show and Tell, and other things to check for when editing your novel. It's easy to understand, and they even have exercises at the end of each chapter to help you learn to incorporate your new-found skills into real writing.

I would recommend this book during the editing part of PubYe. It's a huge help.

Has anyone else read it???

It's on my shelf. It certainly looks like it would help me. I really should start reading the how-to books I collect.

Actually, I'm waiting for one of watercolour's incredibly detailed reviews so I'll know exactly which chapters I need and I can print his review and replace the book's table of contents with it.

Tsk-tsk! I have got this one, Reba but I seem to have stopped at page 208 for some reason ( another one arrived in the post? ) which means I didn't get as far as Chapter 12 on 'Voice', which I should definitely read.

Most of the highlighting on my copy was done in Chapter 3, 'POV', so that seems to have impressed me, as did Chapter 6 on 'Beats' in dialogue.

Which sections have you found most useful bjullie?

( By the way in the back of a UK writing magazine there is an ad that says:
"Writers' Reviews. Get your book reviewed on Amazon worldwide and other online book retailers and review sites.
Beautifully written reviews for independent publishers and authors by published and professional writers - in a style that suits your work. Visit our website to find out more..."

( Maybe they translated it using one of those pocket translators? )

Hmmm. I've been doing this a while now for free

Free?!? We gave you a title.

Actually, I haven't read the whole thing, but I really like the chapters about Narrative Summary and POV. I'll definitely be going back to check for too much narrative summary or scenes.

Yes bjullie, that's a useful chapter about immediate scene and narrative summary.

The advert in the magazine begs a question about the copyright of the reviews people post on Amazon. I would have thought the Amazon small-print prolly says anything posted belongs to them, but I don't recall seeing that so maybe it stays with the person who posted it.

Now, I'm about to start the chapter about seeing how it sounds, but I think that the dialogue mechanics chapter was VERY helpful. Now I'll know what to do so that I won't sound like an amateur when submitting my novel.

I've been taking detailed notes on the book on my laptop because it's a library book and I can't write things in it. I would recommend writing down some notes if the book isn't yours so that you remember some of the things discussed.

If you are about to begin editing your novel, this book is a must-have!

That was actually one of the first writer's advice books I ordered from... Amazon, and I read the whole thing, though that's a couple of years back.
I did learn a lot though, especially - as I recall - about PoV, cuz in my first completed Nano-novel I was headhopping constantly!

The chapter on English-language wasn't all that much use to me, obviously.

I learned a lot about POV too! I didn't know that you could have so many POV's, like you can head jump, or head jump in first person, or do omniscient, or start with omniscient and move to third person in the same scene! Now, I just have to decide which POV to use.... The exercises at the end of each chapter helped a lot, too, because then if I didn't understand something completely, I could try it out for myself.

It was also cool how you had a chance to edit The Great Gatsby so that the dialogue mechanics fit, and they had POV problems from other published books that you could fix.


I just realized today that this book is on EDITING, not REVISING, so that's why they hardly mention anything about plot or characters. I never knew editing was so complicated!

Bjulie, if you're looking for some info on revising plot, here are a few ideas mentioned in Jerry Cleaver's book 'Immediate Fiction'. Chapter 8 is about re-writing.

The gist of this book is to go back to fundamentals. He talks about a 'toolkit' or 'checklist' to apply when something is not working:
1.want 2.obstacle 3.action, 4.emotion and 5.showing

1.is MC's want urgent and high-risk?
2. is the obstacle/antagonist equally powerful, and as strong as it could possibly be?
3. does this clash create irresitible pressure for the MC to act?
4. let the reader know what emotion the MC is feeling at every stage
5. show it, don't tell it.

Specifically about revising he suggests:
don't work in your head. Work on the paper.
Use coloured highlighters to mark where each of the five elements appear on the paper:
Find the 'want', the 'obstacle', and the 'action' that these two create. Find the temporary 'resolution', and where the MCs emotion is shown, then apply this checklist to every scene.

He gives a reminder about checking that the MC's situation is worse at the end of the scene than at the beginning, until the final resolution when s/he wins through. If it's not worse, make it worse.

Check for any solid blocks of 'info-dump' and cut them. Those are the key elements he mentions.

If you like the sound of this approach, bjulie, it would be worth ordering this book from the library. ( It's not dissimilar in style to the one you've been using in that it includes exercises at the end of each chapter to help you apply it. )

KD has also used the Holly Lisle 'one-pass revision' method so I'll leave KD to tell you about that.

Huh. Superficially, that sounds a lot like the One-Pass method.

I may have to have a look at that one. For me, it's always good to read a few different takes. Even if the new way doesn't help, it might help me see the old way in a different light.

I'll let Holly Lisle explain One-Pass, though. (also, I did make a checklist if you decide to try her way)

I cannot believe how many bad writing habits this book cured me of! I'm no longer afraid to say "said" and I've stopped trying to get cutesy with dialogue beats and calling my characters by descriptive phrases instead of their names. My prose reads so much cleaner now. Now if only I could find a book to inject my writing with a sense of humor...

he-he, it's funny, I used to do both those same things! (Had people who knew more about writing than I did correct me on it.)

I do really want to read this book, it was recommended to me recently at a conference. And from the look of this thread, others found it useful as well.