Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    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
    Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print
    Ebook272 pages3 hours

    Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print

    By Renni Browne and Dave King

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 15, 2010
    ISBN9780062012906
    Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print
    Author

    Renni Browne

    Renni Browne, once senior editor for William Morrow and other companies, left mainstream publishing in 1980 to found The Editorial Department, a national book-editing company.

    Related to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition

    Related ebooks

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Beat Sheet Or Cheat Sheet?

      May 5, 2022

      If you’ve not yet encountered the Save the Cat! books you will, because the original book Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need (2005) proved so successful it led to a franchise which now includes at least seven volumes, inclu

      8 min read

    • Article

      Better writing NOW

      May 6, 2021

      Better writing NOW
      5 min read

    • Article

      What Agents Wish Writers Knew

      Dec 21, 2021

      What Agents Wish Writers Knew
      9 min read

    • Article

      Set the Hook With Great Beginnings

      Oct 18, 2021

      As a novice fisher, I’ve only caught a few fish, but I’m already thinking about better ways to hook more. Likewise, as a writer, I think a lot about how to write beginnings that will hook readers. Just as fishing advice abounds, so too does writing a

      4 min read

    • Article

      Romance Writing Academy

      Dec 18, 2021

      Romance Writing Academy
      3 min read

    • Article

      Royalties: The Long Tail

      Oct 18, 2021

      When I first signed with my agent, I joked that I wanted my advances to be paid in the form of solid gold toilets,1 and that’s been our code for good news ever since. When I get an email with the subject line “Gold Toilet Incoming,” I know we’ve sold

      4 min read

    • Article

      Subplots Aren’t Secondary

      Jun 19, 2019

      Subplots Aren’t Secondary
      6 min read

    • Article

      Finishing Our Books In 10 Days – Or Else

      Sep 11, 2021

      “I need to finish this book manuscript this summer, or else.” Or else what? Or else I’d hate myself. Or else I’d reach old age and die without ever completing my memoir. Or else I’d just go mad. It was a doleful, desperate litany I’d been moaning for

      8 min read

    • Article

      Mastering Plot Twists

      Dec 12, 2022

      Mastering Plot Twists
      8 min read

    • Article

      Trope: My Favorite Dirty Word

      Oct 18, 2021

      Trope: My Favorite Dirty Word
      7 min read

    • Article

      12 Foolproof Ways To Fail As A Writer

      Dec 21, 2021

      Whether you’re just now launching into writing or you’re an old pro, here are 12 surefire ways to fail this year as you pursue your dreams within the writing world. You’ll be tempted to compare other authors’ sales figures, reviews, likes, comments,

      4 min read

    • Article

      What Physics Can Teach Us About Writing Fiction

      Mar 6, 2018

      Sometimes writing fiction feels to me like that oft-used image of a godlike creator: the man pulling the strings of the marionette, orchestrating each fine movement from above the stage. One string might be character, another plot, a third setting, a

      6 min read

    • Article

      Opening ACTS

      Jul 9, 2022

      Opening ACTS
      10 min read

    • Article

      The Art Of PLOTTING

      Jul 9, 2022

      Writing a novel is a huge challenge. Not only must you create relatable, compelling characters who grab readers, but you also need to nail down a storyline that does the same thing. Readers want adept storytelling, with scenes that move, lives that c

      8 min read

    • Article

      Getting Creative With Reality

      Oct 1, 2020

      What do H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald, Notes on a Small Island by Bill Bryson and Tall Stories and Wee Tales by Billy Connolly have in common? They all belong to the increasingly popular genre of creative non-fiction writing. When creative non-fic

      6 min read

    • Article

      How I Punched Up My Fiction to Get Out of the Slush Pile

      Dec 12, 2022

      When I first started submitting my stories to magazines and publications, I believed, like many, that submitting was a numbers game. The more stories I had on submission, the higher my chances of getting a yes. I had a goal of having a minimum of 20

      5 min read

    • Article

      The First Five Pages

      Jan 7, 2021

      The First Five Pages
      5 min read

    • Article

      75 Writing prompts

      Dec 14, 2020

      75 Writing prompts
      8 min read

    • Article

      Pantser Or Plotter?

      Jan 29, 2022

      When you write a story or a novel, you’re undoubtedly focused on turning out a good one. That’s the product. But what about the process? Are you a so-called plotter, one who creates summaries and outlines before clicking out your story or novel? Or a

      10 min read

    • Article

      Write-minded

      Jan 29, 2022

      Write-minded
      3 min read

    • Article

      A New Approach To Outlining

      Oct 29, 2022

      WHEN I WAS ABOUT 12, I PLAYED baseball in the street with a group of neighborhood kids. None of us knew how to play; the point was to have fun. One day while we were playing, a girl who lived in a big house on the corner – Jenny, I distinctly remembe

      5 min read

    • Article

      How to Write a Dynamite Last Chapter

      Oct 10, 2022

      When I was a newer writer, I bought a drink for a famous old novelist at the hotel bar after a long conference day. When he’d consumed half of it, I asked him for advice on crafting good, satisfying final chapters. He snapped, “Your ending depends on

      9 min read

    Reviews for Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition

    4/5

    29 ratings16 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      A great book about the very basics of self-editing. Some examples, however, are not-so-good...
    • 4/5
      I think this will be a very practical book, a book from which I will take notes, a book I'll turn to for practice and reminders. It's an open door sort of book, the kind that welcomes you to come in and get comfortable while you listen to the information.

      This is NOT a read-once-know-all sort of book. No, this one should sit under the elbow while writing and editing. It should have post-it flags, highlighting, notes in the margin. It's a work book, a book that teaches by making you do.

      The hardest part of reading this book was in not rushing to my current manuscript to apply the thing I'd just read before I finished reading the whole book.
    • 4/5
      This is an excellent resource when you are first learning to edit your own stuff. For a modest price, this book leads you through the most egregious errors and uses examples from popular fiction most people are aware of to show what is good and bad. The only thing which kept me from giving it a 5th star is this advice will only get your manuscript ready to put on a real editors desk. In this age of self-publishing, you will need to add another layer of editing if you can't afford to pay an outside editor to make your book ready for the reader. For the miniscule sum to purchase this book, it was money well spent.
    • 5/5
      Writing fiction isn't hard, but writing good fiction is. Having a writing coach or teacher is the best way to go, but sometimes that's not possible. Self-editing is the best book on the market for those learning the craft. Read it as you as write. And then read it again. And again. The Show, Don't Tell aspect is critical to good fiction and probably one of the most difficult to apply on your own, but the chapter is easy to understand with great examples at the end of the book. Besides learning the nuances of good fiction, the book helps you understand the proper usage of beats, adverbs, dialog and such. It's well worth the effort.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 1/5
      ျမန္မာဘာသာ
    • 5/5
      There are lots of writing craft books around, but this one has an excellent reputation among writer groups. I can see why. It's a thorough, yet not overwhelming, primer on how to look at your own work with critical eyes and edit the living daylights out of it. The authors emphasize that you shouldn't follow their prescriptions too rigidly (as, so they say, people tended to do with the first edition of this book) and thus stay on the fine line between allowing writers the freedom they need to be creative, and preventing them from making the most obvious mistakes that all--ALL--writers make, especially in the formative years of their writing. A shortish book with exercises that I didn't feel obliged to do before I moved onto the next section, lots of humor, and some gently funny cartoons to break up the text. Nice
    • 4/5
      A good reference with various techniques for refining your prose. Includes lucid discussions of showing vs. telling, and an excellent explanation of why adverbs don't help your fiction. I don't agree with every point the writers make about style, but all of the tactics they suggest are helpful. The book makes a lot of how helpful reading your work out loud can be, and it's quite right.
    • 5/5
      Should be set next to Strunk & White in the library of useful writing books.
    • 5/5
      Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is one of my top five favorite writing books. Full of writing examples, exercises and techniques. Will benefit most writers from beginner to advanced. A must-have for any writer's reference library.
    • 3/5
      There was a lot of useful information in here, and the checklists will be great to keep on hand during revisions. I thought the examples throughout were helpful and there were only occasional statements that I didn’t quite agree with (e.g., their assertion that “only editors and reviewers really notice” things like dialogue that says one thing accompanied by explanation that says something different [p. 85:]—that was especially jarring, actually, because of all the emphasis they placed on not insulting your reader by underestimating his intelligence. I know what they meant, I think, but the assertion still bugged me. But obviously that’s just a tiny thing.). I wasn’t sure what to make of the illustrations throughout, though. I didn’t understand their purpose. They weren’t funny, and in most cases the art seemed to have little if anything to do with the captions. They seemed inserted purely to break up the text, and I think they would have been better left out or replaced with something more relevant.
    • 4/5
      This is the book you're going to need by your side as you start to edit. This is not the book you want beside you when you write your first draft. If you did that, you'd soon end up in the corner curled up the fetal position.This writing reference will soon prove invaluable to you. You're not going to catch everything on the first read through, and you're certainly not going to end up using everything. At least, I know I probably won't.Be warned: This book will show you you are not as good as you thought, but helps you be as good as you should be.
    • 4/5
      Having just finished another first draft of a novel, it was time to pull Self-Editing off the shelf for my third read of this trusty book.That I have it on my shelf and have reread it so many times is a testament to something, but what? it is truth of what we write. Through many examples, and exercises, which I will admit to passing on, the authors give us guidance in what we know to be on the lookout for. Things that we forget as we write and crank out that draft, letting our creativity spew before the other half of the mind takes over.They are not addressing our creative process, but our thinking process where we use our consciousness to refine what we first wrote. Here they talk to us about scenes, beats, dialogue. Tools that we as writers should look at it. Very often I have complex conversations between multiple characters and the authors address where I have problems, just as i know I have those problems.Its use is wihtout question. In this day of less editors of your work, you have to write a polished piece. This is a help.
    • 5/5
      This was a highly rated editing book on Amazon, but even then, I was concerned that it would be dry or boring. I shouldn't have been. I can see why the ratings were so high - it is an excellent guide to honing technique, bit by bit. The thing that makes this book so compelling is that there are constant examples of mistakes or correct usage from both published and non-published stories. They covered a wide range of genres, too (I was happy to see an excerpt from a YA/sci-fi book I loved as a kid, Dogsbody). Those examples really made me actively think as I read; not just about the excerpts, but about how my own writing has improved and how I still make some of the common errors like having too many beats. The end of each chapters has checklists and exercises to further develop technique, such as re-spacing paragraphs or rewriting a few paragraphs of story from different points of view. The assignments are short and several can be done mentally; I fully intend to do some of these written exercises later.This was the perfect book to read while I'm doing my first round of edits on my latest Nanowrimo manuscript. I've found myself making a lot more deletions of excess words, and the result seems tighter already.
    • 5/5
      Every new writer should own this book.
    • 4/5
      Excellent; full of nuggets.
    • 4/5
      Renni Browne and Dave King, both professional editors, clearly know what it takes to move a manuscript from "good" to "publishable." The checklists and exercises are helpful.

    Book preview

    Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition - Renni Browne

     ݖbbook_preview_excerpt.html\ےƑN{-{w(FmIP4"P$j@Q(9ԓ?B/=ɞUɖbBU^N/iŝv^7a þű2SCn SË7XMO<&lP}7?-uY01_9{}7y_LSmzS\!￮7_ {,]~qv_|EuX}q;fVAS+l?Tw-ț֍/N~Ε?OH]cNjoCU~7ntq_Q]rT>N =}۝/sڥSw P+!WRfYj5?uݩz=y^p i {JT?P_&|irHG>O><Ƈ$8zw#$Lcc6ΓKzpþ~w.֏ˊb_߾[ݿy]ݽׯnS_yOJuttS55Cp(wspPmOUPnVѧ'nw;uhBcz>jF=q!t~SĿqbx>{xpӆR6s^rSüC%@ _%?`|L@] Vl}x'鴛j}uCDs!LNUSsqCHIοOĪ$qqé:R.%T)_pCٿX%;5j^<:UaۏKWlwZLkȌ;L-&6m9?~H1 ^wblN%Qa;* ><v(ſ,hzW_ǞKƋ Рd E ʃEyOy f) S@.aWPXtC l=xsɛa1 irP恦Z.:E G\',! 8 ]ܷQb!Ua&>^N? rNJcq9}6E\ rx˚'ࡡ #HMIn2$x:cΔ'zغNk(3Ѭ?*8G+*}j 7.7'zXhT)/bS{Q| *Z  kr3o g?s.{F 3wITwj>[k#~h џn>{ȳ,z!?AUX/{Nv|fH 4B'0x^?ⰾƦp:}QB ( {6v{ ̥o(WkS9B*\AgVf-mxf,6R|w5kcTf hS`i034L;=iei^| џ=G?z7#A7z BDx=QyyО `RxR- '6Ja^wHX'I6 Gy};7!*o^@ljx^r 23oӽ +_ aWx@ <1n( y)'%Gb<G!Q6/.jhUf@:;ޑ$t}|,,'uQp=L $S-_$X?W꽲ӣ11-iC HЃ=HYn }51~Fm@TRݠ&x&Qܸ37[$;57l,K7Y{1sX@Y'$My ? ̬'Ye3q`7zUHPv"b%QyIJ@ F#fs  Dz^Fl yˎ;F%KU`ky 3ՁvT|Dr{( \Ww9Kj@k7))|NnuC$Tځ|v*o`ܲ-Dna:Apwo'X1>S|(wk㲁Ѭp﹋Fמ{}{aD\WAnD#MR":SXkLJ$nޙ_bHg}1 de%0o~KJeT/xb=[l\mZJGi+`I/On(#{éjrߍ>~/UѦQَDdsPTQa {SVjm7o|Spo=ImSpR/ $k|np [VH#P;wvk_ e: e<,cu+@xeO2_n {h\sܠf)!V'r^Ҁ u2eYl_R%Xgսv mU\f$D N;" -J 7*}Q_\XIYZl%j taWPvQ,V4+jVH<+# VJ`&ێg!4"B-J ۝uu/AM%󺒵RYJ@|߬eCCĈr3[laȔuT&iÙ1KW!)Y4-ü O4e_Q-Z#)dؿX8IG5 6Ja[w˳'8)} ==ɝ^y\~6? ccXbB2Mmc$$/h%pja{ŤF 9IlY+[&R:T7X.|kcnM9u$) jmg,QLacC{`ajd$:[bӒY:W$+dO5Ur~MiJ 89: hڡ4̟B.I-(Jsz4", $/<~bby\YwJ{9kI- 8cm.\/M|ŷ9T@P9H^+?7+Eڿ$ϥ/J]mm9iy" $В>]oʽo1ه`WZZ2Ÿ}bRB ]_(%[/QaԒ?^kc_Ƣ`o]䍸w1k ׃B ! Sz)z>4 ;䜃C 1:EAbL2-Xjq)/+Â;ڀ@iy?XW b K2@+PK*" 9ZfUzmxKb7sszz)i778?w7c_fjvoC=G:Q8R|CKŷ2֘e6aڂ}l`Z-,Q%v'lΏ+fUS 3t eP+. d)Śfndli܁e3XY}s1qA 2&hj{ct|cjQOg"wlK# qDraV+7ݬHӤ9 Y)^ [#707AҨ#)9 @u ea¯|#=x`5wF4MgwSN?:`I?4U %ؖՏuMj©<"MK~<ݳ,?"|ucX rUγ惼RĄbO IڣnȰ'f XR 4ZLKF֚eK#ԬR!XKz5#u`*7QIOznXϥsZ P1y&R;RvAkvXչb@;)v^:LG-rT _h WAN(mxzT6) tDN|-M/g8jd;seoq 9̓F:f28&Q2w 8?x翂$T1gj۶LLH!sچjHӃĮp9Ԧdޒgz̚^YZ}k3[Z-зbA"PyO DV$Z|N?Qco/h{WG9-8]FR<ǒad/[ pV?Lk;" )jr`@.o"MYh9@J*s2o$1{{EK{Ⱥ>W+}Fz6s$k;SBohn3GБyZGȒύDL28FoU]Cij{^~Jܝ]*_d"&})b'CR}/\ϻOO.2Vj1TsZ, VF3NL+xO%,Lk~K:_+5bl< 7cdؒNuJO&BVZСtbyITyC .1 £#&+R#Ahbza RY]䃎>@ X\v^.ҟC7FR)驼VRn%]sĝkBehRg&JcEnyBG٤dH蓜7֜htm B< 1kAL|y6 ,,p(ٳxW}bnR[ BflIϑZ^w\U@3N+I8^.% ɽfJg5/<3$xVC\ZX2'Vćeʞtt aGf5$H_S}m(^ \$J:R|vfϪpʟFøj{'/jgU.nCۡ 2!k 孋\y2S@`VlU9iːRi~NJ4^`{)<&6PJ7OOQԻʬv/hN}k֜ҪtJdVBeR:ONڤ#PCkf Χ9yiZmyM& rWs=+G6տ, 9KU(6K.GAW5PKv~(V'!_D r༪V&
    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1