The 10% Solution

By Ken Rand

20th Anniversary Edition!

 

Originally published in 1998 as a saddle-stapled chapbook, this edition is a MUST for fans of Ken Rand's amazing reference book on self-editing. With exciting new cover art and expanded references, it is not to be missed.

 

This concise book is jammed full of the kind of information it often takes beginning writers years to learn. Ken Rand offers his own advice and twenty-five years of experience for the benefit of other writers. His no-nonsense approach to editing fiction will do more to make writing more professional.

 

Introductions by Cat Rambo and Dean Wesley Smith

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fairwood Press
• Release date: Aug 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9798215111840

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Cat Rambo

For the past few years, I have been covertly getting people to go up to Patrick at conventions and ask when the electronic edition of this book would appear. Why? It might be that I have a prankish mind that was devoted to making him believe there was a vast groundswell awaiting this book. But actually, that’s the truth, because I’ve been pushing this book for years, less for prankish reasons than because I think it’s so useful for new writers.

The 10% Solution is not a cure to all your writing woes. It’s not a tool that helps with everything. But it is a great little book that will make you a better writer if you use it at the right stage in the process. The time to employ it is in that last pass before you send the story out into the world. I think of it as a lint-brush, something that tidies things up and makes sure every sentence that you’re sending out into the world to represent you is doing so beautifully, showing off that you can construct clear and error-free sentences that do exactly what you want them to be doing.

I don’t remember the circumstances when I first ran across The 10% Solution, but I do know that since then I have given out multiple copies and recommended it to literally hundreds of people. Why? Because it works and effectively shows you how to polish a piece of work in a way that shows you are at the professional level. For not just fiction but nonfiction.

Yes, it’s a pain in the butt. Yes, the first time you apply it to a manuscript it will be a huge pain in the rear end that may well lead you to curse aloud, calling down vile imprecations on my head. Yup and yup. I’ve been there too. But it’s worth it. After you’ve done it a few times, your unconscious mind gets tired of that labor and begins making changes before you write, tightening up and clarifying your prose in a way that will make it better.

Don’t believe me? Don’t try to apply it to a book then, but test it out with a short story or essay. Do give it a full chance, not skipping any steps, doing the actual now I am searching on ly, now I am searching on of steps. And keep a copy of the original, then look at them side by side. If your original prose is so golden that this didn’t substantially improve it, well then, perhaps this is not the book for you. But for the rest of us, it’s an awesome one.

Thank you, Patrick, for finally listening to all those people I kept sending up to you. I swear you won’t regret it. I know I won’t.

SECRETS OF THE CRAFT

Dean Wesley Smith

I’ve got to say right off that I’m a collector of how-to-write books and essays. It’s a nasty habit that got out of hand my first few years of wanting to be a novelist, and hasn’t slacked off even after selling my 35th novel. I love the things, all the way from Lawrence Block’s Telling Lies for Fun and Profit, to the current Writer’s Digest Fiction Writer’s Yearbook. Beside my computer is my bible, Writing the Blockbuster Novel by Albert Zuckerman. Some of the better how-to-write books I reread often. Many just fill a wall of my home, dusted not-often-enough.

So, when Ken Rand asked me to look at his book, my response was Great! I was going to get a free copy of a professional writer’s thoughts on how to improve writing skills. Us collectors love anything free, and knowing Ken, I expected to learn something in the process. A double bonus.

Now let me back up a moment and say a few things about Ken Rand. He’s a long time professional author, a person whom I have talked with many times, and whom I admire. If you meet him you will like him. Almost everyone does. In the text he lists some of his jobs and writing credentials, so I don’t need to here. But let me say clearly that Ken is a person who knows writing.

Why is knowing writing important? My opinion is that new writers (all writers, for that matter) should look for advice from writers who are farther down the publishing road. (More succssful, depending on your definition of success.) I would never listen to publishing advice from a novelist who can’t sell a novel, while I’ve sold