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

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.

This book will teach you to find your mistakes before and after your write them. Sage advice indeed about self-editing where so much is down-sized in publishing.

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

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.

This book is an easy read and so very relevant to any aspiring or published author. The tips are summarized at the end of each chapter and the examples are simple to understand. Highly recommended!

There are a lot of books on writing out there, some more fun to read than others. This one was not meant to be inspiring or fun, it was meant to be useful during the editing phase of writing, that endless process that can often be derailed or abandoned too soon. (Have you ever begun to wonder if your editing efforts are making the manuscript worse? LOL)

Obviously some rules can be broken by some writers, but most of the tips and examples in this book are well worth considering, and it's nice to have some structure when you're trying to clean up and improve several thousand words. Yes, there will be advice that you're already familiar with, like cutting adverbs and adjectives, but even these sections are good reminders. Particularly helpful were the chapters on dialogue mechanics and beats. I wish more writers used this book.