The Three Most Important Skills
All Writers Need to Learn:
Revising, Editing, & Rewriting
2005 Version
To begin with...
You’ve
studied other authors’ novels and learned writing techniques. You know how to plot, develop characters, and
write believable dialogue. You
understand the difference between showing and telling and what purpose narration
and exposition serve in a story. You’ve
finished your book, and you’re elated—and with good reason. You’ve run a mental marathon, but you haven’t
crossed the finish line. Not yet. Now, you must revise, edit, and rewrite, the
hardest but most necessary part of the process.
How do you proceed from here?
A
good editor is hard to find...
Even
if you find a competent editor, and can afford the cost, you still need your
manuscript to be in the best condition possible before submitting to him or
her. The most helpful editor is one who
deals with content. The person can point
out the long, boring sections in your book, as well as any plot
inconsistencies. He or she will catch
grammatical errors. In the long run,
however—yes, this is still part of the mental
marathon—it’s you who will have to do the hard work. You need to prepare yourself for the grueling
task that lies ahead.
How-to
Books...
Over
the years, I’ve read many books on writing, but one stands out from all the
rest: Getting the Words Right: How to
Revise, Edit, & Rewrite by Theodore A. Rees Cheney. Make no mistake: This is a technical book
designed to improve your writing skills. It’s broken up into sections with examples of
what to look for and how to fix problems that arise in everyone’s first drafts.
It’s my Writing Bible, and I own two
versions of the book.
1984 Version
What’s
Inside?
REVISION
BY REDUCTION
Takes
you step by step through chapters, sections, paragraphs, scenes, dialogue,
characters, and addresses redundancy, tautology, pleonasm, verbosity,
prolixity, circumlocution, and repetition.
What’s authorial intrusion? Do
you use excess modifiers or idle, nonworking words? Provides exercises.
RETHINK
AND REARRANGE
Addresses
issues of tone, style, and coherence; sentence, paragraph, and chapter lengths;
word order, misplaced modifiers, and de-emphasizers.
REVISE
BY REWORDING
Explores
the parts of speech, style, and diction, along with sentence structure
(syntax). Discusses
metaphors, similes, analogies, misspellings, and misuses.
Cheney’s
book has been updated twice since 1984. I have the original publication and the most
recent copy (2005). Regardless of which
version you order, I can guarantee that you’ll improve your writing and editing
skills. I’ve read the first book twice
and the second book once. At long last,
I think I’m “getting the hang of it.”
1990 Version
Getting the Words
Right will be
the
best writing class you’ve never taken!
* * *
Thank you for dropping by Indie Lindy.
Comments and shares are appreciated.
Happy writing & happy reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment