Review by Booklist Review
Two experienced editors, recognizing a need shared by publishers and writers in today's high-volume, small-staff publishing world, have provided a do-it-yourself guide to editing fiction. They share with readers the editor's view of a story: Do characters have consistent voices? Does the point of view shift? Do narrators tell instead of show? Browne and King assume readers are already familiar with the craft of writing, discussing instead such particular topics as beats, cross-cutting, narrative, and misdirection. Much attention is given to perfecting dialogue, with word choice, speaker attribution, characterization, and imagery also covered; ironic commentary is provided by cartoonist George Booth. Examples range from workshop submissions to well-known novels by famous authors, from superb form to egregious literary offenses. A checklist and writing exercises bring each chapter's focus directly to the reader. In a final chapter the authors complete all the exercises themselves. A straightforward, useful final proof mechanism and reminder. ~--Virginia Dwyer
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Library Journal Review
Both novice and seasoned fiction writers can ensure themselves greater publishing success by correcting textual problems before submitting their manuscripts to an editor. This exemplary instruction manual offers readers the wisdom of two experienced editors who focus on writing/editing techniques (the mechanics of dialog, characterization, point of view, etc.). Adhering to fiction's underlying principle of ``show and tell,'' this lively text includes both good and bad examples in each lesson. At the end of every chapter is a tip checklist to match against one's own work and two or three exercises with which to practice and reinforce the chapter's topic. A superb tutorial for anyone wanting to learn from pros how to polish fiction writing with panache.-- Cathy Sabol, Northern Virginia Community Coll., Manassas (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
