David Madden, "Revising Fiction: A Handbook for Writers"

"This is a nuts-and-bolts approach to the craft of composition that reminds us nonetheless of the magic in the enterprise, the music in the gears. Produced by a practitioner who knows whereof he writes, and how he writes, and why he writes—and with examples culled from the wonderful warehouse of fiction. For apprentice authors at every stage of our common apprenticeship, a first-rate work of words."—Nicholas Delbanco, Author and Director, M.F.A. Program, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

"David Madden's approach to the teaching of writing is both practical and inspiring. The evidence he gives of how and why successful writers revise their work, extending their imaginative vision, is fascinating and persuasive. This is a book for both beginning and experienced writers. I recommend it highly."—Robert Pack, Director, Bread Loaf Writer's Conference, Middlebury, Vermont

"Revising Fiction is a thoroughly useful and often inspired guide for writers of all levels, but particularly so for professionals. David Madden presents provocative questions about the essential techniques of fiction that are especially helpful in these days when authors can count on their publishers more for lunch than for line-editing. As an agent I recommend it unreservedly to my clients."—John Pickering, Pickering Associates, Inc., Literary Agents

From Storyglossia
This book represents another approach to revision. Madden offers 185 questions to ask, for example, #107: "Do you open the story with an overlong description of the setting?" while this approach may seem a bit overwhelming—especially if you tried to ask all 185 questions of a particular story—it does provide a touchstone approach to revision. Not always, but usually, our subconscious knows we're making certain mistakes in our stories. Read one of your stories. Then read through Madden's list of questions in the table of contents. The questions that make you wince are where you need to get busy revising.

From VanderWorld
Revising Fiction by David Madden is wonderful because it shows early and later drafts by famous writers trying to solve specific problems in their fiction. It also divides these possible problems encountered by fiction writers into sophisticated and plausible categories.

This is a sometimes complex book. It can seem daunting to a beginning writer. This is a good thing. When I was a kid, I would sometimes have the at-sea sensation of reading a book and finding it to be written in a strange language that I only half understood. Lord of the Rings was one of those books. I read it when I was too young to completely understand it. Each time I re-read it, it became a different book, as a result, as each time my understanding of it improved and changed.

Revising Fiction is a little bit like that. The first time you read it, you may only get something out of 20 or 30 percent of the book. The next time, you will get more out of it. Then, when you go back even later, you will find yourself understanding almost all of it, but in a different way than you understood it before.

Revising Fiction, then, becomes a good barometer of your progress as a writer, in terms of absorbing technique. My point being, it is good to read above your current level of ability when it comes to books on writing. And it is okay to be unable to internalize everything you read about the art of writing. Some of it will stick on a subconscious level regardless.

From page 388 of Janet Burroway, "Writing ...Narrative Craft (3rd Edition):
Although it is too weighty to operate as a handbook, this volume, uniquely devoted to the art of revising, shows the process convincingly and in full.

Contents

The Uses of This Handbook
Introduction: Revision Is an Act of the Technical Imagination
 What Are the Sources of Ideas?
 What Happens in the First Draft?
 What Is the Role of the Imagination?
 What are the Stages a Writer Goes Through in His Mastery of Revision?

1 Point Of View
2 Style
3 Characters
4 Narrative
5 Dialog
6 Description
7 Devices
8 General Considerations
9 Reimagining "The Day The Flowers Came"

Selected List of Revision Examples
Selected List of Exemplary Fiction
Bibliography
Index of Authors and Titles
Index of Key Words

Tags: qWritingTechnique, qFiction, qLiterature, qLiteraryCriticism


James N. Frey, "The Key: ... Using The Power Of Myth"

Claire Kehrwald Cook, "Th...to Edit Your Own Writing"

Jerome Stern, "Making Shapely Fiction"

Wayne C. Booth, "The Rhetoric of Fiction (2nd Edition)"

Sherrilyn Kenyon, "The Wr...Sourcebook (2nd Edition)"

Janet Burroway, "Writing ... Narrative Craft (3rd Edition)


H. W. Fowler & Ernest Gowe...lish Usage (2nd Edition)"

Geraldine Woods, "English Grammar for Dummies"

Garner's Modern American Usage (2nd Edition)

Eugene Ehrlich, "The Harp...eign Terms (3rd Edition)"

sterR. W. Holder, "How Not To...Euphemisms (3rd Edition)"

N. E. Renton, "Metaphoric...ue Idiomatic Expressions"

Richard A. Spears, "NTC's...onary of American Idioms"

Tom McArthur, "The Oxford Companion to the English Language"

Judith Siefring (ed), "Th... of Idioms (2nd Edition)"

John Ayto, "The Oxford Dictionary of Slang"

J. I. Rodale, "The Synonym Finder"

Webster’s New Dictionary of Sy...Analogous and Contrasted Words

Webster's Dictionary of English Usage

Marjorie E. Skillin & Robe... Into Type (3rd Edition)"