Title: Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself into Print
Author: Renni Browne, Dave King
Category: Nonfiction
Rating: 4.5/5
Summary: Two seasoned editors teach you how to apply their editing techniques to your own work.

Review: I learned a ton from this book, and I want to read more like it.

Each chapter focuses on a different element of fiction—point of view, dialogue, voice, and so on. The authors provide examples to demonstrate their point, which I found incredibly helpful, even though I didn’t always see what they were trying to teach in every example. (I plan to read it again, and maybe more will sink in the second time.)

And as a lover of checklists for anything and everything, of course I adored the little checklists at the end of each chapter. They are handy reminders of all the points raised in the chapter, and I know they will help jog my memory when I go back them later. After the checklists are exercises to practice your new knowledge.

My only disappointment with the book was the chapter on voice, where the checklist and exercises were absent:

Realistically, we can’t really come up with a list of things to watch for as you improve your voice—there are no rules to becoming an individual.

Boo. Maybe they’re right, but boo.

Aside from that one minor cop-out, this book is brilliant!

Borrow: Your local library | Swap
Buy: Your local bookstore | Powell’s | Amazon

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