Customer Reviews

The Complete Guide to Editing Your Fiction

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4 star:		(7)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

It is almost as if Michael Seidman sits down and goes over your manuscript with you. As a long-time editor, his insights and examples are right on target. He stresses the whole work as well as addressing the elements from which it is constructed, he also points out how a change in any one of the elements changes the larger entity in ways subtle or crucial. In a culture which cherishes sound-bites, we often want quick (if not excellent) fixes to everything. Michael Seidman's book points out that writing well is an end in itself, that there is no easy substitute for true craftmanship. His advice on revising and rewriting would almost seem to guarantee (if followed) a manuscript that is the very best any writer at nearly any stage of expertise could hope to produce. It is not a way to a quick-fix, but it is a way to a thoughtful and thorough one. The tone of the book is that of a considerate mentor, which makes it not only a work chock-full of great advice, but a pleasure to read as well.

The usefulness of this book will depend a lot on your personal style of learning writing. If you learn best by a case study as an example, this book can be very helpful. (Writing teachers will love this book.)

If you're more into just getting the concepts and then seeing how to apply them to your own work, this book is frustrating. (Self-taught or intermediate writer-types will not enjoy this book.)

The examples closely follow a few stories presented within the book. Since I'm in the latter category of learner, I found the 'corrections' may or may not be even vaguely applicable to one's own work, so it's hard to tell which suggestions to apply and which to ignore. Personally, for my learning style, I like "Self-Editing For Fiction Writers," "Fiction First Aid," or even "Revising Fiction" (David Madden).

Mr. Seidman may have years of experience as a valued editor, but teaching what one has learned is another matter, and a book like this will only frustrate many readers. To be sure, the chapter on "Three Case Studies" is good, as is the chapter on "Further Revising" and the "Checklist," but the rest of it is just a muddled wish-wash.

Take the chapter on Point of View. First he presents a full page of an example of omniscient first person, then he explains first and third person limited with no examples, and then he presents the intro to an essay he wrote - two entire pages of small print about looking out of an airplane window, and then repeats the whole thing simply to show how you can change "I" to "we" and get first person plural. He could have done that in two sentences. And is first person plural really a point of view in fiction?

Next he brings up an example of an argument at a party, in omniscient point of view, and instead of focusing on just that - point of view, the subject of the chapter - he says, "the characters have no dimension or depth" and so treats us to a full page and a half of creating backstory for each of the characters. About how "the male chauvinism that was normal to his teen years (or of which he would be accused, right or wrong) is tempered by what he's learned about women" and "Rose is from somewhere in Middle America, part of what he would remember as `the silent majority.'" That's character development, and useful for the main characters of a novel, but it's just insane to use it for the subjects of a writing example.

Finally, stumbling back to common sense, Seidman gets to the basics of point of view, saying you can't switch it in one scene. But he gives no examples of it, and certainly no examples of common mistakes to catch in your writing, such as your narrator saying, "My face went pale."

No, he again jumps way off track with a confusing full-page example he wrote about "a novella told in second person, present tense, from the point of view of two different characters." Say what? And how will that help one's writing?

There's nothing like in Gary Provost's Make Your Words Work: Proven Techniques for Effective Writing-For Fiction and Nonfiction which has sections on Viewpoint Mistakes as well as Describing the Viewpoint Character. And there's certainly nothing like in The Writer's Guide to Crafting Stories for Children (Write for kids library) by Nancy Lamb, which is one of the best introductions to writing fiction there is. Her chapter on point of view starts with six and a half pages on first person, broken up into very helpful sections such as Advantages of First Person, Disadvantages of First Person, Trick of the Trade, Which First Person Character Tells the Story, First Person Moods, and First Person Books to Check Out. And then she does the same with Third Person, and ends with a page on Second Person. Seidman's book doesn't even begin to come near that - it's not helpful at all about understanding point of view, and certainly not about editing it.

The next chapter is on Plot and it includes an astounding 41 pages of the second draft of his "Dream" story (of which you've already read an 11 page first draft). Why all this is in here, I don't know, because he makes an average of just two changes a page to the text, and many of them are simply fixing typos. A book on editing should have plenty of examples, but this isn't helpful at all.

In fact, the one thing this book needed was an editor. There's not only spelling errors, but he writes, "Things may have cropped up as you wrote that you weren't planning on - a bit of business leading to another and another - and because they were part of the ending you'd envisioned at the start, you will have lost them as you got back on track." He meant "they weren't part of the ending," and in so doing, loses us in the confusion.

At one point, frustrated with the book, I flipped ahead to the chapter on "Chipping Away, Word by Word." I wanted to get down to the nitty-gritty, hands-on tips. He covers word choice, point of view, presents an example in which he actually makes it longer than the first draft, goes back to word choice, and then switches to adding sensory detail. Again, there's no order or sense to it, and surely little about chipping away.

Next he gives a half page scene he wrote about a subject being questioned by the police, and then offers a paragraph on how he wanted to hide the person's gender. Again, what does that have to do with chipping away? In the next paragraph, he does get back to editing the piece, but in the end he takes out only one word: "then."

If he truly wanted to show how to chip away, he could've taken the part where the character, with a cigarette in her mouth, looks at the detective for a light - "He rolled his eyes, but then bent over, flicking a plastic lighter to life and offering me a light"- and changed it to "He rolled his eyes, but flicked a lighter to life." You don't need to bend over to light a cigarette of someone sitting, a plastic lighter (as opposed to a silver one with "Best Shot 2002" engraved on it) isn't worth mentioning, and we know he's offering a light, so you can cut all that out. And isn't "rolled his eyes" a cliché? But you don't see that kind of editing anywhere in this book.

Seidman doesn't get to active verbs till page 226, with just one example, and then mentions concrete words over adjectives without giving any examples.

That's probably because he had to make room for the final, 25 page draft of his story, stuck at the end of the book. How one is supposed to see the changes without flipping back to the earlier draft, a hundred pages earlier, and comparing each line, I don't know. I just know it wasn't worthwhile.

Also, in this final draft, again and again two characters will be alone in a cabin and say things like, "Is it a good time, David?", "I hope so, Peg," and "We've been moving a long time, David." Even if you allow them to say each other's names in moments of romance, there's still twenty-three times they use each other's names in dialogue. Renni Browne's Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print, David Morrell's The Successful Novelist: A Lifetime of Lessons about Writing and Publishing [SUCCESSFUL NOVELIST -OS], and Nancy Lamb's "Crafting Stories for Children" all tell you to avoid this. Lamb says, "It's another way to identify yourself as a novice," and Browne says, "It gets old very quickly." And it does, especially in a book on editing.

To sum up this review, you need only look at the last page of Seidman's book: "It's time had come," he writes. Here's one of the most common manuscript errors, using "it's" instead of "its," and it's not only here in his book, but there wasn't one mention of checking your work for this mistake in this "Complete Guide to Editing."

I'd been sitting here with 2nd and 3rd drafts of various stories, even a novel, and not knowing for sure what to do next. I knew I wanted to finish one of the stories, and get back into the novel for another draft, but needed some solid advice, technique, procedures. Seidman did it. His book helps me get my critical/objective eye focused on the problems, weaknesses, opportunities in my writing. It's still hard work, but at least I feel I'm working from a solid platform of advice. The book is easy to follow, clearly stated, and combines both so-called rules or suggestions with examples of his writing (and others) in various stages. I think this is one of the most important books you can own, if you're serious about writing. Because it deals with the critical area of revising.

All writers need a little help now and then. Seidman's book is intended to give that help. It's not a bad work for starters, and even has some reminders for old hands. Perhaps a few new items for the latter, too. After all, none of us knows everything. However, there were some problems with this book that could be stumbling blocks.

For instance, here and there sentences appear that don't seem to make much sense along with quite a number of sentence fragments. There are also a few too many editorial errors: "Unless you're writing in an omniscient point of view, have you made sure you're first person character . . ." Still, some writers will benefit from the examples of editing, while for others they will go on too long.

Seidman is so right when he says that re-writing is very important, and one of the most difficult parts of being a writer. Another part is finding techniques that work best for you. Not everyone writes or re-writes in the same way, and most take a little advice here, a little there, and pretty soon they have a technique all their own.

Michael Seidman has tackled a difficult topic in fiction writing: revision. As most published authors know, raw talent takes a writer only so far; the difference between an amateur and a published writer lies in the hard work that follows a first draft. As Seidman says of self-editing in his introduction: "Do it ruthlessly, do it painstakingly, do it thoroughly."

For Seidman to teach the reader how to revise, he must first instruct him about the basics of fiction writing. He organizes the book into topics: point of view, scene, character, dialogue, opening, back story, and plot. For most chapters (the one on back story is an exception), he provides lengthy passages of his own fiction that need revision in the specific area being discussed. Through showing the reader his own editing process, Seidman reveals the type of work that needs to be done to polish a manuscript. Although I usually object to an author using his own fiction as an illustration, Seidman's choice allows him to demonstrate the revision process, something beginning writers rarely see.

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the book is how far Seidman is willing to go with his topic. His chapters on style, on what can and cannot be done with grammar, pace, and language are advanced topics. He supplies a six-page appendix titled "A Checklist for Revision" that contains an excellent set of questions a writer should ask himself before determining that he is ready to submit a draft.

This how-to book will be less helpful to the writer just starting out than it will be to the writer who is approaching the skill level of a published writer. -- Debbie Lee Wesselmann

When some people wish to write fiction, they write a book and expect it to sell. Or, they buy a "how-to" book and follow a formula, and then they wonder why no one wants the book. The key to success is revision. The writing must be honed. This book helps the writer to do that.

I thought this would be a typical editing book, but I was wrong. Including the easy tone and readability, the biggest plus for this book is the examples. Seidman walks you through editing some fiction passages in this book. Once you see a solid example of what he means, you will be a more discerning writer.

For anyone wanting to write or edit fiction, I would recommend this book. Although Seidman has written it for the writer, the aspiring fiction editor would do no harm in studying this.

Using examples from his own work (including the entire progress of an award-nominated short story, from inception to the finished version as it appeared in a magazine) as well as that of other writers, Seidman explains the revision process in terms of sculpting: taking away what isn't necessary so that what's left is the piece you want it to be. He concentrates on fiction, but the same principles apply to any writing. In addition to learning what you might have to do (he always leaves the final choice to the author, since it is the author's work), this book offers great insight into how editors work with acquired manuscripts, what they try to do for you in helping you to create, as he says, the best work of which you're capable at a given time. Highly recommended to anyone who writes, or who is interested in the writing processes.

I didn't think this book was too helpful when it came to giving advice on revising one's work. The author didn't seem to explain clearly the reasons why in the examples given it was necessary to make the changes that were done. I felt that too much of the book was spent on his short story. I think it would have been better if he just took one or two page sections of it in order to demonstrate concrete principles instead of including entire story three times over. He didn't revise it enough to make that necessary. Most of his advice was very vague and didn't help me in making crucial decisions in my own story. I thought some of his critiques on the novices' story were unduly harsh (I couldn't believe he used the word 'duh' in one of them--that is totally out of line.) True, they needed work but it seemed to me that he was trying to completely rewrite them to suit his own personal tastes rather than taking what was there and helping to improve upon it. I didn't learn very much from that regarding how I should revise my own story.

This book goes far beyond traditional editing guides. Writers will appreciate the informal approach used by Seidman, and the ease with which he gives advice on the entire aspect of writing.

Seidman captured the concerns facing the majority of all writers in his book. His candid manner speaks of his own feelings and preferences on writing and editing. He combines both to create a professional guide and a personable read.

Unlike the majority of authors who create writing manuals, Seidman actually features some of his less-than-perfect writings throughout the book. He takes his own piece of fiction, "The Dream That Follows Darkness," and exposes several rough drafts that have been corrected. This should help writers to in assess their own writing abilities and disabilities.

Another impressive feature he includes are the thorough chapters solely on editing. He assumes no omniscient position to the reader, and speaks to writers on a forthright level. Seidman placed three different excerpts by three other authors in this guide. Although he points to their mistakes, he uses their material in a friendly light. He does not degrade or condescend the authors, he uses their errors in a purely instructional manner.

The book covers much of writing you wouldn't expect; the title is a bit deceptive. Not only does he cover editing, he advises writers on appropriate genre marketing and, "The Building Blocks," of writing. He extends the lessons to go into creation: plot and subplot, characters, point-of-view, dialogue, setting, great openings, and more.

This book would be great for any writer to keep by their computer or writing desk for reference. For the beginning writer, it would be a wonderful tutor to the real basics of the publishing industry. Why novels are written the way they are, why editors seek the particular type of material they do, and how to make your work shine.

Seidman gives a great advantage to writers in his book. Writers may step away from the "classroom" feel so many editing manuals hold, and into the welcome comfort of a friend's library. Be prepared, not to be criticized for your writing errors, but encouraged and supported to further develop your positive attributes in writing.

I would recommend this book to writers of all genres and skill levels, it is as entertaining as it is informative. The book ends with the completed version of, "The Dream That Follows Darkness," so writers will see how editing and revision has turned the story into a polished piece of fiction. This book proves that actually watching the editing process on another author's work, can give you needed confidence and the drive to polish your own words. You aren't simply being told how to edit, you are being taught.