Revising Fiction: A Handbook For Writers

I have two stories in final edits, two in middle edits, and about a dozen in “please finish us, we’re cold” mode. The first of those tasks is  proving the most difficult. I quit early last night and, for some bedtime reading,  began flipping through the copy of Revising Fiction: A Handbook for Writers that arrived in the mail on Monday.

I bought the book based on a recommendation in Booklife and expected it to be a somewhat slim checklist of sorts. It is actually quite meaty, providing the “185 practical techniques for improving your story or novel” promised on the cover and some revision samples. The advice is divided into sections concerning point of view, style, characters, narrative, dialog, devices, and general considerations. The techniques are presented as questions a writer should ask him or herself about the story/novel.

Here is an excerpt from the book, pulled from the appropriately economical section devoted to the question “Does your style lack economy?”

The answers to all these questions of style depend upon the context for each sentence you are considering. Generally, less, given the content, is more. Hemingway was exceedingly conscious of the function of economy, as the second version of this paragraph from A Farewell to Arms shows:

There was a whistling that changed to an in rushing scream of air and then a flash and crash outside in the brick yard. Then a bump and a sustained incoming shriek of air that exploded with a roar, the crash of high explosive tearing steel apart on contact and vomiting earth and brick.

A big shell came in and burst outside in the brick yard. Another burst and in the noise you could hear the smaller noise of brick and dirt raining down.

For demonstrations of economy, compression, and compactness, see most of Hemingway’s stories, especially “The Killers” and “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”; James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice; Albert Camus’s The Stranger; and the stories of Raymond Carver. Compare Joyce’s Stephen Hero with A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Compare the two versions of Eudora Welty’s “Where Is the Voice Coming From?” in John Keuhl’s Creative Writing and Rewriting.

That is one of the shortest sections in the book (the reason I chose it for transcription) and most of the others have more direct advice along with the examples.

The book was published in the 1980s so you can get it used through Amazon for very cheap. Used book smell comes free.