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Author Topic: Self-critiquing
RMatthewWare
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Does anyone here use a specific book for self-critiquing. I'm looking for techniques or guides that can actually help me become a better critter.

Thanks in advance,
Matt


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annepin
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A book that's helped me is "Self Editing for Fiction Writers: How to edit yourself into print" by Renni Browne and Dave King. They cover the basics, but focus on editing rather than writing, and go beyond what most writing books offer, and provide examples of how to edit, drawing from works including The Great Gatsby, Moby Dick. They also provide "exercises" for you to try your hand at it.

Here's the table of contents:
Show and Tell
Chatarcterization and Exposition
Point of View
Proportion
Dialogue Mecahnics
See how it sounds
Interior Monologue
Easy Beats
Breaking up is easy to do
Once is usually enough
Sophistication
Voice

I've also heard good things about Noah Lukeman's "The First Five Pages: A writer's guide to staying out of the rejection pile."

[This message has been edited by annepin (edited August 30, 2007).]


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arriki
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What I found helpful were these:

SCENE AND STRUCTURE by Jack Bickham
TECHNIQUES OF THE SELLING WRITER by Dwight V. Swain

and two screenwriting texts with insightful chapters on story and scene structure

STORY by McKee
STORY SENSE by Paul Lucey

plus, typing out short pieces of published novels I liked and kind of wished to emulate, printing them out in the same format as my own work, then staring at them to see how my text and the published text differed in structure


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Rick Norwood
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I was startled to see the name of Dwight V. Swain, a very minor pulp sf writer, on a "How to Write" book.

The first sf magazine I ever read was Imaginative Tales, September 1955, featuring "Terror Station" by Dwight V. Swain. I loved it!


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