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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.
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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).]
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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