Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10067 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Customer Reviews

A "How to Write Better" guide which works
This is a outstanding little book for writers who are serious about improving their fiction writing. It has detailed chapters on "Show and Tell", "Point of View", "Dialogue Mechanics", "Interior Monologue" and other techniques which will help make your writing more professional. Each theme is illustrated with entertaining examples and each chapter includes writing exercises. So having worked your way through the text, you actually remember what the authors told you. The book is also extremely readable and admirably concise.

Conclusion: definitely worth buying if you want to improve your writing.

The only fiction editing book you'll need
I have hundreds of books on writing - I bought this book about a month ago, and it's the best book ever on editing fiction. I've now recommended it to four other people who are getting a copy. This is a practical, no-nonsense book which explains clearly chapter-by-chapter how to edit and improve prose, dialogue, setting, and just about everything you can think of in fiction. Don't even hesitate or look for another editing book. I've got most of them, and this is it. And no, I'm not the author, nor the publisher. Read it, put it into practice, and get miles ahead of the competition.

A 10 star WINNER!!!!!!!!!!
When I was in High School and college, I remember people searching for old quizzes. We wanted to know what was on the exam and focused our midnight oil burning sessions trying to mimic the success of past victims. Zuckerman and Stein are great on telling you how to build a good novel (I recommend them also) but Self Editing is the key to the exam. One of the main problem areas in my writing is telling instead of showing when only one character in a scene. I have read accepted works of fiction that had no dialogue and I would see many cases of what I thought was telling --I was thoroughly confused. Self Editing opened the heavens and now I can write a good internal monologue instead of telling. I learn best by example and this book has example after example. If I had found this book a year ago, I would probably be finished with my novel. I have spent hundreds of dollars on writing books and I consider this one to be my most valuable reference. I could spend hours praising the authors for their clear and concise lessons. My only regret in this review is that I can't give the book 10 stars.