Write Now Editing

Intuitive Editing by Tiffany Yates Martin (book review)

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Get your copy here!

Editing your own writing can feel like doing your own brain surgery. After you’ve completed your manuscript and you’re standing at the foot of Revision Mountain, climbing to the summit can feel impossible. It’s hard to look at your own writing with the objective eye needed to shape it into a tight, polished, publishable story—but just like writing, self-editing is a skill you can learn.

Developmental editor Tiffany Yates Martin has spent her career in the publishing industry honing practical, actionable techniques to help authors evaluate how well their story is working, where it might not be, and how to fix it. With a clear, accessible, user-friendly approach, she leads writers through every step of deepening and elevating their own work, as well as how to approach the edit and develop their “editor brain,” and how to solicit and process feedback. Intuitive Editing doesn’t offer one-size-fits-all advice or rigid writing “rules”; instead it helps authors discover what works for their story and their style—to find the best version of their vision.

Whether you’re writing fiction, narrative nonfiction, or memoir; whether this your first story or your fiftieth, Intuitive Editing will give you the tools you need to edit and revise your own writing with inspiration, motivation, and confidence.

In more than 25 years in the publishing industry, developmental book editor Tiffany Yates Martin has worked both with major publishing houses and directly with authors (through her company FoxPrint Editorial), on books by New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling authors and award winners as well as newer writers. She presents objective editing and writing craft workshops for writers’ groups, organizations, and conferences to help authors learn to edit their own writing and revise their stories. She also offers editing tips and advice on creative story revision for numerous writers’ sites and publications.

I’ve been itching to read this book for a while. Not only is the cover stunning, but teaching writers how to self-edit better is a passion of mine. I couldn’t wait to see what Yates Martin had to say about the process.

I absolutely agree with her.

Her book is full of valuable, relevant, necessary information authors need to strengthen their manuscripts. I’ve given almost all of the same advice to my clients.

The only small caveat I would include is that I wouldn’t personally recommend this to new authors (I work primarily with writers on their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd manuscripts). I think some of the info could be confusing or overwhelming to new-new authors, but for those authors with some experience (who’ve been studying and writing for a couple of years), I think this book is perfect. I would put this book on my shelf next to Donald Maass’s “Writing the Breakout Novel”–an invaluable resource, but a solid understanding of fiction-writing basics will make it easier to apply what you learn.

I’ll definitely recommend this book to others.

Also check out: How to Edit Your Novel: Practical Tips for Strengthening Your Story by Karin Beery

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Coming Soon: How to Edit Your Novel

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Last week, I’d planned for this post to celebrate the release of my first nonfiction book: How to Edit Your Novel: Practical Tips for Strengthening Your Story. However, life happens, and the book didn’t release.

Instead of becoming upset, let’s make the most of it, shall we?

Editors, agents, and writers alike love this book–if you write fiction, you will too! Will you help me spread the word about it? Just go to Goodreads and mark it as ‘Want to Read.’ Then stay tuned for release updates–I’m giving you a chance to win a free copy!

Until it’s available, you can read more about it below:

Take your self-editing skills to the next level.

· Have you eliminated all the telling?
· Are the characters complex?
· Is every scene necessary?

Most authors will answer ‘yes!’ to these questions. But then editors and readers tell them the descriptions don’t engage them, the characters are stereotypical, and the story dragged.

 How do you fix it? 

Self-editing can only take you so far. But if you know the right questions to ask and you know how to interpret the answers, you’ll not only strengthen your self-editing skills, you’ll strengthen your writing.

How to Edit Your Novel doesn’t simply rehash the fiction-writing basics that create good stories—it provides examples, context, and questions that will help authors identify and strengthen their weaknesses the same way a professional editor tackles a manuscript.

By combining mini writing lessons with practical self-editing tips, everything a writer needs to become a better self-editor is practically presented. Whether you’re a new writer or an experienced author, How to Edit Your Novel can help you polish your story into a gem that agents, publishers, and readers will want to keep reading.

“…bound to be a book you keep right next to your keyboard….”

              –Cristel Phelps, Managing Editor for Fiction, Elk Lake Publishing, Inc.

Writing for Story by Jon Franklin (book review)

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The new “nonfiction”—the adaptation of storytelling techniques to journalistic articles in the manner of Truman Capote, Tom Wolfe, and John McPhee—is an innovative genre that has been awarded virtually every Pulitzer Prize for literary journalism since 1979. And now Jon Franklin, himself a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and undisputed master of the great American nonfiction short story, shares the secrets of his success. Franklin shows how to make factual pieces come alive by applying the literary techniques of complication/resolution, flashback, foreshadowing, and pace. He illustrates his points with a close analysis and annotation of two of his most acclaimed stories, so that the reader can see, step-by-step, just how they were created.

This lively, easy-to-follow guide combines readability and excitement with the best of expository prose and illuminates the techniques that beginning journalists—and more experienced ones, too—will find immensely helpful:

— Stalking the true short story
— Drafting an effective outline
— Structuring the rough copy
— Polishing like a pro
— And the tips, tools, and techniques that will put your stories on the cutting edge

With many years of fiction-writing experience behind me, I’ve been wanting to strengthen my nonfiction-writing skills. Someone recommended this book.

It’s a fascinating read full of amazing information. It’s also quite dated, as it was written in 1986. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read it, though. Just remember a few things as you read through it:

  • The universal truths Franklin discusses (the importance of structure, active writing, character developments, etc.) are universal–they still apply today. It doesn’t matter what you’re writing.
  • His process (note cards) can still work, but he wrote before computers existed. Use his information and apply it to your modern technique. (The same is true for the submission process.)
  • Read the last chapter. Realize the truth in it–Franklin and his successful contemporaries spent YEARS learning and practicing. Think about that.

I’m glad I read this book and would absolutely recommend it to anyone wanting to learn how to write feature stories or short nonfiction pieces.

Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/3QROGqK

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Stein on Writing by Sol Stein (book review)

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Stein on Writing provides immediately useful advice for all writers of fiction and nonfiction, whether they are newcomers or old hands, students or instructors, amateurs or professionals. As the always clear and direct Stein explains here, “This is not a book of theory. It is a book of usable solutions–how to fix writing that is flawed, how to improve writing that is good, how to create interesting writing in the first place.”

With examples from bestsellers as well as from students’ drafts, Stein offers detailed sections on characterization, dialogue, pacing, flashbacks, trimming away flabby wording, the so-called “triage” method of revision, using the techniques of fiction to enliven nonfiction, and more.

A long read but worth the time, this book is a bit outdated but still incredibly relevant.

Written in 1995, many things in publishing have changed since this was published (the entire last chapter of this book is basically worthless as a resources guide), but the heart of writing never misses a beat — you need fully developed characters, a solid plot, and tension in novels, and nonfiction needs to tell the truth in a captivating way.

Whether your write fiction, nonfiction, or articles, there really is something for every writer in this book. Not to mention its fascinating to see how much has changed in less than 30 years, especially regarding commercial or “popular” fiction. Stein seemed to have a bit of an issue with popular fiction (what we call genre fiction today). I wasn’t writing in 1995 so I don’t know what the industry standards were, but most of the craft techniques he taught in this book do, in fact, apply to today’s genre fiction–craft matters, and successful writers spend years studying it.

If you want to write better books, I highly recommend this one. Get your copy here!

Writing Successful Self-Help & How-To Books by Jean Marie Stine (book review)

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Mastering the craft and understanding the mechanics of writing self-help and how-to books is the key to getting publishers to take notice of your work. Now, in the first guide to writing self-help and how-to books, Jean Stine offers an insider’s view of this growing genre. Her easy-to-follow program takes you step-by-step through the complete writing process. You’ll learn the importance of:


* Structure and Style
* Clear, easy-to-understand exercises
* Creating catchy and compelling titles, subtitles, and chapter headings
* Using lists, charts, and graphs to maximum effect
* Checklists and other interactive elements
* Writing a proposal that sells
* Negotiating permissions for quotations, photos, and illustrations
* Preparing your manuscript for presentation to a publisher

This is an interesting book. While it’s full of some good information, there are two things that stand in the way of it being a great book.

First, the title is misleading. This isn’t a book on writing a self-help/how-to book; it’s a book on selling a self-help/how-to manuscript to a publisher. There is a little bit of information on writing, but the majority of the book is about writing a successful book proposal and formatting your manuscript properly. While it was interesting (and somewhat helpful) information, it wasn’t what I was expecting from the book title.

The next big issue with the book is its age–written in 1997, it hasn’t been updated, but the publishing industry has changed. Authors no longer type out manuscripts and mail them. Agents aren’t an option when it comes to large publishers. And with the popularity and availability of self-publishing, authors now need platforms before they contact publishers. All of that information is either missing from this book or outdated. I’d love to see a second edition of this book to update; without an update, much of the information is worthless.

Overall, not exactly what I was expecting. There was some helpful material, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending this to a new author because they wouldn’t know which information was good and which information was outdated.

You can pick up a copy here.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

ABOUT ME

Editor. Teacher. Novelist.
A passionate lover of fiction, Karin doesn't just write novels, she helps others write their best stories! A certified substantive editor with the Christian Editor Connection, her goal is to help authors to put her out of business by equipping them with the tools they need to become better writers.

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Karin understood my advertising and marketing writing needs and accomplished the project in record time. She asked all the right questions up front to equip herself with enough … [more]

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Substantive Fiction Editing: A substantive edit looks at the big picture. Start here to tackle the big issues before moving on to the nit-picky details. Substantive edits not only point out … [more]

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Lover of all things fiction, I also love University of Michigan football, the Detroit Lions, Tigers, and Red Wings, kayaking, gluten-free cupcakes, and my husband.

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Fiction: Substantive Editing Classes Substantive Editing for Fiction 101 In Substantive Fiction Editing 101, we’ll look at the basics of a well-written novel and learn how to help our … [more]