Write and Revise for Publication: A 6-Month Plan for Crafting an Exceptional Novel and Other Works of Fiction

by Jack Smith

Overview

Your first draft is a work of imagination, but that doesn't mean it's a work of art—not yet. With Jack Smith's technical and inspirational guidance, you can turn your initial draft into a compelling story brimming with memorable characters and a page-turning plot.

As Jack states inside Write and Revise for Publication , writing is a complex act, one that calls upon all the powers of our creative resources, imagination, and intellect. Top-notch storytelling is not achieved the first time around, nor should it be expected so soon. But it is possible. Through Jack's detailed instruction and precise methods, you will learn the revision techniques and fine-tuning skills needed to create powerful, polished works ready to submit to magazines, agents, and publishers.

"As inspiring as it is practical...combines great advice, apt examples, and a can-do spirit that will excite and improve any aspiring writer." —Ron Hansen, author of A Wild Surge of Guilty Passion and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

"I believe Jack Smith might have written THE BOOK on writing and revising for publication. Clean, direct, succinct—a book that is full of pure wisdom and truth, but also amazing technical advice." —Virgil Suarez, author of Latin Jazz , The Cutter , Havana Thursdays , and Welcome to he Oasis

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781599637020
Publisher:	F+W Media
Publication date:	08/08/2013
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	8.30(w) x 5.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Jack Smith has an MA in English (creative writing concentration); and a Ph.D. in English (American literature). He writes fiction regularly and has sold to the North American Review, Texas Review, Southern Review, Night Train, X-Connect, In Posse Review, and others. His novel, Hog to Hog, won the George Garrett Fiction Prize and was published by Texas Review Press in 2008. His nonfiction includes twenty articles for Novel & Short Story Writer's Market. He's also written a dozen pieces for The Writer and has been published numerous reviews in such magazines as Ploughshares, Georgia Review, Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, American Book Review, Pleiades, Texas Review, Mid-American Review, Iowa Review , and Environment magazine. In addition to writing, he has served for more than twenty years as Fiction Editor at The Green Hills Literary Lantern, a literary journal published by Truman State University.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 A Primer on the Elements and Techniques of Fiction 4

Chapter 2 Preparing to Write 37

Chapter 3 Drafting 55

Chapter 4 Revision Strategies 68

Chapter 5 Revising for Strong Character 82

Chapter 6 Rethinking Point of View 101

Chapter 7 Strengthening the Conflict 117

Chapter 8 Rethinking Plot and Structure 132

Chapter 9 Honing Basic Prose Techniques 144

Chapter 10 Shaping Great Scenes 171

Chapter 11 What About Setting? 188

Chapter 12 Rethinking Openings and Ending 208

Chapter 13 Improving Style, Mood, and Tone 230

Chapter 14 Working Theme and Idea 261

Chapter 15 Fine-Tuning 272

Chapter 16 Marketing Your Work 286

Notes on the Chapters 293

Index 304