Revision

by Kit Reed

How to revise and strengthen a story. No bibliography. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

170 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Kit Reed was an American author of both speculative fiction and literary fiction, as well as psychological thrillers under the pseudonym Kit Craig.

Her 2013 "best-of" collection, The Story Until Now, A Great Big Book of Stories was a 2013 Shirley Jackson Award nominee. A Guggenheim fellow, she was the first American recipient of an international literary grant from the Abraham Woursell Foundation. She's had stories in, among others, The Yale Review, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Omni and The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Literature. Her books Weird Women, Wired Women and Little Sisters of the Apocalypse were finalists for the Tiptree Prize. A member of the board of the Authors League Fund, she served as Resident Writer at Wesleyan University.

Reviews

[Tom M. · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Revision" by Kit Reed is part of "The Elements of Fiction Writing" series by Writer's Digest Books. Like most of this series it appears to be geared towards the beginning writer. The advice it offers is all solid even if the examples are rather simplistic.

The biggest problem with the book is that so much of the advice is repeated from one section to the other. Perhaps the author was expecting writers to reference her book at each stage of the revision process, forgetting all that they had previously read.

Written in 1989 the other frustrating part of this book is her references to typing out a manuscript (or hiring a typist to do so for you) and her surprising revelation that the editing and revision process is so much easier on this newfangled *computer* thing! When she implored readers to beg, borrow or buy time on a computer I knew this book was in need of an updated revision itself.

[Joseph Carrabis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read Kit Reed's Revision (probably) four years ago. It was one of the first books I read when I decided to spend the rest of my life writing. I dogeared two pages.

I finished my second read about a week ago (as I write this). The book is a mess of dogeared pages.

It's amazing how much more Kit Reed put into this book in four years, don't you think?

The entirety of the book comes down to Reed's Rule Six: Extra Effort Closes the Distance between You and Your Audience.

And Reed also provides a caution; Recognize when it's done and let it go. There's lots of examples of recognizing when something's let-goable and when something isn't. The one that hit me smack between the eyes is "Whenever you come to a moment of hesitation, unsurety, confusion, skimming, general off-ness, stop, figure out what's not working, and fix it."

I am training myself to do that. Too many times I'd read something and need to reread it, figure it out on the second take and decide it was okay.

NO, IT WASN'T!

Reed also offers several question lists to help you in your own revising. Early in the book Reed poses twelve questions so you can learn if you're open to revision. Don't know about others, I found it revealing (especially when invoking Reed's suggestion to be strict (unforgiving) with your answers).

Another duh! list early in the book (pg 39) deals with determining if your work (and others, too, if you're in a critique group) is ready to go out. Reed suggests writers/authors/writer-wannabes read for:

Truth in action
Accessibility
Completeness
Time scheme
Point of view
Length (with an eye to possible cutting)
Organization
And, once again, balance of showing versus telling. (Reed's words, this, not mine)

Unsure what some of those mean? Read the book.

I've written more on my blog.

[Mary Catelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

A how-to-write book.

Some encouragement to revise. Some techniques to use, from the first draft through the sorts of questions, style, dialog, story structure. Chiefly aimed at the very beginning author, I think.

[Ciarra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book in my school library and found it really helpful. The book is well organized and gives checklists which you can keep at hand while you edit. It's a bit outdated (I think chapter 11 went over whether or not you should type your books in a type writer or computer so I skipped that part) but it definitely has valid information and is a must read for authors young and old.

[Scott Golden · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pro shows you how to bang your story or novel into shape. Informative.