No Fear Revision: Improve Your Writing Without Driving Yourself Crazy

by Jake Kerr

“Jake Kerr is a master at revision. I’ve seen very few authors who are able to improve their work through the revision process as well as he can.”
Hugo Award winning editor John Joseph Adams

In this valuable book for writers, multiple award-nominated author Jake Kerr provides insight into one of the most powerful and least understood parts of the writing process—revision. From finding critique partners to assessing their feedback, No Fear Revision outlines the things every writer needs to know.

Revision is one of those things that is hard to teach writers. What can you tell someone who is facing revision? “Hey, that thing you did? Just do it better!” Yet it is critical for taking flawed stories and novels and turning them into things of beauty. The process itself can involve multiple pieces and multiple steps, and this book walks you through them.

Have you joined an online critique group or posted to a forum and received dozens of comments, many of them contradictory, and not known what to do with them? Kerr provides a real-life example of a story of his that was posted on a forum and received 50 comments. He then walks the reader through each comment and outlines the process of assessing them.

Ever wonder how to handle a revise and resubmit request from an editor? This book walks through a detailed and lengthy revise and resubmit example with Hugo winning editor John Joseph Adams.

This book includes practically everything you need to understand and move toward mastery of revision.

Jake Kerr’s understanding of the revision process is second-to-none. He has critiqued stories that have gone on to be nominated or win the Hugo, Nebula, Sturgeon, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker awards. His own fiction has been nominated for the Nebula, Sturgeon, and Million Writers awards, as well as been reprinted across the globe.

Genres: Writing

87 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 27, 2015

About the author

After fifteen years as a music industry journalist Jake Kerr's first published story, "The Old Equations," was nominated for the Nebula Award from the Science Fiction Writers of America and was shortlisted for the Theodore Sturgeon and StorySouth Million Writers awards. His stories have subsequently been published in magazines across the world, broadcast in multiple podcasts, and been published in multiple anthologies and year's best collections.

A graduate of Kenyon College, Kerr studied fiction under Ursula K. Le Guin and Peruvian playwright Alonso Alegria. He lives in Dallas, Texas, with his family and a menagerie of pets.

Reviews

[Andrea Luhman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book offers a wealth of advice for a wide range of writers. If you gain nothing else, Kerr will reinforce the importance of not altering your work based on every single critique. He does a nice job of confronting when you are being too defensive, verses knowing you made the right choice despite criticism.
I gained quite a bit from the chapter that outlined not useful criticism, ways to gauge an audience understanding your intent, and the easy ways to spot useful criticism.

[Leticia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has interesting tips on revision and how to evaluate feedback, but it could have been a longer book.

[Erin Jungdahl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for figuring out how to edit and critique with others

This book is really great for learning how to take external feedback and apply it to a story and it has some useful self-editing tips but I wouldn't recommend this book for new writers learning how to revise draft one. Sometimes draft one just isn't ready for beta readers or critique groups.

[R.J.K. Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful for its advice on assessing feedback on story drafts, and especially practical in that it walks you through actual feedback Jake Kerr received on two stories, including a back-and-forth with John Joseph Adams regarding a submission that needed to be pushed further. Just be warned, it is short, and I did have a "wait, isn't there more?" moment after finishing it. Still, despite its brevity, it felt well worth my time and has strengthened my approach to revision.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was a lot of great info in this book, especially around incorporating feedback from critique partners and editors. I also found the section on pacing very useful. But I wanted more. Pacing is just one of the many things to consider when revising and I was a bit surprised when the book ended after that section. Mr. Kerr is clearly an accomplished writer with a great deal of revising experience, and I'd like more of his wisdom.