Revision: A Creative Approach to Writing and Rewriting Fiction

by David Michael Kaplan

The author shows how three of his own short stories evolved from journal musings to published versions, with discussions on revising at different stages in the process, cutting and adding, rearranging the plot, and revising after publication

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Crafts, Reference

226 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1997

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only thing more challenging than finding an excellent craft book---one that is relevant to both beginning and more established writers---is finding readers who understand and help you deepen your fiction. I first read David Michael Kaplan’s Revision: A Creative Approach to Writing and Rewriting Fiction when I was an M.F.A. candidate. I was impressed both by Kaplan’s clear examples and his brave approach illuminating these examples by sharing his early drafts. Revision offered me practical methods of re-examining my work, and I often referred to Kaplan when I was struggling. Recently, however, I reread the entire book, expecting, foolishly, that I would experience a superior “been-there, done-that” mentality. After all, I have dedicated the past six years of my life to improving my fiction. Surely, rereading Revision would be a nice review, but I didn’t expect to learn, or relearn, new material. I was wrong. Kaplan’s book is so jam-packed with suggestions, examples, and insights that rereading it should be mandatory. I had forgotten much because Kaplan offers so much information.
When I teach fiction, I emphasize the importance of pre-writing---writing musings, facts, or character sketches---and outlining before beginning that agonizing rough draft. In Chapter Two, “Revision Before Writing,” Kaplan shows a much more thorough and organized approach to pre-writing. He believes that revision begins before you write the first draft, and he provides tangible strategies for revising before writing. Among these are: 1. Change the characters’ ages, gender, or physical characteristics. 2. Change the point of view. 3. Change the setting. 4. Re-imagine the story’s conflict. By playing with these approaches, Kaplan believes you will come to better know your characters and narrative before you start constructing the first draft.
In Chapter Eight, “Revising Endings,” Kaplan lists common problems that can weaken fictional conclusions. The wonderful, amusing approach he takes is to show each of these examples through a fictional scenario. Kaplan rewrites the ending to a story---a woman deciding whether she should have an abortion because of a potential birth defect---and each time focuses on different ways fictions writers can fuck-up the ending. He writes the story’s conclusion with a “message” ending, an artificial, imposed ending, a “trick” ending, an unclear ending, and a vague ending. By analyzing the story’s ending from these numerous angles, Kaplan shows fiction writers how to avoid these unsatisfactory resolutions.
Kaplan’s Revision is an important craft book for both beginning and more established writers, and it is a text that should be regularly revisited. I can’t emphasize enough how much it has helped my own fiction.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

The subtitle suggests the best way to view this book. It is not so much a "how to revise" book, although it does plenty of that, as it is a book to show you how to incorporate revision into your writing process. This approach is forefront in chapters two and three: "Revising Before Writing" and "Revising While Writing the First Draft." Core to Kaplan's creative approach is that revising is not just editing and rewriting a completed draft. Chapters four through eleven deal with what to do once you have a completed draft, so not to despair if you are the type of writer who just barrels through the first draft. Kaplan has plenty of before and after examples so you can see how his revision suggestions work.

[Suzie Quint · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would class this for the advanced beginner or intermediate writer. There's nothing here that can't be found in innumerable other books on writing. Because most of what can be said about revision takes a good deal less than 200 to say, much of what he says strays from the topic. FREX: He talks about both beginnings and endings, which to my mind is a separate aspect of writing than revision is.

What I personally found useful was the reminder to include setting description (I hate writing description, so I need all the reminders I can get--someone standing over me would be good.) He also provides a list of weasel words, which is nice to have all in one place.

[Shaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kaplan is a bit wordier than I like, and his story examples are often outside of my tastes, but this book covers revision more thoroughly than anything I’ve ever come across. It is structured sequentially, covering the revision process from the genesis of an idea to finished story, and beyond - as Kaplan notes that we are never truly done revising our lives, so we are never truly done revising our art.
I think this book is essential. I feel like I’ve learned a lot about revising and now I’m more prepared to begin seriously revising my own work.
This will go on my shelf, close to where I write, for continued study and reference, next to my other essentials:
“Creating Short Fiction” - Damon Knight
“The Elements of Style” - Strunk and White
“Invisible Ink” - Brian McDonald
“Bird by Bird” - Anne Lamott
And Merrimack Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus

[Steve Portigal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book leans on the "rewriting" process (indeed he continually reiterates a rather cheesy phrase than revision is actually re-VISION) but there's so much helpful stuff here about writing itself. Plenty of examples, plenty of specific explanations about how to do (and a bit how to go about it). I haven't read a zillion books about writing but for the ones I have, this one is the most helpful, the most engaging textbook type of book.

[Julie Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really useful book for any aspiring writer. It has helped me with my creative writing degree course too. I would certainly recommend it for a refreshingly different take on editing and rewriting

[J.L. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book on revision I’ve ever read.

[M.W. Devers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful and I've bookmarked several pages for future reference when I'm actively revising a manuscript (which is almost always!)

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kaplan does a good job giving examples and his methods apply to my skill set. He makes a good point about needing a big concept and a line item reader to check your work. Grammar and creativity do not reside in the same parts of the brain and most people will struggle with one or the other. I'm good with concepts, but my organization skills and my attention to detail are lacking. I have to do a lot of rewriting. Kaplan says this is to be expected. I can rewrite the "to be," out later if I wish. Create first; rewrite later.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent, detailed explanations of how to revise your novel. Worth reading before the first draft even, because he offers some strategies to use from the beginning to make later revision easier (and reduce missteps while writing the first draft).

[Elizabeth]

Really helpful!