"Self-Editing for Fiction Writers" by Renni Browne and Dave King

Why I read it: I was in need of some polishing tips, last minute, for "Apocryphal". I tore the house apart looking for it. I pilfered it from my dad 18 months ago. Now I've read it, I should give it back. I distilled it down to a single checklist for myself first.

Tastes like chicken: All the editing courses I've taken. None of the story structure. This book is about the scene and paragraph level.

Bookmark: Checklist I made.

What I liked: There were some pretty simple things I could do to brush up my prose. That was nice. I searched for "said", and for "ly", "as" and "ing", just to quickly polish things. Other tasks took a lot of time.

Not so much: After a while I got bored and started skipping the samples.

Lesson: Well, make that checklist for myself. I read all the "Apocryphal" stuff out loud, and wow, that was interesting. I use too many commas.

In progress - January 2026

Wind/Water/Salt Chapters 39-51: Nothing Persephone (probably not its real name): NOthing Vinterlys: Worked on Chapter 2 some more. Critted 4 Got back 1 Submissions 0 Out there 0 Rejects 0 Knitting Georgia (Norah Gaughan). Started the month with one sleeve and half a front to go. Finished. Love this sweater. Aberlady (AS Celtic Collection). Did a few rows while listening to podcasts. Summer in Tokyo (Isager): Started. I was looking at the pictures and the charts, and the pattern as written is not what is in the pictures! So odd. I am going to finish up two cones of yarn with this project! Pretty exciting. I hope I don't run out of light blue. I was working along on it, and if you go and look at the sweater, it's knit bottom-up, and I was at the part where I only had two colors, about 5" maybe. And I was thinking, "wow, this is pretty ugly! Maybe I should stop...

In progress: March 2026

Wind/Water/Salt Chapters 39-51 : Nothing. Persephone (probably not its real name): Nothing. Vinterlys: Working on Chapter 3 still, though this one seems more stable. I did work on it quite a bit during Chapter 2. 1-3 are in the same locale so it made sense to work on them together. Maybe I'll continue in this vein, doing the next locale all together too. Critted 4 Got back 3 Submissions 0 Out there 0 Rejects 0 Knitting Aberlady (AS Celtic Collection). I added markers at each pattern repeat. Hopefully that will make it easier to work on. Summer in Tokyo (Isager):Started the month with eleven rows left on the second sleeve, the yoke, and the finishing to go. And as I wanted, I finished this and now I can wear it for a little while before sweater weather is over until fall. I could not follow the yoke short row instructions as written so I did my best to make it look like th...

What I read: September 2025

LHC #295: "The Last to Leave the Room" by Caitlin Starling. Audiobook. Workplace horror? Loved it. "Careless People" by Sarah Wynn-Williams. Hard copy, for office Data Ethics book club. The stories about Sheryl Sandberg really made me like my boss better. LHC #296: "The Fated Sky" by Mary Robinette Kowal. Hard copy. This got moved up the list because Ed had read book 1 in the series and got the rest out of the library. Loved it. He's got the next one in the series upstairs, I suppose I'll read it when he's done. LHC #297: "Bluegrass: A History" by Neil V. Rosenberg. Hard copy. No idea why it was on my list, I don't care that much about bluegrass. Nevertheless, the second half was interesting. I guess the first half was necessary, as it described in great length the way people came and went in Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys band, and also how technology and social pressures affect how music is made and performed. LHC #298: ...

Robynettely

Search This Blog