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.
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.