{"id":2841,"date":"2015-07-12T04:17:44","date_gmt":"2015-07-12T04:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/Revising-from-Damon-Knight-Creating-Short-Fiction"},"modified":"2015-07-12T04:17:44","modified_gmt":"2015-07-12T04:17:44","slug":"revising-from-damon-knight-creating-short-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/2015\/07\/12\/revising-from-damon-knight-creating-short-fiction\/","title":{"rendered":"Revising (from Damon Knight, Creating Short Fiction):"},"content":{"rendered":"\n        \n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Revising (from Damon Knight, <em>Creating Short Fiction<\/em>):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Put the story away after you finish the draft, so you can come back to it fresh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Does it make sense and mean something? If not, decide whether to abandon or rewrite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Does it hang together? Are there pieces missing, or unnecessary pieces? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Is the opening comprehensible? Does it convey information?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Have you answered <em>who, where, what, when<\/em>? Do you at least know <em>why<\/em>? Is the opening consistent with your answer? If not, rewrite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Does the ending round it off and complete the pattern, show the story&#8217;s meaning, satisfy the reader, explain the mystery, solve the puzzle? If not, what have you left out of the early part of the story that would make an ending possible?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Are the characters believable, consistent? Have you used the best point of view, person and tense? If not, abandon or rewrite. [I&#8217;d suggest rewriting a fresh draft, not just changing the POV, person or tense in the same file. You&#8217;re bound to miss something.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If all that is fine, make every word and phrase justify its use. Block out a few words at a time on screen or paper, with a mask if necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Rearrange awkward sentences. Shorten. Clarify. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Correct viewpoint slips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read your dialog aloud. Can you distinguish dialog from narrative? Does it sound natural? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kill cliches. Correct spelling and syntax. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Keep going until you can&#8217;t stand to look at it any more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">#shortfiction<\/p>\n\n      ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>        Revising (from Damon Knight, Creating Short Fiction):<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[94,88],"class_list":["post-2841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-resources-and-craft","tag-mike-reeves-mcmillan","tag-shortfiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2841\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/csidemedia.com\/mikerm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}