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Revising Your Novel #1
Fixing Your Character and Point of View Problems
(This book is included in Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft)
Fix the character and point-of-view problems holding your manuscript back!
Characters are at the heart of every story, and if readers don't like those characters, they won't keep reading. Make sure your characters keep those readers hooked.
Janice Hardy takes you step-by-step through revising character and character-related issues, such as two-dimensional characters, inconsistent points of view, too-much backstory, stale dialogue, didactic internalization, and lack of voice. She'll show you how to analyze your draft, spot any problems or weak areas, and fix those problems.
With clear and easy-to-understand examples, Fixing Your Character & Point-of-View Problems offers five self-guided workshops that target the common issues that make readers stop reading. It will help you: - Flesh out weak characters and build strong character arcs - Find the right amount of backstory to enhance, not bog down, your story - Determine the best point(s) of view and how to use them to your advantage - Eliminate empty dialogue and rambling internalization - Develop character voices and craft unique, individual characters
Fixing Your Character & Point-of-View Problems starts every workshop with an analysis to pinpoint problem areas and offers multiple revision options in each area. You choose the options that best fit your writing process. Learn how to: - Develop a strong and effective revision plan - Analyze your manuscript to find its strengths and weaknesses - Spot common red-flag words for problem areas - Determine the best way to revise
Fixing Your Character & Point-of-View Problems is an easy-to-follow guide to crafting compelling characters, solid points of view, and strong character voices readers will love.
Fix the character and point-of-view problems holding your manuscript back!
Characters are at the heart of every story, and if readers don't like those characters, they won't keep reading. Make sure your characters keep those readers hooked.
Janice Hardy takes you step-by-step through revising character and character-related issues, such as two-dimensional characters, inconsistent points of view, too-much backstory, stale dialogue, didactic internalization, and lack of voice. She'll show you how to analyze your draft, spot any problems or weak areas, and fix those problems.
With clear and easy-to-understand examples, Fixing Your Character & Point-of-View Problems offers five self-guided workshops that target the common issues that make readers stop reading. It will help you: - Flesh out weak characters and build strong character arcs - Find the right amount of backstory to enhance, not bog down, your story - Determine the best point(s) of view and how to use them to your advantage - Eliminate empty dialogue and rambling internalization - Develop character voices and craft unique, individual characters
Fixing Your Character & Point-of-View Problems starts every workshop with an analysis to pinpoint problem areas and offers multiple revision options in each area. You choose the options that best fit your writing process. Learn how to: - Develop a strong and effective revision plan - Analyze your manuscript to find its strengths and weaknesses - Spot common red-flag words for problem areas - Determine the best way to revise
Fixing Your Character & Point-of-View Problems is an easy-to-follow guide to crafting compelling characters, solid points of view, and strong character voices readers will love.
168 pages, Paperback
Published February 2, 2018
23 people are currently reading
74 people want to read
About the author
Janice Hardy
26 books359 followersJanice Hardy is the award-winning author of the teen fantasy trilogy The Healing Wars, including The Shifter, Blue Fire, and Darkfall from Balzer+Bray/Harper Collins.
She also writes the Grace Harper series for adults under the name, J.T. Hardy.
When she's not writing fiction, she runs the popular writing site Fiction University, and has written multiple books on writing, including Understanding Show, Don't Tell (And Really Getting It), Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, and the Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft series.
She also writes the Grace Harper series for adults under the name, J.T. Hardy.
When she's not writing fiction, she runs the popular writing site Fiction University, and has written multiple books on writing, including Understanding Show, Don't Tell (And Really Getting It), Plotting Your Novel: Ideas and Structure, and the Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft series.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 16, 2021
The point of departure of this book is that you have written a first draft of a book, and now you are looking to revise it. Besides general strategies of revision, this book focuses specifically on Characters and Point-of-View.
On the one hand, the book has an incredible amount of information (mostly as questions to consider) for revising. On the other, this volume of information may seem daunting. In fairness to the author, she suggests each author will have different issues to improve, so can skip pieces. Let me repeat the word “daunting.”
Also, in reading the core sections on Character and Point-of-View, I ran into terms that the author thought the reader knew. I did not. Which made the reading more challenging (sorry–no examples to give in this review).
Yet, her book is one of a few that actually is written for individuals who succeeded in getting a first draft. [Much of the literature and on-line help I have found is getting people to write the first draft.] If you focus on the specific needs, it is extremely insightful. Also, if this will become your vocation, this is a handy book to refer to. Just don’t get overwhelmed.
Besides chapters, which she refers to as Workshops, on Character and Point of View, the book has workshops on Dialog and Voice, Word Count, and A Final Look, namely when do you know you are done. The book starts with an explanation of types of revision and how to prepare for revising a manuscript.
From what I can tell, this book is part of a trilogy which includes Plot & Story Structure and Setting & Description. Alternatively, this trilogy is available in a single volume “Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft Series.”
FB: A highly detailed guide to revising a manuscript, emphasizing Character and Point-of-View issues. This is one of a few books on revising a manuscript rather than on motivating a person to write, thus this is an important contribution. However, the extent of lists for considering whether, what and how to revise can be overwhelming.
On the one hand, the book has an incredible amount of information (mostly as questions to consider) for revising. On the other, this volume of information may seem daunting. In fairness to the author, she suggests each author will have different issues to improve, so can skip pieces. Let me repeat the word “daunting.”
Also, in reading the core sections on Character and Point-of-View, I ran into terms that the author thought the reader knew. I did not. Which made the reading more challenging (sorry–no examples to give in this review).
Yet, her book is one of a few that actually is written for individuals who succeeded in getting a first draft. [Much of the literature and on-line help I have found is getting people to write the first draft.] If you focus on the specific needs, it is extremely insightful. Also, if this will become your vocation, this is a handy book to refer to. Just don’t get overwhelmed.
Besides chapters, which she refers to as Workshops, on Character and Point of View, the book has workshops on Dialog and Voice, Word Count, and A Final Look, namely when do you know you are done. The book starts with an explanation of types of revision and how to prepare for revising a manuscript.
From what I can tell, this book is part of a trilogy which includes Plot & Story Structure and Setting & Description. Alternatively, this trilogy is available in a single volume “Revising Your Novel: First Draft to Finished Draft Series.”
FB: A highly detailed guide to revising a manuscript, emphasizing Character and Point-of-View issues. This is one of a few books on revising a manuscript rather than on motivating a person to write, thus this is an important contribution. However, the extent of lists for considering whether, what and how to revise can be overwhelming.
February 8, 2023
I absorb a great deal of clarification from Janice Hardy's words of wisdom. This book on how to revise your novel including characterization, is one of those. Characterization issues can ruin many books especially when reading a long series with several installments. It's easy to forget how to incorporate the basics when drafting book 11. An excellent refresher course for the new or seasoned writer. There's something in this book for everyone who'd like to author an entertaining page-turner.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews