Welcome to one of the stops on the book blitz tour for Editing Your Novel’s Structure by Bethany A. Tucker, organized by Rachel’s Random Resources. Be sure to check out other hosts today for guest posts by the author, other reviews, and a special giveaway! Three hosts have been selected to offer entries into an editing service giveaway with the author, so take a look around at the other stops and enter if that’s something you’re interested in. (And if you don’t win…)
Please note that this post contains affiliate links, which means there is no additional cost to you if you shop using my links, but I will earn a small percentage in commission. A program-specific disclaimer is at the bottom of this post.
About the Book
Editing Your Novel’s Structure
by Bethany A Tucker
Published 26 December 2020
Genre: Non-Fiction
Page Count: 135
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
Before it’s time to check for commas and iron out passive voice, fiction writers need to know that their story is strong. Are your beta readers not finishing? Do they have multiple, conflicting complaints? When you ask them questions about how they experience your story, do they give lukewarm responses? Or have you not even asked anyone to read your story, wondering if it’s ready?
If any of the above is true, you may need to refine the structure of your story. What is structure you ask? Structure is what holds a story together. Does the character arc entrance the reader? Is the world building comprehensive and believable? These questions and more have to be answered by all of us as we turn our drafts into books.
In this concise handbook, complete with checklists for each section, let a veteran writer walk you through the process of self-assessing your novel, from characters to pacing with lots of compassion and a dash of humor. In easy to follow directions and using adaptable strategies, she shows you how to check yourself for plot holes, settle timeline confusion, and snap character arcs into place.
Use this handbook for quick help and quick self-editing checklists on:
– Characters and Character Arcs.
– Plot.
– Backstory.
– Point of View.
– A detailed explanation of nearly free self-editing tools and how to apply them to your book to find your own structural problems.
– Beginnings and Ends.
– Editing for sensitive and specialized subject matter.
– Helpful tips on choosing beta readers, when to seek an editor, and a sample questionnaire to give to your first readers.
Grab your copy of Edit Your Novel’s Structure today! Now is the time to finish that draft and get your story out into the world.
Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK
My Review
My Rating: 5 Stars
Consider “liking” my review on Goodreads.
I was granted complimentary ARC access to Editing Your Novel’s Structure by Bethany A. Tucker through Racel’s Random Resources in exchange for an honest review as part of my participation in the blog tour for this title. Thank you to all involved in affording me this opportunity! My thoughts are my own and my review is honest.
Editing Your Novel’s Structure is a quick but thorough guide to how and when to conduct a structural self-edit on your own novel. It can absolutely be read after your first draft is complete and before you start that editing journey, but if you read it before starting that first novel draft, you may find yourself incorporating a lot of these helpful tips into your initial work and process that will in turn make your editing journey easier. If you choose not to read this before you write, the most important pre-writing advice you’ll be missing is to turn off your inner editor and get the draft finished. Edit later.
This book starts by breaking down the different elements that will be considered during a developmental edit, defining them, and providing suggestions for further reading. After everything is defined and explained, this book talks about how and when to actually tackle self-editing, how and when to pull in other pairs of eyes, and in which cases should those other pairs of eyes be paid ones. Each section is wrapped up with a helpful bullet point list, which I think will be most helpful for quickly referencing back to sections you need after you’ve read this book cover to cover once.
As I read this book, I honestly felt like it was written specifically for me. First, when Bethany is talking about whether or not you as the author care about whether or not your readers will actually finish the book, there was a pretty good dig at stream of consciousness writing. I laughed out loud and startled my cats! (Does anyone genuinely enjoy Ulysses or is that just something English teachers and professors torture their students with?) Next, she pointed out that few readers “read all the appendices and learned how to write Elven.” I did. I even copied out the map of Middle Earth on a 2×6-sheet folding panel of taped A4 pages for my 9th-grade book report on The Fellowship of the Ring and labelled it in Quenya.
Then the book broke into actual advice and hit us with “write to the end.” I have been writing since I was a child, but I haven’t finished a book since I learned to edit. I have a book that I don’t even intend to publish that isn’t finished even though I created the main cast 20 years ago, yet if you dig through my old notebooks and my digital file archives you’ll probably find at least 15 different versions of this unfinished book, each one only a chapter or so longer than the last, but far more polished overall. Even if I wanted to publish that one, I would never get there. It just so happens that one of the goals I set for myself in 2021, before I opened this book, is to write a complete first draft of an adult length novel, not drawing from plans or characters or pet plots I’ve mulled over in years past. This book will be immensely helpful in my journey, and the first bit of advice I intend to take to heart is that one line: write to the end.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who writes with the intent to publish, no matter how experienced or inexperienced you are. Understanding both how *and when* to conduct that self-guided structural edit is the key to a successful book, and this book will walk you through it in simple terms.
About the Author
Bethany Tucker is an author and editor located near Seattle, U.S.A. Story has always been a part of her life. With over twenty years of writing and teaching experience, she’s more than ready to take your hand and pull back the curtain on writing craft and mindset. Last year she edited over a million words for aspiring authors. Her YA fantasy series Adelaide is published wide under the pen name Mustang Rabbit and her dark epic fantasy is releasing in 2021 under Ciara Darren. You can find more about her services for authors at TheArtandScienceofWords.com.
Editing Website | Author Website
Facebook | Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads
Follow the Tour
Check out the master post for this book blitz on Rachel’s Random Resources or visit the other host blogs below:
Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.