Friday, December 31, 2021

GoodReads Review: Between The Lines - Master The Subtle Elements of Fiction Writing by Jessica Page Morrell

Between the Lines: Master the Subtle Elements of Fiction WritingBetween the Lines: Master the Subtle Elements of Fiction Writing by Jessica Page Morrell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This book has a lot of insight to offer for editing fiction and filling in the blanks that we sometimes take for granted. It's great in particular about pacing, tension, and how to handle that on a micro and plot-based level. However, overall, the quality of the advice is uneven. Some of it is sharp and clear; some bits were (to me!) too basic or too generic / unexplained to be very helpful. The author also clearly doesn't have much experience with SF/F; some of the recommendations she makes to genre writers are actually don'ts for those of who know the field. I also found that a lot of the example excerpts don't necessarily do a good job illustrating what they're intended to.

Overall, I think this book is excellent as food for thought, a starting point, but it won't give you a blueprint for editing.

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