Four Short Walls #31 - Punctuation

I'm in the New York Times

So, I just made the New York Times.

Well, sort of. But it's still kind of cool.

NYT.com - Go here: http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/literary-heirs/

On the left of the picture of literary mags are some wonderfully drawn cards of a girl with crazy hair (by the wonderfully talented Melinda Beck). These are some of the postcards from the lovely postcard literary magazine Abe's Penny. Now, if you were turn those cards over you would find a story I wrote to match those pictures. The New York Times calls these ten mags "really good reads." So that totally means me. Or so I'm claiming.

(Possibly they just loved Melinda's pictures: Shhhhhh)

Anyway, kind of neat. On the dark flip-side of the New York Times you'd be able to see the backs of a bunch of literary magazines and my story. On the dark side I'm probably a big star right now. People are probably bringing me free lunch baskets.

A Bit o' Revision Advice

So, in my day job, as you may (or may not) know, I work as an editor and writer. The emphasis is usually on the former, but just last week I made a pitch for a new project that will combine the two. It looks like I may get to pursue this project (though there are no guarantees in life, and I'm not sure about the timeline), and I thought my Fellow Sophisticates may have some input.

The idea is to write a book about how to revise a novel, likely to be put out as an ebook. So! Questions for you!

1) Do you have any revision tips that you love and have helped you?

2) Do you have any artistic/philosophical/theoretical approaches to revision that have helped you?

3) What would you expect from a book about novel revision?

4) What would you like to see from such a book? What topics would you want covered?

I'm doing lots of reading and research, as I want to compile a lot of information and firm up some ideas of how I want to cover this (likely a mix of artistic and practical approaches). And I really hoped that asking all of you would provide another angle. What are writers actually doing out there, in terms of revision? What is it they want?

I'd love your thoughts, if you have a moment or two. Or three. Three is also fine. Four is good, but I can't pay you, so stop looking at me like that.

Okay.

(And thanks)