The Last Draft: A Novelist's Guide to Revision

by Sandra Scofield

Overview

The definitive handbook for the novelist who is ready to revise
 
This wise and friendly guide shows writers how to turn first-draft manuscripts into the novels of their dreams. A critic, longtime teacher, and award-winning novelist, Sandra Scofield illustrates how to reread a work of fiction with a view of its subject and vision, and how to take it apart and put it back together again, stronger and deeper. Scofield builds her explanations around helpful concepts like narrative structure, character agency, and core scenes, using models from classic and contemporary writers. The detailed, step-by-step plan laid out in The Last Draft offers invaluable advice to both novice and experienced writers alike. In Scofield, they will find a seasoned, encouraging mentor to steer them through this emotional and intellectual journey.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143131359
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/05/2017
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	1,047,347
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Sandra Scofield is the author of seven novels, including Beyond Deserving, a finalist for the National Book Award, and A Chance to See Egypt, winner of a Best Fiction Prize from the Texas Institute of Letters. She has written a memoir, Occasions of Sin, and a book of essays about her family, Mysteries of Love and Grief: Reflections on a Plainswoman’s Life. She is also the author of a previous book on the craft of writing, The Scene Book: A Primer for the Fiction Writer. Scofield is on the faculty of the Solstice MFA Program in Creative Writing at Pine Manor College and has for many years taught in the University of Iowa Summer Writing Festival.

Read an Excerpt

The Novel Continuum
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "The Last Draft"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Sandra Scofield.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Editorial Reviews

★ 05/22/2017
As Scofield (A Chance to See Egypt) cheerfully points out in this thorough and detailed writing guide, a novel is not finished until it has undergone a careful and thorough revision. Drawing deeply on her own teaching and writing and using a multitude of examples from classic and contemporary fiction, she offers a meticulous guide to revising a novel. Scofield suggests first thinking about “what kind of book you want to write” and being ambitious while doing so. She then moves to process, providing clear and thoughtful exercises for blocking out scenes, writing a capsule summary, identifying elements from the first draft to retain, and finding the novel’s “vision.” Scofield includes a helpful section of resources that includes an annotated list of books on the craft of writing, examples from “model novels,” and tips on storyboarding. Some of her best advice to would-be novelists is simply to read other novels and analyze them, so as to learn the craft of fiction from those who have come before you. The lasting messages of this inspiring book are “read, read, read,” “write the best prose you can,” and “love the process and what you learn.” (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

Drawing deeply on her own teaching and writing and using a multitude of examples from classic and contemporary fiction, [Scofield] offers a meticulous guide to revising a novel... The lasting messages of this inspiring book are 'read, read, read,' 'write the best prose you can,' and 'love the process and what you learn.'"
— Publishers Weekly, starred review


"This title stands out from the crowd of others on the subject. For readers who are thinking about publishing their writing."
— Library Journal, starred review

“An award-winning fiction writer and teacher shares hard-won advice. Novelist and memoirist Scofield…brings her experience as a writer and teacher to a practical, encouraging manual focused on revision. … Patience and commitment, this useful guide reveals, are a writer's strongest assets.”
— Kirkus Reviews

“Sandra Scofield has written a needed book: not how to begin a novel, but how to get one into shape and on point. She is insightful on the importance of scene and ingenious on the value of summary and the role of interiority. She offers exercises for describing, evaluating, energizing, and enriching a draft in ways both minute and structural. For a novelist in that perplexing stage between a messy version and a viable manuscript, The Last Draft may be a godsend.”
—Janet Burroway, author of Writing Fiction

From the Publisher

11/01/2017
Novelist Scofield (Beyond Deserving) invites writers to take a step back, slow down, and look at their manuscript in all its messy, first-draft glory. Opening with a review of the novel form, the author provides a summary of narrative structure and a series of exercises to engage writers in a deep reading of their work, alongside the titles of their favorite authors. Literature is presented as a tool for the development of the craft. Scofield provides a roadmap that includes how to read and deconstruct a finished manuscript critically, how to get to the heart of the story, and how to develop a plan and process for revision. This is not so much a handbook as a primer on writing and literary engagement that invites the writer to delve into their creation with pen in hand. This book is meant to be dissected and reviewed as needed throughout the revision process; the only requirement is a finished manuscript or a book to explore. VERDICT This title stands out from the crowd of others on the subject. For readers who are thinking about publishing their writing.—Gricel Dominguez, Florida International Univ. Lib.

Library Journal

2017-09-03
An award-winning fiction writer and teacher shares hard-won advice.Novelist and memoirist Scofield (Creative Writing/Pine Manor Coll.; Swim: Stories of the Sixties, 2017, etc.) brings her experience as a writer and teacher to a practical, encouraging manual focused on revision. Although addressing novices as well as advanced writers, the author assumes that her audience is fairly sophisticated and well-read: she includes examples from canonical fiction (The Scarlet Letter, The Great Gatsby, Madame Bovary) as well as lesser-known works, such as Maisie Dobbs' Leaving Everything Most Loved and Rebecca Rasmussen's Evergreen. Often, Scofield reflects on the challenges of writing and revision that she faces in her own work. She distinguishes between revising a first draft and rewriting, which is a process of "total immersion." She advises working from two printed copies of the draft—"a real object with weight and a smell, a size and a color"—along with pens and index cards in several colors, which come in handy for several exercises, including creating a storyboard, an illustrative analysis of a novel's chapters and scenes as they unfold. "Be very wary of cut-and-paste," she cautions; retyping, even if only a few words have been changed, "will help you to maintain coherence and flow." Scofield also suggests keeping a revision journal to record questions, reflections, and self-evaluation; as revision progresses, she suggests writing "a document that describes your love of your story." The book is filled with exercises that focus intensely on reading as well as writing. These include making a stack of admired novels "to identify qualities you might aspire to," writing taglines for a recently read novel, and choosing six "noncontiguous" scenes from the manuscript under revision to assess how they connect across the plot. Appendices offer a list of recommended books on craft, lessons from model novels, and examples of scenarios, storyboarding, and scene templates. Patience and commitment, this useful guide reveals, are a writer's strongest assets.

Kirkus Reviews