For editors

Fiction Editing

You love reading fiction. You’ve studied literature or know a thing or two about editing. You’ve often wondered if you’d enjoy the process of editing fiction.

Perhaps now’s the time to find out?

My Fiction Editing Short Course (FESC) is a small, safe, hands-on course in which participants learn the basics of appraising manuscripts.

Although aspects of the course are delivered lecture style, it’s extremely experiential. You will analyse real work-in-progress (wip) manuscripts by real writers eagerly awaiting your feedback. But don’t be alarmed! While you’re doing this, you’re learning about relevant craft elements and how to phrase the feedback. You won’t send your appraisal to the author until we both think it’s ready.

The FESC is divided into two blocks. Block 1 goes for four weeks.

Block 1

Details:

• 4 x 90-minute weekly sessions via Zoom

• 2 to 3 practice short stories read, analysed, appraised and delivered to the author

• Weekly homework, all based around and leading to the appraisal tasks.

The course style is supportive yet challenging with a few lectures and lots of conversation to draw on the experience in the ‘room’. Topics covered include three aspects of fiction-editing work:

The course style is supportive yet challenging with a few lectures and lots of conversation to draw on the experience in the ‘room’. Topics covered include three aspects of fiction-editing work:

1. Practical considerations

2. The craft of fiction

3. The business side.

Note: we’ll explore prac. and craft much more than business.

At the end of the four-week course, you will have:

• Discussed story strengths and weaknesses in a safe, supportive group

• Developed your approach to reading and appraising work

• Acknowledged your own professional gaps and how to start meeting them

• A basic understanding of the craft elements of fiction

• Viewed and discussed several real manuscripts and sample manuscript appraisals

• A small, trusted community of professional editors to draw from.

You’ll also be more comfortable scoping and quoting fiction work, plus you’ll know whether fiction editing is the sort of work you’d like to pursue.

Block 2

Block 2 is a 5-week program with three 90-minute sessions that follows block 1. In block 2, you work on a full-length manuscript by a real author seeking professional feedback. Block 1 is a pre-requisite for block 2, but there’s no obligation to do block 2.

The format is very similar to block 1, but obviously there’s a lot more work to do on your own, yet with support from myself and, by then, a small group of trusted peers.