About

How clearly can you see your own work in progress? Over the span of six months, you'll learn and practice useful self-editing tools and immediately applicable tips from a professional developmental fiction editor. You'll start with evaluating the "big picture" effectiveness of your novel, then, month by month, work toward specific ways to approach line and copy edits to tighten your prose and correct distracting errors. Take your working draft to final draft!

Each class will dive into specific areas:

1. What's your story? (Stepping back to see the big picture of your plot)
2. Who are these people? (Interacting with your characters)
3. Who's telling your story? (Analyzing your narrative voice and point of view)
4. What structure holds this together? (Keeping the reader's attention scene by scene)
5. Does it glow? (Practicing line editing to highlight pacing, atmosphere, and tone)
6. Are there distractions? (Copy editing for readability and accuracy)

Between classes, you'll be assigned in-depth, self-guided exercises to help you consider your work from a fresh perspective. At the beginning of each session, we'll discuss what you learned, and workshop specific scenes from each person's work in progress to provide accountability and feedback.

Details

• After Class 5, the instructor will provide an option for students to sign up for a reduced-fee editorial review of their synopsis and first 10,000 words, with one to two pages of editorial notes.
• If you prefer, you may register to take this class online.

Prerequisites

A working draft of a novel is required.

Class Policies

Ages 14 and up are welcome.