Line Editing Commercial Fiction

4 Weeks

This course is open to students at all levels; no prior experience needed beyond a basic understanding of Microsoft Word Track Changes.

Microsoft Word (Google Docs not acceptable) and internet access.

WEEK ONE: In the first week, we’ll discuss the principles of authorial voice and how we can elevate our authors’ voices with “universal voice strengtheners” without changing or erasing their unique style. Then we’ll go deeper into what makes a good line editor and how you can prep yourself for new projects.

WEEK TWO: We then dive into an author’s use of narrative lens and how the psychic distance between the reader and the characters’ minds affects the prose on the page. After that, we cover querying etiquette and communication between the editor and the author.

WEEK THREE: Next we’ll discuss the role of grammar in line editing and how to set boundaries between line edits and copy edits before diving into how we can manipulate sentence structure and punctuation to affect flow, focus, rhythm, emphasis, and intent. Then, we set our own editing scope boundaries with a discussion on when to make in-line changes ourselves versus query the author for rewrites.

WEEK FOUR: Our final week of the course will show you how to send your finished line edit to clients. We’ll discuss tips and tricks for packaging your edited manuscript file, editorial letter, and delivery email. You’ll walk away with confidence that your deliverables are clear, actionable, and instrumental for your author’s publishing journey.

4 Weeks

Students need to have a foundational understanding of fiction line editing, or have completed “Line Editing of Commercial Fiction: Beginning.” This course will assume students are already familiar with filter words, filler words, echoes, using adverbs vs. strong verbs, and breaking up lengthy paragraphs and sentences for flow.

Microsoft Word (Google Docs not acceptable) and internet access.

WEEK ONE: In the first week, we’ll review our mission as line editors to be “intentional and defensible” before introducing the first of the course’s two modes of storytelling: dialogue. We’ll dive right in to cover how to juggle the many voices found in dialogue and keep it all straight in your line edit notes.

WEEK TWO: Next, we discuss the other mode of storytelling: narrative. We’ll talk about identifying purple prose and how to edit its negative effects in commercial fiction without removing the author’s voice or agency in their story craft. Then we focus on how to balance the novel’s use of exposition, narrative, and description as well as how to weave dialogue effectively into the scene. In our editor application section, we’ll discuss the pitfalls of project scope creep and what to do if a manuscript isn’t ready for an editor.

WEEK THREE: In our penultimate week, we talk about all things “show don’t tell” and how to address this narrative technique in dialogue, narrative, exposition, and characterization. In our editor application portion, we’ll discuss aiding authors’ voice designs and how to encourage their creative experimentation while advocating for their readers’ experience.

WEEK FOUR: Our final week of the course covers how to level up your deliverable packaging in a way that fosters continued author growth, clear-cut expectations for post-project scopes, and overall client satisfaction. We’ll turn your “just an edit” service to a valuable resource your clients will reference again and again in their author careers.

6 Weeks

20 Students

Students need to have a strong understanding of fiction line editing with several completed projects in their portfolio, or students will need to have completed the “Line Editing of Commercial Fiction: Beginning” and “Line Editing of Commercial Fiction: Intermediate” courses.

Microsoft Word (Google Docs not acceptable) and internet access.

WEEK ONE: In the first week, we’ll discuss the principles of voice and how they relate to individual author style versus market conventions for the different popular genres. We’ll also go over a refresher on the “universal voice strengtheners” that apply to all styles of fiction writing.

WEEK TWO: We then dive into how we can manipulate sentence composition and white space for pacing, momentum, and tension. The genres that most benefit from this focus will be those that rely on tension within their scenes to execute necessary market conventions. Our genre spotlights will be thriller and romance as students learn how to specifically apply their tension-editing techniques to the external tension of thrillers and the internal tensions of romance.

WEEK THREE: In our third week, we discuss how to encourage emotional storytelling to emphasize mood and tone.  The genres that most benefit from this focus will be those that struggle to keep the protagonist’s inner world at the forefront of the external world’s mechanics. Our genre spotlights will be science fiction and fantasy as students learn how to leverage emotional writing in dynamic world-building.

WEEK FOUR: Next we spend a week on figurative language and playing with our authors’ artistry to create compelling, immersive narratives. The genres that most benefit from this focus will be those whose figurative language mechanics most affect readers’ ability to “buy” the impossible presented. Our genre spotlights will be horror and historical fiction as students learn to weave the abstract into the actual with spine-tingling antagonists and anachronistic narrators.

WEEK FIVE: In our penultimate week, we’ll work on helping authors give readers a clue, working on the subtextual elements of a narrative. This includes editing sentences for theme, subtext, foreshadowing, and motifs. The genre spotlight for this week will be mystery and crime as we work on helping authors dish out red herrings, hang Chekhov’s gun, and keep those gorillas out of the phone booth.

WEEK SIX: Our final week of the course covers genre-blending and helping authors successfully subvert voice conventions within their markets on a sentence level. We then shift to an encouraging lesson on how to create habits as editors that will lead us to continually grow and improve our craft.