The Concierge (Blog)

In my inbox: “I’ve coached a first time writer from outline to first draft completion. Along the way, I explained concepts like show vs. tell and point of view. Last month, I helped him to draft questions to solicit objective feedback about his story and recommended some beta readers. Now he has lots of feedback…

Define your coaching services When I first began offering coaching to writer clients, I had copy on my website that said something like, “I offer coaching services for all aspects of writing and publishing.” If a potential client got in touch to ask me what coaching was, I would say something like, “Anything that is…

I’m not talking about those resolutions we all make on January 1. I mean the way a story ends: how the plot comes together, and the character arcs are ended. Authors often struggle to end their stories in a way that readers will find satisfying. As a developmental editor, you can help. What is a…

Many Club Ed students are moving to book editing/developmental editing from other careers. Right now, I’m seeing a lot of teachers making the transition – they’ve either quit their jobs and are looking for the next thing or they’re planning to quit their jobs soon. And I don’t blame them! I can’t imagine much that…

As a developmental editor, you need to be able to help authors understand where their plots are falling down. This means you need to trace the story arc. What is story arc? It’s what happens in a story and why it happens. The Details: What Is Story Arc Exactly? Of course, the what and the…

Newer editors often tell me something along the lines of “I feel like I have Imposter Syndrome. I don’t feel confident about approaching publishers or other potential clients.” So, clear your schedule and make a cup of tea because I want to talk about these challenges, and I have a lot to say! You’ve probably…

One of the first things I teach newer developmental/story editors is to focus on the big picture. That means looking for problems with a novel manuscript’s plot, character development, and setting. It means noticing perspective/point-of-view problems, flabby scenes, unnecessary exposition. It does not mean pointing out every unnecessary adverb or overused word. Don’t Overwhelm the…

If you’ve ever taken a class from me, you know that I have a pathological hatred of using questions in editorial queries. By this I mean asking questions like, “What is Joe’s motivation?” where you are, or think you are, asking the author to address the problem of Joe’s lack of motivation. Use statements instead…

Line editing (LE) and copyediting (CE) are related skills, as they both focus on the sentence level. Obviously there is significant overlap between the two skills. Basic Definition of Copyediting But copyediting is about ensuring consistency across a manuscript, correcting egregious errors, making sure the manuscript conforms to a specific style guide, and otherwise smoothing…