There are as many kinds of editor as there are species of butterfly – or at least three main types. Often, people don’t distinguish between proofreading and copyediting. Proofreading is reading the proofs, to make essential changes to the final version before publication. Copyediting is editing the or copy or raw material, to make sure it is consistent in language and style.
Most people don’t know about an earlier stage; substantive or developmental editing. A developmental editor helps you structure your content and argument or plot. Once I started writing retreats, more writers asked me questions that a developmental editor could answer. Suddenly, I was helping someone rework the draft of her first novel, which was published last month. But I hadn’t done formal training, yet.
CIEP training in developmental editing
As soon as I saw the CIEP Developmental Editing Course, I signed up. The CIEP offers some of the best courses around; their fiction and Plain English editing boosted my professional practice. So I had high expectations. Claire Beveridge’s training did not disappoint. Eight contact hours over four weeks is not too long to commit to, but with a small group of twelve, we learned a lot. There was homework every week, in-class exercises on real-life texts, and useful templates to take away. I’d signed up for an asynchronous course before but never quite got round to it. Fixed sessions worked much better. Having to turn up on Zoom to work together – even if in some time zones, it was before breakfast! – was absolutely worth it.
Participants had a wide range of experience in fields from wine to technology. Like me, some had been editing for decades, but at different stages of the publishing process. Others shared more experience in other industries to show how a text could work. This variety of perspectives was a real strength of the course. While one was checking for inclusive language, another was wondering how to market the concept.
A developmental editor gives you choices
A developmental editor isn’t there to rewrite your text for you, but to give you options. You have choices about how to make your text better. Here are three of them:
A manuscript assessment could propose possible paths to turn the text into one of three books. To appeal to readers of Book A, do X; to publish Book B, do Y; if you want to write Book C, do Z.
Do a reverse outline first, then restructure your text in different ways. Should you start with a complex problem and break it down, or take people on a learning journey, challenging them more as their knowledge grows?
If you’re thinking about how to develop your text, look for five things: content, structure, clarity, tone, and flow. To do that, you need to know your aims and your audience. A developmental editor can help you tease out who you want to write for, and why, and then help you work out how to do it.
Is it right for me?
If you’re a person who wants to work with another person, developmental editing could be for you. In an age of machines, I am most drawn to the human-to-human aspect of developmental editing. For writers, a developmental editor can be a friendly first reader who is there to help you, but has enough distance from your text to see what might not be clear to other readers. For writers, a developmental editor can be a friendly first reader who is there to help you, but can see what other readers might not understand. For editors, developmental work on your author’s text lets you intervene before bigger changes are difficult to make. If you don’t enjoy project management, though, developmental editing may not be for you. A lot of it is about helping people to keep their writing project on track.
If, like me, one of your favourite points in the editorial process is the conversations, developmental editing could be the perfect fit. When replies to comments turn into email correspondence and animated phone calls, does your heart sink, or sing? With a developmental editor, you can start from that call. You can get to know the person on the other side of the text, and work out how to make it better, together, in a way that works for you both.
Like the sound of that? If you’re an editor, book now for the next edition of the course in May. If you’re a writer, get in touch and let’s see what we can do with your text, together.
new retreat dates – seuraavat retriitit
Ridge Writing Retreats 