Introduction
Why does editing matter?
Take a moment and think about the time you invested in your last manuscript, whatever the style or genre. I guarantee it's a sizable investment of your day, and not only that, your emotional energy as well. A writer pours her heart and soul into her work. The finished product matters.
Now, imagine sending this manuscript that you've so lovingly labored over to a first reader.
A slushpile is a place where slushreaders are so overwhelmed with mediocre and poorly-written manuscripts that they're hoping each new story is the one -- the one that makes them sit up a little straighter, so entranced in the story that for a moment the slushpile is forgotten, and they are transported to a different place.
But instead, the slushreader is confronted with spelling and grammatical mistakes. More than that, the manuscript contains glaring errors in word choice and usage, or most troubling, flawed story structure. The ultimate conclusion is this story was written by an unskilled author. Your story -- this creation that you loved and labored over -- may not be read past the first page, sometimes the first paragraph and all your hard work will be for nothing.
Editing is an essential but often overlooked part of the writing process. By editing, I'm including the revision process from rough draft to polished manuscript sent out for submission.
In this course, we'll walk through the stages of editing. Feel free to ask questions and share your experiences with rejection letters and editorial feedback. Let me know if there are topics you want to know more about and I'll add those as soon as possible.
The key to selling stories is a sleek, polished, professional manuscript.
So get going!
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