Editing for Novelists
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| Duration | 10 weekly meetings | |
|---|---|---|
| Tutor | Katie Munnik | |
| Course code | CRW25A5622A | |
| Fee | £208 | |
| Concessionary fee | £166 (find out about eligibility and funding options) | |
| Location | Online course |
This course will help you learn how to edit your own fiction starting from re-reading your rough first draft through to submitting your polished final manuscript.
Students will have completed a novel draft before the beginning of the course, which we will share, providing reader’s feedback in a safe and encouraging atmosphere.
We will examine the stages and challenges of organising your editing process and look at methods of developing a working fiction editor’s mindset.
Students will be expected to have completed a full draft of a novel at the beginning of the course and, during our sessions together, students will be encouraged to share their work and to provide reader’s feedback on the work of others in a safe and encouraging atmosphere.
We will discuss the structure of stories, the expectations of different literary genres and why rewriting is the key to good writing.
With practical tips on developmental and structural editing, line editing, copyediting and proofreading, this course will help you understand how editing is a vital part of the writing process.
Learning and teaching
There will be two-hour meetings once a week (20 contact hours in all) which will include discussions, exercises, craft lectures and workshops.
There may also be audio-visual clips and students might be directed to some relevant podcasts.
- Deciding What You Have Written: How to Read Your Manuscript
- Ducks in a Row: Charts, Timelines and Writing Your Style Sheet
- How did you build this thing: Structural Analysis and Story Shape
- Genre: Expectations and Innovation
- Beyond Kill your Darlings: Finding Your Voice
- Grammar: the rules and how we break them
- I Wouldn’t Say It Quite Like That: copyediting dialogue
- Play it Again, Sam: rewriting
- And Now For The Back of the Room: sharing your work with others
- Next Steps
Coursework and assessment
Portfolio: 100% - The basis of assessment will be a portfolio comprising a section of edited fiction (c. 1500 words) alongside a reflective commentary (c.300 words) exploring the ways in which the student’s development as an editor has progressed across the course.
Submission shortly after the end of the module.
Reading suggestions
- Burroway, J, Stuckey-French, E. & Stuckey-French, N. (2014) (9th edt.) Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft (New York: Longman)
- Prose, Francine. (2006) Reading like a Writer (London, Aurum Press)
- Schneider, Amy J. (2023) The Chicago Guide to Copyediting Fiction (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press)
- Yorke, John. (2013) Into the Woods (Penguin Books)
Library and computing facilities
As a student on this course you are entitled to join and use the University’s library and computing facilities. Find out more about using these facilities.
Accessibility
Our aim is access for all. We aim to provide a confidential advice and support service for any student with a long term medical condition, disability or specific learning difficulty. We are able to offer one-to-one advice about disability, pre-enrolment visits, liaison with tutors and co-ordinating lecturers, material in alternative formats, arrangements for accessible courses, assessment arrangements, loan equipment and dyslexia screening.
