If you have experience in fiction developmental editing (or if you’ve completed “Developmental Editing of Fiction: Beginning”), this four-week class will take your skills to the next level. It expands upon the knowledge from the beginner course to help you succeed in the fiction publishing industry. You’ll learn how to help fiction authors shape their stories, develop their storytelling grit, and conquer the boring in their manuscripts.

• Week 1: In our first week, we’ll expand on the fundamentals of developmental editing, including structure, beats, pacing, and character development. In this week’s assignment, we’ll evaluate opening chapters to a manuscript with a focus on hooking the reader or literary agent.
• Week 2: We’ll discuss authors’ expectations and expand on character development. In this week’s assignment, we’ll reevaluate the opening chapters from Week 1 and create queries that offer authors options and explain the reasoning for the suggested change. Our queries will focus on the character’s goals, motivations, and conflict.
• Week 3: We’ll discuss how to address legal and ethical issues in character development. In this week’s assignment, we’ll read sample chapters and make edits that help the author develop strong scenes and deepen a character’s point of view, all while respecting the author’s voice.
• Week 4: We’ll talk about how to manage developmental edits for authors at various levels of ability. In the final assignment, students will bring together everything they have learned from beginning and intermediate developmental editing and prepare a developmental editing package (editorial letter, edits, and queries) for sample chapters.

Each module has one culminating assignment in which you’ll edit a raw manuscript and get individualized feedback from the instructor. Discussions in the course forum will help you complete each week’s assignment, and offer opportunities to be collaborative and inclusive. Meaningful responses are essential, as they guide discussions with additional information and critical thinking questions, so please be prepared to participate in the discussion forums so everyone can benefit from your thoughts and experiences.

As a developmental editor, your task is both delicate and transformative. Writers will entrust you with the sacred duty of nurturing their vision. Your role is to listen, to perceive, and to guide with a deft hand, recognizing that every rough draft contains precious seeds waiting to grow. This course will prime you for success in a challenging, inspiring career.

Our students say...

The content was well thought out and presented. I appreciated that there were videos as well as text for accessibility. —A.A.

The content was very beneficial; I enjoyed the videos outlining story craft concepts a lot. Everything was good, honestly: the discussions, assignments, feedback, Zoom session. It’s a great course and Val is a wonderful instructor. —J.L.

Val M. Mathews (she/her) teaches courses in editing for the University of California Berkeley Extension, Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, and the Editorial Freelancers Association in New York City. She also works as an editorial consultant for CRAFT Literary and Masters Review, two well-established online literary magazines, and has worked as an editor for traditional publishers. Val earned an MA in Professional Writing from Kennesaw State University and a BFA from the University of Georgia. Fun fact about Val: She's been an FAA-certified flight instructor for over 25 years, and in the past, she flew Lear jets for a living.