Short Story Editing

No. Stories are accepted all the time that haven’t been professionally edited. But, hiring an editor does have advantages. After all, you’re not writing for yourself—you’re writing for a reader. An editor can provide an objective pair of eyes to help you make sure the story in your mind is what is written on the page. More than that, editors come with skills and experience that make the revision process manageable, productive, and efficient. The result is a finished story that is polished and competitive.

I help take your short story from the drafting phase through to submission, query, or self-publication.

Editing, copyediting, and proofreading are often used interchangeably to describe the job of the editor, but they actually mean very different things. Editing is the umbrella term used to describe five distinct phases of editorial revision, including copy editing and proofreading. Here is a quick outline of what I cover in each phase:

• Developmental edit. I assess plotline, character arc, point of view, and world-building for how they coordinate to develop a cohesive narrative that meets word count limitations. Read more.
• Structural edit. I assess story and scene structure, form conventions, genre expectations, timeline, and pacing. Then, I evaluate how well they work together to engage the reader, maintain their interest, and satisfy their expectations. Read more.
• Stylistic (or line edit). I assess how you express the big-picture intentions of your story at the scene-to-sentence level. I look at your use of narrative mode, logic, coherence, tone, mood, theme, and uniqueness of voice and how they contribute to your story and style. Read more.
• Copy edit. I assess your story from the sentence to the punctuation level. In addition to correcting errors in sentence mechanics, spelling, usage, and punctuation, I ensure the accuracy and continuity of characters, world details, and timeline required for reader immersion. Read more.
• Proofread. I compare the final copy of your manuscript with the printing proof for grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors, typography and formatting irregularities, and consistency of print elements to ensure an error-free proof that meets design expectations. Read more.

1. Editorial report. An evaluation of the criteria above with detailed, constructive feedback for each.
2. Markup. Comments in the margins of the manuscript detailing specific examples of each criterion and suggestion outlined in the editorial report.
3. Resources and Next Steps. Guidance on how to approach integrating feedback, including helpful how-tos.

Once the edit is complete, you can integrate changes yourself or book a coaching call to work through the revisions together.