Q&A with editor Alex Hammond

Alex Hammond is available for selected W&A editing services and leads our upcoming Find Your Voice writing course with Natalie Young.

1. What exactly is a developmental edit?

It’s an interesting term because it’s slightly wider reaching than it sounds. It sounds like looking at an idea and working something out (and it can be that, say in the form of mentoring, or looking at a synopsis or sample to find a way to solve a problem). But in the sense we're talking about, which is a full edit of a manuscript, a developmental edit normally takes place after a writer gets 30,000 words of a novel down and then don’t know where to go next. Most writers get to the end of Act One and kind of know where they want to go, but they don’t know how to get there. This is, usually, where I come in. I do a lot of Act Two work.

Another type of developmental edit could be where the writer has written two or three drafts of a full manuscript, but it’s just not sitting right. In this case, you go back to basics and work with an author to develop their idea and look at key writing skills. Predominantly, you’re looking at structure. If you don’t fix structure or any structural problems straight away it is a nightmare to try and fix it later on.

2. You've broken down a story structure into acts. Do writers have to be aware of these different acts?

Not necessarily. Writers normally storm through Act One. They know what they’re doing, but what often happens next is the ‘How do I get here?’ question. I find that most writers miss out Act Two when they are planning their story. This is the soggy middle, the lovely terminology that describes this part of a story. To avoid this, I teach the three-act structure when working with clients, but I go over this as soon as I’ve taken a project on.

3. Do writers ever come to you ‘too late’? Is a manuscript ever too far gone to fix, so to speak?

It’s never too late, but it’s always best to have an honest conversation with an author straight away about whether a story is working or not. I quite often see people who have written two novels in one. It happens quite a lot. I think that genuinely comes from people trying to generate new ideas to solve that soggy middle.

4. So if it's never too late, when is the best time for a writer to approach a freelance editor? Do they need to have a first draft completed?

Quite often, I’ll have authors come to me wanting to talk about the submission package. I tend to ask questions and stress test the synopsis and structure. And if it starts to crumble then they tend to come back and do rewrites. I read a lot of rewrites. Having a contextualised understanding of their prose is also important to go. But again, you only see the first three chapters of a submission package so it doesn’t give you a full picture.

People come thinking they’re ready to submit. But part of my job is to look at their material and say ‘Yes, you're ready’ or ‘No, not quite, and for these reasons. Let's work on that.'

5. Is there a checklist of things you look out for in manuscripts?

Yes. Unlike when I was working at RCW literary agency, when I'd read sample pages first for voice and style, when authors first come to me I look at the synopsis. You have to look at the synopsis structure so I make my notes on that and how it hangs together. A synopsis gives a good idea of how the author wants to have structured their book, and that's important for me to know. But it's not complete without looking at the text because the synopsis is such a difficult thing to write. You have to be aware that the synopsis might just be badly written and the structure is actually fine. Then go into the text. You can tell after a lot of practice whether the structure in the synopsis is flawed when using it as a guiding point for how scenes and chapters are constructed in the text.

But I do have a mental checklist for Page 1. It includes the following:

Do I really want to keep reading after the first line?

Do I really want to keep reading after the first page?

I look for two-dimensional characters. I look for flat dialogue. I look for show, don’t tell. If most of the first page is backstory and setting the scene then we can work on that as it often doesn't need to be there. I start to think about these things, but I keep an open mind until the very end. I make a note of these skills that the writer needs to work on. I then mark up every instance of these 'skills' on the text and use them as a reference point as we work together.

I then like to look at what else might not be working and talk to the writer. But it’s also really important to look at what’s really good and is working. I’ve never worked on a manuscript where I haven’t come across something and gone ‘Wow!' It might just be a phrase or image, but it’s really important to play to a writer's strengths. You need to tell the writer what they’re really good at and what they need to work on.

6. So do you read a manuscript in full and make small notes? Or do you allow time to digest and go back with more in-depth thoughts to create an editorial report?

It depends on what type of edit I’m working on. I used to read the whole thing through, sit for a week, and then go back through and make my notes. Now, I find it more valuable to go straight in and make more detailed notes as I go. Because what I like to find is the point where I haven’t made a note for 5 pages and go ‘Oh I forgot I’m working.’

I make my detailed notes on the first read and then I sit for a week and go through the manuscript again. The final stage of the report is a third read through and I focus on where I’ve made my points. Writing out a report is an interesting exercise in itself because you change your understanding of the text and the context of the suggestions. It’s at that stage where I have to be careful. A good editor will flag up things that are objectively not working, but also give their own opinion about what they don’t like. Even when you’ve gone through the filtering process, of checking that the manuscript is something that falls within your expertise and interests, you’ll always find something that you don’t personally like. For me, characters who look at themselves in the mirror – can’t stand it! So I will mark that up and say ‘This is a terrible idea, don’t do it,’ but then mark it as subjective. They don't have to listen to me!

7. What are some of the common mistakes you see in first drafts? 

The three big ones:

Summarised action: A lot of people summarize action, but then dwell on the bits where nothing happens. You don’t have to do it that way. Action can clip along without giving a list of what is happening. That can get tiresome to read.

Two-dimensional characters: Two-dimensional characters or characters who are there to be a plot device. That drives me nuts. This is particularly a problem with female characters. Happens a lot. Over the last couple of years, I’ve found myself doing a lot of explaining what the male gaze is and why it has no place in this book and so forth. That’s been an interesting addition to the editorial toolbox!

Shouted dialogue: The number of exclamation marks that aren’t necessary, but it’s a really easy fix. Just have someone that you trust read the dialogue out like it is a play. It doesn’t mean that the dialogue is supposed to be spoken, but you’ll see that you don’t need the exclamation because the phrase already has an exclamation in itself. Block capitals are an objective no.

8. Where is the developmental edit in the spectrum of editing? Where does it come in comparison to line edits etc.?

When you’re going through a line edit, copy edit, proof read – those are the last three editorial stages. A developmental edit will contain elements of those. Little ticks that writers have (and everyone has at least one), like long run-on sentences or hyphens instead of em dashes for example. I’ll flag that up if it’s a recurring habit because it can save people time later on, and it can also change the meaning of a line or a scene and thus the mood and tone.

A developmental edit does include a little bit of all these later stages, but the primary focus is on making sure the story moves along, the pace is fine, the structure is fine, the characters are characters and not just plot devices. It’s a much earlier stage and you can change a lot more during a developmental edit. You can completely change the ending if you wanted, whereas the later stages – copyediting and proofreading –  focus on mainly fact-checking, the prose itself line-by-line.

9. How much work do you normally expect a writer to do?

Ultimately, it’s the writer’s book. All I can do are make suggestions. I used to shy away from saying 'Why don't you try this?' or 'Why doesn't the character do this?' But I'm not afraid of doing that anymore. I use it; it's an excellent tool. I often say 'Look, I'm thinking of this. You don't have to do it this way, but something like this needs to happen here.' And what that then does, is the author goes 'That's absolutely not what I want to happen, but it could be this.' So if they disagree with me, in that context, it can be a really useful incentive to finding creative solutions.

Finding creative solutions is what editing is all about.

Alex Hammond has worked in publishing for most of his professional life, and there's nothing he likes more than talking to an author about their book, diving into the pages, and helping them identify any issues that might be holding their story back. Alex holds a BA (Hons) in American Literature with Creative Writing from UEA, an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Lancaster, and is currently studying for a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Southampton. After completing his MA, Alex worked at Rogers, Coleridge & White literary agency, working with authors such as Zadie Smith, Philip Hensher, Nick Hornby, Sandi Toksvig and Joe Dunthorne.

Alex joined Cornerstones Literary Consultancy in 2014, managing editors, assessing new author enquiries, and scouting for agents. He went freelance in 2017, and his clients include Ipsita Deb (Winner of the Arvon Mushens Prize 2021) and Ravindra Rathee (True To Their Salt, Amberley Publishing, 2022). He teaches American Literature and Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.