How to Edit Your Manuscript 2025

All writing is rewriting. This short editing course will develop your ability to reflect critically on your own creative work, to take what you’ve put together and refine it into a story that can reach out and grab readers; give them memorable characters; break their hearts; melt their hearts; make them angry or happy; keep them on the edge of their seats or at the very least, keep them turning pages; in short, taking what you are making them read and turning it into making them feel.

Over six weeks, you'll work with editor and mentor Alex Hammond to develop your self-editing skills across all the key areas: structuring and pacing, tension and dialogue. During class, Alex will introduce key editorial tools and help you apply them to your work, encourage discussion and create space for workshopping and feedback. Between each session you'll be able to watch a pre-recorded video which will drill down into some of the essential need-to-knows about editing. You'll also have the chance to hear from a literary agent and ask them questions about what they are looking for in a manuscript, and the submissions process.

By the end of the course you can expect to have a solid understanding of self-editing that focuses on the key elements of storytelling, a working synopsis of your manuscript and the first ten pages of a redraft that can be worked on in your own time after the course.

As well as in-class workshopping, during the course you will also be invited to have a 30 minute one to one with Alex where he will answer your questions, and delve into your manuscript and the specifics of editing your work.

Please note, this course will be best suited to you if you have an early draft of your manuscript ready by the beginning of the course.

- You'll benefit from a small class size, of no more than 20 people, to ensure everyone's work receives time and attention.

- You'll receive expert advice for an experienced editor and tutor

- Practical sessions will arm you with the tools you need to edit your own manuscript, and ready it for submission

- During workshops you'll receive feedback on your work from your tutor and writing peers

- During a one-to-one with Alex, you will get bespoke feedback and advice specific to your project

- You'll get to ask your questions of a literary agent

- Course materials will be made available to you, including pre-recorded slides and catch-up video recordings

- Discounts on W&A Products including editing services and books

- A copy of the Writers & Artists Yearbook, which is full of advice articles, and agent and publisher listings

10th February - 17th March, 7:00pm-8:30pm 2025 Online

Week One:

This week we will start with an Introduction to Self Editing, and finding The Story in your story, looking at pitch, genre, market/ audience. The first half of the class will be based on a market research task we’ll ask you to do before starting: where on the shelves in (eg) Waterstones would your book sit? What titles are next to it? We’ll then look at the blurb and opening page of each of them and discuss genre expectations. During the second half of the class we will go through the Five Finger Pitch, what it is and how to use it. You'll be asked to come up with your own, for your own story. The purpose is to help you solidify your understanding of what it is you’re selling.

Week Two:

This week we will be focusing on structure. All editing issues are subordinate to Structure – if that doesn’t work, nothing else you fix will work until it does. It’s therefore far more efficient to check the structure and give it a shake before embarking on any other kind of rewrite. There are two tools we’ll be going through for this – the first will be a discussion of the Three Act Graph (i.e., How Story Works, with a short (brilliant) video from YouTube of Kurt Vonnegut talking about the Shape of Stories. Alex will then introduce you to the 8 Paragraph Synopsis, and everyone will be required to write one. Not one that’s perfect – a sentence for each paragraph that will give a broad sketch of their story structure. You will be finishing a full 8 Paragraph Synopsis for homework.

Week Three:

Pace and Tension. During the first half of the class, Alex will give feedback on your 8 paragraph synopses. We’ll then go through Pace and Tension (because this is always where the work needs to happen – everything is happening Structurally in the right place, but there isn’t enough at Stake), and we’ll be refining the 8 paragraph synopses in this light. This will then bring us into Character, and homework will be for everyone to complete a Character Sheet for every Character named in the 8 Paragraph Synopsis.

Week Four:

Character and Dialogue. We’ll go through the character sheets in the first half of the class, and in the second half of the class we will workshop two pages of dialogue from each student, discussing what’s working and what isn’t, and why. The dialogue has to have at least one character named in the character sheet. After this, you will be refining your first ten pages and synopsis through a workshop process for the final two weeks.

Week Five:

Show, Don’t Tell. We'll discuss how to apply the rules of show, don't tell to your writing and when to bend them, and Alex will share a short guide with you. He'll also offer top tips for making your writing more crisp using this technique. This will be followed by workshopping for the remainder of the session.

Week Six:

During this session you will be doing a final workshop, as well as reflecting on your own strengths as an editor, and areas to keep focusing on. You'll be asked to think about your editorial process following this course, and map out how you will be applying what you have learnt to your work in progress.

We'll add joining instructions into this group in early Jan, and send them via email a week before the course begins.