The Developmental Edit.
One of the most daunting experiences of writing your first book will be when you neck up and send it to a professional who doesn’t know you or care about your feelings.
No, that’s not true. Not about the editor I chose, anyway. Amy was so great. When you’ve decided on your collaborator (and that’s really what they are), you’ll find hitting SEND the most difficult thing you’ve done in your writing since overcoming writer’s block. You’ll likely say to yourself—if not in the actual email—‘It’s my first time. Please be gentle.’
But fear not. A good developmental editor will be like your best teachers; knowledgeable and firm in their instruction without being condescending or cruel in their feedback. It’s extremely unlikely for a first-time writer that even your most polished self-edited manuscript is ready to be shown to a publisher or agent. Developmental editors help shape your story into a better read, make suggestions about structure and some improvements to your prose while maintaining your voice. It’s also not to be confused with a line-edit. You’re a long way off making sure every comma is in the right spot or your em dashes are where en dashes should be.
I’d been listening to podcasts about writing throughout the process of the first draft of War of the Sparrows (I’ll list my favourites below) which is when I discovered Reedsy. It’s an online platform and marketplace for writing resources, professionals, and an invaluable tool that made the entire process unbelievably simple. I chose my wonderful developmental editor, Amy Bishop, after what was essentially an online interview process. You send out an excerpt from your manuscript—usually the first few pages unless they ask for more—to five professionals and they’ll let you know if they’re interested in the job, give you a quote, and you choose whoever you feel is the best fit. Then you send them your full manuscript and you wait.
In my first post, I mentioned the pottery scene from Ghost. Not only because you feel like your dev editor is guiding your hand to sculpt your formless blob into a handsome vase, but because of the sleepless nights waiting. As ‘Unchained Melody’ so aptly states:
A long, lonely time,
Time goes by so slowly,
And time can do so much.
Are you still mine?
You’ll sweat those weeks waiting to hear back, terrified of the red pen slashing mercilessly through your precious words. But you must remain patient. Actually, that brings me to another essential point: Take time away from your story.
I must have found that tip in every piece of advice I read. Put it in a drawer and do something else. For weeks after you type ‘The end’ the whole journey is still so fresh and raw, you have so much invested in it emotionally, that you can’t possibly hope to make objective decisions about what needs to be reworked, or—God forbid—chopped entirely. I’m sure you’ve heard the term ‘kill your darlings’. You’re still so invested in all your scenes and characters, you’ll find it impossible to let them go. Wait a few months and you’ll start to see that paragraph where you describe the colour of the love-interest’s eyes could have been a sentence. Or that entire chapter where a charming support character appears and is never heard from again? While it was well-written, if it doesn’t aid the telling of the main story, sorry, but if you don’t chop it, your editor almost certainly will.
While it is terrifying waiting to hear back from the first professional to lay eyes on your story, you must remain brave and prepare yourself to put in the work they give you. Also, remember: Even if they have some harsh feedback, they’re not there to be some gateway to the forbidden land of authordom. They want you to succeed! Because if you, and they, create a terrific book, you’ll get the accolades and you’ll recommend them to anyone who’ll listen.
So, in short, check your ego at the door and let your developmental editor be your friend and mentor. In a year’s time when you’re not so unwilling to change a single word of your original story, you’ll see they were right almost 100% of the time.
Looking for something to do while you wait? Why not think about designing your cover.
