What happens on a discovery call?

A discovery call is a thirty minute chat about what you need help with. It’s very informal, and is like having coffee with a friend.

What will we discuss on a coaching call?

We will talk about anything you like to do with your writing. I use my experience as a creative writing tutor to both offer possible solutions to issues, as well as coaching you to understand why you are experiencing the issue and how we can move forward. I also set tasks outside of our time together so that you can work toward your goals. All our conversations are confidential.

Can we meet in person?

During Covid I am happy to work with your time zone and meet you on Zoom.

self editing – Rachel Grosvenor Author

Yes, editors do hire editors, and that includes me. I have learned a lot from working with an editor. When it comes to your own work, you are often so involved that you often need someone else to read it before you send it out to readers. That can come in many forms – it might be that you’re looking for a beta reader (someone who reads your touched up manuscript), an alpha reader (someone who reads your rough draft), or you may decide to go for an editor for a more in-depth analysis. Here are five things I learned from hiring an editor.

1) They can help you see your own work clearly.

It isn’t easy to see your work when you’re so close to it. When I recently sent my first five chapters to an editor, I took out a prologue before I sent it. This was for a few different reasons, but I was so familiar with the world that I had created that I didn’t realise the prologue missing would cause many issues. Ummm…I was wrong! Some important world-building was in that prologue, and so by removing it before sending, I made my editor say…’Where is this exactly?’ An interesting lesson! The world-building throughout the rest of my novel is tight, so I’m not worried about this. Now I know that the first few chapters require more world-building and detail if I want to remove that prologue.

2) Peer review is valuable.

It can be scary to send your work to other people, but peer review always makes it stronger. Hearing what other people think, what they expected, and how they feel about your story will allow you to make it so much better.

3) They save you time.

Yes, although it can feel like you’ve been given more work when an editor comes back to you with a report, they are actually saving you a lot of time. They are ploughing through the manuscript for you, marking up those bits that need changing, and providing you with information that it would have taken hours to find yourself.

4) They give you ideas you may have never considered.

We all need a fresh pair of eyes sometimes, and an editor can help you see a new direction for your work, a character, or a scene. Sometimes, it’s even something that you may have never considered before.

5) They can spot inconsistencies you cannot.

As we are so close to our stories, we can miss inconsistencies or repeated details. After all, we know the world so well, so when this isn’t communicated to the reader well enough, it won’t always be easy to spot. An editor can help you see those issues, including other common occurrences such as repetitive words and phrases.

What have you learned from hiring editors? Share with me because I would love to know!

If you are looking for an editor, get in touch today. I would love to help you polish up your work and make it shine, and I am currently booking from Spring 2022.

If you are looking for a similar read, check out the following:

4 Ways to Edit Your Own Writing
Online Writing Tools That Can Help You Write Your Novel

Ready to edit your own writing? That’s great, but where do you begin? Well, fret not, because today we will discuss four ways you can edit your own writing. Editing your own work is necessary whether you are hiring an editor or not. When you send a piece of writing to an editor, they will expect a level of editing to be done already, to make it as readable as possible. They will also provide you with notes that you can work on, so understanding how to edit your work is important.

Change the Format

It can really help to change the format in which you view your work. For example, if you have written your novel on a laptop, print it off and hold the work physically. If you want to read it but don’t feel like you want to sit down and go through it, get a text-to-speech reader to help you (NaturalReader is a great option). Then, you can play your work back to yourself, enjoy a cup of tea, and make notes along the way.

Grammarly

Grammarly is so helpful for taking a step beyond the spellchecker and understanding more about your writing. It might be that you are using a word repeatedly or that you have used ‘that’ instead of ‘who’ when referring to a character – whatever it is, Grammarly is pretty good at picking up on it. It’s free to use the basic version too! Is it always right? No, but you can use your writer’s eye to decide what you want to pay attention to.

Read and Relax

A big part of getting ready to edit your own writing is reading the work. It can be challenging to take a step back and see your work from the reader’s point of view when you are, in fact, the writer. So, what is the remedy? Pretend to be somebody else.

Yep – that might sound strange, but it is the reason that you only spot a typo in a much-edited email after you have sent it out. It’s because the moment you send it out, you are putting yourself in the shoes of the reader. So, this is what you should aim to do when reading your work. Pretend to be your ideal reader, grab yourself a cup of tea, and sit back, relax, and read the novel you just picked up from the shelf.

Remove the Unnecessary

We all have words that we overuse in text. For example, the term ‘that’ is usually not required. So, here are words to do a search and replace, or a search and remove, in your manuscript:

That
Really
Very
Just
Totally
Suddenly (If something is suddenly happening, try and find a new way to say it. I usually find that when something ‘suddenly’ occurs in a novel, I am pulled out of the story. The word suddenly is your cue to slow down the event, and draw out the action a little more.)

There you are, four ways to edit your own writing! If you are looking for an editor, get in touch today. Whether it is a developmental edit, a critique, a copy edit, or a proofread, I can help.

Found this post useful? Share it with another writer!

Want to read something similar? Check out the following:

Online Tools That Can Help You Write Your Novel
5 Ways to Find Your Next Beta Reader
5 Books on Writing That Will Improve Your Craft