Fiction
Read-Through/Critique
After your book has been developed, written, and revised but before you start working on style or mechanics, you might want to have a second pair of eyes look for big-pictures issues. A read-though can benefit any manuscript, but fiction in particular. It's easy to miss the following because you're so close to the topic and you've read the manuscript over and over and over:
I will give your manuscript one close reading and make comments throughout. I will also compose an editorial letter summarizing any overarching issues in the above areas. With the read-through, I leave the actual editing up to you.
Genres: action/adventure, general interest, historical, mystery, suspense/thriller, young adult
heavier edit involves
After your book has been developed, written, and revised but before you start working on style or mechanics, you might want to have a second pair of eyes look for big-pictures issues. A read-though can benefit any manuscript, but fiction in particular. It's easy to miss the following because you're so close to the topic and you've read the manuscript over and over and over:
- Repetition (words and phrases, character gestures/descriptions, ideas)
- Timeline gaps or impossibilities (the character can't be 70 if she was born in 1950 and the year is 2016)
- Plot gaps/inconsistencies (the intruder shot the dog in the leg, but he was described as entering the house with a knife not a gun)
- Head hopping (shifting point of view within a scene in way that is confusing to the reader)
- Info dumping (writing big chunks of background narration all at once, often at the beginning of a chapter or scene)
- Verb tense shifts (using past and present tense in the same scene)
I will give your manuscript one close reading and make comments throughout. I will also compose an editorial letter summarizing any overarching issues in the above areas. With the read-through, I leave the actual editing up to you.
Genres: action/adventure, general interest, historical, mystery, suspense/thriller, young adult
- correcting errors in grammar (e.g., subject-verb agreement, verb tense), punctuation, and usage.
- enforcing consistency in capitalization, spelling, numbers, and other style points.
- fixing unclear passages.
- querying apparent errors or inconsistencies in content.
- identifying gaps in continuity in plot, setting, timeline, action, and characterization.
- pointing out specific storytelling issues such as head hopping (shifting from one character's perspective to another without clear transitions), info dumping (providing too much info at the beginning of the book), and character/plot development that is not supported by what has come before.
- preparing a detailed style sheet.
heavier edit involves
- fixing awkward syntax.rewording unclear passages.smoothing transitions.eliminating wordiness, passive voice, and repetfixing awkward syntax.
- smoothing transitions.
- eliminating wordiness, passive voice, and repetition.
- making suggestions to fix specific storytelling issues