Description
Self-paced courses are undertaken by the student at their own pace. No instructor feedback is given, although models are provided in the lessons. All self-paced courses include at least one live Q&A session, held via Zoom. Students will have one year to access the course site. More information about how our classes are conducted is available here.
Fiction copyeditors not only look for misspellings and punctuation errors, but edit for voice and technique. This class will explore:
- the differences between fiction and nonfiction editing
- where copyediting ends and developmental editing begins
- common manuscript errors, as well as style issues particular to fiction
- what to include on style sheets
- the mechanics of dialogue and interior monologue
- narration flaws
- authorial voice
- copyright concerns
- breaking into fiction editing
- working with indie authors or new writers
To take this course, you will need:
- Microsoft Word (you will need to be comfortable working with Track Changes)
- Access to at least one print or online dictionary, preferably Merriam-Webster
Class textbooks:
- The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition
- Self-editing for Fiction Writers, 2nd edition, by Renni Browne and Dave King
This course assumes that students have had some training or experience in the basics of copyediting.
Lourdes Venard is the founder of Comma Sense Editing, which provides services to individual authors and businesses. She has 30 years of writing and editing experience, including at major newspapers Newsday, The Miami Herald, Chicago Tribune, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and The Washington Post. She also teaches copyediting through an online course at the University of California, San Diego, and is active in the American Copy Editors Society, having served as a scholarship judge for 11 years.