Description

Line editing is arguably one of the most important editorial passes a manuscript undergoes before publishing. Developmental editing and copyediting perch at opposite peaks of the editorial process, handling story structure and grammar usage respectively, while line editing navigates the valley between them to refine both narrative flow and syntactical styling. It’s the bridge that connects storytelling with the intricate details of language mechanics, offering writers a holistic approach to enhancing their most important feature: their voice.

This six-week advanced course takes everything you thought you knew about line editing and elevates the application of those skills to focus on “market composition conventions”: the expectations readers carry into genre fiction on a line and word level. Each week is divided into two parts: First, we’ll explore a craft element and techniques to strengthen it across all commercial fiction markets. Then we’ll examine how that craft element, when carefully honed, can enhance a particular genre within commercial fiction. The markets we’ll be highlighting in this course are romance, suspense, science fiction, fantasy, horror, historical, and mystery.

• Week One: In the first week, we’ll discuss the principles of voice and how they relate to individual author style versus market conventions for the different popular genres. We’ll also go over a refresher on the “universal voice strengtheners” that apply to all styles of fiction writing.
• Week Two: We then dive into how we can manipulate sentence composition and white space for pacing, momentum, and tension. The genres that most benefit from this focus will be those that rely on tension within their scenes to execute necessary market conventions. Our genre spotlights will be thriller and romance as students learn how to specifically apply their tension-editing techniques to the external tension of thrillers and the internal tensions of romance.
• Week Three: In our third week, we discuss how to encourage emotional storytelling to emphasize mood and tone. The genres that most benefit from this focus will be those that struggle to keep the protagonist’s inner world at the forefront of the external world’s mechanics. Our genre spotlights will be science fiction and fantasy as students learn how to leverage emotional writing in dynamic world-building.
• Week Four: Next we spend a week on figurative language and playing with our authors’ artistry to create compelling, immersive narratives. The genres that most benefit from this focus will be those whose figurative language mechanics most affect readers’ ability to “buy” the impossible presented. Our genre spotlights will be horror and historical fiction as students learn to weave the abstract into the actual with spine-tingling antagonists and anachronistic narrators.
• Week Five: In our penultimate week, we’ll work on helping authors give readers a clue, working on the subtextual elements of a narrative. This includes editing sentences for theme, subtext, foreshadowing, and motifs. The genre spotlight for this week will be mystery and crime as we work on helping authors dish out red herrings, hang Chekhov’s gun, and keep those gorillas out of the phone booth.
• Week Six: Our final week of the course covers genre-blending and helping authors successfully subvert voice conventions within their markets on a sentence level. We then shift to an encouraging lesson on how to create habits as editors that will lead us to continually grow and improve our craft.

This course will not cover narrative distance, talking heads, head-hopping, showing and telling, filter words, weak verbs vs. strong adverbs, or purple prose. Those items are covered in the beginner and intermediate courses. The advanced course will expect editors to have a basic understanding of those concepts so we can build upon them for precise, artful editing.

You’ll receive one-on-one feedback from the instructor on your four editing assignments while discussing the coursework and broader editorial implications with your fellow students in the class forum. Whether you focus on a single corner of the market or like to work with a variety of fiction authors, this course will give you everything you need to apply your line editing skills to genre fiction.

Students in Line Editing of Commercial Fiction: Beginning say…

“The feedback on assignments was exceptionally helpful in the learning process.” —I.M.

“I loved the ability to read the lesson text or watch videos. I am usually a better visual learner than auditory learner, so reading through the text helped solidify the content in my mind.” —A.M.

Amber Helt (she/her) is a professional editor, writing instructor, and editor coach with over 10 years of experience working with traditional publishers and independent authors. She is the owner and managing editor of Rooted in Writing, an editorial agency that works with speculative fiction authors of all publishing paths to help their novels flourish in their competitive markets. Her editorial agency prides itself on strong client relationships and gardener-minded editing, where writers leave with not just a pruned manuscript but seeds to grow as authors in their next project. Amber was the chapter coordinator for the EFA’s North Texas chapter for five years and loves sharing her knowledge with fellow editors. Amber has a BA in English creative writing with a certificate in historical linguistics.