As an editor, I often see developmental editing as narrative excavation, like an archaeologist carefully brushing away one layer after another, revealing more and more of a site over time. Indeed, each time I do another read of a manuscript, I feel like I’m moving down to a deeper layer in the story, noticing more issues.
Why single reads don’t work
Years ago, I noticed a post on an editorial forum where an editor, more experienced in line editing and proofreading, asked for advice. They were doing a manuscript critique on a memoir and had run into a problem. The memoir was so well written that they didn’t know what to say to the writer (who had obviously paid for the critique). Worried about not giving the writer good value for money, they wondered if they should price the edit down or offer some line editing.
But here’s the problem. They hadn’t finished the first read of the manuscript.
They had come to the conclusion that the memoir was in a great state on the basis of less than one read. (They also appeared to finish the critique shortly after posting, so very little time was likely spent on this edit.)
I offered no advice to this person myself, waiting instead to see what others would say.
No one picked them up on the fact they hadn’t even finished the first read. No one thought their editorial conclusion was premature. No one mentioned that you ought to read a manuscript more than once, or that to understand whether the narrative works or not, you need to see how the latter part of the book and the ending fits in with the rest of the story.
I think part of the problem here was that not everyone giving advice actually worked in developmental editing, and some were new to developmental edits and manuscript critiques after working in copyediting and proofreading.
But I’m telling you now, single passes of a manuscript do not work, unless you want to just give something akin to a beta read, but through the eyes of a developmental editor. It’s a different matter if the read is a final check after previous rounds of editing. But that’s not the topic here.
Why a single read falls short
The example I gave above involved a memoir. Memoirs are not autobiographies. They are not the story of a life. Instead, memoirs are focused on a particular event, subject, or period.
Examples of memoirs would include Traudl Junge’s memoir of working as Hitler’s secretary. Likewise, Helga Schneider’s Let Me Go: My Mother and The SS is focused on a particular topic – Helga confronting her former SS mother decades later in a retirement home. Schneider weaves in memories and information she gathered when researching the Holocaust and the Nazis, since her mother had worked at a notorious camp.
Memoirs don’t suddenly pivot to a whole other subject, not if they’re written correctly. They have an overriding theme.
So if the manuscript goes off on a tangent later in the story, that would need to be fixed. And only at least one complete read of a manuscript would identify such a problem.
More reads are advised to check that all the threads match up, there are no plot holes or inconsistencies, no weakly drawn characters, a lack of sensory information, a lack of location information, etc. And very importantly, the structure of the narrative also has to be examined.
There is no perfect manuscript
If you’re an editor confronted with an intimidating manuscript, with a fantastic plot, great characters and locations, and what looks like a good structure, fear not. Rereads, like archaeological or forensic excavation, will reveal more. Each pass takes you down into the subterranean layers of a narrative. This is one of my favourite things about developmental editing. Diving deeper into the story.
In fact, my own experience of developmental editing and manuscript critiques is that the more times you read the manuscript, the more problems that emerge.
Early on in my career, I was also confronted by what appeared to be novels and memoirs in a great condition on a first read. I used to worry about this, wondering what I was supposed to tell the writer that would justify the money spent on the edit.
But experience has taught me that first reads are deceptive. More emerges the more times you read the book. This is why good developmental editing takes time. It’s not something you can dash off in a single read.
There can be budget options where a developmental editor can read once and list the more immediate issues, but developmental editing is a problem-solving exercise. It’s not really something to be rushed.
For one thing, editorial advice that’s less integrated can lead to clashing solutions. Instead of a list of solutions for the same number of problems, a good editor will find the least number of solutions for the largest number of problems. This is because a single problem like viewpoint issues can actually impact the manuscript in different ways. To isolate an issue causing multiple problems is a standard part of a developmental editor’s job.
That’s why the skillset for developmental editing and line editing are not the same.
The benefits of reading on a large screen
I think any kind of editing benefits from a large monitor. It’s easier to spot issues. I use a widescreen TV as my monitor. It replaced the old one and I frankly now hate small screens. There is so much more to notice when the text is large and filling your field of vision.
In fact, it increases the sense of digging deeper, and plunging further into a manuscript.
In need of developmental feedback?
If you’re an author who’s looking for a manuscript critique or a developmental edit, I am open to clients from early February. You can check my services pages. As well as critiquing full manuscripts, I also offer opening chapters developmental edits and outline critiques. If you’re wondering about the pros of outline critiques, I’ve written a blog post on the subject. Link below.
Lastly, if you want my blog posts to land in your inbox, you can subscribe to my Substack email list (link below). I also post news about writing and novel competitions I hear about, plus news on my availability and any special deals I’m offering.
In order to make it easier for new site visitors to explore the blog posts here, I have made a master list of IndieCat Blog Posts. I’m still drawing up this list so not all posts have yet been listed here.
Wasting money on a copyedit or proofread? Please don’t hire copyeditors or proofreaders if you later intend to use a developmental editor. In this post I explain the correct order of editing.
This list looks at examples of developmental feedback which changed the outcome of a novel. There are also posts where I put on my developmental editor’s hat and explore narrative choices a writer made when writing their novel.
How developmental editing feedback changed Interview With The Vampire. This post looks at the development of Anne Rice’s first published novel, including the developmental editing advice she received from her editor. This advice caused her to radically alter parts of her novel, turning it into a classic of the vampire and gothic genres.
Narrative devices in Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life. This post digs into Chiang’s use of point of view, tense, and structure in his award-winning novella, Story of Your Life. He also wrote the novel in an interesting way, starting with the ending!
When publishers drop the ball. Even if you get a mainstream publishing deal there is no guarantee that you will get all the developmental feedback you need. This post deals with an unnamed published novel which had multiple issues.
Revisiting a rejected novel. Authors are sometimes told not to go back to a rejected novel, especially a first novel. The idea is their writing will have progressed since then and it’s best to move on. But this advice is not always best. Here I examine what happened with Hilary Mantel’s first novel, A Place of Greater Safety.
10 ways to improve your novel’s pacing. While your novel doesn’t have to gallop along at a fast pace, sometimes storytelling gets bogged down and momentum is lost. Too slow and a reader could just give up. Be vigilant of anything that pulls your pace down. This posts has some tips.
Your novel’s opening lines, and why they matter. The opening lines of your novel or memoir are prime real estate. Don’t screw up your chance to grab an agent or reader by making these mistakes in your opening.
The Ingredients of Gothic Fiction. An exploration of the history of Gothic literature, where it comes from, the developments in the genre over the centuries, and a list of key characteristics or ingredients of Gothic stories.
Laurie McBain and the Avon Ladies. Exploring the career of historical romance author Laurie McBain, her part in the rebooting of historical romance at Avon in the 1970s. Plus the woman who inspired her – Kathleen Woodiwiss.
So indie authors aren’t real authors? This blog post was written after I read a very annoying and ignorant post from someone who completely underestimated the commitment and talent of indie authors.
The Extraordinary Imagination of Tanith Lee. An exploration of the writing of the prolific and award-winning science fiction, fantasy, and horror writer. Including an examination of how she actually wrote her books and short stories.
This post is my deep dive into the life and work of Irish-American writer Maeve Brennan. The Irish author was the daughter of Irish republican parents who later moved their family to the US for work reasons. Maeve would remain there until her death. Glamorous in her youth, she worked for the New Yorker and Harper’s Bazaar. She also wrote short stories and a novella, The Visitor.
Laurie McBain was one of the stars of the historical romance genre in the 1970s and 1980s. Here I look at her career and the mystery of why she disappeared after ten years of success. I also look at the writer who inspired her, Kathleen Woodiwiss.
Beautiful Shadow is a great biography of author Patricia Highsmith. Highsmith wrote Strangers on A Train, The Talented Mr Ripley, and the lesbian romance novel, Carol. All three of these books were adapted for the screen. Here I review the biography and explore Highsmith’s life and career.
Weird Inspirations: Wisconsin Death Trip. Exploring the origins of Michael Lesy’s cult book and the subsequent film, and the impact both have had on other artists.
General tips
How copywork can improve your writing – here’s a tried and tested technique used by writers from Robert Louis Stevenson to Hunter S. Thompson that teaches you how to be a better writer.
Fear of marketing yourself on social media. Fear of being a nuisance on social media through promoting yourself is a problem not just for writers, but for other artists as well as freelancers.
Why your book cover design matters. Your book cover needs to stand out in an oversaturated book market, and it also needs to give clues to potential book buyers about things like quality, professionalism, genre and more.
When writing your memoir, you’re not telling the story of your whole life. Instead, memoir focuses on a specific period or event in your life which you dig into, reflect on, often addressing the issue in ways that are closer to a novel than a chronologically written autobiography.
This is why memoir is seen as a form of creative non-fiction.
A memoir offers readers intimate glimpses into your life and experiences. It’s also a chance for them to see what lessons you’ve taken away from your experiences.
But writing a memoir comes with a set of problems – from reliability of memory to many other issues including the right to privacy of those around you.
Memoir versus autobiography
Some people confuse memoir and autobiography because they are both usually a first-person account of the subject’s life. It’s true that there are similarities. However, there are also major differences between them.
Autobiography is more concerned with a whole life and with facts, dates, etc, given greater importance. There can also be less focus on a central unifying theme. Other than the story of a life.
A long life can produce more than one autobiography. This is especially true if the author writes the first book when they are still relatively young. Years or even decades down the line they can write a second book if they have a lot more to tell about their life. This often happens with celebrity autobiographies.
Memoirs, on the other hand, tend to be more focused on a unifying theme or particular time or experience in the author’s life. They are much narrower in scope. One life can still produce several memoirs precisely because they are limited in scope. It depends on whether you have the material to cover more than one book.
In Let Me Go: My Mother and the SS, author Helga Schneider visits the elderly mother she has been estranged from for decades. Her mother left home when Helga was still very young and went to work for the SS at a concentration camp. Helga hardly ever saw her mother from that point on. Her memoir circles between her visits with the old woman at a retirement home and what happened in the past. The book does not cover Helga’s entire life.
But Helga returned to the trauma of her abandonment in a second memoir, The Bonfire of Berlin: A Lost Childhood in Wartime Germany.
Meanwhile, in Until The Final Hour, Traudl Junge does not write about her entire life. The book is about her experience working as one of Hitler’s secretaries and includes the final days with him in the bunker.
In all three of these books, the scope is narrow. This allows for a deeper dive into the subject.
13 points for memoir writers
For obvious reasons, writing a memoir is a deeply personal form of expression. It can be intimidating, especially when it comes to revealing intimate details or events in the past. It can also be cathartic and therapeutic.
But writing memoir also comes with particular challenges and dangers. Here are some common problems or topics you might face when writing a memoir:
1. Telling the truth versus privacy
Writing your memoir means revealing intimate details about your life, including your actions (positive or negative), and your thoughts and emotions.
This can mean talking about things you’ve kept secret from those around you or shared with very few. Putting these things down on paper inevitably leads to emotional vulnerability.
But in striving to tell your truth, you can also expose the intimate secrets and breach the privacy of others, including loved ones. There is a delicate balance here between authenticity and privacy.
Some writers change details to protect the identities of those they are writing about. In that case, the exact truth is sacrificed for privacy, but there is still an emotional truth.
However, if a writer is clearly making things up and it comes out later, readers will cease to trust them.
2. Memories are subjective and unreliable
In autobiography and biography, there is a greater emphasis on facts.
This is particularly true of biography.
In memoir, the author is using their own memory of events – which of course can be aided by diaries and letters from the period concerned.
But no one has a completely objective take on their life.
Memories can change over time. Things can get added or subtracted in your mind. You can start to misremember things like seasons, or even years.
Memories – even diaries and correspondence – are not 100% reliable. It’s one person’s subjective take on what happened and may clash with others who were around at the time.
Consequently, it’s not unusual to start doubting your own memory! Especially if you talk to others who don’t remember events or remember them very differently.
3. Emotional vulnerability
Writing a memoir is like putting your intimate diary out into the world for all to read.
Of course, you can edit some things out. But in exploring your most intimate thoughts, feelings, and experiences, you’re often revisiting painful or traumatic events.
And this can be triggering and lead to shame, fear, embarrassment, or discomfort. There is also the sense that once you let the cat out of the bag, you can’t stuff it back inside. When your truth is out there in the public domain, it’s out for good. Or for at least as long as the book remains in print.
This realisation can lead to writer’s block and other avoidance strategies when it comes to writing things down.
4. Structure, story, dialogue, and scene versus summary
Even though you’re not writing a novel, you are still writing a narrative. And there are many overlaps between fiction and memoir.
For one thing, you need a coherent narrative arc in memoir writing.
While you can circle around in time, it must make sense. And the reader must be able to follow you.
Memoir writers must also decide which events to include, how to order them chronologically or thematically, and how to keep readers engaged from beginning to end.
As I’ve said, there are similarities between fiction and memoir. In both, you should have a proper story structure, fleshed out characters, sensory details, and a strong theme.
You are also more likely to have dialogue in a memoir, compared to an autobiography. Of course, this can mean having to recreate a distant conversation as best you can. No one remembers exactly what was said decades ago, unless they carefully recorded it in a diary.
Another technique borrowed from fiction is scene versus summary. There will be times when you don’t need to write out an event as a whole scene. You can just summarise it. You can also weave in your reflections about it in the summary.
But including summary, action, dialogue, etc, will bring the more important parts of your narrative to life.
This results in a far stronger and emotionally gripping story.
5. The importance of musing
In addition to scene versus summary and dialogue, you also have something that is particularly important to memoir. And that is musing or reflecting on past events.
The reader wants to know what you have learned. And if you’re writing a memoir, going over the past, trying to understand it better, it will be imperative to have some level of musing.
Otherwise, you are simply recreating your own version of the past, without learning from it or offering up conclusions. And that means you’re leaving out a crucial ingredient of memoir.
Musing can be done in various ways. You might reflect on some events within the period itself, but much of it will be done from a distance of years or even decades, as you look back from the present.
Musing can occur in fiction, but it is even more important in memoir.
6. Finding the universal in the personal
While memoirs are always inherently personal, the best ones resonate with readers on a universal level. Yes, even when the experiences described are far removed from the reader’s own life. This is because, as a memoirist, you can still connect your experiences to broader themes and emotions your readers can relate to.
In Let Me Go: My Mother and the SS, Helga Schneider’s narrative deals with a less common problem – a Nazi mother who served in a death camp. But in spite of Helga’s personal distaste for her mother’s actions, there is also some compassion for the forgetful old woman who sits before her.
In that example, many readers can have the same experience of being estranged from family, yet find themselves having to deal with them in their later years. The reader will also wonder what they would do in Helga’s position.
Would they refuse to visit the elderly Nazi war criminal who abandoned them when they were young, or try to do the decent thing as Helga does?
Helga’s narrative, complete with the research she has done on Nazi atrocities, offers the reader food for thought. What would any of us do in her position?
In Traudl Junge’s case, her experience working with Hitler raises issues about our complicity with wrongdoing around us. At what point are we accountable? Can we really blame youth and ignorance? Ultimately, Junge realised she could not.
7. Perspective, voice and tone
Determining the perspective of the memoir can be challenging. Writers must decide whether to narrate from their current time/perspective, which can lead to a greater degree of self-reflection, or go back in time to capture the voice of their past self.
It’s a case of striking a balance between authenticity and readability.
First-person narration though is the norm. Problems like head-hopping are far less likely to occur, compared to fiction.
When it comes to tone, we’re really talking about writing in a humorous way versus anger, etc. Some memoirists deal with difficult topics from a position of humour. Sometimes that’s the best way they have to approach an otherwise painful subject.
It’s worth thinking about the kind of tone you want to aim for in your memoir. Of course, it can vary somewhat as you circle between different scenes, but an overarching consistency of tone will bolster your narrative and theme.
8. A sense of time and place
I’ve already mentioned the importance of sensory details. This also applies to fiction writing.
Here’s another thing important to both memoir and fiction writing – a strong sense of place and time. When you’re writing many years or decades after the events of your book, it’s important to try and recapture that place and time for your readers. You can include sensory details and also cultural references – music, film, fashions.
With memoir, you can transport not only yourself back to that distant time, but your readers.
9. Legal and ethical concerns
Writing about real people and events can raise legal and ethical concerns, particularly when it involves portraying others in a negative light, making allegations, or revealing sensitive information.
Writing about the living is a tricky subject!
Memoirists should be mindful of potential repercussions and consider obtaining consent, legal advice, and changing any identifying details including names and appearance where necessary.
10. Revising and polishing your manuscript
Like fiction and other forms of non-fiction, your manuscript will require careful revision and editing to polish it to a publishable standard.
But while it can be difficult with novels to ‘murder your darlings’ and cut out cherished characters or scenes, it can be even more difficult with memoir. Writers can feel that removing an important event distorts the truth.
They might also find editing and rewriting painful events over and over again emotionally triggering. In this case, it’s best to take breaks and give yourself some time and space from your manuscript.
11. Fear of judgement, criticism and rejection
Memoir is the most personal of writing genres. Matched only by diaries or published letters. But people don’t usually plan to publish their diaries or letters, least of all when they’re writing them. Whereas memoirs are usually written with the intention to publish or be shown to others.
Putting deeply personal truths out into the world can feel intimidating. All writers feel fear when their books are about to be published. Bad reviews and bad sales are common fears. But with memoir there is the potential for deeper and more personal criticism and judgement.
And not just from readers or reviewers – but from loved ones and family. The people whose opinions often matter most.
Fear of rejection can lead to self-censorship and suddenly deciding to remove parts of a book. Often to the detriment of the memoir.
Yet, some memoirists have undoubtedly alienated family and partners/ex-partners with their published books.
12. Will you find closure?
For many memoirists, writing their account helps them make sense of their past and find closure. However, please be mindful that this is not always possible.
If you are writing to help others in the same situation, that can offer a kind of closure in itself.
But it’s worth remembering that with publication comes criticism and reviewing, and the reactions of those you’ve written about.
This does not mean you shouldn’t proceed. It’s simply a matter of being realistic about the outcome.
13. Leaving behind something for your family
Sometimes writers are telling their story to share with family. This could mean private publication rather than a book put into general circulation. But it’s also about leaving behind a legacy after you’re gone. Something for loved ones to read and remember you by. Even descendants who are not yet born.
Some memoirs are deeply rooted in a particular geographical location and will contribute to the larger tapestry of local history.
Memoirs can tell us about the lives of women and other groups in the past, opening a door on experiences that are often forgotten today. Even though the memoir is not concerned with facts in the way an academic book is, that doesn’t mean it has no relevance to social history.
Because history is more than facts. History is about people.
Developmentally editing memoir
I’ve edited a few personal stories. Some were very personal accounts of difficult childhoods where the author wanted to get their personal story out into the world. Often with the intention of helping others.
One author I worked with used her childhood diaries to craft a narrative that read more like a novel. And it was one of the most memorable manuscripts I’ve worked on. I can still well remember scenes from the life of this young girl back in the 1960s as she walked around San Francisco and the likes of the Tenderloin district. The people she mixed with often lived on the margins and I found myself wondering what happened to them. Though some are dead now, they still live on in her manuscript and in my head. I will always associate Dionne Warwick’s Walk on By with her story.
There is something really magical about vividly recreating the past, the emotions of that period, incorporating the fleeting nature of time and youth.
It also gives those who never lived in that place or period a brief chance to walk in the author’s shoes and see through their eyes.
Need feedback on your memoir?
If you need developmental feedback on your memoir, you can contact me about your manuscript. I offer opening chapters developmental edits, full developmental edits, and manuscript critiques. Feel free to use the contact form on the page link below.
Why choose an opening chapters developmental edit?
As a developmental editor I offer a number of editing options to potential clients. The most obvious two are a manuscript critique and a developmental edit.
Manuscript critique
In the case of the first, you get a lengthy report focusing on not just the main issues in your manuscript, you also get some lower level feedback. And I’ll also tell you what you’re getting right! This option comes with a reading list that’s specially targeted for your needs. I recently offered a lower priced version of this option which requires only three reads. My preference is four.
Two reads for me is what I would call a Beta Critique. It’s beyond a beta read, but not as extensive as a manuscript critique.
Manuscript critiques don’t include margin comments, unless you opt to purchase an add-on service. For example:
You want margin comments for the first 5000 words of your manuscript on top of the report.
Other word count options are available.
Developmental edit
With developmental editing you get a report and margin comments throughout the manuscript. This is a much more detailed type of editing and takes longer. It also gives you more feedback.
Opening chapters developmental edit
On top of these services, I offer an opening chapters developmental edit. The usual length here is the first 10,000 words or 15,000 words (it can vary). This is a great opportunity to test out developmental editing without having to commit to full developmental editing costs.
You can also learn a lot from an opening chapters edit:
Does your story open in the best place?
Do you have a good opening hook?
Are you dropping in too much backstory?
Is your main character well established in the opening chapters?
Do your opening chapters and style of writing conform to the genre you’re aiming for?
Are you adopting the right tone?
Are you using too much internal dialogue?
Is your dialogue properly formatted?
Is your opening well paced?
Are you using the best POV for your story?
Do you have head hopping issues in your story?
In addition to these and other issues, if you include the synopsis, I can check to see if the opening of your novel is fulfilled by the ending. With the synopsis I can also address character arc, theme, etc.
With the opening chapters developmental edit, you get a report consisting of a few thousand words, plus margin comments and a reading list.
NEW: Opening chapters manuscript critique
However, I’m now offering an alternative to the opening chapters edit – one that mimics a manuscript critique, where you only get the report, no margin comments. Because this takes less time, the price will be lower.
It could be that you’re at a point where you need lighter feedback on your beginning. Or maybe you’re on a lower budget.
If you do choose an opening chapters edit, you are entitled to a discount on a full edit later.
Feel free to contact me about opening chapters edits and reports. We can discuss your project and what you’re looking for. I will do my best to meet your needs. My email is karen@indiecateditorial.com.
