You’ve typed “The End”.
Congratulations. You deserve a cake, a celebration and a very long nap.
But soon the glow fades. That dastardly doubt creeps in. You look at that massive pile of words and you know, deep down, it’s not ready for an agent.
It’s messy. It’s raw.
And that’s okay. In fact, it’s supposed to be that way. First drafts aren’t meant to be perfect; they are only a first version. Turning that raw material into a book that can be published and sit alongside others in the bookshop? That requires a different set of muscles entirely, and a new editing toolkit.
Spellcheck Won’t Save You
When we talk about editing your manuscript, that doesn’t mean spellchecking. We aren’t talking about hunting for typos or moving around commas. That’s like polishing the silverware before you’ve even built the table.
We’re talking about deep, structural surgery. The kind of structural edit that turns a decent story into something agents ask to read, and which can take you one step nearer a published novel. This kind of editing means asking hard questions about plot holes, character arcs and pacing. Is your protagonist active enough? Do they go on a journey of change from beginning to end? Are you doing too much telling and not enough showing?
It’s tough work. And doing it alone in a silent room is a recipe for not finishing. You need support. You need a map. That’s why we built our online course Edit Your Novel the Professional Way.
Learn From the Heavyweights
We want to give you the best editing plan and toolkit possible. So we partner with those in the know at Cornerstones Literary Consultancy to help you develop the exact toolkit professional editors use.
This isn’t just theory from a textbook. It’s real industry practice, which challenges even the most experienced writers.
Take it from Mónica Parle, Co-Executive Director at the Forward Arts Foundation. She came to us with an MFA in fiction and countless courses under her belt. She didn’t need a Basic Editing 101, she was looking for rigour.
Her verdict?
“The course is phenomenally good… Kathryn [the tutor] and the course modules manage to articulate things that somehow I never fully integrated. The way the course is structured is so thoughtful and effective—each module leads so beautifully on from the other.”
We hope that the course helps novel-writers from all genres and levels of experience to find new depths in their craft.
Stop Banging Your Head Against the Desk
Writing is solitary. Editing shouldn’t be; you need a bunch of readers you trust to share their informed opinions on your work-in-progress.
This is an active course. You don’t just sit back and watch videos; you’ll be in the trenches with a small, supportive group of peers. You will critique, discuss and improve together under the guidance of our expert tutors.
No more guessing if Chapter 3 works. No more lonely head-banging against the desk when a plot thread unravels. We’re a community. We get it because we’ve been there too.
A Sneak Peek: The Timeline Exercise
Want to see if your story holds water? Here is a snippet from a practical editing assignment. It’s designed to expose cracks in your structure so you can attend to those sections that need more work.
The Mission: Create a timeline for the most important events and revelations in your novel.
- Get Prepared: You’ll need a long sheet of paper (or a few sheets taped together).
- Draw the Line: Sketch out your timeline. You don’t need every single breakfast and conversation, just set down the crucial plot points, character developments and major questions.
- Colour Code: Use different-coloured pens or markers for different story threads. The aim is to check that the material for each thread is spaced fairly evenly. If your subplot disappears for 100 pages, you’ll spot it visually.
- Split by Scene: Divide your timeline into scenes (or chapters if they are short). Allow about 2–4 inches per section. This allows you to see the order of events and how the dramatic weight is distributed.
Once you have your whole plot visualised on paper, it’s easy to deep-dive into placement and pacing of key revelations and positioning of subplots.
And working on assignments like this in a supportive environment with your tutor and peers will get conversations rolling and solutions flowing.
Be Brave Enough to Do the Work
By the end of the 18-week course, you won’t just have “learned” editing. You’ll have a submission-ready synopsis, a polished first 10,000 words, and a covering letter ready to land on an agent’s desk. And an amazing amount of confidence in this novel and your worth as a writer!
Then there’s no need to hope a draft will fix itself. There is no magic wand in the publishing industry, only the work you put in.
If you’re brave enough to do that work, we’ll be right there with you.
