Developmental & Project Editing

Description

Coordinating and editing a project from proposal or rough manuscript to final manuscript, incorporating input from authors, consultants, or reviewers. Does not include the following unless specified: budgeting, hiring, design supervision, and production co-ordination.

Developmental & Project edits may:

• Trim words, phrases, or sentences that are extraneous and do not contribute to the story;
• Establish a good rhythm by rearranging passages and suggesting new passages;
• Tighten dialogue, point out inconsistencies, tonal shifts, and unnatural phrasing;
• Suggest changes to the prose when the momentum of the narrative is disrupted;
• Add words or phrases that clarify or enhance your meaning.

An editor may draw your attention to:

• Words or sentences that are extraneous or overused;
• Run-on sentences;
• Redundancies from repeating the same information in different ways;
• Dialogue or paragraphs that can be tightened;
• Scenes where the action is confusing or the author’s meaning is unclear due to bad transitions;
• Tonal shifts and unnatural phrasing;
• Passages that don’t read well due to bland language use;
• Confusing narrative digressions;
• Changes that can be made to improve the pacing of a passage;
• Words or phrases that may clarify or enhance your meaning.