Description

Fiction copyeditors not only look for misspellings and punctuation errors, but edit for voice and technique. This four-week 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

You will have a short piece of fiction to edit each week. The instructor will give individual feedback.

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, by Renni Browne and Dave King

Instructor Lourdes Venard is 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.