The process of writing is scary enough, let alone sharing your work. That’s one of the reasons why Sutton Writers’ workshops are so well-attended and important: they let us get feedback in a friendly and safe environment.
But what happens when the work if complete, you’ve tinkered with it so much you don’t know what to do anymore, and you feel like it might be ready to release upon the world? That’s when process says you start looking for an editor, someone who’s skilled in shaping narratives and making every word sing the right notes for the overall song.
To we amateur writers, though, editors are even scarier than the process of getting words on a page. It can feel like a foreign world: where do you find an editor? What if they think your work is terrible? How do you know they’ll understand your viewpoint? What if they want you to change everything?! And even if you find the right one, it’s going to be really expensive, right?
As a way of helping to ease these worries and start the 2020 ball rolling on the right note, we welcomed copy editor and proofreader – and SfEP ambassador – Kasia Trojanowska, APM, to our monthly meeting in January. Kasia has more than a decade’s experience of working with words, mainly in the worlds of non-fiction and health journals, and she spent an evening with us full of insights and knowledge. As if to show how misty the world of editors can be, this was our most well-attended session in quite some time!
Kasia has shared her slides with us, covering such things as:
- The process from draft to publication
- The different levels of editing
- Manuscript development
- Copy editing
- What authors can expect when working with an editor
- How to prepare your manuscript for an editor
- Where to find an editor
She also shares her essential copy editing resources and recommended reading. We are very grateful to Kasia for sharing her expertise. You can read more about her work via her website, here.
Kasia-Trojanowska-editor-presentationFeature image: Photo by Andraz Lazic on Unsplash