Editing your manuscript: from first draft to final proof
Course
In London
Description
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Type
Course
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Location
London
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Start date
Different dates available
During the editing process, the writer transforms their work from that raw first draft to a polished piece of literature, making it one of the most rewarding stages of a writing project. This course, ideal for experienced creative writers, is designed to help you fruitfully apply the editing skills you learn to your own work and to the writings of others.
The Tutor The Tutor: Writer/playwright Sue Healy has a PhD in modern theatre history and is Literary Manager at the Finborough Theatre. Her work has been developed by the Abbey and Criterion Theatres. Most recently, Imaginationship (2018) ran at the Finborough and Stephen Joseph in Scarborough, to acclaim. Cow (2017) showed at the Etcetera and Brazen (2016) at the King’s Head, funded by Arts Council England. Sue’s work has also been performed at the Hackney Attic, Claremorris Festival (New Writing Award winner), Brighton Festival (the Sussex Playwrights’ Award Winner) and Sterts Theatre. Her nine radio-plays have broadcast on BBC Radio 4 (Opening Lines winner), WLRfm and KCLR96fm. She also directs for stage. Sue has won prizes for her prose including the Molly Keane and HISSAC Awards, BBC Opening Lines and the Escalator Award. A UEA Creative Writing MA alumna, she also lectures in Creative Writing at the University of Portsmouth and the University of Lincoln. Sue is from Ireland and spent eleven years in Budapest, editing Hungary A.M.
City Lit reserves the right to change course tutors from those advertised in this outline. In line with our refund policy we are unable to grant a refund on the grounds of a change of tutor.
Facilities
Location
Start date
Start date
About this course
How to approach the editing of a manuscript with greater assurance and adeptness.
Please bring a pen and paper.
- Formal instruction from the teacher combined with group discussion
- Analysis of short pieces in class through group discussion, and editing of these set as homework.
- Individual short writing exercises set as homework, to be discussed and worked on as the shared property of the class.
All writing courses at City Lit will involve an element of workshop. This means that students will produce work which will be discussed in an open and constructive environment with the tutor and other students. The college operates a policy of constructive criticism, and all feedback on another student’s work by the tutor and other students should be delivered in that spirit.
For classes longer than one day, regular reading and writing exercises will be set for completion at home to set deadlines.
Reviews
Subjects
- Writing
- University
- Radio
- Theatre
- Creative Writing
Course programme
- The stages of a work: first draft, manuscript proper, copy-edited/proof-read manuscript.
- Taking care and making correct choices in line-by-line editing.
- Identifying and solving problems: the editor’s eye, and how the writer can learn from it.
- Learning to read one’s own work as dispassionately as someone else’s.
- Editing to improve narrative/structure; editing to improve style.
- The challenge of truly rewriting, where rewriting is necessary.
- How to trim, and how to cut more substantively.
- The virtues of succinctness and omission.
- How to feed back editing opinions to another writer, supportively.
- Editing to improve the marketability of a manuscript.
Additional information
Editing your manuscript: from first draft to final proof