Secrets to Editing Success: The Creative Story Editing Method

How do you edit a novel? Start with the story, not the sentences.

You've finished a draft. Cue the trumpets! Now comes the question every writer asks: does my draft contain a story readers will love? Not yet? That's okay. The moment you edit your first scene, you're an editor. Let's make you a brilliant one.

Secrets to Editing Success: The Creative Story Editing Method is a step-by-step guide to structural editing, also called story editing or developmental editing. It's for self-editing writers and professional editors alike. We are all editors.

You'll learn:

• How to run the Fictionary Story Test before you touch a single scene
• How to find your story promise: who your protagonist is, what they want, and what's at stake
• How to check the five story arc scenes that hold your novel together
• How to edit scene by scene using the 38 Fictionary Story Elements for character, plot, and setting
• The only five actions an editor ever needs: move, add, revise, cut, or split a scene
• How to give comprehensive, objective, and actionable advice, whether the draft is yours or a client's

You'll create:

• A skeleton blurb and skeleton synopsis for your story
• A scene-by-scene edit of your draft
• An editing plan that tells you exactly how to revise

You'll learn from real edits. Thirteen professional editors edited the same novel, and we share what they found.

"The most comprehensive and detailed guide to editing I've ever had the pleasure of reading... Read it. Immediately." -Sacha Black, Rebel Author Podcast

Like every book in the Write Novels That Sell series, we give you the theory-the why behind our recommendations-and actionable advice you can use right away.

Pick up your manuscript and edit as you read. Go and story edit the world!