(Gordon Lish edits Raymond Carver)
Everyone needs editing. (My God, what would happen to me if I didn’t have skilled readers helping me with my own work? I shudder to think!)
I take on occasional editing work for other writers. What I offer is commonly called content (or “developmental”) editing. That means that I help with big- and medium-picture stuff. So, I don’t claim to be the eagle-eyed copy-editor who catches all your typos and who regularizes capitalization. But here are the areas where I can usually be helpful:
- Project planning (discussing how to turn your idea into a realizable project)
- Narrative structure (making sure that your plot or narrative arc is clear, developing with appropriate tension and resolution)
- Character development (developing depth and identity)
- Dialogue (making it work, and balancing between direct discourse, indirect discourse, and summary)
- Voice (helping your authorial or narrative voice “pop”)
- Style (nudging your style to meet your needs)
- Pacing (making sure things move along)
- Thematic takeaways (helping you refine what “matters” in your text)
- Pitch letters (which is the devilishly difficult text you use to shop your work to presses and/or agents)
- and more.
I’m most comfortable working on: literary novels, literary short stories, creative non-fiction (aka narrative non-fiction), including memoir, travel writing, personal essays, humor. Believe me, you do not want me to weigh in on romance, science fiction, children’s books, religious narratives. Also, not poetry. Trust me on this: you really, really don’t want me advising you on poetry.
The main thing is for me to help you improve your work while retaining its essential “you-ness.” You remain in control of all decisions.
Why me?
Well, I have quite a bit of writing under my belt. You’ll find my own writing credentials here.
That said, not all writers make for good editors. But I have a lot of experience in that department. I taught creative writing at Carleton College for many years, and I have also taught fiction and memoir with the Minnesota Prison Writers Workshop (yep — in the state prison system!). In the course of teaching, I have edited many hundreds of pieces.
Also, I have served multiple times on the jury of the Minnesota States Arts Board grants. And for three years running, I have been the judge for the nation-wide Solas House Travel Writing Contest. In my experience as an editor, I have worked on award-winning books in both fiction and narrative non-fiction.
How it works
The process is pretty simple. Write me about your project, telling me a bit about what you think you need help with. You can send some pages (a few for a story; up to ten for longer works). I’ll look them over and tell you if I think it’s the kind of project that I can help with. Then, if we both feel it’s a good match, I’ll give you an estimate of how much time I think it will take.
What you’ll actually receive from me depends on your needs, but we’ll clarify this before any commitment is made. If you’re at the beginning of a project, you might just need a couple hours of my time to discuss it. Most often, though, you’ll have a draft of something. In those cases, I’ll typically deliver some markup of the manuscript, a summary letter, and a follow-up conversation.
What it costs
I charge $100 an hour. That probably sounds like a lot, but it’s less than many editors charge. The catch is that I only take on projects I believe in and that interest me. In those cases, part of the payment is that I find the work fulfilling.
I work pretty fast, so you get a lot for each hour of work. However, until I see your sample pages, I can’t give you an estimate of how many hours it will take. The sample gives me an idea of how much work is needed. I also need to discuss with you the level of detail you want back from me.
Want to learn more?
Feel free to reach out to me directly at: scarpent AT carleton DOT edu. (Sorry: you’ll need to compose that into an email address. It’s chopped up so as to fool the bots.)