Editing and Submission

This course is designed for all sorts of narrative writers, be you a novelist, memoirist, short story author, or non-fiction writer. It’s about how to make your book as good as it can be, and so is suitable for writers who have completed the roughest of first drafts, right through to those with more careful subsequent drafts which should soon be ready to submit to agents and publishers. And let’s not forget those writers stuck in between, with a whirl of drafts and tweaks, when the initial direction and intention, once so clear, can suddenly feel hazy.

Participants will be encouraged talk about problems they have encountered, and we’ll look at all manner of fixes and things canny writers can do to help their craft. Across all six sessions, there will be guidance on preparing an elevator pitch, a ‘selling’ blurb, decent synopsis, mission statement and author biography. And how agents, publishers and booksellers actually make the decisions that they do, and what you can do to improve your chances.

Week 1) Working out what have you have actually written.

Week 2) How to feel confident about what you naturally do well.

Week 3) Tips and tricks for discovering your weaknesses; knowing what these are is half the battle!

Week 4) Fixes, and more fixes.

Week 5) The final checklist of potential problems to tick off, and how to double-check research.

Week 6) Things writers do routinely that put agents and publishers off, and how to avoid these slips so that you can submit work as effectively as possible.

Other aspects of all types of narrative prose that authors must decide about shall include structure, tone, voice, tempo, dialogue and - as an author - your crucial relationship with your reader. Zoom delivery. Cost £140.

Spring One: Evenings Tuesdays 6.30-9pm; Jan 3, 10, 17, 24, 29 Feb 7.