Personal, Professional Editing

A better manuscript — a better writer

My aim in all the editing I do is to give you a stronger manuscript and make you a better writer. I’ve always seen editing as a way to help writers learn their craft, and I love watching a client catch on and start writing at a deeper level. That’s why I co-authored Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. It’s why I founded my own editing business in 1994. And why I’ve proudly framed my website with a shelf of my clients’ books.

The personal touch

Editing companies are getting bigger and bigger, which can make it hard to know just who is working on your manuscript. I've even come across cases where the editor with the best credentials has an underpaid employee read the manuscript and provide details that let him pretend to have read it himself. All this confirms the decision I made years ago to be the only editor in my business. This gives me the flexibility to adjust to the needs of each client. I can structure the editing process to fit your budget and schedule. We can communicate by phone, email, or text -- whatever works best for you.

Above all, I can tailor my editing to your needs as a writer. The process always starts with the diagnostic reading report. Before I can start to edit, I need to immerse myself in your story, and we need to agree on where you’d like to see your manuscript go. Many clients write a new draft on the strength of the report alone. After the report, the editing could include an extensive memo, a coaching line-edit, a phone consultation, whatever fits your learning style. Most clients do eventually opt for the coaching line-edit, since it's such a powerful teaching tool.

After editing

When your manuscript is as strong as you and I can make it, I can help develop the tools you need to convince an agent — a query letter and synopsis. And I won’t forget you when the work is done. I like to stay in touch, following your progress and offering suggestions and encouragement if you need them.

Writing advice for everyone

You don't have to be a client to come here whenever you want and learn more about writing. I update the Marginal Notes blog to the right of the page every month. The blog's topical index now contains six years' worth of entries that are informative, inspirational, or just plain fun. Look through them and enjoy. If you find one that would interest a writing friend, just share the link.

Good Writing,

Dave King

Thanks to you and your editing help, I feel now (as I once felt on the ramp at Birkenau) that I crossed over a barrier . . . You helped to give literary grace to my writing which lifted this subject to the level it deserves. For that I remain forever grateful.
— Joseph Horn

Marginal Notes

The Prologue is Past

I'm all for retiring outdated storytelling techniques. I don't miss the puzzle mysteries of the teens and twenties, where the characters were little more than props in complicated, contrived, often implausible mysteries. Second person narration died with Bright Lights, Big City, and that's fine. And, naturally, a lot fewer people are writing epistolary novels now that a lot fewer people are writing epistles.

But it's too soon to give up on prologues, as a recent client wanted to do. He had a storytelling situation -- a bit of critical action that took place well before the main story started -- that cried out for one. But he'd heard (probably from Elmore Leonard, who made this a rule) that prologues were forbidden. So he took what was really a prologue and labeled it Chapter 1. And my client's not alone in this. The first chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is essentially a mislabeled prologue.

There's a reason writers sneak prologues into their stories under other names -- they're incredibly handy. They're essentially a separate, free-floating, storytelling bubble that lets you show your readers some critical information or character background that you can't work into the main story. Most often, this involves one isolated scene that happened in the past -- as with the opening chapter of the Harry Potter book.

It may be that what you need to show your readers involves a very minor character. If you weave them into the story, readers are going to assume they're more important than they are. Or, if your story is focused on one particular perspective -- if the whole story is told from the point of view of a single character, for instance, or within a single setting -- the set-apart nature of prologues lets you give your readers a glimpse outside that perspective.

You can also use prologues to whet your readers appetite for the main story. Years ago, I worked on a mystery that had to establish a lot of motivations and interconnections before the first body dropped.