Effective Editing by Molly McCowan

Editing your own work is difficult, but it's a crucial skill to master if you want to be a successful writer. In Effective Editing: How to Take Your Writing to the Next Level, book coach and editor Molly McCowan takes you through the self-editing process in 13 detailed lessons, using a step-by-step method designed to reduce overwhelm and to structure the revision process in the most productive way possible. Working from the big to the little picture of your work, Molly shows you how to strengthen character development, find and fix plot holes, build stronger scenes, focus on smooth pacing and point-of-view issues, elevate your language, and much more.The focus of this course is for you to improve your narrative writing skills, including fiction and nonfiction, such as memoir, autobiography, biography, and personal essays. Molly's tips and tools throughout the course can help any writer edit their own work with skill and confidence. Truly effective editing happens in levels, so a solid grasp of these levels-their focus and what they accomplish for your work-is a necessary first step. Starting at the broadest perspective (plot, structure, etc.) and gradually becoming more granular, the four levels are: developmental editing, line editing, copy editing, and proofreading. By understanding these levels and approaching them one at a time, in the right sequence, you can maintain a sense of order and keep yourself on task throughout the revision process.