The Editor’s Eye

The Editor’s Eye

The Editor’s Eye is an Intensive, meaning it happens in a short time span (1 day in NYC, or 2 days on Zoom). The course includes a mixture of lectures and exercises. It’s open to writers of any level. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.

Every writer needs a good editor to push their work to its best possible state. But your work won’t reach a professional editor unless it’s already in excellent shape. A dilemma, to be sure. That’s why you need to be a skilled editor of your own work.

Perhaps your great ideas and stories are clouded by such things as clunky language, timid verbs, excessive wordage, lack of immediacy, and other amateur mistakes. Perhaps your work is fairly good, but it doesn’t quite lift off and soar. What you need is a sharp-eyed editor: you.

This course will show writers (of both fiction and nonfiction) how to operate as their own best editor, which will make their work all the more marketable in the professional world.

About The Editor’s Eye
The Editor’s Eye

A peek behind the curtain that separates you the writer/editor of your work and the editors/publishers who might consider your work.

James Darrah

writer/producer/actor

Notes

This is a cross-genre course, applicable to any kind of writing.

Upcoming Classes

Check back soon. You'll likely see options when we finish our next schedule.

Syllabus

This course gives an overview of how to be your own best editor, in any genre. Course components:|
     Brief lectures
     Writing exercises

Topics:
     SoWhat?: Make readers care about the story.
     You Are There: Take readers inside the story through details and specificity.
     Zip: Liven the story with energy and movement.
     Cutting and Tightening: Cut what adds little value; tighten to increase the punch.
     Flow: Keep the story flowing with focus and rhythm.
     Openings: Entice the readers with an engrossing start.

Note: Content may vary among individual classes.