- $175
The DIY Developmental Edit: A Revision Workshop for Novelists
- Course
- 22 Lessons
Gain perspective on your story. Find ways to make it even stronger.
In this course, you'll learn to use some tools and strategies developmental editors use. They can help you gain perspective on your manuscript, analyze what you've created, figure out how to make it stronger, and create a plan to help you approach your story revisions systematically.
I'll guide you through:
Using a scene grid to systematically map out the layers of your story and changes you want to make
Defining what makes books like yours tick
Exploring your readers' expectations on multiple levels
Defining your thematic message and using it to make your story even more cohesive
Creating a plan to support you through your next steps
This course is for you if you:
Have a complete, or mostly complete, draft of a manuscript
Read contemporary books within your genre and subgenre
Understand the basics of how fiction elements work
Want to explore techniques and systems to help you plan big-picture changes
It's all self-paced so you can do the work whenever you like.
But you're not on your own. You'll also get a one-on-one consultation with me to discuss specific challenges you're having with your manuscript. And my editorial assistants 🦖🦕 will be cheering you on throughout the course.
Want to feel better prepared to take your manuscript to the next level? Click on that Registration button! ⬇
A needs-based scholarship of $75-off is available for writers from marginalized groups who cannot afford the full price. A limited number of scholarship spots are released every October and April. They're first-come, first-serve.
What Others Have to Say
"The DIY Developmental Edit is an incredible course! It’s so informative and actionable without being at all overwhelming. Tanya has amazing insights into the revision process, and they are excellent at making space for people with different approaches to their writing and revising process."
Genevieve Clovis
"I found the DIY Developmental Edit so helpful to me as both a writer and as an editor. The content is dense in the best way possible, and Tanya does a great job of breaking everything down in a manageable way. I walked away with ideas and strategies I can use with my own writing as well as my work with authors. Highly recommend."
Jennifer Navarre
"As both an author and an editor, I loved this course. It felt like having Tanya sitting beside me, offering step-by-step encouragement and practical advice. Tanya's guidance not only helped me look past the writer's block I felt with revisions but also left me excited to bring new perspectives forward to my own editing clients. I can't wait to return to my manuscript!"
Laura Bontje
Hi, I’m Tanya 👋🏻
I’m a book editor, translator, educator, and literary omnivore. I've been in publishing for over twenty years and love this industry to bits.
I work with authors and publishers, editing and translating SFF, horror, contemporary realism, memoir, interactive fiction, and graphic novels.
I support editors and writers one on one, and teach in a bunch of places, including the Editorial Freelancers Association and Emerson College's MFA in Popular Fiction program.
It has been suggested that I read too much for my own good. This might be true.
FAQs
Should I take this course instead of hiring a developmental editor?
It depends.
A good developmental editor is so worth it. They'll apply their industry knowledge and expertise, and give you a professional perspective on your work. They'll do a lot of the stuff we cover in the course for you, then you just have to decide what advice to take and apply the changes to your manuscript.
If you can afford a professional developmental editor and can work with their schedule, I highly recommend it. You'll likely learn a ton from the process. If you can't, this course is an alternative.
(And if you want a personalized recommendation for a good developmental editor in your genre and market, shoot me an email!)
Will this course work for my genre?
You bet! This course is designed to work with your own knowledge of your genre, whatever that genre is.
How much do I need to know about fiction to take this course?
Do you know what character arcs and subplots are? Do you understand the basics of story structure? Do you know what a scene is? If you've answered yes to all these questions, you'll probably be fine. And if you get stuck, I'll have resources that can help.
Are you going to try to fit my novel into a box with some kind of formula?
Nope. Those "universal" formulas can be really helpful in generating stories, but they're not really universal, are they?
I've designed this course to work with the structure that you've determined works best for you and your novel, whether that's a more "universal" formula or something less mainstream.
Will this course teach me how to become a developmental editor?
There's a lot more that goes into learning how to do a development edit for someone else than I cover in this course.
I'm working on a course that can help you with that though. I've also got a course on working directly with authors that can help you with some of the business logistics.
How long will this course take me?
Just going through the material itself shouldn't take you much more than a couple of hours. But completing the exercises will likely take you some time.
In my MFA course, which this course is based on, we do these exercises over a period of about five weeks. But you don't have to squeeze it all into five weeks since this course is completely self-paced.
The amount of time depends on a lot of factors really, including how complex your story is, how long your novel is, how many scenes you have, how much time you need to reflect, and how fresh it all is in your memory.
How long do I have to use the included consultation?
You've got three months from purchase to use the included consultation.
What if I want more support during the course? Can I get that?
Absolutely! In the course, you'll have the option to get more one-on-one time with me a discounted rate.
I need accessibility accommodations. Can you help?
I've done my best to meet general accessibility accommodations in this workshop. All the videos have captions and transcripts. The worksheets are available in Word, PDF, and Excel formats. Images have alt text where possible and descriptions where there isn't a place to enter alt text in the system.
If you need any additional accessibility accommodations, shoot me an email and I'll see what I can do to help.
What do you mean by "marginalized" in the scholarship?
People from marginalized groups and communities are people who have experienced systematic discrimination because of certain characteristics — such as their skin color, heritage, sexuality, gender, disability, or neurodivergence. This scholarship is intended to support people who have been historically excluded from the publishing industry.
Will I get to meet the dinosaurs?
Interested in Editing?
Check out my courses for editors ⬇