Services

Manuscript Assessment

After you complete a manuscript, having it assessed by an experienced professional is a wise investment. This offers rigorous, objective and constructive feedback on what is working well and how the piece could be developed.

I’ll consider the story’s elements in detail, note its strengths and identify how it can be improved.

What you get:

A report of around 5000 words giving honest and thorough feedback in areas including:

• Characters – How convincing and interesting are they? How do they develop? Is there a clear and consistent point of view? How authentic is the dialogue?
• Plot – How credible, interesting and easy-to-follow is it? Does everything make sense? Are things satisfactorily resolved?
• Setting – Does the reader get a strong sense of place and time in your story? Do you build a believable “world”?
• Structure – Does the story progress at an engaging pace? Is there too much focus on one aspect and not enough on others?
• Style – How clear, effective and appropriate is the language? Is there a good variation of sentence lengths?
• Theme – What overarching ideas does the story raise for the reader? How well realised are these? Are there too many? Is the focus consistent?

My report will give constructive comments and examples of how I think the work can be improved. You’ll have a clear set of recommended next steps to take.

Copyediting

A copyedit polishes your manuscript and gets it ready for an audience. Whether you’re self-publishing or submitting to an agent or publisher, it’s vital that your work is of a professional, publishable standard. First impressions count; errors interrupt a reader’s flow and potentially stop your work from being taken seriously.

I’ll screen your manuscript for problems with spelling, grammar and punctuation. I’ll query things that aren’t clear, watch for repetition and inconsistency, and alert you to content that’s copyright or might cause offence.

I’ll attend to the tone and readability of your language, ensuring that your word choice and syntax serve your storytelling well (also called line editing). I’ll tidy and format your document using Word’s Styles function.

Copyediting comes after you’ve developed your manuscript over multiple drafts – perhaps after an assessment or a structural edit – and the overall structure is settled. It’s not the time to do a major rework, because any new writing would need further copyediting.

What you get:

• your manuscript formatted and marked up with corrections, suggestions and queries using Word’s Track Changes, so that you can review each edit
• a style sheet detailing how I’ve approached elements like italics, capitals and punctuation. A fiction style sheet also includes notes about your characters and settings. This helps you keep things consistent when doing further writing.
• notes about grammar or other language issues I’ve identified in your work
• the option of a follow-up meeting (online or by phone) to discuss the edit.