The Dev Edit
Ever since I wrote my first chapters, I’ve known they could be better. I read enough fiction to know they weren’t quite doing what opening chapters are supposed to do: hook a reader and pull them fully into the story.
What frustrated me most was that I couldn’t pinpoint why they weren’t working. There wasn’t a misspelled word or a comma out of place. On the surface, everything looked fine. But something was missing.
Too close
My book coach pointed several things out to me, so I rewrote my first chapters. And then I rewrote them again. They got better with each approach, but they still felt as though they were missing something important.
By a certain point, I knew I was too close to the work. And while my book coach had been incredibly generous with her time, she’d reread my chapters so many times that I started to feel guilty asking her to look at them yet again.
A fresh set of eyes
So I hired an editor to do a First Chapter(s) Critique.
After researching several editors, I reached out to Kristen Hamilton. She happened to be from the Boise, Idaho area (where I lived for many years) so I was admittedly biased, but I felt an instant connection when we connected via email.
Within a week, Kristen read through my first two chapters and sent back a thorough critique, pinpointing the problems she found and offering suggestions and ideas for how to fix them. After I had some time to process her feedback, we hopped on the phone and talked through it all.
It was all so helpful and encouraging. Much of her advice echoed what my book coach had already told me. The biggest difference, though, was that Kristen had not read my work before and had no idea what my story was about or where it was going. That made her feedback different—not better, not worse—to that of my book coach.
I rewrote my first two chapters again, and now I feel pretty good about them. Of course, they feel a little Frankenstein-ish (to me) after so many iterations, but the work is undeniably stronger because of all the feedback I received. While I still don’t think they are completely finished, I know they’re close.
So what comes next?
My book coach thinks my work is strong enough to begin querying agents after I work through the revisions and editing processes I’ve outlined for myself, and that’s incredibly encouraging. After all, many literary agents will work through an edit of a book before shopping it to publishers (or so I’ve heard). And if a publishing house does buy it, it’ll go through another round of revisions and editing.
So the big question became: was my work good enough to go that far without a hiring a professional editor on the front end? Or would I burn through potential literary agents because I didn’t invest in an editor before I began querying? I’ll tell you one thing. I would have saved a lot of money if I’d taken my book coach’s advice. 🤪
Deciding to invest in a Developmental Edit
After getting such helpful feedback from Kristen on just my first two chapters, I couldn’t help but imagine how much better my book could be if I put it through a full developmental edit. And realistically, if my book fails to hook a literary agent, I’d need to pay for an editor before self-publishing it anyway.
So I decided to go ahead and invest in my own dev edit, so I can feel confident that I’m pitching the best possible version of my novel to literary agents.
What a Developmental Edit actually does
A developmental editor reads through a manuscript from beginning to end, and does what Kristen did for my opening chapters, but on a much larger scale. They look at character arcs, tension, stakes, themes, and identify any plot holes or places where the writing, subtext, or interiority can be stronger.
A developmental edit isn’t the type of edit that fixes grammar issues or typos. It’s more of a big-picture approach intended to make sure the story has all the elements a good novel needs to become a best seller.
Some developmental editors will provide feedback and encourage the author to implement it how they see fit. Others will dive in and make the changes themselves. While enlisting someone to do the developmental edit and implement the suggested changes is tempting, I feel it’s important for me at this stage to do take on these revisions myself. This is my first novel, and I’m learning so much about the craft by doing the work and making mistakes, even though that means it’s taking a little longer than I’d like.
Finding the right fit
As it turns out, Kristen went on maternity leave the day after our First Chapter Critique wrapped up. Isn’t that how it goes? (Congrats, Kristen!)
So the question became, how do I find the right person for the job?
I’ve taken a few courses by Tiffany Martin Yates, a professional who has worked in the publishing industry for more than 20 years. I also happened to using her book, Intuitive Editing: A Creative and Practical Guide to Revising Your Writing, to learn everything I can about the revisions and editing processes. In her webinars, Tiffany often references the work she’s done, so on a whim, I looked her up to see if she was still taking on new clients.
Turns out, she was. So, I sent an email. What could it hurt?
She responded quickly and walked me through her process, services, and rate structure. I sent her a chapter from the midway point of my novel, and she conducted a free sample edit and sent it back.
That alone helped me understand her feedback style, and what it would look like if we worked together on my entire novel.
Her feedback was exactly what I was hoping for. Implementing it made that single chapter immensely more engaging and real.
So I hired her.
I’ll be sending Tiffany my full manuscript in a week or two, as soon as I finish the current round of revisions I’m in the middle of right now.
And then what?
From there, I’ll implement her feedback and (hopefully) feel confident in querying literary agents no later than this summer.
It’s an exciting chapter. And now that I’ve wrapped my mind around what the revision and editing processes should actually look like, I’m genuinely enjoying this part of the journey.