Developmental Editing/Content Editing

Developmental editing is often as concerned with what you are saying as it is with how you are saying it.

Developmental editing, also called content editing, is just what it sounds like: developing content. An author whose manuscript is in its beginning or intermediate stage often feels stuck, wondering where to go from this point. By locating underdeveloped parts and dead ends, as well as latent potential, an experienced editor can help develop ideas and steer an author in new, productive directions.

A developmental editor has to be able to see the big picture as well as the details. Put another way, a good editor must be able to see the forest and the trees, at the same time, moving continually between large concepts or broad narrative arcs and smaller, concrete details such as examples or anecdotes, sentence by sentence. Please see the example at the bottom of this page for a description of how one memoir underwent developmental editing. Please see ACADEMIC EDITING for developmental academic editing.

Developmental/content editing entails the following (this is not, of course, an exhaustive list; each manuscript is unique):

·      Rethinking “first principles.”

o   Is the thesis or central idea sufficiently substantive and complex to generate a strong and compelling argument? If not, we will do our utmost to help you strengthen your thesis and/or better articulate your goals.

·      Structuring or restructuring content; reorganizing material.

o   This may require moving passages or entire sections, in order to generate a compelling and/or logical narrative or argument.

·      Creating or strengthening transitions.

o   Transitions are essential for a seamless and logical narrative or argument. Paying attention to transitions is especially important in situations where a lot of text is being moved around.

·      Locating underdeveloped sections or points.

o   A developmental editor behaves as your ideal reader. They are on the lookout for those moments when they wished an author would say more, explain a concept better, or provide more support or evidence.

·      Cut & Trim.

o   A good editor will ensure that every sentence—and an entire manuscript—is as lean as possible. Redundancies and repetition must be cut, as must wordiness or unnecessary information.  Even the best writers will err on the side of excess; it’s a natural and inevitable part of the writing process.

·      Style, tone, and voice.

o   Style, tone, and voice must be both consistent and appropriate. A developmental editor will maintain these important aspects of your manuscript.

·      Redirecting a narrative or argument toward a stronger, more logical, more original conclusion.

o   We often don’t know what we really, or ultimately, want to say, until we start writing. In the process, the conclusion toward which we were driving may have shifted. Sometimes we get off track, and sometimes that new track is actually better than the one we started on. Developmental editing can help replot or reshape your narrative or argument, taking new, unanticipated ideas into consideration.

o  Erecting a new skeleton may only be part of developmental editing. Sometimes the beginning, or foundation, of a manuscript needs to be rethought or retooled in order to launch a more compelling narrative or argument; the same holds true, of course, for the conclusion. Some sections or paragraphs might need to be edited down or cut out entirely, while others should be more fully developed or newly created.

Example:

The most important thing is for an editor to really, truly get what an author is trying to accomplish, and to help deliver that vision. That might mean doing something that seems drastic, such as totally reordering material to improve structure and flow. For instance, I was given given a memoir in which two lives, that of a famous father and a child, comprised equal halves of the manuscript. The memoir, although it contained interesting sections, lacked momentum. The problem was that the two lives were discrete; they weren’t “talking” to each other. By moving sentences, paragraphs, and entire chapters, I was able to construct a far more dynamic narrative. Now, elements as large as events and as subtle as attitudes were being placed near each other, which generated a kind of dialogue between the two lives. Correspondences as well as points of contention were now visible. Thematic significance, as I saw it, was more important than a strict chronological order, and the result was, in the author’s words, a far more balanced narrative. In the first draft, simply giving “equal time” to each life story had not been enough to achieve that balance.