Here’s a short story that comes complete with editing suggestions from professional editors. I read the story and made my own editing suggestions and then compared my ideas with those of the pros. As one might expect, there was some variation in opinion among the featured editors, but they agreed on the major problems with the text.
I thought the beginning of the story was weak, the dialect was inconsistent, there were instances of “telling instead of showing,” and of course there were lots of line and copy editing details to take care of.
Overall, the pros agreed that the dialect didn’t work, and that this story didn’t add anything to its genre. Each editor, however, offered their own unique insights. If you’re an aspiring writer or editor, you’ll enjoy reading the edit.
These editors know what readers ultimately want: an interesting character in an interesting situation. The editors offer many tips: make the first page shine, get into the story right away, don’t introduce unnecessary details or plot devices, offer readers something original.
One of the editors wrote something that stuck with me: writing is an art and a craft. The craft part you can learn, but the art part? Not so much.