Fiction Editing

What makes short fiction successful is a perfect mix of narrative, character, place, and sequence of events, as well as dynamic, compelling, fresh language. Fiction should exudes writerly authority yet sound natural, as if no one else could tell this story on this very day.

Therefore, analysis and revision of fiction is partly about mechanics—such as length, plotting, and pacing—and partly about more ethereal aspects—such as tone, “voice,” perspective, word choice, and so forth. 

I offer two tiers of editing, because some writers simply want input on their stories and don’t want anyone else tinkering with their prose. Others, however, are eager to hand their stories over to someone else to address its issues comprehensively.

Developmental fiction editing: 2 cents per word.

This service focuses on the fundamental, big-picture aspects of fiction, such as:

• • • Structure and pacing
    • Conflict and tension
    • Exposition (showing vs. telling)
    • Plot/premise
    • Character development and arcs
    • Dialogue
    • Tense and point of view
    • “Voice” and tone
    • Style, pacing
    • Showing vs telling

I’ll provide a brief report explaining what needs to be addressed to make the story shine, as well as use Word’s or Google Docs’ commenting function to give more precise comments and insight in the document. But what I do not do in this type of editing is making any changes to the text. That’ll be up to you.

Example pricing:

A 1,000 word document would cost 20€ or $20. 

A 5,000-word story would cost 100€ or $100.

Comprehensive fiction edit: 4 cents per word.

Comprehensive editing goes deeper. In addition to all of the above, I also examine language more closely, including description, setting, deeper elements of tension, ellipses. I track all changes in Word or Google Docs, which allows you to see what changes I propose. 

Example pricing:

A flash fiction of 500 words would cost 20€ / $20. 

A 5,000-word story would cost 200€ / $200.

Certain projects may require an hourly rate (such as revisions to PDFs, proofs, and other non-editable documents, for example). I charge 60€ / $60 dollars per hour for copyediting. Contact me to discuss your needs.