Well, that's big news indeed!

Dear readers! In the next few weeks, you’ll have the chance to get even more of the best stuff I have in my brain about editing your own work.

I’m in the process of developing an online course through this website (easy to find!) that will help you with your own work before sending it out to a publisher, journal, or agent (or just to help you see improvement).

The course will be called ‘Editing your own prose.’ SO ORIGINAL! But for the purposes of me needing to know where all my ducks are AT ALL TIMES, that’s what it’s called. You can bet the course will be more fun than the title.

Who’s it for?

You! If you’re at the starting point of your writing life (or if you want a refresher) and want to know the basics of how to prepare a prose manuscript for submission, you’ll find this course useful. Though we’ll focus on a piece of prose work that I will provide, the ideas and exercises will apply to other genres of writing as well.

This course will be mainly for those looking to learn and/or expand on what you already know about editing your own work from my blog, and others you may follow.

If you’re not ready to hire an editor, this is the best way to get your feet wet and do some of the work on your own.

What will it cost?

The course will sell for $189 CDN. From the moment you buy it, you will have lifetime access to it so you can refer to it book after book if you find that useful.

What will I learn?

Through a series of six guided modules and (RILLY FUN) videos, we’ll go deeper into the editing process than I do on my blog. If you read my blog and gain something from it, this course might be for you.

The course will use writing that best shows the challenges of self-editing and ways to handle them effectively. You can apply all of these strategies to your own work.

What do I need to know ahead of time?

You’ll need to know how to use Microsoft Word software*. We’ll use that exclusively, although a lot of the lessons will lend themselves to printing and marking up by hand. If you understand the basics (how Track Changes, Comments, Find/Replace, and the search bar work in Word), you’re good to go. You’ll also receive access in every lesson to PDFs of the writing we’ll use that you can print out and mark up by hand as well. I work in Word for Mac (so that’s the screen you’ll see during video tutorials), and while there are visual differences across platforms and versions, the basic functions we’ll use don’t vary that much.

*Please make sure you understand the basic functions of Word (for PC or Mac) before purchasing this course. It is NOT a course on how to use the word processing software, and I assume you already know how to work the thing. I’m not able to provide coaching in Word within the context of this course.

Will you be teaching?

Once you purchase the course, you’ll be able to work through it at your own pace and in any way you like. There are no tests and no “right” way to work through it. The result that I aim for is you gaining a better understanding of what editors do, and learning something about how to work effectively on your own edits.

I am not part of the course (in that there is no interactive component). But I know you’ve got this! You’ll see my face once in a while, though, and I’ll guide you through each exercise.

Where do I sign up?

Conveniently, you can sign up right here!

Hop on board! And happy Tuesday!