Structural Editing

When you’ve finishing writing your manuscript, you’re still not finished.

The first form of editing is called Structural or Developmental Editing. It specifically addresses story structure and characterisation.

Your publisher will expect you to have many of these issues addressed before you submit your manuscript.

Your developmental editor may ask you to delete passages and even whole chapters if they’re getting in the way of telling a compelling story.

On the other hand, you may be asked to add more material into the story. For instance, you might be asked to expand a scene between two characters to deepen their motivation in a way that will add drama to upcoming scenes.

In short, a developmental edit will let you know how the structure of your story can be improved.

What you can expect your structural edit to address

Here are the deep-dive issues a structural edit will uncover:

• Characterisation
• Consistency
• Motivations
• Pacing
• Perspective/ Point of View
• Plot
• Readability
• Theme, and
• Voice.

Your structural editor will go through your manuscript thoroughly with these nine things in mind. They will mark up your document in places where the manuscript could be improved and provide specific examples.

A good structural editor will go through your manuscript a few times just to be thorough.

They will also write a covering document (anywhere between 5 and 30 pages) addressing the things they have found.

A good structural editor is a champion for your story. They will see things in your story that you, as the author who has lived and breathed it, may be too close to see.

Choosing a Structural Editor

Recommendations from other authors is an excellent place to start.

The structural editor should be experienced with the style of fiction you’re writing in. Each genre of fiction has particular styles and tropes readers expect to see. Your structural editor will be familiar with these.

Check their availability. You may need to wait some months before they can get to your manuscript. It is always important to book your editor in advance, or be prepared to wait.

Depending on the length of the manuscript, a structural edit may take six to eight weeks once the editor has started work, but may also be performed in less time if the author is experienced.

What about structural editing for non-fiction titles?

Structural edits are important for non-fiction titles too – especially if they are written with a general audience in mind.

Memoirs and biographies are just like any piece of general fiction – they need a beginning, a middle, and an end. They often have a theme, which needs to be consistent throughout the manuscript.

In truth, the only difference is that biographies and memoirs are about real people instead of fictional ones.

Similarly, self-help personal and business books tell a story and have a theme. Consider:

• What is the issue the book is addressing?
• Why is it an issue?
• What can the reader do?
• What might happen if the reader doesn’t follow the advice?
• What might the reader expect if they do follow the advice?

A structural edit for a non-fiction work will review the manuscript for how successfully you have addressed these questions. If the editor is also a specialist technical editor, they may also review aspects of your manuscript from industry experience.

How much does a structural edit cost?

This can depend.

Some editors charge a flat fee. Others charge differing amounts depending on word count.

This may be represented in one of two different ways.

• a X-dollar amount per 10,000 words. Or
• 50,000-80,000 words is X-dollar amount; 81,000 to 100,000 words is Y-dollar amount and so on.

You may be asked for the full payment upfront, or to pay a 50% deposit before work begins, or some editors may accept payment on completion.

How do I know if an editor is going to be good?

Recommendations are important. But even more important is that you feel comfortable and confident in your editor’s abilities.

If you are working with an editor for the first time, you might ask them to provide examples of their work.

This might take the form of an example of a structural edit they’ve given to another client (with identifying material removed, of course!) or they may offer to do a three chapter or a 5,000 word sample edit at a much reduced fee.

What happens next?

Once you’ve received the structural edits back, the rest is up to you. The structural editor won’t actually make the changes. We would highly recommend taking your editor’s comments on board. Remember, the structural editor is your story’s advocate. They believe in the story and your ability to tell it.

Once you have rewritten to incorporate the structural edits, you might wish to have the structural editor go through the manuscript again before going to line editing.

If this is the case, then you are likely to receive a 10-20% discount on their regular fees for them to review the manuscript once more.

When you are happy with your structural edits, the next step is line editing. It might be that the same editor will also do line editing.

Note:

You should not expect your structural editor to do line editing at the same time. They are two different processes that require diligent concentration. There are some editors who will do structural and line edits in the same pass, but they are rare. This combined process necessitates a thorough second review by the editor to ensure the structurally revised areas have not introduced further issues or errors.

Remember – good editors are worth paying more for.