A lot of work goes into a novel before it hits bookshelves: it needs a cover, ISBN info, back cover copy, reviews from more established authors, and a whole lot of checking for mistakes. The biggest of those steps, though, is the developmental edit.
I last talked about my own developmental edit back in June, when I went through the manuscript of MFA Thesis Novel one more time doing word tweaks, trims, and making a few small additions. This was a solo run in preparation for sending the new draft to my awesome editor, Melanie Faith, who’s been INCREDIBLY supportive throughout the entire process starting from when my novel first got signed with Vine Leaves Press. I wanted to make sure that Melanie got the best draft possible, so I made this final pre-developmental edit part of my summer plans.
My actual developmental edit was slated to run from June 15th to September 21st—three months where Melanie and I could go back and forth getting the manuscript into the best shape possible. I sent her the new draft on the morning of June 15th, and we made a plan for moving forward.
The First Run-Through
Melanie took two weeks to read through the new draft—her second time reading the novel since giving it the green light for publication last spring. When she was done, she sent me back her comments in the Word file, along with a three-page letter that was incredibly genuine, heartfelt, and encouraging. MFA Thesis Novel was in great shape, she said:
Excellent news: there are no chapters I’d omit, no chapters that needed a major overhaul or rethinking of structure or scenes, and no chapters that felt out of order and needed to be moved. That’s huge, and it speaks to the work and vision you’ve put into the narrative. Kudos. :-)
Melanie had made a lot of comments in the Word file (695 of them to be exact!), though the vast majority of them were positive:
In fact, I’d estimate that 90% or more of my 695 comments are kudos and positive reader responses (I put that number here so I don’t jolt you when you open the manuscript and see all of those margin boxes, LOL—there definitely aren’t 695 suggestions for changes—they are 695 boxes mostly of how this book resonated with me as a reader and how it entertained me and made me ponder real life based on these awesome characters). :-)
I was really glad that she’d taken the time to mark up the manuscript so thoroughly with feedback both positive and constructive. I’ve been in a lot of situations with people who critiqued writing only in terms of what was bad about it, either because they didn’t think the positive points were important, or they simply wanted to save time. In workshops and critique groups, this can make a piece seem worse than it really is, so I agree with Melanie’s approach that it’s also important to talk about what’s working well so writers can get a fuller perspective on their work and know what to do more of in the future.
Going into the editing process, I think a lot of people worry that their editor will force them to change things they don’t want to, to the point where it becomes an entirely different book. I’m not sure how often that happens in real life (I suspect not very), but I really appreciated how Melanie spelled out her views on this topic:
This is always YOUR book and an already very well-written one, so feel free to take or to omit any suggestions at all—whatever matches your vision for the book.
Reading this reminded me of when I taught undergraduate writing in Nebraska, when students would often make corrections to their essays just because they thought the corrections were what I wanted to see. A few of those students, though, stuck with their original way of doing it and told me why—maybe the original matched their vision, or my suggestion didn’t make sense on the page, and the students would tell me this in their essay notes.
It takes a lot of courage to assert yourself and your vision in the face of criticism from someone more experienced than you, so Melanie’s note was incredibly reassuring and made the process that much easier.
The First Response
July was an INCREDIBLY busy time for me since I was getting ready to leave Toyama, so I knew there was no way I could respond to Melanie’s comments in the midst of my moveout. We made a plan through email that I’d get back to her with edits and responses by August 14th, since I wanted a bit more time to sit down with the manuscript after getting back to New Hampshire. This would leave us just over a month to do one final back-and-forth before the deadline, which Melanie agreed would be fine.
Going through all 695 of Melanie’s comments took a while, but was incredibly fulfilling. It was revealing to experience her process of digesting the novel (often page for page!) and gain her insights into individual scenes, characters, and sentences. I did an initial readthrough of her comments in July, then when August hit and I had more time I went through and added comments of my own, responding to her comments and touching up areas that needed tweaking.
Here’s an example from Chapter 1 (click for a larger version):
I chose this page because it had a bit more markup than most—Melanie points out two passages that feel cliche or are in need of trimming, and one moment she really liked (though it needs a hyphen!). The words in red are my revisions as I cleaned up the sentences, and using Track Changes made them easy to see for both of us.
Because Melanie worked so hard commenting on the manuscript, of course I wanted to respond in kind, so I added my own insights, background behind the writing of the novel, a few anecdotes, and a handful of literary references, including the James Joyce note on this page. I couldn’t respond to all of her comments, though, so I deleted those I didn’t have replies for to make the next readthrough a little quicker for both of us.
Going through the manuscript like this was incredibly fun, since it helped me experience the novel with fresh eyes, and helped me build a rapport with Melanie that felt really rewarding. Our back-and-forth was also filled with humor, stories from our pasts, general silliness, and a few shared Youtube clips, including one from the movie Out of Africa and this SNL clip of David Spade and Helen Hunt as flight attendants on Total Bastard Airlines.
The Final Back-and-Forth
When I sent the draft back to Melanie by email I had a few notes regarding things I wasn’t quite sure about—mostly small things I wanted to add but didn’t have a place for, but also a handful of sentences I wasn’t sure how to word. It was REALLY good to get her opinion on these notes because she had some great ideas for where to make the additions, several of which I ended up using. This made the process feel incredibly collaborative, like we could toss around ideas together before I decided whether to add them in.
Melanie got back to me with her comments to my comments in early September, just as I was headed back to Japan. The mandatory COVID isolation period was an excellent time to go through and polish up the draft one more time, as well as respond to parts of the conversation Melanie and I had going in the margin comments.
When I sent her back the new copy a week or so later, I’d made all of the changes except for one or two I wanted to get her final opinion on, and we still had a week to go before the deadline. She responded with helpful encouragement, and when I felt good about everything I gave her the green light to pass the final-final draft on to the press.
Final Thoughts
Working with Melanie was incredibly easy, fulfilling, and rewarding. We were able to develop a genuine rapport, share some laughs, and work on the novel collaboratively in a way that felt incredibly balanced and fun. I’m not sure if all developmental editors work that way (this is my first time going through the process!), but the experience showed me a lot about what an ideal writer-editor relationship can look like, and gave me a lot of experience I can bring to future collaborations. The first time doing something like this is always the hardest, so I was really glad it was a good one :-)
After the developmental edit, MFA Thesis Novel went to the copyeditor and is in the middle of the formatting process now. I also sent publisher and cover designer Jessica Bell some ideas and insights on what the cover could look like, which was also exciting. Things with the novel are moving pretty fast, and of course I’ll keep you posted on how they go ;-)
Incredibly helpful post!!