It was Hemingway who famously said “the only writing is rewriting.”

It was also Hemingway who famously did not say (though the quote has been endlessly misattributed) one should “write drunk and edit sober.”

Whether you edit with strong black coffee, Bulleit bourbon, or Bailey’s Irish Cream, editing remains a sobering process–taking your writing (or someone else’s) and undertaking the painstaking and often painful process of doing your best to make it better without making it any worse.

Editing Essentials takes the anxiety and stress out of editing (perhaps alleviating the need for strong, amber-colored beverages) by giving you a set of battle plans and an arsenal of tools and techniques to help you conquer even the most uncooperative passages of prose. In this intensive 90-minute course, we will cover Ed’s Rules for Successful Editing (Ed is a fictional character, of course, whose full name is Ed I. Tor):

1. The Ed-ocratic Oath: First do no harm

2. Do go gentle into that good night

3. Don’t kill all your darlings

4. Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good

5. Don’t let the good be the pathway drug to the mediocre

6. Never throw away anything–ever

7. Safe editing–practice version control

8. Clarity beats brevity every time

9. A metaphor is worth a (few) thousand words

10. That’s what he/she said–keeping dialogue dynamic

11. Never lose sight of the big picture

12. Style covers a multitude of sins

13. Set up your space for comfort

14. Whose book is it anyway? (A short course-within-a-course for professional editors or those who would like to be)

This course is a participative experience, not a lecture; there will be time during and after for questions and answers.

The cost of the course is $199 but will come down to $149 with 4 or more participants and $99 with 10 or more. There will also be a “bring-a-friend” discounted rate of $99 ($79 if we have over 10 participants) if you would like to bring a guest.