215: 3 Suggestions I've Given Editing Clients Recently

 

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3 Suggestions I've Given Editing Clients Recently

Hello, welcome back to Your Big Creative Life. I'm recording this in early January and I just got back from spending the holidays in Minnesota. I think last time I recorded an episode, I was sharing with y'all how stressed I felt thinking about flying with a toddler. And I have to report back, oh my God, flying with a two-year-old who has their own seat is so much easier than flying with a one-year-old, an 18-month-old, where you have to restrain them in your lap. Oh my gosh, the flight there was a little dicey. but just for an hour, but then the flights back were great. Like it was just so much easier, honestly. And you can, I don't want to say you can reason with a two-year-old, but you can at least communicate more and they understand more about what's going on. They're not just like a little chaos monster who can't understand anything. I mean, they are at 2, but it's just different. I don't know if you're a parent, you know, if you know kids, you know what exactly what I'm talking about. We just ate so many snacks. She watched Peppa Pig. It was fine. It was fine. Yeah. I feel so much more confident now flying. And honestly, even through the hiccups of all of our travel issues, we got, so in Minnesota, it snowed a couple days after Christmas.

And because of that, flights got delayed on Monday, the day after, and our flight ended up getting canceled. We were at the airport for five hours because our flight kept getting delayed, kept getting delayed, and then finally they canceled it because of a mechanical issue on the plane. So we had to just turn around and go home, like go back to my mom's house. And we stayed with her for another two days because they couldn't book us home on a return flight until Wednesday, two days later. And, but that's okay. We finally got home. We just spent an extra two nights with my mom. I had to scramble a bit to work because I had an editing project due Wednesday and I was on my iPad. So I had to like borrow my mom's computer and it was a bit of a, it was a little crazy, but we survived. We're back. I hope that y'all had an amazing holidays. I have a bit of a cold. I managed to get through January. Like it's, I managed to get through the holidays. and then just got this cold now, which is pretty good. Having a daughter in daycare, traveling, and only now getting a cold, like that's pretty good. So yes, it's a bummer, but oh well. And my daughter's not sick, so that's a win. But I do, yeah, I'm just feeling a little tired and stuffy and congested.

But anyways, that's just how it is in the winter when you have a kid who brings home all kinds of stuff. Okay, so we did an episode a couple of months ago, maybe even spring of 2025, that was on pieces of feedback that I've given to editing clients recently. And I wanted to do another episode kind of similar and talk about 3 editing notes that I've, like common editing notes that I've given to authors recently. And how this works is I don't ever share specifics about client projects. Obviously, if you are a client and you're listening to this and you're like, oh God, I hope she doesn't read out my notes from my book. No, it's nothing like that. What I do is I just look at patterns because what tends to happen with editing is I will have a period where I'm giving multiple authors the same vague kind of suggestion. Obviously, every book is different and even a common suggestion like, hey, look at this prologue, it's always going to be, there's always going to be more specific advice that I'm including to the author because of their specific prologue and what my specific recommendations are. So just know that I'm talking more in general terms in these episodes, obviously not talking about like, yeah, I'm respecting client anonymity, but there are just things that I observe, patterns, and I just tend to give some suggestions to multiple authors.

So I thought it might be helpful for y'all to hear what these notes are, and then maybe you can apply them to your own writing. Or they're just things you can kind of double check. to make sure that you're doing correctly, not doing whatever the case may be. Okay, so number one, this is something for fantasy. Actually, no, I'm sorry, I'm gonna jump, I'm gonna do something else. We're gonna talk about sequels first. I have edited in the last four, five, six months, I've edited probably... I don't know. I didn't go back and count. I'll just say a number of sequels where either people are writing a duology and I'm editing book two or they're writing an entire series with a lot more books than two and I'm editing like book two or book three of the series. That just kind of, it just kind of happened that way. And something you have to remember, I'm going to mention an editing note that I've given to multiple authors with sequels from a developmental standpoint. So I offer a type of editing called a manuscript evaluation, which is where I'm giving the client feedback on characters, plot, pacing, world building, conflict, et cetera. I don't actually go in to make any changes to the story or rewrite anything for them. I'm just saying, hey, I'm leaving comments in the manuscript in the margins, and then I'm writing an editorial letter for them that gives them my suggestions and my feedback. back and talks about all that good stuff.

So sequels, okay. A note that I've given to clients recently is I know that this can feel repetitive for you, the author, and I know it can maybe feel a bit unnatural or clunky, but what you have to remember is that readers who read book one might have read book one years ago or they might have just completely forgotten what they read. They might be one of those people that reads like 800 books a year and they just like completely forget a book as soon as they finish it. So you have to include some gentle reminders for your readers about character names, plot points, world building details, etc. from book one. Again, even though it feels a little bit unnatural and clunky, or it can for you, the author. An example of this might be, if you introduced a number of small, like supporting characters from the first book that come back in book two, it's a good idea to give maybe a detail or two, maybe a sentence or two of a reminder about the relationship between these characters. Or maybe a very specific term for magic, a very specific kingdom, a very specific ability that a character has that's unique to your world in your story, if that comes up again in book two, include a reminder for the reader about what that is. Because again, it could have been months, it could have been years, or you could have people picking up book two who know it's book two, but they're like, I'll figure it out. And they just have never read book one.

So it's a good idea to include those reminders for a reader. And if you want, Like this can feel something, this can feel like something that, it's often something you don't notice in sequels unless you really look for it. And if you start to read sequels and look at these kinds of reminders, you will start to see them. And often the author does it so seamlessly that you're not even aware, like, oh yeah, they're reminding me what happened in book one. I just didn't really fully realize it because it's just a couple of words. It's one line. It's not, you know, a huge reminder. And it can, it can, yeah, it just is, it just is important for the reader. So that's a note that I've given to multiple authors recently who are writing sequels is to just make sure you're doing that for your reader. Number 2, the second note that I've given to multiple authors recently, this one has to do with dual point of view novels. So if you're writing, I don't know, any kind of romance, any kind of romantasy, any kind of fantasy, any kind of anything, thriller, whatever, and you have two point of view characters, or honestly, even multiple point of view characters, is to pay attention to the balance of how frequently each character shows up and they have a point of view chapter.

Now there's no rule that it has to be 50-50. Like let's just take a romantasy or a contemporary romance novel where you have two people who are the love interest, they're equal, you know, like protagonists in your novel and you, like you don't have to alternate so that character A has 15 point of view chapters and character B has 15 point of view chapters. It doesn't have to be equal. But I'm thinking of 1 instance in particular where I was editing a book where it was a romance and the character characters. I don't remember specifics. I'll just, I'll just make something up here. Let's just say like chapter one started from the woman's perspective. Then chapter two was the guy's perspective, like the love interest perspective. Then chapter three was the woman. And then we got about 8 chapters from the woman's point of view before the guy came back in. And I've actually had this happen a number of times where we just go for a very, very long stretch without hearing from a character. We're not in their point of view at all. And that can get, it can just make things feel unbalanced, particularly because in dual point of view, like a romance or a fantasy or anything, honestly, if you're giving a character a point of view, if they are a point of view character, that means they're a major character. That means that you have to develop that character fully.

And if we go for a long stretch without getting insight into their thoughts, their feelings, how they're viewing the other character, that it makes it feel unbalanced and it can lead to that character not feeling as fully fleshed out as the other character does, where we're spending a lot more time in their head. Now, of course, you can develop a character without being in their point of view, but it's just in these kinds of stories where there is that dual point of view. That's part of the reason why you're doing that. So just pay attention to that balance and be mindful of it. Again, it does not have to be 50-50. You do not have to alternate and have it neat and tidy in that way. but it's just something to consider. And similar, I suppose this could apply as well to if you have multiple point of view. Like let's say you're writing a fantasy novel and you have 5 point of view characters. It's this found family, this group of characters. You've got five of them. They each have their own point of view chapters. If you have a character who only has two throughout the entire novel and they're very short, they're going to naturally feel like less of a character and feel unbalanced compared to the other ones. Now that could be intentional, but if it's not, then that's something to pay attention to. Okay, let me look at my notes here. Oh, prologues. Another note about prologues in fantasy specifically. So let me just say first of all that fantasy is my most common genre that I edit. It just kind of happens that way that a lot of fantasy authors work with me. Why fantasy, adult fantasy, also like romantic fantasy or romantasy, just like anything under the fantasy umbrella really.

Like I just work with a lot of those authors, which is awesome. I love fantasy. And I read a lot of prologues in fantasy novels. And I almost get the sense sometimes that people who are writing fantasy think that they have to have a prologue because they see prologues in published books maybe that they love and they think, oh, well, that's just what you do. It's just very common. And yes, it is more common in fantasy to have a prologue than in other genres, but that doesn't mean that that they're essential. And often they're just, they're not needed. So it might be a bit of like almost confirmation bias if you're thinking, oh, well, these books that I read and love all have prologues, so therefore I need one. Well, there's plenty of prologue or plenty of fantasy novels that are published that don't have them. You just might not be thinking of them. Or I've read them or whatever. So with prologues, 90, Honestly, in the last four months or so, I think every fantasy, I think all but one fantasy novel, I've recommended that the author cut the prologue. Just remove it entirely and start with page one of chapter one, because prologues are very, I don't want to say they're difficult, Maybe I should just say they're difficult to do right. Because oftentimes people will want to use prologues in fantasies in particular to dump world-building information and backstory onto the reader. And that's not a good use of a prologue. That's not a correct use of a prologue.

We haven't even met the main character yet. And so for you to open a prologue and give us the backstory and the history of your world and how events came to be before page one and our protagonist's childhood, like the history of the magic in the world, like this doesn't matter. It's irrelevant. It's much better to show us that information sprinkled into the narrative as opposed to just like hitting all of that in a prologue. Because the other thing you have to remember is a lot of readers skip prologues. So like if there's essential information that your reader has to know, but it's only in the prologue, you're not using your prologue correctly. So yeah, there's that issue. Oftentimes, like stylistically or totally, it's just a mismatch to the rest of the book, which I hate to say that because sometimes prologues can work where they're doing something stylistically different. But in the cases of the ones I've edited recently, I just don't see a strong argument for keeping it. And honestly, I've even told my authors, the ones over the past few months, like I forgot about the prologue, honestly, once I started reading because it just There's nothing to ground it to the story. There's nothing to connect it to the story yet. I haven't been able to meet any characters. I haven't seen the world in action. I haven't even gotten into the story yet.

So to hit either with world building, hit me either with world building information or like vague references to things that are going to happen in the plot, It's just kind of meaningless. I just don't see a strong reason for it. So you do not, you absolutely do not have to have a prologue in any genre, but particularly for my fantasy authors, you don't have to have one. There's no, there's no rule or like, I don't know, don't feel obligated that you have to because you've seen some fantasy novels. I even, I even, okay, obviously I'm not like in the publishing industry in the traditional publishing world. Like I'm not an agent at an agency or like an editor at a publishing house, but I even wonder if this is something that's like a pendulum is kind of swinging the other way where maybe there were more prologues in the past, but now there aren't as many. Like I'd be interested to see if that's kind of a trending thing that is moving the other way where people are moving away from them. Because yeah, I just, I don't know. And this is where people always like to say, what about this very popular book that has a prologue? Sure, yeah. Like I've said on this podcast and in my content that I have the recommendation for my clients to cut prologues 90% of the time, which means that 10% of the time a prologue can work and I recommend keeping it.

Like, so there are prologues that work. It's just in these, over the last three, four, five months, I've recommended all but one author, I think. remove the prologue entirely. Or I think one client, I did recommend shortening it just because the prologue was very long and it honestly just felt like a first chapter. I was like, you know, you could just call this chapter one. It doesn't need to be a prologue, but if you do feel strongly about making it a prologue, then, you know, to shorten it because not all of this stuff is essential that you have in here. It's not like the best kind of beginning point of the story. So just keep that in mind if you do have a prologue or you're feeling like you should have a prologue, just yeah, maybe that can help you look at your own with some fresh eyes. Okay, so those are the three notes I've given to clients recently. Just in the sake of my cold and saving my voice, I'm going to stop it there.

If you are interested in editing, if you're interested in a manuscript evaluation, which is where these notes that I'm talking about in this episode come from, you can go to the link in the show notes that has all the ways to work with me. I'm currently booking for, at the time that I'm recording this episode, I believe I have one spot open for March. February's booked. I think I might have one spot open for March, maybe one spot open for April. But you can always go to my editing page and I will show you, I will write on there what month I'm booking for so that you know. And of course you can book anytime in 2026. But those are just the first openings that I have. You can also reach out to me for coaching if you're interested in the six month program or copy editing, which is where I clean up the grammar, verb tense, subject verb agreement, punctuation, et cetera. So you can check out the editing page for ways to work with me there. There's just a little form that you'll fill out where I ask you about your book and then I'll e-mail you back and we can talk about working together a bit more. So, all right, hope this was helpful. If y'all want more episodes like this, I'm happy to do them where I just kind of talk about general suggestions that I'm giving to authors. So let me know. You can send me a DM @KatieWolfWrites on Instagram. All right, thanks for listening. I hope you had a wonderful new year. Thank you so much for listening.

Katie Wolf