Last month was a global look at things with developmental and substantive (substantial) editing. Two types that can overhaul everything you’ve ever written—which may be a good thing or a bad one. Neither were under the term “content” last month for two reasons: It’s kind of obvious that both types have to do with your content, and the term content can mean more than just the two global editing terms talked about. Sleeves still rolled up from last month? Good. Leave them up until this series is over. It’s gonna get dirty.
This month we’re going to focus on content, heavy, structural, and rewrite.
In some editors’ lexicons, substantive and structural are synonymous. So…why didn’t I put that in last month’s issue? Because, I believe them to be separate kinds of editing. While structural editing can mean a substantial change, substantive editing may not include structural changes.
I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve read that have been ruined by bad structure, however, the amount of changes which needed to be made were not enormous.
First, we’ll look at the structure of a story. (And those of you who are experts, use this as a review and don’t pooh-pooh it, this is not as “common knowledge” as you may think.)
Writing 101—The Structure of a Story.
All good stories should have:
Read the entire article in the March 2019 issue of InD'Tale magazine.
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