Read, Revise, Repeat: A Fiction Writer’s Self-Editing Toolbox

Short abstract

In this hands-on workshop, fiction writers will discover practical strategies to revise and refine their work with confidence. We’ll break the editing process into manageable stages, guiding you to identify what’s working, what needs tightening, and what may require a full rewrite. You’ll also learn to spot common pitfalls such as echo words, weak dialogue, and information dumps, as well as techniques to trim wordiness and polish your prose. This session is designed to help writers take control of the editing process before seeking outside feedback. It is perfect for writers at all levels who want to craft cleaner, more compelling drafts. Bring a scene or short excerpt of your writing for hands-on practice.

Detailed synopsis

This hands-on workshop is designed for writers who are ready to develop a keen editorial eye for their work. Participants will be provided with practical tools and techniques to transform their drafts into polished pieces of writing.

Key learning objectives

This workshop will help writers

• edit in layers, making multiple focused passes
• create tools like reverse outlines and character bibles
• tighten prose by cutting wordiness, redundancy, passive voice, and crutch phrases
• make dialogue purposeful and natural
• strengthen core mechanics
• clean up the narrative point of view, and
• utilize modern editing tools

Participants will be provided with time to put some of these techniques into practice to polish a short excerpt of their work.

Please visit the event page to register.