D. A. J. F. said:
This question is for anyone.
I've got a vague notion of what a developmental editor does.
But can someone elaborate.
Do they compare your story to their favorite story structure and tell you what you are missing in terms of general plot points? Or do they actually give suggestions of what specific events should happen to fill in the deficiency?
The same question for scene and character development.
And what if you don't like the particular story structure they use?
Okay, I'll take a crack at it, but this is a hectic time of year for me, I've only got time to spit out a response and get back to work today. You'll have to forgive my rushed prose. I feel more comfortable giving a bunch of examples than trying to boil it down to a definition.
I do a little of the things that other editors do. I'll catch typos and move words around like a line editor. I'll suggest new opening and closing lines to fix the transition from one scene to another or rephrase things to fix the pacing, like a line editor would do. But none of that is part of my job description. In fact, my best work happens when I'm sent a book that doesn't need any of those things, then I can focus on the developmental stuff.
As the name implies, I'm watching the development of the plot and the characters. Does a trauma that happens to character A in chapter 4 affect how she responds to a similar situation in chapter 17? If no, then I'll tweak her dialog so that she is more visibly affected in chapter 17, or I will recommend that the author add some kind of therapy scene in chapter 10 so that we understand why. If said trauma was caused by character B, then I'll be watching her dialog to see if the way she speaks to him and the decision she makes reflects that change.
In regards to plot, I've got a few genre specific plot arcs in the back of mind when I read any book, but generally, if all of the emotional notes you're trying to hit are sounding on key then I don't break out any sort of plot analysis. But if for example, the climax of the book feels flat, then I'll start digging into the character arcs before I begin with a plot arc.
For example, if the characters from before, A and B, have to work together to solve the final problem, then your climax isn't really about solving the problem, it's about them overcoming that trauma from chapter 4 to work together. If that never happens, then the reader is going to feel that something is off. Or if the chapter 10 therapy session, worked, then maybe the climax is about showing how well the characters work together. In that case the climax would show how character A uses something that she learned about herself to solve the problem. So in that case, I'm often drawing a little roller-coaster-shaped graph for the plot and the same kind of graph for each of the characters. If the tension and excitement peaks at the climax, that's the bare minimum. Ideally each of the character arcs should also peak at the climax.
Developmental editing goes way beyond that stuff, but the roller coaster graph is a good tool. I like to see it start out fairly low but with a spike of activity in chapter one or two that is your inciting incident. There's other models where they have a beginning action scene followed by a secondary inciting incident. One incident to draw the reader's attention, and a second incident to push the character out of their comfort zone and into the world.
I like to graph the buildup to the climax as well. The middle chapters work very differently from genre to genre. But hero's journey, try fail cycle, all these artificial frameworks that people use to talk about books can be used to assess it. It tends to work best when you have two or three big incidents, each with a high point and a low point, and each a little larger than the last, so that we get increasing levels of tension as we build toward the climax.
And these peaks and valleys in the graph don't only represent action. For example: It's okay to have a car chase in your middle scene, followed by a tense standoff at gunpoint for a climax. So long as the emotional stakes are higher in the climax. In this example, during the car chase, everyone is having fun chasing the bad guys, but at the end, there is a low moment where the sidekick dies. Then in the end of the book, the bad guy has kidnapped the love interest. There might be less action, but because of the sidekick's death in the last scene, we are no longer just having a fun ride, this is life and death, so the tension is higher. And if you plot each character's emotional journey, you'll want to see a similar spike in the main character's relationship to the romantic interest and in their relationship to the sidekick. If the main character is focused on their hatred of the bad guy and not thinking of the friends who they have lost and the love interest in danger, then you could say that both of those graphs drop off too soon and they don't have the proper motivation needed to defeat the bad guy in a way that is satisfying.
Here's an example from one of my clients, they won't mind me mentioning this. There was a character who spent the whole book learning to swordfight, and when the bad guy finally showed up, they pushed him off a cliff. That was an easy assessment: "Ummm, no, you need a swordfight here." And ultimately, we decided the bad guy doesn't know how to swordfight, so they wound up swordfighting someone else. But the swordfight needed to happen to show the reader that the main character had grown stronger and more self sufficient as a result of the trials they had been through. See, in this example, it was not just the swordfighting, but the fact that pushing someone off of a cliff was the old way this character used to work, because they weren't tough enough to face their problems head-on before, and the whole book was supposed to be about them getting over that. Thus, swordfight was necessary.
That's a small part of how the plotting and graphing works. I don't actually draw a graph very often. One in six times maybe. If I am gripped by the story from beginning to end, and don't sense any missteps, I might not draw a graph at all. Genres with heavy plot expectations like romance are going to have stricter formats and if you are saying to yourself, "why am I supposed to care about this character?" it's probably because they've gone off the rails.
Editing is an adaptive thing though. I've tried to standardize it, so when I do my Developmental Beta, which is 90% of the work I get. (Dev Beta is just a name I made up for a mini developmental edit. Instead of doing multiple passes, I do a single pass, it takes a week or so, going through once and fix as much a I can in that time. It's not as good, but it's about 70% effective for 40-50% the price. So indie authors seem to like it.) When I do the Dev Beta I make sidebar comments as I go along, usually these are best for catching plotholes. I have started to fill out a plot outline and do a short writeup for each important character, as well as plot, setting, grammar (A lot of that is more of a beta reader thing. I might not have any major changes to make to a character but it helps the author to hear: "This character is a badass. Good job of keeping it subtle and not going over the top." or "Hey this character is kind of a jerk, good job of making him seem extra mean. But I can see that you are eventually going to have him hook up with that nice girl, so in book two you'll want to be aware of his jerk reputation and see if you can find some humanizing moments otherwise a love interest will feel forced.")
For science ficiton and fantasy I often track the science and magic systems. If understanding how something works is important then I make sure the character isn't using abilities that are impossible, or using science /magic in a way that hasn't been explained. Or if something happens that can't be explained I tell the author how to "hang a lampshade on it." Which is shop talk for draw attention to this so people know it's not a mistake. Usually it refers to cliches, but I like to use the phrase when talking about intentional plot holes.
So for example, if something happens that can't be explained and the main character just keeps walking, that is bad. But if the character stumbles a bit and says "Oh gawd, I have to ask Merlin about that crazy pink fire." Then it has been "lampshaded" Ie. enough attention has been drawn to it that the reader knows the author is intentionally withholding info and all will be made clear in due time. And this reader-trust issue can pertain to character development or plot stuff just as easily. If the nice kid in school starts pulling girls' hair on the playground, then you're either a sloppy author or you are secretly foreshadowing that he is now possessed by a demon. If you can subtly "lampshade" it, you will have properly earned the reader's trust then they will think oh, the author wants me to know this kid is acting unusual, I trust them to explain this later, and it will be fun to learn the truth.
So that's like...a fraction of what I do. And some Dev Edits don't touch on any of these things because the book has other challenges. Which is why it's so hard to put a finger on.
My solution for this is that I only work with a handful of author who know me and I take on one new client every six months to a year. So most of these folks have done four to seven books with me and they know what they're in for when they come into the shop.
It's a holistic approach. I'm still learning. I wasn't very good at it ten years ago, but I got a little better when I was writing my own books and doing the occasional manuscript swap. Then three or so years ago I stared offering it here and I feel like my understanding of what makes a story tick has increased exponentially.
Obviously it's not for everyone. Right now I'm not open for free samples because I'm booked 2-3 months out, but because I only take on a few new clients a year, I offer a full refund for any new Developmental Beta clients, just in case they're not satisfied. No one has needed it, but it's something that I feel is necessary because, even though I am careful to vet authors via email to make sure we click, it's still an abstract process. And I can afford to do it cause it's a risk I only take a few times a year.
So yeah, basically I try to do everything that you as an author would do when you go back to edit yourself. The only caveat is that depending on what level your writing is at, and whether or not I am the last person to look at this before you hit publish, it might be more important to spend time on the lower-level pacing, phrasing, transitions, plot holes, than the higher level stuff like like tracking theme, plot, and character development. And I don't always know that until I actually edit the book, but my regulars trust me to do what is most needed and to be honest about whether or not they should consider further rewrites.
Wow, lost an hour or two writing this. I gotta get back to work. Again apologies for the typos and word vomit. It's not something I have a succinct answer for but if I manage to pull my nose out of this week's project, I'll try and answer followup questions.