City Writes Final Call For Submissions

Calling all current students and alumni of City, University of London’s short creative writing courses, the deadline to submit to this term's City Writes is this Friday, 11th June. They’re looking for your best 1,000 words - fiction and narrative non fiction - to share the virtual stage with alumna, Alex Morrall, whose debut Helen and the Grandbees was published to great acclaim by Legend Press last year. Full submission details are here.

Helen and the Grandbees by Alex Morrall

This term's online event with Alex Morrall is on Wednesday 7th July at 7pm. You can register for your ticket here.

City Writes was founded by our very own Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone and is a termly event showcasing the best of City's short courses creative writing talent. Winners of the competition get to share the stage with authors like Kiare Ladner, Imogen Hermes Gowar, Katherine Menon, Harriet Tyce and Deepa Anappara.

Winners of this term's competition will be announced in week 9. Find out how to submit here. Register for the event here. We’ll be going and hope to see some of you there!

What are the different types of book editing?

“No iron can pierce the human heart as chillingly as a full stop placed at the right time.”

— Issac Babel

When it comes to choosing a professional editor to work on your novel, things can get confusing. What’s the difference between proofreading and copyediting? What does a developmental editor do? And which editing comes first? Read on for our mini-guide to the different types of editing.

Proofreading

Proofreading is the final polish of a manuscript: a safety net that ensures nothing slips through. Typically, a proofreader will look out for micro-level errors such as spelling mistakes, typos and punctuation errors; errors in page numbering, text alignment, spacing, font size and style. If you’re planning to self-publish and have limited funds to invest in editing, it’s always worth getting a proofreader to check your manuscript before it goes into the world.

Copyediting

A copyedit will check for and correct grammatical, spelling, syntax and punctuation errors as well as consistency in spelling, capitalization, font usage, numerals and hyphenation. Continuity errors will also be checked, as well as factually incorrect statements. In fiction, this continuity applies to character description, plot points and setting. Finally, a copyedit will check for potential legal liability and verify that a manuscript does not libel others.

“The wastebasket is a writer’s best friend. ”

— Isaac Bashevis Singer

Line editing

Although a line edit will check and correct all the potential errors involved in copy editing and proofreading, the real work in this kind of editing is to do with the writer’s language. A really good line editor will suggest changes to the language to make it clearer and stronger, changes that will also enhance and strengthen a writer’s style and voice.

Developmental editing

Sometimes called structural or content editing, this is the Big Daddy of editing services and is usually best employed at an early draft stage. A developmental editor will read your manuscript paying particular attention to macro-areas such as story, genre, plot, pace, character, dialogue, setting, voice, structure and tone.

Typically, a developmental edit will entail detailed notes on your manuscript, including areas that need development and suggestions for rewrites. Comments may also be embedded into the text to illustrate areas in need of further work. This kind of editing is very labour intensive and, to be really effective, requires an editor to have a deep understanding of story analysis.

And that’s it: four very different types of editing, all useful but at different times.

For anyone who’s interested in learning more about the relationship between writing and editing, the following books are highly recommended:

• Athill, D. Stet, Granta, 2011

• Coyne, S. The Story Grid, Black Irish Books, 2015

• Saunders, G, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, Bloomsbury, 2021

• Maxwell, W. The Happiness of Getting it Down Right, Random House, 1998 

5 Reasons why you need to apply for City University's Novel Studio

There are just 20 days left to get your application in to City’s Novel Studio 2021 Programme…

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Here’s why you should apply…

1. The course has a proven track record. Alumni include Award-winning authors Deepa Anappara, Hannah Begbie, and Harriet Tyce, amongst many others.

2. It’s practical. Each module has been designed to support you in writing your novel, from developing your plot to character motivation.

3. The tutors are brilliant: Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone and Kiare Ladner are both professional writers, editors and creative writing teachers who really know their onions and want to help you become better writers.

4. It has great links with the publishing industry. Each year students are trained in rehearsed readings towards an end-of-year show to an invited audience of literary agents.

5. There’s one fully-funded space available for a talented writer from a low-income household via their scholarship scheme.

Apply before 30 April 2021

Monique Roffey wins Costa Book Award 2020

We were delighted to hear that Monique Roffey had won the Costa Book Award 2020 for her novel The Mermaid of Black Conch. Published by Peepal Tree press, this is Roffey’s sixth novel and a thing of pure beauty: a deeply moving love story between local fisherman, David Baptiste, and the mermaid he first lays eyes on one morning off Murder Bay: 

‘David was strumming his guitar and singing to himself when she first raised her barnacled, seaweed-clotted head from the flat, grey sea, its stark hues of turquoise not yet stirred.’ 

This barnacled creature, we later discover, is Aycayia, an indigenous woman turned into a mermaid many years before by her own women in a jealous attempt to stop her beguiling their men. 

Costa Book Award winner 2021, The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey

Later, when Aycayia is yanked from the sea by American tourists as part of a macho fishing competition and strung up on the harbour for all to see – ‘her head hanging downwards, her deadly hair trailing, her arms lashed with rope behind her back, her breasts naked’ – we do not expect a happy ending . But Roffey has written a subversive tale. In Baptiste’s care, Aycayia is rescued, and nurtured. She sheds her fish scales and her tale, she learns to speak, and she once more, exercising, and enjoying, her considerable powers over the fisherman. 

But as local suspicions grow around the new ‘woman’ seen near Baptiste’s home, and Aycayia experiences strange echoes of the ancient curse – in one epic scene, fish begin to rain down from the sky, an act Aycayia feels sure is connected to the curse – she asks David to take her back to the sea. 

With a clever structure, a vivid cast of characters – from Porthos, the corrupt policeman, to Miss Rain, the complicated landowner and Miss Priscilla, the brilliantly nasty neighbour – and the kind of exquisitely rich language that makes you yearn to see the landscapes and people Roffey describes, The Mermaid of Black Conch is one of those novels that will capture your heart and make you want to return to it again, and again. 

City Writes Spring 2021 Competition Open

City Writes, City University of London’s termly writing competition, is open for submissions.

Kiare Ladner’s debut Novel, Nightshift

Past and present City University London short course writing students: City Writes is back and looking for your fiction or non-fiction. Selected and hosted by the brilliant Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone, one of The Book Edit’s editors, this term's event will feature guest author Kiare Ladner whose debut novel, the devastatingly good Nightshift, is due out in February with Picador. To join her 'on stage', full competition details are here.

For anyone wanting to attend, it's free, online and lots of fun, just register here.

Deadline for submissions: Friday 5th March

City Writes Spring Event on Zoom: Thursday 1st April at 7pm

Good luck!