Organised by The Guardian
The Sunday Times bestselling author leads this essential workshop in editing your writing and fine-tuning your story.
The writing journey can be a solitary experience full of ups, downs and false turns. Getting to the end of a first draft should feel like you’ve reached your destination but paradoxically, it also forces you back to where you started. This can take a psychological toll on any writer - it’s no wonder that so many fledgling works never see the light of day.
In this masterclass, bestselling author Cathy Rentzenbrink will show you how the process of editing can be just as joyful as the initial writing itself – it’s your chance to shape your story and craft the words on the page. Drawing on her years of experience as a writer and mentor, through examples of her own writing, Cathy will take you through the process from first rough draft to final published work, helping you to understand the decisions she made along the way and why.
Whatever stage of the writing journey you’re on, this masterclass will illuminate the path ahead, so you can approach your edit with greater confidence. By the end of this workshop, you’ll be able to to identify the difference between a structural edit and a line edit, how and when to work through these two different edits, and how to apply these learnings to your own work.
Course content
- The different types of editing
- How to look at your content and shape your book
- What to do and when
- When and if to involve an editor
- When not to edit
- Techniques for developing a writer’s mindset
- Q&A
Tutor profile
Cathy Rentzenbrink is the author of the Sunday Times best-seller The Last Act of Love and of A Manual for Heartache and Dear Reader: The Comfort and Joy of Books. In 2021 she published her first novel, Everyone is Still Alive, and in January 2022 she will be publishing a guide to writing memoirs, called Write it all Down: How to Put Your Life on the Page. Cathy regularly chairs literary events, interviews authors, reviews books, runs creative writing courses where she welcomes anyone, no matter what their experience, education, background or story. She believes that everyone’s life would be improved by picking up a pen and is at her happiest when encouraging her students to have the courage to delve into themselves and see the magic that will start to happen on the page.
Course Details
- Date: Monday 10 October 2022
- Time: 6.30pm-8.30pm (BST)
You may also be interested in Cathy’s other masterclass, Ways into writing: How to begin your story with Cathy Rentzenbrink. Both masterclasses are available to book as pair for a discounted rate of £89 (plus £4.66 booking fee).
6.30pm BST | 7.30pm CEST | 10.30am PDT | 1.30pm EDT
This masterclass is available globally. If you are joining us from outside the United Kingdom, please use this time zone converter to check your local live streaming time.
You will be sent a link to the webinar 24 hours and 30 minutes before the start time. Please email masterclasses@theguardian.com if you do not receive the access link.
We aim to make all Guardian Masterclasses fully accessible. If you require any adjustments to enable your participation in this course, please get in touch with us at masterclasses@theguardian.com.
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