A developmental editor offers a writer a valuable outside perspective on their writing. One key skill a developmental editor of fiction should have is the ability to read a draft and identify its emerging themes. Knowing what themes underpin the different elements of a story can help a writer to decide what belongs and what can be edited or cut. In this webinar, learn what makes a theme strong enough to sustain a novel, different methods of searching for themes in a piece of writing and ways to better align a piece of writing with its theme to help a writer create a stronger, more cohesive story.
Presenter
Kathryn Jepsen (she/her) is the physics editor at Quanta, a magazine about mathematics, physics, computer science, and the basic life sciences. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in creative writing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a first reader for Small Wonders magazine, and she offers editing and coaching to writers of speculative fiction through Strange Visitor Editing Services.