Polish: The Art of Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

Synopsis

Once you have completed a story, you must relook your fiction with a keen editor’s eye if you are to identify aspects to rework and improve on. If you are unsure of how to troubleshoot and polish your work before you market it, this is the workshop for you.

First session (3 hours) 23 March 2023

• How to be dispassionate when assessing and revising one’s own work
• The different types/stages of editing: structural editing, copy/line editing, proofreading
• How to identify and solve macro/structural problems (e.g. issues of concept, plot, character development, pacing, setting, themes, writing style)
• How to identify copy/line issues (e.g. minor factual errors, consistency, grammar, spelling, punctuation, clarity, expression, formatting)
• How to give constructive and supportive feedback to other writers

At the end of this session, all participants will be broken up into small groups. Each group member will be given hard copies of the group’s sample texts to edit as homework.

Second session (4-hours) 30 March 2023

• During this session, participants will gather in their allocated small groups to give mutual feedback on the texts they have edited.
• While this small group critique process goes on, the facilitator will talk with individuals one at a time to give her feedback on their texts.

The session will end with a review of what participants have applied and gained through the entire workshop process.

Learning Outcomes:

• Understand the process of editing fiction
• Apply an editing mindset, when necessary, to your personal writing
• Enhance how you give feedback to others about their writing

Requirements:

In order to participate in this workshop, you will first need to submit a max-2000-word sample of your writing upon registration. (Each piece will undergo a review process by the facilitator and other participants such that you will learn how to critique text from an editor’s perspective and you will also receive comprehensive feedback on your work.) SBC will get in touch upon full payment of the course to get your sample, latest a week before the workshop. Please contact programmes@bookcouncil.sg for any questions.

First Session:

Date: 23 March 2023, Saturday

Time: 10.00 am – 1.00 pm

Venue: SBC Training Room, Goodman Arts Centre,

Blk E, #03-32 (Directions below at FAQ section)

Second Session:

Date: 30 March 2023, Saturday

Time: 10.00 am – 2.00 pm

Venue: SBC Training Room, Goodman Arts Centre,

Blk E, #03-32 (Directions below at FAQ section)

About trainer:

Verena Tay (www.verenatay.com) is a Singapore-based writer, editor, storyteller, theatre practitioner and arts educator. She has published two collections of short stories and four volumes of plays, as well as edited twelve story anthologies (including the bestselling BALIK KAMPUNG series published by Math Paper Press). An Honorary Fellow at the International Writing Program, University of Iowa (Aug–Nov 2007), she was a Writer-in-Residence at Nanyang Technological University (Aug–Nov 2018). She has just completed a PhD in Creative Writing with Swansea University through which she wrote her first novel about three generations of Singaporean Chinese women with a mythological intervention.

Cancellation:

The programme can be cancelled or postponed two weeks before the programme date if the minimum number of participants is not met. Participants will be fully refunded for workshops cancelled by us.

Participants who are unable to attend a workshop they have registered for are to inform us of the reason two weeks before the workshop date. They will be fully refunded in the event of extenuating and mitigating circumstances (E.g. illness, bereavement, accidents) . Those who inform us up to 5 working days before the workshop date will receive a 50% refund. Those who did not turn up at the workshop will not receive a refund.

Upon registration, you are deemed to have read and understood the cancellation and withdrawal policy and accept the terms contained therein.