The Benefits of a Developmental Edit
If you’re thinking about getting a developmental edit, your brain may feel like a swirling whirlpool of emotions: Feeling stuck, wanting to improve as a writer, longing for constructive criticism from someone who knows—an expert in the craft who will help take your manuscript to another level. You might feel uneasy about showing your work to a stranger who may not get you. You may wonder if the investment is worth it…
Will developmental editing really benefit you and your book?
I’m going to share what developmental editing did for me the first time I went through it as a beginner, and then what it did for me as a more experienced book writer.
Spoiler: The answer is, “A lot.”
As a beginning novelist, the developmental edit helped me make huge changes to my mindset and my approach to craft. It helped me make crucial story decisions that dramatically altered the direction my novel took in terms of plot, structure, pacing, and characterization.
As a more experienced novelist, getting a developmental edit helped me create a unifying metaphor for the story, improve the main character’s arc, build stronger emotional connections between the reader and the main character, add interiority, simplify the complex plot, and improve weak sentences.
That’s the short version, but let me give you a more nuanced, in-depth answer with concrete examples.
First Dev Edit: As a Beginning Novelist
By the time I started typing my first book-length work, I’d already been writing for years. I was great at putting beautiful words and sentences together. I’d written short stories, poetry, philosophical essays, and reflection pieces. One year earlier, I’d graduated from college summa cum laude with a B.A. in creative writing.
But I’d only written and critiqued short works.
Here’s something I learned fast: writing a novel is a whole different animal compared to writing short fiction. And I mean a WHOLE different animal.
You know that picture of Atlas holding up the world? That’s how I pictured myself as a novel writer, except that instead of the world, I was trying to hold up and untangle a massive snarl of knotted string poofing out in a million directions.
There’s just so much going on in a book. It’s like an onion, full of layers: external plot, internal plot, theme, character transformations, pacing, turning points, misbeliefs, motifs, worldbuilding, setting, and on and on. Getting all that right felt like trying to embroider a tapestry using a bunch of different colored threads while blindfolded and holding the needle with my toes.
So it isn’t surprising that I made a lot of mistakes.
Developmental editing helped me identify and correct those mistakes. (Missed my first post? Learn what developmental editing is before jumping back here.)
1. Over-Insular to a Student of the Craft
The number one piece of advice that has transformed my writing journey came from the letter my first developmental editor wrote me.
First, she highlighted one of the biggest problems she’d noticed in my manuscript: the story wasn’t complete. The plot didn’t deliver. Here’s the single line that changed me forever: “I recommend looking into K.M. Weiland’s advice on story structure.”
That one comment triggered a major mindset shift. It made me realize that I didn’t have to write and learn in a vacuum. There were tools, teachers, communities of writers, and an entire vast world I didn’t know about.
Ever since, I’ve been on a quest to learn and improve: reading books on writing, researching, evaluating the story structure of books and movies, attending writing summits and conventions, joining writing communities, and taking writing courses. And the best part? There’s always more to learn and discover.
In short, I’ve learned a ton. My study of the craft has made me a much better writer and a much better developmental editor. (Hint: it can also help you save money on editing costs.)
2. Confused to Making Confident Decisions
No matter where you are on your writing journey, one thing seems to be true. Sometimes we’re too close to the work to see what it needs or what it lacks. Getting an outside perspective can help us see things we couldn’t see.
As we learn and improve our craft, we get better at doing this, but bringing in fresh eyes to look at the entire manuscript, to read it and see it for what it is, and to call out what it could be, is one of the major reasons I love getting my work professionally critiqued.
3. Duology to Standalone
I’d originally planned to write a duology, but based on the editor’s feedback, I decided to write a standalone instead. And I’m glad I did! It took away the pressure of trying to write two books with an overarching thread to tie them together, and simplified the writing process.
Plotting one book didn’t come easily to me. Trying to plot a duology would have added an unnecessary challenge to my learning process.
4. Multiple POV Characters to a Single POV Character
The early drafts of my book jumped between a bunch of point-of-view characters. I think it the end I had at least seven, with three of them functioning as main characters.
Here again, the editor’s advice was to focus only on the three main point-of-view characters and get rid of the others. In the end, I decided to write from only one POV instead. It was another great decision because it simplified the writing process for me. It helped me focus on one character’s journey and perspective—one main character’s arc.
5. Unfinished Plot Jumble to Complete Plotted Story
Although it took me an additional three years and several more drafts, I learned enough about story structure, plot points, and the world and characters I was writing about to write a complete start-to-finish plotted story.
It was far from easy, and the developmental edit was only the beginning. It didn’t give me all the answers, but it got me going in the right direction. I know that may not be what you want to hear, but check out my mindset tips before you go further, and you’ll feel better about it.
6. Slow Start to Better Beginning
“The story doesn’t seem to begin until about 50-60% of the way through the book,” my editor wrote. “The most common mistake for authors to make is to start too early in the story.”
Beginnings are tough, and it took me multiple different tries to figure out where my story really began, but it was helpful to know where the story felt like it finally picked up and took off, and why.
7. Shallow Characters to Deep, Engaging Ones
Getting the editor’s impressions on my characters was super helpful and revealing. One she loved, one she hated, and multiple needed more depth, dimensionality, and emotional growth.
She pointed out the potential one of my characters had to be awesome, explained why she hated the character she hated, and why she loved the character she loved. She suggested ways to help the reader connect emotionally.
As with most of this feedback, the solution wasn’t easy and took a lot of time, effort, and thought, but knowing how my characters were coming across was extremely beneficial.
8. Flowery Prose to Clear, Concise Writing
Another thing I learned to be cautious of through this developmental edit (and beta reader feedback) has been how my descriptions come across. I love describing things in unique ways, but they don’t always work. Even though they made sense in my brain, they confused my reader.
I’ve learned to tone things down, be more concise and concrete, and make it clear when I’m talking about in-world magic versus when I’m talking in metaphor versus when I’m describing something concrete. Yes, I still love pushing the boundaries and having fun with my descriptions, but I do my best to listen to feedback and keep the purple prose to a minimum.
Second Dev Edit: As a More Experienced Novelist
By the time I got my second developmental edit, I knew way more about craft and plot structure. I’d put my novel through multiple rounds of beta reads and revisions, and I had a complete story with all three acts and all the major plot points in the right places.
I’d even sent my book to a small publishing house when they opened their submission window. They gently turned me down and gave me the following feedback:
“Unfortunately, [Book Title] will not be a fit for [Editing House] at this time. While there are undeniable strengths in your storytelling, including [the main character’s] passion for justice rather than self-fueled pursuits, we found ourselves at a loss in the early chapters to decipher who [the main character] is and what his character is all about. Without this to engage us, it was difficult to be pulled forward through the story as a reader.”
Clearly, my book wasn’t yet landing. It needed more work. But what, exactly, did I need to change to make it clear who my main character was and what he was “all about”? Where was I going wrong? How could I fix it?
I knew I needed more help and that an additional round of beta reads wasn’t going to cut it. So I bit the bullet and hired another developmental editor, Helena Sorensen. Head to this post for tips on finding a great editor.
Here’s how she helped:
1. A Weak Main Character to an Emotionally Engaging One
The main reason I sought out a developmental editor for this draft was because readers couldn’t understand what my character “was all about.”
Fortunately, Helena was able to put her finger on the problem: “I feel disconnected from him. I feel that I’m outside him, trying to understand his motivations, instead of sharing his motivations.”
Aha! Now I knew more. His motivations weren’t clear. They weren’t connecting.
So, I went through my manuscript, copying out every line I could find that referenced my main character’s motivations, goals, wounds, and interior journey. What I found surprised me. It was incredibly scattered. There was no through-line. But seeing all of them, categorizing them as I went, I was able to choose one overarching motivation that could carry him through all the transformations of the story.
It still needed lots of refining, but her feedback got me on the right track. (Learn more about how to evaluate and implement feedback over here.)
Another way I improved my main character was by following Helena’s suggestions to ground him in his past, to give him more of a culture, a history, connecting him to who he was before the events of the story changed everything.
2. Disconnected Images to a Unifying Metaphor
Sometimes, all you need to make a breakthrough in your writing is for someone to ask the right question.
A simple “What if…” from my editor helped me merge the main character’s identity, wound, and transformation arc under a unifying metaphor that was grounded in his backstory, culture, and practical abilities. And what was even more brilliant was that this also connected to the way magic worked in the world.
3. Overcomplicated Scenes to Streamlined, Sensitive Storytelling
Because I wrote and re-wrote my story over multiple drafts and iterations (many of them vastly different from the ones before), my novel ended up being pretty complex. There were lots of concepts that were tricky to understand.
The unifying metaphor I talked about above did a lot to help make them feel cohesive, part of a whole, and explainable in concrete terms.
However, Helena also suggested places where I could cut things to make the story less complicated and easier to understand. And she also pointed out a place where I had “shied away from allowing [the characters] to feel the weight of their choices.”
This helped me make some adjustments to a few scenes and strengthen my story and its theme.
4. Uneven Writing to Powerful Prose
Overall, I got much better feedback in this developmental edit, but I still had sentences to work on. I also tended to over-write, to put in too many exaggerated emotions, include too much description in between dialogue, or write descriptions that didn’t land because they were over the top or just plain weird.
It was a huge help to know which areas I needed to pull back on and tone down, which sentences I needed to adjust or cut altogether to make sure that all of my prose was equally strong.
5. Doubt to Encouragement
One of the things I really appreciated about Helena’s developmental edit was her encouraging comments, the many things she pointed out that I did well: sentences she thought were beautiful, sections of writing that impacted her, and character interactions she loved. She did this not only in the comments within the manuscript, but in a large section of the feedback letter.
This is something I love to include when I leave developmental editing feedback for my clients, because we all need encouragement. We all need to be celebrated. Even in manuscripts that need a lot of work, even when the writing has a long way to go, there are always strengths to call out, things to cheer about, and chapters, sentences, and scenes that are well-done. As writers, we need to hear about those things too. Learn more about my approach to developmental editing.
Okay, but what does a developmental edit actually look like?
You’ve seen what developmental editing did for me—sparking breakthroughs, growth, and edits that transformed my story. But you’re probably wondering: what does it actually look like? What kinds of comments make that kind of change possible?
I’ll show you.
In my next post, I’m sharing real excerpts from my first developmental edit —screenshots, margin comments, even sections of the editor letter.