Are you a writing craft nerd? Or simply interested in taking your writing to the next level?

If you enjoyed Michille’s post last Thursday about the beauty of the comma, then you might also be interested in a self-paced class that offers a self-editing toolbox to help make your manuscript shine.

The class is called The Manuscript Makeover. Its objective is to help you take your manuscript from rough draft to ready for submission in 48 hours. I know about it because it’s offered by Anne Victory, the line editor I chose to help me burnish The Seeds of Power. Anne has an impressive client list—check out her website and you’ll find famous names like Courtney Milan, Ilona Andrews, Nalini Singh, Gena Showalter, Jeaniene Frost.

Working with Anne was an eye-opener for me. I thought the draft manuscript I sent her was pretty clean. Wrong. I was shocked at how many technical errors I made, from capitalization and punctuation to sentence construction. Luckily for me, Anne is an excellent teacher as well as a fabulous editor. She’s kind and funny, and she explains exactly why she’s recommended a correction. I learned a lot and I’m determined to do better next time.

Full disclosure: I haven’t tried The Manuscript Makeover. After I edited and published The Seeds of Power I invested in Victory Academy’s in-depth masterclass version of the course (Refine Your Lines).

According to Anne’s website, the 48-hour course is structured as follows:

• Day 1: Avoiding infodumps
• Day 2: Dialogue mechanics
• Day 3: Show vs. tell in dialogue
• Day 4: Carrying show vs. tell forward to your narrative
• Day 5: Deepening your point of view and strengthening your protagonist’s voice
• Day 6: Overwriting and how to avoid it
• Day 7: Saying it once—trust your reader!
• Day 8: Tense issues
• Day 9: The dreaded play-by-play
• Day 10: Making your life easier by using styles in Word

The cost at the time of writing is $27. In addition to the course, class members also receive a bonus resource list and a companion e-book.

Sounds good, no? If you’re interested, you can meet Anne and find out more about The Manuscript Makeover by clicking here.

I should add that I have no vested interest in this recommendation. No kickbacks, no affiliate links, no discount off my next edit. It just looked too good not to share 🙂

If you decide to give it a try, I’d love to know how you get on.