How to Self-Edit Your Manuscript
Lessons and exercises to develop your ability to edit your own writing and polish your manuscript.
Interested in learning how to edit your own manuscript? This instructional course offers everything you need to get started!
Editing is a crucial stage in writing that brings focus, clarity, and luminosity to your manuscript, helping it stand out.
In this five-hour course from award-winning author Kate Forsyth, you will learn:
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- How to examine the big picture
- The power of opening and closing lines
- Looking at chapter length
- Developing mood and atmosphere
- Editing to maintain a strong voice throughout
- Gaining new insight into your writing strengths and flaws
This course is suitable for anybody wishing to dive into self-editing.
For more information, see our FAQ below.
Course level: Aspiring, Emerging and Developing
Writing NSW members receive a $20 discount. Contact Writing NSW for your discount code. Not a member? Join here.
Your Instructor

Kate Forsyth is an award-winning author and storyteller. She wrote her first novel aged seven & has now written more than forty books for both adults and children, translated into more than twenty languages and selling more than a million copies. Her historical novels include The Crimson Thread, Beauty in Thorns, The Wild Girl & Bitter Greens, which won the 2015 American Library Association Award for Best Historical Fiction. Searching for Charlotte: The Fascinating Story of Australia’s First Children’s Author was co-written with her sister Belinda Murrell and longlisted in the 2021 Australian Indie Book Awards. The Rebirth of Rapunzel: A Mythic Biography of the Maiden in the Tower won the 2017 William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism. Her children’s books include Vasilisa the Wise & Other Tales of Brave Young Women, which won a silver medal in the 2018 US Readers Favorite awards, and The Impossible Quest which was shortlisted for the REAL Awards in 2017. The Silver Well, a collection of stories co-written by Kim Wilkins, won the 2017 Aurealis Award for Best Collection, with one of Kate’s stories, ‘The Cunning Woman’s Daughter’ also winning the 2017 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novella. Kate has a BA in literature, a MA in creative writing and a Doctorate of Creative Arts, and is an accredited master storyteller with the Australian Guild of Storytellers. She runs creative writing retreats in Australia, Greece, and the UK, and tells stories all over the world.
Course Curriculum
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StartIntroduction (0:40)
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StartCrafting an authentic narrative voice
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StartThe Authorial Voice
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StartThe Narrative Voice
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StartThe Character’s Voice
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StartNarrative position and point-of-view
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StartExample
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Start5 steps to achieve psychic distance
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StartExercise: Playing with POV
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StartExercise: Voice checklist