The Editor’s Eye

The Editor’s Eye

The Editor’s Eye is an Intensive, meaning it happens in a short time span (1 day in NYC, or 2 days on Zoom). The course includes a mixture of lectures and exercises. It’s open to writers of any level. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.

Every writer needs a good editor to push their work to its best possible state. But your work won’t reach a professional editor unless it’s already in excellent shape. A dilemma, to be sure. That’s why you need to be a skilled editor of your own work.

Perhaps your great ideas and stories are clouded by such things as clunky language, timid verbs, excessive wordage, lack of immediacy, and other amateur mistakes. Perhaps your work is fairly good, but it doesn’t quite lift off and soar. What you need is a sharp-eyed editor: you.

This course will show writers (of both fiction and nonfiction) how to operate as their own best editor, which will make their work all the more marketable in the professional world.

About The Editor’s Eye
The Editor’s Eye

Even though I write and edit every day and have done so for years, I still got some great information and refreshers from this course.

Jessica O'Brien

agency senior content strategist

Notes

This is a cross-genre course, applicable to any kind of writing.

Upcoming Classes

If you test positive for Covid – Don’t come to class until you test negative. But let your teacher know and we’ll work to give you access to your missed classes via Zoom.

If you show Covid symptoms OR If you have been exposed to someone with Covid – Don’t come to class for at least 5 days after showing symptoms or exposure, and then take a test to confirm that you are negative. Let your teacher know and we’ll work to give you access to your missed classes via Zoom.

If you have any questions about this, you may call (212-974-8377) or email us ([email protected]).

Price

Registration fee $25, paid once per term

2-Day

Syllabus

This course gives an overview of how to be your own best editor, in any genre. Course components:|
     Brief lectures
     Writing exercises

Topics:
     SoWhat?: Make readers care about the story.
     You Are There: Take readers inside the story through details and specificity.
     Zip: Liven the story with energy and movement.
     Cutting and Tightening: Cut what adds little value; tighten to increase the punch.
     Flow: Keep the story flowing with focus and rhythm.
     Openings: Entice the readers with an engrossing start.

Note: Content may vary among individual classes.

Teachers

Michael Dunphy
Michael Dunphy

Michael Dunphy has pubished articles and essays in CNN, USA Today, Forbes, Tablet, American Way, Travel + Leisure, Travel Weekly, Time Out, Virtuoso Life, TravelAge West, and Beer Advocate. He is a contributing editor to Fodor's travel guides, the former managing editor of FlyWashington, Air Chicago, and LAX magazines, and former editor-in-chief of the newspaper The Bridge in Montpelier, Vermont. He holds a BA from the University of Vermont and an MA in Publishing and Writing from Emerson College.

Read more