Have you ever wondered what a story editor is, what they do, or how to become one?
If so, this article is for you.
What is a Story Editor?
A story editor is someone who works to strengthen story narratives. They consider how well the overall narrative works as a story, and how it might be revised for improvement.
The job title Story Editor is most commonly applied to screenwriting professionals in movie or television studios, who work with a team of writers on feature films, television series and documentaries. A newspaper or media corporation may also employ Story Editors to manage their news features.
Within the publishing world, an editor who looks at the overall story of a narrative may be referred to as a Developmental Editor, a Structural Editor, a Story Editor, or just as an Editor.
At Fictionary, we refer to our trained editors (FSCEs) as Story Editors, because all FSCE editors are trained in story structure. Our edits focus on strengthening a writer’s narrative with regards to structure and pacing. This is comparable to a developmental edit.
Fiction story editors may work within traditional publishing houses, or they may independently or through agencies as freelance editors. Freelance editors usually work with writers who are either seeking representation for their manuscript, or who intend to self-publish.
In this article, I’ll focus on story editors as fiction editors, not as film or news agency editors.
What Does a Story Editor Do?
A Story Editor looks at a completed manuscript and advises the writer on how to strengthen their story. The editor examines how well various narrative elements are working within the story.
There are certain elements of a narrative which Story Editors are likely to focus on.
Let’s look at these in more detail.
Overall Story Structure
This is the key area of interest for a story editor.
A story editor must possess an in-depth understanding of the various theories underlying narrative story structures, and how best to apply these structures to completed manuscripts.
A story editor will advise a writer on how well their current narrative structure works to hold reader interest, and how they might consider restructuring their story to improve pacing and thematic development.
To achieve this, a story editor examines how the story develops at key percentage points of the manuscript, and analyses how well the narrative architecture supports the story. A story editor’s suggestions for improvement will be wide-lens, focusing on placement of scenes and development of character goals and conflict.
A story editor must be familiar with how genre expectations impact story development.
A story editor does not focus on individual words, sentence structures, prose and grammar, unless these aspects hold relevance to wider themes and narrative arcs.
Scene Development and Structure
A story editor considers the development of plot, subplots, secondary plots, character development and world-building throughout different scenes in the story. This can involve looking at (amongst other areas):
- Tension building
- Conflict development
- Character goals, motivations, learning and development
- Placement of revelations
- Development of backstory
- Use of repeated objects
- Use of different narrative points-of-view
- Setting exploration
- Scene structure
For a story to hold reader interest, it’s important not only that the overall narrative arc has a strong structure, but that the smaller units within the story, the scenes, have their own structure and interlace effectively with each other.
Highlighting Narrative Strengths and Weaknesses
Once a story editor has engaged with a writer’s story and analysed how well the narrative is structured, next they must make an assessment of the story’s strengths and weaknesses, and feedback this assessment to the writer in a constructive manner.
This is usually carried out through a detailed cover letter and in-text comments within the manuscript, though different story editors have different procedures.
At Fictionary, story editors use StoryCoach editing software to set out a narrative’s strengths and weaknesses to a writer.
Storycoach software allows an editor to highlight how each scene meets the Fictionary 38 Story Elements, whilst providing detailed scene notes and in-line comments to writers. The software also creates an overall narrative arc graph for the reader to see how well their manuscript meets the classic three-act structure, and a story map to track visually how different story elements are handled in each scene.
Providing Actionable and Constructive Solutions
Once the narrative’s strengths and weaknesses have been highlighted, a story editor should provide constructive and creative ideas for story development, in line with the writer’s overall vision. This requires a great deal of creative skill, sensitivity, and experience with the story’s genre.
When a writer aiming to self-publish hires an independent story editor, the writer maintains complete creative control over their story at all times. The story editor’s job is to advise and inspire the writer with genre-appropriate suggestions for strengthening their narrative’s structure, pacing and readability.
This editing advice may come in the form of a cover letter, a meeting with the writer, or both.
At Fictionary, our independent story editors are trained in how to provide constructive, actionable and sensitive advice. We understand how vague and negative advice can destroy a writer’s love of their craft, and a StroyCoach edit is designed to support a writer in their learning journey, making the editing process an inspiring and rewarding learning journey.
Story Editor Job Description Examples
If you’re seeking a full-time employment contract, then you might want to investigate fiction editing positions at traditional publishing houses.
Penguin provides a useful guide to the typical qualities, skills and experience publishing houses seek, along with a description of the various roles available.
Penguin lists the three qualities they seek in editorial staff as being:
- An excellent communicator and collaborator
- Great at multi-tasking
- A big, ambitious thinker
Editing jobs at a traditional publishing house are likely to involve more responsibilities than just editing stories. If we look, for example, at an Editor role advertised in Penguin, the job description is as follows:
- Setting and managing editorial schedule
- Maintaining editorial budgets and hiring freelance teams across editorial and design
- Editing manuscripts for a select number of titles
- Writing TI, cover copy, and other marketing materials
- Briefing covers and interior design for each of your books
- Organising photo shoots for both interiors and covers
- Liaising with in-house teams, authors, agents, designers, photographers, television producers and executives
- Working with our rights team across international co-editions
- Contributing to New Ideas meetings, to spot trends in editorial and design
- Presenting titles at monthly sales launches and other meeting
If you’re looking to work as a story editor without taking on all the other areas of work expected within a traditional publishing house, then you may need to be ready to forge your own path.
In this case, you’ll be looking to work as an independent story editor, seeking out your own clients. Your clients are most likely to be writers, seeking independent edits of their manuscripts, either for traditional or self-publication. For such work, you’ll be unlikely to find job descriptions advertised, because you’ll be self-employed.
In this article, I’m focusing on fiction rather than screenwriting, so please be aware that advice for story editors hoping to work within the film and television sector is different.
If you’re hoping to become a freelance fiction story editor, working to the hours you choose, then you can either work independently or with an agency. If you’ve extensive experience and contacts as an editor, including your own client list, then you may be able to start working as a story editor independently.
If you’ve not worked in the industry before, then in order to develop a client list, it’s likely you’ll either need to work with an agency, or develop excellent skills in self-promotion!
Various agencies exist that bring together writers and independent editors.
Some of these, like Fictionary, have their own training courses. The Fictionary website offers a list of Fictionary-certified editors, where these editors can advertise their services to writers.
Fictionary also has an online community where writers and editors can meet. Editors have the opportunity to provide free advice to writers, so they can make a name for themselves and show off their editing skills to potential clients.
Other websites exist where writers and editors can make contact, such as Reedsy.
Successfully published writers may also be in a position to gain story editor jobs, especially if they’ve developed a loyal fan-base of readers who’d like to learn from them.
How to Become a Story Editor
You can become a story editor through gaining experience and/or training.
Experience
Experience can be gained through many ways, including (but not limited to):
- Working as an editor at a publishing house
- Working as a screenwriter
- Working within news and media agencies
- Publishing your own stories as a writer, either traditionally or through self-publishing
- Developing your own client-base of writers
Each potential avenue of traditional employment has their own methods of hiring. Some might advertise for entry level roles, which you can apply for through standard job application procedures. Some large companies may have training programmes you can apply for. You may be able to gain important work experience through applying to internship programmes.
Once you’ve sufficient experience through traditional employment in the story industry, you may be in a strong position to become an independent story editor.
Without previous employment or training as an editor, independent story editors may offer their services for a lower fee whilst gaining editing experience.
Training
If you’ve never worked in the publishing sector (or even if you have), options exist for training in story editing. Once you’ve successfully completed your training, you can advertise yourself as a certified story editor to writers seeking independent editors.
You can find various editing training programmes, some within higher education institutions, and some within companies focused on providing professional editing training.
The Fictionary certification is ideal to discuss at this point at it specialises in Story Editing, rather than copy editing or proofreading. The Fictionary training programme teaches editors how to work with the overall narrative structure of a story, and to provide actionable and constructive feedback on how to improve a manuscript.
Once an editor has gained certification, Fictionary offers an online community where editors can seek out clients, showcasing their skills to potential clients.
Fictionary can also link editors with potential writing clients directly, when a writer signs their contract directly with Fictionary for an edit. This can help new editors build their client base.
Conclusion
As the popularity of the self-publishing industry increases, so too do opportunities for independent story editors. If you’re interested in investigating the field of story editing, come check out the Fictionary online community, where you can learn more about the opportunities available.