In fiction, story is everything and how you tell that story defines you as a writer. Book Nanny provides a range of structural and developmental editing services to suit every writer’s needs.

Structural editing

Structural editing deals with the ‘bigger picture’ elements of a manuscript and looks at the structure of your narrative and your story as a whole.

Book Nanny’s structural line editing service focuses on the essential elements of storytelling: character, plot, dialogue, pacing, setting, point of view and narrative voice. It examines how each element interacts with the others to build the world of your story for the reader.

A structural line edit includes:

A line by line, fully-annotated structural analysis of the manuscript using the Comments function in MS Word
Comments on any stylistic issues or patterns which arise
A detailed evaluation report offering an overview of the structural issues with suggestions as to how you might resolve them in your next draft
Comments on any premise, target readership or genre issues in the manuscript

Manuscript evaluations

A manuscript evaluation is an excellent and cost-effective way to see how your story is shaping up so far. I will read your book and prepare an in-depth report (min. 4 to 6 pages) highlighting the main structural strengths and weaknesses of the narrative.

I will look at the premise of your book, at stylistic, genre and target readership issues. I will also make recommendations to help you with the next set of rewrites or redrafting.

Agent submission package

Submitting to an agent is an important step and you want your submission package—sample chapters, synopsis and cover letter with pitch—to be as good as you can get it.

Book Nanny can help. I offer a combined structural and copy-edit package to help you fine-tune your submission and get it working to its fullest impact before you submit.

Developmental editing, mentoring and ghostwriting

Maybe you have an idea for a story, but you’re not sure what to do with it or how to get it down on paper or screen. You need help developing or structuring your ideas or you may feel you just don’t yet have the writing skills to tackle a large writing project.

Book Nanny’s developmental editing and mentoring services—tailored to your individual requirements—can help you bring your story into existence. I will help you develop your ideas and/or writing craft and provide you with the ongoing advice and support you need to take your project from a rough outline to a polished book.

If you find you don’t have the time or don’t want to write it yourself, I offer a full ghostwriting service.

Creative writing workshops

As a professionally trained actor and dramaturg, I run creative writing workshops using drama and acting analysis skills to help writers kick-start their creativity and learn how to create complex, engaging characters and riveting plots which work together to draw a reader into a story.

Workshops can be tailored to suit your writing group. Pricing will vary, depending on workshop specifications.