Note: you’ll find the English version of this blog post below the French version.
Si vous avez regardé mes stories sur Instagram, vous savez que j’ai suivi une formation en Developmental Editing pendant l’été via l’Université de Californie Los Angeles. Dans cet article, je vous explique ce qu’est le Developmental Editing (mais aussi le Line Editing), à quoi ça sert et je vous parlerai aussi de la formation que j’ai suivie. Comme j’ai effectué cette formation avec les États-Unis, je vous proposerai donc une vision anglo-saxonne de l’édition. Je tiens à préciser que cet article reflète l’état de mes connaissances actuelles sur le sujet à l’issue de cette formation. De plus, il y a probablement des choses que d’autres developmental editors font différemment.
Le Developmental Editing permet de repérer les problèmes « généraux » dans un manuscrit (fiction, mémoires, etc.). Dans les pays anglo-saxons, il existe des « freelance editors » qui proposent leurs services aux auteurs à la recherche d’un agent littéraire ou d’une maison d’édition, aux écrivains qui souhaitent s’autoéditer, mais aussi à de petites maisons d’édition qui font appel à des personnes externes pour cette tâche. Dans cet article, je vais m’intéresser aux freelance editors et non pas aux éditeurs qui travaillent dans des maisons d’édition.
Un developmental editor va notamment s’intéresser aux personnages, à leur évolution, à l’intrigue et à la structure du manuscrit, à la tension, au conflit, à l’utilisation des points de vue, à la cohérence du récit (Commence-t-on par une histoire et finit-on sur une autre ? Répond-on à toutes les questions ?), etc. Contrairement à une bêta-lecture, le Developmental Editing implique de proposer des suggestions de modifications sans obliger l’auteur à aller dans telle ou telle direction. Il pourra également fournir un service de Line Editing qui consiste quant à lui à commenter et à annoter le texte ligne par ligne. Ce service étant très cher, il peut le proposer sur un ou deux chapitres afin de pointer du doigt des exemples de ce qui peut être amélioré plutôt que sur l’ensemble du manuscrit.
Le Developmental Editing n’est ni une bêta-lecture ni une critique de manuscrit ni une correction (orthographe, grammaire, etc.). En effet, il va beaucoup plus en profondeur qu’une bêta-lecture ou une critique. Un groupe de critique et des bêta-lecteurs commentent généralement le texte avant qu’il ne soit envoyé au developmental editor afin que le manuscrit soit prêt pour cette étape qui intervient avant la correction. En moyenne, il faut compter 20 à 40 heures de travail sur un manuscrit et un developmental editor a besoin de temps de pause et de réflexion, ce qui explique que le coût soit élevé (il peut atteindre plusieurs milliers de dollars selon la longueur, la difficulté et selon le service choisi).
Tous les developmental editors ne travaillent pas exactement de la même façon, mais un developmental editor lit en principe plusieurs fois le manuscrit. Il peut soit annoter le manuscrit soit créer une « story map » qui va permettre d’avoir un aperçu des éléments qui peuvent poser problème ou proposer une « beat sheet ». Une story map peut par exemple reprendre chapitre par chapitre tous les personnages présents, ce qu’il se passe dans chaque chapitre de manière globale, les questions posées, mais aussi une « beat sheet » (qui n’a aucun lien avec celle de Save the Cat) reprenant tous les « actions » de chaque chapitre. De plus, le developmental editor fournit à l’auteur une lettre d’une dizaine de pages reprenant élément par élément ce qui fonctionne bien mais aussi ce qui peut être amélioré pour aider l’auteur à atteindre sa vision de l’œuvre (personnages, rythme, points de vue, structure, etc.).
Avant de commencer à travailler sur le manuscrit, il organise un rendez-vous avec l’auteur pour connaître ses attentes, puis une fois la lettre, la story map et les chapitres annotés (line edits) rendus, il organise un deuxième rendez-vous pour répondre à toutes ses questions.
Vous l’aurez compris, le Developmental Editing et le Line Editing aident l’auteur à retravailler son manuscrit et à le faire briller. Il n’est pas possible de finaliser votre manuscrit sans le faire lire à des personnes extérieures (en tant qu’auteur, vous êtes trop proche de votre manuscrit pour en voir les défauts) et votre manuscrit n’est certainement pas terminé à la fin du premier brouillon (j’en parlais d’ailleurs dans cet article). Pour les écrivains qui souhaitent s’autoéditer, l’étape du Developmental Editing est particulièrement recommandée puisqu’ils ne bénéficieront pas de l’accompagnement d’une maison d’édition.
J’ai donc suivi une formation en Developmental Editing via l’UCLA qui s’est terminée il y a quelques jours. J’ai eu l’occasion de pouvoir travailler sur un projet de Developmental Editing. Nous avons d’abord été amenés à sélectionner un manuscrit parmi une dizaine. Il fallait repérer quel manuscrit était prêt pour l’étape du Developmental Editing. Nous avons finalement sélectionné un manuscrit qui présentait un véritable challenge, puisqu’il s’agissait de mémoires (genre que je connais très mal) et les sujets abordés étaient assez sensibles. De plus, le manuscrit était assez expérimental, puisqu’il ressemblait un peu à une collection d’essais.
Une fois le manuscrit choisi, nous avons été amenés à le lire et à donner notre avis. Ensuite, nous avons travaillé sur la story map pour « cartographier » le manuscrit et mettre en évidence ce qui posait problème.
Nous avons ensuite organisé une rencontre avec l’auteure. Étant donné le décalage horaire avec la Californie, je n’ai malheureusement pas pu y assister en direct, mais le but était de poser un certain nombre de questions à l’auteure pour savoir dans quelle direction elle voulait aller et ce qu’elle attendait de nous.
Après cette étape, j’ai relu le manuscrit pour prendre davantage de notes et j’ai commencé à rédiger ma lettre. C’était la partie du travail la plus longue, puisqu’une fois les éléments repérés, il fallait les organiser par problématique et proposer des suggestions, mais aussi présenter les commentaires en prenant bien soin de ne pas donner l’impression d’attaquer l’auteur. Il fallait à la fois indiquer les forces et les faiblesses du manuscrit.
Une fois cette étape terminée, je suis passée au Line Editing. J’ai choisi un chapitre et je l’ai annoté à la fois avec des commentaires et avec le suivi des modifications.
La dernière étape consistait à rencontrer l’auteure une nouvelle fois pour répondre à toutes ses questions.
Le Developmental Editing est un métier que je trouve passionnant et je suis ravie d’avoir pu suivre cette formation. J’envisage de proposer prochainement ce type de services. Si vous avez des questions, n’hésitez pas à me les poser dans les commentaires.
Vous avez envie de vous lancer dans l’écriture d’un roman ou d’une nouvelle mais vous ne savez pas par où commencer ? Vous n’arrivez pas à trouver la motivation ? Je vous propose des ateliers d’écriture créative en ligne pour ados et pour adultes. L’atelier pour ados a débuté le 16 septembre, mais vous pouvez encore nous rejoindre. Quant à l’atelier Bifrost, module Fantasy et science-fiction, il démarre le 27 septembre prochain. Vous vous demandez si ces ateliers sont faits pour vous ?
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If you follow me on Instagram, you know I took an online Developmental Editing class through UCLA during the summer. In this blog post, you’ll learn what Developmental Editing (and Line Editing) are, how it can help you as a writer, and I’ll tell you a little bit more about the online class I took. Note that this blog post includes information I’ve learned so far. Besides, some developmental editors might work differently.
Developmental Editing focuses on the big picture in a manuscript (fiction, memoir, non-fiction…). There are freelance book editors who work with writers looking for an agent or a publisher, writers who wish to self-publish their books, but also with small publishing houses who might hire freelance editors as well. In this blog post, I’m going to focus on freelance book editors, not on in-house editors who work for publishing houses.
Among other things, developmental editors check the characters and their character arcs, the plot, the structure of a manuscript, tension, conflict, use of point of views, consistency. They might ask questions like: does the manuscript begin with one story and end with another one? Are all the questions answered? Unlike a beta-reader, the developmental editor makes suggestions without forcing the author to go in a certain direction. Developmental editors can also do line editing. In this case, they leave comments in the manuscript and use track changes. This service is very expensive, so developmental editors can work on one or two chapters (for the line edits) instead of the whole manuscript to point at examples of things that could be improved.
Developmental Editing is neither beta-reading nor a critique sent by your critique partner nor copyediting (spelling, grammar…). Indeed, Developmental Editing goes beyond beta-reading or critiques. Critique groups and beta-readers usually send their comments before a developmental editor works on the manuscript so that the manuscript is ready for the developmental editing phase that takes place before the copyediting phase. In average, developmental editors will work on a given manuscript for 20 to 40 hours and they also need time to reflect on the manuscript as well as some time off, which explains why this service is expensive (depending on the length, the complexity of the manuscript and the level of service, it can cost up to several thousand dollars).
Each developmental editor might have their own process, but they usually read a manuscript several times. They can leave in-text comments or create a story map that will allow them to have an overview of the issues of a manuscript. A story map might for instance include all the characters in each chapter, what the main idea of the chapter is, the questions that are raised, but also a beat sheet (that has nothing to do with the Save the Cat beat sheet) containing all the actions in a given chapter. Moreover, developmental editors write an editorial letter (10 pages in average) listing different elements of the story (characters, rhythm, POVs, structure, plot…), with what works and what doesn’t to help the author achieve their vision of the book.
Before they start working on a project, they set up a meeting with the author to learn more about their expectations, and after they deliver the editorial letter, the story map and the line-edited chapters, they set up a second meeting to answer their questions.
Developmental Editing and Line Editing help writers revise their manuscripts and make them shine. As a writer, you can’t finish your manuscript without having a few people look at it (you can’t see the forest for the trees), and your manuscript is certainly NOT finished once you’ve written the first draft. Hiring a Developmental Editor is particularly recommended if you’re a writer who wish to self-publish your book, because you won’t get the help a publishing house provides.
I took a Developmental Editing class through UCLA that ended a few days ago and had the opportunity to work on a developmental editing project. First, we had to select one manuscript among a dozen others. We had to choose one that was ready for the developmental editing phase. We ended up selecting a manuscript that was quite challenging, because it was a memoir (a genre that I’m not familiar with) and the topics addressed in the book were quite sensitive. Moreover, the manuscript was rather experimental, because it looked a bit like a collection of essays.
After choosing the manuscript, we read it and discussed it. Then we worked on the story map to highlight worry areas.
Once the story map was ready, we set up a meeting with the author. Because of the time difference (I’m nine hours ahead of California), I couldn’t attend the meeting and had to watch the video afterwards. The goal was to ask questions to the author to learn more about her vision of the book and to know her expectations.
After this step, I reread the manuscript to take more notes and I started writing an editorial letter. That was the longest part of the “job”, since once I’d identified what worked and what didn’t, I had to organize the editorial letter and make suggestions, and I had to write my letter in a way that didn’t make the author feel like I was attacking her.
Once this step was completed, I line edited one chapter. I chose a chapter and left in-text comments, and I also used track changes.
Our last step was another meeting with the author to answer all her questions.
Developmental Editing is a job that I find fascinating and I’m so glad I could take this class. I’m certainly going to offer editorial services in the near future! If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments.
7 Comments
Good evening
I am fascinated by your interest in developmental and line editing. As you know, such editing is very common in US and UK publishing houses and goes far beyond proofreading. Do French publishing houses commonly use such editors? I’ve been hoping to find someone who might know. I’m currently translating parts of a wonderful new French novel but I sometimes come across inconsistencies that a line editor or developmental editor would typically catch. Thank you for any information you might have on this subject. One factor I’ve considered is that English is so flexible there are many ways to say basically the same thing… some ways are clearer than others! French is perhaps less flexible, making clarity an easier goal?
Many thanks and with appreciation for your consideration.
Hi,
Thank you for your comment!
French publishing houses have editors, but since I’ve never worked as an in-house editor in a French publishing house, I can’t tell you exactly how they work. I’ve been wondering about the same thing, and I don’t have a definite answer. I guess French publishing houses don’t have the same budgets as a big publishing house in the US or the UK, and it might have an impact on the editing process. As far as I understand, editing rates are much lower in France, and of course incomes are lower as well, but they still seem really low. For instance, I’ve been contacted by a small publishing house and the sum they offered for developmental and line edits were so low that I had to decline, I wouldn’t have been able to work properly. The same thing happens when books are translated into French, rates are really low and sometimes publishing houses don’t check the translation properly. For instance, the publishing house De Saxus was criticized for one of the translations they published. I can’t remember which book it was, but it was probably a bestseller. They hadn’t checked the translation and have left notes written by the translator in the books they sold. Of course it doesn’t always happen and there are many great translations (I used to work as a translator and I know it’s hard work).
So the budget might be one of the reasons why you can still find inconsistencies, but I’ve also noticed there are huge differences between the writing process in the US/UK and in France. In the US, everyone is talking about writing techniques, improving one’s craft and enrolling for writing courses. In France, I feel like we used to think writers were geniuses and were born with their skills instead of learning their craft over time. It’s been changing over the last few years, but when I started working as a writing teacher a few years ago, almost no one was talking about writing techniques and I think there were only one or two creative writing degrees. I feel like French writers tend to have more freedom and editors don’t always have the same expectations, especially small publishing houses.
Thank you very much! It’s wonderful to be in touch with someone to discuss this question. I looked up the problematic translation by DeSaxus and found the story. Very interesting. I have done some research over the years on the French translations of the English novelist Barbara Pym (a favorite writer of mine) and gave a paper on the subject at the Pym Society in Oxford in 2021. It was fascinating because I was able to analyze how the English sense of humor could be difficult to capture in French. This led me to delve into the question of how the French communicate. In doing the research I got a lot of help from reviewers of the novels on Babelio. Since then I’ve stayed in touch with two of them — in fact one of the reviewers told me about the novel I’m now trying to translate portions of — with the idea I might be able to help the author and her publisher find a U.S. publisher (the novel
takes place in NYC). I have never worked as a translator (I’m primarily an editor) and this is probably the only novel I would tackle — and that’s because it’s so unusual and it takes place in my city.
One of the things that may also be different about writers in France vs the US/England (in addition to what you point out about a lack of writing classes etc) is the fact that the French take enormous pride in their ability to speak well and write well. This is not so important in the English-speaking world, where a quiet person is not necessarily viewed as having little to say. So French authors may be less inclined to take advice about style changes. I read once where the translations of Balzac are sometimes better than the original— but that was because he was in such a hurry to avoid creditors!
Anyway. You might enjoy the paper I wrote about the Pym translations. I can send you the link. For fun. And it mentions a fascinating book —“The Bonjour Effect” which is all about the importance the French place on their wonderful language.
On Saturday I’m going to an all day Proust event at Albertine Bookstore in NYC. I’m very eager to hear all the speakers but in particular Lydia Davis, who translated Swann’s Way for Penguin in 2000, when all of La Recherche was re-translated. She could certainly give me an insight into the editing question!
With many good wishes. And much appreciation!
Beverly Bell
New York City
Hi!
Sorry for taking so long to reply, it’s been a busy week. Please share the link! I would love to read your paper. I would also love to hear what Lydia Davis has to say. It would be great if we could discuss this further. You can either post your comment here or send me an email (you’ll find my email address on the Contact page).
Translating humor can be so hard. Many jokes don’t translate well. For instance, I’m about to post an interview on the blog and the American author I interviewed made a joke with “ghostwriter” and “ghost”, but since the translation of ghostwriter is so different in French, translating this sentence was really tricky. It’s just a blog post and many readers on this blog understand English as well, so I decided to explain the joke, but in most cases I would have had to find another joke that works in French.
I totally agree. Style is the first thing that comes to mind when French people want to write something. They don’t even realize there are storytelling techniques as well. Because they’re afraid their style will be terrible, many people don’t even dare to write and if they’ve decided to start writing a novel, they often try to write perfect sentences while they’re working on their first draft. Unfortunately, it can lead to writer’s block…
Good afternoon —
I will definitely let you know what Lydia Davis has to say on Saturday at the Proust gathering. I’ve been reading about her approach to translating (she believes in sticking as closely as possible to the French — word order etc — without being enslaved by it!) and comparing her translation of Swann’s Way with that of Scott Moncrieff. Next up is a look at Mme Bovary.
Here’s the link to the Pym conference papers. Mine is the fourth one — « Lessons from Across the Channel: What the French Can Teach Us About Barbara Pym and What Pym Can Teach Us About the French. » I’ve attached a pdf also. If you have trouble opening them, just let me know.
https://barbara-pym.org/conference-monographs/
https://barbara-pym.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Bell_AGM21.pdf
To be continued !
Beverly
Thank you for the link! What did Lydia Davis have to say?
It was very interesting. I’ll write more at another time. She talked about sticking close to the French in her work (rather than taking the many liberties that Scott Moncrieff took in his translation. one example pointed out to me a subtle difference between French and English literary writing. That is, that French readers are more accustomed to ambiguity than English readers. We tend to want the precision that an extra word or two can offer. Here’s the main example she gave. In Swann’s Way, Proust writes of Tante Leonie “Elle nous aimait véritablement, elle aurait eu plaisir à nous pleurer; survenant à un moment où elle se sentait bien et n’était pas en sueur, la nouvelle maison était la proie d’un incendie où nous avions déjà tous péri… » In Davis’s translation, she writes « She truly loved us; she would have taken pleasure in mourning us; had it come at a moment when she felt well and was not in a sweat… ». It’s a very long passage!! In English, Davis noted that we (and as an editor myself I would be in this category!) might be tempted to write « She truly loved us, but she would have taken pleasure in mourning us … ». Adding « but »To make it easier on the reader so he or she doesn’t stop and reread and maybe say « What? » But that « but » is perhaps not necessary in French literary writing. The reader goes along with the author… hope this helps! I continue to look at Davis’s book Essays Two, which focuses on translating.