Learn how to self-edit and polish your manuscript.

This workshop is for writers who want to learn more about editing and polishing their draft manuscript. It will help you to release (and discover) your inner editor – without upsetting your creative side. It will focus on how to check your work for structure, flow, readability, grammar and consistency. This workshop is for writers in all genres, and will include time for you to work on your manuscript and apply the strategies discussed.

Learning outcomes

In this workshop, you’ll learn how to self-edit and review your manuscript to ensure it’s the best work you can do. We’ll discuss how to:

Understand your real structure (whether planned or not)
Check for through-lines and story development
Check your dialogue and description
Identify sentence-level habits that might distract or confuse readers
Tighten at the sentence level for easy reading
Improve overall consistency.

Format

This is an in-person workshop with a focus on editing; it will be held at State Library of Queensland. This workshop is suitable for writers of all levels and writing backgrounds.

About Judy

Dr Judy Gregory is a Brisbane-based writer, editor, researcher, and writing educator. She specialises in ghostwriting memoirs and business books and using plain language to write about complex concepts. Judy has more than 30 years’ experience as a writer and editor. She currently teaches writing and grammar at The University of Queensland. Her historical novel-in-progress, 'Inheritance', was shortlisted in the 2024 Historical Novel Society’s First Chapters Competition. She was project manager for the essay collection 'Indigenous and Tribal Peoples and Cancer', published by Springer in September 2024.

For more information about Queensland Writers Centre’s Program of Events and answers to FAQs, please visit: www.queenslandwriters.org.au/program-info