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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/12944
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

It's probably useful to think of a developmental editor as a project manager. While it's often associated with non-fiction, but it's not unheard of for novelists to hire a developmental editor. (I see job posts like this every so often.) Whether you should hire a developmental editor for fiction is a hard question to answer without knowing more about the project.

To define Developmental editing: Its where an editor will assist a writer in organizing a manuscript, bringing structure to it, or even suggesting new sections of text to be written. A novel is traditionally a statement by a single writer, and by its nature, these developmental activities make more sense with non-fiction books.

A developmental editor could definitely help you develop a synopsis for a fiction narrative, but I think this would mean the editor has edged ever so slightly into the realm of collaborator. If you have them generate manuscript text with you, that would firm this up. Of course, much of this depends on your agreement with that editor.

The line between conventional editing and developmental editing can sometimes be blurred. For example, I do a lot of line editing, or editing of text on a sentence-by-sentence level. I'm looking at pacing and language and clarity, but I also leave notes where I think a book's structure could be improved. I've also guided the creation of additional book sections and moved/abridged sections. These could be called developmental editing tasks, even within jobs not labeled "developmental editing". What matters is that the writer and editor are both clear with each other about what's to be done.

In the event that you can't get started on an outline, or that you've stalled on the synopsis, you may just want to seek out help from a writers group (real life or online). Writers chat rooms can also be helpful places to brainstorm a bit. Once you have a better idea of what you want from this project, you can make a better decision about whether you need a developmental editor or not.

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