Author Interviews
Interview: learning to edit your own work
DprimeLit Editorial Desk · 24 March 2026 · 5 min read
This conversation is drawn from a festival live session. Answers are lightly edited for length.
On first passes: "I read the whole draft without a pen. Just read it. The notes I would have made are usually wrong anyway before I know the shape of the thing."
On cutting: "Cut scenes, not sentences, first. If you start at sentence level you flatten your voice and still have a baggy book."
On working with an editor: "A good editor does not tell you what to write. They tell you where the reader fell out of the book, and then you decide why."
On knowing when to stop: "When the changes you are making are lateral rather than upward. That is the moment to send it."
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