Revising your romance like a pro, Maggie Morris, The Indie Editor, Sunday, May 3 from 2 pm to 4 pm EDT
et useful tips for revising your manuscript (or starting one!) from a fiction editor with twelve years of experience.
You typed “The End” on your novel manuscript. Congratulations! Now what? Should you stick it in a drawer? Send it to your friend? Publish it? (Hint: not yet!)
The answer is revision. Don’t know where to start? Good news! Ottawa Romance Writers has a workshop for that.
Join us and learn from Maggie Morris, an experienced fiction developmental and copy editor, where to start and how to proceed with revision. Whether this is your first manuscript or your dozenth, come get some guidance and pick up some tips to make your next revision even better.
In this seminar, Maggie Morris will share the major issues she addresses during substantive and stylistic edits, including:
- Nailing your elevator pitch so you know the book you are revising toward.
- Do your romance plot and the external plot unspool in a satisfying way? (What to track and how to track it.)
- Is your world-building sufficient, logical, and does it serve the plot? (Romantasy, sci-fi, historical fiction, and the contemporary world.)
- Is any kink content accurately portrayed? (How can you learn more?)
- Are your heat level and language well matched? Does the eventual heat level build believably?
- Have you used the senses to engage the reader so they experience every touch and tingle as the protagonist?
- What else makes us feel? (Using mood and tone to immerse your reader in the story.)
- Tips for crisper, more rhythmic writing to ensure a brisk reading pace.
The workshop will be recorded and the recording provided to all ticketholders.
About the speaker
Maggie Morris, The Indie Editor (www.IndieEditor.ca), is a freelance fiction editor who works with both independent authors and Penguin Random House Canada. She has a Certificate in Publishing from Toronto Metropolitan University, a BA in languages and literature from the University of Toronto, and is an active member of Editors Canada and the Editorial Freelancers Association. Maggie is a contributing author for Editors Canada’s third edition of the workbook: Edit Like a Pro: Structural Editing. Her most recent investment in her skills was the 2025 Editorial Freelancers Association course: Advanced Line Editing, taught by Amber Helt, that examined specific line-level conventions for romance, fantasy/romantasy, horror, mystery, historical, and contemporary fiction.
Tickets $22.63, $11.98 to ORW members (only $60 for a year’s membership!) Book On Eventbrite