Laurel Cohn has worked for over 30 years with writers from around the world as a developmental editor, assessor and writing coach. She has a PhD in literary and cultural studies and runs workshops across Australia.
Ahead of her workshop with us in November, Laurel took time out to give our Digital Writer in Residence, Emma Andrews, a glimpse into her world.
When I was doing my undergraduate degree, I worked for a literary agent. I soon went from helping with the filing to reading. I read not just the unsolicited manuscripts but also the works in progress of her established clients and we would talk books over lunch. That was my entry into publishing, my apprenticeship. Over five years, I learned how the industry worked.
Was that a case of the right opportunity meeting an interest you already had?
Yes. I have a long-standing interest in story. Anthropology (my undergraduate degree) is about the story of people and cultures. I am also a musician, so I’m interested in storytelling in different ways. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about that connection and about my interest in communicating meaning in both story and music.
I’d imagine you’ve seen a lot of shifts over your career. What have been the major changes?
I have a glimpse of what’s going on in the creative imagination of society in a different way to publishers and readers. I am invited to look into the creative worlds of hundreds of different writers. Then later, the trends I see in manuscript form end up on the shelves.
Climate fiction, for example, I started to see writers tackling and trying to make sense of the world and the climate crisis about ten years ago. It’s in the last six or seven years that these books have come to the fore.
I see more manuscripts for YA and middle grade now as that’s become a more viable career path for writers.
There’s a soaring interest in crime. This feels like a need to hear stories that have clear right and wrong answers and endings in a world where everything is so complicated. Our desire to have this clarity, I think, has helped the rise of crime as a popular genre.
There’s always been an interest in memoir, but now more people are writing about their own life experiences. I think that’s influenced by the rise of reality TV and feature-length documentaries. There’s a hunger for real stories.
Writers can sometimes need an outside eye to see their idea in a new way, to unlock the work – Laurel Cohn
And are you also seeing changes in how authors structure their stories?
Yes, I’ve seen changes stylistically and structurally that I feel are a reflection of the changing way we ingest stories. I’m seeing shorter paragraphs and a stronger urge to grab the reader with something dramatic at the start of a story.
Writers are starting to experiment more, although I think this has come after seeing the success of published books that break ‘rules’. I’m seeing more variety in chapter length by the writers who are brave enough to do that. There’s definitely an increase in stories being told from multiple points of view. More recently, there’s also been a rise in a mix of first and third person. That’s very difficult to pull off.
Even with these shifts, writers are still using the three-act structure – it works! You’ll find it is usually there, underneath.
Ultimately, whatever the structural and stylistic decisions are, they have to amplify the purpose of the story. So, knowing the purpose is key.
At what stage in the writing process would an author need to work with a developmental editor?
We work with writers at all stages, from initial idea through to final submission.
The writing industry has lots of options and opportunities for writers to learn skills and the craft of writing, but there are fewer sources of support on how to understand the manuscript development process.
Getting to a completed first draft of a book is such a huge achievement, and it needs to be acknowledged. But that’s just the beginning of finding the story. Then comes deepening your understanding of what you want to say, clarifying your purpose, understanding the different elements of dialogue, backstory, pace, theme and how they all work together to create the best story design. That process happens over multiple drafts. And you go through different phases during that.
First, you’re in the writer’s drafts phase. You’re telling yourself the story. Then when you’ve got a sense of who’s in it, where it’s going and where it’s taking place, the next stage is the characters’ drafts. This is when you’re telling the characters the story. You deepen your understanding of who the characters are: their motivations, their backstory, the choices they make, and the impact of those choices on the world around them and on their ability to solve the problem at the centre of the story.
Then comes the final phase, which is the reader’s drafts. Having gone from telling yourself the story and telling your characters the story, you then move into telling the reader the story. That’s where you step back completely and start to see the work from someone else’s perspective. That’s very difficult to do as a writer since you’re so close to the story.
Understanding where you’re up to in that development phase can help a writer feel okay about where they are and help them to know where they are going. The more writers are able to understand the development phase, the more likely they are to get to the end of it.
The goal doesn’t always have to be publication. That goal can sometimes get in the way of becoming a better writer if the focus is on an end product and not learning the craft. Writing is analogous to other art forms. If someone starts playing an instrument for the first time, they would expect it to take years before they are ready to perform professionally. Or when someone picks up a paintbrush for the first time, it’s going to take many years before their work will find a space on a gallery wall. But somehow we expect that once we’ve got the words on a page, we’ve got a book. Writing, like painting or music, involves learning a craft. It takes discipline and practice, patience, and skill.
Sometimes, the goal isn’t publication. That’s not always the pinnacle. That goal can sometimes get in the way of becoming a better writer – Laurel Cohn
What kinds of developmental editing work do you enjoy the most?
The work I love the most is helping a writer understand what the work is about: the underlying idea that holds and shapes it. I get excited when I see the writer find an understanding of what they’re trying to do, the clarity of purpose. It’s a process. A writer doesn’t often have that clarity from a first draft. It can take multiple drafts. And sometimes writers need an outside eye to help them see their idea in a new way, to unlock the story they want to share with the world.
If you have a manuscript, at any stage, and are curious about how to become a better writer, join Laurel Cohn in November at Writers Victoria. Her workshop Developing a Manuscript to Publishing Standard explains how to navigate the journey from early draft to a completed manuscript.
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