Are you preparing to revise a novel for the first time? Struggling to understand how the editing process works? Wondering when, or if, you should bring on beta readers or professional editors?
Writing Roundtables: Revising a Novel is the event you need to answer these questions and more. Happening on March 7th from 1-3PM, this virtual deep-dive will bring together Vanessa Ricci-Thode, C.L. Polk, C.M. Lockhart, and our very own Jade Benjamin to:
- Define the stages of editing a novel
- Discuss how to create a full revision timeline
- Explore when and how to bring someone else, such as a beta reader or professional editor, into the revision process
- Share general tips for successfully revising a novel
Ready to deepen your understanding of the editing process? Buy your ticket now—or join our premium community for automatic entry to this and all other Weeknight Writers events.
How it works
Revising a Novel will be a 100% virtual panel hosted on Zoom, with closed captions available thanks to our partnership with Renaissance Press. The panel will primarily focus on questions from our moderators and Weeknight Writers Pro members, with some time for live questions from the audience. We’re expecting a lot of questions for this one, so join the Weeknight Writers Pro community before March 1st to submit your question and make sure you get answers.
Our panelists
C. L. Polk wrote the Hugo-nominated Kingston Cycle, including the World Fantasy Award winning Witchmark. They are also the author of the Subjective Chaos Kind of Award winning novel The Midnight Bargain, which was a Canada Reads, Nebula, Locus, Ignyte, and World Fantasy Award finalist. The Nebula-winning, USA Today bestseller Even Though I Knew The End is their most recent book.
Vanessa Ricci-Thode is a Nebula Award-winning Halloween enthusiast and a bookish geek who loves dragons, astronomy, and travel. If she’s not hibernating, she can be found in her butterfly garden, achieving her final form as a garden witch. She lives in Waterloo (no, the other one) with her spouse, daughter and very good dogs. To learn more, visit her website thodestool.ca or follow her on social media @VRiccithode.
C. M. Lockhart (also known as Chelsea) writes books about Black girls who aren’t all that nice. Her debut novel, We Are the Origin, was released June 2022, and her latest series, The Lady Widow, is her first venture into the sci-fi genre. She is the owner of Written in Melanin, which
encompasses a podcast and YouTube channel of the same name, founder of the Melanin Library, host of the Melanin Chat, contributing editor of Magic in the Melanin: A Black Fantasy Anthology, and co-founder of the DNF Book Club. More information can be found on her
website, https://WrittenInMelanin.com
Jade Benjamin is a Canadian writer and editor who is fiercely in love with language, words, and magical worlds. She works as a freelance editor for independent author clients and serves on the acquisitions board for Renaissance Press. She is also one of the Weeknight Writers co-organizers, assisting with the development of resources and workshops around story structure, revisions, and more. You can find out more about her editorial work and how to hire her at Eclipse Wordsmything.
Want to learn from our panelists? Buy your ticket to Revising a Novel or join the Weeknight Writers Pro community for automated access to this and all future Weeknight Writers events.
Our moderator
Dianna Gunn is a fantasy and horror author who grew up “one step away from the gutter”. Gunn started a Twitter chat under the hashtag #WeeknightWriters to create an accessible, virtual community space for writers. This soon grew into a Discord server, and in 2020, she brought on Jade Benjamin to help host the first Weeknight Writers Virtual Conference. Since then, she’s hosted over a dozen virtual conferences, launched the Writing Roundtables series of in-depth author panels, and started #FirstDraftFall, a community event supporting writers through the creation of a first draft.
Find out more about Gunn by visiting her on Bluesky @DiannaLGunn.Bsky.Social and checking out her author website.