Kurt DeManche | Updates

Tips & Tricks: Editing

Kurt DeManche — Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Three things I've found extremely helpful as I've been polishing WIPs into something actually ready to share with the world.

1: Alpha Readers outside your genre (and support group)

- I have a few die hard readers who read everything I write and I love them! They help me spot major issues, give me a barometer reading of the character likability, the plot's believability and integrity, ect. They however had read 30+ of my projects over the years and they will always find something to love.

- Readers who don't pick up my stuff on the regular offer a perspective that helps to shift my thinking. They ask questions like 'why?' the story is written the way it as or should a character act or say the things I've made them do. What I find is there are some decisions I've made that I'll fight for because I know they are important to the story. 'He talks like that because he's from South Tennessee and it's the only reason his ex-roomate recognizes his voice over the garbled phone call that queues the police to save him from the time-traveling nazis'. There are plenty of other times when their feedback helps me take a step back from the story I've bonded with and assess it with clean eyes, and usually sure enough there is a way to tighten, trim, refine for a better product.

2: When you get stuck, don't just keep bashing it.

- This might seem somewhat intuitive, but not to me. I'll be reworking a piece of diologue or a description and it just doesn't come out how I want. For years I've kind of knuckled down and kept at it until I was usually extremely frustrated or I vivisected the pages to the point it wasn't worth reading anymore and went back to the previous version anyway.

- Editing is HUGE, but when you get stuck just mark it to come back to and keep going. There is a good chance you'll find something a chapter or two later that sparks a sudden inspiration to correct the problem.

3: AI isn't the devil

- While generative AI to put pages out is about as useful as trying to paint a Monet with a blind cat as your brush it does have some huge time saving uses.

- I like to feed it my chapter, book, or series and have it looks for things like dropped sub-plots, weak characters, inaccurate science. I also love using it as a tough editor. I'll feed it a chapter and say something like read this like you're a publishing house editor and tell me what doesn't work, what isn't as good as the last chapter, and how would I need to fix it? THIS IS NOTHING NEW - Same thing you'd ask a good friend and or yourself as you self-edited, but it makes it about 100% faster to go from a completed WIP to something that just might be marketable.

Just wanted to share a few tips that have really helped me over the last couple projects!

- KD

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May Updates

Kurt DeManche — Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

1: Queries going out for two different projects. *finders crossed* for some agent interest.

2: Spring reading list is out on socials, and I'll be starting to release reviews, threads, and booktoks on each in the coming couple weeks.

3: Nearing the 1/3 point on my current WIP. Having a ton of fun with this one as I'm co-writing it with my father. It's great having a partner for accountability and to bounce ideas off of, and its terrifying to have someone as deep in a WIP as I am.

- KD

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2026 Washington Writers' Conference

Kurt DeManche — Sat, 9 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Back from the writers conference!

(Terrible photo as proof that I not only attended, but remembered to eat during the excitement)

Was really a wonderful time at the conference that flew by and ended too soon.

Pros:

- Great workshops/discussions with writers, agents, booksellers giving out their pearls of wisdom and making us all better for it.

- Had a chance to pitch two different projects to agents and got some nibbles.

- Outstanding fellowship with other writers and just amazing humans all working on getting stories out of their heads and onto pages.

Cons:

- I had to go back to my day job...

- Successful pitches = editing and more work!

- Realized it was really really, actually time to get a proper online platform for my writing established and going.

So back into the salt mines I go, but hopefully a few solid queries will be forthcoming, and I'll get back into the saddle on the current WIP. If you've lasted this long come back soon and I'll talk about that WIP and the different process I'm taking with it as I work with another author to craft a Sci-fi adventure for you all.

-KD

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