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About Jim Dempsey

Jim Dempsey specializes in detailed analysis of novel manuscripts. He has worked as an editor for more than 20 years. He has a master’s degree in creative writing and is a professional member of the Society for Editors and Proofreaders. Jim is fascinated by the similarities between fiction and psychotherapy, since both investigate the human condition, the things that make us uniquely human. He explores this at The Fiction Therapist website, where he looks at different aspects of fiction—character development, plot, story structure, etc.—and uses concepts from proven techniques in modern psychotherapy to offer editing advice to authors who want to publish their novels. If you have a specific concern with your novel, send an email to jim [at] thefictiontherapist.com, or visit the website to ask for a free sample edit.

Recent Posts by this author:

  • The Wonders of your Character’s World View
  • Achieve Your Writing Goals
  • How to Respond to Criticism
  • Tune out your self-doubt—Fiction Therapy
  • Discover Your Characters’ Goals
  • How to Find Inspiration—Fiction Therapy
  • Fiction Therapy—What’s Your Story’s Problem?
  • The Different Types of Editing Explained
  • The Pitfalls of Self-Editing
  • All the King’s Editors—Jim Dempsey
  • Who’s Going to Help Your Hero?
  • All the King’s Editors—Jim Dempsey

    • The Wonders of your Character’s World View

    By 6 Comments

    A father, Jim, takes his son thirteen-year-old son, Roy, to Alaska in the tradition of all those great male adventurers. It’s long been an ambition for Jim, to pack up and live off the land for a year. It gives him the chance to connect with his son and show the boy what it means to be a man.

    But Jim doesn’t know this environment. When challenged, he makes mistakes, bad decisions and over-rules his son’s suggestions. After all, Roy is still a child. What does he know? Jim is the father; he should know best.

    But he doesn’t.

    [Read more…]

    Achieve Your Writing Goals

    By 7 Comments

    There are times when writing is easy, when you get through that daily word count without too much effort. And there are times when the final goal – that moment when you can type The End – seems very far away. There will be days when you think it will be impossible to reach, and […]

    How to Respond to Criticism

    By 17 Comments

    Last time, I looked at how to deal with your own inner critic, and this month it seems appropriate and timely to look at external criticism. Any kind of feedback on your writing—whether good or bad—can be useful, but the negative stuff can hit hard, causing a burst of emotions within you. What’s the best […]

    Tune out your self-doubt—Fiction Therapy

    By 16 Comments

    Best-selling thriller writer, Ian Rankin, has been writing professionally since the mid-1980s. He’s written close to 30 novels. He pretty much writes a book a year. But, at a certain point in his drafting process, usually somewhere at the end of the first month, he is struck by, what he calls, ‘the fear.’ He is […]

    Discover Your Characters’ Goals

    By 3 Comments

    Working out what your characters’ goals are will help you plan your plotline and develop engaging, motivated characters your readers will love to follow. Your characters need goals to get them to the next page, and then the next, and on until the end. They need to be going somewhere, trying to achieve something. That […]

    How to Find Inspiration—Fiction Therapy

    By 10 Comments

    Whether you’re wondering what happens next in your story, want to write your first novel, or are about to start on the next instalment of your long-running series, there are always times when you’ll need inspiration. And it is often surprisingly close by. ‘Be observant,’ said the dramatist, Lajos Egri, ‘and you will be forced […]

    Fiction Therapy—What’s Your Story’s Problem?

    By 5 Comments

    Every month, I examine some aspect of fiction—character development, plot, story structure, etc.—and offer advice and tips to help you work through the problems in your novel. I have adapted many of the concepts you’ll see here from proven techniques used in modern psychotherapy. Hence: Fiction Therapy. If you have a specific concern about your […]

    The Different Types of Editing Explained

    By 15 Comments

    My last article, on the pitfalls of self-editing, provoked some discussion about the different types of editing. There’s certainly a lot of confusion around, and it’s not surprising. There’s line editing, copy-editing, developmental editing, structural editing, substantive editing, and then proofreading. Editors can hardly agree on exactly what’s involved in each type, and that’s because […]

    The Pitfalls of Self-Editing

    By 25 Comments

    Let’s get this out of the way right at the start. I’m an editor. I’m going to be biased, but I’ve seen this scenario so many times over the years. As an author, you spend months, sometimes years, perfecting your novel, carefully considering each word, crafting every sentence, and polishing every paragraph. When you’re finished […]

    All the King’s Editors—Jim Dempsey

    By 10 Comments

    Jim’s post is part of the “All the King’s Editors” series, where an editor from the Writer Unboxed contributor team edits manuscript pages submitted by a member of the WU community. Each participating editor approaches a submission in a unique way, and speaks only for him or herself. Remember, editing is as much art as […]

    Who’s Going to Help Your Hero?

    By 10 Comments

    I just had my in-laws staying. For seven weeks! Don’t get me wrong, they’re nice, easy-going people (at least, they kept telling me so), but I reckon Ghandi could test your patience after seven weeks in your spare room. There was no one thing they did to annoy me (OK, there was one thing: “The […]

    All the King’s Editors—Jim Dempsey

    By

    Jim’s post is part of the “All the King’s Editors” series where an editor from the Writer Unboxed contributor team edits manuscript pages submitted by a member of the WU community. Each participating editor will approach a submission in a unique way, and speaks only for him or herself. Remember, editing is as much art […]

     

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