As an editor, coach, and longtime writing teacher, I’m here to help you build on your best to finish your work—and give you strategies that will help you transform your next work as well.
When we work together, I will
provide feedback that energizes your work and enhances the story
uncover the best version of your story through written editorial suggestions and collaborative conversation
illuminate the writing process that best serves your work
honor the story you are here to tell
Book Coaching
Draft your best.
I’ll accompany you on the journey as you invent, brainstorm, and draft your manuscript. We all write alone, but talking about your work with an experienced coach can clarify your vision and unlock the best version of your story. I’ll ask questions, generate new approaches, and help you get even clearer about what you want to say. To help you develop your work and explore your story more deeply, I can offer customized exercises honed through 25 years of teaching writing.
Developmental Editing
Revise your best.
I’ll read your work both for what it is now and for what it can be—I’ll identify its most essential strengths so you can build on your best, and I’ll offer feedback on how to find the story’s best shape, to make its characters vivid, to heighten the stakes of the story, and to
We’ll talk about: whether the story is starting in the right place; how to make your characters’ motivations clearer; why imagining a new scene can sometimes be better than revising an old one; and how to keep your commitment to the story strong even when revising feels challenging.
Developmental editing can mean different things for different writers:
in a full developmental edit, I read the entire manuscript, offering feedback through specific margin notes and a detailed editorial letter (usually 10+ pages)
in a manuscript assessment, I read the entire manuscript, offering big-picture feedback in an editorial letter
in a partial edit, I read the first 50 pages and offer margin notes and an editorial letter, targeting feedback and issues you can then focus on in the rest of your manuscript
Copy Editing
Publish your best.
Before you click “publish” or hit “send” on a manuscript, you want to be sure that it is fully ready for its readers—and that means making sure that you’ve taken care of any inconsistencies, errors, or problems that might distract the reader from the story. As a copy editor, I read the full manuscript with the objective eye that is hard for writers to achieve on their own work. I’ll provide you with a style sheet detailing the copy-editing decisions so that you can make the final determination about the content.