FICTION WRITERS

LET'S GET THE CREDENTIALS OUT OF THE WAY . . .

Here’s why I think I can improve your manuscript and make you a better and more happily productive writer.

First, I’ve been writing stories all my life. I understand the joys and struggles of storytelling from the inside. I’ve taken over a dozen creative writing workshops, not just in college but also recently through Gotham Writers and Narratively. Most recently, I completed Donald Maass’s Breakout Novel workshop. I also obsessively read craft books because I’m fascinated by how stories—and writers—work.

I’ve also studied stories all my life. I have a Ph.D. in Literature and was a college professor for sixteen years. While my academic training was in classic American literature (Poe, Hawthorne, Wharton, Hemingway, Faulkner, O’Connor), my more recent focus has been contemporary speculative fiction. Paul Tremblay, Josh Malerman, Grady Hendrix, Ken Liu, Gwendolyn Kiste, Zoje Stage, and A. C. Wise have all visited my classes, and I once taught a graduate seminar on Stephen King. I’ve also served as both a juror and chair for the Stoker Awards and regularly attend StokerCon, the annual conference of the Horror Writers Association.

And I know how to work with writers. I’ve taught literally thousands of writers across a range of genres, and I’ve mentored undergraduate and MFA students and first-time novelists working on horror, crime, thriller, fantasy novels.

What I’ve come to believe is that “good” writing is highly subjective. In every one of my classes, no matter what text we were studying, roughly a third of the class loved it, a third hated it, and a third were indifferent. Tastes vary, and while I certainly have my preferences, that’s all they are. My job as an editor is to help you create the strongest possible version of the story you want to write, not the version of it I would write.

I work with writers at every stage of the process and in any genre. While my deepest experience is in literary fiction, upmarket speculative, and commercial horror and thrillers, I’m comfortable editing just about anything—and if I’m not the right editor for your project, I’ll tell you.

HERE'S HOW I "EDIT"

I help writers answer two questions.

1. Is the story you're trying to tell the one that's on the page?

There’s an inevitable gap between the story that lives in our heads and the one that ends up on the page.

The story in your mind is the ideal version. You feel everything its capable of: its emotional depth, its intelligence, the plot that yanks you along, the characters who seem as fascinating and complicated as living and breathing people.

But the reader doesn’t have access to that version. They only have the one on the page.

My job is to help you see the gap between the two. I’ll help you recognize where the page is matching your intention—and where it isn’t.

Together, we’ll make sure that the story you write is as close as possible to the one you really want to.

2. What do you really need to get this story done?

It’s very rarely just an edit.

Maybe it's encouragement. Maybe it's honest feedback. Maybe it's the resilience to accept that feedback. Maybe it's the confidence to resist it.

Maybe you've come to see every obstacle as proof you're not good enough, when really it's just a problem to solve. Maybe you need a different writing routine or revision strategy. Maybe you just need more practice with dialogue or to let yourself take greater risks with voice.

In addition to giving you feedback, I'll help you build a plan—not just for finishing this project, but for improving your writing and developing a long-term practice, so the next story is easier to finish than the last.

Because I'm guessing this isn't the last story you want to tell.