Editorial & Mentoring

I work with writers of imaginative storytelling in many forms – literary fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, horror, science fiction, crime, and popular fiction. I also work across a wide range of nonfiction, including memoir, life writing, and writing about gardens, travel, food, history, current affairs, esoterica, and spirituality. I have extensive experience with LGBTQ literature.

My editing, mentoring, and teaching draw on decades working in publishing and education, as well as a personal lineage that includes contemplative practice, tarot, and natural history. You can read more about my approach here. A core aim is to give writers tools to develop an independent editorial vision and trust their own instincts. 

I offer three types of support: editorial work, mentoring, and coaching and teaching. Editing and mentoring usually include reading, a meeting, written feedback, and a follow-up exchange via email. Coaching and teaching take different forms for different contexts.

 

Editorial

My editorial practice provides in-depth guidance across the life of a book: from early stages of planning and drafting, through clarifying work-in-progress, to revising complete manuscripts and readying them to send out. I read closely, paying attention to the mechanics of craft and structure as well as the deeper dynamics of your story’s matter. We then meet on Zoom to discuss your work, clarify your intention, and sharpen the focus of the written feedback that follows. We also explore routes in publishing. You come away with a stronger instinct for how to develop your writing and take it forward.

  • Manuscript Review – An editorial assessment of how your book meets a reader: what lands or what falls short, how it embodies a living world, and the clarity, pacing, and emotional charge running through the book.
  • Developmental Editing – A detailed root-and-branch diagnostic of the book’s internal workings, with chapter-by-chapter analysis and page-level margin notes.
  • Story Mapping – Evaluating and planning your plot, with an active survey of your story’s form and the direction of its through-line.
  • Proposal Diagnostic – A focused evaluation of your nonfiction book proposal’s content, structure, and positioning.
  • Query Package Review – A final-pass review of materials for coherence and clarity before sending to agents or publishers.
  • Short Story/Essay Review – A critique of a single piece, attending to the particular demands of short forms.

 

Mentoring

From first thoughts to final drafts, mentoring gives you editorial insight and companionship as you develop your craft and strengthen your creative instincts. It involves close reading, conversation, and practical direction as the work takes shape. An initial Project Survey helps me understand the scope of your work and your aims for it, and allows us to establish a shared way of working together. After this we continue with pathways of either Manuscript Mentoring or Revision Mentoring, depending on your stage in the process.

  • Project Survey – Orientation and foundational work: clarifying the structure, establishing voice, and identifying the heart of your material.
  • Manuscript Mentoring – Section-by-section guidance as you progress through a full draft, refining story, pacing, and narrative style.
  • Revision Mentoring – Support in revising and self-editing a manuscript and professional insight for evaluating your options in publishing.
  • Partners Mentoring – Mentoring adapted for writing partners, bringing shared momentum and triangulated feedback.

 

Coaching & Teaching

Flexible and interactive ways to support your creative practice, whether you’re stepping into a new stretch of writing, deepening your craft, or taking stock of a project.

  • Creative Coaching – Focused one-to-one sessions for process, craft, and professional matters.
  • Creative Beginnings – Personal tutorship for writers forming their practice or developing new material, with inspirational writing experiments, resources, and optional feedback.
  • Office Hours – Free group sessions held a few times a year: questions and answers, shared experiences, good-humoured discussion of writing and publishing.
  • Teaching – Masterclasses, workshops, and courses on craft and publishing, offered online and in person.

 

Working With Me

If you’d like to request further information and details of fees, please be in touch via this contact form. Tell me something about yourself and your writing: a short bio, any relevant experience of writing and publishing, completed manuscripts, courses, writing groups, and other personal details that come to bear on your work.

For mentoring or coaching, also give me some details of what you are looking for.

For Developmental Editing or Manuscript Reviews, a short overview of your project is helpful:

  • a brief description of your book and what led you to writing it
  • genre, category, and any comparison titles you’re using
  • word count and current manuscript status or likely completion date