Dear Potential Client, Thank you for your recent e-mail, under the subject line “doctoring,” that sought information about my editing services by asking, “May I ask how many novels you have worked on that have been published via traditional routes?” Of course you can ask. You have every right to. But in my experience, when a potential client starts out with this question, it ends badly. It's sort of like going into a clinic because you know you need a diet for your health, and asking the dietician what her measurements are and what she weighs before she has a chance to find out anything about you and your needs, and how she can help you be the best version of yourself. Or to embrace your subject line metaphor: not all people seek out doctors for the same reason. If your goal is to get rid of your cough, and the doc says the only way to do so is to stop smoking and start exercising, and you institute a new plan of walking home from work but feel you've earned the right t...

Have you ever felt damned by a cold inward stare as you try to write to the  tsk, tsk tsk of your inner critic? Time and time again we hear that working with a developmental editor can replace that destructive little devil with a constructive inner guru. Here's testimony from one such client. Please welcome guest author Donna Galanti ! We may write alone, but we can’t get published alone. A developmental editor can help you see the power in your story as well as improve your own self-editing. Here are the top five things my editor has taught me: 1. Backstory’s purpose is to motivate your characters for the story they are in now. Weave it into your story organically by slipping through portals like sense memories, pictures, setting, or unique phrases. Include only backstory that deepens the character’s story goal and/or reveals character. Continuity words like  never, always, still,  and  another  suggest your character's world before the opening ...