Typed pages, a crumpled draft, and a pen on a desk

Questions to ask your manuscript

One

What does this book want to become?

It might be different than what you planned when you started.

Two

Where is the writing most alive?

Every manuscript has passages where the author's true voice shines through. They have to be honored and reconciled with everything else.

Three

Who is your reader?

Readers will put up with a weak sentence. But they'll quit if the book forgets what it asked them to care about. My editorial letter names those places so you revise causes instead of symptoms.

"Stephen has a unique capacity for listening that allows him to understand the feeling that I'm struggling to communicate, and sometimes blindly seeking, in my writing. On many occasions, with a few insightful words he's helped me clarify and amplify my connection to my true and powerful voice."

Shawn N, writer

You'll know what to do Monday morning.

A developmental edit is a substantive review of the whole manuscript. You get a detailed editorial letter with several pages of actionable feedback and margin notes throughout your draft.

You also get a revision map. Nobody can act on advice like "develop your characters more." The map gives you a sequence so the revision process is clear and straightforward.

See the full process Or start with an assessment

The book becomes more yours.

I give feedback in a way you can use. The voice on the page at the end of the process is yours, made more itself.

More and more writers bring me AI-assisted drafts. If a tool helped you get the words down, fine. The thing to do next is to make it truly yours, and that means more than just changing the words around. Editing is generative and far more exciting than many authors realize prior to doing it.

An editor who writes

I've written several of my own books, including Writing from the Inside Out (Divine Arts / Michael Wiese Productions), the novel The God Pot, and the linked prose poem book Pants in the Tree.

I hold an MFA in creative writing and have taught writing at the university level since 2006. I live in Austin, where I run a typewriter events series. No matter what kind of tech advancement is on the horizon, I will always love the physical act of writing.

If the draft is a mess, you're in the right place.