Freelance Services: Fiction

I work with fiction writers who are dead serious about mastering their craft. That’s my most basic and fundamental standard.

In terms of whether you and I can work well together, it doesn’t matter how much (or how little) experience you have; I’ve worked with fiction writers who had published ten novels, and I’ve worked with others who hadn’t yet published anything. I care about exactly three things: whether you deeply value mastery, whether you believe that you should do things right if you’re going to do them at all, and whether you’re ready to put in a great deal of very difficult work. If you can say “yes” to those three things, I can help.

In short: I will ask a lot of you, I will push you hard, and I will tell you (gently but firmly) if I think you can do better—but I won’t try to turn your voice or vision into mine, and I won’t forget that I’m here to help you achieve your goals.

I can’t promise you profitability, awards, or a large audience. In fact, if you really care about the quality of your writing above all else, you’ll find that commercial success is vastly more difficult. If you define your success by sales or recognition, I’m not the right editor or coach for you. However, if your primary goal is to write excellent stories regardless of how many copies you’re able to sell, and if you refuse to publish anything that isn’t your absolute best work, I may be exactly the editor or coach you’ve been searching for.

Since 1996, I’ve studied and practiced the craft of fiction consistently, rigorously, and with one goal in mind: mastery.

In fiction, mastery requires recognition of the fact that storytelling is an evidence-based discipline rooted in objective principles that govern structure, clarity, causality, character development, themes, and dozens of other considerations. Unlike the vast majority of fiction authors, editors, and coaches today, I do not “vibe” my way through writing or editing, nor do I subscribe to the notion that “it’s all just a matter of taste” (although personal taste does matter in certain respects).

My lifetime body of work includes:

• Three full-length novels written (one published—it won two mid-tier literary awards and was nominated for a third)

• Four novellas written (one published)

• Hundreds of short stories written (about half published)

• Roughly fifty full-length tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) campaigns written and run

• Dozens of novels and novellas edited for clients and colleagues, plus hundreds of short stories

• Decades of evidence-based study of the core principles of storytelling with heavy emphasis on psychology, philosophy, moral clarity, and reader immersion

What does all of this mean for you?

It means I won’t bullshit you. I don’t offer vague suggestions or half-baked opinions. I don’t use technical jargon to make it sound like I know what I’m doing. I offer time-tested, teachable, plain-English expertise based on thirty years of disciplined work, and you don’t need to already be an expert in order to follow along. If you’re willing to put in serious effort, I can help you create unforgettable stories that are structurally rock-solid, thematically coherent, and emotionally vibrant—and I can teach you how to do it consistently.

“Full-service editing” is a broad and somewhat ambiguous term. I offer the following services individually and/or bundled together:

• Developmental editing: In my experience, 90 percent of editing happens at this level in 90 percent of cases. This is where we’ll deeply analyze your story as a whole, paying close attention to plot, theme, structure, character development, and pacing. Developmental editing is the longest and most difficult stage by far—and the most important. It will test your patience, but if we skip it or rush it, your story is guaranteed to be dead on arrival.
• Line editing: Here, we’ll edit primarily at the level of individual paragraphs and sentences, emphasizing clarity, flow, and effective use of language. If developmental editing is the house’s foundation and frame, line editing is the wiring, plumbing, flooring, and so on.
• Proofreading: In terms of the manuscript itself, this is the last step before publication. Proofreading is concerned exclusively with spelling, grammar, style guide adherence, and (in some cases) formatting. This is the paint, carpet, and furniture—things we don’t worry about until the house itself is perfect.

Please note that, although I offer these services individually, it is very difficult (often impossible) for an editor to perform effective line editing if he has not also edited the same manuscript at the developmental level.

I won’t lie to you: Learning to write short fiction well is difficult and time-consuming, and learning to write long fiction well is massively difficult and time-consuming. There are no shortcuts, and anyone who says otherwise is selling you snake oil.

On average, I only work with one or two fiction coaching clients per year. This is because I refuse to increase quantity at the expense of quality. Although I offer author business coaching to a limited extent, the vast majority of my coaching is exclusively craft-focused. There are many, many principles of high-quality storytelling. Learning and understanding those principles requires discovering and integrating the evidence that validates them; that takes a long time. Learning to apply those principles to any given aspect of any given story takes even longer.

Unless you’re unusually gifted, it generally takes at least six months of consistent, hard work and practice to begin to see major improvements in your storytelling ability; one year is more common. The amount of improvement you can expect is directly correlated to the amount of effort you invest. I don’t require my clients to sign long-term contracts—you can quit at any time if you’re not happy—but if you aren’t ready to commit to at least six months of weekly or biweekly coaching with substantial practice between our meetings, you likely won’t make significant progress. (By the way, of the more than one hundred coaching clients I’ve worked with, only one quit early.)

If you’ve read all the way down this page and are now thinking that I might be the person you’ve been searching for, send me a message and let me know how you think I can help.