I’ve been working with writers for close to thirty years. Almost half my life! And other than writing itself, it’s my true passion. Years ago, I called it prose therapy. That practice of climbing inside the head and heart of writer and their specific project, and helping the writer define and explore the possibilities of their work.
Now-a-days there’s this whole industry called book-coaching, which seeks to draw a frame around the process of helping a writer write a book (or even a story or an essay). While I appreciate the label “coach,” there’s something a bit nuts-and-bolts about the term that doesn’t fit precisely into my particular way of assisting writers. (Though, if you email me via my LLC, wordsinahurry, the response will show up with the name Coach Suzy, and every time I see that my gut squishes inward a little.)
The bulk of my clients come to me with a finished draft, and approach me for my developmental editing service. A DE, as we editors call it, is different than a copy edit or a line edit—though I will often point out granular issues such as word choice or repetition or confusing syntax. The main point of a DE, at least in my practice, is to align the intention of the writer with the resultant experience of the reader. Obviously, one reader’s response will differ from another’s and is dependent upon myriad variables, but there are some well-traveled theories on how the human brain processes story, and my goal as an editor is to help the writer close the gap between intention and delivery.
Now, it would take a whole craft book to delineate the steps and reasoning behind each of them, but I thought I would use this post to offer a visual overview on how I like to work: