Developmental Editing & Coaching

A Second Set Of Eyes

Developmental editing, substantive editing, and content editing are all names for the same thing — getting valuable and actionable feedback on your screenplay or novel from a “10,000-foot level.”

It comes after your first or second early draft is completed, but before the story is “locked.” It helps identify troublesome inconsistencies in the plot or the characters themselves… before you spend any more valuable time working on a broken framework. And certainly, before you concern yourself with a line edit for spelling and sentence structure.

What I’ll Do

I’ll assess your screenplay or novel to ensure that:

• Your plot flows in a way that keeps the reader guessing and engaged;
• Your characters’ personalities and unique voices come through consistently;
• Characters behave in ways that make sense for who they are, what they know, what they need, and why they need it;
• That you haven’t missed opportunities to introduce new plot points, ideas, or other valuable story elements;
• That you haven’t introduced a wrinkle or cliffhanger and forgotten to close the loop;
• And your core themes are reinforced through your prose, your characters, and your plot structure.
• We might discover that certain scenes can go away, or that several side characters can be conflated into one.
• We might see opportunities to remove or enhance subplots.

You’ll be surprised by what a second set of eyes can reveal.

What You’ll Get

• Notes, comments, and observations embedded in your document, representing how I’m perceiving the story as I’m reading.
• An in-depth narrative document, with deeper observations about the story. It talks about plot structure, character development, themes, tendencies and habits, stylistics, and more. This might be a couple of pages to as many as ten.
• A 30-minute follow-up Zoom call to discuss the notes and documents. We can be specific about the notes, or talk generally about the storyworld and your creative process.

Cost

Whether it’s a short screenplay, a feature film, a short story or novella, or an epic novel, the cost is the same.

• .03 (three cents) per word

• A typical feature screenplay might run around 20-30,000 words, so that’s about $750.
• A 50,000-word YA novel would be $1,500.
• A 110,000-word novel would be $3,300.
• …and so on.

Coaching

Optional:

Need accountability during your next steps? We can set up one or a series of Zoom calls to discuss your progress in arriving at your next draft.

We’ll chat about what’s working for you and what isn’t, where you’re stuck, worldbuilding, characters, and brainstorm forward motion together.

• 30 minutes
• $60

Let’s set up a discovery call.

If you’re ready to talk about what a developmental edit or coaching might do for you, let’s talk.

Why Me?

I’ve been a story consultant for more than a decade. I’ve provided plot, character, and dialogue feedback on feature film scripts, novels, and mobile games. And I’ve helped structure, research, write, and edit non-fiction books.

I’ve got more than 14 novels, non-fiction books, and children’s picture books under my belt. I’ve written, optioned, sold, or consulted on over a dozen screenplays in various stages of production, and written articles on story craft for a variety of publishers.

And I’ve been a screenplay judge for important genre and regional competitions.

Scroll down for a few testimonials.