First things first, Portside at Grande Dunes, LLC is not an editorial service. If you are looking for someone who will review your manuscript for punctuation, spelling or grammar errors, you are in the wrong spot. If you are looking for a line editor, copy editor or someone who will hold your hand or re-write your story, you are in the wrong place. Yes, I do that where the need arises, but my goal is to make your story a better story and make you a better writer.
For writers who are still in the early stages of planning their novel, I am available to help you develop your story idea. This is usually done through a series of telephone conversations and written exchanges through which we will develop your story idea into a story outline. While many writers — “Pantsers” — prefer to write by the seat of their pants and let their story evolve as they write, I highly recommend creating form of outline before you start writing. This can be a bare-bones outline that only identifies the high points of your story; or it can be a detailed, chapter-by-chapter from which you will write your story.
I am available to provide whatever assistance you need in planning and writing your novel. Depending on where you are in the story planning and writing process, I can help you with everything from developing your story idea to fine-tuning your finished manuscript.
I am available to answer basic questions about your story for NO FEE.
DEVELOPMENTAL EDITING and EDITORIAL ASSESSMENT
If you have a manuscript you would like me to review, I am also available to provide a development edit at any point in your writing process.
At some point, you will, hopefully, complete a manuscript. You may recognize it to be a first draft in need of massive revision, or you may feel that it is a complete draft that is only in need of some polishing. Either way, I’m here to help. My developmental edit includes an examination of every aspect of your story and your writing with a particular emphasis on:
- Evaluation of story and story lines – the plot and the events and how they work together
- Evaluation of plot development and story pace
- Evaluation of character and scene development and presentation.
- Evaluation of dialogue;
- Evaluation for use of point of view
Development edits include a detailed report analyzing your work and including specific suggestions for improvements. The report will be accompanied by a markup of your work showing examples of points made in the report.
Manuscripts submitted for review must be in WORD format. Editorial reviews are made using the “track change” feature of WORD.
WRITER COACHING
Writing a novel involves more than coming up with an interesting story. For the vast majority of novice writers, their biggest problem is developing their story idea into a writable story. This means many things, including:
- Turning event ideas into writable scenes.
- Organizing events in ways that create increasing tension while balancing the story pace.
- Choosing the best point of view from which to tell the story.
- Creating the “right” kinds of characters for your story.
But most importantly, as your writing coach, I will help you develop your own skills in any and all aspects of story creation and writing. Rather that make specific suggestions, I will help you learn:
- How to evaluate your own story and scenes and determine what you are really trying to accomplish.
- How and when to use descriptions to bring readers into your scenes and enhance reader involvement in your story.
- How to write dialog that “real” and brings characters to life.
- How to write scene transitions that keep readers “hooked.”
That is, where most writing coaches focus on story writing, Alan’s approach represents the result of decades of what readers are looking for. Concededly, these approaches to coaching authors are not mutually exclusive. But anyone who has tried to learn how to write a novel by reading one of the many “How to . . .” books directed to new writers knows that:
- There are thousands of book that are well written but do not sell more than a few copies.
- Few books that become bestsellers become bestseller merely because they are well written.
I don’t guarantee that your book will sell a million copies. But I do guarantee that I can help you write the best book you are capable of writing.