How it Works.

Manuscript Reads

When you send me your manuscript, I pledge to read it within two weeks (unless it’s exceptionally long). My first aim is to respond instinctively, as a reader who might pick up your book in a shop, before I switch into editor mode and begin to analyse what may be going wrong. Although I do line-edit when I feel things are unclear, or if there are technical issues which are limiting the reader’s experience, the main concentration of my feedback will be structural.  

This means I will talk about the places where I feel the momentum of the story slows, or perhaps where I’m not clear what the character wants or why they are doing what they do. I will look for strands that have been dropped; I will tell you about the expectations raised in me at the start of the story, the questions I wanted answers to, especially if this has not happened by the end. I will look at how your characters change through the story. I will set your story against plot structures that have been handed down since Aristotle’s Poetics, and developed in loads of useful templates since, by story-workers like Robert McKee (Story) and John Yorke (Into The Woods).

After two weeks you receive the manuscript with my line annotations and a separate feedback report (usually around 6 pages). You can then take as much time as you want to digest my comments before setting up a meeting with me (online, by phone, or in person) in which we can discuss anything in my report, and brainstorm ideas for changes and moving forward with the work.

For Costs of Manuscript Reads based on word count, see below.

Synopsis Read

I am also happy to look at a synopsis and give feedback on any elements in the story’s arc which seem to me problematic or under-developed. In this process, I will make notes directly onto the synopsis, and then we can meet up (in person or online) and brainstorm structure.  

This is a useful exercise if you are about to submit a synopsis to an agent or publisher. Or you have become stuck and are struggling to finish writing the story but don’t know why.

The flat fee for a Synopsis Read is £150.

Writing Groups 2020/21

Once again next year I will be running two writing groups, in a lovely space at the Open Door in Lewes, East Sussex.

These take place on the first and third Saturday of each month, from September through July. The sessions run from 10-4, with an hour’s break for lunch.

Each group is capped at 8 writers, something I have done mindfully in order to feel I can give each writer enough attention over the span of a year. In some cases, if the group is smaller than 8, writers are able to submit work every month, but it is always guaranteed you will be sharing work at least every other session.

In the morning I do about an hour’s work of teaching around structure and then we workshop extracts from 4 writers (word count limit decided by group, usually between 3500-5000 words). In the afternoon the space is free to write in, while the four writers who haven’t submitted prose that month have a half-hour 1-2-1 tutorial with me in an adjacent room. This reverses the following month, so that each writer is either submitting work to the group for workshopping, or seeing me privately in every session.

If you are interested in being a member of the 20/21 Writers Groups Event, send me an email. The 20/21 Writers Group on the first Saturday of each month is now SOLD OUT. But there are a few remaining spaces on the third Saturday of the month group.

Here are the dates for both:

Group 1: September 5, October 10, November 7, December 5, January 9, February 6, March 6, April 3, May 8, June 5.

Group 2: September 19, October 24, November 21, December 19, January 23, February 20, March 20, April 17, May 22, June 19.

The fee for a year of workshops is £1000.

Costs

My fees for Manuscript Reads are dependent on word count, and I will give you an exact quote when I know the size of your work.

But to give an idea, I charge £100 for each 10,000 words, plus another £250 for the time spent writing the report and our post-feedback meeting. So that would mean the approximate fees below:

Manuscripts of around 60K-80K:          £850 - £1050
Manuscripts of around 100K:                 £1250

I no longer read short extracts, as I feel I am most useful and effective for a writer when responding to the arc of a complete draft.