Reach New Writing Heights! Develop early drafts and make a deal with the inner critic

A preview to get you started and a link to the full workshop

Enter the joyful, freeing practice of guiding your writing from draft to polished vision.

Who is this for?

Wanna

• Tell the inner critic you got this

• Transform your work with curiosity

• Ensure what’s in your head is on the page?

This workshop’s for you!

To watch the workshop and use the worksheets and resource links, plus access all these workshops

Prefer to purchase a single workshop? Click here, select the $15 option, and email me for a link to the workshop and its resources.

Based on 20 years editing, patterns holding works back and prompts to usher them forward.

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A preview. Scaffolding and curiosity in three

1. Hello, fear, my old friend

As writers, we talk a lot about the inner critic. I believe that voice is fear.

When I was first living in a van, I found myself jumpy. I’d lived on the road before. But I was a little older and wiser—less invincible. Lying on my bed tucked among Northern California sand dunes, I listened to the ocean lap at the shore and made a deal with fear: “Hello, friend. I know you’re trying to protect me. Thank you. I promise to check things out anytime you want. If there’s real danger, we’ll bounce. If not, you gotta chill. Or this will be torture.”

It worked. Not only did I take off rarely, but a beautiful thing also started happening. Curiosity became the driver. I discovered the caress of the wind against my windows, the tinkle of tiny branches against Ruby’s side. I was drawn beneath moon in sliver and orb alike to hear coyotes and owls and wild burrows converse and watch kangaroo mice cock giant silk ears.

My deal with fear and writing goes like this. “Hello, friend. I know you’re trying to protect me. Thank you. I promise the editor has this. Waddya want to explore?” Take it from

Elizabeth Gilbert

, who invites fear to ride along with her and creativity but doesn’t let it make decisions. She points out in Big Magic that, while you need fear so as to not be eaten by bears or drown, “You do not need your fear in the realm of creative expression. Seriously, you don’t.”

2. All about distinctions

Another thing about writers is that we already think about making distinctions all the time. Think narrator, character(s), and writer. Check out a terrific conversation on, in part, this topic between

Jeannine Ouellette

and

Paul Zakrzewski

on Paul’s podcast, The Book I Want to Write. Think the situation (what happens) and the story (what it means). Vivian Gornick writes about this in The Situation and the Story.

Being able to see your work from different perspectives—the focus of different editorial microscopes and telescopes, as well as the reader’s spectacles—is similar. Doing so well takes strategy and practice. We’re all doing this already. For me, systemizing the practice makes it even better, not to mention fun. Time, space, and timers are three key strategies I employ. And developmental editing is a major toolbox.

3. Develop first and outline strategically

Developmental editing is looking at big-picture stuff. So, do this early in the process—but not until at least the first draft is done. Writers

Eleanor Anstruther

and

<Mary L. Tabor>

talk about the importance of both the editing process and gettig that inital draft completed before starting to revise in this fantastic conversation. I typically find my work is ready for development after draft one or two. Strategic outlining is a really great way to see what you have and what you don’t. Sometimes, we know the story or theme so well we think we’ve transferred it to the page, and it can take a new perspective to see it’s not all there. This new way of looking at a draft can also spark a whole new direction and ways to explore.

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♥️🔥 If you’re on Notes and wanna restack this post, I would be ever so grateful. Thank you!

What qualifies me to offer these workshops? Over two decades, I’ve edited more than a thousand manuscripts, from memoir to fiction to self-help and lots in between. Whether as a developmental, content, or line editor or a co/ghost writer, I’ve seen my job as helping authors transform works they’ve knitted from the fibers of their beings into the best versions possible. Before that, I was briefly an award-winning journalist. I’ve written for clients ranging from question-answering systems to influencers to nonprofits. And I’ve overseen mini zines and small publications as managing/assigning editor.

What’s next?

Live Zoom! Wow with Your Choices, March 30, 2024, 9am PST

What else

Replay! Reel in New Writing Depths: Developing early drafts to get the bones right with deep questioning

Replay! Be Stunningly Concise: The gifts we give readers and ourselves by cutting what’s not needed and loving it

Live Zoom! April 13, 2024, 9am PST. Polish & Publish

More coming in the fall. An annual subscription locks you in for all of that. Each workshop stands on its own. Come to or watch whichever calls to you.

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All artwork for the Rolling Desk is by the crazy talented Alexandra Rickards. Check out her art and think of her for your project needs!