I’m so excited to introduce this project I’ve been working on for several months now: a digital workbook for authors, specifically for developmental editing!

A little background: I’ve always felt this back-and-forth pull between wanting to help struggling authors but needing to earn the money my services are worth. I know that so many authors—both first-timers and seasoned—aren’t ready to turn their manuscript over for a developmental edit, whether for budget reasons or other concerns. I’ve wanted to offer a less costly alternative for developmental edits, because I think that step is SO invaluable and can make all the difference in a manuscript, but often, the early drafts of a debut novel take so much more work, meaning I would be putting in so many more hours for a lower price point.

I struggled for a while trying to decide how I could still help authors, from offering classes to creating checklists or YouTube videos, and finally I landed on this idea: an in-depth digital workbook guiding authors through their own developmental edits! I put all the experience and knowledge I could into eight chapters of detailed questions, tips, suggestions, and instructions so authors can dig deep into their own work to figure out what’s working and what’s not, and even more importantly, how to FIX it.

I hope that this workbook will not only take you through one developmental edit but will also give you the tools to make your future work stronger, knowing the kind of questions to ask yourself and the pitfalls to watch out for. It’s intended for use in the revision stages, but it can absolutely help with any stage of writing, even pre-planning, because it offers plot structure strategies as well as guidance on character development, themes, and individual scenes.

If you need some support along the way, I’m also offering the option to add on personalized help from me in the form of written feedback of the work you’ve done, brainstorming help, or a video call to discuss possibilities. Information and prices for those services are in the first few pages of the workbook.

This is a digital workbook, so you’ll receive both a Microsoft Word document and a link to a Google Doc (you’ll make a copy for yourself) that you’ll fill in on your computer. The text boxes expand to fit however much you want to write, so you can analyze and brainstorm your story to your heart’s content.

I can’t wait for you to get started!