April 1, 2025 • 46 mins
Ever wondered what an editor actually does all day?
What it looks like to spend all day supporting writers in their stories?
Or what your editor’s doing in all that time when they’re not sharing their feedback with you?
If those questions pique your curiosity, you’re in luck. I’m pulling back the curtain to share a week in my life as a developmental editor and book coach.
You’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at what I do with writers and what I’m working on when I’m not on calls giving feedback.
Plus, I’ll share all the best editing strategies, tips, and tricks that emerge as I dig into stories with writers this week. You’ll hear:
- How I use what we know about a story to solve for what we don’t know
- Whether it’s okay to “tell,” not just “show,” a character’s emotions
- How your character’s emotional intelligence impacts how your reader feels
- A simple way to track the emotional tension in your story
- How I draw out every last drop of meaning and emotion to make scenes unputdownable
- What it means to be “done” editing your book
I love my job and can’t imagine spending my days any other way. I hope you enjoy this peek at what it really looks like to be an editor and book coach!
Links mentioned in the episode:
- Want to work with me in Story Clarity and Story Refinery? Tell me about your story »
- Get a boost of editing joy in your inbox every Tuesday. Join the newsletter »
Further Listening:
- Ep. 32: How Spider-Man (And All Great Stories) Makes Us Laugh, Cry, and Feel the Feels
- Ep. 42: The 6 Essential Elements of Every Novel, Act, and Scene
- A week in the life of another editor and book coach: A Week in the Life: 5 Days Behind the Scenes with Savannah
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Have you ever wondered what aneditor actually does all day?
(00:04):
What does it look like to spendall day supporting writers in
their stories?
What's your editor doing in allthat time when they're not on a
call with you sharing theirfeedback?
If those questions peak yourcuriosity, you are in luck.
Today, I'm pulling back thecurtain to share a week in my
life as a developmental editorand book coach.
You'll get a behind the sceneslook at what I do with writers
(00:27):
and what I'm working on when I'mnot on calls with writers.
Plus, I'll share all the bestediting strategies, tips, and
tricks that emerge as I dig intostories with writers this week.
Enjoy this week in the life ofan editor and book coach.
(01:29):
Welcome to your next draft.
Today, I'm taking you behind thescenes to shadow me as I edit
and coach writers all week.
I'm going to check in everymorning to share what I have
planned for the day, and thenI'll check back in at the end of
the day to tell you how it went.
I'm also going to share theediting tips and strategies that
come up in each of my calls withwriters this week.
So there's going to be ametaphorical charcuterie board
(01:51):
of actionable advice here.
I've been wanting to do anepisode like this for a long
time.
I'm inspired by Savannah GilBo's Week in the Life episodes
on the fiction Writing Made Easypodcast.
I always love getting to see apeek into someone else's work
life.
Both what the work actually isand how they structure it
throughout their week.
And I'm excited now to pull backthe curtain on my own life as a
(02:13):
developmental editor and bookcoach, so you can see what I do
and how I do it.
The other reason I'm excited toshare this behind the scenes
look is because usually what youhear on your next draft is story
theory, outside of the contextof an individual.
Writer's work in progress.
I give examples of that theoryat work in published stories,
but it's really up to you to putit into practice.
(02:36):
I get to see all that theory inpractice every single day,
though I'm actively using it inall of my editing calls with
writers.
And of course a lot of what wetalk about in those calls is
hyper specific to anindividual's story.
And I won't be sharing thedetails of any writer's specific
work here, but I can still showyou what it looks like to put
editing theory into action inthe context of these anonymized
(02:58):
stories.
So in a very real way, thisepisode is a compliment to my
usual how to solo episodes.
Now that you have context forall those how to episodes, If we
get to explore what all thatlooks like in practice, I won't
keep you from the good stuff anylonger.
Without further ado, come joinme for a week in my life.
Happy Monday.
(03:20):
That might feel like a bit of anabsurd greeting, but I genuinely
love my job and I am so happy tobe here today and every day.
I'm, I just love my job.
I don't usually record thisearly in the day, so my voice is
a little bit rough, and it mightbe a little rough in all of the
morning recordings this week.
Uh.
(03:40):
That's how you'll know this isreal.
That's our verisimilitude.
Oh, that's my favorite word, andI didn't know I'd get an
opportunity to work it into mypodcast.
I like starting my week out witha bit of a warmup, as you can
tell from my sleep fog voice.
So I hold tight to no meetingMondays.
I don't take any calls, and Iset aside the whole day to
devote uninterrupted focus timeto major business development
(04:03):
tasks.
A lot of the time my Mondays endup being heavily podcast
focused, but today I've got abit of a grab bag.
Later this week, I'll beinterviewing a couple of guests
for future episodes of your nextdraft.
So I have two interviews toprepare for.
I'm also going to be presentinga masterclass inside another
book, coach's MastermindCommunity next week.
(04:24):
I have a version of thatpresentation ready, but I want
to make some adjustments to itfor this group of writers.
So that's on my mind today.
I have a suspicion that Iprobably won't get to this one
because I've got a lot of tasksthat I'm gonna list out here.
But this is one of the thingsthat I want to get to, I wanna
be thinking about either todayor for later this week.
I also send out an emailnewsletter every Tuesday, so
I'll need to write that today soit can go out tomorrow.
(04:47):
And I had my first call with anew Story Clarity client last
Friday.
Story Clarity is one of my majorediting and coaching packages.
I'll tell you more about it onFriday when I have my next story
Clarity call.
But what's relevant on thisMonday morning is that after
every story Clarity call, I puttogether some custom story
development exercises, questionsand journaling prompts to help
(05:09):
each writer develop their storyand some really specific areas
in between calls.
Normally, I like to put thosequestions together on Friday
evenings right after our call,when everything's.
Super fresh, but I had to leavea little early last Friday
because I went to see JohnGreen's event on his book tour
for his new book.
Everything is Tuberculosis,which was a ton of fun.
(05:30):
I mean, it was also dark andsobering and a very, you know,
challenging look at the state ofthe world at infectious disease.
But John Green's events are alsosuper fun.
so I haven't written thosequestions for this writer yet,
and I'll do that later today.
So I have a few different thingsto work on and some lofty goals.
(05:50):
I don't think that all of thesetasks will fit into my day.
In fact, when I went to lay themout in Sama, which is my daily
task planner, It told meunrealistic workload, bump some
tasks to another day.
And I thought, yeah, that, thatworkshop presentation probably
isn't getting done today, ButI'll get some of these done
today and I'll get a solid starton the rest, and I'll keep
thinking about things that I'llbe developing later this week.
(06:12):
So I'm going to get to work andI'll check in again this evening
to let you know how it all goes.
All right.
It is Monday evening and I amback to check in and wrap up my
day, and it's occurring to me asI record these that you're just
gonna get to hear me at alltimes of day that I don't
normally record podcasts also.
(06:33):
Uh, with these impromptupodcasts, I'm not really
coordinating with my upstairsneighbors, and I think they're
currently hanging pictures abovemy head.
So if you hear any bumps orthumps, that would be why.
Hopefully the mic won't catch itand it'll get cleaned up by my
audio software.
But just a heads up, This is theraw real life that you're
(06:54):
hearing.
Very is some militude again.
It has been a full Monday, justchockfull of deep thinking.
I'm always surprised by just howmuch energy the brain uses the
brain alone.
not even moving around, not evenwalking, like just literally the
brain and how tired I can feeljust from sitting at my desk and
(07:15):
thinking, but goodness, I amtired.
I kicked off my day with writingthose questions for that writer
who's in story clarity with me.
I did that intentionally.
I started there first because Iwanted to put my freshest energy
towards her story.
I love putting together thediscovery questions after a
writer's first clarity call,They're really a journey into
(07:36):
yourself and what you believeand what you as an individual
human being with a uniqueperspective on our world are
bringing to this story thatyou're telling.
Here's just a little sample ofthe questions that I wrote for
this writer.
What do you want 14-year-oldkids to know about friendship?
Think about how trust is builtin friendships.
(07:58):
If on one end of the trustspectrum you've got, I can sit
with this person at lunch, andon the other end of the spectrum
you've got, I can tell thisperson my deepest, most
vulnerable feelings.
What are some other points alongthe spectrum of trust in
friendships?
How do you rebuild the abilityto trust in other people after
someone has broken your trust ina big way?
(08:21):
And then I wrote a couple dozenmore questions like that,
packaged them up and sent themover to the writer for her to
explore over the next week and ahalf.
After that was done, I hopped onZoom with Bran, whom you heard
here on this podcast in theepisode just before this one,
and we talked to the projectsthat we were working on today.
I know I made a big deal aboutmy No Meeting Mondays, but I
(08:43):
don't count calls with my editorBestie, Brandon s and Kim
Kessler as meetings.
They're really virtualco-working sessions, and we jump
into them all the timethroughout the week.
Occasionally we schedule them,But mostly we just pop in and
out of them as needed.
today, Brandon and I talkedabout my vision for this podcast
episode, how it fits into thecontent that I share on your
(09:05):
next draft, and what I want thisepisode to do for you.
And then we talked about whatBrandon is building, which is
just amazing.
It's an entirely new frameworkfor thinking about the genres of
nonfiction books in a way thatmakes them way clearer to
actually write.
And she's building out a supersimple quiz to help people
identify their genre and acourse to help them use their
(09:26):
genre to write, and a custom GPTto be like a book coach in their
pocket whenever they get stuck.
It's just incredible.
I work with some reallybrilliant people.
After that coworking session, Iwrote my Tuesday newsletter,
which began as a reflection onthe main editing idea that's
been bouncing around in my brainfor the last few days, and ended
(09:47):
up becoming a super subtlelesson on story structure
through the lens of your ownlife.
That's usually how I approach mynewsletter.
I think back on all the editingwork I've done in the last week
or two, all the stories I'veworked on and the projects I've
been building, and beyond that,all the ways that I see story
emerging in my own life, evenoutside of my job.
(10:08):
And I pick something that stuckout to me, some aspect of
editing that's been rollingaround in my mind, like a stone
and a rock Tumblr, and I exploreit for about 500 to a thousand
words.
I don't start with a tacticalhow to strategy, I save those
for the podcast, but it's alwaysexciting when something tactical
and how to emerges from thebroader, more perspective
(10:29):
exploring concept as I'mwriting.
And that's exactly what happenedtoday.
I'll admit I'm pretty pleasedwith this issue of the
newsletter, and I'm excited forit to go out tomorrow.
By the time you hear thisepisode, that issue will be out
in the world already.
But if you'd like to catchfuture issues, you can sign up
by going to alicesudler.com/scene worksheet and
(10:50):
filling out the form there.
You'll be subscribed to my emailnewsletter, and as an extra
bonus, you'll also get my scenerevision worksheet, which forms
the basis of how I editunputdownable scenes.
And if you really wanna readthis specific issue of the
newsletter, send me an email atalice@alicesulo.com and I'll
forward it to you.
(11:10):
After I wrote the newsletter, Icould feel that I was starting
to fade.
Like I said this morning, mylist was lofty, but I knew I
wanted to get at least a soliddraft going of those interview
questions for those twointerviews I have on Wednesday.
So I pulled those out andnoodled around on the questions
I want to ask.
I've got a solid draft now forboth interviews and I'm hoping
to jump on another co-workingcall with Brandon or Kim or both
(11:33):
of them tomorrow and get theirfeedback so I can polish those
questions up and be totallyready to record the interviews
on Wednesday.
The day ran a little later intothe evening than I would've
liked, but this spring I'mworking on gathering a ton of
podcast content so that I canget ahead and it was worth it to
me to spend the extra timetonight so I can get several
interviews recorded this week.
(11:54):
Batching podcast content is oneof the last few things that I'm
working on locking down so I canreally get my work into my ideal
flow.
It is hard to get ahead, but I'mgoing to do it.
And that's where I'm wrapping uptoday.
It has been a long day full ofcontent creation from client
materials to newsletter contentto podcast interview questions,
(12:14):
tons of deep thinking here, andmy brain is tired, So I'm going
to go sit outside, read a bookfor fun, rest, and head to bed
so I can come back energized andready for more tomorrow.
it's Tuesday morning, and I amback at my desk ready for
another fun day of editing.
I spent the morning getting mylife in order, went to the
(12:35):
grocery store, tidy up mykitchen, and put some carrots in
the oven to roast for lunch.
I like to joke that I'm amachine that turns carrots into
editing ideas, and I'm going tobe creating a lot of editing
ideas today, so I'm going toneed a lot of carrots.
Here's what I've got lined upfor the day since it's Tuesday.
I have two story refinery clientcalls this afternoon.
(12:57):
Story Refinery is my other majorediting and coaching package.
It's my ongoing revision supportafter writers finish story
clarity.
In story clarity, we get really,really clear on the shape of the
story and start revising theoutline to match that shape And
in Story Refinery, we finishrevising the outline and then
revise the pages scene by sceneto make the manuscript match
(13:20):
that outline and make everyscene unputdownable.
First step today, I have awriter who recently completed
Story Clarity and moved intoStory Refinery.
We'll be taking a really closelook at their outline for the
middle of their story, act twoand three and four ACT
structure, and seeing whether itworks and whether it's clear
enough for them to start writingor if there are any more story
(13:41):
problems that we can solve onthe outline level before they go
to their pages.
Then I have a writer who workedher way through an entire draft
of her novel in Story Refinerylast year.
She's now back with a novella,which we've been working on for
a few weeks now, and since it'sso short and we've worked
together before, I brought herstraight into Story Refinery to
work on it.
We spent the first few callsrefining the outline, and today
(14:04):
I'm going to start readingpages, which I'm really excited
about.
And of course I've got thosepodcast interviews coming up
tomorrow that I need to prepfor.
Actually, I saw this morningthat one of those guests
rescheduled for a different datea few weeks from now.
We had talked about thatpossibility a bit in the last
few days, so I'm not surprised,and I love that she is moving
things around in her schedule tokeep all of her work manageable
(14:25):
and life-giving rather thandraining.
I have been in some environmentsin the past where my work was
exploited, or even when Iexploited myself in service of
doing the absolute most that Icould, and I celebrate every
time someone makes the toughchoices that protect sustainable
work habits rather thanexploitation of other people or
themselves.
(14:46):
Plus as an added bonus, thatmeans I have more time to prep
now for the other interviewtomorrow.
So I'm still hoping to get tothat prep today, but I know that
if I don't get it totallyfinished tonight, I can keep
working on it tomorrow morning.
And that's what I've got ondeck.
I'm gonna go get to it now andI'll check in this evening and
let you know how it goes.
It's Tuesday evening now, and Itold you I was going to turn
(15:08):
carrots into editing thoughts,and boy did I.
Today was so much fun and fullof so many fantastic story
conversations.
So I had two client calls today,and I wanna give you a little
peek into each of them becausethere are absolutely principles
from each one that can apply toyour stories as well.
On the first call, the writerand I reviewed their second act
(15:30):
and then dug into their thirdact based on the work we'd done
on the global story arc andstory clarity.
We already knew what the turningpoint, climax and resolution of
this act would be.
We just had to put those piecesinto place.
What we didn't know was theinciting incident, the
protagonist's goal, or thecrisis.
Those three pieces are reallytightly connected, and if you
(15:52):
can figure one out, you can useit to work out the rest.
So we worked forwards andbackwards to see which one might
become clear first and thentriangulate the others.
We started with the midpoint.
How did the protagonist feelabout the giant success that
he'd experienced in themidpoint?
What would he do immediatelyafter?
There we found the set piece,the scene that we thought would
(16:15):
probably hold the incitingincident, although we still
didn't know what the incitingincident would be.
Then we jumped forward to theturning point after this giant
catastrophe, the turning point?
What were the protagonistoptions?
What choices could he possiblymake after everything fell apart
in a horrible way?
(16:35):
and there we found the crisis,the tension, the protagonist was
fighting throughout the entireact.
That tension was an emotionaltruth, a sense of belief in
himself that the protagonist wasat risk of losing, and if he
failed.
Of course that led really neatlyto his goal for the act to keep
on trying things withoutexperiencing that catastrophic
(16:58):
emotional failure.
And because we knew the crisisand the goal, now we knew what
the inciting incident needs toset up, and that led to a lot of
options for the writer.
Now that they know what specifictension their protagonist is
facing throughout Act three.
What the turning points andcrisis are that will bring that
tension to a head.
(17:18):
They can dig deep into theemotional truths they know about
what it is like to be faced withthis kind of tension.
Will their protagonist rushforward boldly?
Will he hesitate and step back?
Will he try to ignore signs thatsomething he's tried isn't
working, or will he collapse atthe first hint of failure?
(17:39):
I don't know.
That's the writer's job toexplore based on what they know
of what these kinds of emotionalexperiences are like, that's
what it means to write what youknow.
It means to tap into theemotional truths, you know,
likely from your own experience,and show us what it feels like
to navigate those inneremotional challenges regardless
(18:01):
of whether the story is set inyour hometown or on the backs of
dragons on a planet in anothergalaxy.
So.
That was the first call.
It was a lot, right?
Well, I had a quick break, ate asnack, and jumped into my second
story refinery, call the secondwriter, and I had already vetted
the writer's outline, and sotoday I got to dig into her
(18:22):
pages for the first time.
Remember, I know this writer,and I've worked with her for a
long time.
She writes beautiful emotionallycompelling stories, so I was
surprised when I read the firstact of her novella to discover
that it.
Didn't make me feel anything atall.
I told her that, that all theactions were exciting and all
(18:43):
the events were in the rightplace, and yet I wasn't feeling
any emotional connection withthe characters, especially the
protagonist.
And then we dug into why, Firstoff, the writer explains that
she'd been experimenting withall showing and as little
telling as possible.
In this draft, the writing wascinematic full of exciting
(19:03):
action packed scenes that wecould watch like a movie and
like a movie we had no accessto.
The feelings characters werefeeling only the expressions on
their faces and the movement oftheir bodies.
I've seen more than one writerget chipped up recently by the
advice to show, not tell.
So let me just give youpermission right here to tell in
your stories.
telling isn't bad.
(19:24):
Every story needs a balance ofboth showing and telling.
Sometimes the reader does, infact need you to tell us what
emotion the character isfeeling.
So that was one challenge.
But the greater question herewasn't just should we use
emotion words on the page, itwent much deeper than that.
what I asked is this character'srelationship with his own
(19:48):
emotions.
What is his level of emotionalintelligence?
How well does he know andunderstand himself and his
emotional experience?
How well does he think he knowsand understands himself?
The answer it turned out is hedoes not have much of a
connection with his emotions.
(20:08):
There are a lot of factors whyhe's been socialized into a
certain type of masculinity.
He's a bit of a selfish jerk.
He wants to think of himself asa tough guy.
He tends to stuff his emotionsdown rather than acknowledge
them.
All of this means that he's notgoing to go around expressing
nuanced explorations ofmultifaceted emotional
experiences in his interiority.
(20:29):
He won't be thinking things likeI expected to be disappointed,
but instead I felt a strange mixof pity and perverse
satisfaction.
He doesn't articulate hisemotions that clearly, even to
himself.
He barely even registers hisemotions, but that doesn't mean
he doesn't feel emotions.
With the exception ofsociopaths, all humans feel
(20:52):
emotions.
We are all feeling things allthe time that are influencing
the ways we think and behave,whether we recognize and
understand those feelings ornot.
For us storytellers, the trickthen becomes how do you.
The writer, figure out what yourcharacter is feeling, even when
they might not know itthemselves.
(21:14):
How does that emotion present tothem?
What do they recognize?
For example, does this writer'semotionally repressed
protagonist, interpret all ofhis big feelings as anger?
And how does that emotion impactwhat your character thinks and
does, whether they realize it ornot?
The extra fun piece of all ofthis is this writer is writing
(21:35):
in first person, which means thereader's access to the
protagonist's emotions isfiltered through what the
protagonist understands aboutthem, which again, is a pretty
rudimentary level of emotionalintelligence and mainly just
repression.
So that's an extra challengehere to convey emotional nuance
to the reader through the filterof a character with very limited
(21:57):
emotional awareness.
This is what separates goodstories from great ones.
This is what makes storiesresonate in our minds long after
we've closed the book.
this level of psychologicalacuity, of deep understanding of
human emotion, even beyond whatthe characters might understand
about it themselves.
(22:17):
And so I ask you, as I ask thiswriter today, what's your
protagonist's relationship totheir emotions?
What do they understand aboutthemselves and what do they not
understand about themselves?
Whew.
Again, that was a lot, right?
This is why I love my job somuch.
These are the kinds ofconversations I get to have
(22:40):
every single day, and the resultis amazing stories that I love
and that writers are so proudof, and I know readers are going
to absolutely devour when theyget their hands on them.
I usually call it a day aftertwo refinery calls.
Today, though I still wanted totake another pass at those
interview questions for thepodcast interview that I'm
(23:00):
recording tomorrow.
So I hopped on Zoom with Brandonand Kim and we talked through
their work and mine, and I spentsome time workshopping my
questions with them.
I feel really good now about thequestions I've put together, and
I'm excited for this interviewand I hope that you enjoy it too
when it comes to the podcast ina few weeks.
This was such an energizing dayall day today, fueled of course
(23:21):
by carrots.
can't forget the carrots.
Credit to the carrots.
That said, it was still a longday.
Don't be fooled.
This was more than eight hoursof work, so I think I'm gonna
try to take it a little slowertomorrow.
There's always so much that Ican be doing, but I'm going to
aim to work a shorter day andtake longer breaks, maybe go on
a walk.
We'll see what happens.
(23:42):
Right now I'm gonna sign off forthe night and I'll meet you
right back here tomorrowmorning.
I am back on Wednesday morning,although morning isn't really
accurate.
It's early afternoon now.
I did take that slow morningthat I mentioned yesterday, and
I started my day off with a walkthrough the woods behind my
house.
It's a gorgeous 70 degree day.
It was a delightful walk though.
(24:04):
I was listening to a RegencyRomance audio book on the walk,
so really I'm not coming in fromthe woods, but from a cliffside
in Cornwall, sea breezes blowingthrough my hair as I lamented
that as a woman, I was notallowed to own property.
Anyway, now I'm back at my deskand ready for the day.
I have just the one interviewcoming up soon, and then I'll
check in with Kim and Brandonand probably support them on
(24:26):
some of the projects they'reworking on.
And if another task comes upthat needs my attention or that
I just really wanna tackle, I'llwork on that.
But I'm not planning anythingmore into my day today than this
one interview.
So that's what's coming up forme today.
I'll check back in this eveningto let you know how it goes.
It is Wednesday evening and I amwrapping up my day.
I recorded the interview and itwas so great.
(24:48):
we talked about genre and how itimpacts your story in the
revision phase, and it's afantastic conversation.
I won't spoil any more of itthan that, but I think you're
going to get a lot out of itwhen I share it on the podcast
in a few weeks.
And you know, I just had a tonof fun nerding out about story
with a friend.
After the interview, I took abreak for a little while, sat in
the sun, got a snack, listenedto more of my audiobook.
(25:10):
I could have ended the day rightthere, but I forget that every
time I record podcastinterviews, I'm really fired up
to go edit them immediately.
'cause the conversation's superfresh in my mind and I really
love everything we talked about.
So I came back to my computer anhour later and I did the first
rough cut of the interview.
And now I am wrapping up my day.
I can feel the edges of aheadache coming on, which is
(25:33):
probably a sign that I've beenpushing really hard this week,
and I should make an early nightof it tonight.
So I'm heading back to theCornish Cliffs to enjoy the sea
breezes and wander rugged moresand tolerate archaic laws about
property ownership.
I'll see you back here tomorrowmorning.
Good morning and happy Thursday.
I am back at my desk and soenergized and ready for another
(25:56):
day of editing.
Today looks a lot like Tuesday.
The main event is my two storyrefinery calls this afternoon.
The first is another recentstory Clarity client who is now
refining her outline with me inStory Refinery.
We've mapped out most of the ACTby Act outline, which means we
know all the major events thathappen in each act, and today
(26:17):
we're zooming in on act one toexpand it into a scene by scene
outline.
So that's the first storyRefinery call.
The second call is with one ofmy longest standing clients.
She came to me a little overfour years ago with the first
draft of her novel, and we'renow nearing the end of draft
five.
We've worked this story throughseveral big picture and micro
(26:37):
passes.
In this draft, we're reallyfocusing on drawing out all the
layers of emotional nuance thatare happening underneath the
surface in every scene, as wellas making sure each scene aligns
really tightly with somestructural adjustments we made
to the beginning of the story.
So I'll be reading a couple ofscenes for this writer and we'll
discuss them together and if wehave extra time, we might touch
(26:58):
on her query letter since she'sgearing up to query agents this
summer.
I have a few hours before thosecalls though, so I can knock out
a few other tasks this morning.
I have some admin things I needto do, things like sending
emails, so I'll set aside sometime for those and then I have
an open block where I can diginto any project I like.
Maybe I'll start preparing theassets that go with this podcast
(27:18):
episode, the blog post shownotes, and email.
Or maybe I'll start toyingaround with a survey I want to
send out to get your feedback onthe your next draft podcast.
Actually, what I'll probably dois go play around in chat GPT.
I've noticed lately that I'mgetting more frequent inquiries
from writers who found methrough a recommendation from
chat GPT.
(27:39):
So I wanna go experiment withchat GPT and see what it's
telling people about me.
It's like googling yourself, butwith more steps.
So that's my plan for the day.
You can bet I've got carrots ondeck to fuel me.
I promise I eat more than justcarrots, but I do eat a lot of
carrots.
I'm going to get to it and I'llsee you back here at the end of
the day.
(28:00):
I'm back on Thursday evening.
It's been another day full offun conversations about stories
with writers, and once again, Iwanna give you a little peek
into what we talked about ineach call.
So in the first call, the writeris working on an enemies to
lovers slow burn romance in aregency like setting.
We've built out the act by actoutline, which means we know all
(28:21):
the major events in the four actof the story I had planned to
take a closer look at Act onetoday, but we both realized
quickly that Act One is alreadyreally solid.
So we moved forward into Acttwo.
The fun part about Act two isit's where feelings are going to
start to develop, but this isenemies to lovers.
So neither character reallywants feelings, and when
(28:42):
feelings first start to grow,they won't even be aware that
it's happening.
But those feelings, the onesthey don't want and aren't even
consciously aware of.
Are going to be driving theiractions.
So the way to make all thoseplot points we've built in act
two feel exciting and feel likethey flow naturally from the
characters budding interest ineach other is to figure out
exactly what's going on withineach character in each scene.
(29:06):
What does he feel about her?
Why?
What does she feel about him?
Why If she dislikes him in onescene and then she dislikes him
in the next scene, what's thesubtle difference between that
dislike?
Does she hate him more?
Does she hate more specificthings about him?
Does she hate him?
Despite some positive quality heshows, which annoys her because
(29:29):
it challenges her blankethatred.
This nuanced tracking of theirfeelings for each other will
create irresistible romantictension between them.
The task I gave this writer isone you can do too, especially
if you have a romantic arc youwant to track though.
Really it works for anyemotional arc.
If you just tweak the bullets,if's the task, go through your
(29:50):
scene list for each scene,create two bullet points, what
she feels about him and what hefeels about her.
And then dig into each of theirpsyches and write down all the
layered, nuanced, complicated,contradictory feelings you find
there.
That's the emotional tension atthe heart of your story.
(30:10):
So that was my first call.
the second call was with mylongstanding client, who's
writing a YA fantasy novel Fullof Dragons and magic.
Like I mentioned this morning.
We've done several passes on it,and mostly now we're digging
into layers of nuanced meaningwithin each scene.
What that looks like isbasically we talk our way
through the scene, pausing afterevery beat to examine.
(30:32):
What's the protagonist feelinghere?
how does that tie back to orbuild upon what she was feeling
in the previous beat or even theprevious scene?
How does this other character'sline of dialogue hit her?
Why does she pause here?
Why does she hesitate?
Why does she hide?
Why does she observe?
Why does she decide?
(30:52):
Why does she move forward?
One of the scenes we werecombing through was the climax
of act three and the globalturning point.
That means it's a really hugedeal.
In the climax of the scene, thecharacter has an enormous
success.
She achieves the thing thatshe's been pursuing for the
entire book.
So I encouraged the writer tomake that high higher, to bring
(31:14):
it up to the heights of rapture,an emotional high, more intense
than anything in the book sofar.
Then a couple pages later, therug is ripped out from under the
protagonist.
The success it turns out wasfalse, and she's actually failed
with catastrophic consequences.
So I encouraged the writer tobring that low down, lower to
(31:35):
take it down to the depths ofdespair, the deepest emotional
devastation of the entire bookso far.
The whole time I was talking, Iwas holding my pencil, not
writing anything, just waving itaround.
At this level of editing, I feellike a conductor of an
orchestra.
Louder here, bring it down,softer there.
Now really dark here.
(31:57):
Honestly, this is my favoritelevel of editing, drawing out
every last powerful drop ofmeaning and emotion.
This is where the work oftransforming good into great and
amazing, and unputdownablehappens.
Everything else I do is to getus to here where we can soak
every page with such greatempathy for your characters that
(32:19):
they come alive in your reader'sminds and linger with them long
after they read the final page.
So that was my second call ofthe day.
Those calls were the bulk of myday, as they should be.
I did get my admin tasks doneand emails sent this morning.
Although I once againunderestimated just how terribly
long it takes me to send even asingle email.
(32:40):
And I used up all that time whenI was going to play with Chat
chi pt, which made me sad.
So I still don't know what theAI is saying about me.
Maybe I can find out tomorrow.
I'm so curious.
Actually, I would love to hearfrom you about this.
Have you ever used AI like chatGPT to search for editors or
book coaches for your book?
What prompts did you give it andwhat were the results?
(33:01):
If you'd like to let me know.
Send me an email atalice@alicesuler.com.
I would love to hear, and that'swhere I'm wrapping up today.
Tomorrow evening, I'm travelingto spend the weekend dancing to
a big band at a swing danceevent, and I'm really excited
for it, which means I need to gopack tonight.
So I'm ready to go tomorrow.
So I'm going to go do that andI'll meet you back here tomorrow
(33:24):
morning.
it's Friday now, and I'm gettingready to finish out the week
strong.
I will admit it has been areally full week.
This week.
I've been pushing hard, a littleharder than I normally like, but
some weeks are like that, andhopefully I'll be able to slow
down a little bit next week.
I'm also really looking forwardto swing dancing this weekend.
(33:44):
My suitcase is packed andsitting by the door, so I'm
ready to hit the road as soon asI wrap up the day.
But that's all hours away.
First, I have my Friday workahead.
The main event today is oneclient call this afternoon.
It's the fourth and final callwith a writer who's been working
with me in story clarity for thelast couple of months.
Like I mentioned on Monday,story Clarity is one of my major
(34:07):
editing and coaching packages.
It's my starting point for deeprevision support for second
drafts and beyond.
At the beginning of storyclarity, writers send me several
materials, including theirmanuscript and a detailed 10
page outline of the story.
Then for two months, we dig intogether to find out what their
story is really about andsharpen their vision for the
(34:28):
story.
To crystal clarity, we map outthe essential arc of the story
in a teeny tiny outline, andthen prepare the writer to
expand that into an act by actoutline, and then seen by scene
outline that can support theirentire revision process.
By the end of story clarity,writers know what their story is
about both in the external plotand the internal character arc,
(34:51):
And they know how those twothreads are inextricably
connected and drive each otherand they have a holistic
revision process to guide themin adding detail to the outline
and then revising the manuscriptto match that outline.
Sometimes writers choose to takeeverything we learned in story
clarity and keep building on iton their own.
More often they like to add on aseries of story refinery calls
(35:13):
for continued support as theyflesh out the outline and then
start revising the pages.
Today's call is the final storyclarity call for this writer,
but we already know that she'llbe continuing with a few story
refinery calls, so it's not thelast time we'll work on this
story together.
And that's where I'll leave youthis morning.
I'm going to go read all theideas that this writer has been
developing in response to thehomework I gave her a couple
(35:35):
weeks ago.
I sent her some pretty intensejournaling prompts, and I wanna
spend a good bit of timeexploring everything that came
up for her before we talk.
I'll see you back here thisevening to let you know how it
goes.
It is Friday evening and I'mback for a final check-in.
My focus today was fully on thatstory clarity client and her
(35:56):
story.
She brought such beautiful andrich reflections from her story
exploration in between ourcalls, and we had a really fun
conversation putting togetherall the puzzle pieces of her
story that we've gatheredtogether throughout the last
eight weeks.
If today had been the first orsecond or third call of a
writer's story clarity, you'd behearing a very different
(36:17):
reflection.
Right now, I'd be telling youabout how we, once again,
triangulated the incitingincidents, turning point and
climax to use what we knew tosolve for what we didn't yet
know because we did.
Or I'd be talking about how Ilove to use the framework of the
love genre for all kinds ofstories about human
relationships, for friendshipsand family relationships, as
(36:39):
well as romance.
At the end of the day, the beatsof the love genre are really the
arc of humans coming closertogether or breaking farther
apart.
The writer and I talked aboutthat too, and we applied the
love genre beats to her story offriendship.
But this was the writer's fourthcall, her final call and story
clarity, and every time I wrapup story clarity with a writer,
(37:01):
I find myself reflecting.
On what it means to Markprogress in the process of
revising a novel.
If you've listened to my recentepisode on manuscript
evaluations, you know that Ispent years experimenting with a
wide variety of ways tostructure the editing package.
That eventually became storyclarity.
(37:21):
I kept expanding and contractingthe package, trying to find just
the right balance of progressthat felt useful to the writer,
outcomes that were satisfyingand possible to reach, and a
scope that fit within writer'sbudgets and timelines.
What makes the process ofrevising a novel difficult to
package is that it's never doneright.
(37:41):
Art is never finished, onlyabandoned after all.
It's done when it's shipped,when it's off to the publisher
or self-published in all theplaces I put done in quotation
marks, because when books reallynag at writers, they come back
for second editions or therevised and updated version, or
they pull the self-publishedbook down and they put up a new
draft.
(38:02):
Done is an elusive target at thebest of times when you're in the
production phase.
And at this stage of storydevelopment, we are so frigging
far from the production phase.
we are working with a completeddraft, a first draft or a second
draft, or a 10th draft.
And yet for weeks at a time, thework that we're doing bears more
(38:22):
resemblance to brainstorming anew story idea than to polishing
up words on the page.
That is to say even this manydrafts in the work can feel like
it's closer to the beginningthan the end.
Plus it's cyclical, it'srecursive, it's iterative, it's
continually cycling back to baseprinciples, telling ourselves
(38:44):
the same story over and over andover again, and each time seeing
it a little bit clearer, gettinga little bit sharper,
understanding, a little bitbetter.
There's a reason why I have myStory Clarity.
Clients send me a 10 pageoutline of their current draft,
and then within story clarity,we rebuild a teeny tiny six
(39:05):
point outline that takes up halfa page, and then we expand that
to an act by act outline andthen to scene by scene.
Again.
Actually, there are many reasonswhy.
This is the process I use, andone of them is that as Dr.
Paula Rasinski of the ElonUniversity Writing Center would
tell me all the time, writing isrecursive, revision is
(39:27):
recursive.
Storytelling is recursive.
Every time we go back to thebeginning and tell ourselves and
each other the story again, itgets a couple degrees clearer,
sharper, cleaner, more solid,more focused, more tight.
So how do I package that?
How do I box up one discreetsection of that cyclical fluid,
(39:50):
ongoing recursive flow andpromise.
By X date, we'll solve it all.
The answer is I can't.
I cannot promise that any storywill be completely solved within
the four calls of story clarity,partly because every story comes
in at a different stage ofdevelopment with different
(40:10):
hyper-specific needs, but mostlybecause every layer of solved
opens up the next layer of newlyvisible unsolved.
There is no fully solved untilthe book is published, and even
then, that's just because thewriter decided to plant their
flag right there and call itdone.
after I wrapped with thisafternoon's writer, both of us
(40:32):
fired up with newfound clarityand a sense that we had finally
gotten our grasp around thestory.
I reached out to Kim andBrandon.
I shared that teeny tiny sixpoint outline we'd built.
They asked a couple of reallygood questions about it, and for
a little while I went into atailspin.
I worried that I'd actuallyvastly missed the mark an hour
(40:52):
earlier when the writer and Ihad built it together.
But to frame this work assuccess or failure in that way
as solved or unsolved, fixed orbroken, is just not true.
not only is it unhelpfullydiscouraging, but it simply does
(41:12):
not reflect the reality of howstory development happens.
The entire nature of revision isto look at the shape of a story,
ask really good questions,tighten the shape, ask really
good questions, tighten theshape, ask really good
questions, tighten the shapeagain.
That's what I do in every callof story clarity, and when the
(41:36):
questions we're asking of theoutline hit diminishing returns,
we start revising the manuscriptitself and more questions open
up.
And eventually when we're readyto let it go, we stop asking
questions and we send the storyout to readers.
Until that point, though, everysingle question is simply
(41:57):
pointing us to the next layer ofstory development.
Today the writer and I didfinally crack that teeny tiny
sixpoint outline, and when Kimand Brandon asked really good
questions.
Those questions were aninvitation to the next layer of
story development to come, whichthe writer and I will keep
exploring in story Refineryendurance over the long road of
(42:21):
revision, requires that yourecognize and celebrate the
milestones of progress along theway.
The final done of handing thepublished book to readers.
Months or more likely yearsaway?
I say months, partly because forsome writers that's true, but
mostly because it's lessfrightening to hear than the
(42:41):
reality, which is usually years.
If the only success youcelebrate is the end of the
production phase, you are goingto have a really, really long
slog with little refreshments.
But when you can see and markeach milestone of progress
throughout revision, the processitself becomes its own reward.
(43:03):
We're already celebrating yourstory.
Yes.
Years before a single reader cansee it.
And so the part of today's callthat I want to share with you is
this win at minute 55 of 90.
I paused our conversation tosay.
I wanna plant a flag here.
We just hit a milestone.
(43:24):
Do you see it?
Does that feel true?
How does this story, the onethat we just described together,
feel to you now, and we took afew moments not to keep
building, but to look back andreflect, to see how far we've
come from the version of herstory that she brought me eight
weeks ago, and admire andcelebrate the clarity she has
(43:45):
now, is her story done?
Art never is.
But we reached a milestone todayand we took the time to see it.
So my invitation for you is thatyou might do the same, that you
pause from asking the questionsthat lead you to the next layer
of story development.
so you can look around and seethe milestones that you've
(44:08):
reached too.
I promise you.
You have passed some monumentalones and when you can celebrate
each one, the journey ofrevision becomes such a joy.
and if you need help spottingthe milestones you've reached or
would like a guide to runalongside you as you strive
towards the next one.
(44:28):
I'd love to support you in storyclarity in eight weeks, your
story won't be done, but we willreach levels of clarity that are
difficult to achieve on yourown, and we will build you a
trustworthy revision strategythat you can follow throughout
your next draft.
I think this is a nice place towrap up our week together.
(44:50):
I didn't plan to finish the weekwith a meditation on what it
means to finish any stage ofediting.
I'm glad this is where welanded.
If you wanna dig deeper, I haveso many things for you.
Links to everything are in theshow notes Of course.
But here's what you'll findthere.
If you loved what you heardabout Story Clarity and Story
Refinery, and you'd like me tosupport you in your story, I'd
(45:11):
love to chat.
Go to Alice sudler.com/contactand fill out the form you find
on that page to tell me aboutyour story.
If you'd like to get a boost ofediting joy to fuel your
revision in your inbox everyTuesday, sign up for my email
newsletter.
You can do that by going toalice sudler.com/scene worksheet
and filling out the form there.
(45:33):
As an extra bonus, you'll alsoget my scene revision worksheet,
and for further listening, Irecommend these podcast
episodes.
If you'd like to dig deeper intoyour character's emotions and
how to capture them for yourreaders, check out episode 32 of
your next draft.
that's how Spider-Man and allgreat stories makes us laugh,
(45:53):
cry, and feel the feel.
If you're curious about all thattalk of triangulating story
elements, like the incitingincidents, turning points, and
climax, check out my series ofepisodes on the six Elements of
Story, beginning with episode42, the six Essential Elements
of Every Novel Act and scene.
And if you'd like to follow aweek in the life of another
(46:15):
book, coach and editor, checkout a Week in the Life, five
Days behind the scenes withSavannah on the Fiction Writing
Made Easy podcast.
That's a lot of things, so headto the show notes and grab the
ones that pique your interest.
Thanks for joining me this week.
I always love seeing behind thescenes in other people's work,
and I hope you enjoyed this peekat what I do and pulled some
(46:35):
useful tidbits out of it foryour own editing.
And now it's time for me to godance.
Happy editing.
Have you ever wondered what aneditor actually does all day?
(00:04):
What does it look like to spendall day supporting writers in
their stories?
What's your editor doing in allthat time when they're not on a
call with you sharing theirfeedback?
If those questions peak yourcuriosity, you are in luck.
Today, I'm pulling back thecurtain to share a week in my
life as a developmental editorand book coach.
You'll get a behind the sceneslook at what I do with writers
(00:27):
and what I'm working on when I'mnot on calls with writers.
Plus, I'll share all the bestediting strategies, tips, and
tricks that emerge as I dig intostories with writers this week.
Enjoy this week in the life ofan editor and book coach.
(01:29):
Welcome to your next draft.
Today, I'm taking you behind thescenes to shadow me as I edit
and coach writers all week.
I'm going to check in everymorning to share what I have
planned for the day, and thenI'll check back in at the end of
the day to tell you how it went.
I'm also going to share theediting tips and strategies that
come up in each of my calls withwriters this week.
So there's going to be ametaphorical charcuterie board
(01:51):
of actionable advice here.
I've been wanting to do anepisode like this for a long
time.
I'm inspired by Savannah GilBo's Week in the Life episodes
on the fiction Writing Made Easypodcast.
I always love getting to see apeek into someone else's work
life.
Both what the work actually isand how they structure it
throughout their week.
And I'm excited now to pull backthe curtain on my own life as a
(02:13):
developmental editor and bookcoach, so you can see what I do
and how I do it.
The other reason I'm excited toshare this behind the scenes
look is because usually what youhear on your next draft is story
theory, outside of the contextof an individual.
Writer's work in progress.
I give examples of that theoryat work in published stories,
but it's really up to you to putit into practice.
(02:36):
I get to see all that theory inpractice every single day,
though I'm actively using it inall of my editing calls with
writers.
And of course a lot of what wetalk about in those calls is
hyper specific to anindividual's story.
And I won't be sharing thedetails of any writer's specific
work here, but I can still showyou what it looks like to put
editing theory into action inthe context of these anonymized
(02:58):
stories.
So in a very real way, thisepisode is a compliment to my
usual how to solo episodes.
Now that you have context forall those how to episodes, If we
get to explore what all thatlooks like in practice, I won't
keep you from the good stuff anylonger.
Without further ado, come joinme for a week in my life.
Happy Monday.
(03:20):
That might feel like a bit of anabsurd greeting, but I genuinely
love my job and I am so happy tobe here today and every day.
I'm, I just love my job.
I don't usually record thisearly in the day, so my voice is
a little bit rough, and it mightbe a little rough in all of the
morning recordings this week.
Uh.
(03:40):
That's how you'll know this isreal.
That's our verisimilitude.
Oh, that's my favorite word, andI didn't know I'd get an
opportunity to work it into mypodcast.
I like starting my week out witha bit of a warmup, as you can
tell from my sleep fog voice.
So I hold tight to no meetingMondays.
I don't take any calls, and Iset aside the whole day to
devote uninterrupted focus timeto major business development
(04:03):
tasks.
A lot of the time my Mondays endup being heavily podcast
focused, but today I've got abit of a grab bag.
Later this week, I'll beinterviewing a couple of guests
for future episodes of your nextdraft.
So I have two interviews toprepare for.
I'm also going to be presentinga masterclass inside another
book, coach's MastermindCommunity next week.
(04:24):
I have a version of thatpresentation ready, but I want
to make some adjustments to itfor this group of writers.
So that's on my mind today.
I have a suspicion that Iprobably won't get to this one
because I've got a lot of tasksthat I'm gonna list out here.
But this is one of the thingsthat I want to get to, I wanna
be thinking about either todayor for later this week.
I also send out an emailnewsletter every Tuesday, so
I'll need to write that today soit can go out tomorrow.
(04:47):
And I had my first call with anew Story Clarity client last
Friday.
Story Clarity is one of my majorediting and coaching packages.
I'll tell you more about it onFriday when I have my next story
Clarity call.
But what's relevant on thisMonday morning is that after
every story Clarity call, I puttogether some custom story
development exercises, questionsand journaling prompts to help
(05:09):
each writer develop their storyand some really specific areas
in between calls.
Normally, I like to put thosequestions together on Friday
evenings right after our call,when everything's.
Super fresh, but I had to leavea little early last Friday
because I went to see JohnGreen's event on his book tour
for his new book.
Everything is Tuberculosis,which was a ton of fun.
(05:30):
I mean, it was also dark andsobering and a very, you know,
challenging look at the state ofthe world at infectious disease.
But John Green's events are alsosuper fun.
so I haven't written thosequestions for this writer yet,
and I'll do that later today.
So I have a few different thingsto work on and some lofty goals.
(05:50):
I don't think that all of thesetasks will fit into my day.
In fact, when I went to lay themout in Sama, which is my daily
task planner, It told meunrealistic workload, bump some
tasks to another day.
And I thought, yeah, that, thatworkshop presentation probably
isn't getting done today, ButI'll get some of these done
today and I'll get a solid starton the rest, and I'll keep
thinking about things that I'llbe developing later this week.
(06:12):
So I'm going to get to work andI'll check in again this evening
to let you know how it all goes.
All right.
It is Monday evening and I amback to check in and wrap up my
day, and it's occurring to me asI record these that you're just
gonna get to hear me at alltimes of day that I don't
normally record podcasts also.
(06:33):
Uh, with these impromptupodcasts, I'm not really
coordinating with my upstairsneighbors, and I think they're
currently hanging pictures abovemy head.
So if you hear any bumps orthumps, that would be why.
Hopefully the mic won't catch itand it'll get cleaned up by my
audio software.
But just a heads up, This is theraw real life that you're
(06:54):
hearing.
Very is some militude again.
It has been a full Monday, justchockfull of deep thinking.
I'm always surprised by just howmuch energy the brain uses the
brain alone.
not even moving around, not evenwalking, like just literally the
brain and how tired I can feeljust from sitting at my desk and
(07:15):
thinking, but goodness, I amtired.
I kicked off my day with writingthose questions for that writer
who's in story clarity with me.
I did that intentionally.
I started there first because Iwanted to put my freshest energy
towards her story.
I love putting together thediscovery questions after a
writer's first clarity call,They're really a journey into
(07:36):
yourself and what you believeand what you as an individual
human being with a uniqueperspective on our world are
bringing to this story thatyou're telling.
Here's just a little sample ofthe questions that I wrote for
this writer.
What do you want 14-year-oldkids to know about friendship?
Think about how trust is builtin friendships.
(07:58):
If on one end of the trustspectrum you've got, I can sit
with this person at lunch, andon the other end of the spectrum
you've got, I can tell thisperson my deepest, most
vulnerable feelings.
What are some other points alongthe spectrum of trust in
friendships?
How do you rebuild the abilityto trust in other people after
someone has broken your trust ina big way?
(08:21):
And then I wrote a couple dozenmore questions like that,
packaged them up and sent themover to the writer for her to
explore over the next week and ahalf.
After that was done, I hopped onZoom with Bran, whom you heard
here on this podcast in theepisode just before this one,
and we talked to the projectsthat we were working on today.
I know I made a big deal aboutmy No Meeting Mondays, but I
(08:43):
don't count calls with my editorBestie, Brandon s and Kim
Kessler as meetings.
They're really virtualco-working sessions, and we jump
into them all the timethroughout the week.
Occasionally we schedule them,But mostly we just pop in and
out of them as needed.
today, Brandon and I talkedabout my vision for this podcast
episode, how it fits into thecontent that I share on your
(09:05):
next draft, and what I want thisepisode to do for you.
And then we talked about whatBrandon is building, which is
just amazing.
It's an entirely new frameworkfor thinking about the genres of
nonfiction books in a way thatmakes them way clearer to
actually write.
And she's building out a supersimple quiz to help people
identify their genre and acourse to help them use their
(09:26):
genre to write, and a custom GPTto be like a book coach in their
pocket whenever they get stuck.
It's just incredible.
I work with some reallybrilliant people.
After that coworking session, Iwrote my Tuesday newsletter,
which began as a reflection onthe main editing idea that's
been bouncing around in my brainfor the last few days, and ended
(09:47):
up becoming a super subtlelesson on story structure
through the lens of your ownlife.
That's usually how I approach mynewsletter.
I think back on all the editingwork I've done in the last week
or two, all the stories I'veworked on and the projects I've
been building, and beyond that,all the ways that I see story
emerging in my own life, evenoutside of my job.
(10:08):
And I pick something that stuckout to me, some aspect of
editing that's been rollingaround in my mind, like a stone
and a rock Tumblr, and I exploreit for about 500 to a thousand
words.
I don't start with a tacticalhow to strategy, I save those
for the podcast, but it's alwaysexciting when something tactical
and how to emerges from thebroader, more perspective
(10:29):
exploring concept as I'mwriting.
And that's exactly what happenedtoday.
I'll admit I'm pretty pleasedwith this issue of the
newsletter, and I'm excited forit to go out tomorrow.
By the time you hear thisepisode, that issue will be out
in the world already.
But if you'd like to catchfuture issues, you can sign up
by going to alicesudler.com/scene worksheet and
(10:50):
filling out the form there.
You'll be subscribed to my emailnewsletter, and as an extra
bonus, you'll also get my scenerevision worksheet, which forms
the basis of how I editunputdownable scenes.
And if you really wanna readthis specific issue of the
newsletter, send me an email atalice@alicesulo.com and I'll
forward it to you.
(11:10):
After I wrote the newsletter, Icould feel that I was starting
to fade.
Like I said this morning, mylist was lofty, but I knew I
wanted to get at least a soliddraft going of those interview
questions for those twointerviews I have on Wednesday.
So I pulled those out andnoodled around on the questions
I want to ask.
I've got a solid draft now forboth interviews and I'm hoping
to jump on another co-workingcall with Brandon or Kim or both
(11:33):
of them tomorrow and get theirfeedback so I can polish those
questions up and be totallyready to record the interviews
on Wednesday.
The day ran a little later intothe evening than I would've
liked, but this spring I'mworking on gathering a ton of
podcast content so that I canget ahead and it was worth it to
me to spend the extra timetonight so I can get several
interviews recorded this week.
(11:54):
Batching podcast content is oneof the last few things that I'm
working on locking down so I canreally get my work into my ideal
flow.
It is hard to get ahead, but I'mgoing to do it.
And that's where I'm wrapping uptoday.
It has been a long day full ofcontent creation from client
materials to newsletter contentto podcast interview questions,
(12:14):
tons of deep thinking here, andmy brain is tired, So I'm going
to go sit outside, read a bookfor fun, rest, and head to bed
so I can come back energized andready for more tomorrow.
it's Tuesday morning, and I amback at my desk ready for
another fun day of editing.
I spent the morning getting mylife in order, went to the
(12:35):
grocery store, tidy up mykitchen, and put some carrots in
the oven to roast for lunch.
I like to joke that I'm amachine that turns carrots into
editing ideas, and I'm going tobe creating a lot of editing
ideas today, so I'm going toneed a lot of carrots.
Here's what I've got lined upfor the day since it's Tuesday.
I have two story refinery clientcalls this afternoon.
(12:57):
Story Refinery is my other majorediting and coaching package.
It's my ongoing revision supportafter writers finish story
clarity.
In story clarity, we get really,really clear on the shape of the
story and start revising theoutline to match that shape And
in Story Refinery, we finishrevising the outline and then
revise the pages scene by sceneto make the manuscript match
(13:20):
that outline and make everyscene unputdownable.
First step today, I have awriter who recently completed
Story Clarity and moved intoStory Refinery.
We'll be taking a really closelook at their outline for the
middle of their story, act twoand three and four ACT
structure, and seeing whether itworks and whether it's clear
enough for them to start writingor if there are any more story
(13:41):
problems that we can solve onthe outline level before they go
to their pages.
Then I have a writer who workedher way through an entire draft
of her novel in Story Refinerylast year.
She's now back with a novella,which we've been working on for
a few weeks now, and since it'sso short and we've worked
together before, I brought herstraight into Story Refinery to
work on it.
We spent the first few callsrefining the outline, and today
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I'm going to start readingpages, which I'm really excited
about.
And of course I've got thosepodcast interviews coming up
tomorrow that I need to prepfor.
Actually, I saw this morningthat one of those guests
rescheduled for a different datea few weeks from now.
We had talked about thatpossibility a bit in the last
few days, so I'm not surprised,and I love that she is moving
things around in her schedule tokeep all of her work manageable
(14:25):
and life-giving rather thandraining.
I have been in some environmentsin the past where my work was
exploited, or even when Iexploited myself in service of
doing the absolute most that Icould, and I celebrate every
time someone makes the toughchoices that protect sustainable
work habits rather thanexploitation of other people or
themselves.
(14:46):
Plus as an added bonus, thatmeans I have more time to prep
now for the other interviewtomorrow.
So I'm still hoping to get tothat prep today, but I know that
if I don't get it totallyfinished tonight, I can keep
working on it tomorrow morning.
And that's what I've got ondeck.
I'm gonna go get to it now andI'll check in this evening and
let you know how it goes.
It's Tuesday evening now, and Itold you I was going to turn
(15:08):
carrots into editing thoughts,and boy did I.
Today was so much fun and fullof so many fantastic story
conversations.
So I had two client calls today,and I wanna give you a little
peek into each of them becausethere are absolutely principles
from each one that can apply toyour stories as well.
On the first call, the writerand I reviewed their second act
(15:30):
and then dug into their thirdact based on the work we'd done
on the global story arc andstory clarity.
We already knew what the turningpoint, climax and resolution of
this act would be.
We just had to put those piecesinto place.
What we didn't know was theinciting incident, the
protagonist's goal, or thecrisis.
Those three pieces are reallytightly connected, and if you
(15:52):
can figure one out, you can useit to work out the rest.
So we worked forwards andbackwards to see which one might
become clear first and thentriangulate the others.
We started with the midpoint.
How did the protagonist feelabout the giant success that
he'd experienced in themidpoint?
What would he do immediatelyafter?
There we found the set piece,the scene that we thought would
(16:15):
probably hold the incitingincident, although we still
didn't know what the incitingincident would be.
Then we jumped forward to theturning point after this giant
catastrophe, the turning point?
What were the protagonistoptions?
What choices could he possiblymake after everything fell apart
in a horrible way?
(16:35):
and there we found the crisis,the tension, the protagonist was
fighting throughout the entireact.
That tension was an emotionaltruth, a sense of belief in
himself that the protagonist wasat risk of losing, and if he
failed.
Of course that led really neatlyto his goal for the act to keep
on trying things withoutexperiencing that catastrophic
(16:58):
emotional failure.
And because we knew the crisisand the goal, now we knew what
the inciting incident needs toset up, and that led to a lot of
options for the writer.
Now that they know what specifictension their protagonist is
facing throughout Act three.
What the turning points andcrisis are that will bring that
tension to a head.
(17:18):
They can dig deep into theemotional truths they know about
what it is like to be faced withthis kind of tension.
Will their protagonist rushforward boldly?
Will he hesitate and step back?
Will he try to ignore signs thatsomething he's tried isn't
working, or will he collapse atthe first hint of failure?
(17:39):
I don't know.
That's the writer's job toexplore based on what they know
of what these kinds of emotionalexperiences are like, that's
what it means to write what youknow.
It means to tap into theemotional truths, you know,
likely from your own experience,and show us what it feels like
to navigate those inneremotional challenges regardless
(18:01):
of whether the story is set inyour hometown or on the backs of
dragons on a planet in anothergalaxy.
So.
That was the first call.
It was a lot, right?
Well, I had a quick break, ate asnack, and jumped into my second
story refinery, call the secondwriter, and I had already vetted
the writer's outline, and sotoday I got to dig into her
(18:22):
pages for the first time.
Remember, I know this writer,and I've worked with her for a
long time.
She writes beautiful emotionallycompelling stories, so I was
surprised when I read the firstact of her novella to discover
that it.
Didn't make me feel anything atall.
I told her that, that all theactions were exciting and all
(18:43):
the events were in the rightplace, and yet I wasn't feeling
any emotional connection withthe characters, especially the
protagonist.
And then we dug into why, Firstoff, the writer explains that
she'd been experimenting withall showing and as little
telling as possible.
In this draft, the writing wascinematic full of exciting
(19:03):
action packed scenes that wecould watch like a movie and
like a movie we had no accessto.
The feelings characters werefeeling only the expressions on
their faces and the movement oftheir bodies.
I've seen more than one writerget chipped up recently by the
advice to show, not tell.
So let me just give youpermission right here to tell in
your stories.
telling isn't bad.
(19:24):
Every story needs a balance ofboth showing and telling.
Sometimes the reader does, infact need you to tell us what
emotion the character isfeeling.
So that was one challenge.
But the greater question herewasn't just should we use
emotion words on the page, itwent much deeper than that.
what I asked is this character'srelationship with his own
(19:48):
emotions.
What is his level of emotionalintelligence?
How well does he know andunderstand himself and his
emotional experience?
How well does he think he knowsand understands himself?
The answer it turned out is hedoes not have much of a
connection with his emotions.
(20:08):
There are a lot of factors whyhe's been socialized into a
certain type of masculinity.
He's a bit of a selfish jerk.
He wants to think of himself asa tough guy.
He tends to stuff his emotionsdown rather than acknowledge
them.
All of this means that he's notgoing to go around expressing
nuanced explorations ofmultifaceted emotional
experiences in his interiority.
(20:29):
He won't be thinking things likeI expected to be disappointed,
but instead I felt a strange mixof pity and perverse
satisfaction.
He doesn't articulate hisemotions that clearly, even to
himself.
He barely even registers hisemotions, but that doesn't mean
he doesn't feel emotions.
With the exception ofsociopaths, all humans feel
(20:52):
emotions.
We are all feeling things allthe time that are influencing
the ways we think and behave,whether we recognize and
understand those feelings ornot.
For us storytellers, the trickthen becomes how do you.
The writer, figure out what yourcharacter is feeling, even when
they might not know itthemselves.
(21:14):
How does that emotion present tothem?
What do they recognize?
For example, does this writer'semotionally repressed
protagonist, interpret all ofhis big feelings as anger?
And how does that emotion impactwhat your character thinks and
does, whether they realize it ornot?
The extra fun piece of all ofthis is this writer is writing
(21:35):
in first person, which means thereader's access to the
protagonist's emotions isfiltered through what the
protagonist understands aboutthem, which again, is a pretty
rudimentary level of emotionalintelligence and mainly just
repression.
So that's an extra challengehere to convey emotional nuance
to the reader through the filterof a character with very limited
(21:57):
emotional awareness.
This is what separates goodstories from great ones.
This is what makes storiesresonate in our minds long after
we've closed the book.
this level of psychologicalacuity, of deep understanding of
human emotion, even beyond whatthe characters might understand
about it themselves.
(22:17):
And so I ask you, as I ask thiswriter today, what's your
protagonist's relationship totheir emotions?
What do they understand aboutthemselves and what do they not
understand about themselves?
Whew.
Again, that was a lot, right?
This is why I love my job somuch.
These are the kinds ofconversations I get to have
(22:40):
every single day, and the resultis amazing stories that I love
and that writers are so proudof, and I know readers are going
to absolutely devour when theyget their hands on them.
I usually call it a day aftertwo refinery calls.
Today, though I still wanted totake another pass at those
interview questions for thepodcast interview that I'm
(23:00):
recording tomorrow.
So I hopped on Zoom with Brandonand Kim and we talked through
their work and mine, and I spentsome time workshopping my
questions with them.
I feel really good now about thequestions I've put together, and
I'm excited for this interviewand I hope that you enjoy it too
when it comes to the podcast ina few weeks.
This was such an energizing dayall day today, fueled of course
(23:21):
by carrots.
can't forget the carrots.
Credit to the carrots.
That said, it was still a longday.
Don't be fooled.
This was more than eight hoursof work, so I think I'm gonna
try to take it a little slowertomorrow.
There's always so much that Ican be doing, but I'm going to
aim to work a shorter day andtake longer breaks, maybe go on
a walk.
We'll see what happens.
(23:42):
Right now I'm gonna sign off forthe night and I'll meet you
right back here tomorrowmorning.
I am back on Wednesday morning,although morning isn't really
accurate.
It's early afternoon now.
I did take that slow morningthat I mentioned yesterday, and
I started my day off with a walkthrough the woods behind my
house.
It's a gorgeous 70 degree day.
It was a delightful walk though.
(24:04):
I was listening to a RegencyRomance audio book on the walk,
so really I'm not coming in fromthe woods, but from a cliffside
in Cornwall, sea breezes blowingthrough my hair as I lamented
that as a woman, I was notallowed to own property.
Anyway, now I'm back at my deskand ready for the day.
I have just the one interviewcoming up soon, and then I'll
check in with Kim and Brandonand probably support them on
(24:26):
some of the projects they'reworking on.
And if another task comes upthat needs my attention or that
I just really wanna tackle, I'llwork on that.
But I'm not planning anythingmore into my day today than this
one interview.
So that's what's coming up forme today.
I'll check back in this eveningto let you know how it goes.
It is Wednesday evening and I amwrapping up my day.
I recorded the interview and itwas so great.
(24:48):
we talked about genre and how itimpacts your story in the
revision phase, and it's afantastic conversation.
I won't spoil any more of itthan that, but I think you're
going to get a lot out of itwhen I share it on the podcast
in a few weeks.
And you know, I just had a tonof fun nerding out about story
with a friend.
After the interview, I took abreak for a little while, sat in
the sun, got a snack, listenedto more of my audiobook.
(25:10):
I could have ended the day rightthere, but I forget that every
time I record podcastinterviews, I'm really fired up
to go edit them immediately.
'cause the conversation's superfresh in my mind and I really
love everything we talked about.
So I came back to my computer anhour later and I did the first
rough cut of the interview.
And now I am wrapping up my day.
I can feel the edges of aheadache coming on, which is
(25:33):
probably a sign that I've beenpushing really hard this week,
and I should make an early nightof it tonight.
So I'm heading back to theCornish Cliffs to enjoy the sea
breezes and wander rugged moresand tolerate archaic laws about
property ownership.
I'll see you back here tomorrowmorning.
Good morning and happy Thursday.
I am back at my desk and soenergized and ready for another
(25:56):
day of editing.
Today looks a lot like Tuesday.
The main event is my two storyrefinery calls this afternoon.
The first is another recentstory Clarity client who is now
refining her outline with me inStory Refinery.
We've mapped out most of the ACTby Act outline, which means we
know all the major events thathappen in each act, and today
(26:17):
we're zooming in on act one toexpand it into a scene by scene
outline.
So that's the first storyRefinery call.
The second call is with one ofmy longest standing clients.
She came to me a little overfour years ago with the first
draft of her novel, and we'renow nearing the end of draft
five.
We've worked this story throughseveral big picture and micro
(26:37):
passes.
In this draft, we're reallyfocusing on drawing out all the
layers of emotional nuance thatare happening underneath the
surface in every scene, as wellas making sure each scene aligns
really tightly with somestructural adjustments we made
to the beginning of the story.
So I'll be reading a couple ofscenes for this writer and we'll
discuss them together and if wehave extra time, we might touch
(26:58):
on her query letter since she'sgearing up to query agents this
summer.
I have a few hours before thosecalls though, so I can knock out
a few other tasks this morning.
I have some admin things I needto do, things like sending
emails, so I'll set aside sometime for those and then I have
an open block where I can diginto any project I like.
Maybe I'll start preparing theassets that go with this podcast
(27:18):
episode, the blog post shownotes, and email.
Or maybe I'll start toyingaround with a survey I want to
send out to get your feedback onthe your next draft podcast.
Actually, what I'll probably dois go play around in chat GPT.
I've noticed lately that I'mgetting more frequent inquiries
from writers who found methrough a recommendation from
chat GPT.
(27:39):
So I wanna go experiment withchat GPT and see what it's
telling people about me.
It's like googling yourself, butwith more steps.
So that's my plan for the day.
You can bet I've got carrots ondeck to fuel me.
I promise I eat more than justcarrots, but I do eat a lot of
carrots.
I'm going to get to it and I'llsee you back here at the end of
the day.
(28:00):
I'm back on Thursday evening.
It's been another day full offun conversations about stories
with writers, and once again, Iwanna give you a little peek
into what we talked about ineach call.
So in the first call, the writeris working on an enemies to
lovers slow burn romance in aregency like setting.
We've built out the act by actoutline, which means we know all
(28:21):
the major events in the four actof the story I had planned to
take a closer look at Act onetoday, but we both realized
quickly that Act One is alreadyreally solid.
So we moved forward into Acttwo.
The fun part about Act two isit's where feelings are going to
start to develop, but this isenemies to lovers.
So neither character reallywants feelings, and when
(28:42):
feelings first start to grow,they won't even be aware that
it's happening.
But those feelings, the onesthey don't want and aren't even
consciously aware of.
Are going to be driving theiractions.
So the way to make all thoseplot points we've built in act
two feel exciting and feel likethey flow naturally from the
characters budding interest ineach other is to figure out
exactly what's going on withineach character in each scene.
(29:06):
What does he feel about her?
Why?
What does she feel about him?
Why If she dislikes him in onescene and then she dislikes him
in the next scene, what's thesubtle difference between that
dislike?
Does she hate him more?
Does she hate more specificthings about him?
Does she hate him?
Despite some positive quality heshows, which annoys her because
(29:29):
it challenges her blankethatred.
This nuanced tracking of theirfeelings for each other will
create irresistible romantictension between them.
The task I gave this writer isone you can do too, especially
if you have a romantic arc youwant to track though.
Really it works for anyemotional arc.
If you just tweak the bullets,if's the task, go through your
(29:50):
scene list for each scene,create two bullet points, what
she feels about him and what hefeels about her.
And then dig into each of theirpsyches and write down all the
layered, nuanced, complicated,contradictory feelings you find
there.
That's the emotional tension atthe heart of your story.
(30:10):
So that was my first call.
the second call was with mylongstanding client, who's
writing a YA fantasy novel Fullof Dragons and magic.
Like I mentioned this morning.
We've done several passes on it,and mostly now we're digging
into layers of nuanced meaningwithin each scene.
What that looks like isbasically we talk our way
through the scene, pausing afterevery beat to examine.
(30:32):
What's the protagonist feelinghere?
how does that tie back to orbuild upon what she was feeling
in the previous beat or even theprevious scene?
How does this other character'sline of dialogue hit her?
Why does she pause here?
Why does she hesitate?
Why does she hide?
Why does she observe?
Why does she decide?
(30:52):
Why does she move forward?
One of the scenes we werecombing through was the climax
of act three and the globalturning point.
That means it's a really hugedeal.
In the climax of the scene, thecharacter has an enormous
success.
She achieves the thing thatshe's been pursuing for the
entire book.
So I encouraged the writer tomake that high higher, to bring
(31:14):
it up to the heights of rapture,an emotional high, more intense
than anything in the book sofar.
Then a couple pages later, therug is ripped out from under the
protagonist.
The success it turns out wasfalse, and she's actually failed
with catastrophic consequences.
So I encouraged the writer tobring that low down, lower to
(31:35):
take it down to the depths ofdespair, the deepest emotional
devastation of the entire bookso far.
The whole time I was talking, Iwas holding my pencil, not
writing anything, just waving itaround.
At this level of editing, I feellike a conductor of an
orchestra.
Louder here, bring it down,softer there.
Now really dark here.
(31:57):
Honestly, this is my favoritelevel of editing, drawing out
every last powerful drop ofmeaning and emotion.
This is where the work oftransforming good into great and
amazing, and unputdownablehappens.
Everything else I do is to getus to here where we can soak
every page with such greatempathy for your characters that
(32:19):
they come alive in your reader'sminds and linger with them long
after they read the final page.
So that was my second call ofthe day.
Those calls were the bulk of myday, as they should be.
I did get my admin tasks doneand emails sent this morning.
Although I once againunderestimated just how terribly
long it takes me to send even asingle email.
(32:40):
And I used up all that time whenI was going to play with Chat
chi pt, which made me sad.
So I still don't know what theAI is saying about me.
Maybe I can find out tomorrow.
I'm so curious.
Actually, I would love to hearfrom you about this.
Have you ever used AI like chatGPT to search for editors or
book coaches for your book?
What prompts did you give it andwhat were the results?
(33:01):
If you'd like to let me know.
Send me an email atalice@alicesuler.com.
I would love to hear, and that'swhere I'm wrapping up today.
Tomorrow evening, I'm travelingto spend the weekend dancing to
a big band at a swing danceevent, and I'm really excited
for it, which means I need to gopack tonight.
So I'm ready to go tomorrow.
So I'm going to go do that andI'll meet you back here tomorrow
(33:24):
morning.
it's Friday now, and I'm gettingready to finish out the week
strong.
I will admit it has been areally full week.
This week.
I've been pushing hard, a littleharder than I normally like, but
some weeks are like that, andhopefully I'll be able to slow
down a little bit next week.
I'm also really looking forwardto swing dancing this weekend.
(33:44):
My suitcase is packed andsitting by the door, so I'm
ready to hit the road as soon asI wrap up the day.
But that's all hours away.
First, I have my Friday workahead.
The main event today is oneclient call this afternoon.
It's the fourth and final callwith a writer who's been working
with me in story clarity for thelast couple of months.
Like I mentioned on Monday,story Clarity is one of my major
(34:07):
editing and coaching packages.
It's my starting point for deeprevision support for second
drafts and beyond.
At the beginning of storyclarity, writers send me several
materials, including theirmanuscript and a detailed 10
page outline of the story.
Then for two months, we dig intogether to find out what their
story is really about andsharpen their vision for the
(34:28):
story.
To crystal clarity, we map outthe essential arc of the story
in a teeny tiny outline, andthen prepare the writer to
expand that into an act by actoutline, and then seen by scene
outline that can support theirentire revision process.
By the end of story clarity,writers know what their story is
about both in the external plotand the internal character arc,
(34:51):
And they know how those twothreads are inextricably
connected and drive each otherand they have a holistic
revision process to guide themin adding detail to the outline
and then revising the manuscriptto match that outline.
Sometimes writers choose to takeeverything we learned in story
clarity and keep building on iton their own.
More often they like to add on aseries of story refinery calls
(35:13):
for continued support as theyflesh out the outline and then
start revising the pages.
Today's call is the final storyclarity call for this writer,
but we already know that she'llbe continuing with a few story
refinery calls, so it's not thelast time we'll work on this
story together.
And that's where I'll leave youthis morning.
I'm going to go read all theideas that this writer has been
developing in response to thehomework I gave her a couple
(35:35):
weeks ago.
I sent her some pretty intensejournaling prompts, and I wanna
spend a good bit of timeexploring everything that came
up for her before we talk.
I'll see you back here thisevening to let you know how it
goes.
It is Friday evening and I'mback for a final check-in.
My focus today was fully on thatstory clarity client and her
(35:56):
story.
She brought such beautiful andrich reflections from her story
exploration in between ourcalls, and we had a really fun
conversation putting togetherall the puzzle pieces of her
story that we've gatheredtogether throughout the last
eight weeks.
If today had been the first orsecond or third call of a
writer's story clarity, you'd behearing a very different
(36:17):
reflection.
Right now, I'd be telling youabout how we, once again,
triangulated the incitingincidents, turning point and
climax to use what we knew tosolve for what we didn't yet
know because we did.
Or I'd be talking about how Ilove to use the framework of the
love genre for all kinds ofstories about human
relationships, for friendshipsand family relationships, as
(36:39):
well as romance.
At the end of the day, the beatsof the love genre are really the
arc of humans coming closertogether or breaking farther
apart.
The writer and I talked aboutthat too, and we applied the
love genre beats to her story offriendship.
But this was the writer's fourthcall, her final call and story
clarity, and every time I wrapup story clarity with a writer,
(37:01):
I find myself reflecting.
On what it means to Markprogress in the process of
revising a novel.
If you've listened to my recentepisode on manuscript
evaluations, you know that Ispent years experimenting with a
wide variety of ways tostructure the editing package.
That eventually became storyclarity.
(37:21):
I kept expanding and contractingthe package, trying to find just
the right balance of progressthat felt useful to the writer,
outcomes that were satisfyingand possible to reach, and a
scope that fit within writer'sbudgets and timelines.
What makes the process ofrevising a novel difficult to
package is that it's never doneright.
(37:41):
Art is never finished, onlyabandoned after all.
It's done when it's shipped,when it's off to the publisher
or self-published in all theplaces I put done in quotation
marks, because when books reallynag at writers, they come back
for second editions or therevised and updated version, or
they pull the self-publishedbook down and they put up a new
draft.
(38:02):
Done is an elusive target at thebest of times when you're in the
production phase.
And at this stage of storydevelopment, we are so frigging
far from the production phase.
we are working with a completeddraft, a first draft or a second
draft, or a 10th draft.
And yet for weeks at a time, thework that we're doing bears more
(38:22):
resemblance to brainstorming anew story idea than to polishing
up words on the page.
That is to say even this manydrafts in the work can feel like
it's closer to the beginningthan the end.
Plus it's cyclical, it'srecursive, it's iterative, it's
continually cycling back to baseprinciples, telling ourselves
(38:44):
the same story over and over andover again, and each time seeing
it a little bit clearer, gettinga little bit sharper,
understanding, a little bitbetter.
There's a reason why I have myStory Clarity.
Clients send me a 10 pageoutline of their current draft,
and then within story clarity,we rebuild a teeny tiny six
(39:05):
point outline that takes up halfa page, and then we expand that
to an act by act outline andthen to scene by scene.
Again.
Actually, there are many reasonswhy.
This is the process I use, andone of them is that as Dr.
Paula Rasinski of the ElonUniversity Writing Center would
tell me all the time, writing isrecursive, revision is
(39:27):
recursive.
Storytelling is recursive.
Every time we go back to thebeginning and tell ourselves and
each other the story again, itgets a couple degrees clearer,
sharper, cleaner, more solid,more focused, more tight.
So how do I package that?
How do I box up one discreetsection of that cyclical fluid,
(39:50):
ongoing recursive flow andpromise.
By X date, we'll solve it all.
The answer is I can't.
I cannot promise that any storywill be completely solved within
the four calls of story clarity,partly because every story comes
in at a different stage ofdevelopment with different
(40:10):
hyper-specific needs, but mostlybecause every layer of solved
opens up the next layer of newlyvisible unsolved.
There is no fully solved untilthe book is published, and even
then, that's just because thewriter decided to plant their
flag right there and call itdone.
after I wrapped with thisafternoon's writer, both of us
(40:32):
fired up with newfound clarityand a sense that we had finally
gotten our grasp around thestory.
I reached out to Kim andBrandon.
I shared that teeny tiny sixpoint outline we'd built.
They asked a couple of reallygood questions about it, and for
a little while I went into atailspin.
I worried that I'd actuallyvastly missed the mark an hour
(40:52):
earlier when the writer and Ihad built it together.
But to frame this work assuccess or failure in that way
as solved or unsolved, fixed orbroken, is just not true.
not only is it unhelpfullydiscouraging, but it simply does
(41:12):
not reflect the reality of howstory development happens.
The entire nature of revision isto look at the shape of a story,
ask really good questions,tighten the shape, ask really
good questions, tighten theshape, ask really good
questions, tighten the shapeagain.
That's what I do in every callof story clarity, and when the
(41:36):
questions we're asking of theoutline hit diminishing returns,
we start revising the manuscriptitself and more questions open
up.
And eventually when we're readyto let it go, we stop asking
questions and we send the storyout to readers.
Until that point, though, everysingle question is simply
(41:57):
pointing us to the next layer ofstory development.
Today the writer and I didfinally crack that teeny tiny
sixpoint outline, and when Kimand Brandon asked really good
questions.
Those questions were aninvitation to the next layer of
story development to come, whichthe writer and I will keep
exploring in story Refineryendurance over the long road of
(42:21):
revision, requires that yourecognize and celebrate the
milestones of progress along theway.
The final done of handing thepublished book to readers.
Months or more likely yearsaway?
I say months, partly because forsome writers that's true, but
mostly because it's lessfrightening to hear than the
(42:41):
reality, which is usually years.
If the only success youcelebrate is the end of the
production phase, you are goingto have a really, really long
slog with little refreshments.
But when you can see and markeach milestone of progress
throughout revision, the processitself becomes its own reward.
(43:03):
We're already celebrating yourstory.
Yes.
Years before a single reader cansee it.
And so the part of today's callthat I want to share with you is
this win at minute 55 of 90.
I paused our conversation tosay.
I wanna plant a flag here.
We just hit a milestone.
(43:24):
Do you see it?
Does that feel true?
How does this story, the onethat we just described together,
feel to you now, and we took afew moments not to keep
building, but to look back andreflect, to see how far we've
come from the version of herstory that she brought me eight
weeks ago, and admire andcelebrate the clarity she has
(43:45):
now, is her story done?
Art never is.
But we reached a milestone todayand we took the time to see it.
So my invitation for you is thatyou might do the same, that you
pause from asking the questionsthat lead you to the next layer
of story development.
so you can look around and seethe milestones that you've
(44:08):
reached too.
I promise you.
You have passed some monumentalones and when you can celebrate
each one, the journey ofrevision becomes such a joy.
and if you need help spottingthe milestones you've reached or
would like a guide to runalongside you as you strive
towards the next one.
(44:28):
I'd love to support you in storyclarity in eight weeks, your
story won't be done, but we willreach levels of clarity that are
difficult to achieve on yourown, and we will build you a
trustworthy revision strategythat you can follow throughout
your next draft.
I think this is a nice place towrap up our week together.
(44:50):
I didn't plan to finish the weekwith a meditation on what it
means to finish any stage ofediting.
I'm glad this is where welanded.
If you wanna dig deeper, I haveso many things for you.
Links to everything are in theshow notes Of course.
But here's what you'll findthere.
If you loved what you heardabout Story Clarity and Story
Refinery, and you'd like me tosupport you in your story, I'd
(45:11):
love to chat.
Go to Alice sudler.com/contactand fill out the form you find
on that page to tell me aboutyour story.
If you'd like to get a boost ofediting joy to fuel your
revision in your inbox everyTuesday, sign up for my email
newsletter.
You can do that by going toalice sudler.com/scene worksheet
and filling out the form there.
(45:33):
As an extra bonus, you'll alsoget my scene revision worksheet,
and for further listening, Irecommend these podcast
episodes.
If you'd like to dig deeper intoyour character's emotions and
how to capture them for yourreaders, check out episode 32 of
your next draft.
that's how Spider-Man and allgreat stories makes us laugh,
(45:53):
cry, and feel the feel.
If you're curious about all thattalk of triangulating story
elements, like the incitingincidents, turning points, and
climax, check out my series ofepisodes on the six Elements of
Story, beginning with episode42, the six Essential Elements
of Every Novel Act and scene.
And if you'd like to follow aweek in the life of another
(46:15):
book, coach and editor, checkout a Week in the Life, five
Days behind the scenes withSavannah on the Fiction Writing
Made Easy podcast.
That's a lot of things, so headto the show notes and grab the
ones that pique your interest.
Thanks for joining me this week.
I always love seeing behind thescenes in other people's work,
and I hope you enjoyed this peekat what I do and pulled some
(46:35):
useful tidbits out of it foryour own editing.
And now it's time for me to godance.
Happy editing.
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