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Hi again.
That front page? That's me.
You're probably wondering how I got here...
Okay so not there [above]. That's not me. At least not usually. I live in a very landlocked state at the moment, though I get to a there whenever I possibly can. The ocean is my happy place, my safe place, my wish-I-could-always-be-there place. And that's how I want my work with clients to feel too.
I'll explain.
My favorite thing is to get into the puzzle of your brain, 1:1, to sort out the pieces together. That’s a huge part of my developmental editing, book coaching, and direct editing work—in fact, I no longer take on any kind of task based editing without at least one coaching call attached to it. But without letting folks know what that means, pulling someone who "just" wants "an edit" out into puzzle sorting mode can feel a lot like pulling them out into the ocean. And honestly, a lot of times when I go to the ocean I just want to sit my ass down and enjoy watching the tides.
Then again, no one gets to the ocean by accident—and if you're here, on this page, you probably have an idea of what you're getting into.
If you want to jump right in to invest in your project with me, it’s almost always a good idea to start with a discovery call. That’s 2 hours to focus on not only the problem you know how to name, but the roots of it that we need to tend in order to move you forward.
About Editing
For a lot of my early work on books, I was proofreading or line editing work that was "ready to go." I found that to be a mixed bag experience. Sometimes my flat rate felt like a rip-off, because the work was so clean it didn't need a deep edit. Sometimes it felt like a slog, because there was quite a lot still to do to make the manuscript as strong as it could be.
Pricing aside, I also found that most authors didn't really know what "done" was in the first place. So I stopped providing transactional editing services and started meeting folks where they are: at the intersection of "I think I have a thing" and "I can't look at it anymore."
It’s been quite a while since I just picked up an edit, polished the words, and sent it back without chatting. And since I stopped doing that, my authors have gone deeper with their content while feeling more supported—and we have a ton of fun along the way (even when I make them dig in or work hard or occasionally cry).
About Ghostwriting and Revisions Intensives
This kind of “in the weeds” support stems from my background in ghostwriting, which I more or less grew up in professionally over the span of fifteen years. I started out in short pieces and blogs, then moved into eBooks and lead gens when Amazon took over the world, and finally dove headfirst into nonfiction books in 2016. From there, I worked on all aspects of the creative and production process via Scribe Media’s “book in a box” methods—including copy, proofreading, line editing, developmental coaching, and ghostwriting.
From 2018-2020, while simultaneously training and becoming certified as a Story Grid editor, I ghosted 30 books.
2/10, do not recommend. The volume, not the learning.
I’ve got to reserve some stars in that review, though, because I met incredible people and filled gaps in my knowledge that a normal human workload just couldn’t have accomplished. Not in that time, anyway.
That period of time solidified a decade of learning to work with voice and client personalities with intense story training, the effort to translate that training into nonfiction terms, and a massive range of application. What had been a skill of executing what someone asked for turned into the ability to see around the corner to what you don’t always know you need.
And that’s where we get to the ghostwriting conversation: do I still ghost? Rarely. Not because I’m opposed, but because I’m not convinced it’s what you need. More often, a revisions intensive gets the job done—digging into the guts of your project, mapping out the plan to revise, and alternating coaching and editing roles together based on your ideal workflows.
About Consult Calls
True to the rest of the development of my career path, this service came about organically. I didn’t set out to craft something to sell. But at some point in 2021—just after taking a break from ghosting thanks to a burnout that everyone but me saw coming—I repeatedly found myself in the same conversation. Clients were coming to incredible revelations, and at each stopping point were asking for another layer of support, and another, until we’d developed a long-term relationship shouldering the weight of a project together until it was done.
And then my schedule filled up while referrals kept coming.
I’ve never marketed directly. I haven’t tried to “sell” anyone anything in ages.
When you book a consult with me, I’m not auditioning for your project or trying to convince you of anything. I’m showing up like a business consultant, meeting you wherever you’re at with the best recommendations I have. Even if that is a path I can’t take you down.
About the Vault
I recently named curiosity and generosity as my guiding principles. And then promptly stopped feeling like a bad business person for solving problems on consults, giving away free discovery templates, or pricing my course at a single call rate and giving it free to all of my clients.
That ethos also helped me get the course in development in the first place. I was never going to finish a polished, beautiful, punchy course that promised big outcomes or acted like the only process you’ll ever need again.
Those are ridiculous promises I am not at all interested in making or upholding.
What I can do is show up as me, messy and conversational, doing my damndest to pretend I’m talking right to you like I want to be.
That’s how I wound up with stacks of 15-30 minute video lessons covering all aspects of using a 5 minute outline—from how you show up to the work, to the purpose and context of each minute, to the ways I’ve worked with and coached others to work with their outlines in drafting and revising. Oh, and then the geeky analysis of multiple books and how their intros might’ve looked at 5MO stage.
About Group Coaching
I’m also releasing those videos as each module is complete, with all of my existing clients able to provide beta feedback and an ongoing invitation to help me dig deeper and sharpen the tools for better use. The videos will likely always been what they are, unpolished and all, but the handouts and written material will be an ongoing march toward more clarity and use.
And that brings us to the most recent development in how folks are working with me: I really do want to talk to you and work with you, but my schedule is full. There’s only so much 1:1 work I can take before I’ll burn right back out again.
I tell my clients all the time that it’s silly to hold your project alone while struggling, but got stuck in this model of helping clients alone, while struggling to keep up with the flow of work. Not only that, but holding that much space requires a higher investment, which is another form of exclusion.
I also coach them to ask different questions, which gets us different options.
So what if it’s not about how I can do more work, but about how we can unlock more stories?
Enter group coaching.
We can follow the same content journey that my 1:1 revisions intensives get (stopping short of chapter by chapter individual guidance) but in a group setting. Small enough to keep us focused (10 maxes out a group) but big enough to shoulder the cost of those sessions (4 minimum).
And the thing we all love about group coaching is what has helped me deepen my work in the first place: having a range of voices at the table gives us a range of application to learn from.
About the Content
If you want to progress through the series 1:1, I will have a limited amount of spots available to work through the group coaching rhythm as a deep dive.
Month 1: Big Idea Discovery
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Author. How do you want to show up to your book?
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Reader. How does your reader show up to your topic?
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Change. What kind of change invitation are you creating?
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5MO. Using the 5 Minute Outline to map (or validate) your global book structure.
Month 2: “Table of Content” Arc Development
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Worldview. What progression of topics moves your reader’s view of the world from what they know to what you’ve learned?
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Narrative. What progression of topics connects with your reader on an emotional level to keep them reading (while you get them changing)?
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How-to. What progression of topics delivers on what your reader says they want (while getting them what you know they actually need)?
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5MO. Using the 5 Minute Outline to map (or validate) chapter structures—and how you can turn that into chapter summaries to use as guidelines or in pitch development.
Month 3: Development of a Drafting Practice
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M Sprints. Using the constraints of time and intention to make drafting (a little) less painful.
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TMJ. How to maximize dictation and other novel techniques to get your draft out.
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5MO. Using the 5 Minute Outline on a beat or section level to deep map chapters and/or revisit your intentions when you sit down to write.
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Open Q&A/Coaching.
Month 4: Momentum Build for Revisions
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The WTF Read. Reframing the post-draft panic into a judgment free space of curious reflection.
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See the Matrix. Connecting content on the page to story shapes for easier analysis and revision.
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Shuffle Draft. How I move content around without getting lost in the scroll.
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Open Q&A/Coaching.
While I don't work on a productized basis, we're covering a lot of ground here. By the end of a given month you should have:
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A clear picture of your book’s purpose, reader, and progression (month 1)
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A way to create a three-dimensional arc and condense it into an outline you can write from and share in queries and pitches (month 2)
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A new lens on drafting strategies and accountability to put it all into practice (month 3)
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A set of strategies for revisions, rooted in a scientific method approach that celebrates iteration without getting lost in perfectionism (month 4)
Notice that doesn’t list the reader persona, Big Idea statement, outline, chapter summaries, writing practice, and sample chapter that could feasibly flow from this work. Why? Because those are you things, friend. What I know most from all of this work is that even when I’m ghosting, there’s work I can’t take from you. Maybe your journey through this cycle is just to see yourself and your work differently. Maybe it’s to add more awareness and tools to your ongoing work to finally finish a book. Maybe it is to pull together a whole pitch and sell it.
I can’t know that, from this vantage point, and you may not either.
All we can do is show up, together, and make space for the thing that’s going to emerge.
About Pricing
Group: $500 per 8-week series (or commit to multiple).
Once a cycle starts, it will flow unbroken at the same time each week until all 16 weeks are complete. Recordings will be available if you can’t make it, but I highly recommend you create space for that hour to be on live whenever possible. The live element of any coaching circle is too good to miss.
Individual: $500 for a single 2-hour discovery call (or commit to a series).
While this does tend to build into a revisions intensive, it doesn’t have to (and I’ll only have room to support new folks at that level every so often). I’m always looking for the baseline levels of support that will get you maximum levels of access to your content, and sometimes, one call really is all we need to unlock your work.
Alternate training: $250 for a month of weekly live writing webinars.
These recordings won't go into the vault, though archived months will be available for purchase once they start stacking up. The fun thing about this package is it's about where the creative energy is in a moment, and I'm sharing that energy with my closest colleagues by inviting them in to lead with me and to split the revenue. It's the most collaborative approach we've taken so far, and I'm so excited to bring you all a ton of learning and perspective for a lower cost, while also bringing resources to our collective table.
Bottom line: I want to hang out with you, and if 1:1 doesn’t work for us both, a group setting may be the answer.
What's the best place to get started? At the beginning! And that's true whether you're toying with an idea or have been laboring over it for years, whether you want to learn all you can or hire out wherever possible.
These are 2-hour in depth calls that loosely/intuitively follow this discovery template. Our focus in this call is refining who you are as the author of this book and how your reader relates to it so you can move more intentionally into your next stages of writing or editing.
All purchases are nonrefundable. All purchases gain access to the Client Vault—a living database of the programs and resources I build out in response to ongoing learning and development with you all. More importantly, we are doing partnership work rather than product work, and in the same way that a life coach can't un-coach you, I can't unblock the time on my calendar or the energy I reserve for your project. On the flip side, I will always honor un-redeemed 1:1 calls, even if you need to take a break for an extended period of time. Group calls will be recorded in case you miss them—each payment covers that cycle only. Thank you for partnering in my work and trusting me with yours!