Your Next Draft
Alice Sudlow is a Story Grid certified developmental editor and Author Accelerator certified book coach for fiction writers who are already good and who want to become amazing. She’s an expert at helping them to craft the most powerful version of their stories by making every scene unputdownable.
What da Vinci, Michelangelo, and you have in common
Hi Reader, Last week, my editor friend Kim and I took an impromptu trip to Italy. (Because when a friend of a friend offers you free round-trip tickets in exchange for escorting kittens from Venice to the US, you say absolutely, yes please.) We spent a day in Milan (not my favorite) and a couple days each in Florence and Cinque Terre (loved them both and hated to leave). Of course, we visited all the classic sites: the Duomo (in both Milan and Florence); Michelangelo’s David; the Uffizi...
Where the Turning Point Goes (And How to Know If Yours Is in the Right Place)
Hi Reader, Where the heck is the turning point? If you’ve ever tried to spot the turning point in a story you love, you’ve probably asked some version of this question. I always feel like I’m playing that old children’s video game: Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego? (In my imagination, the turning point is captured in shadowy profile, wearing a red hat with a wide brim.) (this is also called, tell me you’re a 90’s baby without telling me you’re a 90’s baby.) Anyway. When you’re analyzing...
Here’s the map to actually revise your novel
Hi Reader, How do you actually revise a novel? Do you start on page one and work your way down? Do you polish the words so your sentences get prettier and prettier? Do you revise the opening scene a dozen times and wonder if you’ll ever make it to the rest? Or is there something else you should be doing? A nagging feeling that you’re missing something important? This is a question every writer has faced after they finish their first draft. Because when the first draft is done . . . it feels...
How to write the moment that changes everything
Hi Reader, Can I be honest? I struggled with turning points for years. I knew they were essential. They’re the moment when everything changes. The moment that forces the character to face a crisis choice. The moment that reveals what the story is really, at its heart, about. And yet . . . I couldn’t see them. I found so many things that weren’t the turning point. I found inciting incidents, and midpoints, and climaxes. The turning point, though? It eluded me. Until I learned a simple...
The hidden half of your protagonist's goal (that makes story structure work)
Hi Reader, Have you ever structured a story with all the right pieces, but something still feels flat? You check all the boxes on paper: ✅ Inciting incident✅ Progressive complications✅ Turning point✅ Crisis✅ Climax✅ Resolution And yet it still falls flat. They mostly align, probably, you’re pretty sure. But somehow, they’re not working together the way they should. The turning point doesn’t pack the right punch. The crisis doesn’t feel devastating enough, even though all is technically lost....
When should you work with an editor? (it's earlier than you think)
Hi Reader, You’ve been working on your novel for so long. Not just months—years, maybe even decades. And yet you have a long way still to go. The day when you have a polished manuscript you’re proud to pitch or publish feels so far away, and you're starting to wonder if you're missing something crucial. And in the back of your mind, you might be wondering: When should you work with an editor? How much more should you do before you start looking? How many drafts should you finish before you...
The 1,000-word revision trick nobody enjoys
Hi Reader, I’ve been working with a lot of synopses lately. (That’s a summary of your entire manuscript in about 500 to 1000 words. You’ll send it along with your query letter when you pitch agents.) I’ve been reading them. Critiquing them. Revising them. Even, occasionally, trying my hand at writing them. Here’s how I felt about that writing part: Screenshot from my editor group chat. They were not shocked. This is, in fact, not just in. Anyone who has tried to write a synopsis knows that...
These 12 core genres power every great story
Hi Reader, Genre. Let me guess: It’s the bane of your existence. A convoluted soup of arbitrary descriptors that almost but not quite mean the same thing. Sci fi or fantasy? Paranormal or supernatural? Upmarket or book club? Do words even have meaning? Or, it’s a restrictive box with tropes and conventions you feel like you need to cross off a checklist, until your story is more “paint by numbers” formulaic than an original creation unique to your imagination. Or, it’s a necessary evil in...
How great first lines make readers pay attention
Hi Reader, It is a truth universally acknowledged that a fiction writer in possession of a brilliant story must craft a captivating opening line. No pressure, right? Your opening line is your story’s first impression. Agents, editors, and even readers decide fast whether they want to keep reading or drop the book altogether. And yes, they can make that judgment in as little as the very first sentence. So your opening line is doing some heavy, heavy lifting. But what, exactly, do great first...
I thought I knew this story in my bones
Hi Reader, In order to see what your story needs, you need to see your story from a new perspective. That’s one of the main reasons why I recommend revising via scene list. Each time I begin working with a new client, the first task I set them is to summarize their manuscript in a scene list. And every time, before they even share their scene list with me, they tell me some version of this: “This is sparking so many new ideas! I’m already seeing things I want to change.” That new insight is...
Where progressive complications go WRONG (and how to fix them)
Hi Reader, You’re stuck in the messy middle. Languishing in the doldrums of your story. The inciting incident is long past, the climax is so far ahead you can’t see it over the horizon, and you’re drifting, lost at sea. What is actually supposed to happen here? Where did your plot momentum go? Why do your pages feel full of stuff, and yet nothing ever happens? The answers to all those questions lie in your progressive complications. Specifically, something’s going wrong in your progressive...
Alice Sudlow is a Story Grid certified developmental editor and Author Accelerator certified book coach for fiction writers who are already good and who want to become amazing. She’s an expert at helping them to craft the most powerful version of their stories by making every scene unputdownable.