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...
Write like you’ve already won
Hi Reader, I continue to be obsessed with Olympic figure skating. I’ve been listening to the U.S. Figure Skating podcast to hear how the skaters were thinking about their experiences and expectations in the leadup to the Olympics. I’ve looked up interviews to hear how Ilia Malinin is talking about his medal and his falls, now that he has a week and a half of distance from both. I’m devouring articles about Alysa Liu, ravenous to understand how she could skate with such peace and...
Are you chasing the wrong (writing) podium?
Hi Reader, I am obsessed with Cha Jun-Hwan’s figure skating routine. I watched it last week in the Olympic men’s short program competition. I never finished watching that competition—I was busy rewinding Jun-Hwan’s routine to watch him over and over again. I filmed my TV screen on my phone and watched it again while I sat in the courthouse on jury duty. I gushed about it to friends and family. I’ve been listening to the song he skated to on loop for a week. Jun-Hwan didn’t win a medal. He...
How will you know when your novel is done?
Hi Reader, How will you know when you’re done? Will it be when you LOVE your book? When you stop cringing as you read it? When you can’t think of a single change left to make? When beta readers rave about it? When they tell you the romantic scenes made them swoon and the funny scenes made them laugh, the scary scenes gave them nightmares and the sad scenes made them cry? When a reader tells you your book impacted them profoundly? That it changed the way they think about something that...
6 Reasons to LOVE editing (from people who actually do love it)
Hi Reader, So you’re revising yet another draft. You’re hoping against hope that this draft will be your final draft. Which, coincidentally, is also what you hoped for the last draft, and the one before that. Editing is a slog you’re trudging through. You dream of the day when you can escape this drudgery and return to the free-flowing fun of writing the first draft of your next book. But what if editing isn’t an obstacle you have to grit your teeth and bear? What if it’s where the magic...
What makes a story excellent?
Hi Reader, What makes a book truly excellent? What sets it apart from all the rest? What do the most beloved books do that’s truly exceptional? Is excellence defined by hitting bestseller lists? Filling seats at every book tour stop? Being selected for “Best Books of 2025” lists? Is excellence defined by getting gatekeeper approval? Getting agent representation? Landing a book deal? Winning awards? Is excellence defined by earning money? Getting a big advance? Earning out the advance and...
🎉🎂🎈 What I’ve learned from 3 years of editing
Hi Reader, Today is my business’s third birthday. Three years ago, I presented a webinar to about two hundred writers. For the first time, I gathered an audience of writers who wanted to hear from me, not from any other organization I represented. I taught them writing craft teaching that I had written, and I offered them a way to work with me that I had designed. Twenty writers took me up on it. They recognized something I didn’t see then, and wouldn’t see for more than two years. When the...
What to do when feedback gets you stuck
Hi Reader, Recently, a writer came to me with feedback she was struggling to implement. She’d written a draft of her story, but she knew it needed revision. So she’d gotten a manuscript evaluation from another editor. And the feedback she got in that evaluation really threw her off. When this writer and I talked, she was so confused. She knew what her vision was for her story, and why she’d made the story structure choices she’d made. But the feedback she’d gotten called some of those...
What genre REALLY measures (and why every genre you try feels wrong)
Hi Reader, What do you do when your genre just refuses to work? When you’ve tried every content genre you know—Action, Crime, Horror, Thriller, Performance, Love, Society, and more—and every single one just does not fit your story? Sure, some parts of several of those genres fit your story. Those parts even seem essential. Some parts feel like a stretch, but you can make them work if you squint. And some parts don’t fit at all. If you’re honest, it’s like your story is secretly three genres...
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...
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.