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...
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...
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...
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.