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https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1631638480295-U6YOI25C7S4UI0GKGMK6/unsplash-image-ZK1WQDMQvik.jpg Writing Resources Home - How do I recover from “no?” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1631638454378-Y7KL1WG2FS90SXMI494T/unsplash-image-ZK1WQDMQvik.jpg Writing Resources Home - How do I write when the world is falling apart? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1631630021025-YY5MP5DCDWVF67FRYNP8/unsplash-image-TyQ-0lPp6e4.jpg Writing Resources Home - Who is “my audience,” anyway? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1631638520591-7DNNDGXQX5PH0TT4ASOW/unsplash-image-QMDap1TAu0g.jpg Writing Resources Home - How do I tackle an overwhelming editing task? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1631630694173-QWB2XPSYD2436B07VVQN/unsplash-image-QMDap1TAu0g.jpg Writing Resources Home 12 reasons you (yes you!) need an editor https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1631630329337-HMYV0V9SMIMOW56HF8E5/unsplash-image-QMDap1TAu0g.jpg Writing Resources Home - What are the differences between types of edits? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1631630735051-PG1N50OCXWQ387OCGMXL/unsplash-image-jR4Zf-riEjI.jpg Writing Resources Home - 5 reasons you might want to hire a coach or consultant https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1674185728635-YB990W549Y24P0R7PF0N/unsplash-image-NqXqLPhdbvU.jpg Writing Resources Home - Why should you do AcWriMo or other writing intensives? https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1674185798545-OLC5BLSRHEFARCZL1UNV/unsplash-image-NqXqLPhdbvU.jpg Writing Resources Home https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1674185768948-CZ9TC7DM9UZU9AVE0ZU6/unsplash-image-NqXqLPhdbvU.jpg Writing Resources Home - A step-by-step guide to revising your manuscript. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1674185826801-2X46CTO8XQ1587JFCJP7/unsplash-image-ZK1WQDMQvik.jpg Writing Resources Home https://www.epilogueediting.com/coaching daily 0.75 2023-05-19 https://www.epilogueediting.com/writingnov daily 0.75 2025-01-06 https://www.epilogueediting.com/writersblock daily 0.75 2021-10-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1635449598811-P3Z3QRIEN5WGCQPNTEJI/unsplash-image-D6cgenSS5NY.jpg Writer's Block - Today’s question: We’re month 18 of a global pandemic, there are new variants every day, and my brain is mush. How do you write when the world is against you? This is a great question – writing can feel difficult under the best of times, and when there’s all of the mental noise (and if you have kids home, physical noise) around you, it can feel impossible. So – how do you overcome writer’s block? Here are three suggestions: Think about the project: If you don’t divide the project into pieces, it can feel completely overwhelming. But any writing project has chunks to it. An academic project might have the lit review, data collection/coding/analysis, formatting references, etc. Editing can be broken up the same way (see article here). If your brain says it doesn’t want to write, don’t make it – but you can still engage with the project in some way. Think about time: Some writers will suggest that you write every day. They’ll swear that if you block out hours in your calendar, and fill those with writing, practice will become habit. Others swear by marathons, so perhaps making sure that you write for long periods of time (like a writing retreat) for 2 or 3 weeks, and then giving projects a break. One of my clients works really well in chunks: she turns on the timer on her phone for 25 minutes, writes intensely for that amount of time, and then walks away. Another client can only work if there is at least 2 hours of uninterrupted time. Do you write best in the morning? At night? During the day? Figure out the time you need to write, and then protect it, but don’t let other writers get in your head. Toni Morrison – “Writing before dawn began as a necessity--I had small children when I first began to write and I needed to use the time before they said, Mama--and that was always around five in the morning.” Think about space: Where do you write best? Writing can also happen in the notes app on your phone, using the voice recorder when you’re out running errands, with a dry erase marker in the shower – all of it counts. I like the note feature on my phone because I can take pictures of my scribbles and save them, jot down notes and search for the tags later. Space can also be mental - how can you friends be accountability buddies for you? Who can you text when you’re feeling beaten down, or just need someone to know that you’re supposed to be writing? Bottom line: I also think it’s worth just setting a timer and writing without expectations for awhile. Go back to pitching your project. Write whatever is in your head. Turn off the internet, don’t let yourself look up references, put ** places you need to come back to or use the comment function to make small notes to yourself, but turn your brain off and write. Need help getting unstuck? Book a coaching session with me! https://www.epilogueediting.com/dealing-with-no daily 0.75 2021-10-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1635450114266-S4TYO0Y7MVUNIS6ZVCSS/unsplash-image-F3ig12CrnGo.jpg Dealing with no - Today’s question: “Ugh, I keep getting rejected from things! How can I deal with this many nos?” Writers hear “no” a lot. 1000 people might apply for a grant with only 10 recipients. 100 scholars vie for one tenure track job. We go through 5 rounds of revisions to get an article rejected. It’s a tough world out there. How do we get used to “no?” If you’re reading this, you are likely part of a profession that increasingly produces and thrives on scarcity. There aren’t enough tenure track jobs for all of us. There aren’t enough grants, or enough funders, and most journals publish less than a quarter of the articles they get (see political science data here). First, identify what kind of no it is: Separate the good nos from the bad nos from the egregious nos. A co-author and I once got a 10-page, single spaced rejection from a journal about how diversity research should be systemically eliminated from the academy. This was an egregious, outrageous no. The more we read it, the more it fueled our anger. We chose to take a political stand defending our work’s right to exist, rather than to make the changes the reviewer was demanding. It was never published. Then, there are good nos. One person I work with got a really gracious email from a search committee chair. They’d hired someone else, but they were so impressed with everything from the interview to the connections with students during the teaching demo. The no stung, but the it really helped that it wasn’t personal: there was only one job, and it went to someone else. I am currently trying to find a publisher for my second book, and I received an email from an editor saying that she thought the book sounded fantastic, but she had too much on her plate but editors at two other presses might be interested. These are good nos. They sting, it sucks, but in a world of scarcity and false choices it’s a moment for genuine human connection. And, you know there’s nothing more you could have done. There was no way that person was going to get that job – nothing he could do differently. Then there are the bad nos. When you submit an article that you’re excited about and it gets blistering reviews. Search committees ghosting you. Getting a series of non-responses. Or worse, knowing you bombed a teaching demonstration or interview. All of these suck. But…we’re not the worst thing we’ve ever submitted, and we’re not the worst no we’ve ever gotten. Now, what do you do with it? Hearing no is the worst. Sit with it. Acknowledge that it sucks. Swear about it if you need to. I recommend spicy chocolate and Schitt’s Creek (and wine) if you need to indulge your feelings. Then… Think about how to reframe it. I have a friend who keeps a “no” file and try to get to 100 nos a year – if she doesn’t get to that many, it means she isn’t aiming high enough or applying to enough things. She’s turned nos into rewards. I know other people who keep a shadow CV of rejections: grants that weren’t funded, papers never published, course preps shelved. I have friends who also think of nos as challenges: once an article is rejected, they make themselves turn it back around that week. They take the reviewer comments, make necessary tweaks, and send it out the door again to find it a new home. The thing is, you need to figure out how to have self worth when you’re going to get a lot more nos than yeses. You can celebrate the nos, you can curse the nos, you can learn from them, you can have them inspire you. Also - it’s ok to let go of projects that aren’t sparking joy right now (yeah, you can Marie Kondo your writing life too!). Put it aside, work on things you are passionate about, and come back later. Need help getting unstuck? Book a coaching session with me! https://www.epilogueediting.com/audience daily 0.75 2026-03-12 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1635450114266-S4TYO0Y7MVUNIS6ZVCSS/unsplash-image-F3ig12CrnGo.jpg Who's my audience? - Today’s question: “Why do people keep asking me to think about my audience?” I was working with an awesome candidate recently on a Fulbright grant. This person is imminently qualified for the grant, has an amazing project, has cultivated contacts in the country she wants to visit, and is really the whole package. When I read the first draft of her application, though, something was off. It was coming across less as an application to go do cool stuff half way across the world, and more as a defense of her academic history. So we talked, and I realized she was coming off of a pretty brutal (and ultimately successful) tenure battle. Her application was fighting that last battle, so coming across a defense of her academic career as a whole. So as we talked through the application and the edits she would make, our conversation was all about audience: who would be reading it and what they needed to hear. I convinced her that her record would be sufficient to persuade them that she was an expert in the field. They would want to know is why she was the best person to do that project in that place. All of the pieces were there, but the narrative needed to shift. Steven King says to write the first draft with the door shut, and the second draft with the door open. What does that mean for us? The first go through, just get ideas on paper - all of them. They’ll be ugly, misspelled, rough sentences, and all of that is ok. The first draft, don’t censor yourself. Pretend no one will ever read it - the door is closed. Then, once it’s all there, “open the door.” Revise with an ear for how this will sound to your audience(s). Sometimes, this is easy - you’re the expert, you know your people, write for them. Other times, you might need help. One of the biggest questions I ask as an editor is who the intended audience will be. Who is going to be reading it, and what do you want them to think? If your book proposal mentions an audience of practitioners, I’m going to flag for you places that your’re sounding overly academic. I will try to read as a member of a tenure committee, or a search committee, and anticipate their questions or objections. Sometimes, all it takes is a few sentences sprinkled throughout the document to appeal to your target audience - and that can be enough to land you the job/publication/promotion. Need help getting unstuck? Book a coaching session with me! https://www.epilogueediting.com/big-project daily 0.75 2021-10-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1635452705809-3DJH561NG0F3VVTM9WXR/unsplash-image-3ym6i13Y9LU.jpg Big project - Today’s question: “If I’m planning to write a long book, should I write a blog first?” Great question! If you’re at the beginning of a writing project, how should you proceed? I’ve worked with authors at different phases of their books, and I’m an author myself. I wrote one published book, have advanced drafts of two others, and a pretty good idea for the third. The first three books I wrote completely behind closed doors, other than a few conferences or writing workshops here and there. I also have a great dream of writing a book about politics and parenting, but it’s pretty far out on my priority list. So for now, I have a newsletter called Everyday Activism where I record my thoughts about the raising politically aware kids. How will this turn into a book? There are at least 3 things to think about here - what will motivate you to write, how to get people interested in your writing early, and what a publisher might want to see. Motivation One of the major questions to ask yourself is what will get you to the finish line of a ~75,000 word book. That’s a lot of writing. Can you do it by yourself? Would an event like NatNoWriMo/AcWriMo work for you? (if so - write with us this November!) Writing a blog or a newsletter might be a great motivational tool for you. Everyday Activism works that way for me. It’s fun writing, and I’m accumulating a (very) modest readership for any future book projects. I picture myself writing to my mom friends, and so it’s very low stress. It functions as an accountability mechanism for me - I imagine my subscribers out there, hitting refresh on their phone, dying to know what Halloween costumes my kids are going to wear, and it makes me write consistently. I am hopeful that, when the time comes, I’ll have a solid set of essays I can revise into a book proposal. Readership Another question to ask yourself is how you’re going to get people excited about reading your writing. This could be through writing a blog/newsletter, or figuring out how to get a bunch of social media followers, or having a really dedicated group of people in your corner (I’m not a Roller Derby person, but my vision of the Roller Derby community is that if a derby-er [derbyist?] were to write something, every other derby-er in the land is gonna read it). You probably have a Venn diagram of things you read. Some authors, I’ll read whatever they write. I’d read their review of Spookley the Square Pumpkin or about why they eat oatmeal for breakfast. I’m there. There are also a few topics that I read compulsively (email me if you want to know what they are). A perfect intersection is when my favorite people write about my favorite things. My point is — think early about how you’re going to build a readership for your book, which you can then pitch to the publisher. Publishers The final piece of this to consider is what will publishers think. My perception is that publishers will be reluctant to publish things that are online already, with some exceptions. So be careful about writing essays that have a broad readership and then expecting someone to publish them whole cloth. You want to avoid self-plagiarism, and make both the publisher and your readers think that you have ideas worth paying for in book form. So think about your blog/newsletter as a place for early ideas and drafts that are perhaps less formal in tone or about broader topics, and then broadening it, might be a way to hit a sweet spot of balancing motivation, readership, and attracting a publisher when the time comes. Need help getting unstuck? Book a coaching session with me! https://www.epilogueediting.com/clients daily 0.75 2025-09-18 https://www.epilogueediting.com/general-1 daily 0.75 2022-04-06 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847902870-ZOUR0EX0L2QSQNRC1SP2/image-asset.jpeg General 1 - Make it stand out. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5ec321c2af33de48734cc929/1589847903067-57HDPDJ6TWU40QPAQLS4/image-asset.jpeg General 1 - Make it stand out. It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.epilogueediting.com/new-page-2 daily 0.75 2022-08-29 https://www.epilogueediting.com/what-kind-of-editing-do-i-need daily 0.75 2022-08-31 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1635450114266-S4TYO0Y7MVUNIS6ZVCSS/unsplash-image-F3ig12CrnGo.jpg What kind of editing do I need? - Today’s question: “I’m confused! What kind of editing do I need right now, anyway?” When you’re stuck in a project, it’s bewildering to know exactly what kind of help you need to get it going the direction you want. After dozens of calls with writers over the past few months, I took the most commonly asked questions and put the answers here. When people think of editors, they often imagine a persnickety reader correcting grammar or finding stray commas. In reality, people hire an editor for lots of reasons: Some people like to work collaboratively on projects, and editors provide a sense of companionship, accountability, and a feeling like they aren’t writing into the void. Other people like writing, and just need someone to help with productivity or staying on track. Still others love research, get overwhelmed by writing, and need someone to help them move their ideas toward publication. Other times, people have feedback from reviewers and need help making sure it’s sufficiently incorporated into the final draft. As the manuscript evolves, you may want a coach at the beginning, or a developmental edit in the middle, or a stylistic edit at the end before the piece is proofread. Regardless of whether you do some of this yourself, have a network of support to read various drafts, or you want to hire an editor to help you through the process, it’s important to make time for each stage. The chart walks you through each of those stages. Whether you still aren’t sure what kind of editing is right for you, or you’re ready to get started, book a free 30-minute consultation today! https://www.epilogueediting.com/consultant daily 0.75 2023-01-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1635450114266-S4TYO0Y7MVUNIS6ZVCSS/unsplash-image-F3ig12CrnGo.jpg What does a consultant do? - Today’s question: “What do coaches or consultants do? ” Adapted from this 12/2022 newsletter. Even though I edit manuscripts on a wide variety of topics, the editing process is fairly predictable. More words here, fewer words here, move those words here, different words there, and done. Consulting, on the other hand, varies considerably from person to person and week to week, which makes it fun! I’ve worked with people for an average of seven weeks this year, but the range is pretty wide - some people want one or two sessions to talk a few things out, and others people want to work together for six months or more. Here are a few ways coaching can make your life better in the new year: Real-time developmental editing of your book/manuscript: If you are an external processor, writing a book can feel like torture because you feel like you’re writing page after page into the void. A consultant can act as a sounding board for your ideas: write a quick draft, send it to your coach, and talk out the ideas. I love doing this in conjunction with editing because, over time, I become almost as embedded in the project as my clients are, so we can have deep conversations about theory, narrative, structure, argument, etc as the book is being written. Accountability and writing support: The act of writing is hard. It’s super hard to develop habits that sustain writing in our crowded lives. A consultant can help with that on a macro and micro level. I help people develop practices that work for them (what kind of goals work for you? when do you write best? what do you need to say no to?), and then I’m an accountability partner to make sure you follow through on them. I also work a lot with people to get past writing blocks, including dislodging the voice of reviewer 2 or your dissertation advisor from their role as your internal editor. I also do some strategic planning with some of my clients. What is your research pipeline? What do you want it to look like? I also can help in those moments of doubt where you’re ready to walk away from the project. Targeted skill or writing sessions: Have you ever come across a problem you just didn’t know how to fix when you were writing? Maybe you are traditionally a quantitative scholar and need help integrating qualitative data and telling stories in your book manuscript. Maybe you’re stuck on how to convert a specific chapter from your dissertation into a standalone article. Maybe you want to brainstorm how to pitch your book as a crossover title. We can set up a few sessions to work on targeted issues that are getting in the way of your writing process. Critique sessions: Do you have an article that’s been rejected a few times and you just want to know how to reframe it before sending it out again? Do you want someone to read your intro and workshop it for you? There are some editing tasks that are better suited to synchronous communication—critique sessions are great for that. Academia is weird—having someone on your side helps. Some tenure cases, promotions, job searches, and committee assignments are straight forward. Some are not. If you’re not receiving institutional support as you apply for promotion or try to find a job, I can walk you through all of that, act as a sounding board, and help you figure out the tools you need to navigate difficult institutions. I also work with people on their decisions about whether to stay in academia. If you’re feeling anxious about navigating institutional processes, I can help. For my long-term clients, I always think of myself as being on a problem-solving retainer. I believe in them, I believe in their projects, and my job is to help clear away roadblocks so that they can produce scholarship that’s important to them. Need help getting unstuck? Book a coaching session with me! https://www.epilogueediting.com/editor daily 0.75 2023-01-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1674184947757-DBERX077K7WG23LQFWL6/unsplash-image-Da0pdCekeUs.jpg What does an editor do? - Today’s question: “Who needs an editor? ” Adapted from this 12/2022 blogpost 12. You have a book! Sort of! But it needs a lot of work, and you want to get it into shape before you start submitting it. Here, two rounds of editing – a developmental edit followed by a line or stylistic edit – can help (you want to do it in two rounds so you’re not editing sentences that might change during the development process). 11. You produce a lot of content pretty fast for a blog, newsletter, website, etc and need an extra set of eyes before a billion people email you because you used “there” instead of “their” – you need a proofreader/copyeditor! 10. You suspect that your conference paper is actually three different papers and need a developmental editor to help you figure out what your argument actually is and what can be cut and put into a different paper. 9. You’re on the job market for the first (or fifth) time and need help conveying to hiring committees why your nontraditional path actually makes you an awesome person to hire. A developmental/stylistic combo can help you get the arguments right and nail the language for the documents. Often times, people also want another set of eyes on their job market paper as well. 8. You have a great idea for a book, but want to write it for a popular/crossover audience instead of a scholarly one—how do you get people excited about this topic?? A developmental editor can help you craft an idea for a book and work on the book proposal to get it right. 7. You have a zombie paper that has been sitting on your hard drive since before the pandemic that you need someone to take a look at so it can be sent out into the world. Sometimes two rounds of edits can get a paper where you want it to be: a developmental edit followed by a stylistic edit can get the paper ready for submissions. 6. You’re a wiz at data analysis but writing up results is hard! How do you narrativize data so that people care? This is where developmental editing can come into play. 5. You’ve spent so many hours staring at the screen your eyes are about to bleed but people are still telling you that there are commas in the wrong place and to write in active instead of passive voice -- and you’re just done with it. Hire a copyeditor and go back to working on what you enjoy! 4. You have a dissertation that needs to become a book or a few articles that you want to turn into a book. How do you reorganize your ideas so that they read like a book? These kind of structural challenges are perfect for developmental editors. 3. You got an exciting R and R, or particularly tough comments from reviewer 2, or comments from reviewers 1, 2, and 3 that seem to be off the wall – you need someone to help craft the reviewer letter and make sure the paper actually addresses the substance of reviewer critiques. That’s developmental editing. 2. Tenure and promotion are looming but everything feels like bragging and you need to figure out how all of the documents the committee wants can work together. A developmental and stylistic edit can really help these documents get you tenure and promoted. 1. You’re writing a grant with particular requirements, and you need an extra set of eyes to make sure you meet the requirements – that’s copyediting. Need help getting unstuck? Book a coaching session with me! https://www.epilogueediting.com/writingsessions daily 0.75 2023-01-20 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6103e7fc995a9d0e11207738/1674185435198-ZQHX38ALBJSMULTXU24J/unsplash-image-EP6_VZhzXM8.jpg why do writing sessions work - Today’s question: “Why do writing intensive sessions like AcWriMo work? ” You can read here about my impressions of 2022 AcWriMo and why it was so successful for me (finished nearly a whole draft of my book, had fun doing it). I offer these workshops a few times a year - here’s why I think they’re so successful, based on this year’s writing session. I was my own personal assistant: Instead of just waking up in November and deciding to write every day, I used October to make my November easy - I said no to a lot of things, moved around some optional meetings, did a bunch of work that was neither urgent nor important but that would be annoying if it was still lingering in November. Then, I did all of the research and planning I needed to jump into November. I was basically my own personal assistant in October. I created a hype squad: I love hosting AcWriMo as a gift to the writing community, but it also helps me. Every day, there are people I am accountable to, which means that I’m more likely to write and to post. And, because of my well-timed “no assholes” rule, everyone in the group was really amazing and supportive of each other, so it was a fun writing group to be apart of. I miss it already. I embraced slow writing: I am a newcomer to the “slow” movement - slow cooking, slow teaching, slow living. I mean, I live in New York City, I have three kids, I run my own freelancing business - not very much about my life is slow. But I knew that I needed to slow it down: most people cannot write for 30 days straight, but maybe you can think about writing for 30 days straight. Maybe you can let making notes in your phone, or teasing out an idea over coffee, “count” as writing, and you can build a sustainable writing practice that works for you. Slow writing has meant giving people lots of options about finding rhythms and spaces that work for them, letting people know they can disappear and always come back, and generally creating a space where the goal isn’t just to put thousands of words on the page, but also to lay the foundation for good writing and complicated writing, which takes time and revision. Part of this is an asset-oriented perspective: what writing exists in the world that didn’t before? What are you proud of producing? And then taking all of that and applying it to myself. Need help getting unstuck? 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