Good news! Writing is a skill like any other, which means that it can be developed. One of the many benefits of hiring an editor is the chance to sharpen your abilities with someone who operates, on one level, like a personal coach. With a good editor, you receive custom insights on how best to refine not only how you put words on the page but also grow in your practices of self-discovery and communication in general. Of course, not every occasion calls for an editor. There are many ways to develop your writing muscles: join a writing circle, take a class…read books.

Let me repeat that for emphasis: read books! Reading in the realm of what interests you is one of the most valuable (and economical!) ways of honing your abilities. Just be advised: reading in your genre is probably a much better use of your time than reading about it. Books promising to teach you how to write abound. For memoir alone there are an abundance of well-intended books trying to pick the bones of how to. (In fact, at the end of this blog and in future installments, I will review such books to help you make informed decisions about your personal development.)

When I meet with a new client, I clarify early that I do not offer marketing and publishing strategy as explicit editorial services. Why on earth would I say such a thing, you might wonder, and what use to a client are my editorial skills, when book publication or increased website traffic is almost certainly an end goal?

It’s a great question, and I’d like to explain from two perspectives the method behind my mad passion to empower you by not prioritizing marketing.

The day you loosed your ideas from the confines of your mind, you embarked on an adventure.

“Little by little, dear writer”

Growing up, and for much of my adult life, I did not have a good relationship with adversity.

I had ambitions like anyone else, creative and otherwise. I often set out in pursuit of my goals with great passion and anticipation. Sadly, setbacks and inner demons — the worst of which was the abiding conviction that I was not allowed to succeed, that it would be a disaster if I did, and that I was alone in this travail — routinely defeated me. More accurately, owing to these beliefs ingrained in me from a young age, I chose to be alone and defeated.

Some rebellious part of me has always been discontent with this disastrous way of life.