Dear Friends & Readers,
For the past two weeks, I’ve been deep inside someone else’s novel, a big, unwieldy, beautiful manuscript, full of talent, full of life… and completely tangled. The writer had lost her way in it and was losing her belief, not only in the novel, but in herself as a creator.
I analyzed the manuscript, pulled it apart, and found the spine. I not only showed her how to rebuild the structure seamlessly to make it more readable and saleable, but also discovered a second novel buried inside that was crying out to be written.
When I told her to have faith, that she is extremely talented (she is!) and just needed to learn restraint, she started to cry.
“You’ve given me hope,” she said.
I assured her that writing a novel is very hard, and that I would not under any circumstances, encourage her if I didn’t believe what I was saying.
Here’s something I know intimately: most writers don’t fail because they lack ability.
They falter because they cannot see their work clearly and become too discouraged to keep going. After many false starts and messy manuscripts, I stayed in the game, and I’m thrilled that I’ve given other writers the courage and hope to do so.
As we head into summer when my keynote presentations will slow down, I’m opening a small number of spaces for editorial and consulting work.
If you’re sitting on a manuscript that isn’t quite working, or lost confidence in something you once loved, get in touch by replying to this email.
As ever,
Karen
