Short Story or Story Excerpt Eval
10
I will receive a short story (or a story excerpt from a longer work which stands on its own) and provide you with feedback on its quality, potential, areas of strength, and suggestions for improvement.
We will work together by first engaging in an interview of 15-30 minutes via Google Hangouts, Skype, Viber, or WhatsApp. We will discuss your intended audience, genre, theme, and context, the desired style and emotional impact of the piece, and the medium it will be published in. This interview in itself is a service to be highly valued, as much can be learned from engaging in the kind of question and answer dialog I bring to the table.
I will then take your piece and evaluate it according to the following criteria:
- Overall plot structure and arc
- Character development and presentation
- Thematic nuance and coherence
- Stylistic structure of the narrative
- Setting development and description
- Technical craft and voice
I will then return an annotated version of your piece to you within a week and offer a shorter follow-up interview of 10-15 minutes to discuss my general impressions of the piece and its potential, as well as provide personal encouragement in your journey as a writer. I say a week, but it will probably be shorter, depending on my level of busyness. If you have a closer deadline let me know and we can negotiate. I will work with you.
As I noted, I will take short stories and also excerpts from longer works which can be evaluated independently of the longer work. If during the course of the first interview I deem the piece to be insufficiently independent, I will instead offer you a more limited evaluation purely on style and voice itself. If you want a review of a longer work, please see my other services offered. The lengths I will accept in this service are pieces of 1000-5000 words only. I will also reserve the right to refuse to edit a piece which I deem to be offensive due to excessive profanity or inappropriate subject matter.
Training & Qualifications
I am the founder and past owner of a writing community (www.holyworlds.org), an experienced blogger (www.whythawye.me, and priorly siremethmimetes.wordpress.com), an Advanced Communicator Silver and Competent Leader with Toastmasters International, and the Public Relations and Marketing Manager for Penoaks Publishing (www.penoaks.com). I have worked with counseling and editing many fictional writings at multiple stages of their progress for many years.
Availability & Preferences
I'm usually free in the evenings other than Tuesdays, and mornings on Mondays, Fridays, and the weekends.