For promising material that nevertheless needs a good deal of revision to achieve its full potential, it's often faster and more economical to work in outline form. Your editor will read through your novel, then help you put together a working outline and consult with you by phone and email for a total of up to 20 hours. At the end of this process, you'll have a solid outline to guide your revision or adaptation, and you'll know exactly where you're going before your fingers ever touch the keyboard--avoiding blind alleys and endless rewrites. The Developmental Outline is most appropriate for novels, screenplays, multivolume series (novel or screenplay), and adaptations (novel-to-screenplay, screenplay-to-novel). It can also be used with nonfiction. If your project requires more than 20 hours (because of exceptional length, for instance), we'll discount the additional time spent.

Turnaround Time: Standard: Varies with client’s available time and preferred pace; generally 30-90 days. Rush: 10-20 days, depending on client’s available time and preferred pace.

Price: $1700 (standard) / $2300 (rush) for manuscripts up to 110,000 words. Please contact the Tucson office for pricing information for longer manuscripts.

$975 and up. The content of these memos varies greatly, depending on the nature and scope of the issues being addressed. Common topics for novelists include plot architecture and development, characterization, and dialogue. In all cases the Task Memo takes an in-depth look at any shortcomings in the work and makes specific suggestions to address them.

$1125. In-depth assessment and coaching of an author's writing style. Any self-editing points that would strengthen the author's voice and style are explained at length via editorial memorandum and notes, and illustrated with examples and line editing samples from the manuscript.

$2200. Coaches plot and scene construction, character creation and development, dialogue content and delivery, and dramatic structure—using examples from the manuscript and the editor's suggestions. At an average length of anywhere between 45 and 60 pages, the Fiction Technique Memo is our most comprehensive and in-depth service for teaching novel craft. It’s ideal for the writer who has good instincts or ideas but doesn't have a firm grasp on how to put a novel together and keep readers turning its pages.