Summer is the perfect time to stop waiting around and start finishing your manuscript. Two private coaching spots, two Story Lab seats, two editing slots—right now I can offer you three different ways to work with me this summer.
Two private monthly coaching spots are open—and if you’ve been on the fence about getting serious support for your manuscript, this is a good moment to stop deliberating.
Private monthly coaching isn’t a course, a workshop, or a one-time consult. It’s an ongoing working relationship built around your manuscript and your specific needs as a writer. We start by assessing your story concept and outline together, making sure the foundation is solid before you write another word. From there, you submit pages twice a month (up to 25 pages per deadline). I return detailed feedback on what’s working and what needs attention, and we meet for a 30-minute session after each submission to talk through it all. Between deadlines, you have email and Slack access to me, plus craft resources I pull specifically for where you are in your process.
It’s consistent, it’s personalized, and it keeps you moving. Most writers reach a complete draft within six to ten months.
Private monthly coaching: $599/month
If you’ve ever felt like your writing group was the blind leading the blind, Story Lab, my weekly small-group coaching program, is the antidote.
Enough with the internet’s endless video courses—this is real face-to-face coaching with me on Google Meet every week. You’ll receive feedback on your work in progress while learning story and scene development techniques from me in real time with your fellow writers.
Here’s how it works: your group (just a handful of other writers!) meets online every Wednesday at 6 p.m. US Central via Google Meet. We workshop pages, zoom in for hotseat critiques, dig into craft techniques, work through story structure and scene problems, and field whatever questions are on your mind. Group size caps at a handful, so there’s always room to be heard. Between sessions, the group has a private Slack channel for ongoing access to me and each other.
Story Lab runs on a three-month commitment, with potential open seats each quarter. Two seats are open now.
Basic tier: $500/quarter — Weekly meetings for craft study and manuscript workshopping
Boosted tier: $800/quarter — Everything in Basic, plus monthly one-on-one feedback on your pages (about ten manuscript pages, or your outlining progress) from me
Summer is a great time to build a writing habit that actually sticks—and I have two seats open for July-August-September. This group begins meeting next week, so grab your spot now.
I have two editing slots left in 2026, one in August and one in late October. Discovery draft editing, developmental editing, manuscript critiques, First 50 Pages edits are all on the table. If your draft needs professional direction before you invest more time going in the wrong direction (or going nowhere), one of these slots has your name on it.
Your manuscript has been waiting long enough—and so have you. This is the summer to stop thinking about it and start finishing it. Reach out and let’s figure out what it needs right now.
Onward,
Lisa
This is The Writes of Fiction, a slow-simmered concoction of old and new thinking about writing fiction—the bits I find most helpful to writers finding their way. I hope they help you too.
And this (from the archives) is editorial assistant Rémy’s response to summer heat and fireworks. Holiday weekend? We’ll see you again on the other side.
🐾 Support your #editorialassistants via Greyhound Adoption League of Texas.
If you enjoyed this week’s Writes of Fiction, consider buying me a tea. 🍵
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