If you are reading this, most likely you’re dreaming of someone to help you with your writing endeavors. I want you to know that I’m not here to judge but to help.
Memoir and poetry can be deeply personal, and while it’s redundant to say fiction is fictional, it is all still you, however far-reaching. There’s no way around it, writing is soul work.
In creating a crime novel, a poem about birches, a family story, or a history of Salem, something inside you is finding its way to the page, something that isn’t known by anyone else until it’s read.
All of which makes looking for an editor too much like a first date. How can you know who this person is, what they are going to say, or how they might influence you? Truthfully, you can’t—until they read what you’ve written and you’ve shared an initial exchange.
Still, you need to determine if I might be the right fit, if this is a chance worth taking. The following pages will give you a sense of me.
- ABOUT D M GORDON will tell you what I’ve written and how I’ve learned what I know.
- EDITORIAL SERVICES will begin to describe my approach to editing and how much it might cost.
- WRITERS’ COMMENTS will inform you of other writers’ experiences.
But maybe start here, a short, online written interview, 10 Questions from the Massachusetts Review. This includes a sonnet, linked through the poem title. This will tell you who I am as a writer, but not necessarily as a reader.
I respect and can accommodate a wide variety of voices. My job is to help you towards the best version of your writerly self, not to sound like me. There is no carved-in-stone answer to what your best self might be. It’s always evolving. I will start by looking at what you’re trying to say and how you are saying it.
For as many people as you ask for feedback, you will receive that many responses. Teachers, editors, agents, fellow writers, family or next door neighbor, each will offer different things, sometimes wildly different. If I read for you, I’ll respond with the awareness that I am only one person, that possible responses are infinite, and the only opinion that matters, ever, is yours. My thoughts. Your work.
Please enjoy these pages. I look forward to hearing from you.
Diana
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