Fiction Editing
You start with an idea: the kernel of a premise, a voice, or a setting that feels promising. So, you sit down to write—and then you work for months, or more likely years, trying to bring that idea to life.
Along the way, it’s easy to lose perspective. You suspect the plot sags near the middle of the book, but wouldn’t changing it mean you have to rewrite the beginning? The pacing: too slow, or too fast? You have a crystal-clear vision of the novel’s world, but have you done enough for your readers to imagine it as you do? Is there a narrative hook here?
Is what you’ve written. . . any good?
What we do
We strive to be every author’s ideal reader, and to engage with every piece of fiction on its own terms. We’ll help you identify the primary needs of your novel, view your story in ways you might not have before, and break the revision down into a series of manageable steps. We believe the best fiction edits are both warm and incisive, encouraging an author’s inherent talents of imagination while identifying clear steps for improvement. Wherever you are in the process, our ultimate goal is to make the prospect of writing feel exciting rather than daunting, through guidance that feels generative rather than restrictive.
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Submit your opening 50 pages to receive focused feedback on your premise, voice, and early narrative beats. Are the characters, themes, and genre elements you’ve introduced resonating? What structural advice should you keep in mind as you write deeper into the novel?
Critical to this early feedback is our understanding that writing a novel requires creative exploration—we never want to prescribe a vision of a book that doesn’t feel like your own. Instead, we approach early feedback as co-brainstormers who want to set you up with the greatest possible chance of success.
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After our initial read and conversation, we offer detailed, comprehensive feedback in the form of an editorial letter. Typically 5–10 pages, this letter identifies the strengths of your novel and areas for improvement with greater specificity. Is the plot coherent and satisfying? Are your characters and settings convincingly depicted? Are the best features of your authorial voice coming through on the page? By the end of the letter, you’ll have a clear sense of what’s working and what’s not, and a set of practical steps to guide you through your next revision effort, along with writing advice tailored to your own style and goals.
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Though some novelists are content to work in solitude, most others benefit from knowing they have a reliable team in their corner. After an editorial letter, we can continue to support you through the revision process by helping you set goals, discuss roadblocks, and read pages when you’d like feedback. We also help writers navigate the trickiest parts of their revision with structured writing assignments that turn what may feel like unwieldy challenges of worldbuilding, plot, voice, and character into trackable, bite-sized tasks.
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We offer close line edits of working manuscripts, typically reserved for authors who are in the later stages of drafting and feel prepared to address the sentence-level concerns of their book. Is your prose as enticing as you hoped it would be? Are your sentences offering your readers enough surprise and depth? Is the cadence of your scenes satisfying and well-paced? We’ll start with about 25 manuscript pages before you commit to a full line edit, to ensure our approach matches your hopes for the novel.
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For writers with a single short story they hope to publish, or for MFA fiction applicants looking to improve their writing samples, our short story package includes reading notes, line edits, and a 30-minute phone call to discuss your story. Together, we’ll assess and strengthen the imaginative and craft elements of your story to ensure you’re connecting with your intended audience and making the best possible use of the short story form.
Note: We treat short story collections as full manuscripts, covered by our other services.
“Chaz has an extraordinary ability to see what my story is trying to become, even when I can’t see it myself. His editorial process combines insight, sensitivity, and structural precision—protecting me from blind spots while elevating every aspect of the work. If writing fiction is a high-wire act, Chaz is the safety net that makes me feel safe putting my work out in the world.”
— Todd Gilbert, 30-year film industry veteran and author of the upcoming novel Prelude to Power
Our Expertise
As Director of Fiction, Chaz Curet combines extensive craft training with years of experience editing across storytelling genres and styles. He earned his MFA in Fiction at Syracuse University, where he studied fiction writing, narrative technique, and story structure under true literary giants. His experience as a teacher of fiction writing informs his editorial philosophy today: he takes pride in not just improving the manuscript at hand, but helping authors discover opportunities to elevate their craft and expand their artistic range. He is especially drawn to narratives that are ambitious in scope or daring in form—making him the ideal editor for fiction that challenges literary conventions, upmarket commercial work that blends genres, and novels that defy easy classification.