For a developmental edit, I focus less on the written prose and instead look at the big-picture elements of your story. Here, I'm going to review the overall structure of your narrative, the implementation of your themes, and my favorite bit—the characters and their arcs throughout the story.
As part of the editing process, we'll set up a meeting and discuss what you envision for your story and where your manuscript is struggling to meet that vision. I want to learn what this story means to you. Afterwards, I'll develop an editorial letter that gives a clear picture of where the story may be underdeveloped or what is getting in the way of a satisfying narrative, including a roadmap towards resolving them. Along with this editorial letter will be an annotated version of your manuscript, where I look over specific story beats and how they shape the quality of the overall narrative. If you're looking for a more cost effective option, I can forgo these annotations and provide the editorial letter for only $0.013 per word (this is commonly referred to as a "Manuscript Evaluation").
Editing is a cooperative task, and so I often like to communicate with a writer throughout the process. This not only makes my work easier, but helps me provide edits more tailored to your unique style and needs.
Where developmental editing focuses on the greater elements of a story, my line editing takes an interest in how you execute those elements in prose. Here, I inspect the emotional atmosphere you establish in a scene, character voices, and any other trends throughout your prose and your scene structure. In short, while my developmental edits are designed to align the story with your vision, my line edits are designed to align the prose with your story. Because of this, I recommend you either perform or commission a developmental edit for your story before sending it in for a line edit.
After a meeting to discuss your manuscript and issues with the prose, I create a minor editorial letter (typically no more than 2-4 pages) about what I've observed with your writing style, alongside a fully edited manuscript. This will contain contain explicit edits to the text as recommendations or example ways to improve the scene, as well as annotated sections which contain more open-ended observations and suggestions, similar to the kind found in my developmental edits (though on a smaller scale).
Proofreading is the final stage of the editing process, before a manuscript goes out to the public. For this kind of edit, I focus solely on objective edits such as spelling, punctuation, grammar, and formatting. This editing goes by significantly faster given it's more limited nature, but I only recommend it after you are finished with any other editing.
Whereas developmental and line edits are reserved for a finished (or at least partially finished) manuscript, sometimes the most help a writer needs is during the drafting stage. I'm always happy to help other writers and listen to their own experience with the creative process. If available, I'm more than willing to meet and discuss your story, your writing, and your current obstacles in the process, free of charge! For regular or extended meetings, I charge $50 per hour. Additionally, I'm willing to provide my other services at a discounted price for stories I've previously coached for. This discount ranges based on my familiarity with the text, but typically ranges from around 10-20%.