The Edit
(Developmental Editing)
Publish a novel that bends to the curve of your back like a lover
The Edit is a selective space for only a handful of private clients at once.
A space where you have a novel with the potential to cling to the skin long after finishing. One where the simplest memory of it stirs something inside your reader.
The Edit is for literary fiction novelists executing on a draft—you’re either mid draft or want deep focus on particular scenes, etc. without waiting until the whole draft is done; or you have a complete draft you’re afraid to touch because you can’t tell anymore if it’s working.
Enter, the mental theatrics of “my God, I’m making it worse,” and threatening to throw the whole draft away because frustration and overwhelm loom.
But you’ve been here before, multiple times, and know that’s your cue for support.
Whether it’s a full edit or focused, you’ll send it my way. Your manuscript and I will get to know one another, likely in the evenings under a dim lamp because there’s something about reading as the sky approaches plum velvet and the filaments of a bulb barely hang on that sinks a person deeper into the pulse of a story.
Once we’re done, you’ll know how to stop hiding on the page and tell the truth better. To make your novel say, come, this way, stay awhile.
Two ways to edit your draft with me:
The Velvet Knife or Full Bodied
The Velvet Knife
(4-week retainer)
You're mid-draft, or want deep focus on a specific arc, character, or set of scenes without waiting until "the whole thing" is done.
You think you're stuck, but you're probably not.
Most writers who come to me mid-draft think they've hit a wall, like a scene won't move, a character's gone flat, the middle's collapsing. Almost every time, it's not a stuck place but an avoidant one. Something true wants to be on the page and you've been writing around it.
That's where I come in. Gently. Precisely. Like a velvet knife.
In four weeks, we find the thing you've been shielding your eyes from…and you write it anyway.
Details:
schedule up to two dates to discuss feedback (50min each)
send up to 30k words at once or broken up however you choose over the course of the retainer (at least one week prior to scheduled date(s) if you want to discuss during session)
total words read is 30k, including previously read work
you’ll receive your draft with notes/feedback in the margins
you’ll receive recordings of your sessions
investment: $2,750
Full Bodied
(full draft review)
You have a complete draft and you're afraid to touch it because you can't tell anymore if it's working.
I know you want a verdict, but that's not what this is.
Most writers who send me a finished draft are braced for a diagnosis: tell me if it works, tell me if I wasted a year, tell me if it's ruined. That bracing is the wrong posture for what a finished draft actually needs. It needs to be reveling in, not snap judgments.
That's where I come in. Unhurried. Attentive. Like a glass of red left open to breathe.
In one sitting, we find what's already working, what wants more air, and what's ready to leave behind.
Details:
schedule date to discuss feedback (up to 90min)
send your completed draft (30k-90k words) two weeks prior to the scheduled session
you’ll receive your draft with notes/feedback in the margins, and minimal line notes
you’ll receive recording of your session
investment: $4,000
The Edit
For a novel that finds itself in intimate corners of conversation over dinner,
exchanged as a love language among friends in texts and DMs, “hey, this book made me think of you.”
The Velvet Knife
$2,750
Full Bodied
$4,000
FAQs
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Let’s start with the practical, “good on paper” stuff. I have a BA in English, Creative Writing concentration; and an MFA in Creative Writing (Fiction). Moving on to my experience as an author, I’ve self-published one book of literary fiction that readers “couldn’t put down” (their words, not mine), and called “a lesson in fearless writing.”
My second novel, BLUE HOUR, was traditionally published and made most anticipated lists in several publications including Electric Literature and Ms. Magazine. After publication, the novel won the 2024 Clara Johnson Award for Women in Fiction, was featured by Coco Gauff, Emma Roberts, and Dua Lipa; made Vulture’s Best Books of 2023, and was a Barack Obama summer reading list pick.
I’ve guided 100+ authors in writing character-driven fiction through private mentorship, group programs, online workshops and writing retreats.
I have clients who have signed with agents, received six-figure book deals, and been number one bestsellers.
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I’ll quote The Diary of Anais Nin, my philosophy is “to write as one thinks, in the order and disorder in which one feels and thinks, to follow sensations and absurd correlations of events and images, to trust to the new realms they lead one into.”
Writing a novel gets to be a simple, human act. Even literary fiction. Right now everything helping authors write literature feels like over-processed hair—they’re doing too much.
They’re also primarily speaking to beginners, which isn’t you. You don’t need to be convinced that you’re story matters or someone out there is waiting for your book. You aren’t looking for formulas and plug-and-play templates, and you don’t want to be told exactly what to do.
But that doesn’t mean you don’t need or should have any less support for your novel.
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Literary fiction (but will sometimes make an exception for memoir, especially if it reads like fiction). I love stories of women moving through a reclamation, diverse stories that are emotionally raw and honest, stories that aren’t afraid of the dark.
Testimonial
'Thank you feels like too thin a phrase for the work that Tiffany did with me, for me, and sometimes to me, haha. Whatever I thought I would get when I signed up for this process, I got tenfold that, and it was so much more dynamic than I could have imagined before starting. I had been following her work for years and even had one or two calls with her, so I knew she was all the things: inspiring, magnetic, intelligent, an incredible writer, and really knew her shit. What I didn’t know was how she was going to know ME. She has this ability to see through my bullshit, my defenses, the stories I was telling myself, and the things I was putting in my own way; she could see that for me and help guide me through them, conquer them, and rise above.
Tiffany was one part editor, one part mentor, one part therapist, and ultimately my friend. She took me seriously, took my work seriously, and didn’t wear kid gloves (unless I really needed it). She is straightforward, compassionate, and so sharp when it comes to pulling the strings on the little things needed to make a narrative work. It’s also just a little magic.
Through our sessions together, she guided me through an entire rewrite of a novel I thought was dead. She taught me to bring my main character back to life, guided me through major plot changes and development, reassured me constantly I had the grit to do this, taught me about scene structure, and literally everything in between. We rewrote that book together because I deeply valued how seriously she took my work and I trusted her opinion. It wouldn’t exist in the form it’s in today without her help.
Through this process, I not only finished the book, but she helped me reclaim my writing life and identity as a writer. I was one year postpartum, terrified of jumping back into a project that felt impossible. How does one write a book and have a baby? Inch by inch, word by word, and with the resounding support she gave me. If you are finding yourself lost in a project, eager to fight your way back to a writing life, or simply want to answer that deep call to write the book you know is banging around inside you, then this is where it happens. This is where the work gets done. "
—Erin Rose Belair, Narrative Award Winner
(signed with literary agent 2024)
Testimonial
“Working with Tiffany is honestly to me about as close as you can get to working with an oracle. She will just casually hand out these pieces of information or insight that are so profoundly correct, so creatively important that it changes everything you're writing for the better - and she'll do it like it's nothing. Over and over again. She'll do it while simultaneously holding so much empathy and emotional honesty for you and for herself so you never feel talked down to. You never fee like an imposter. That makes it so much easier to write emotionally honest characters. because it's an emotionally honest space.
It's really special to be able to work with a person who can do that. Tiffany's probably the smartest person l've ever talked to, let alone worked with like this.
It was a fucking joy. "
—Ash Nicholson,
published in Virginia Tech literary review, Silhouette Magazine, Black Sheep Magazine
Testimonial
“Tiffany is illuminating, wise, compassionate, and authentic. When I had no idea how to get 'unstuck' in my novel or how to identify what was holding me back, she identified my block immediately and with piercing clarity. I love her holistic approach to writing. She helped me not only with technical aspects of my novel, but also with understanding myself better, and writing from the heart starts there. If you are an intuitive writer, I can't recommend working with Tiffany enough!”
—Stephanie Ascough, published author