Telling Our Stories

Resources for Writers in the Middle of a Manuscript

Writing changes once a story is underway.

The excitement of beginning has passed, but the work is not yet finished. Many writers find themselves asking new kinds of questions:

What story is actually emerging here?
How might this read to someone encountering it for the first time?
Why is it harder to evaluate my own work now than when I began?

Telling Our Stories offers reflective guides designed for this stage of writing—the point where a manuscript is alive but still taking shape.

Choose the guide that best matches what you’re wondering about right now.

Where are you in the process?

I want to understand what my manuscript is becoming.

You’re actively drafting or revising and want to step back and notice patterns, tensions, and emerging meaning within the story itself.

Telling Our Stories: A Fiction Manuscript Self-Assessment
A structured reflection designed to help you observe what your story is already doing on the page—without trying to fix or revise it yet.

I want to see my work from a reader’s perspective.

You have pages—or a full draft—and feel unsure how the manuscript might be experienced by someone encountering it fresh.

Telling Our Stories: Seeing Your Work as a Reader Does
A short guide that helps you step briefly into the reader’s position and notice what becomes visible from outside the writing process.

About Telling Our Stories

Both resources are part of Telling Our Stories, my developmental editing approach for LGBTQ+ writers working in the middle stages of a manuscript.

Developmental editing isn’t about correcting sentences or final polish. It’s about understanding how a story is functioning while it is still evolving—so revision becomes more intentional and confident.

If these guides help you notice questions that feel difficult to answer alone, you may be reaching the stage where collaborative feedback becomes useful.

Not sure which guide fits? Many writers begin with one and return later for the other.