What can I say? It’s been … busy. It’s amazing to see how much The Write Advice has grown since we began this crazy venture in April 2024.
I’ve had the privilege and the pleasure of working with lots of incredible writers, some at the beginning of their journey, others looking for a new editor or a new direction, and I can safely say there isn’t an aspect of the work that I don’t enjoy. Caveat: my voice gets a little unhappy when I have six mentoring clients in one day, but hey, it can shut up. It usually does by the end, heh.
So, what are the figures? Funny you should ask, I made charts.
I mentored ten people this year, two in conjunction with the British Fantasy Society (applications are still open for next year), some carrying over from last year, and some new. These are writers at wildly varying stages of their careers, from those taking their first tentative steps in the writing world to others who are already published or self-published but looking for accountability and someone to bounce ideas off (quite hard ones, sometimes. It’s like being pelted with rocks).
We’ve navigated the highs of completing a novel-length manuscript (Yay Nick, Rachel, and Jo!) and the lows of realising the direction a story is heading just isn’t working, no matter how much we brainstorm fixes for it. Starting from fresh is a particular kind of pain, but sometimes the only way forward is to go back to the start. I’ve done it myself more than once.
We’ve hurdled thorny subjects such as, But what is author voice, exactly?, and, My characters won’t do what I tell them!, and many more. And many, many times I have done my best to pull readers, Atreyu-like, out of the Swamp of Sadness that is The Middle Of The Book, often while desperately fending off attacks from swarms of Shiny New Ideas.
And that’s just the mentoring side of things…
I’ve worked on developmental edits for four novels and one novella in 2025, covering everything from gaslamp fantasy horror to historical fantasy, epic fantasy, comic fantasy, and modern-day satire.
The writers have, without doubt, been responsive, collaborative, and dedicated. Some have even come back for copy edits afterwards!
See what I did there? Excellent segueing…
One manuscript evaluation and three copy edits later, and my year of editing came to a close at the end of October.
Parasitic Omens, a Gods of Dallalmar novella from Jessica A McMinn, is already out in the world, and I can’t wait to see the others show their faces. There’s some very, very good fiction coming your way from these clients. I can’t wait to see what they do next, and hopefully find another of their manuscripts in my inbox soon.
Here’s to doing it all again next year. ~ Anna
The Write Advice 