Work with Me
My specialty is recognizing a writer’s strengths and developing voice and focus. Oddly, it can be very difficult to discover one’s own unique voice — or, you can have it at age 14 and lose it at 20 and find it again at 40. It is a little like Henry James’ writing about anger. As Osmond tells Isabel Archer in Portrait of a Lady: “you don’t lose your temper, you find it — and that must be beautiful.” I can work with you for a few hours or a year — as long as it takes. At the very least, you’ll be a better writer.
My other speciality is the line edit —as in reviewing your pages sentence by sentence, line by line. I can help you play with your own work — with words, style, energy, punctuation — to your best effect. I use exercises that help you find where your treasure is.
The new AI editing tools can clean up your typos and grammar and wear down the rough edges that make you interesting (that’s an Edith Wharton reference from Age of Innoence; I wonder if you know it?) AI is a great equalizer, but not a person with a unique spirit.
Dialogue is a an aspect of my work that is often noted. Believable, revelatory dialogue can lift a mediocre work to a great one. Read any of my works to see how dialogue can bring your work to life — and be used to convey information with having to explain it. I can help you improve your dialogue.
Here are a few people I have worked with and their publications:
Simone Barlowe, 1st Novel Published, UK
Amanda Ortlepp, 2 Book Deal, Fiction: SIMON & SCHUSTER
Geoff Woodland, Triangle Trade, a Novel published by UK press Pen & Sword - imprint Claymore Press
Mark Jabaut, In the Territories, a Play, produced by Sea Change Theater
Mary Ann Lana published in Stone Canoe
Some Praise from Ted Naylon:
Louise gave me guidance, not just critical evaluation, helping me to understand how to improve my writing. What better advice to any writer is there?
And finally, another summation of some of my work:
I have five books: a fairytale, a collection of poetry and three novels published by indie presses. After voice, finding a form and genre that work best for you is a great pleasure. Switching forms and genres, even briefly, creates new pathways; we often think we should write in one genre and then discover we feel more relaxed and free in another. Of course, you can also write ‘hybrid’ work, or work in your own format.
My first novel, Since You Ask (Akashic Books 2004) won the James Jones First Novel Award. My second novel Miss Me (VUP) was twice nominated for the former Prize in Modern Letters. Both were optioned for film and widely reviewed.
My third novel in vignettes, (playing with style and genre again!) is 52 Men (Red Hen Press, Pasadena, 2015) and is the subject of a long essay by Amanda Fortini in the LARB that calls it "ingenious... brisk, propulsive and infectious."
I self-published fairytale Fiery World as it is regional and because I wanted it to be out there for a few dollars, for anyone who might find it. I can advise on self-publishing versus traditional.
Other work — essays, reviews, poems — appears in Tin House, Rumpus, Poetry, Gargoyle, ThoughtCatalog, New Zealand Books and more!
See ABOUT ME for more information.
My email: louisewleonard@gmail.com
