Your Next Draft
Supporting fiction writers doing the hard work of revising unputdownable novels. The novel editing process is the creative crucible where you discover the story you truly want to tell—and it can present some of the most challenging moments on your writing journey.
Developmental editor and book coach Alice Sudlow will be your companion through the mess and magic of revision. You’ll get inspired by interviews with authors, editors, and coaches sharing their revision processes; gain practical tips from Alice’s editing practice; and hear what real revision truly requires as Alice workshops scenes-in-progress with writers.
It’s all a quest to discover: How do you figure out what your story is truly about? How do you determine what form that story should take? And once you do, how do you shape the hundreds of thousands of words you've written into the story’s most refined and powerful form?
If you’ve written a draft—or three—but are still searching for your story’s untapped potential, this is the podcast for you. Together, let’s dig into the difficult and delightful work of editing your next draft.
Episodes
103 episodes
Are You Chasing the Wrong Olympic Gold?
This skater didn't win an Olympic medal, and I'm obsessed with him.I watched Cha Jun-Hwan’s figure skating routine last week in the Olympic men’s short program competition. I never finished watching that competition—I was busy rewinding ...
How Will You Know When Your Novel Is Done?
When will you be truly satisfied with your novel? How will you know when you’ve succeeded?How will you know when you’re done?Will it be when you LOVE your book? When you stop cringing as you read it? When you can’t think of a sing...
6 Reasons to Love Editing (From People Who Actually Do)
What if editing isn’t drudgery, but the most delightful part of your writing process?So you’re revising yet another draft. You’re hoping against hope that this draft will be your final draft. Which, coincidentally, is a...
What Makes a Story Excellent? (And How to Know When You've Reached It)
Is story excellence something you "know when you see it"—or can it actually be measured?Is excellence defined by hitting bestseller lists? Filling seats at every book tour stop? Being selected for “Best Books of 2025” lists?Is exc...
What to Do When Feedback Gets You Stuck
If you get feedback that grinds you to a halt, there's a problem. But YOU are not the problem—the feedback is.Recently, a writer came to me with feedback she was struggling to implement. She’d written a draft of her story, but she knew i...
3 Non-Obvious Problems Hiding in Well-Developed Drafts
If the line writing is lovely, but the story still falls flat, check for these surprisingly hard-to-spot problems.You’ve written a draft of your novel. It’s a pretty good draft, actually. Maybe you’ve revised it—once, or twice, or five t...
What Genre REALLY Measures (And Why Every Genre You Try Feels Wrong)
What do you do when your genre just refuses to work?When you’ve tried every content genre you know—Action, Crime, Horror, Thriller, Performance, Love, Society, and more—and every single one just does not fit your story?...
Where the Turning Point Goes (And How to Know If Yours Is in the Right Place)
If you’re second-guessing your pacing, give your turning point this two-part check.Where the heck is the turning point?If you’ve ever tried to spot the turning point in a story you love, you’ve probably asked some version...
Turning Point: How to Find and Write the Moment That Changes Everything
It's the hinge your entire story turns on—and one of the hardest story elements to identify and write.Can I be honest? I struggled with turning points for years.I knew they were essential. They’re the moment when everything change...
The Hidden Half of Your Protagonist's Goal (That Makes Story Structure Work)
If your structure is perfect on paper, but your story still falls flat, this might be what you're missing.Have you ever structured a story with all the right pieces, but something still feels flat?You check all the boxes on paper:...
When Should You Work With an Editor? (It's Earlier Than You Think)
What if you've already done enough to work with an editor—right now?You’ve been working on your novel for so long. Not just months—years, maybe even decades.And yet you have a long way still to go. The day when you have a...
How to Use Genre as a Revision Tool (with Savannah Gilbo)
Here’s what to DO with your genre once you know which one you’re writing.So you know your story’s genre.It’s an Action story with a Worldview internal genre. Or it’s a Love story with a Status internal genre. You’re, like, 32% sur...
The 12 Core Genres That Power Every Great Story
Genre isn’t what you think it is. Here’s how to use it better.Genre. Let me guess:It’s the bane of your existence. A convoluted soup of arbitrary descriptors that almost but not quite mean the same thing. Sci fi ...
How Great First Lines Make Readers Pay Attention (with Abigail K. Perry)
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a fiction writer in possession of a brilliant story must craft a captivating opening line.No pressure, right?Your opening line is your story’s first impression. Agents, editors, and even...
Where Progressive Complications Go WRONG (and How to Fix Them)
Are your readers bored? Disappointed? Confused? Here's what that tells you about your story's middle.You’re stuck in the messy middle. Languishing in the doldrums of your story. The inciting incident is long past, the climax is so far ah...
Make Sense of Your Messy Middle With the Most Underrated Story Element
You don’t need more filler. You need better progressive complications.Your inciting incident hooks your readers and promises them a story they’ll love.And then comes the middle.The messy middle. The quiet doldrums ...
How Great First Chapters Make Readers Care (with Abigail K. Perry)
Your first chapter has a monumental task: to make potential readers care about your book right away and hook them to keep reading.Every sentence is a chance to earn your reader’s attention—or lose their fragile, baby-fresh interest befor...
Inciting Incident: How to Revise an Unputdownable Beginning
Your inciting incident sets the stage for everything that follows. Here's what to revise so it can carry the story.A great inciting incident does a lot of heavy lifting.→ It hooks your readers, pulling them into the story.→...
What If You Do Everything Right and the Book Launch Still Goes Wrong? with A.S. King
“It really broke my heart, actually. . . . For the rest of my life, it will break my heart.” A.S. King gets honest about what happened when the publishing industry failed her book.What happens after you edit your book?What happens...
Think You Need a Line Editor? Try This First
Do you need to hire a line editor? Or should you line edit your manuscript yourself?After all, you want to write an excellent novel. You know that great writing takes shape in revision, and you don’t want to skimp on any layers of editin...
How Surrealist Pantser A.S. King Revises Award-Winning Novels
“Revising is about making sure that you're saying what you want to say in the way you want to say it. . . . To me, revision is the sport. It's the impact. It's the reason we're writers.”Have you ever read a book and thought, Holy cow...
The Editor Life: 5 Days Behind the Scenes with Alice
Ever wondered what an editor actually does all day?What it looks like to spend all day supporting writers in their stories?Or what your editor’s doing in all that time when they’re not sharing their feedback with you?If tho...
How to Use Revision Tools Like the Story Authority You Already Are with Brannan Sirratt
When to use frameworks to solve your story problems—and when to trust yourself and lean on your own story authority. You’ve heard of Save the Cat! Story Grid. Blueprint for a Book.These are all frameworks designed to help you...
Ask This Question When You’re Overwhelmed by Your Story
Escape analysis paralysis with one powerful question. It’s deceptively simple—and yet it unlocks everything.If you’re like most of the writers I work with, you’re pretty savvy about story structure. You know your Story Grid, your Save th...
How Multiple Layers of Editing Combine to Perfect Your Story (with Cathryn deVries and Kim Kessler)
The best novels combine rock-solid story structure with scenes that are unputdownable on every page. Here’s how one writer and two editors polished a story at every level.If you want to move your reader in every moment, keep them hooked ...