The Glen Online's Manuscript Critique 0 comments

How to kick-start your writing project by working with an Image author

It would be magical indeed, if, when struggling with your novel in progress, you could write an email to Gina Ochsner and hear the perspective of the acclaimed magical realist whose most recent novel, The Russian Dreambook of Color and Flight, was described by the New York Times as full of “startling, redemptive beauty.”

Or perhaps you want to get in touch with poet Dan Bellm, who recently published Practice: A Book of Midrash, the winner of a 2009 California Book Award.

Or let’s say you are an aspiring writer of essays or memoir, and you have a hankering to contact Paula Huston, the acclaimed author of The Holy Way: Practices for a Simple Life for guidance.

If you are a writer working on a substantial project, The Glen Online can make this a reality.

In addition to genre- or topic-based online writing workshops, The Glen Online provides the Manuscript Critique option for writers who are seeking one-on-one editorial guidance on a complete or partial draft manuscript.

Registering connects you with the practical wisdom and the personal, genre-specific editorial insights of these highly regarded writers—no application process necessary. You’ll discuss your work with Gina Ochsner, Dan Bellm, or Paula Huston over email, sending several sets of revisions back and forth for comments and suggestions.

Because it’s online, you can do this no matter where you live—and you can begin at any time. Within a six-month framework, you can work at your own pace. Writers of fiction and creative nonfiction can submit thirty thousand words for review; poetry students, thirty pages. If you have additional writing you want critiqued, you can register for additional sessions at a reduced rate.

“I see my editing work as a conversation with the writer, a dialogue,” says Dan Bellm. The one-on-one format enables our instructors get to know you and your particular goals, allowing for the kind of thoughtful critique that unlocks the potential of your writing project.

Dan says of his editorial process: “I give the manuscript a very quick first read, then read it repeatedly very slowly—looking both at the shape of the whole work (what it wants to be), and at the success and clarity of its parts. I don't begin making suggestions until I've read the work several times—I may end up having strong and definite opinions about how the manuscript could change or grow, or I may have a series of questions to pose.”

Paula Huston says that the most common suggestion she passes on to students takes the form of a very practical question: “What's in it for the reader?” She continues: “It's so easy to get caught up in a project that personally pleases or thrills us that we forget we are writing for an audience. Yet publishers never have that luxury, and as would-be professional writers, neither do we.”

If you’d like to take your writing to the next level, register today for one of the Manuscript Critique options and start receiving the sort of professional advice you’ve dreamed of getting. There’s really no magic involved. Click here to begin the conversation.