Genius is not a strong enough word for her talents as writer and mentor…. She makes us do things we think we can\u2019t…. and gets writers to their own truth, their original, idiosyncratic thinking.\u00a0 And, of course, there is the line, word by word, the liturgy of the line.\u00a0 She makes it holy. A wonderful option for writers who wish to work intensively and individually with a writing coach. Sessions are two-hours in length and in that time we generally go over, in a super in-depth way, 20-25 pages. \u00a0But it is also fine if you bring in one paragraph. \u00a0Or even just an idea. \u00a0In those cases, I will give you some writing exercises, and we’ll be surprised at what we’ll discover and clarify. I can give you tips on how to set up your life to support your desire to write– your time, your space, your social life, etc. We can set short and long term goals. Most writers come with pages. Some with 10 pages. But there is no “right” amount. It all works. \u00a0It all matters!<\/p>\n I’m also flexible with the level of work you bring. I welcome beginning or published writers, educated or not. You can bring \u00a0excerpts from various sections of a heavily workshopped manuscript that you hope is on its last re-write or you can bring in notes on napkins that don’t even make sense to you, except that they matter somehow. \u00a0I don’t care. \u00a0It is all valuable. \u00a0We will just start where you are. \u00a0It is all exciting to me. I am very adept at dropping in anywhere and tracking.<\/p>\n As to my method: when you research other writing coaches\/editors, you’ll find 99% of them work in 1 of 3 areas. Either “Developmental Editing” or “Copy Editing” or “Proofing.” Developmental is like the organs of the human body. Heart, lungs, brain, etc. \u00a0What’s the story about? \u00a0Are the characters interesting? \u00a0What’s at stake? Copy editing is like the skin. It’s the surface. It’s the language itself. \u00a0Are there words you use over and over again, driving the reader nuts? \u00a0Are you using cliches? Is the dialogue set up on the page correctly? Does it reveal character rather than just moving plot along, boring your reader? What about grammar? Proofing is simple. It’s like spell-check but the editor notices context much better than spell-check.<\/p>\n In our one-to-one sessions I will be pointing out things on all 3 editing levels at once–developmental, copy and proofing. This is how I edit because this is how I think. \u00a0It’s also how I read and select work to read.\u00a0\u00a0Truth is, all three editing levels are intrinsically related to each other.<\/p>\n We experience this all the time in “real life.” \u00a0When we first see a person we automatically assume there is a relationship between the surface (clothing that is ragged or clean, skin that is radiant or grey) and what is going on with that person (job loss or promotion, health or illness, etc). It’s our nature to assume a connection. \u00a0So in our sessions we will look at your work in the same way. \u00a0And on the level of developmental, copy and proofing, we’ll ask, What is marvelous in these pages? \u00a0What is weak? \u00a0How can we maximize the marvelous? \u00a0How can we strengthen the weak?<\/p>\n As a result you will leave each session with lots to think about. \u00a0If you take a look at my own novels or my writing about art, if you glance at the published reviews of my work or at the testimonials from clients on this site, you’ll see the same thing everywhere: my curiosity about the bigger issues and my poetic sensibility on the level of language are always mentioned. \u00a0The two, together, are hallmarks of my own work both as a writer and as an editor and writing coach. So I practice what I preach! \u00a0(Did you cringe at that cliche? Please say yes! \ud83d\ude42 Just seeing if you’re still here….)<\/p>\n \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0As a side note, see the Editing page for information about a First Pages Workshop.<\/p>\n It’s easy to begin. \u00a0Contact me here. \u00a0Tell me a bit about where you are in your process and what you’re looking for. \u00a0Suggest your time frame. \u00a0Schedule a session that fits your schedule and mine. Come to SF or we’ll do it by phone. There is no obligation to commit to future sessions, although I’ve never actually had a writer come only once. Still, that’s the liberty here. \u00a0We’ll do a 2 hour session. Subsequent sessions can be 2, 3, or 4 hours. Most writers stick with 2-hour. And most meet once per month. But every two-weeks or every 6 weeks are also options. \u00a0For Bay Area writers, we’ll meet in the Financial District of SF, adjacent to the Montgomery BART stop.<\/p>\n Talk to you soon! \u00a0And good writing!<\/p>\n My Tuesdays with Mary let me dig deeper and write more honestly\u2026 and perhaps become more humane, more compassionate, even in the real world. Genius is not a strong enough word for her talents as writer and mentor…. She makes us do things we think we can\u2019t…. and gets writers to their own truth, their original, idiosyncratic thinking.\u00a0 And, of course, there is the line, word by word, the liturgy of the line.\u00a0 She makes it holy. \u2013Julianne […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-fullpage.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-23","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryrakow.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryrakow.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryrakow.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryrakow.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryrakow.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23"}],"version-history":[{"count":69,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryrakow.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1473,"href":"https:\/\/www.maryrakow.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23\/revisions\/1473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maryrakow.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u2013Julianne Ortale, author of<\/em> How Sin is Unsaid, Dialogues and a Story.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n![\"Mary](\"https:\/\/www.maryrakow.com\/dev\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/DSCF0110-one-to-one.jpg\" "\\"DSCF0110-one-to-one\\"")
<\/p>\n\n
\n\u2013Madeleine G.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"