Editing/Coaching
Sound matters. I am delighted when I get to help clients write sentences that shine, characters that feel true and relatable, and story arcs that are surprising yet inevitable. I am proud to have helped friends edit their award-winning books -- including Phil Klay's Redeployment (winner of the National Book Award), Scott Cheshire's High as the Horses' Bridles, and Bill Cheng's Southern Cross the Dog -- and to have helped clients feel confident and learn to edit their work with new eyes. I love writing, reading, and helping others with both literary and genre fiction, and am especially excited about work that bridges the two. I coach and edit fiction writers, memoirists, and screenwriters, investigating how narrative elements inform one another. Working together will feel like a one-on-one MFA workshop experience.
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Please reach out to learn more: carmielbanasky@gmail.com.
Testimonials
"I was hardly an inexperienced writer when I engaged Carmiel’s services, having already published six books of non-fiction and an award-winning short story collection. However, this was my first novel and I could sense it wasn’t working.
"In a word, Carmiel was fantastic: very smart, incredibly insightful, critically supportive, and supportively critical. She got what I was trying to do and gave me several dozen perceptive comments to help me do it better. Her editorial letter was like a crash course in novel writing attuned to my particular strengths and weaknesses. I had showed the draft to several other folks, including people who teach literature and writing—none of them came even close to the depth and skill Carmiel demonstrated. I can’t imagine a better editorial critic. My very highest recommendation."
-Roger S. Gottlieb, professor of philosophy, Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
"I reached out to Carmiel for editing assistance with a short story that needed some help reaching its potential. Not only did she help me figure out what I needed to do to improve the story, she identified tendencies that were detracting from my abilities as a writer, and worked with me to correct them. Her notes were thorough and thoughtful, and her advice was spot on. She also spoke to me for an hour over the phone in a conversation that felt like a personal MFA workshop. The long term value of her service comes from the fact that her suggestions went beyond the specific piece she edited to include tips and insights I will continue to use in my future work."
-Duncan Whitmire
"I came to Carmiel with a complete draft of a novel that I had already been working on for quite a long time. I knew that I had some issues with my plotting, but I had no idea what those issues were. I also wanted an editor with a trained eye to read my full manuscript and point out any potential problems or inconsistencies that I myself was missing. Carmiel not only identified the specific issues with my manuscript, but she also provided me with a clear path towards fixing those issues and producing a significantly improved manuscript."
-Ben Alvord