In these dark times of censorship, hatred, and high-tension, keep creating. Art, of any medium, is powerful.

My editing schedule for 2026 will open September 1st. But I have one 2025 spot available in December for a developmental edit. If you write fantasy, romance, historical fiction, or dystopian, we could be a good fit. Check out my website for more info! 👇🏻

The 3 ingredients needed in every romance novel: 💕 Two characters the reader can understand, care about, and wants them to be together 🥊 Believable conflict 💝A HEA or a HFN That’s the essential skeleton of every romance novel, no matter the subgenre. It’s up to you on how you tell that story

ⓘ This developmental editor only uses her brain (and the years of writing craft and editing education) to edit my clients’ manuscripts.

I said “hey, cutie” to one of my dogs and Siri answered 🥲 Boy, I wasn’t talking to you.

ⓘ This developmental editor would love to edit some romcoms or gothic fantasies this September.

Here are some of my favorite books I recommend to help you write your book or improve your writing craft.

One of the most common mistakes I see in unpublished manuscripts. It’s mixing up dialogue punctuation and action beat punctuation. And they’re the easiest to fix. Here are the very basics of punctuation regarding dialogue tags and action beats.

Wrote 1300 words of the FMC’s backstory ✅

2025 Editing Availability 🍁SEPT ▪️Developmental Edit under 100k words ▪️Manuscript Evaluation ❄️DEC ▪️Developmental Edit Let’s see if we’re a good fit! Head to my website to start the sample editing process and to learn more about me, my services, and my authors.

Writers, if you need an example of how the characters’ internal conflict gives deeper meaning to the external plot events, look no further than KPop Demon Hunters.

Some of you never cut your teeth writing fanfiction. And it shows. Using Character.AI or any sort of genAI to produce new scenes with your favorite characters is theft and shows you’re creatively bankrupt. Writing is mostly a skill. It ✨can✨be learned, honed, and bettered.

When you read the word “eliminate” in my marginal comments please read it as if a dalek said it.

Unless your characters have magical powers, no one is seeing anyone’s eye color from more than 10 feet away. Or in the dark. But I’m near-sided, so maybe I’m wrong. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Republicans snuck a provision into their budget bill that will make it harder for courts to hold the Trump administration — and any future administration — accountable. We must stop this in the Senate.

What I use to edit and how I deliver developmental editing feedback. #writingadvice #amwriting #bookeditor

Despite this dystopian recession nightmare he’s sending us into, don’t stop creating. Whatever your medium, do not stop creating.

As editors “our suggestions are always just that, suggestions, not cudgels used to browbeat the author into submission.” - Jennifer Lawler #fictioneditor

Writing open-door romance novels with intimate scenes can be really hard! And they can break your narrative sometimes. #writingtips #writingadvice #romanceauthors #romancewriters #romantasywriters #amwriting #writingcommunity #authorcommunity

Writing fanfiction is a valid form a writing.

Oh no, the horror! I found a misspelling and a missing word in a book. What did I do about it? ✨Nothing. Kept reading.✨ Because human error is a feature, not a failure.

One of my favorite writing resources? The Emotions Thesaurus. It’s especially helpful if you find yourself reusing the same actions over and over again for your characters to express their emotions or internal states. My copy has coffee stains and teeth marks. And the spine is broken.

Your weekly reminder to check your spam inbox if you recently reached out to me for editing. Gmail hates the link to my questionnaire.

The predictability of Romance novels’ happily-ever-after isn’t a flaw—it’s a feature. The comfort of knowing love wins is the ultimate dopamine hit. ❤️‍🔥

Here’s the No. 1 rule I hold myself to when editing my authors’ manuscripts: Don’t be prescriptive with my feedback. I’ll never mandate my authors to change anything. Editors are not in creative control. Sometimes we’re teachers. But mostly we’re in partnership with our authors.

Heres my latest Substack:

To piss off DJT and his weird cult on President’s Day, I wrote about the romance genre and the very thing that alludes him on a daily basis. Read, like, and share:

Freelancers: What do you guys use to accept payments instead of PayPal? I'm eagerly looking to go in another direction, and do not want to complicate my systems with a CRM a la Honeybooks. #freelancer #freelanceeditor #freelancewriter

I left the house. Please slap.

GO BIRDS 🦅

Chemistry between two (or more) character can fit into several identifiers: ♥️romantic 🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒familial 👯‍♀️platonic 🤷🏼‍♀️casual 🤺antagonistic What’s you’re favorite to write? My are romantic, sibling, and antagonistic!

What book couple is your favorite solely based off romantic chemistry?

A reminder to all users of Microsoft Word. They auto-turned on their AI for us. Go into your Microsoft account, & click “cancel subscription,” it’ll give you the option to subscribe to the “Microsoft Classic w/o AI” option. It’s $99.99/year instead of $129.99 for unnecessary AI Save that money!💸

I know it’s BookTok famous right now, but I highly recommend ON TYRANNY by Timothy Snyder. A quick, but important read.

“Tippetty-toppity down with the Nazis!” - The Crown, S4 EP2

It’s important to know that a lot of productive activity is happening in person and offline, too. Not all of it can be broadcast online, but we’ve had hundreds of people showing up to our trainings, mobilizations, and more. Keep going. Tyranny is eroded by a sea of small acts. Everything matters.

Dear algorithm (if it works like that here 🤷🏼‍♀️), plz connect me with writers, authors, editors who are: ▪️Writing novels this year ▪️Progressive anti-fascists ▪️Fantasy and romance lovers ▪️Concerned about book bans, libraries, etc.

My tech brothers in hell: I don’t want AI on everything I use. Like, make it fix the environment or something!?

Spring & Summer editing availability for developmental edits and manuscript evaluations: April - 1 spot May - 2 spots June - 1 spot July - 1 spot Aug - booked Sample edits are free, head to my website to fill out the contact form. You can find info about my services, testimonials, FAQs, & more.

Unsolicited writing advice, no. #766: Writing is a community. Participate in it if you can. Engage with other writers. Lift them up, and they’ll do the same. Try to go it alone, or treat other writers as rivals, and you’re more likely to sink than swim.

Never forget (a few weeks ago) when the president of South Korea fucked around and the citizens had the tyranny ended by morning. Incase you needed any inspiration today.

Daily Dems Doing the Work, Making Noise and Fighting Back Day 2: EVERY SINGLE DEM has made noise today against the federal aid freeze, every single one, just search for your electeds and you will find anything from statements to posts on socials to videos and more! 🧵

This freeze on federal funding would negatively impact millions of Americans who use Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, Head Start, libraries and museums, and much much more. They want us starved and stupid. Don’t let them.

My editing class/webinar favorites: ▪️Editorial Freelancers Assoc. ▪️Club Ed ▪️Jane Friedman ▪️Louise Harnby Feel free to add to the list!👇🏻

Pretty big deal. @bookshop-org.bsky.social is selling ebooks now. You can now support indies while purchasing digital books. bookshop.org/ebooks

Posting this to remember that movement—walking, lifting, yoga—helps stave off the worst of the inattentive ADHD focus issues I have.

This post was inspired by someone asking me if they need to be a published and/or successful author to become an editor. TL;DR: You don’t. Editing and writing are connected, but ultimately are different skillsets. Read more: open.substack.com/pub/kourtney...

FINALLY we are seeing some pushback from SOMEBODY! Lawyer up, Donnie