Define your voice. Align your story. Refine your craft.

Story consulting and editing for experienced writers of science fiction, fantasy, and stories that push the boundaries of genres.

Are you...

  • Stuck in novel revisions where writing feels less magical dreamspace and more bleak dystopia?

  • Overwhelmed by a tangled sprawl of alternate possibilities and shifting subplots?

  • Frustrated by surface-level feedback that leaves you feeling isolated or misunderstood?

  • Ready for a guide to point the way out of the Murk?

Beautiful prose, inventive world-building, and action-packed plots aren’t enough to win your readers’ hearts if you’re missing the one essential element:

A story that works

With my Spine & Spark Manuscript Assessments, I help writers break the cycle of endless revisions and create a strong spine that lets your story's spark shine.

The Spine & Spark Manuscript Assessment

A story-focused editorial evaluation to help build the structural Spine your novel's Spark needs to come alive.

The Spine & Spark Manuscript Assessment offers a deep-dive into your draft to diagnose what’s working… and what’s not.The Process:
We start with a free discovery call to talk through your goals and make sure we're a good fit.If we are, book your Manuscript Assessment for $1800 and choose a date to send your draft (up to 120k words).Over the next two weeks, I do a deep read (or three). Drawing on my experience and training as an editor and a writer, plus my insights from years of study in coaching and transformational psychology, I write a 4-6 page editorial letter that maps which parts of the Spine are fully formed, which beats are missing, and where you need to make intentional choices about the story you're building.We follow that with a one-hour strategy call to answer your questions, brainstorm story ideas, and define concrete next steps — so you can move forward feeling energized, confident, and fully backed by a partner who champions your vision.

Is your story ready to revise — or still finding its shape?

You can tweak chapter openings. Shuffle subplots. Delete characters. Take a break. Write a new query letter. Start a brand-new project out of frustration.But before you spend another month—or another year—wrestling with a draft in the dark, you want to know the structural bones of your story are actually holding together.Is the spine actually holding? Where's the friction dragging the pacing down? Am I spending weeks rewriting scenes that ultimately don't belong in the book?Because once you have a clear, objective map of your story's Spine, you can stop second-guessing every sentence, put an end to the endless revision loop, and finally get on with bringing your novel's Spark to life.

The Happily Ever After

  • Revision Clarity: Your editorial letter maps your story's spine so every choice ahead is made with confidence.

  • A Collaborative Champion: Our strategy call is designed to make sure your voice and vision remain protected and intact.

  • A Pitch That Lands: "What's your book about?" stops being the question you dread. You know your story's shape well enough to say it in a sentence.

  • Regain the Magic and Momentum: Fall back in love with your story's spark... and your own.

"Tina is a creative thinker with a sharp eye for story structure. She can help uncover the heart of your story, as well as encourage and assist you in navigating creative roadblocks. I've had many great brainstorming sessions with her!" -
Tina Connolly, Hugo & World Fantasy finalist

"Tina helped me identify the places where the big picture of my story needed strengthening-- where character motivations were unclear or misaligned with the plot, and where key pieces of information didn't appear early enough in the story to act as the structural supports they needed to. She uncovered the shape of the story I was truly trying to write."
- Meghan S.

"It's official, Tina. You rock."Grinned and nodded agreement the whole way through this. Thank you for offering such thoughtful and thorough feedback."
- Matt Cook, LA Times bestselling author

About me

I'm Tina Wallace, a writer and editor who believes the urge to express our voice is a sacred calling, and each story we write, a part of our soul's journey.I love connecting with experienced, craft-savvy storytellers of myth and magic — writers pushing boundaries to challenge what's possible, both in reality and within ourselves. Nothing delights me more than seeing another person's idiosyncratic creative brilliance, and helping writers hone their spark so it can illuminate others through the stories they tell.I'm a certified editor and teacher of the Gateless Writing method — trained to find and build from the strengths already alive in a manuscript — and a facilitator of Writing from the Top of Your Head workshops, which address creative block and perfectionism with play. I've also survived the slush mines as a reader/fiction editor at Urban Fantasy Magazine and currently read for Press Pause.

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