Creative Services
Creative writing has been D. Michael Whelan’s passion since the young age of five. Publishing, literature, and the writing process are meant to be exciting and Whelan Writing Services can help. Whether it is polishing a book and making it more marketable, writing coaching sessions or improving scripts and analyzing their content as much as their format are just a few of the creative options Whelan Writing Services specializes in.
Book Editing
I have extensive experience editing novels, memoirs, poetry, children’s books, textbooks, reference books, self-help books, biographies and more. I pay close attention to pacing, author’s voice, tone of the piece, character development, dialogue, plot structure, setting, target audience and marketability. Along with line edits and changes and comments within your book I also write a detailed analysis on it as an overall piece targeting the areas I mentioned above.
Book editing includes line-editing, comments in your margins and a detailed analysis that is broken down into 4 parts: formatting, grammar, content, and publishing/marketing. In the last section I cover markets you may want to target if you are self-publishing and if you are looking for an agent I give you the next steps on how to pursue that. I also discuss publishing and reading trends, which shift every 6 months to 18 months so you know how your book fits in those current trends, etc. Finally, in the marketing section I talk about what to do to sell your manuscript better, faster.
Specific Genre Experience
Fiction
- Young Adult (YA)
- Science Fiction
- Contemporary
- Mystery
- Thriller
- Fantasy
- Children’s Books
- Coming-Of-Age
- Self-Discovery
- Women’s Fiction
- Inspirational
- LGBT Literature
- Espionage
- Vampire
- Romance
- Erotica
Non-Fiction
- Memoir
- Social Commentaries
- Reference Books
- Satires
- Inspirational
- History Books
- Psychology Books
- Self-Enhancement (Self-Help)
- Sales
- Real Estate
- Other Textbooks
- Guides on Various Subjects
- Relationship/Dating
- Religious/Spiritual Books
- Gender Studies
- LGBT Studies
- Medical Memoirs
- Biographies
Please include the page count, word count, genre, if you intend to self-publish or go the more traditional route and if you want complete book editing as described or simply copyediting (proofreading). References available upon request. Please see testimonials for some client accounts and the ‘About Me’ section for credited publications.
“I just read over your comments and I really just have to thank you for such a terrific job! Your insight, suggestions and edits are fantastic and are ideal guidelines for me to make this the best possible version of my novel…This really helps me to have a clear scope of the impact the characters have on readers, gauge reactions to the plot and storyline…” – Conchie Fernandez, author of Undrawn
“I just finished reading your analysis and line edits and I really could not be happier…You were able to pinpoint exactly what I need to work on.”-Autumn Altieri (Latrobe, PA)
Writing Coaching
Writing Coaching is similar to interactive book editing. Each session is specifically tailored to the individual. D. Michael Whelan talks with someone to determine their needs, strengths and any potential weaknesses and decides on a coaching schedule. People can choose to have a single session to purchase a number of sessions together at a discount.
Whether you are working on a specific project or suffering writer’s block; let D. Michael Whelan assist you in improving your writing now and building craft you can always take with you. Coaching includes writing-in-progress edits, phone consultations, writing exercises and more, determined by an individual’s needs.
If you are interested in coaching please send me details of your situation (writer’s block, new writer, specific project in-progress, etc.) as well as some of your goals and concerns. From there I will conduct a more thorough analysis of your needs and best course of action with you. Get started today!
Script Doctoring
Have an experienced script doctor go over your script/screenplay and take care of more than just grammar and formatting. Having issues with plot holes, problems with effective dialogue or maybe a character that just isn’t working; let Whelan Writing Services make it work! Script doctoring is the equivalent of book editing for scripts. Edits will be done so that you can see all suggested changes and notes will be made in an electronic copy of the script. An analysis will delve further into the strengths and areas of concern for each project as well as discussing potential marketability. Final Draft and Celtx are the only formats/programs offered at the moment. If interested please email me your script’s page count, word count if available, genre and/or purpose, any specific concerns and its format/program used.
*Whelan Writing Services will write scripts for short HR videos or infomercials, etc. but no feature films, stage plays or short films will be written by Whelan Writing Services. Thank you for your understanding.