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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

I'm also wondering if there will be fake authors created, with names, fictional bios, AI-generated avatar pics, and social media accounts run by AI bots. I mean, who knows where this could end?

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Came across Sam Altman claiming they've developed a creative writing AI model. He posted a metafictional example. I wasn't impressed, but he says they'll be launching the model at some point. I wonder how much the book market will be drowning in this stuff.

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

#WritingCommunity Your first 10,000 words developmentally edited and back to you within a week! Adult SF/F/H, historical, literary, and thriller. Extensive report and margin comments. More info at the link. indiecateditorial.com/index.php/op...

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

#WritingCommunity #BookSky These are books from two of the series I've worked on as a developmental editor. The first is by Hamish Hudson, a thriller writer. The second is by S.A. Thomas, a romance author. Looking for a developmental edit or a manuscript critique? indiecateditorial.com

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

#WritingCommunity The story spine is a storytelling structure attributed to Pixar or to writer/director Brian McDonald. The eight-step structure is a great road map for storytelling and one worth keeping in your back pocket. Here is how it breaks down: indiecateditorial.com/index.php/20...

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

Looking forward to warmer days in the garden. It looks lovely this morning, but it's not unusual for it to start with clear blue skies and then cloud over. Painting by J.W. Waterhouse.

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

#WritingCommunity Are you writing a historical novel? This post digs into various ways to research, whether it be location or social customs, etc. indiecateditorial.com/index.php/20...

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 11/03/2025

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

4/4 The full developmental edit is the most expensive but also comes in different price tiers. All prices are lower than standard EFA rates. Genres: adult SF/F/H, historical, thriller & literary. I've also worked on romance and memoir. Email: karen@indiecateditorial.com indiecateditorial.com

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Manuscript critiques come in three price tiers, starting with the more basic assessment. This will identify the biggest issues while ignoring the rest. The other two MS critiques go into more detail. Delivery is one to three weeks depending on book length and tier. 3/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Want a detailed developmental report and margin comments on your first 10,000 words? And delivered in five days? The price is £180. Outline critique with report and margin comments is another service. I've worked on outlines up to 20,000. 2/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

#amediting #writingcommunity Just woke up to an email from a client. I was supposed to be working on her manuscript already. But she's delayed and won't be able to deliver until May. So I have immediate openings in my developmental editing schedule. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

#BookSky #WritingCommunity Annie Proulx's Brokeback Mountain is a story that explores the social and historical context of its two main characters, Ennis and Jack. It was inspired by an older man Proulx once saw in a bar. It got her wondering... More here: indiecateditorial.com/index.php/20...

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Exploring Brokeback Mountain - IndieCat Editorial

Exploring Brokeback Mountain, Annie's Proulx's award-winning story, from its conception to publication. The themes, location, and prose style.

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

#WritingCommunity In this post I examine the history and development of the Gothic novel, and look at the common tropes and ingredients found in this fiction. Great for those working on Gothic short stories or novels! indiecateditorial.com/index.php/20...

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Fun fact: Maxim was originally supposed to be Henry. Doesn't have the same ring somehow. I recommend Margaret Forster's biography on Daphne, and there is also The Rebecca Notebook. 17/17

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Daphne's study of jealousy, the differences in social standing between Maxim and his second wife, and other themes were simply ignored. But she made a lot of money and the book went on to become a 20th century classic. 16/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Since Daphne had thought the book quite grim, she was genuinely surprised by its success. In the US, it was compared by some reviewers to Jane Eyre, if only as an inferior version. 15/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

She thought Maxim did not treat the narrator well & that calling it a romance was not exactly in line with what happens. She thought it was more a study in jealousy, and that there was more hate than love in it. 14/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

But when Gollancz handed it to a reader, the report was positive, and Gollancz agreed when he read the manuscript himself. One conundrum for Daphne was how some other people saw and described the novel. 13/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Finally, once she was back in England with her husband, she was able to complete the book and sent it to Gollancz. She wrote 'I've tried to get an atmosphere of suspense... the ending is a bit brief and a bit grim.' She did not see it as a likely success. 12/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Daphne's own inadequacies when it came to running servants and a household and her shyness and lack of confidence also worked their way into the novel, taking it beyond the original simple idea of one dead wife haunting the current wife. 11/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

She anticipated a tragedy looming, but at this point hadn't worked out what it would be. She still missed Cornwall and daydreamed about it a lot, and this finds its way into the book itself. The novel even opens on a dream and the heroine often imagines things. 10/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

'...very roughly the book will be about the influence of a first wife on a second... she is dead before the book opens. Little by little I want to build up the character of the first in the mind of the second... until wife 2 is haunted day and night....' 9/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

She left both children behind with family when her husband's leave was over. They both returned to Egypt. In Egypt, she tried to get on with writing the new 'macabre' novel, but it was hard going. She ended up throwing out 15,000 words, but she had a title - Rebecca - and her notes. 8/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

She wrote to Gollancz about two ideas, the second one 'a rather sinister tale about a woman who marries a widower... Psychological and rather macabre.' Before she started, she had her baby, another daughter (she had hoped for a son). 7/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

She decided to have the baby in England, and she returned there to go for long walks along the cliff top, in rain and wind, and loving the wild weather. The Du Mauriers had a slow start in terms of sales, but her family liked it. Victor Gollancz wanted another novel from her. 6/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

She managed to complete The Du Mauriers in the terrible heat. Then, listless & ill, she was finally diagnosed as pregnant. She was not pleased, having done everything she could to avoid another pregnancy. A trip to Cyprus provided welcome change. But she hated Alexandria more when she returned. 5/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

She had some very negative opinions of the locals, but also didn't like the English there, calling them 'horrible Manchester folk'. The place was full of gossip and the main pastimes were cocktail parties and charades, which she thought 'ghastly'. 4/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

She didn't like her new home. Her new housekeeper was Hassan. He would appear every morning for orders and she had no orders to give. She just wanted him to do whatever he thought necessary. Sound familiar? Something similar happens in Rebecca, which she hadn't yet started. 3/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Daphne's previous novel was Jamaica Inn, which in 3 months sold more than all her previous novels put together. Her publisher wanted another novel, but she wanted to write a book about the du Mauriers. She started this first. When her husband was posted to Egypt, she went too. 2/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

#WritingCommunity 🧵 When Daphne du Maurier was writing Rebecca, she was stationed abroad with her husband and felt isolated and out of place. She fantasized about Menabilly in Cornwall, the house that would inspire Manderley. Her experience abroad fed into her narrator's isolation in Rebecca. 1/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

#BookSky #WritingCommunity Image below from Ann Radcliffe's 1794 Gothic novel, The Mysteries of Udolpho. She was hugely influential in the 1790s. In the post below, I dig into the history of Gothic fiction & examine its common tropes: indiecateditorial.com/index.php/20...

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

#WritingCommunity Are you writing your memoir? This post tackles some of the issues associated with memoir as a genre, including truth versus memory, emotional vulnerability, fear of judgement and more. Link below: indiecateditorial.com/index.php/20...

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

And sales were not as hoped, even though the book would eventually go on to become an American classic. I've written a post about how Maxwell Perkins influenced the development of this novel at the link below. 11/11 indiecateditorial.com/index.php/20...

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How editorial feedback improved The Great Gatsby - IndieCat Editorial

Max Perkins was possibly the most important fiction editor of the 20th century. Here's how his editorial feedback changed The Great Gatsby.

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

He also worried that he wouldn’t sell enough to cover his debt to Scribner’s since they had often loaned him money in advance. Even on the day of the release, Scott was picking over the faults he could still see in the novel. 10/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Scott’s letters to Perkins show his nervousness & foreboding over publication. He worried women wouldn’t like the book because it had no important woman in it. And that critics wouldn’t like it because it dealt with the rich and “had no peasants borrowed out of Tess and sent to work in Idaho.” 9/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Trimalchio is actually available as a Cambridge edition. It includes the draft sent to Perkins, great for checking changes between this and the published version, plus editorial correspondence with Perkins. Perkins was not heavy handed as an editor, partic with Scott who was a perfectionist. 8/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Another issue Scott had related to the title of the book. He dithered over this right to the end and beyond publication. His other titles don't seem quite right now: Among the Ash-Heaps and Millionaires; On the Road to West Egg: Gold-hatted Gatsby; Gatsby; The High-bouncing Lover; Trimalchio. 7/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Scott had expressed his concern to Perkins that there was a slight sagging in chapters six and seven. While Perkins agreed, he didn't offer any suggestions, trusting that Scott would fix it. 6/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

There was also a problem with where and how Gatsby's backstory was placed. It originally appeared in chapter eight, and amounted to a sudden dump of information that, as Perkins pointed out, interrupted the flow of the narrative. Best to sprinkle the info here and there in the book. 5/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Perkins made other suggestions, including the need to offer more clues relating to Gatsby's business, and also to show him at times engaged in that business. The total lack of explanation for how Gatsby made his money was a defect that needed correction, but not over explaining. 4/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

Fitzgerald rewrote the first description of Gatsby to the one we see today in this paragraph beginning: He smiled understandingly – much more than understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it... 3/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

This contrasted with the character of Tom Buchanan who was so well described that Perkins would recognise him in the street. Even at the publishing house other people who read the manuscript thought Gatsby was older. More detail was needed for Gatsby. 2/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

#BookSky #WritingCommunity Reacting to Trimalchio, the first draft of The Great Gatsby, editor Maxwell Perkins pointed out that “Gatsby is somewhat vague. The reader’s eyes can never quite focus upon him, his outlines are dim.” 1/

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 05/03/2025

#WritingCommunity When Daphne du Maurier was writing Rebecca, she was stationed abroad with her husband and felt isolated and out of place. She fantasized about Menabilly in Cornwall, the house that would inspire Manderley. Her experience abroad fed into her narrator's isolation in Rebecca.

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

#WritingCommunity #BookSky This post looks at editor Maxwell Perkins and the developmental editing advice he gave to Fitzgerald after reading an early draft of The Great Gatsby. indiecateditorial.com/index.php/20...

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

Article on the development of Anne Rice’s first published novel, including the developmental advice she received from her editor. This advice caused her to radically alter parts of her novel, turning it into a classic of the vampire & Gothic genres. indiecateditorial.com/index.php/20...

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Karen McKellar | Editor/Writer @karenmckellar.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

#WritingCommunity #HistFic Are you writing a historical novel? Is the location not only distant in time, but maybe in place too? In this post, I address how to research historical locations using historical travel guides, old maps, and more. indiecateditorial.com/index.php/20...

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Researching historical locations for your novel - IndieCat Editorial

A developmental editor examines researching historical locations for your novel, including travel guides, photographic records, and more.

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