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

Kourtney Spak | KS Editing Services Kourtney Spak offers developmental editing to writers looking to have their fantasy, romance, or any genre fiction manuscripts polished.

Kourtneyspak.com

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One of the most common mistakes I see in unpublished manuscripts.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.

a dalek from doctor who is standing in a dark room and says `` externi '' . ALT: a dalek from doctor who is standing in a dark room and says `` externi '' .

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.

Helllooooooo

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.

The Long & Short of Marginal Comments Make them think, make them laugh, but never hurt their feelings.

Heres my latest Substack:

Romance Novels, Too Predictable? The haters will say they are, but f*ck the haters.

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.

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