Welcome, Fáilte
My name is Kara and I love words, language, books, and storytelling. Collaborating with writers and supporting their work at whatever stage of the writing or revising process is my joy. I have a keen eye for detail, curiosity for context, and an intuitive process for sussing out issues in a piece. My aim is advocacy for the writer and their stories. I am here to support you and what you want to share.
Throughout my professional life and education, I have been purpose-driven—wanting to do meaningful work—and this is true for my editing work as well. Everyone has a story to tell and an audience who will be grateful to receive it.
My services are adaptable to most any project. I am an interdisciplinary soul—it's what my first master's degree is in, interdisciplinary studies. So whether you're writing fiction, narrative nonfiction, poetry, plays, film scripts, newsletters, organizational or professional documents, in long form, short form, or anywhere in between, with something to say to the world or just for your loved ones, I am eager to dig into it with you and get your words ready to shine.
Developmental and Line Editing
This is the substantive realm, the essence of your writing project seen as a whole or at the sentence level. Developmental work explores core elements like narrative structure and character development. Line editing hones in on word choice, voice, and flow. It's an engaging, creatively rich process.
Pricing is about .025 cents per word but is adjustable for client financial need or project difficulty. Includes virtual meetings and two read throughs with time for you to review and revise.
Light Copyediting and Proofreading
Say the big picture and finer details of your writing are all set, but you want to resolve any technical issues that are still lurking in your manuscript. Then, we're at the stage of reviewing it for grammar and punctuation hiccups, page layout wonkiness, style guide consistency, and fact-checking.
Pricing is .015 per word and includes two read throughs with time between for you to review and revise as needed. Note: Shorter-length projects (less than 1k words) are $15 minimum.
Additional Services
I am an experienced localization editor, working with text and manuscripts that have been translated from other languages into English. I can also work 1:1 as a writing coach. And, for authors who find it easier to record their stories, I offer transcription services.
Pricing is $25-$45 per hour, depending on the type of service. We can email or connect over Google Meets (or another more accessible option if preferred) for a brief check-in to discuss your project and what you're looking for.
Note: For writers who are looking for an authenticity reader, my areas of lived experience include: being a queer, white woman; part of the Irish diaspora, an Irish American; having a '90s childhood; caretaking an aging parent; death and grief; humanitarian aid; and being there for loved ones on addiction, recovery, and mental health diagnosis journeys. I’m open to stories that need a compassionate collaborator and/or knowledge of such realities.
About me
I fell in love with storytelling as a child. Since then my passion for it has grown with me. By nature, I am a helper (my name means "friend" in Irish). I am compassionate and supportive: I want to see you succeed in telling the story you want to tell, without falling prey to insecurities or other emotional perils along the way toward completing your project.
I remember how passionate I was about writing and illustrating my own stories when I was 9 years old, in Mrs. Walters' 3rd grade class. By the next year, however, with the introduction of essay assignments, and the dreaded five-paragraph format, I developed writing anxiety that became almost debilitating by the time I was in 8th grade. And, it stuck with me through graduate school.
I was an avid reader, however, and my love for the written word deepened and grew through that channel. After a profound experience reading Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg, I regained my love for writing, and I found a calling in helping writers develop their work.
I love when I have a chance to work on poetry, plays, and children's books. In the YA and adult fiction world, I'm a giant fan of strong female leads, fantasy, and LGBTQI romance. In narrative nonfiction, I am drawn to engaging memoirs with a strong voice and personal essays or research-based writings that aim to "elevate the consciousness," as poet Marcus Lattimore says about the purpose of a writer.
Some of my favorite authors are Robin McKinley, Jesmyn Ward, Alexis M. Smith, Ocean Vuong, Layli Long Soldier, Kimberly Blaeser, and Xiran Jay Zhao. The work I edit reflects these inspirations.
In addition to writing and editing, art has been a through line in my life, from the early days of crayon drawings and macaroni necklaces to my time as a professional photographer and my current projects as a web and graphic designer. I also draw and paint and am excited by the visual language of text—how words look on the page.
My professional life has included management roles in the nonprofit realm of human rights and the arts, because collaborative, purpose-driven work is important to me. It's been a dream to transition to editing and still get to work in a collaborative way on meaningful projects. I am thrilled that my work life now revolves around helping writers like you achieve their own writing dreams.
Testimonials
I've been fortunate enough to have had Kara edit and provide feedback on several of my novels. I say "edit and provide feedback," because those are two very different, vital skills, and Kara excels in both of these tasks.
Kara's attention to detail is terrific, but even better is her attention to story. Kara invests in your characters and their journey, and truly provides feedback not simply as a skilled proofreader but also as a book-lover who is tracking continuity, character consistency, and story arc as well as the logistics of structure and syntax.
She's also just plain delightful to work with, which makes a potentially-stressful process instead become a rewarding, enjoyable experience! I've already recommended her to several folks, and will continue to do so.
Beth Kander
USA Today best-selling author of I Made It Out of Clay and Dramatists Guild fellow playwright.
Kara Lewis edited a chapter-in-progress of my current memoir and was a joy to work with.
I asked her to evaluate the piece as a standalone short story as well as a chapter in a larger work, and her comments—on both fronts—were insightful. She was unerring and precise in her feedback, offering thoughtful advice on both structural changes and copy edits that strengthened the piece overall.
She is professional, kind, prompt, and knowledgeable, and I incorporated nearly all of her suggestions. Highly recommend.
Lorelei Goulding
Memoir writer and winner of the 2020 Spread the Word Life Writing Prize.
Kara is an insightful and thoughtful editor—on both the developmental and line edit sides of her work. She provides considered suggestions based in the vocabulary and mores of the story. Her developmental edits were detailed and precise, enabling me to find the focus of the story and to make the main character shine.
I have truly appreciated working with Kara, she is an excellent sounding board and editor. I look very much forward to working with her in the future.
Jen Cornick
Horror fiction writer, with three forthcoming publications in 2026. Go Jen! Check her out at marrow magazine, and soon at Radon Journal, Penumbric, and Strip Mall Magazine.
I’ve worked with Kara for a number of years on lots of different kinds of documents, all connected with our local new play festival and a related podcast: correspondence to members or donors, press releases, event programs, actor/playwright/director bios, play synopses, etc.
What I’ve consistently appreciated is not only her terrific attention to detail, but her unusually sensitive use of language. She seems to know instinctively how to phrase something for maximum effect without ever losing sight of its likely impact on her audience—a rare talent, in my experience.
She’s super responsive to the needs of the project and welcomes input with grace and good humor. If it’s not already obvious, I love working with her!
Carole Florian
Long-time volunteer reader and editor extraordinaire at Ashland New Plays Festival
Kara is an impeccably detailed and extremely skilled editor. She has a wonderful sense of voice/speaker; vocabulary/word choice; and tense. Her pricing was fair and reasonable, and she made herself available for visual chats and editing sessions.
While writing my book, I occasionally fell into a rabbit hole of adventure that took me to some mysterious places where I tended to meander. Kara did an outstanding job of keeping me from going too far afield. She also offered gentle, insightful suggestions for how I could make the writing “pop” with the use of visually stronger verbiage in places where she felt it was needed.
What I loved most about working with her was that she never questioned the integrity of my writing. She did recommend that I expand on some of my stories, which I took as a positive sign. Indeed, Kara was an enthusiastic and kind cheerleader who continually built up my confidence. Her encouragement came from the heart. She also generously shared some fun “Aha!” moments with me, telling me when I had hit a nerve.
Kara Lewis went above and beyond the call of duty. She embraced my manuscript in a way that was extremely validating, and was inspirational and generous with her insights. I am honored to give this professional literary editor my highest recommendation, and would be happy to seek her professional expertise in the future.
Teresa Mosteller
Writer, poet, playwright, chorister, and Walking Dead fan (if you know you know).
My podcast
Looking for some writing prompts to help generate words or spark your imagination? My podcast Just Write for introverts is a virtual writing partner, featuring self-paced writing prompts and me nerding out with listeners over books, poetry, ideas, and more.
I hope these sessions will be as beneficial for you as they were for me in making them.
If you hear about what's inspiring me in the moment and it puts you on a path to a new author or book you haven't read before, or you find that Just Write for introverts is helping support or enhance your writing practice, then this project has more than exceeded my expectations.
May I be a friendly voice to cheer you on. And may we all continue to follow the show's purpose: to just write.
Happy writing to all of us!
Hello, friends! Welcome to Just Write for introverts, your virtual writing partner in podcast form. Each episode, you’ll get a series of writing prompts for sessions that last for however long you’d like to write. After introducing a prompt, I suggest writing time lengths and count you out: 1, 2, 3, write. You press pause and do your thing. When you’re ready, come on back and continue on to the next prompt. Let’s get writing!
Today we’ve got a joyous start followed by relaxing-melty moments and dreamy sequences. Let’s see what your brain puts forth as you scoop under your awareness. Here’s hoping for awesome, awkward nuggets hiding in the mysteries of the subconscious.
Today’s song: “High Above the Water” by Kathryn Bostic
https://open.spotify.com/track/6yKIqMtgcF8kAbguzcvZQ7?si=ff40cdf8781c44dd
Other links:
A take on “Beard After Hours” – the episode of Ted Lasso I raved about: https://www.vulture.com/article/ted-lasso-recap-season-2-episode-9-beard-after-hours.html
Happy dreaming!
© 2026 Kara Q. Lewis
All photographs by Kara Q. Lewis.