Keen Eye Copyediting & Critiques

I help fiction authors polish their manuscripts with practical critiques and copyediting.

Services

Beta Reading: You’ve revised your novel and you are looking for feedback.

You’ve written a novel, revised it, and you are wondering how it reads. You want clear feedback and you want to know what a potential reader might think.

Keen Eye LLC

Copyediting: You’ve edited your novel and are done changing things.

When you’re done mucking about with the details of your novel, it’s time for copyediting!

Keen Eye LLC

Business Copyediting: You want to know your words are clear, correct, and concise.

You own a business. You are busy. You know lots of stuff, but maybe spelling and grammar isn’t your specialty.

Writing About Writing

A preview of my resources about writing and revision, explanation of services, deep dives into grammar, and three-sentence reviews.

About

Keen Eye LLC

Learn more about Patricia, provider of copyediting and critiques.

I spend most of my days thinking about what makes a spectacular book or a great movie. It’s all about story.

Things People Say

  • Patricia has an eye for detail and an unyielding dedication to quality. She edits at the paragraph, sentence, clause, and syllable level. She gives the same attention to the end notes as she does to the headline. At the same time, she can take the 30,000-foot view of a piece of writing, taking into account purpose and audience to ensure it has the biggest possible impact.

    Z.K.
  • Patricia has an incredible ability to see the forest AND the trees—at the same time. She’ll point out all those little continuity errors that inevitably pop up in a long manuscript. She’ll also let you know how your themes successfully develop (or don’t) over an entire plot arc. She can tell you if you’re using commas wrong, identify your writing ticks, remind you that your Aunt Edith in Chapter 12 was your Aunt Evelyn in chapter 2, and do so in a way that inspires you to write more and better. Just hire her!

    C.B.
  • Patricia has been my job search coach for years, I try to never submit a job application without the benefit of her eagle eye. She spots obvious "resume killers" like typos and grammar errors. She also excels at the more nuanced issues of passive language and punching up writing to make it stand out. Patricia listens to ensure she has a deep and clear understanding of what the writer is trying to accomplish. She applies that knowledge to create attention-grabbing cover letters, resumes, and writing samples.

    K.A.
  • Earlier this year, I needed to transform my 15 year old, heavily technical resume, into a resume that was easily understandable, relevant to non-technical jobs, and highlighted my soft skills instead of my technical job experience. It was a daunting task—until Patricia came to the rescue, that is. What a relief! Patricia's love of language, her ability to communicate precisely and concisely, and her understanding of my needs and goals, were a tremendous help in creating a functional resume I was proud of. I'm grateful for Patricia's insights and suggestions, as well as her enthusiasm and encouragement throughout the project, making the experience actually enjoyable. And I landed a job! Thank you, Patricia!

    B.K.
  • I hired Patricia to copyedit and proofread the final draft of my doctoral dissertation before I submitted it to my university for publication. Her incredibly thorough and detailed work demonstrated both a deep care for the craft of writing, in general, and the utmost respect for my written work, in specific. I felt valued by her copyediting process and the care she took with my words and ideas.  Not only did she fine-tune the mechanics of my writing, she asked powerful questions throughout the process that helped me to think even more deeply about my ideas and the text I had crafted. My work is stronger because of the ways in which she engaged with my writing and guided me to think about my scholarship from a different perspective. I especially appreciated the clear communication process she has built into her client services. Through conversations before and after her copyediting work, she learned about my needs and individualized her processes to prioritize the formatting, writing, and logistical restraints of a dissertation in my field. Not only did we speak via phone, but all of our decisions and discussions were then sent in writing by email. There were very clear expectations for timing, editing process, and the tasks needed to complete the job to my satisfaction. It was wonderful to work with Patricia and I would highly recommend the services of Keen Eye, LLC.

    Sara K. Sterner
  • Patricia beta-read my YA novel and provided insanely valuable feedback. Her careful reading uncovered plot holes, grammatical and structural inconsistencies, and points of confusion that I had completely missed, even though I consider myself a literary genius. What’s more, she communicated with me in a clear, constructive, positive, and often humorous manner, thus enabling me to improve my writing in a way that didn’t hurt my feelings.  She does not sugarcoat her responses, but because she approached reading with our common goal of making my work better, I trusted her notes and never took critical suggestions personally.  In fact, I looked forward to reviewing her comments, not only because I knew it would improve my work, but also because they were just fun to read.  Patricia is the whole package, and once I am finished with my next manuscript, I know who I will be hiring. (It’s her. It’s Patricia.)

    R.S.

Let’s Chat

I’d love to talk about your project. I’m happy to answer questions via email, or you can schedule a 30-minute complementary phone call.