Charles Blackstone is a novelist, writing coach, developmental editor, and book doctor. In his private practice in New York City, he works directly with subject matter experts and creative writers on fiction, memoir, nonfiction, as well as screenplays, poems, and corporate communications—from an idea in search of its shape to a manuscript ready for a serious revision and everywhere in between. His work brings together close reading, candid editorial conversation, and sustained coaching to help writers understand their books, solve problems on the page, and keep moving.
An engagement may begin with a query letter, a synopsis, or an opening chapter. Charles looks at what the writer wants the book to do, then works back through the manuscript: structure, character, voice, scenes, and the relationship between the promise of the pitch and the experience of reading. His practice includes developmental editing, book doctoring, ghostwriting and collaboration, and guidance on positioning and submission. The work can be a focused diagnosis or an ongoing partnership through successive drafts.
He is the author of Vintage Attraction (Pegasus Books / Simon & Schuster) and The Week You Weren’t Here (Dzanc Books and Low Fidelity Press), and coeditor, with Jill Talbot, of The Art of Friction (University of Texas Press). His short fiction has appeared in Esquire’s Napkin Fiction Project, The &NOW Awards: The Best Innovative Fiction anthology, In Like Company: The Salt River Review and Porch Anthology, Lewis University’s Jet Fuel Review, and the University of Maine’s Stolen Island. His essays have appeared in Chicago Tribune Printer’s Row Journal, Chicago Sun-Times, Fiction Writers Review, Book Reporter, and The Millions. His short plays have been produced by Victory Gardens and Lifeline Theaters. He was a co-producer of the feature film Boy Meets Girl, winner of Best Narrative Feature at FilmOut San Diego and a GLAAD Media Award nominee.
Named to Newcity’s Lit 50, Charles served as managing editor of Bookslut, the internationally acclaimed book review publication and blog. With Jessa Crispin, he helped launch The Culture We Deserve, an online cultural criticism forum.
Charles holds degrees from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Colorado, where he directed the Graduate Reading Series and received the Barker Award for Fiction. His teaching includes Gotham Writers’ Workshop, Colorado, Wright College, the University of Chicago’s Graham School of General Studies, and Shimer College. He brings the same attention to his work with writer clients that he brings to his own books. He lives in New York City.
