What Clients Say About Me
Ransom Stephens, bestselling author of The God Patent and The Book of Bastards.
“You know the feeling that Stephen King described in his writing memoir, that panicked sense of ‘I’m losing my book!’? Elizabeth Browne can rescue your book. Elizabeth gave me more hands-on, immediately useful suggestions than I’ve ever gotten from colleagues, in workshops, or even from practicing professionals, including the editors who’ve published my books and the agents who’ve sold them. She immediately got what I was trying to do and narrowed her advice appropriately – this is what I mean by ‘immediately useful’—she’s never given me that useless ‘advice’ we often get from people who think we should be writing a different book. Plus, she fixed my one-sentence pitch and back-cover copy from my usual frustrated, I-can’t-fit-all-the-amazing-plot-points-and-brilliant-characters-into-one-paragraph summaries into the kernal, the germ that I was after. If you give Elizabeth the opportunity to help you, she will. No BS, no random nitpicks, no absurd restructuring – Elizabeth will save your book.”
Martha Engber, Author, Speaker, Presenter - marthaengber.com
“I recently had the opportunity to consult with Ms. Browne on a complex writing project, and am so grateful I did! With humor, patience and generosity, she helped me streamline my story regarding concept, structure and writing. She also helped me view the story as an agent might, which changed my perspective from me-centric to reader-centric. My readers will be no doubt be happier for the sharper focus and higher level of tension!”
T.A.. Chan, YA Author - authortachan.com
“Nobody provides developmental edit notes with the same level of clarity and usability as Elizabeth . Instead of focusing her energy on minor details that may or may not affect the story, Elizabeth goes straight to the bones—the skeleton—the *structure*—of the story to take it to the next level. Her feedback has allowed me to take a “good” story to something that truly shines and stands out. With a keen eye for character development, emotional beats, and playing with (and subverting) audience expectations, Elizabeth knows how to take a story and tweak it in ways to maximize reader payoff. Her film background goes hand in hand with aiding writers in preserving—or discovering—the “story core”, which in turns creates that ineffable “it” factor that resonates with readers when the heart of the story is expressed through the writing. Last but not least, Elizabeth never seeks to overpower a writer’s style or voice—a critique skill that is invaluable and rare. She won’t try to impose her writing preferences on the author, but instead works with the writer to enhance their natural style through story structure work. In short, Elizabeth is an exceptional editor for character, plot, and emotional arc, and I cannot recommend her enough.”
Margie Yee Webb, Director of Speaker Programs, Gold Country Writers
“We appreciate EJ DeBrun’s engaging style in her presentation — “The Hero’s Cycle: A Quick Overview of the Monomyth” — along with her expertise. The story structure descriptions and examples she provided are clear and easy to follow. We enjoyed having her and would welcome her back!”
Robert D. McAdams, Science Fiction Author - mcadams-author.com
“Elizabeth was the only editor who ever read my manuscript and was able to give concrete reasons as to why literary agents were passing on it. She was able to pinpoint the reason why agents were telling me that my "writing was good -- but something was missing." Structure. That's what was missing. Elizabeth's tremendous experience in the storytelling realm of film and animation gives her a huge advantage over other editors, as she is able to quickly look at the big picture of a manuscript and pinpoint what it is lacking or has what story elements are over-represented. She is also able to give solid feedback on: timing, plot points, emotional impact, and characterization. In short, Elizabeth is the reason why, after having several editors look at my writing -- and many agents pass on it, I am now seeing some success with my writing and being told by agents that it is good and they would like to see more of it. I would recommend Elizabeth to any frustrated writer who has been trying to get published, and has not been able to figure out a reason why their submissions are getting rejected or ignored. If a writer is willing to do the work, she can tell them exactly what they need to do to change those rejections into requests for more.”
Essa Hansen, Author of the Graven Trilogy - essahansen.com
“"Elizabeth approaches critiques with a rare cross-discipline understanding of storytelling craft, combined with a strong sense of marketability. She’s able to not only laser in on how the core elements of narrative must come together to support one another, but excels at distilling broad issues into actionable feedback in a way that is simple to understand and full of useful references."