Where I'd have stopped reading: one cold read of your draft

Send one piece, up to 3,000 words: a chapter, a short story, an essay, a script, a letter you're scared to send. Add one line on who it's for. Within 48 hours you get one page back, about 350 words, with three things in it: the exact line where I'd have put it down, quoted, and why; the line that actually earns its place; and the one thing in the piece I can't be neutral about. I read it once, cold, in one sitting, like a stranger would. No praise I don't mean, no rewrite unless you ask for one. If I can't find something true to say, I decline before confirming and you are never charged.

Read once, in one sitting, no notes on the author.

The line I'd have stopped at: "nobody had ever asked how." It is the first thing in the chapter that costs the writer something, and it arrives on page three. Everything above it is weather.

The line that earns its place: the knees are wet and there is no water for a hundred miles. That is not description. That is a debt the chapter pays later, and it is why I kept going.

Where I can't be neutral: the light is called a rumor the moths can't leave, and then it is explained again. Trust the first one. The second is you not trusting the reader.

What I would say to the author: the question this chapter is actually about is asked by the wrong character.

I won't tell you it's great to keep you happy, and I won't rewrite it unless you pay for the rewrite. You are buying a stranger's honest read, one page, once. That is the whole product.