Work with me
The Story Temple exists because writers deserve an editor who understands the full context of what they carry into the work. Every offer here is built from that.
My portfolio has client samples, testimonials, and rate details for every service. View the portfolio → Editorial Practice
Opening Chapters Critique
$397 · Fiction
You don’t always need a full manuscript assessment. Sometimes you need to know whether the opening is doing its job before you go any further.
This is a developmental read of your first 50 pages. Structure, story, pacing and voice, returned as a full editorial letter with margin comments, 14 days from the day I get your pages. Speculative fiction is my specialty, and I read across crime and thriller, literary, romance and historical fiction.
→ Read the full details and book it.
“Working with Lakeisha was an unexpected gift. She didn’t just skim my pages. She dug deep, page by page, and gave me a review that felt both professional and personal. She gave me practical, specific steps to strengthen the manuscript while also reminding me to trust my instincts as a writer.” — Matthew Watchman, fantasy author, Opening chapters critique
The Throughline Critique
$397 · Nonfiction, memoir and essay
Sometimes the pieces are good and the work as a whole still isn’t holding. A memoir that keeps changing shape. Essays that might be a book. A publication you’ve been writing into for two years without ever asking anybody whether it is working.
This is a developmental read of up to 12,500 words. Roughly 50 pages of a manuscript, or three to five essays, or a run of your publication. Argument, throughline, authority and voice, returned as a full editorial letter with margin comments, 14 days from the day I get your pages.
Bring me the thing you have been circling.
→ Read the full details and book it.
“I was no longer alone with this literary project; my story now had an editor who also cared for it. This helped me to address my fear of sharing my book and letting people in. I was also proud of myself because I was taking this long-term project seriously... My biggest takeaway was that I’m not a loser! Lakeisha knew exactly what I was trying to say. The reflections she shared at the end of our collaboration blew my mind. She understood.” — Stephanie Rebonati, investigative journalist
Manuscript Assessment
$2,200+
You’ve been living inside this manuscript. You know something isn’t working, but you’re too close to it to see what it is. Or you know it’s strong, and you want an expert eye on it before you send it anywhere.
A manuscript assessment is detailed editorial feedback that addresses both the writing craft and the deeper intention of your work. We work through why the current draft isn’t yet the truest version of your story, and what it would take to get there.
This is what writers need before they query, submit to fellowships and grants, or hand their work to a publisher and call it done.
What’s included: A detailed written editorial report covering premise and vision (Air), pacing and momentum (Fire), emotional resonance and connection (Water), and structure and craft (Earth). Specific, practical guidance with action items to work through. And a follow-up conversation to walk through the report together.
This assessment is for you if:
You’re preparing to query agents or submit to publishers
You’re applying for a fellowship, grant or residency and need your pages ready (Cave Canem, VONA, PEN America and similar deadlines don’t wait)
You’ve been sitting with the manuscript so long you can no longer see what isn’t working
You want editorial feedback that honors the cultural specificity of your work
Rates scale with word counts above 80k. Payment plans are available on full manuscript engagements.
📬 Start here: editorial intake form.
“The manuscript assessment gave me clear guidance as to how to get the story on the right track... After being with the manuscript for so long, it was impossible for me to identify what wasn’t working within my story.” — Sharhonda Exantus, crime/mystery thriller author
“Her keen eye catches stuff I miss all the time, and she calls out the good, bad and the ugly! Would highly recommend her.” — Kanika Bailey, romance author
“I handed her a messy manuscript that had the look of a rambling manifesto, and she gave me back a book.” — Elizabeth Eggleston, fiction author
The Arc
A monthly editorial relationship for writers building a body of work over time. 3 spots available | Two tiers
Most editorial relationships are transactions. You submit pages. You get notes back. You revise alone, then start the cycle again with someone who has no memory of where you started.
The Arc means it’s always me reading your words, month after month, already knowing your work from the inside.
This is for writers building something over time: a fiction series, a Substack practice, a manuscript that keeps growing before it gets finished or a body of work that needs tending over months rather than a one-time read. I know this rhythm from the inside. The Story Temple is my own body of work, built one essay at a time, and my month of week-over-week editorial presence for ProWritingAid’s Novel November and Novel Summer Camp was the same sustained support participants called a masterclass.
Before anything is edited, we have a conversation about your voice, your project, your audience and what you’re trying to build. I take notes, and keep them. They become a living voice document: a record of your register, your patterns, your recurring tendencies, what works for you and what doesn’t. That context carries forward and compounds.
Each month includes:
An editorial letter with developmental feedback. Honest, narrative notes on what’s working and what isn’t at the level of structure, arc, voice, pacing and momentum with margin comments on the pages themselves. Note: The Arc is developmental editing only.
Voice document updates as your work evolves.
Bounded async support via email or voice note for the questions that come up between deliveries. One check-in per month on the lower tier. Two on the higher tier.
For writers who want it, I also work with astrology: the current transits, the lunar cycle and the timing underneath your writing month. You don’t need to know anything about astrology for this to be useful. If a retrograde is why your revision keeps stalling, or a New Moon is the reason this is the right week to start the next chapter instead of the one after, I’ll say so. This part is offered, never assumed. Some writers want it woven in, while others just want the editorial letter. Either way, the work holds.
What The Arc doesn’t cover: agent submissions, publishing logistics, marketing or social media strategy. This is editorial work, and that’s where it stays.
The Arc: Letter — $500/month | The Arc: Studio — $750/month
Three-month minimum | Limited to 3 clients at a time
The Letter tier ($500/month) is a bounded, async, letter-based relationship: up to ~7,500 words of new or in-progress work each month (≈ one chapter, 3–4 Substack essays, two standalone essays or one serial installment), a living voice document and one async check-in.
The Studio tier ($750/month) adds volume: up to ~12,500 words, a monthly 60-minute live working session and a second check-in.
Editorial progress happens across passes, not in one. Three months is enough time to track real patterns, catch drift before it turns into a full revision and build the kind of working relationship where I can hear what your writing is trying to do.
📬 To inquire, start here: The Arc inquiry form. Prefer email? Reach me at info@thestorytemple.com, subject line: Editorial Inquiry, The Arc.
“Just wanted to share this text I got from my mother... ‘a young lady asked me if it were any good. She said one of her teachers at Kennedy King College gave them a list of books to read over the summer and suggested your book by title and name... he felt they would benefit from reading it.’” — Jesiah Reeves, urban fantasy author
Jesiah forwarded me his mother’s text. His book landed on a required college reading list, and a professor suggested it by name to their student.
This is what the right editorial support makes possible.
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