Fresh Eyes

Some testimonials

Becci - Reading: Claire absolutely understands what makes a story work on both a structural and emotional level. Her feedback on my novel was both insightful and specific, which meant I knew exactly what to work on and why I was working on it. As a brilliant author herself, Claire also understands the importance of how feedback is delivered and her compassionate and professional manner meant that the feedback she gave me motivated me to work on the novel and helped me to believe it could work as a finished product. Her knowledge of the publishing world is such that she was able to support me both in creating a story that I was happy with and in refining a product that would be attractive to publishers. I can’t recommend her highly enough. Thank you, Claire!

Gill – Twyford: 'Claire’s help with my manuscript has been invaluable. All her feedback is constructive, thoughtful and perceptive and she has an unerring ability to pinpoint issues that need to be addressed. She seems to have an innate understanding of structure and narrative flow and an ability to approach a manuscript bearing both the author’s aims and the reader’s needs in mind. She is amazingly thorough, incredibly generous with her time and encouragement, always professional and has an eagle eye for grammar, spelling and punctuation. She approached my writing with enormous sensitivity and care, understanding when to tread carefully and when to pursue a point more forcefully. Above all else she is a pleasure to work with: warm, intelligent, funny and kind. I can’t recommend her highly enough.'

Alexis - Bracknell: 'Claire produced an extremely helpful report about what was/wasn’t working in my first draft novel, spotting many inconsistencies in my narrative! I would wholeheartedly recommend her services. Although she provided a detailed and constructive critique of my novel, she was always positive and very encouraging. Perfect combination! I felt comfortable I was sharing my work with an insightful reader and experienced author. Thanks to her guidance, I now have suggestions for improvement and a plan to revise my manuscript.'

Rosie – Frome: 'I found Claire’s mentoring to be remarkably generous – painstaking, patient, prompt, professional and warmly supportive. But more than all this is her creative genius for noticing radically new possibilities: a phrase here, line breaks there, alternative forms or angles that give a whole new perspective and lift the work to a different level. It feels like having an astute diamond cutter alongside you, one who knows exactly how to bring out the best of the stone. I will certainly be using her again, for poetry and prose. I’ve learned so much.'

Helen – Somerset: 'I’m genuinely astonished to see what can be done with these rather rough outlines … so exciting to see the possibilities in my poems. It seems that you take stodgy suet puddings and turn them into syllabubs in elegant glasses.'

Diane - Devon: Claire gave me some very insightful comments on my opening chapters. I'd got to the point where I'd reworked them so many times that I couldn't get the necessary distance to improve them any more myself. Claire's detailed critique, advice and input helped me get noticed in the slush pile and take another step on the journey from writer to author.

Moira – Cheltenham: 'I won Claire Dyer in an auction … My work was returned earlier than we had agreed, (Hurrah) with comments and corrections throughout. She had obviously read my work very carefully. Claire raised some valuable issues that were helpful and appropriate and my work has benefited from her input. I have been through this section so many times that I felt I wasn’t really ‘seeing’ it any longer. Claire helped me focus again. If you were thinking of using an editorial service I would recommend Claire without hesitation.'
Moira’s full testimonial can be downloaded via this link. For more details about Moira, please see her website: The Place to Write.

Claire R – Bangor, Co. Down: 'I was delighted with the thoroughness of Claire’s critiques and with the helpful explanations of her comments.'

George – London: 'As a seasoned writer of non-fictional material, I found Claire Dyer’s review of my first attempt at fiction extremely valuable and full of insight.'