I'm writing my novel in the margins too.

Hi, I'm Karen, a book coach for speculative fiction writers and founder of Live In Story.

I've spent more than fifteen years telling other people's stories, first as a filmmaker making shorts, then as a content and strategic communications director. I got really great at helping brands, colleagues, and organizations figure out what to say, who to say it to, and why.

The novel in my own head was another matter. I could see the whole thing and couldn't get it on paper. I bought notebooks. I outlined it three different ways. I'd get promoted or take a new gig and tell myself I'd crack the book when life calmed down, instead of writing through it. It never did. So I started writing in the margins and the odd stolen hour, and I spent two weeks of "vacation" on the novel at the DISQUIET Literary Program in Lisbon. I'm still working on the novel, plus two shorter projects, and I've felt more creative than ever.

What surprised me most was how much I loved the underneath part of writing. Working out what the story was actually about, and why it kept collapsing in the same place. Author Accelerator's Blueprint for a Book method gave me a way to do that on purpose instead of by accident, and I loved it enough to get certified as a fiction book coach so I could do that work alongside other writers: taking a big, tangled idea they love, finding the throughline, the question the story keeps circling, and building the book that answers it.

Certified
Author Accelerator Book Coach, trained in the Blueprint for a Book method.

The woman I work with spends all day building ideas for everyone else. The strategy deck, the campaign due Friday, the brand video that somehow has her wearing every hat, editor included. And the whole time there's a novel in the back of her head she never quite gets to. It's big and cinematic, probably fantasy or dystopian or a blend that won't sit in one box (maybe The Hunger Games meets Station Eleven with a time-bending twist!), and she's carried it for years. She's worldbuilt and re-outlined. She's started chapter one more times than she wants to admit. The ideas were never the problem. What's missing is the throughline, the connective tissue that holds the whole story together. That, and the structure and accountability to actually get a draft done in the margins of a full life, with a thought partner alongside her.

Now I write, work in communications, and help other women like me finally write their novels: free essays and resources on my Substack at read.liveinstory.com, story consult hours, and 1:1 monthly coaching.

Oh, and I romanticize my life in Virginia while staying true to my American-Brazilian roots, Portuguese-German heritage, New England upbringing, and (crucially) love of late-night karaoke.