Creative Check-ins
sessions.
In creative check-ins, we will:
+Go through my edits on your piece and talk development of the work.
+Tackle something you’re stuck on or explore a new idea you’re developing.
+Talk about how to find time to write
(single creative mums, I’ve got ya)
not so fine print.
Sessions take place over Zoom
They usually take an hour.
If you want to know more, or to discuss how we might work together, email me.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Yes.
But give me plenty of time yeah?
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If you want to.
The lead time depends on the length of the piece and the nature of the edit you think you want.
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Not really. With enough lead time, we can make anything happen.
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I don’t. But I have my preferences. I love the short form, so flash fiction, short stories, poems, and one-act plays are my favourite things to edit.
Freebies
Here is me trying to help you. More audio bits are coming.
Me as an editor
I’ve made my living as an editor for the past 30 years. It’s the technical side of editing (editing of documentation for tech companies) that allows me to live and write and feed my kid. To find that side of my life, you can connect with me on LinkedIn where I’m known as Alina Koldin. To save you a trip, I’ve edited content for companies like Microsoft, Tableau, and Facebook.
In the other world, where I’m known as Alina Rios, I’ve helped other writers make their work better. I’ve done this in writing groups, for my writer friends, and for the past 7 years, as the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Bracken, an online literary magazine.
I’m always at my happiest when I can help another creative soul make their work sing brighter.
Testimonials
“Over nearly a decade of knowing and working with Alina Rios, I’ve come to revere her uncanny capacity to see what a piece of writing needs, whether that’s changing a few phrases or a whole new structure or a subtle adjustment of tone. Bring her a story and she’ll find the moment in it that needs sharpened focus. Bring her a poem and she’ll tell you what lines must go, where you’re hitting it too much on the nose, where you’re being too obscure or abstract…. Alina has never failed to keenly address whatever work I show her, be it essay, article, flash prose, or poem—she has reliably focused me on where the work calls for something, and she’s articulated what that something is with remarkable accuracy. Alina’s help has been crucial to the acceptance of many of my pieces for publication.”
“When in session with Alina, the world I know turns over and upside down, it becomes something wonderful, crazy, scary, and beautiful. Unknown strings of my feelings are touched, creating new tunes and colours. I’m getting sent into multiple universe dimensions, where anything is possible. My imagination bursts. Unforgettable experience, each session, I am grateful for every minute of it.”
“I’ve been working with Alina on my writing prose for over five years and her help has been invaluable. Whether it’s trying to work through a creative block, digging into line edits, or flat out saying that another draft is in order, working with Alina has been a joy, even when it means starting over again. ”
“Alina is not only a remarkable human being, and truly original writing voice, but also clearly a hugely able ‘text expert’. Her breadth of ability as playwright, poet and short-form prose writer give her an incisive, forensic quality when looking at other people’s work. She knows how ideas should develop, how words work, how clichee can be handled, and how a narrative should grow. I’d point anyone in her direction if they want some quality feedback on their work.”