Blog
Meet the Teaching Artist: Nicole Meier on Revision, Rest, and Trusting Your Own Read of the Story
by Writing Workshops Staff
An hour ago
Nicole Meier once received a query rejection that read, in its entirety: "No, signed intern number one." She tells that story on purpose. A writer who can laugh at intern number one is a writer who can survive the part of the process Meier cares about most.
"The real magic happens in the revision work," she says.
After four upmarket novels and hundreds of clients as a developmental editor and certified book coach, she has built an entire teaching practice on that conviction.
In Revise Without Losing Yourself, her four-week online novel revision workshop, Meier takes on a problem most revision classes split into two.
You will learn to diagnose the two or three structural problems actually driving everything else in your draft, instead of treating symptoms one note at a time.
You will build the judgment to weigh a reader's suggestion to cut a scene against your own read of why it belongs.
And you will finish with a personalized revision plan, written instructor feedback on up to ten pages of your manuscript, and a repeatable process you can run on every draft after this one.
Here is our Meet the Teaching Artist Interview with Nicole:
Writing Workshops: Hi, Nicole. Please introduce yourself to our audience.
Nicole Meier: Hi there! I'm an author and developmental editor who helps novelists and memoir writers. I'm a big believer in not only supporting the writing work, but also the person behind the words. That belief pretty much fuels everything I do, whether it's running workshops or doing deep editorial dives for writers in a 1:1 capacity. I am a West Coast girl all the way, splitting my time between scenic Oregon and sunny California. But one of my favorite things is expanding my creative community and meeting writers from all over.
Writing Workshops: What's the thing you wish someone had taught you earlier in your writing life, and how does this class address that?
Nicole Meier: I wish someone had taught me that the real magic happens in the revision work. I used to dislike the editing process because it felt like a kind of punch list to get through. But now, after writing my own novels and working with hundreds of writers, I understand that revision is where we unearth the story beneath the story and shape the manuscript into a much stronger expression of what we came to tell.
Writing Workshops: If a student walks away from this class with one skill or shift in their writing they didn't have before, what is it?
Nicole Meier: Students will leave with a personalized revision plan for their manuscript and the structural diagnosis skills to tell which feedback to follow and which to set aside.
"Revision is where we unearth the story beneath the story and shape the manuscript into a much stronger expression of what we came to tell."
Writing Workshops: What's the last sentence you read that made you stop and reread it? Type it out for us.
Nicole Meier: This isn't the last sentence, but it's a sentence I never forget: "You can't edit a blank page." Jodi Picoult said this, and it couldn't be more true.
Writing Workshops: Describe a moment in a workshop, one you were teaching or one you took as a student, where something clicked for someone. What happened?
Nicole Meier: I'm just fresh from teaching an in-person workshop, and it was a mindset thing that made the whole room breathe a collective sigh of relief. I wrote on the board that rest (not a forced daily word count or a marathon writing sprint) can be one of the most productive elements of a writing process. It was as if I'd permitted them something they couldn't give themselves. This made me happy.
Writing Workshops: What's a craft move you're slightly obsessed with right now? Not a big concept, a small, specific technique.
Nicole Meier: How much time do you have? I'm a big fan of adding character interiority. So, when in doubt, consider weaving in an inner thought, feeling, or reaction after a bit of dialogue. Even one sentence can draw your reader in closer.
Interiority, scene function, voice: four weeks of working these moves on your own pages, with written feedback from a developmental editor who reads manuscripts at exactly this stage.
Enroll in Revise Without Losing Yourself →Writing Workshops: What's a book you press into people's hands that has nothing to do with writing craft?
Nicole Meier: Anything by Barbara Kingsolver.
Writing Workshops: What's the worst writing advice that sounds smart?
Nicole Meier: Write every day. I used to encourage this practice myself. But now I know it's not a mandate. Everyone's writing process can (and should) be unique to their natural rhythm.
Writing Workshops: Finish this sentence: "Most writing classes won't tell you this, but..."
Nicole Meier: I think I'll point back to my comment above about incorporating rest into your process. Take time away from the page. You story will still be percolating under the surface.
"I wrote on the board that rest (not a forced daily word count or a marathon writing sprint) can be one of the most productive elements of a writing process. It was as if I'd permitted them something they couldn't give themselves."
Writing Workshops: Who was your first literary crush?
Nicole Meier: Scout Finch.
Writing Workshops: What's your teaching vibe, in one sentence, not a paragraph?
Nicole Meier: A student recently told me I should change my podcast to "The Writer's Therapist." So I'll go with that.
Writing Workshops: What would your students be surprised to learn about you?
Nicole Meier: I once received an agent query rejection that simply said, "No, signed intern number one." If anyone feels the sting of rejection, I hope my funny experience gives them a moment of levity.
Intern number one is still out there somewhere. So is the folder of conflicting feedback you have been afraid to open. Revise Without Losing Yourself gives you four weeks with a developmental editor's eye on your pages, a framework for telling the real problem from the noise, and permission to rest while the story percolates. You will leave with a diagnosis, a plan, and your own instinct for the book sharpened rather than flattened. Bring the draft you care about. The story beneath the story is waiting.
Four weeks, written instructor feedback on up to ten pages, and a revision plan built for your manuscript. Class begins Tuesday, February 2nd, 2027, and meets Tuesdays via Zoom.
Save Your Seat in Revise Without Losing Yourself →WritingWorkshops.com is an independent, artist-run creative writing school and the official education partner of Electric Literature. Since 2016, we've helped writers strengthen their voice, develop a greater understanding of craft, and forge a path to publication.
