Where to Begin
Are you ready to begin writing your story? Or have you completed a first draft and are now ready to revise?
I work with memoirists and fiction writers at every stage of the creative process—from early exploration to full manuscript revision. Through close reading, developmental editing, and sustained conversation, I help writers discover the emotional, structural, and thematic shape of their work.
Wherever you are in the process, my feedback is designed to be thoughtful, extensive, and tailored to the needs of your manuscript. I focus on the elements that matter most to narrative: voice, structure, pacing, dramatic tension, and the overall movement of the story. Each manuscript is approached as a cohesive whole, with attention to both what is already working and what remains to be developed.
My goal is to help uncover the deeper logic and emotional core of your work while offering the editorial distance and outside perspective essential to revision. When appropriate, I also provide limited line-level feedback on clarity, readability, sentence structure, and narrative flow using Word’s track changes feature. My work, however, is developmental rather than copyediting-focused; the priority is always the story itself.
Ultimately, I aim to provide writers with a clear and actionable path forward—one that strengthens both the larger architecture and the finer details of the manuscript. I am also happy to recommend relevant readings, narrative models, or structural approaches that may deepen and support your work.
Editorial Philosophy and Experience
My approach to editing has been shaped by years of teaching, close reading, and engagement with narrative across memoir, fiction, and hybrid forms. My background in translation, communications, literature, and cultural anthropology has deepened my understanding of how stories carry emotional meaning and reflect the social worlds from which they emerge.
What interests me most is helping writers identify the voice, energy, and underlying intention that make a story distinct. Whether working on memoir or fiction, I focus on clarifying the emotional and structural movement of the manuscript while preserving the integrity of the writer’s vision.
I view editing as a collaborative process grounded in trust, attention, and sustained conversation. My role is not to impose a formula, but to help writers recognize and strengthen what is already taking shape in the work. Together, we will chart a clear path forward, one that centers your unique voice and enables you to tell the story only you can tell.
“Sylvie deeply connects with your narrative and provides unparalleled expertise to help you capture your ‘why’ and bring your memoir to life. Working with Sylvie has been a truly transformative experience. I am incredibly grateful for having such a phenomenal instructor and mentor in my corner!“
Toni S.
Memoir Weekend Intensive (NYC)
In collaboration with Cagibi, I am launching a monthly Memoir Weekend Intensive, This ongoing, hybrid in-person / online intensive is for Memoir writers who want to begin or have already begun writing a first draft and need help and support to finish it. This workshop will focus on finding the emotional core of your story. We will work at teasing out the narrative threads of your story, the themes, motifs, and the overall intention that makes a personal narrative cohesive and engaging. Following the framework offered by master of nonfiction Vivian Gornick, we will work together at identifying the situation and the story, and pinpointing what she calls the main insight that underlies and propels any great personal narrative forward.
A bit about me…
My name is Sylvie. I am a writer, editor, and teacher based in Brooklyn NY. I have been teaching Fiction and Memoir workshops at The Writers Studio since 2018. I love to help writers connect more deeply to their material through The Writers Studio’s focus on craft and narrative voice.
I am also the proud co-founding editor of Cagibi, a literary journal invested in sharing the universal human experiences to be found in works of prose and poetry set within places unfamiliar to readers, and with an expressed interest in international literature and works in translation.
My stories and poems have appeared in Peregrine Journal, Epiphany, Cleaver Magazine, Alexandria Quarterly, and December magazine, among others. I received a Pushcart Special Mention in 2018 and was a finalist for the 2019 Jeff Marks Memorial Poetry Prize, judged by Kim Addonizio.
A native French speaker, I was born and grew up in Montreal. I have degrees in Communication and Literature (DEC, Montreal), Political Sciences (BA, Hunter College), and a MA in Cultural Anthropology (Princeton University).
If you want to read a writing tip I wrote for Cleaver Magazine, click here.
Chilling in Lourmarin, a small village in Provence (photo credit: Felixe Ross)
SV Bertrand 