Echolocation
Editorial
Editorial support and coaching for queer and trans writers
You know that idea you’re worried is too unwieldy, strange, or niche to ever find an audience?
It’s time to get it out there.
I’m Elliott, and I support queer and trans fiction, nonfiction, and academic writers (and our allies) to embrace the transformative potential of drafting and revision, so that they can write the strongest version of the stories they need to tell.
My approach is craft-centered and rigorous, yet also kind, because while this work won’t be easy, there’s plenty of space for curiosity and pleasure.
Echolocation as MethodBats, dolphins, and some whales use echolocation as a navigational tool; emitting sounds and tracking the resulting echoes. My editorial method does something similar by supporting you to shape your writing and revision path forward using input from your environment. It involves connecting on a relational level to your own work, to yourself, to the work that already exists in the world (in the realm of genre and canon), and to the world more broadly.
Why I prioritize grounding in queer and trans embodiment
As a queer and trans writer/editor, I support the writing and revision process by reading your work through a lens of sensory specificity. I work particularly with fiction writers who want to ground their narratives in embodiment and the erotic—in the broadest sense of the term, across orientation and expression—and my approach supports queer and trans authors to feel seen with regard to their own lived experience and the imagined, yet no less vibrant, lives of their characters.
For academic and nonfiction writers, my approach is similarly grounded and will support you to identify and illuminate the stakes of your work while rooting those stakes in an embodied ethos.
Who I Am
Elliott is a former Ph.D. candidate at Stony Brook University, where he received his M.A. in Cultural Studies, along with a certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. His B.A. is in Film Studies with a Creative Writing minor from Muhlenberg College. He is in the process of completing the Certificate in Developmental Editing of Fiction program with Club Ed.
Kind Words“I love working with Elliott. Working with him has consistently been super affirming—he’s so good at helping me figure out the fullest shape of what I want to write on both a structural and syntax level. As a primarily nonfiction writer, I benefit from his academic training, precise eye for structure and argumentation, and his large mental library of references. But he’s always taken care not to let his point of view overshadow my own voice and perspective.
I enjoy that he isn’t afraid to hold me accountable, while always remaining a generous listener and editor. He’s changed my process through that; when I edit on my own, I often wonder what the Elliott in my head would say. His advice is usually what I need to hear: hold yourself to a high standard of both clarity and ambition; stop worrying about bad faith readings; and ground yourself in the embodied, the material, and the experiential.”
— G M.
“Elliott has helped me so much in developing my writing, specifically when it comes to character motivations and digging into their psychology to help you figure out why a character wants what they want. He’s also so supportive and positive while being constructive, always asking interesting and provocative questions. Hire this guy!”
— Briana G.
Now’s your moment to draw out the story you’re actually aching to tell, or the argument you’re dreaming of constructing. I will point you to the play in your work, and towards the aspects of your current idea, outline, partial draft, or full manuscript draft that hold the most aliveness. And you will receive editorial guidance concerning reader expectations, tropes, and representation to connect your writing to what readers are looking for, without distorting the heart of your unique idea.
I know firsthand how hard it is to see the real disconnect between where you are with your work and where you want to be; how that distance can feel like lightyears. And I want you to know that you don’t have to confront it alone.