About Emspace
Multipassionate story editing
Hi, I’m Margaux, story structure nerd.
I’m a Chinese Canadian editor and story coach based in BC’s Lower Mainland. Before this, I spent decades producing and editing multimedia content for workshops, marketing, and web content, and learning how to turn interviews into compelling stories and books. As a photography coach, I teach novice photographers how to turn snapshots into visual stories that draw more attention and make people really look and see. I’m a nerd for story in every form.
I’m professionally trained in editing (developmental/structural, line, copy) and studied writing & rhetoric and creative expression & society at University of Toronto. I write short stories and screenplays when not editing.
What do I love reading?
I’m a puzzle and escape room nerd, so I look for clues everywhere in the text. I love discovering that an author carefully planted details that pay off, created threads throughout that tie together in the end, and chose words with precision for thematic subtext. I love clever characters, clever plots, and clever language.
I’m a linguistics and language nerd, so I love writing that makes me read slowly, savouring the sound of words rolling into each other. I love a vivid metaphor or saucy simile.
I’m a travel adventure nerd. I love books that transport me, that make me believe I’m living or journeying alongside characters in places that are foreign to me.
I’m a science nerd: I love speculating about what might have been or what could be. I automatically notice inconsistencies, illogic, and unintended nonsense.
Intended nonsense, I prefer. Give me twists, give me humour, give me the purposefully absurd.
Am I the right fit for you?
What genres do I read?
I have the most experience with speculative fiction, including high fantasy. But I’m down with all sub-genres: space fantasy, urban fantasy, science fiction, horror, alternate universe, and whatever weird and specific sub-genre you’re writing in.
I also love literary, experimental, and short fiction.
I especially love mashups of these genres with others, such as westerns, historicals, romance, comedy, or detective mysteries.
Even if your book doesn’t fall into any of these, I love reading and learning in new genres.
NOT FOR ME:
x rape, x sadism, x bigotry
Do I adhere to any specific story structure model?
I’ve learned a lot of different models over the decades. The trick is to not take them overly seriously, especially when you’re writing. During the structural editing phase, though, when something feels off, that’s when I’ll pull out a narrative model and see if it sparks a solution.
As a diagnostic tool, mapping the shape of your story against a narrative model can reveal pacing problems or weak story “glue.” However, that doesn’t mean you need to conform your story completely to any model. It’s only a tool, not a rule!
NOT FOR ME:
Campbell’s monomyth, Story Grid, other highly complex systems
What should you expect during the process?
We’ll start to get to know each other in the Discovery Meeting, where I’ll find out more about your project and your vision for it.
From there, I’ll take passes through your draft, first for an overall sense of the plot, pace, charcters, point of view, and style. Then, I’ll go slower and add annotations with my observations and questions. Finally, I’ll assemble my evaluation and recommendations in a 10- to 20-page editorial letter. This will include a summary with the top three areas for you to concentrate on for the next draft.
Along the way, we can arrange periodic check-ins or I can send batches of questions every week, whichever you prefer.
Do I provide editing or book services not listed?
Great question! I’ve been a graphic designer, photographer, videographer, video editor, and have worked on non-fiction business books for over 25 years. I can do a lot more than what’s listed on the Services pages.
As a client for developmental/structural editing, I would be happy to add rounds of line editing and copy editing for $60 per hour, an average of 2-3 pages/hour. I do not proofread unless it’s something I’m coming to fresh for the first time.
I can also design book layouts for print or e-publishing. Pricing for the project will vary a great deal based on the complexity of the design. I charge roughly $60 per hour, and the simplest of book layouts for e-book delivery for a 250-page book would take a mininum of 4 hours.
If you need an author headshot, I also have a headshot and portrait service, but if you don’t live in the Metro Vancouver area, you’d have to fly me to your location — which I don’t have a problem with!
Use the Contact form to tell me more about your project needs.
My Five Filters
What inspires me in your writing: IDEAS
INGENUITY
What separates humanity from most of the rest of the living world, ingenuity is putting two ideas together that haven’t been put together in that way before. Clever ideas, surprising twists, original mixes of genres—I love when writers can delight and surprise me. This includes not only big plot moments, but surprising turns of phrase or imagery.
DIFFERENTIATION
As much as we want to be a part of the tribe, we each also cultivate our own individuality and uniqueness. Similarities help us connect better, but differences are what make us fascinating to each other. I love discovering what makes you singular as a writer and as a human. Hearing what interests and excites you allows me to “see” you better.
EXPLORATION
Adventure means embracing the unknown with optimism. Getting lost in a good book is an adventure. New worlds, new types of people, new things about this universe I didn’t know before: these are what I love about speculative fiction genres especially—though not exclusively. There’s also adventure in meeting and understanding diverse characters and their experiences.
AGILITY
Being agile is expecting and being responsive to impermanence and not breaking apart when it happens. Revising requires agility to pivot between being creative and being critical. I love working with agile writers who are willing to redraft their manuscript, maybe even “kill their darlings” for the sake of a clearer, stronger story that will enthrall their readers.
SHIBUMI
Beauty in simplicity, understatement, unelaborated facility, shibumi is an appreciation for what’s there and what is. It’s the everyday imperfections from which spontaneous appreciation and joy of life emerge. Your draft is shibumi. Though it will never be perfect, it is still beautiful—because you wrote it and no one else could have.
