If you’ve studied psychology (or ever watched a police procedural), you’ll know that microexpressions are split-second facial expressions that we’re not aware of making, but which reveal our true feelings about a given conversation. Although most people can’t consciously perceive microexpressions, we often register them subliminally.

Similarly, in writing, we can unwittingly betray emotions and true feelings or opinions – even ones we’re not aware that we have – through word choice, syntax, cadence, pacing, etc. If left undetected, these “verbal microexpressions” can completely defeat the purpose of what we’re writing…  or they can show us a way to a deeper understanding of ourselves and our challenges with the material.

A developmental editing client once dubbed me a “book intuitive” because I was able to see beyond her writing issues to some internal conflicts that lay beneath the words. I’m not some kind of book psychic, but – having studied both writing and story structure for decades – I was able to see where….

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