Hello, I’m Donna.
Whether you’re a free or paid describer, I’m grateful that you’re here.
I’m the “Plot Doctor” because I love helping people fix their books when they are struggling, to diagnosing just what a manuscript or plot needs in order for it to work. I love taking books apart in order to restructure them. I love all the different anatomy of the book and the tools we employ to shape and reshape them (chapters, prologues, forewords, section breaks, flashbacks, POV shifts, breaking timelines apart, you name it). I love writing my own books and I love thinking about how I do this—and sharing that with you in the hopes it might help as you think about your own work. Calling myself the “Plot Doctor” is also a bit of an inside joke—I actually have my Ph.D.
I write for a living and this is a place to share what that’s like with you, to reflect on how a writer makes her living (or at least, how this one does) and the pros and cons of writing as a profession.
Writing is central to my meaning in life. I don’t know what I’d do without it. Over the years writing has helped me to heal from past trauma, and it’s the first thing I turn to when I’m grieving. Writing is my tether to the earth and one of the things that makes me happiest in this world.
I teach writing, and I care deeply about writing in community. I’m lucky to have found wonderful writing community in my own life, and I’m excited to foster it here.
In my ideal word, this is a place for me, sure, but it’s also a place for you to come and think about writing, to share your own thoughts and struggles, to share your work at times and also to participate in some live events and programs I sponsor.
If you haven’t subscribed yet, I hope you’ll join me.
Free subscribers have access to
Reflections on the writing life and it’s ups and downs.
Occasionally writing tutorials and craft advice that I open up to everyone.
Announcements for upcoming programs, retreats, and events.
Paid subscribers receive all free content plus
My ongoing column, Publishing Then & Now, about how publishing has changed over the last two decades, which includes video interviews with agents, editors, and other writers.
The occasional opportunity to submit your work and agent query letters for public (anonymous) critique.
All writing tutorials, instructional guides, and craft advice.
Participation in my live Q&A’s, zoom chats, and writing programs, like The 90 Day Novel.
The knowledge that you are supporting a fellow writer’s work, and her effort to be a resource for other writers.
I hope you’ll consider becoming a paid subscriber.
About me
I'm Donna, and I’m the writer of more than 20 books, fiction, memoir, and nonfiction alike, including THE NINE LIVES OF ROSE NAPOLITANO. This substack is called The Plot Doctor because I love working with other writers on their books, and plot & structure are my specialty. I’ve taught at a number of MFA programs, but I’ve been on faculty at FDU’s Low Residency MFA for more than a decade now. In addition to all of my books, my writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and on NPR’s All Things Considered among many other places. I got my Ph.D. in Religion and Gender Studies in 2001, with a focus in postmodern feminist philosophy of religion.
When I’m not writing myself or helping clients and students with their own writing, I’m either hanging out at home in Brooklyn, or even better, being in Barcelona where I live part-time. I love going out with friends, cooking meatballs, and I long to have a cat or dog (I’m working on that one—I just need to live in the same place first).
What readers and clients say . . .
About THE NINE LIVES OF ROSE NAPOLITANO: “Delves deep into love, motherhood, and the complicated dance that is navigating the world as a woman.” — Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author of THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD.
About CONSENT: A MEMOIR OF UNWANTED ATTENTION: "A meticulously recounted memoir of building dread, that pushes our understanding of power and its abuses. Freitas's story complicates and illuminates our ideas about harassment and harm, showing how it doesn't just begin and end within the confines of physical contact: it infiltrates our own heads, is enabled by the very structures that are supposed to be our recourse from it but too often work to cover it up."―Rebecca Traister, New York Times bestselling author of GOOD AND MAD.
About working with Donna on their books: “Donna is a master of storytelling. She read my memoir I'd been writing-- and re-writing-- for five years with no luck getting an agent. Unlike a lot of readers and editors, who miss the forest for the trees, she immediately zoomed in on a major structural weakness, telling me exactly how many pages the final section should be. She made the editing sound-- and feel-- easy. More importantly, she was able to help me know when to let go, stop writing, and send it out. I got three agent offers and the book is coming out this fall- with the final section exactly as many pages as Donna prescribed!”—Emi Nietfeld, author of ACCEPTANCE.
About Donna’s YA:
“If one takes ‘physician, heal thyself’ to a metaphysical level, one begins to approximate the keen depiction of adolescent escape and self-rescue that Donna Freitas so beautifully gives us in The Healer. I couldn’t put it down. It’s a tonic.” — Gregory Maguire, New York Times bestselling author of Wicked and Hiddensee
“Like good homemade pasta, this satisfying novel balances lightness with substance and leaves teens wanting another serving.” —Starred, Kirkus Reviews
