Write great adventures

You’ve lived the adventure and you’ve come home with a story you need to tell. Let’s turn that story into a page turner with editing that takes your writing from “this is fine” to “yes, this is the story I want to tell!”

Learn how I can help
Hiker wearing an orange poncho standing next to a sign indicating the highest point on Banks Peninsula Track, with a cloudy background.

You lived the adventure!

Maybe you headed into the backcountry to find contentment in nature. Or you cycled from Alaska to Patagonia. Or you summited mountains, waded through rivers, and encountered wildlife. 

Wherever you went, you got lost, found your way, and came home changed. And you wrote it all down.

Your story deserves to be told

But maybe somewhere between going on your travels and getting the experience onto the page, something got lost in translation. Perhaps those experiences that felt so vivid in your head now read flat on the page. And no matter how many times you re-read and revise, you can’t find what’s missing on your own.

So you keep revising, but really you’re just tinkering with word choice and experimenting with semicolons.

The longer this goes on, the more the excitement fades, and the more you think, Is this story is worth telling? (It is worth telling, believe me.) That doubt happens because you’re too close to your text. You’ve been in the weeds too long so you can’t see what your story needs. 

Now you need a second set of eyes that knows what to look for. 

That’s where I come in.

Find out how I can help
Deborah on the Banks Track, Banks Peninsula
Deborah smiles and waves at the camera

Kia ora, I’m Deborah

I edit travel and adventure manuscripts for writers who know their story is almost there but can’t see what’s keeping it from sounding just right.

I edit in your voice with your writing style, so the book that comes out the other side is tighter, clearer, very much you, and one step closer to getting on bookshop shelves.

Get to know me

My editing style is all about…

Two stick figures, one helping the other, with one figure holding a lightbulb symbolising an idea or inspiration.

Giving feedback
that goes far beyond just catching typos and fixing grammar

An open book with a light bulb above it, symbolising ideas and learning.

Providing ideas
to fix issues like plot holes, flat dialogue, or dull descriptions

Icon depicting two people giving a high five, symbolising celebration or teamwork.

Making suggestions
that enhance your personality so your story sounds like you

An illustration of a hand holding a heart, with smaller hearts floating above it, set against a teal background.

Encouraging you
to bend conventions when it works

A smiling woman holding a book titled 'The Cactus Surgeon' in a greenhouse filled with various potted cacti and succulents. She is wearing a striped sweater with floral embroidery.

❝Deborah helped me bring a book to market that I can really be proud of.

– Hannah Powell, author of The Cactus Surgeon, the Selfies 2022 autobiography/memoir award

NZ Hiking Adventures

GrowFlowTravel

When the Smoke Clears: Voices From the Heart of Black Saturday, by Rick Wall and Cameron Caine

My Summer of Cricket: Three Tests, One Fan and Decades of Stories, by Nikhil Kulkarni

Travels with Tracy: Tales from a Midlife Gap Year, by Andrew Pettifer

Cover for the book Cadiz: the story of Europe's oldest city.

Cover for Out Come the Dogs by Stu Tripney

Cover of Chasing Tigers by Stu Tripney

The Cactus Surgeon

Dunedin Walks

Own Your Adventure

I don’t work with writers who want someone to tidy up their commas and call it done. I work with writers who’ve lived the adventure and want others to live it too. Together, we can refine your writing so your story reads like the the travel books you see on bookshop shelves.

You crossed borders, climbed mountains, met extraordinary people, and came home with a story worth telling.

Let’s make sure your writing does all your experience justice.

Learn about my editing services

Check out the latest posts from the Base Camp Writing blog

Write the Adventure

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A woman with silver hair and glasses is signing a book titled 'The Mould Maker' at a table. She is wearing a colourful jacket and surrounded by books and a bouquet of flowers.

❝Working with Deborah has been an amazing experience.

Her feedback, interpretations and care she brought to my manuscript was insightful, constructive and reassuring. She brought out the better writer in me. It was an absolute pleasure working with Deborah and I wouldn’t hesitate to work with her again.

– Tami Lou Castillo, author of The Mould Maker

You’ve gone on the adventure.

Now let’s craft the story.

Let’s start editing, together