Team Member Spotlight – Chris Peters, Senior Editor

How long have you been working with Pithy Wordsmithery? What do you do here?

I have been working with Pithy on various projects since about 2014. These days my efforts focus mostly on assisting authors in the early editorial stages of publishing their work. I collaborate with writers to focus on the fundamentals behind crafting a message that is palatable to their target audience while maintaining their unique voice and vision. Together, we focus on structure, pacing, and internal logic to ensure their message is clear, concise, consistent, and clean.

What do you find inspiring about working with aspiring authors to bring their ideas to life?

Writing is so much more than transcribing thoughts to page, and every work presents its own unique set of challenges. Maintaining voice, message, and accessibility is a delicate balance that requires compromise and planning. Working with an author to really explore what it is they want to say and how we can best present that message in a way that is authoritative and persuasive is an endless puzzle, a tangled web that I never cease to delight in unraveling.

But what I find perhaps most rewarding is helping authors overcome the years of trauma inflicted upon them by English teachers throughout their education. Those dreaded red marks have dissuaded too many potential authors from really exploring the possibilities of their writing, leaving generations scarred and unwilling to even try stepping outside their comfort zone. This often leads authors to either simply copy something else they think works or (perhaps worse) eschew all rules and conventions to the detriment of their message. By focusing on the fundamentals of impactful writing and exploring the potential within those bounds, authors often discover entirely new ways to meaningfully engage their audience.

What was one of your favorite books/projects to work on?It would be impossible to choose. No two works are alike, and it is hard to compare them. Each project is not just a collaborative puzzle, but also a learning experience, a dialogue with an objective partner on how to best educate an audience on a specific message. Working with an author to dig in on the intent and content of their work presents an opportunity for both of us to educate ourselves on the nuances of a topic and on writing in general.

Why should an author choose Pithy when searching for a partner?

Behind every successful work is a team of professionals who worked very hard to complete it. Pithy is a true collaborator when it comes to producing and publishing content that is effective and engaging. Each client receives the attention and care required to deliver a product that is clean, professional, and most importantly, uniquely yours. Typing the final period of your work and hitting save is not, and should not, be the end of your manuscript’s life. Pithy helps ensure all your hard work pays off.

What are your hobbies / what’s one thing about you you’d like people to know

I love camping, being in the woods, and long road trips where your only worries are getting from point A to point B. I enjoy playing guitar and challenging myself to learn the songs I like. But I spend a lot of my productive free time dabbling in game design. Board games mostly.

Great games provide a framework from which an infinite number of stories can spring. Like an author, a game designer creates a directed experience from which the user draws value and meaning. With a book, you create a story using agreed upon rules so that the reader receives a singular message. With a game, you create the rules and the story emerges through engagement. The story exists in the moment and then is gone, experienced only once. It is a medium unlike any other.