Amanda Bidnall Editing and Writing

Write your mind. Make it exceptional.

This Is Me

Amanda Bidnall, PhD

Editor, Writer, Historian

I’ve written history books, romance novels, and pop songs. I’ve edited psychological thrillers, textbooks, and web content. I have a doctoral degree from Boston College and a red-hot ambition to write a Sunday crossword for The New York Times.

I’ve worked with words for more than two decades, and I love them all. In my mission to uncover the best words, I approach every story—whether it’s a cozy mystery or a strategic plan—with a critical eye and attention to style and genre. Reliable and friendly, I work with you to create professional, compelling documents that motivate readers.

Whether it’s a final draft or the kernel of an idea, I can take it from okay to outstanding—without diminishing your voice or your vision.

Check out my personal creative projects below, including my new book from Liverpool University Press.

Copy Editing

Keep their eyes on the page.

Every awkward phrase and misplaced comma interrupts the flow of your writing. Your readers may pause, scratch their heads, or move on to something else. I help ensure that they keep reading by solving potential problems at the sentence and paragraph levels.

You might know that as a copy and stylistic editor, I correct errors of spelling, grammar, punctuation, formatting, accuracy, consistency, and style. But I also

• read a story for flow (the rhythm of the language);

• revise sentences that are inconsistent in tone;

• prune trailing dialogue;

• rephrase awkward sentences;

• move or delete paragraphs that aren’t working; and

• rework ineffective section and chapter transitions.

I make these and other necessary edits at the paragraph and sentence level—but I leave the author’s voice well enough alone. I don’t mess with your genius. I just ensure a smooth and satisfying experience for your readers.

Amanda Bidnall has an eagle eye and a subtle ear. Aside from the uncanny ability to round up every stray comma, she is keenly sensitive to nuance, voice, and meaning. She offers small suggestions with a big impact, which enhance flow, clarity, and meaning. Plus, she’s always prompt, responsive, and ahead of deadline.

Jen Landels

Managing Editor, Pulp Literature magazine; Author of Allaigna's Song: Overture

Amanda is one of our most frequent referrals for authors who need a high quality, thorough editing job at reasonable rates. She’s great to work with and our clients rave about her. Our corporate clients appreciate the timely turnarounds, high level of attention to detail, and her ability to help us take each project to the next level of professionalism.

Crystal Stranaghan

Owner, Crystal Clear Solutions Inc.

Amanda did a wonderful editing job on my novel with her eye for detail, flow and story, helping me fill in the holes and delete the excesses. She was always positive, encouraging, and kind. I thoroughly enjoyed working with her.

Leigh Anne Higgins

Author, Whisper to the River

Structural Editing

Every story contains the seeds of its own greatness.

As a writer, you might be concerned with character, motivation, and conflict. Or you might examine thesis, evidence, and argument. Either way, you know where you want to go, and you’ve put some of your wisdom on the page.

As a structural and developmental editor, I assess a text for clarity and force, identifying your most effective messaging, organizing it for maximum influence, and flagging or cutting weak or unnecessary material—making you look like a lean, mean writing machine.

I love seeing how much stronger my finished stories are after working with Amanda. Her developmental edits are great for helping me see where the holes in the plot or character development are, her copyedits are invaluable for the line by line polishing and making every word count, and the proofreading round is essential for making each manuscript sparkle and shine before publication! Working with Amanda is every writer’s dream come true.

CJ Hunt

Author of the Rivers End Romance and A Touch of Magic series

Writing and Research

Every word says something about you.

My academic career trained me in critical analysis and research, crucial skills that I employ as an independent writer. For every project, I consult with you and your team to identify values, commitments, and goals. I find inspiration in research. Finally, I translate your voice and write your story.

UBC-WiE-v10 for web

Every project we’ve collaborated on—from grant applications to award nominations to communications campaigns to high-concept presentation pieces—has turned out richer in ideas and depth as well as more successful because of Amanda’s involvement. She is collaborative, imaginative, thoughtful, and service-oriented, and those so-called “soft” skills are backed up by strong research, writing, and editorial skills. It’s a powerful combination.

Diane Haynes

Owner, Haynes Creative

Haynes Creative and Burnkit Design Agency produced this large-format fundraising case for UBC Applied Science and Women in Engineering BC. I was instrumental in concept creation, research, narrative development, and writing for the duration of the six-month project.

Selected Personal Projects

The West Indian Generation: Remaking British Culture in London, 1945–1965 (Liverpool University Press, 2017)

Between Britain’s imperial victory in the Second World War and its introduction of race-based immigration restriction ‘at home,’ London’s relationship with its burgeoning West Indian settler community was a cauldron of apprehension, optimism, ignorance, and curiosity.

The West Indian Generation: Remaking British Culture in London, 1945–1965 revisits this not-quite-postcolonial moment through the careers of a unique generation of West Indian artists, performers, writers, and musicians Earl Cameron, Edric Connor, Pearl Connor, Cy Grant, Ronald Moody, Barry and Lloyd Reckord, Lord Beginner, and Lord Kitchener. Colonial subjects turned British citizens, they tested the parameters of cultural belonging through their work.

Drawing upon familiar and neglected artifacts from London’s cultural archives, Amanda Bidnall sketches the feathery roots of this community as it was both nurtured and inhibited by metropolitan institutions and producers hoping variously to promote imperial solidarity, educate mainstream audiences, and sensationalize racial conflict.

Upon a shared foundation of language, education, and middle-class values, a fascinating collaboration took place between popular West Indian artists and cultural authorities like the Royal Court Theatre, the Rank Organisation, and the BBC. By analyzing the potential—and limits—of this collaboration, Bidnall demonstrates the mainstream influence and perceptive politics of pioneering West Indian artists. Their ambivalent and complicated reception by the British government, media, and populace draws a tangled picture of postwar national belonging. The West Indian Generation is necessary reading for anyone interested in the cultural ramifications of the end of empire, New Commonwealth migration, and the production of Black Britain.

“West Indian Interventions at the Heart of the Cultural Establishment: Edric Connor, Pearl Connor, and the BBC,” Twentieth Century British History (2011)

This Day Won’t Last at All (Label Obscura, 2017; originally released by Endearing Records, 2000), one of three Plumtree albums re-leased on limited-edition vinyl in 2017

Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (song, “Scott Pilgrim”) (2010)

Questions? Give me a jingle.