#355 Around the Table with Rozi Doci

This week, we're running a takeover in collaboration with Reedsy freelancer Rozi Doci! In addition to the $250 cash prize, the winner of this week's contest will receive a complimentary Messy Middle Diagnostic from Rozi: a 20,000-word developmental read (typically worth $500) targeting the structural issue most novels-in-progress face, with a clear revision path mapped out.

Hello, writers! I'm Rozi Doci, a developmental editor, line editor, and copy editor with more than a decade of experience working with fiction writers and self-publishing authors. I serve on the Board of the Editorial Freelancers Association, coordinate its New York City Chapter, and have presented at the ACES Conference. As a freelance editor, Reedsy professional, and founder of The Developmental, I've read and edited thousands of pages.

Though every manuscript is different, one of the most common notes I give across the genres I work in — fantasy, romantasy, suspense, and psychological thrillers — is about POV. It shapes clarity, tension, pacing, and reader connection, and when it slips the reader notices.

I see this most often in writers attempting omniscient narration. Omniscient is not a free pass to drift from mind to mind. It's one narrator with a distinct voice and vantage point, controlling access to the whole room without becoming any one character.

The gathering scene is one of the oldest tests of omniscient prose because it turns a room into a pressure chamber. Put several people together, let the reader know what each of them is hiding, and suddenly the real story is more than what’s said aloud.

This week, I invite you to write stories where multiple characters and their private stakes collide. A meal. A wake. A confrontation. Challenge yourself to write it in true omniscient narration.

Make it interesting. Make it fun. I can't wait to read your work.

Special Update: The Results 🏆

The top pick for this takeover was "The Funeral and the Feast" by Diana H. Here's what guest judge Rozi Doci had to say:

When I took over the Reedsy Prompts contest, I chose a challenge that editors and writers wrestle with all the time: true omniscient narration.

Omniscient is one of the most misunderstood points of view in fiction. It isn't a license to hop between characters at will. It's a narrator with its own authority, perspective, and control over the story being told.

That challenge drew thoughtful and ambitious submissions. Thank you to everyone who entered.

Congratulations to this week's winner, Diana H., for The Funeral and the Feast. Diana's story is true omniscient throughout. The narrator moves between Maria, Claudia, Victor, and Ana without slipping into the consciousness of any one of them, carrying its own perspective and intelligence to portray characters with honesty, even at their most unflattering.

As an editor, I'm always fascinated by the relationship between technique and storytelling. The strongest entries this week understood that point of view is as much a storytelling choice as it is a craft choice. The way a story is told shapes what a reader feels.

Thank you again to everyone who shared their work and trusted me with reading it.

Congratulations to contest winner Diana H. and the runners-up, Jack Wilson and Mike Hedlesky!