The Story Edit
For people doing good, interesting or useful things… and struggling to explain why they matter.
You might run an ethical startup, a social enterprise, a beloved small business, a community garden, a historical society, a small arts organisation or an environmental project. You might be an artist, a writer, a designer, or a founder who has built a business around doing things a little differently.
Whatever you're doing, there's probably a reason it matters to you. And usually, there's something quite compelling about it.
The trouble is that the words on your website don't always manage to convey that.
Sometimes they've become too corporate. Sometimes they're trying to say too much. Sometimes they've been through so many rounds of editing — perhaps with a little help from AI — that they've become polished but strangely interchangeable.
The Story Edit is a fresh pair of experienced eyes. I'll help you work out what's worth saying, what's getting in the way, and how to make the good stuff easier to see.
One-off · $950 AUD · delivered within 7 days
Your work is probably more interesting than your website makes it sound.
This happens all the time.
A brilliant community organisation ends up describing itself in the language of mundane bureaucracy. An artist's website becomes a jumbled listed of adjectives. A sustainable business starts sounding like every other sustainable business on the internet.
And now AI makes it so easy to keep tinkering.
Make it warmer. Make it clearer. Make it more engaging. Make it more professional. Have another go.
The words get smoother, but somehow the thing itself gets harder to see.
I'm interested in finding that thing again.
The particular idea, quality, experience or point of view that makes your organisation matter.
Who is The Story Edit for?
It's for organisations and people who have something worth saying and don't want it flattened into generic business language.
That might be:
A community organisation that does remarkable work but struggles to explain it to people who don't already know them.
An arts organisation preparing a new website or trying to articulate what makes its work distinctive.
An environmental or sustainability business that wants to communicate its purpose without sounding like every other organisation using the same language.
A charity or not-for-profit trying to make its work more understandable and compelling to supporters, funders or the wider public.
A social enterprise whose story is considerably more interesting than its current About page suggests.
An artist, writer or creative practitioner who needs to explain their work without turning it into a corporate personal brand.
A small business or founder-led organisation that has changed and grown, while its old website has stayed behind.
You might be preparing a new website, launching something, applying for funding, looking for support, or simply feeling that your current words aren't quite doing the job.
You don't need to be a certain size or have a certain kind of organisation.
You just need to care about what you're doing — and want other people to understand it.
So how does The Story Edit work?
You send me your website and whatever else helps me understand your work. I'll read it properly, think about what you're trying to communicate, and give you an outside perspective on what is and isn't coming through.
I'll look for the good stuff you've perhaps become too close to see, as well as the things that are making it harder for other people to see it.
Your Story Edit will cover:
What people are likely to understand
And where they might get confused, lose interest or simply fail to see what makes you different.
What's interesting
The ideas, stories, experience and qualities that are genuinely yours.
What's getting in the way
Generic language, unnecessary complexity, old positioning or anything else obscuring the point.
What I'd change
Three to five things I'd tackle first, rather than a giant list of everything you could possibly improve.
How it could sound
Where useful, I'll give you examples of clearer, more natural ways to express the important bits.
Where to go from here
A straightforward set of priorities you can use yourself, give to your designer or copywriter, or use to guide your next round of writing.
Why pay someone to do this?
Because sometimes you are simply too close to your own work.
And because the cheapest way to get more words isn't necessarily the cheapest way to get the right words.
You can ask AI to critique your website. You can ask a copywriter to rewrite it. You can commission a full branding project for several thousand dollars.
The Story Edit sits somewhere in between.
At $950, you get an experienced person spending real time understanding what you're doing and making some decisions about how best to communicate it, without committing to a much larger branding or communications project.
It's particularly useful before you spend money on a new website, rebrand, campaign or pitch.
You get the thinking. What you do with it afterwards is up to you.
A note about AI
AI is useful. Most people have used it to work on their business writing.
But there's a difference between generating possible words and recognising the thing that is worth saying.
AI can make a sentence warmer or shorter. It can give you fifty alternatives.
It can go round and round in circles until all meaning has been squeezed out.
It doesn't necessarily know that the odd little detail you nearly deleted is actually the most memorable thing about your organisation.
It struggles to identify the nuanced human and societal context that makes your ‘thing’ so special.
That's the bit I'm interested in.
What you'll receive
The Story Edit · $950 AUD
You'll send me your website and any other useful material — perhaps a pitch deck, brochure, project information, existing messaging or just some background about what you're trying to do.
I'll spend up to five hours reviewing it and thinking it through.
Within seven days you'll receive:
a clear diagnosis of what's working and what isn't
the strongest points of difference I can see
the story I think is worth bringing forward
three to five priority changes
practical examples of stronger messaging where useful
a clear order of operations for what to tackle next
ways to keep sharing and growing your brand voice into the future
an optional 30-minute follow-up conversation
One-off. No retainer. No subscription. No obligation to work together again.
A little about me
I'm Suzanne Barton, a communications strategist, published author, writer and editor.
I've worked in corporate communications and publishing, and have spent a lot of my career taking complicated ideas and finding the clearest, most engaging way to explain them.
I also know what happens when organisations try too hard to sound professional. The personality gets scrubbed out. The interesting bits get buried. Everything starts sounding reassuringly correct and rather like everything else.
I prefer the other thing.
Finding what is particular about your work, and giving it enough room to be seen.
You probably don't need another rewrite.
You might just need someone to look at the whole thing and say:
“That's the bit. That's what people need to understand.”