Last week I was heartbroken to learn that author and editor Susan DeFreitas recently died from cancer.
Susan has been a frequent and valued contributor to this site, with more than 40 unique and informative articles for writers. She first reached out to me in 2017, suggesting a guest post on toxic feedback, generating a vibrant discussion in the comments. Her most recent guest post went live in early February 2025 on wave structure for scenes.
I also partnered with Susan on online classes, where writers benefited from her warm and generous instruction. Just a handful of the many positive comments we gathered after:
Love love love Susan Defreitas’s insights and expertise.
Susan’s knowledge of how the whole is made up of the parts brings a deeper understanding of the parts as a homogenous whole rather than puzzle pieces that may or may not make a viable picture. Thank you for sharing your heart.
This was honestly riveting! I found everything Susan shared to be exceptionally valuable, thought-provoking and clearly articulated. The power point was easy to follow and not overwhelming and her pace of delivery of lots of complex material was perfect. It’s apparent that she loves this subject matter and that made it a delight to learn from her. As an actor, I found that Susan’s perspective about film characters was a reminder of how actors do their interior work to fully ‘become’ the characters they play. This led to an “aha!” moment: I can borrow from that background to get into the heads of my characters. This was a lovely and unexpected encouragement to realize that I know how to approach this better than I had anticipated.
Jennie Nash has written a lovely tribute.
You can still buy Susan’s classes and help support the family she left behind. She’s also editor of the Le Guin anthology, Dispatches from Anarres, and author of the novel Hot Season.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
Susan must have had a beautiful heart, a reality of her authentic self. That’s the kind of person I want to be, and remembered as fondly by my friends.
Oh no, I am so sorry to hear this. I just took part in one of her webinars that was promoted through your site Jane. I had read her guest essays here but this was the first time I saw her in person. She was so warm, just a lovely, lovely person. I had no idea she was so close to the end. I didn’t even know her and I am so sad.
thank you for this lovely tribute, Susan and I have been parasocial pals for 20+ years now and it’s heartbreaking to learn she has passed. She was brilliant, grounded, and beautiful. I’ll miss her soulful posts.
I’m sorry to read about the passing of Susan. She must have been a lovely person!
I am so sorry to hear that we lost such a lovely person! She gave me good advice as an amateur writer and helped me find the right editor. I just saw a post on LinkedIn where she was talking about character arc and I was literally thinking how good she is at explaining such basic writing concepts. Rest in peace, Susan.
Jane, what a sad thing. I was familiar with her through her fine posts on WriterUnboxed. Therese Walsh wrote a lovely tribute to Susan there: https://writerunboxed.com/2025/03/03/rip-susan-defreitas/
Rest in peace.
Susan edited a book of mine and gave me the most loving and helpful feedback. I’m so sorry to learn of her passing. May her memory be a blessing.
I was also sorry to hear of her passing. She was such a wonderful teacher! I had the pleasure of joining some of her online talks. Daniel David Wallace posted one today from the 2022 “Escape the Plot Forest.” It’s one of my favorites, “The Incredible Expanding Plot Problem.” She had such a lovely way of going beyond the mechanics of writing to the soul of the writer. So sorry to lose her.
Susan’s self-paced courses are outstanding. They take you through all phases of creation of long form fiction from character arc through final draft and even pitching your work. She was a gifted educator with one of the finest minds I ever encountered for synthesizing and distilling the volume of advice and books on the subject to something both highly useful and widely generalizable. She respected her students’ visions for their work. Her death is utterly tragic but perhaps there can be some small solace in the fact she did have the opportunity to complete her educational masterwork. Again, I cannot recommend her classes enough.
I’m so sorry to hear of Susan’s passing. I knew her only from her frequent blog writing, which was always so helpful and insightful. My condolences to her family and friends, and all of you who knew her in the real world.