WORK WITH ME
Writer • Editor • Producer • Teacher
2025 Webby Honoree • 2025 Signal Award Winner
I’m Cynthia True, a writer + editor based in Los Angeles, and I help build standout stories and content — from essays and book manuscripts to narrative podcasts, screenplays, and proposals.
I work with clients privately and I teach workshops on narrative nonfiction writing and podcast development.
Writing + Editing
- Editorial and creative writing: essays, memoir, and narrative nonfiction
- Story and line editing
- Pitch decks, proposals, and treatments
- Content writing and ghostwriting
Podcast Production
- Narrative show development
- Episode structure and story arcs
- Scriptwriting and rewrite polish
- Research, booking, interview prep
- Hands-on producing from idea to delivery
About My Work
I’m drawn to stories with depth, humanity, and a little bit of edge.
My recent podcast Blow•Up — a documentary series about the resurrection of Harper’s Bazaar and its rebel editor, Liz Tilberis — explores the fashion world of the 1990s through interviews with the editors, models, photographers, and designers who lived it. I wrote, edited, and co-produced the series, in addition to writing and editing the Blow•Up companion Substack. Before that, I spent years writing and editing for TV, film, magazines, and digital platforms. I began my career at Harper’s Bazaar, was an editor at Time Out NY, a contributing editor at Glamour, and a feature writer for Rolling Stone, Texas Monthly, Bazaar, Interview, and Paper magazine.
I wrote the biography, American Scream: The Bill Hicks Story for HarperCollins / Macmillan UK (2002 / 2012) and I later co-created and executive produced the Emmy-nominated Nickelodeon show The Mighty B!, a show about a highly ambitious scout with Amy Poehler. I’ve story edited, consulted and developed projects for Dreamworks, Comedy Central, and Sony Pictures Television.
I also work privately with writers and creators on essays, memoirs, book manuscripts, narrative podcasts, proposals and pitch materials— helping shape story structure, sharpen voice, and identify the emotional core of a story. In addition, I teach workshops on narrative nonfiction writing and independent podcast development.
I thrive in collaborative environments, fleshing out stories with others, and I bring a mix of curiosity, humor, and strong story sense to everything I work on.
Feedback
— Brett Paesel, author, "Mommies Who Drink" (Warner Books)
— Kari Lizer, author, "Aren't You Forgetting Someone?" (Running Press)
— Kate Flannery, author, "Strip Tees: A Memoir of Millennial Los Angeles" (Henry Holt)