What is a ZOA Book Review?

More than editing, the ZOA Book Review process teaches a skill to be a Cognitive Architect. To become a gardener of the mind and tend to conscious and subconscious thoughts….

As a Cognitive Architect, Lynn Quinn reads words on the page as if they were a house, surrounded by a magical garden of zones. Similar to a garden, each piece of writing is unique, with different types of houses, helpful pollinators, weeds to keep an eye on, and mysterious creatures hidden from sight.

Imagine the pink zone as the foundation of a house, with a goal to have most of the writing highlighted pink on the sample. These are sections work well, and can be left as is. Once a writing is reviewed and edited with the zones, the goal is to have about 50% highlighted pink. Pink is the core of the writing.

Purple sections are profound insights of the higher zone. These deep insights lean on the support of the pink zone for visualization, vibes, and clarity. Purple highlights are a small portion of the house, like a balcony at the top that provides sight beyond a surface level. Upon completion, the goal is to have about 20 – 30% of the writing purple.

Like weeds around a house, yellow zone sections seem to pop out of no-where, and are often overlooked. Similar to weeds, than can be a nuisance or a benefit. Rather than designating the yellow zone as good or bad, or right or wrong, it simply is. Once weeds on the page are discovered, a writer chooses to remove them, or nurture them.

The most elusive and rare zone is the halt zone. It’s like a hidden creature under the house, detected but not seen. The blue edits reveal there’s something there, with many details left unknown. It peeks into the depths of the subconscious mind to ask the question, “Is this critter a friend or foe?”