Mentoring
Does this look familiar or an impossibility?
Mentoring is a professional relationship with a sympathetic writer, for a timetabled duration, whose focus is your work and how you can raise it to a new level... Mentors are there to listen, to suggest, to point you to boundaries that you might choose to break through, to strengthen your craft, to increase your range of skills, to broaden your horizons and sharpen your ambitions. Sara Maitland and Martin Goodman
Is your novel writing at a stage where you want to move it up a gear? Are you at a point where you want to commit more time and energy to your novel without the expense or demands of an MA? Maybe having a mentor is what you need, someone who will engage with your writing in a challenging yet supportive way. Someone who will work with you over a sustained, structured period.
We can agree a mutually convenient schedule and number of sessions. A good rule of thumb is one submission of a novel extract of up to 10,000 words every six to eight weeks. This gives me time to read it and respond. This gives you time to take on board the feedback and write your next piece.
The 3 to 6 tutorial sessions will take place by email.
Please send a sample of your writing, up to 2,000 words (an extract from your current project or a short story), along with a covering letter including brief information about what sort of manuscript you are submitting (e.g. romance, literary, fantasy, crime), something about yourself and your writing journey, any achievements or publications, or writing courses attended, what you hope to achieve through mentoring and beyond.
Please remember that mentoring isn’t editing or manuscript appraisal. It doesn’t guarantee bagging a literary agent or publication deal. It isn't therapy. But it does offer the opportunity for you to push yourself to be a better writer with a better novel.
If you just want feedback on a specific piece of work then maybe consider our manuscript appraisal service. Click HERE
Is your novel writing at a stage where you want to move it up a gear? Are you at a point where you want to commit more time and energy to your novel without the expense or demands of an MA? Maybe having a mentor is what you need, someone who will engage with your writing in a challenging yet supportive way. Someone who will work with you over a sustained, structured period.
We can agree a mutually convenient schedule and number of sessions. A good rule of thumb is one submission of a novel extract of up to 10,000 words every six to eight weeks. This gives me time to read it and respond. This gives you time to take on board the feedback and write your next piece.
The 3 to 6 tutorial sessions will take place by email.
Please send a sample of your writing, up to 2,000 words (an extract from your current project or a short story), along with a covering letter including brief information about what sort of manuscript you are submitting (e.g. romance, literary, fantasy, crime), something about yourself and your writing journey, any achievements or publications, or writing courses attended, what you hope to achieve through mentoring and beyond.
Please remember that mentoring isn’t editing or manuscript appraisal. It doesn’t guarantee bagging a literary agent or publication deal. It isn't therapy. But it does offer the opportunity for you to push yourself to be a better writer with a better novel.
If you just want feedback on a specific piece of work then maybe consider our manuscript appraisal service. Click HERE
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Happy CustomersRen Powell
I couldn't be more impressed with the many pages of meaningful, exact and encouraging feedback. Sophie's attention to detail was so obvious that, where I thought she had "missed" things in my story, I could be certain that I hadn't actually written those things. The list of books she recommend were not general books on structure of things I could have found myself on the want-to-be-a-writer shelf in the bookstore. Each book specifically addressed my own work: a similar theme, a similar style, a similar use of p.o.v. etc. Her comments were often in the form of questions - many of which I am still working on answering for myself. She never offered rewrites or attempted to write my book for me. Nor did she ever never attempt to guide me write like she does. She pointed out the weaknesses in the manuscript in concrete terms: not "you have pov problems" (which I knew), but giving me examples in my own writing to show where the pov worked and where it shifted gears awkwardly. I feel that the evaluation will actually function as a guidebook for the rewrites I need to do. In my experience many great writers don't have the ability to teach. Sophie does. Michelle J Heatley To entrust a manuscript for a novel to someone else is a huge leap of faith. I carefully researched the options open to me and decided on Creative Writing Matters to send a year of my life to. Creative Writing Matters have met and exceeded all my expectations. I received my manuscript back along with a full and considered report. The report detailed who, what and why and summarised how the reader would respond to the novel. Inconsistencies, silly mistakes and positive points were all addressed with constructive and practical advice. Areas to be developed were noted; improvements to the general writing; where additional scenes would help the storyline; suggestions on dialogue. This assessment has given me a focus and I now find much more in my novel. I have been able to make positive changes to my first draft. I have used the guidance given to methodically go through my manuscript and now feel confident that it is of a quality to send to agents and publishers. Amanda Saint Thank you for such an insightful review of my novel. The big change you suggested completely transformed the story and I would never have spotted what it needed without your help. . |
