Coaching/Editing packages available
Creative Writing Coaching
$50.00/month
- Read and analyze your favorite novels/short stories
- Writing project, from conception to submitting for publication
- Focused writing exercises that address your weaknesses
- This is ideal for a beginner or someone more experienced who doesn't have a completed manuscript.
10,000 Words
- $150/month with coaching
- $100/month BETA READ ONLY
- Full criticism of a text up to (about) 10,000 words. Send me the file or a link to a Google doc. I'll embed comments into the text.
- Unlimited coaching: chat, email, idea kicking, feedback, creative writing exercises, etc.
50,000 words
- $300/month with coaching
- $250/month BETA READ ONLY
- Full analysis of a text under 100 pages. Includes unlimited chat, email, idea kicking, feedback, and creative writing exercises.
- I will help you get your text where you want it to be. Unlimited drafts. Unlimited conversations. Even if you decide to demolish the text and rebuild one tiny part of it into something entirely different, I'm there for you.
Unlimited words
- $500.00/month
- COACHING INCLUDED FOR FREE
- Full analysis of a text a full-length novel. Includes unlimited chat, email, idea kicking, feedback, and creative writing exercises.
- I will help you get your text where you want it to be. Unlimited drafts. Unlimited conversations.
What is Creative Writing Coaching?
Think of creative writing coaching as like a creative writing college class. With this class, you work one-on-one with me.
If you have a text you would like critiqued, I'll go through it, presumably section by section, and make comments. If you have a Google drive account, I can make comments and you can respond to them.
This is THE BEST KIND OF WRITING INSTRUCTION THAT COULD EXIST. Using this technique, we can address weaknesses or areas for improvement on the spot.
Say you're having consistent problems with dialogue. I can give you exercises to do which will help you sharpen this skill. Creative writing coaching isn't designed to help you through your current project.
All of this is designed to help you become stronger for the future, no matter what your skill level.
examples of aWriting Exercises
- If you're having trouble with plot and character structure, there's the Humpty Dumpty exercise. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall, Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the King's horses and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Using the text, identify who the agent of action is. Then change the story to make everyone else involved as an agent action. In particular, (for bonus character work), explain why Humpty is sitting on that damn wall at all.
- Exploring Vernacular: if you're having trouble with writing dialogue specifically for women, go out in public and sit in a crowded area. With great descretion, listen to the conversations around you. Listen to what women say and how they form sentences, their vocabulary, their rest words (like, uh, so, what). Take notes. Then listen to men. How do they speak? What is their vocabulary? What do both groups do that are similar or different? ***This is a common exercise and the spy aspect makes it fun, but PLEASE be respectful and careful.***
- If you're having trouble with texture, we would take the first chapter of your favorite novel, and analyze it. Recently, I did this exercise with Stephen King's It. We went through the first three chapters and analyzed the storm, cellar, and parents. We found every word that built the world and were able to track exactly how King created and perpetuated horror in such a short period of time. This is close work that seems tedious (which, I'll grant, it may be, but I love it), which is why the novel is your choice. One of the failures of literature classes is teaching what must be taught vs what students want to be taught. Stephen King is literature. Teach him.
- If you want to exercise your creativity, we can do the Brick exercise. A brick has one basic use: it's used in the construction of walls and pathways. Come up with 10 different new uses for a brick. This is a standard test of creativity. We'll take it further. Pick three of your favorite new uses and write brief scenarios around this usage. Then pick one of these uses and expand the scenario, but this time making the brick a sentient being capable of speech and movement.
What does criticism include?
Using a Google Doc or PDF of your text, I will give embedded comments that will ask questions, make observations, highlight confusion, etc. At the end, I will provide an overall statement about the story, characters, sensitivity, creativity, genre, and any other matters I feel warrant attention.
The object of the criticism is always to make the text as strong as possible. It is never personal. I will endeavor to be sensitive and careful about the language I use. If I fail to do so, I will encourage a discussion so we could find a common ground for communication.
Analysis
Plot and character structure, sentence construction, word choice, and punctuation: I will examine every aspect of your writing to an unusual depth.
Sensitivity
This reading isn't only for potential offensive material. I also provide an overall statement as to the message of the story: what lesson will your readers receive?
Genre
Whether or not you wish to adhere to an established genre or go off the rails, this is an imperative understanding of the text in order to create the work you want to create.
Creativity
Is your work cliche? Are your characters stereotypes? Is your plot predictable? Does the story lack texture, seemingly insignificant details that flesh out the world?
FAQs without the Qs
- All package months will start and end on the date of first payment.
- There are no refunds if an entire month is needed to complete the work.
- In the event that only a portion of the month is needed to complete the agreed upon work, the client will be welcome to submit another manuscript of the same length, thereby continuing our arrangement.
- Payment will be made through Zelle or Paypal.
- If affording coaching is a problem, please speak with me. I'm not an asshole. I want to help you if you want to learn.
- At any time, the coaching/editing relationship can be terminated by either party.
- All packages are by the month because I cannot, with absolute certainty, predict how long it will take to work on a text.
- I will be sending the writer chapter by chapter updates, either in the form of pdfs or comments on a shared document. The writer will ALWAYS know where I am and what my progress is.