What is the difference between a coach and a mentor? Generally, coaches are engaged for short-term projects. Mentors tend to create long-term relationships with their clients.
A writing coach or mentor can be an invaluable career partner. You may have a project in mind but aren’t sure where or how to begin. A coach or mentor can guide you through the first steps and get you headed in the right direction. You may need help developing your book concept or choosing a structure or simply want to bounce ideas off someone who will give you honest feedback.
Seek a coach or mentor who has experience in your genre or subject area. The issues that arise with food writing are not the same as those that plague memoirists. Due to the nature of the working relationship, whether you “click” or feel comfortable with a potential mentor or coach is also a critical consideration.
Writing coaches or mentors can help in the following areas:
- Overcoming creativity blocks and clearing obstacles that stand in the way of your writing.
- Clarifying your writing goals. Fine-tuning what you want to write and why, who you want to reach, and what impact you hope to have on your potential audience.
- Developing a realistic action plan to achieve your goals, assess your progress, help you stay focused and make adjustments along the way.
- Prioritizing projects.
- They also may be available to help develop the framework for your story or organize a nonfiction book proposal.
Most mentors and coaches offer a complimentary consultation call so that you can ask questions, discuss rates, get to know each other, and determine whether you are a good fit.
Listings are below in alphabetical order.
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Michael Avery
Fearless Advocates Press
617-335-5023
mavery@suffolk.edu
Michael Avery offers help writing accurate courtroom scenes and with other fictional legal issues. He is a graduate of Yale College, Yale Law School, and the M.F.A. Bennington Writing Seminars. He has tried hundreds of civil and criminal cases and argued in the U.S. Supreme Court. A professor emeritus at Suffolk Law School, he taught Evidence and Trial Practice. He writes both fiction, the Susan Sorella Mysteries Series, and non-fiction about law.
Your reader will fall out of the trance of your story if they’re distracted by legal mistakes at a trial. Create greater drama and build your narrative with true to life direct examinations and expert cross-examinations. Get spot-on legal rulings for your judge with a little friendly coaching from the professor. You work hard to tell a good story. Let Michael help you get the law right.
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Dr. Joanne S. Bodin
Jugband Enterprises
505-507-8326
jbodinauthor@gmail.com
Coaching one-to-one. Help with writing techniques, motivation, continuity editing, and over-all feedback. Work with emerging or experienced writers in poetry, literary fiction, short stories, memoirs.
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Julie Klein
206-786-0560
JKleineditor@gmail.com
www.jklein-editor.com
Line editing, copy editing, and proofreading for fiction and creative nonfiction. Formatting for manuscripts, dissertations, print-on-demand. E-book conversion, transcript and typing services also available as well as general administrative assistance.
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Jacqueline Murray Loring
Enchanted Adventures in Writing
508-542-2013
JacquelineMurrayLoring@gmail.com
www.JacquelineMurrayLoring.com
Need to expand your plot or your character’s lives or back story? Need a world of new ideas or paths upon which to build or stretch your story? Jacqueline Murray Loring is ready to brainstorm your story ideas and mentor you into your first draft. Loring is a writer, award-winning poet, a produced playwright, screenwriter, and filmmaker. She works as an educator, book editor, and book and script consultant. Loring is available to mentor writers needing creative brainstorming.
Jacqueline Murray Loring’s work has been published by a traditional publisher, as the prize for winning an international poetry chapbook contest, by a small press and she has self-published several books for herself and for other writers. She is knowledgeable about publishing including writing fiction and nonfiction queries, writing a book proposal or book synopsis, researching agents, small presses and publishers, and contracts.
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Carol March
Compass Rose
505-235-9753
cmarch555@msn.com
www.CarolHollandMarch.com
Author Carol March is an editor, teacher, and writing coach who teaches creative expression, storytelling, memoir and legacy writing, and self-editing for writers. She has published novels, short stories, essays, and an award-winning nonfiction book, When Spirit Whispers and its accompanying workbook.
As a career coach, Carol has worked with people in transition and now applies her coaching and motivational skills to helping writers bring their creative ideas to fruition. Her services include project planning and brainstorming, motivation and support, resources for market research and publishing, and practical advice on how to overcome barriers.
“We all need help to stay on track and it helps me stay motivated by helping others with their creative work.”
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RJ Mirabal
505-299-4916
rjmcreativearts@gmail.com
www.rjmirabal.wordpress.com
RJ taught high school English, speech, and drama for 39 years and has published four fiction books in the last seven years. He can Coach and Mentor new writers. From what he’s learned from his mistakes, RJ can help one avoid most major missteps when beginning the writer’s journey.
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Marcia Rosen
marciagrosen@gmail.com
www.MarciaRosen.com
Marcia Rosen is the award-winning author of eleven books including her newest one, An Agatha, Raymond, Sherlock and Me Mystery: Murder at the Zoo, plus The Senior Sleuths and Dying To Be Beautiful Mystery Series and The Gourmet Gangster: Mysteries and Menus (Menus by her son Jory Rosen). She is also the author of The Woman’s Business Therapist and My Memoir Workbook. For 25 years she was the owner of a successful national marketing agency.
Topics she has taught and presented over the past twenty years include: Encouraging the Writer Within You, Marketing for Authors, Writing Your Memoir and Murders Have Their Place, Hearing Voices of Past Famous Detectives. Many articles on these topics have been published.
She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Southwest Writers, N.M. Book Association, Women Writing the West, Public Safety Writer’s Association and National Association of Independent Writers and Editors.
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ReVaH Loring
505-459-7044
letsdanceinabq@hotmail.com
www.letsdanceinabq.com
ReVaH is an empowerment coach and a jane of many trades. ReVaH has been the SWW Office Coordinator, teaches Zumba fitness classes and is a Gyrotonic Level 1 Teacher. She is able to assist with basic Microsoft computer assistance or Android phones. She teaches by sitting with people, taking time to show them how they can do it yourself. ReVaH’s expertise is helping people know that they know. ReVaH is a very patient teacher and enjoys helping others. How much ease could we create together?
