WRITING MENTORSHIP

Do you love writing and want to do more of it? Would you love to get to work with a professional writer and editor and have that person cheering for you as they help you grow as a writer? Writing mentorship is for you.

Do you hate writing and resent having to do it? Do you just want it to be easier and less miserable? Writing mentorship is also for you.

Writing mentorship is a one-on-one learning relationship between you and me -- an experienced professional writer and editor with extensive background in teaching and coaching writers, including teaching writing at the college level.

Writing mentorship isn’t about right and wrong answers. It’s about building a relationship with a professional who reads your work, takes you seriously, and helps you level up.

DO YOU WORK WITH THE KIND OF STUFF I WRITE?

Probably! I specialize in nonfiction, but I also work with fiction (especially fantasy and historical fiction), and with writing that mixes multiple genres. Do you want to write a play that includes hip-hop, sonnets, and biology? Cool.

Some of the kinds of nonfiction I work with include: creative essays, research-based essays, memoir, journalism, reviews, travel writing, history, science, and writing about bodies, gender, and sexuality.

I’m a former professor, so I’m also super comfortable working with explicitly academic writing and with things like college and internship applications.

HOW DOES THIS WORK? WHAT DO WE DO?

Writing mentorship happens through a combination of writing, reading, and talking one-on-one (either Zoom or phone). Here’s what the process looks like.

Step 1: Saying Hi -- We start with an initial conversation via phone or Zoom where we say hi, get to know each other a little, talk about writing, and I learn about what you’re looking for from writing mentorship.

Step 2: You Share Some Writing -- Each week, you share some of your writing that you’d like to work on, either through Google Docs or as an email attachment. This chunk of writing can be up to 20 pages long. It can be a lot less. Even 1 page is ok! It just can’t be longer than 20 pages.

Step 3: Review -- I read through your writing and make some notes and written comments on it.

Step 4: We Talk -- We talk about your writing one on one via phone, Zoom, or email. I give you my comments and ask you some questions about your writing. We’ll talk about your goals for your writing and what ideas you already have.

Step 5: Action Steps -- I’ll give you some ideas about how to do the things you want to do. Sometimes I’ll give you a writing prompt or some specific directions about things that will improve your work. Or maybe you’ll ask me things like “what would happen if I did it this way?” and we’ll do some experiments.

Step 6: You Share Some Writing -- After you’ve worked on whatever we’ve agreed on, you send me what you’ve done and we go through the same process of review, talking, and taking action.

Step 7: We Continue Exploring -- We won’t keep working on the same bit of writing forever. As we work together, there will be other pieces of writing you want or need to do. You get to choose when you’re ready to send me something new, and we’ll continue with that.

WHAT KINDS OF STUFF CAN WE WORK ON?

We can work on whatever makes your writing better and makes your experience as a writer better.

For some people that might mean working on making your sentences clearer and more direct so you can say exactly what you want to say, or building arguments using great evidence so your essays hit their target every time. Other people might want to work on things like creating characters or worldbuilding to tell kickass stories. Perhaps you’re curious about getting really good at research-based writing. What excites you?

If you simply have to write something for an application and you just want it to not suck? That’s valid! Let’s work on what needs to happen so it won’t.

HELP! I HAVE TO WRITE A THING AND THERE’S A DEADLINE!

Writing mentorship can coexist with deadlines if there’s sufficient time to read, comment, and talk about your written work so that you’ll have enough time to revise. If you’re starting from scratch and haven’t written anything yet we’ll need at least 3 weeks to put it together, review, and revise. If you already have a draft, we’ll need at least 2 weeks to work together to make it shine.

HELP! I FEEL STUCK AND I CAN’T SEEM TO WRITE ANYTHING!

Let’s talk about it! Writing mentorship is good for lots of things including helping to get people unstuck in their writing.

RATES

Writing Mentorship with Dr. Hanne Blank Boyd is currently available at $75/week.

This includes one cycle of steps 2-5 listed under “What To Expect”

At the start of your Writing Mentorship it also includes the introductory phone call or Zoom.

Developing a Writing Mentorship relationship takes time, so there is a minimum 6 week commitment.

Writing Mentorship can be continued as long as desired.

BIO

Dr. Hanne Blank Boyd is the author of a number of books including It Ain’t Gonna Lick Itself: Housekeeping In Spite of It All (2024, serialized here), Fat (2020, Bloomsbury), Straight: The Surprisingly Short History of Heterosexuality (2014, Beacon Press), Virgin: The Untouched History (2007, Bloomsbury), and numerous others. Her books have been translated into several languages, including Japanese and Turkish.

She is a writer and editor providing a suite of literary services including book coaching, writing mentorship, and developmental editing.

A historian, bioethicist, and opera singer by training, Hanne holds degrees from Emory University, Indiana University, and the New England Conservatory of Music. Formerly on faculty at Denison University, she has been a lecturer and visiting speaker at institutions including Harvard University, Brandeis University, Emory University School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Alabama, and many others.

Hanne lives with her family in a small town tucked into the salt marshes and historical pirate coves of the Cape Fear river delta, a few miles from a barrier island where she can regularly be found walking the dogs on the beach.

Contact to get started!