Writing coaching

Coaching is for writers who want to build the draft themselves. Where editing improves one document, coaching improves the writer.

How it works

We work in sessions structured around whatever you’re writing right now. Between sessions you write, and in the sessions we look at what you’ve produced and work out what’s holding it up.

The work is real from the first session, with no exercises and no warm-up.

From a blank page. If you don’t know where to start, we start with the shape of the piece, who’s reading it and what they need to come away with, and you leave with an outline you can write to.

From a stuck draft. If you’ve written yourself into a corner, we work out where the wrong turn was and what to do about it. Often the fix is a decision you’ve been avoiding rather than a writing problem.

Through to the finish. We stay with it until the draft is done, and we’ll tell you when it is.

Who it suits

• Consultants and analysts who write to a deadline and want it to take less out of them
• Researchers working on a thesis or a first paper
• Executives who’ve been told their writing is a bottleneck
• Anyone writing something high-stakes and nonfiction for the first time

Coaching a student

Coaching a student means helping you write your own work. We’ll talk through structure and argument and teach you to spot the problems yourself, so that the next draft needs less help.

The writing stays yours, as work you submit for a degree has to.

What it costs

$90 an hour, billed for the time we spend together and any reading we do beforehand.

Most people book a block of sessions rather than a single one, because the progress happens between them. Tell us what you’re writing and we’ll suggest how many.

Billing is hourly at our standard rates. If you’re working to a fixed budget, tell us and we’ll adjust the scope to fit.