Develop your craft and help homeless people
St Mungo's charity now benefits from all my 1-1 mentoring bookings
Hello friends,
Everywhere I go in the world I witness increasing numbers of people sleeping on the streets. I have just spent two months in a town in British Columbia, Canada, and the amount of rough sleepers here is heartbreaking. In the UK, official figures just released show that around 300,000 people are homeless but all of the charities working with them believe this number is nowhere near the reality of the scale of it.
While I’ve been here, I have run a lottery in the Retreat West community to raise funds for St Mungo’s, a UK charity that helps street sleepers, which raised £211, and the winners get writing-related stuff from me in return. I have now decided to donate 10% of my income from the 1-1 mentoring I offer here at The Mindful Writer to St Mungo’s, too.
I know that times are tight for many people right now, so I’m also offering a 10% discount to everyone who books. Use the discount code STMUNGO at checkout to apply it. The mentoring is available to book in blocks of 1, 2 or 3 and we can schedule the sessions over two to six months at a time that suits.
In my time here as well, I have thought a lot about the themes in my writing as I set out to write my third novel, and I have realised that homelessness appears in both my published novels, the novella-in-flash I’ve just finished, and is in my new novel I’m just starting too. It also appears in several of my short fictions. Maybe it’s because I am homeless. Although I wasn't when I wrote many of these stories but as my husband said the other day when I mentioned this to him, the fact that I felt like I never fitted in with my family, and never believed home was a safe space when I was growing up, that maybe in my heart I’ve always felt homeless. Maybe I have.
But I know that I am homeless in a very different way to the people that St Mungo’s help, and I know that I want to do all I can to help them too within my limited means.
And to be able to do so while also getting to help writers develop their craft is a privilege and I am so grateful that I can do this.
With love,
Why work with me?
As an indie publisher at my creative venture, Retreat West, from 2018-2023 I published 24 books. These were novels, memoirs, short story collections and anthologies. Retreat West Books won the 2020 Most Innovative Publisher Prize at the Saboteur Awards and many of the books I published were commended, listed and won awards.
I have been designing and teaching online creative writing courses, and live workshops, for many years and I’ve worked as an editor on hundreds of manuscripts. I’m passionate about helping writers get to the heart of their characters to create memorable narrators that really come alive for the reader. I also help novel writers who hate plotting to create story outlines that still allow them the freedom to discover as they write.
I’m the author of two novels: As If I Were A River (2016), which was longlisted for the Guardian Not The Booker Prize, a NetGalley Top 10 Book of the Month and a Book Magnet Blog Top 20 Book of 2016 and Remember Tomorrow (2019). My short stories have been widely published, listed and placed in many international prizes and were nominated for Best Small Fictions 2023. I’ve just completed a novella-in-flash, have almost finished a flash fiction collection, and I’m now working on my third novel.
So I bring experience of both sides of the publishing world, and experience writing and editing stories of all lengths, to you and your words.
How does the mentoring work?
Each mentoring session includes the following:
Zoom catch-up
We will have a 1-hour Zoom meeting to:
Discuss and develop your ideas
Go over the work you’ve sent me for review
Look at how story works and recommendations on ways to take it all to the next level
Set goals and next steps aligned with your hopes
As a learning tool, I’ll recommend stories and/or novels to study that are aligned with your hopes for your work
Editorial input
I will review a story (or stories) or extract from a longer piece up to 3,000 words in total to help you:
Find the emotional core of your story
Bring characters to life and deliver emotional resonance
Ensure the structure is working and you’re telling it from the best point of view
Look at your sentences and words and show you ways to make them shine
How much does it cost?
Book one session for £100 or book multiple sessions for a discounted rate. Once I have received your payment, I will be in touch to arrange the Zoom session and let you know when to deliver your work to me by. I look forward to working with you!
What writers who’ve worked with me have said
I have worked with the writers below on novels, short stories, flash fictions and creative non-fiction.
I wholeheartedly urge anyone who is interested in understanding, improving and refining their writing to take advantage of the mentoring sessions offered by Amanda. Not only does she give valuable advice about the nuts-and-bolts of storytelling, she digs so much deeper into what your story is about, exposing what is missing but also revealing hidden layers to be explored, helping you craft stories with depth which are meaningful and memorable.
The mentoring I have received has enabled me to not only find the heart of the stories we have looked at together, but also to apply Amanda’s insightful observations, ideas and mindful approach to my rewrites and new writing, and the difference is incredible. - Sally Curtis
Amanda gives very insightful observations, asks just the right questions, and always has encouraging suggestions to keep me going. I’m particularly grateful to her for showing me that organization is not only the key but the entry to writing with confidence. - Annie Bien
Amanda treated my work with kindness and respect, while offering excellent guidance as to what aspects of my novel I needed to work on and improve. - Sarah Barnett
I was lucky enough to have Amanda as my mentor for a year while working on the rewrite of my novel; Amanda convinced me it needed a rewrite and not another draft. With Amanda by my side – she didn’t actually sit next to me, but it often felt like it – I felt confident going through the rewrite and completed before my planned deadline. Amanda’s ability to cut through the complexities of what writers are often told to focus on makes her a great mentor. She knew my characters, and she got to know my excuses with time and helped me get past them to make my work the best it could be. - Claire Schön
I am always grateful for Amanda's feedback on my stories. She is supportive when I am self-doubting. Her comments reflect her grasp of where I'm trying to go, and together we figure out what I need to focus on to best serve the story. And in the bigger picture, she is helping me elevate my craft--exactly what I want to do. - Fran Turner