About The Writing Coach
The Writing Coach was founded in 2005 by the novelist Jacqui Lofthouse. Originally an international mentoring and development organisation for writers, it is now an online home for writers, somewhere you can find advice, information, motivation and most of all encouragement for your writing work.
We believe in the vitality of the written word, in the necessity of storytelling and the transformative power of art. We believe that talent can be nurtured. Our mission is to encourage writers to develop their work, to become more focussed, productive and confident. We want to you to create a fulfilling, successful and sustainable writing life. Like you, we think that words and ideas really matter.
About Jacqui Lofthouse
Jacqui Lofthouse began her career in radio production and media training. In 1992 she studied for her MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia under Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain. She is the author of three novels, The Temple of Hymen, Hamish Hamilton/Penguin 1995/1996, Bluethroat Morning, Bloomsbury 2000 and Een Stille Verdwijning, De Bezige Bij 2005. Her novels have sold over 100,000 copies in the UK, the USA and Europe and have been widely reviewed.
Jacqui has taught creative writing in a broad variety of settings including at City University, the Cheltenham Festival, for Artemisia holidays in Tuscany, at Richmond Adult and Community College, and at Feltham Young Offenders Institution.
In 2005, Jacqui founded The Writing Coach. Her aim was to create a mentoring and consulting service for writers that was personal and took account of the needs of the individual writer. Jacqui has worked with clients on four continents and has connections with major literary agencies. Her mission is to help writers – in the words of Maupassant – to “get black on white” – to be confident and productive, producing their best work and getting it into print. She is particularly proud to support the charity African Revival via her work at The Writing Coach.
Married to the cartoonist David Lewis, Jacqui has two children. Her first degree was in Drama and English and she is currently attending acting classes at City Lit. She is also a keen amateur photographer. In September 2012, Jacqui will begin studying for a PGCE (post-graduate certificate in education) in English with Drama at the Institute of Education, London with the intention of becoming an English and Drama teacher in secondary schools, whilst continuing to write fiction for Young Adults. As a result, she is no longer offering coaching services to writers, but will continue to write articles on this site.
You can follow Jacqui on Twitter here and the Writing Coach on Twitter here. You can also follow The Writing Coach on Facebook.
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