The Writing Coach

Clients

We are immensely proud of our Clients at The Writing Coach and we work hard to promote our clients’ work. To read selected articles by some of our clients click here.

Here’s what our clients have to say about us:

Julia Crouch, Author of Cuckoo

“At the beginning of 2009 I had a dozen short stories, two novels in rough draft, and an unfinished screenplay. I was writing in my spare time – I was a full time website designer and have three children. I had no idea what writing project to concentrate on, and had completely stalled. A friend recommended Jacqui and, over six months, she gave me the confidence to take the big step of committing a whole year to one project. She also provided excellent literary feedback, helping me turn my first chapters into little diamonds.

Now, my first novel Cuckoo – the one Jacqui helped me with – has been published by Headline. I am about to hand my editor my second. I have one of the best agents in the country, have sold Italian, French, German and Dutch rights and I write full time. I can say unequivocally that if I hadn’t contacted Jacqui I would still be battling with html. These days the only website I look after is my own!”

Stephanie Zia, Author of Ten Good Reasons to Lie about your Age

“Jacqui immediately made me feel relaxed. She didn’t dictate to me in any way. The most obvious benefit was making me think for myself about myself, not something I have time to do in my daily routines. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Jacqui as a coach.”

Voula Grand, Author of  Honor’s Shadow

“In September 2010 I was looking for some support for my writing. I had a complete manuscript of my novel, I had edited it several times, but still felt it could be improved.  I was hoping for publication, had been rejected by a few agents … Big sigh. What next?

On visiting Jacqui’s site I was impressed by her credentials, both as a published writer and as a coach. I had completed numerous writing courses over the years, including an MA in Creative Writing, and had become suitably hardened to the brutal feedback handed out by peers and tutors. So the thought of a writer who had taken the time and trouble to train in the art and skill of providing balanced feedback, encouragement and criticism was particularly appealing to me. It’s not that I am looking for praise, so much as wanting to understand what works well in my writing, as well as what doesn’t work – if I understand where I am getting it right I can do that again…

I am now on my second set of coaching sessions with Jacqui. She also completed a full review of my novel early on, which was absolutely invaluable. My MA had taught me a great deal, much of it conceptual. What Jacqui did was guide me to see how all that learning could be applied, judiciously, to my own writing; this focused, individualized attention was something that had been less available on my MA programme. Her input and guidance made a real difference to the final manuscript of my novel. By the end of the first six sessions we contracted for, we had achieved all the goals I had set in my introductory questionnaire. It felt like some strange magic!

My novel, Honor’s Shadow, is now about to be published and Jacqui is helping me to think about the actions I can take to support the sales and marketing activity for that. I have found Jacqui to be thoughtful, responsive and innovative in her approach to her work.  Her feedback is balanced, practical, and constructive.”

For a full interview with Voula Grand, check out our blog here.

Victoria Best, Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge, and author of An Introduction to Twentieth Century French Literature

“Finding Jacqui has been the best thing I’ve done in furthering my writing career – better by far than any course I’ve undertaken or any help I’ve received from agents and editors. Trying to make the transition from academic writing to commercial non-fiction is not easy, but thanks to Jacqui’s insight and support, I finally feel like I might be ready to make it happen. For the first time, I know what I want to do and how I’m going to do it! What I’ve appreciated most of all has been her uncommon ability to put her finger on what needs to change, and to express it in a way that actually motivates me to rewrite. I’ve learned so much, and thoroughly enjoyed it, too. I’d recommend her to all the struggling, baffled and overwhelmed writers I know, if I didn’t want to keep her all to myself…”

Louise McIvor, Writer and Creative Writing Tutor at Queen’s University, Belfast

“The Writing Life Package has really helped me to find my voice as a writer. Before the coaching, I felt quite isolated as a writer, feeling I was writing in a vacuum and then sending my work out into the big world with no guidance. That’s all changed now. Jacqui has taken the fear out of marketing for me, helping me to see that it is just another step in the writer’s life.

The telephone coaching sessions were focused and encouraging. The goals we agreed on – such as finishing a short story draft, revising a synopsis, researching teaching opportunities or sending a completed short story to a magazine – really helped keep me on track. The e-mail support was also invaluable. Jacqui e-mailed resources such as links to writing competition websites, author interviews and I was also able to ask her advice on issues which had cropped up, such as: when do you know a draft is finished? When does revising becoming fiddling? Instead of trying to write all day, Jacqui and I set goals of manageable chunks of writing time – for example, five one-hour slots per week. Jacqui also helped me to see that writing was only one segment of the writer’s life – so two of these slots in one week would perhaps be devoted to marketing or editing.

By fitting the writing into manageable chunks, I’m now much more productive and much less stressed. One of the questions Jacqui asked me as we were beginning the coaching, was: “Are you worried that you’ll just keep writing all these novels but they won’t be published?” She also pointed out that being published was not necessarily ‘a badge of how good you are’ – i.e. there were many good writers who weren’t published And so we worked on a package for agents for my second novel. The synopsis was revised many times until Jacqui and I felt we had got it just right. When she read my original synopsis, she commented that it was just too flat. Jacqui helped me work on the technical aspects of the synopsis – the arc of the story, making the character motivation a bit more explicit so that an agent could see all the connections that were in the novel. Writing the synopsis helped me see connections that I didn’t know were there.

This agent package (including a polished covering letter) really gave me the confidence to send my work out – and a template that I can use for other projects too.  Thank you, Jacqui.”
Read Louise’s most recently published short story, “The Witching Time”.

Linda Buckley-Archer, Author of  Gideon the Cutpurse, Simon and Schuster

“Jacqui’s approach to coaching is, like her writing, insightful, sensitive and lucid. Few coaches can have such a wealth of literary experience behind them when guiding their clients to make the right creative decisions.”

Michael MacMahon, Author of Back to the Black: how to become debt-free and stay that way

“Jacqui has acted as a mentor for the self-publishing and marketing of my first book. She has far exceeded my expectations. Whenever I look at Jacqui’s website, or read her newsletters, I wonder how on earth she has time to fit everything in. However, when you have a coaching or mentoring session with Jacqui you get the impression that yours is the only project she’s working on, such is the quality of her focus. Her follow-ups in between sessions by means of regular e-mails, chasing connections and weblinks and coming up with new ideas, is a real bonus and totally admirable.  I therefore recommend Jacqui without hesitation to any writer seeking to complete and publish a book; whether print or ebook or both; whether you want to self-publish, as I did, or chase a mainstream publisher, she’ll be an invaluable partner.”

Laurie Beebe, The Diet Coach

“Jacqui was a superb writing coach! I found fantastic benefits in every call and had a renewed sense of direction afterwards. The most amazing day was about 10 weeks in when Jacqui reviewed the goals I had set when I first contacted her: to my surprise, the short term goals were all met! It seemed to just happen and I didn’t realize what a mess I’d started with because it was all straightened out and I was ready to proceed at the next level. I would highly recommend Jacqui as the very best coach to help you if you are struggling with anything related to writing projects!”

Carly Anderson, MCC, Master Business and Success-Building Coach

“I’ve had the pleasure of working with Jacqui on the editing of my Intentional Success Program and without doubt she added enormous clarity to the structure of my script, and strengthened my writing style in the process. Her editing approach was insightful and specific, and Jacqui always delivered her feedback to me in a respectful way that was easy for me to accept. My writing has definitely become much stronger because of Jacqui’s expertise.”

Diana Morgan, Writer, Dancer, Former CEO

“Word count Tuesday to Friday – 4,500!! Blimey! What sort of magic fairy writing dust are you scattering?! This is the key to me I think – not giving up on writing where I would have done before. Whatever you’re helping me to reveal about myself, thank you … I’m going to start calling you a white witch as well!”