The Writing Coach
Literary Consultancy and Coaching for Writers from Jacqui Lofthouse
We are delighted to announce that our Founder Jacqui Lofthouse was shortlisted in The People’s Book Prize for her novel The Modigliani Girl. Jacqui attended the prize-giving ceremony at The Stationer’s Hall, the original home of copyright, on the evening of Tuesday 23rd May. Watch the prize-giving ceremony including Frederick Forsyth’s speech here: Jacqui writes: …
Lately I feel as if I’m living in a hall of mirrors. All around me are reflections of my own imaginings – layer upon layer of slightly distorted repetitions – and I’m still trying very hard to get my head around it. [tweet_dis inject=”Reflections on @PeoplesBkPrize #TPBP”]The thing is: my life is imitating my art – in …
We are delighted to announce the publication of The Belfast Girl by former Writing Coach Client Caroline Doherty de Novoa. Caroline writes this guest post about hidden stories to celebrate her publication. A lesson in journalism Nora Ephron’s high school journalism teacher once set the class an assignment to write an article for the student …
We are thrilled to announce that Miranda Gold, a former Writing Coach client, has had her first novel Starlings published by Karnac Books. To celebrate her success, we are delighted to be the first to publish Miranda’s wonderful lyrical essay ‘Reading as Alchemy’ about the importance of reading – and her take on keeping the reader ‘on the …
Carolyn Kirby, a former Writing Coach client, reached the short-list of this year’s Bridport Prize award for a first novel. In this guest post, Carolyn writes about her experience of entering the competition. A new category in the Bridport Prize Like many new writers I’d heard of the Bridport Prize. It is well known around the …
Writing non-fiction can be every bit as creative as writing fiction and equally as satisfying. Our perceptions on non-fiction may be narrow and perhaps need challenging in order to be aware of how there are possibilities for our own creativity. Non-fiction includes everything from the instructional ‘how to’ guides – whether that’s cookery, gardening, restoring …
I had the great pleasure recently to lead a branding workshop for content creation at The Shard, London. What a wonderful venue for a workshop this was, with a glorious panoramic view of London. This short video put together by Tom Hewitson gives a flavour of the event. The workshop for Tom’s Content Lab was …
I am delighted to announce the launch of my new publishing imprint, Nightingale Editions, an imprint of Blackbird Digital Books. The imprint has been founded by me Jacqui Lofthouse together with Stephanie Zia of Blackbird Digital Books. For some time, I’d considered the idea of publishing the work of others, but when I read Sara Bailey’s haunting and lyrical …
I’m delighted to welcome playwright Stephen Brown to The Writing Coach team as a mentor for playwrights. Stephen is now available as a consultant through The Writing Coach. Stephen was my own tutor in playwriting, so it gives me particular pleasure to welcome him. I interviewed Stephen about his approach to playwriting and mentoring and do …
There’s no doubt about it, networking for writers matters. Luckily, for most of us, meeting other writers is also a hugely enjoyable pastime. But even if you’re an introvert who would prefer to spend his/her life in a library or at the writing desk, I’d suggest that you do carefully consider the benefits of meeting your peers …
Guest Post on memoir writing from new Writing Coach consultant Jon Magidsohn I once heard an interview with musician Melissa Etheridge, who discovered, while listening to the lyrics of a song she’d written and recorded several years earlier, ‘Oh … that’s what I meant by that line.’ I understood immediately, because I’d experienced such moments while writing, …
What was it about the Charroux Literary Festival that made it special? Why do we go to any Literary Festival and what can we learn from these occasions? Held in the Medieval town of Charroux, this was the first Charroux Litfest: a memorable occasion, where I not only met a number of other wonderful authors, but …
This summer, I’m delighted to have been invited to appear at the first Charroux Literary Festival in France – and I’d love to see you there! The Festival, a bilingual literary festival,will take place in the medieval town of Charroux in the Poitou-Charentes region of South West France from Thursday 27th to Saturday 29th August – the August Bank …
Many freelancers, like myself, are used to working individually: making all the decisions and relying entirely on self-motivation to keep going. But what happens when you collaborate and build a project with another entrepreneur (or another writer, another artist)? Is there power in teamwork or is it difficult to relinquish control? Yesterday, fellow writer and …
This month, the novelist Louise Doughty and I are delighted to feature on the blog Something Rhymed being interviewed there about our literary friendship. Louise and I first met in 1995 at the celebration of 25 years of the MA Creative Writing course at UEA, when we both featured in the anthology Class Work, edited by …
In those heady days, back in 1995, when I achieved my dream and had my first novel The Temple of Hymen published by Penguin, it was easy to take myself seriously as a writer. How could I not, when I had my name on an orange spine next to that iconic logo? Here I am, shortly after publication, onstage …
Reading Jane Harris’s wonderful historical novel The Observationsthis week reminded me of one of my favourite writing exercises which I call ‘The Observer’. Here’s your writing prompt this Monday morning: A character stands in the street, looking up at a lighted window. The character observes the person through the lighted window and reflects on the …
I first discovered the story of Jeanne Hebuterne from Linda Lappin’s wonderful essay ‘Missing Person in Montparnasse: the case of Jeanne Hebuterne’. I was already a Modigliani fan and was researching his life, shortly after the publication of my novel ‘Een Stille Verdwijning’ (Dutch publication), considering what to write next. Lappin’s writing drew me in …
This post about time management for writers originally appeared on my very first blog ‘Stubborn World’. It tackles the thorny issue of how to find time to write in a busy life, something that so many of us struggle with. I do hope that you find some of these ideas inspiring. 1. Set aside …
One of the main questions that I get asked in my work as a writing coach is “how can I become more productive as a writer?” Modern life is full of distractions and most of us are juggling many roles at one time. It is hard sometimes to set aside our other commitments and take …
As I launch the new Writing Coach website, I thought it would be a good idea to also celebrate the history of The Writing Coach by beginning this series of blog posts and articles from my own archive. In coming weeks I’ll be sharing some of my favourite archive articles. This one “Creating Convincing Characters” …
On the Work of Sarah Kane. 4.48 Psychosis: it’s the title of playwright Sarah Kane’s final play, currently being staged at the Royal Court Theatre (note – this article written in May 2001) and it refers to the hour of day when mental derangement is at its most extreme. Kane completed the play only a …
