Six writers. Six months. Serious work on your manuscript.
Two places of Six remaining.
Join our Founder Jacqui Lofthouse in ‘The Room’. A small, intimate group for writers with a manuscript in progress – designed along the lines of the best MA Creative Writing seminar rooms. The tone is rigorous, warm, honest, and genuinely useful to your work.
Six writers. Six months. Twice monthly sessions of two hours each. And throughout the process, ongoing editorial attention to your pages from Jacqui.
This will be a small group of serious writers, working together with someone who has spent decades thinking about what makes books work.
What you’ll receive:
Together we have fortnightly workshopping sessions. We meet twice a month beginning in January 2027 for two hours via Zoom, on Friday mornings, 10am to noon.
Each session, three participants share work – an extract, a chapter, a scene that’s giving you trouble – and receive focused feedback from the group and from me. You’ll share your work roughly once a month, and spend the alternate session developing your critical eye on someone else’s pages. Both matter.
Monthly manuscript annotation
Between sessions, I personally read and annotate up to 3,500 words of your manuscript each month – you get notes, questions, responses, suggestions, close editorial attention to the sentences and the structure. Over six months, this amounts to up to 21,000 words of your manuscript receiving my sustained editorial focus.
Inclusion in The Writing Coach agent submission catalogue
At the close of the six months, work that is ready will be included in The Writing Coach’s curated submission catalogue, sent directly to literary agents with whom we have real relationships. This is not a guarantee of representation. It is a genuine opportunity to be seen by agents who pay attention.
The group itself
Six writers who take their work seriously. Who will read your pages carefully, tell you the truth about them with kindness, and understand the importance of continuing to show up at the page. I curate the members carefully – hence, the importance of the application form.
Access to ‘The Room’ in The Literary Salon
An online private forum, only for members of ‘The Room’, hosted within ‘The Literary Salon’, our online members’ forum – this is not a Facebook Group.
Bonus for Payment in Full Members
If you choose to pay in full, we offer the bonus of an opportunity to work personally with me on your pitch and synopsis. In addition Jacqueline will work with you to choose 12 ideal literary agents for you and submit to them on your behalf. (This service is usually priced at £595).
Before we begin
Our fortnightly sessions start in January – but our relationship begins before that. Each accepted member will have an individual preparation call with me in November or December. I’ll read an additional 3500 word sample of your manuscript in advance. The call is about understanding where you are, what you’re bringing to the group, and what you most need from the six months. When the group begins in January, I already know your work and intentions.
In December, we’ll gather once as a group – an informal 90-minute conversation, not a workshop. This is a first meeting, before the work begins. It’s an opportunity to introduce yourselves, to begin to get to know each other, and to get excited about our work together from January. There will be an opportunity to meet in London in January for those who can make it.
I’ll also share a curated reading list — not a generic craft list, but the books that have shaped how I think about the novel, with my own notes on each.
From October, we’ll have a private space online where you can begin to meet each other, share what you’re working on, so that you arrive in January, already knowing each other
Who this is for:
You have a novel, memoir, or narrative non-fiction manuscript in progress. You are serious about the work – not dabbling, not dreaming, but actually writing. You want constructive, honest and encouraging feedback, to get better as a writer. You are ready to read other people’s work with real attention and to contribute regularly to our group. You may be pre-publication or previously published. What matters is the manuscript in front of you and your commitment to it
Who this is not for:
Writers at the very beginning – if you have fewer than 10,000 words drafted, this probably isn’t the right moment for you to join.
Writers looking for a course or a curriculum – you can get that in my School for Fiction.
About Jacqui
Founder of The Writing Coach
I’m Jacqui Lofthouse – a novelist published by Penguin and Bloomsbury, and founder of The Writing Coach. I’ve spent three decades working closely with writers on their manuscripts. My own path to publication was not a straight line – I wrote fiction for several years before the novel that became my debut found its way into the world, and that history is part of how I understand the long, difficult, and necessary work of making a book.
I’ve guided hundreds of writers through every stage of their writing process from first draft to published novel. I studied under the late Sir Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain at UEA, and the atmosphere of that seminar room — serious, warm and honest — inspires this mastermind.
I know what intentional work on a manuscript requires. And I know how to help. I would love to meet you in ‘The Room’…
The Details:
Six places. Two now remaining.
Friday mornings, 10am–noon, fortnightly via Zoom. January start.
Individual preparation calls and December group session for all members.
Standard place — £1,995. Full access to all fortnightly sessions, monthly manuscript annotation, preparation call, December group session, curated reading list, and private community space.
Premium place — £2,745. Everything above, plus Voxer access – voice note correspondence with me between sessions, responded to within 48 hours Monday to Friday from January.
9 Month Payment Plans available for both programmes at no additional cost.
Pay-in-full members receive a bonus of Jacqui’s eyes on their pitch and synopsis and Jacqui submitting to 12 Literary Agents on your behalf when your work is ready.
To apply:
If you feel the pull toward this, please complete the short application form via the button below. I’ll read every application personally and respond within a week. If you’re offered a place, your payment secures it.
This group is small by design. Six places –two remaining – and the work begins with our initial personal call in November/December. I’m looking forward to it!