Writing Mentors

[Mallory O’Bier]

Hey guys,

Do any of you have writing mentors? If so, how did you meet them?

[bethanys.inky.roses]

Hey @overcomer I have a writing mentor I met through an online writing program. (The Young Writer’s Workshop by Brett Harris and Jaquelle Crowe) Since I’m editing my first novella, I ask her questions related to that. She has traditionally and self published. One thing that helped me is knowing a mentor doesn’t have to be super far ahead of you. If they are farther than you in the journey, they can help you grow as a writer.
Now the thing is-she actually reached out and said that she wanted to mentor other writers. I didn’t have to stick my neck out and ask her. But here is some compiled advice I’ve heard about reaching out to potential mentors. 1. Read their work. 2. Offer to help them in some way. 3. Ask if they would be willing to mentor you. 4. Be specific-say you’d like to send them an email once a month, or phone them once a week.
All this said, my mother reminded me of something: you can always have more than one mentor! And if you know someone who is a writer or author, you could ask them questions just once-glean from every corner of the field, so to speak. I’m working on that one. Currently I’m trying to come up with a list of questions to ask.
I hope you find a mentor who can help you!

[SeekJustice]

@overcomer, I don’t have a mentor per se. I am mostly self-taught when it comes to writing, however, there have been a lot of people who have given input into my writing and helped me grow. as @Bethanysinkyroses said, your mentor doesn’t have to be that much older than you, and they don’t even have to be published. Also, are you looking for an in real life mentor, or would someone on the internet be better? If you’re looking for a writing mentor on the internet, there are hundreds of writing bloggers many of whom would be more than happy to help you. I hope this is helpful!

INFP Queen of the Kingdom commander of an army of origami cranes and a sabre from Babylon.

[Jane Maree]

@Overcomer sort of-ish? (putting aside a dozen or more amazing writerly friends) I have two authors that have really helped me a lot and I met one of them through her books + my sisters loving them. And the other through just seeing her around the place.
Bethany had very good points. *nods*

Writing Heroes ♦ Writing Hope // janemareeauthor.com.au

[Mallory O’Bier]

@bethanysinkyroses , I’m in the Y.W.W. program too! 🙂 Brett and Jaquelle are very helpful. They’re good mentors, but I’m kinda looking for another mentor too, ideally, someone who could give me more one on one attention and maybe even meet with in person. I’d like to learn from someone with more experience than me, especially when it comes to writing complete manuscripts and publishing. @jane-maree @seekjustice

[bethanys.inky.roses]

@overcomer Oooh! Another YDubber! Greetings. 😉 Have you tried the Mentorship space on the community site? It is a new way to get an online mentor. Simply state what you write and what you are looking for in a mentor. If that is confusing feel free to PM me on the YWW-my name is Bethany Rose there too.
Hopefully the Lord will provide one for you-either in that way or by opening the door for someone you know-or are yet to meet-to mentor you. 🙂

[Josiah DeGraaf]

@jane-maree @bethanysinkyroses Not to take this conversation down a bit of a rabbit trail, but how often do you tend to meet with your mentors and what type of help do they tend to give you that you find most helpful?

The KP staff is currently in a lot of talks about what kind of new initiatives to consider taking on moving forward and providing some sort of mentoring/tutoring service is one of the possibilities being batted around. If you’re willing to share, I would love to hear more about your experience and what you’ve found most helpful. 🙂

Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. Guiding authors at Story Embers.

[bethanys.inky.roses]

@aratrea Ooooh, that sounds like a great idea! I hope y’all end up doing it. I think that is definitely something that would bless young writers.
My mentor and I correspond over email and sometimes PM. I wish we could meet in person, but she lives many states away.
We just started, so nothing super concrete yet with timing. However, I try to be respectful of her time, so instead of contacting her immediately every time I have a question, I save the questions and email her-mmm, maybe every three weeks? Then she answers to the best of her ability.
She is also helping keep me accountable by knowing my writing goals and checking in with me on how they are coming. This is very helpful since I have LOTS of goals.
I think the biggest thing for me is just knowing she is cheering me on, excited for me to complete my projects, and willing to offer her advice if I get stuck. Also, it is so nice to know that she has been where I am-wondering about publishing and what to do next. (She’s been traditionally published and if I’m not mistaken has also self-published.)
She would be the first to say that being a mentor has blessed her in a special way too. (As you can see, I have a very lovely and sweet girl mentoring me!) She really enjoys giving her knowledge to others. I’m not the only writer she mentors-I think she has five or more of us. So it’s not impossible for one busy person to extend this kind of help to multiple writers.
I hope that is helpful. 😉
Since my synopsis was kind of meandering, here are some bulllet points to make it easier for you.
1. Meet every three weeks
2. Most helpful: knowing the mentor “has your back.”
3. Other helpful things:
A: She is able to walk me through preparing a manuscript
B: and then either self publishing or finding a traditional publisher.
C: Accountability with Goals
4. Encouragement and Prayer

[Jane Maree]

@Aratrea since the mentorship isn’t official or anything (aka I’m too nervous to ask outright xP) it’s mostly just talking via email. She’s really encouraging to me and pushing me to be better and keep plugging away when it’s tough. She’s really good for bouncing ideas off and giving experienced input and thoughts. I used to talk with her more often but now she’s on a couple of major deadlines so we can’t very much, but ,as Bethany said, every three weeks is an example timeframe. But I do all my correspondence with her via email so it’s not hard to do it fairly regularly. It used to be weekly actually, though now she doesn’t have time. The most helpful thing I find is simply that they’re right there (at the other end of the emails :P) to help out whenever you need it.

It’d be really cool if KP staff did something like that though. *nods*

Writing Heroes ♦ Writing Hope // janemareeauthor.com.au

[Josiah DeGraaf]

Thanks so much for sharing, @jane-maree and @bethanysinkyroses! If we continue to investigate this route, we’ll probably create a survey about it for our subscribers, but that’s really helpful to get as a starting point.

Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. Guiding authors at Story Embers.

[Anne of Lothlorien]

Just wanna say that I have no writing mentor as of now, getting one would be great, and if KP staff is thinking about that sort of thing, you have twenty-seven votes ‘yes’ from me. @aratrea

ENFP - "One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane."

[bethanys.inky.roses]

@aratrea @anne-of-lothlorien I agree, it sounds like a really good potential initiative! 😀

[Mallory O’Bier]

Thanks for your encouragement, @bethanysinkyroses ! 🙂 I haven’t tried the Mentorship space yet. I’m thinking about it, though. To be perfectly honest, two things, in particular, have made me hesitate from trying it.

One, is the possibility, especially since I’m one of the older writers in the group, that someone will offer to be my mentor but turn out to be less experienced than I am, or at about the same level. It could get awkward. Yes, I could still learn from them, but it would be more of a writer friendship than a mentorship relationship.

Thinking it over, the writer-score should help remove some of that difficulty. Also, if someone were interested we could communicate first to figure out whether or not we’re a good fit. We could exchange writing samples and discuss our writing experience.

The second thing is that I am personally acquainted with an author and have been considering asking them instead, only I didn’t want to presume too much.

I suppose I could also communicate with them a bit and see how it goes or if anything comes of it. (How come everything works itself out when I write?)

Thanks, @aratrea, for your “rabbit trail.” I was actually hoping for more details from my fellow writers regarding their mentors and how they met, etc., so this discussion is very helpful. Thanks for your input, @jane-maree @bethanysinkyroses

I think it’s great that the writers of K.P. want to start a mentoring service. That would be awesome! 🙂 @anne-of-lothlorien

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