Benjamin Johncock

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Mentoring

I offer Creative Writing Mentoring to writers who want to work on either a novel or short stories.

Mentoring is an alchemy of different elements.

At its heart, it’s a nurturing, supportive relationship, to help you achieve your writing goal.

And as mentor, my role is a mixture of reader, coach, tutor, supporter, editor, guide, cheerleader, therapist and Jedi master.

Mentoring is personal, practical and flexible, and uniquely one-to-one.

It offers a very different experience to other creative writing endeavours, such as an MA—as well as significantly better value for money.*

Short story mentoring

6 months

The short story mentoring scheme takes place over a period of 6 months, with the end result being 5 completed short stories—one of which we work on further, editorially-speaking, with a view to submitting this ‘golden story’ to either a competition or publication. I’ll guide you through this process too.

I provide written feedback for each story, as well as a

full line-edit, where I mark up your manuscript

(either in the word processor, with comments, or

hard copy, in pen), line by line, offering thoughts, suggestions and notes.

We meet every month (either face-to-face or on Zoom) and discuss each story, the feedback and the edit.

I provide ongoing email support as well.

We agree a flexible plan and schedule beforehand, including deadlines.

Fee: £1,100

Novel mentoring

1 year

The year-long novel mentoring scheme helps the writer towards producing an early draft of a novel (c. 50,000 words). Here’s how it works:

The writer submits 8,500 words every two months. I provide written feedback for each section, along with thoughts and observations in the manuscript (either in the word processor, with comments, or hard copy, in pen).

We meet, either on Zoom or in person, for me to give feedback and for us to discuss the work in progress and talk about anything else surrounding it.

I also provide ongoing email support and accountability, as well as advice on agents and the wider publishing industry.

Fee: £2,500; instalment option available

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My approach is informal and friendly, based on mutual respect and trust, underpinned by a simple contract that we both agree to and sign.

If mentoring sounds like something you’d be interested

in, drop me an email!

I’m also available on Zoom if you’d prefer to have a proper face-to-face chat about it all.

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* The Creative Writing Prose Fiction MA at UEA costs £11,000 (!) for the year for UK students and £22,450 (!!) for International students (2024/25, source: MA Creative Writing Prose Fiction, UEA).

Just sayin.