I don’t often talk about working as a mentor – not sure why because it’s something I love doing.
I love working with other writers and helping them get the words from their head onto paper. And I have an amazing group of people who I’m working with, who are writing a wide variety of books.
When I take on people to mentor, I always tell them, I’m not an editor. I’m not an expert in grammar. But, what I can do is support, encourage, read through for sense, and ensure that their writing is interesting to others, and keeps people engaged.
I don’t publish their books, but I help them find the right fit for them in terms of how they want to publish.
People want different things from a mentor. Some want someone to help them write well – making sure they use a wide vocabulary of words, understand about tenses, write so other people can make sense of their writing. Other’s just want someone to keep them accountable. Some need help to plan their book. They have an idea but don’t know how to start, or what to include.
Two of my mentees, although they speak English, for one it isn’t their first language, and for the other, also speaks English but with a very strong dialect. This means in their case that sometimes, they get the structure slightly wrong, or use tenses in a different way, because that is their natural way to speak. However, for them to publish something that they want to be edited and published, they need to make sure they use standard English for their writing. It doesn’t mean however that they lose any of their personality as a writer.
At present, I’m working with a lady who I have worked with for around 2 years. She is writing an amazing story – a novel. It is based on her life; a life where she lives with chronic pain every day.
This makes writing difficult for her at times, as she can’t concentrate, so it takes her longer than most. However, she is a wonderful story teller, and I’m enjoying going on her journey with her. She is incredibly resolute too. After starting her story, and not being happy with it, she started from the beginning again. The second version is far better, and flowing along brilliantly. Working with this lovely lady though, there isn’t a definite date she is aiming to finish. She is just aiming to get it written; and she will!
Another mentee is writing her memoir. Despite writing a PhD, she is finding writing something personal incredibly hard, but it is something she wants to do. A highly intelligent lady, I’m really her accountability buddy. She likes me to go through her writing with her partly to make sure it makes sense to others.
I worked with my bestie like this when she wrote and published her book last year. As a journalist, her head is full of stories – too many stories. Again, she used me as her accountability person in terms of actually getting it written, and helping her to pull out the stories she really wanted to tell.
Five of my previous mentees have published their books – a mixture of both memoirs and business books – my bestie being one of them.
I look forward to seeing my present mentees in print in the next year!
I’m grateful to be able to work with other writers and I’m grateful that they have the confidence in me to trust their words to me.
It sounds like you’re doing a great job. 👏