Meet Our Resident Writing Coaches

I love being the Writers Helping Writers Blog Wizard…and am honored to work closely with the Resident Writing Coaches. They’re all talented, generous authors who share their wisdom to help take your writing to the next level. I’ve learned so much from them, and have a feeling you have, too!

This is the 8^th year of our popular Resident Writing Coach program where we feature writing experts through a series of four blog posts scattered throughout the year. We bring in a mix of expertise, so you benefit from different voices and perspectives from all over the world.

Each year we have some new coaches and some returning, so let me first say goodbye to the wonderful Christina Delay. We greatly appreciate all you have shared with us, Christina.

I’m excited to welcome back a wonderful Resident Writing Coach who is returning after a year off! Please give a warm welcome to…

September C. Fawkes is a freelance editor, writing instructor, and award-winning writing tip blogger. She has edited for both award-winning and best-selling authors as well as beginning writers. Previously, she worked as an assistant to a New York Times bestselling author.

She is best known for her blog, which won the Writer’s Digest 101 Best Websites for Writers Award and Query Letter’s Top Writing Blog Award, and has over 500 writing tips. She also offers a live online writing course, “The Triarchy Method,” where she personally guides 10 students through developing their best books by focusing on the “bones” of story.

To learn more about her course, read her tips, or inquire about her editing services, visit SeptemberCFawkes.com. Grab her AMAZING free guide on Crafting Powerful Protagonists while there. You can also find her on Facebook, X, Instagram, and Tumblr.

You can find September’s posts here.

In addition to our new coach, we’re thrilled to have these returning masterminds…

Lucy V. Hay is a script editor, author and blogger who helps writers. She’s been the script editor and advisor on numerous UK features and shorts & has also been a script reader for 20 years, providing coverage for indie prodcos, investors, screen agencies, producers, directors and individual writers. She’s also an author, publishing as both LV Hay and Lizzie Fry.  Lizzie’s latest, a serial killer thriller titled The Good Mother is out now with Joffe Books, with her sixth thriller out in 2024. Lucy’s site at www.bang2write.com has appeared in Top 100 round-ups for Writer’s Digest & The Write Life, as well as a UK Blog Awards Finalist and Feedspot’s #1 Screenwriting blog in the UK (ninth in the world.). She is also the author of the bestselling non-fiction book, Writing & Selling Thriller Screenplays: From TV Pilot To Feature Film (Creative Essentials), which she updated for the streaming age for its tenth anniversary in 2023. 

You can find Lucy’s posts here.

Marissa Graff has been a freelance editor and reader for literary agent Sarah Davies at Greenhouse Literary Agency for over five years. In conjunction with Angelella Editorial, she offers developmental editing, author coaching, and more. She specializes in middle-grade and young-adult fiction but also works with adult fiction.

Marissa feels if she’s done her job well, a client should probably never need her help again because she’s given them a crash-course MFA via deep editorial support and/or coaching. Connect with Marissa on her Website, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

You can find Marissa’s posts here.

Colleen M. Story is a novelist, freelance writer, writing coach, and speaker with over 20 years in the creative writing industry. Her newest novel, The Curse of King Midas, is forthcoming in 2024, and has already been recognized as a top-ten finalist for the Claymore Award. Her novel The Beached Ones came out in 2022 with CamCat Books, while Loreena’s Gift, was a Foreword Reviews’ INDIES Book of the Year Awards winner, among others.

Colleen has written three books to help writers succeed. Your Writing Matters is the most recent, and was a bronze medal winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards (2022). Writer Get Noticed! was a gold-medal winner in the Reader’s Favorite Book Awards and a first-place winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards (2019). Overwhelmed Writer Rescue was named Book by Book Publicity’s Best Writing/Publishing Book in 2018. You can find free chapters of these books here.

Colleen offers personalized coaching plans tailored to meet your needs. If you’d like to work on-one-one with an experienced writing coach, check out her flexible and affordable options.

Colleen frequently serves as a workshop leader and motivational speaker, where she helps attendees remove mental and emotional blocks and tap into their unique creative powers. Find her at Writing and Wellness, Author Website, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, Goodreads, BookBub and Instagram.

You can find Colleen’s posts here.

Jami Gold, after muttering writing advice in tongues, decided to become a writer and put her talent for making up stuff to good use, such as by winning the 2015 National Readers’ Choice Award in Paranormal Romance for her novel Ironclad Devotion.

To help others reach their creative potential as well, she’s developed a massive collection of resources for writers. Explore her site to find worksheets—including the popular Romance Beat Sheet with 80,000+ downloads—workshops, and over 1000 posts on her blog about the craft, business, and life of writing. Her site has been named one of the 101 Best Websites for Writers by Writer’s Digest.

Find Jami at her website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, BookBub, and Instagram.

You can find Jami’s posts here.

Lisa Poisso works with new and emerging querying and self-publishing writers. A classically trained dancer, her approach to writing is likewise grounded in structure, form, and technique as doorways to freedom of movement on the page. She’s an energetic proponent of one-on-one feedback to accelerate the learning curve of writing fiction. Her Accelerator coaching fast-tracks authors through structure and technique while nurturing the potential of their early drafts.

Lisa is a degreed journalist and a veteran of decades of award-winning work in magazine editing and journalism, content writing, and corporate communications. Her coaching and editorial studio is staffed by an industrious team of #45mphcouchpotato greyhounds. Visit her Linktree for help with your early steps as a writer, join the Clarity for Writers community at Substack, and download a free Manuscript Prep guide. Connect with Lisa at LisaPoisso.com and on Instagram, Facebook, and X/Twitter.

You can find Lisa’s posts here.

Sue Coletta is an award-winning crime writer and an active member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers. Feedspot and Expertido.org named her Murder Blog as “Best 100 Crime Blogs on the Net.” She also blogs at the Kill Zone (Writer’s Digest “101 Best Websites for Writers”) and Writers Helping Writers. Sue lives with her husband in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. Her backlist includes psychological thrillers, the Mayhem Series (books 1-3) and Grafton County Series, and true crime/narrative nonfiction. Now, she exclusively writes eco-thrillers, Mayhem Series (books 4-7 and continuing). Sue’s appeared on the Emmy award-winning true crime series, Storm of Suspicion, and three episodes of A Time to Kill on Investigation Discovery. Learn more about Sue and her books at www.suecoletta.com.

Find Sue on her Website, Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, Goodreads, BookBub, Instagram, and YouTube.

You can find Sue’s posts here.

Suzy Vadori is the award-winning author of The Fountain Series and is represented by Naomi Davis of Bookends Literary Agency. She is a certified Book Coach with Author Accelerator and the founder of the Wicked Good Fiction Bootcamp. Suzy breaks down concepts in writing into practical steps, so that writers with big dreams can get the story exploding in their minds onto their pages in a way that readers will LOVE.

In addition to her online courses, Suzy offers 1:1 Developmental Editing and Book Coaching services, and gives practical tips for writers at all stages on her vlog.

Find Suzy on her website, YouTube, Facebook, Free Inspired Writing Facebook Group, Instagram, and Tiktok.

You can find Suzy’s posts here.

Michelle Barker is an award-winning author, editor, and writing teacher who lives in Vancouver, BC. Her newest book, coauthored with David Griffin Brown, is Immersion and Emotion: The Two Pillars of Storytelling.  Her novel My Long List of Impossible Things, came out in 2020 with Annick Press. She is the author of The House of One Thousand Eyes, which was named a Kirkus Best Book of the Year and won numerous awards including the Amy Mathers Teen Book Award. She’s also the author of the historical picture book, A Year of Borrowed Men, as well as the fantasy novel, The Beggar King, and a chapbook, Old Growth, Clear-Cut: Poems of Haida Gwaii. Her fiction, non-fiction and poetry have appeared in literary reviews around the world.

Michelle holds an MFA in creative writing from UBC and has been a senior editor at The Darling Axe since its inception. She loves working closely with writers to hone their manuscripts and discuss the craft. You can find Michelle on Twitter and GoodReads.

You can find Michelle’s posts here.

Tips

If you want to browse past Resident Writing Coach posts, click here.

Love a post? Click on the name up top to see all the posts from that person.

Check out all the Resident Writing Coach bios! You’ll find:

• Editing and coaching services
• Free support through online groups
• Helpful resources

Don’t forget to follow them on social media for even more tips and updates!

Here’s to another year of amazing posts. Please give a warm welcome our Resident Writing Coaches.

Pssst…when you comment on their posts, they reply to you! So please share your thoughts and ask questions throughout the year. Angela, Becca and I love working with the coaches. They’re an incredible asset to the Writers Helping Writers blog.

If there’s a topic you’d like help with, please add it in the comments so hopefully one of our Resident Writing Coaches will post about it.

The post Meet Our Resident Writing Coaches appeared first on WRITERS HELPING WRITERS®.

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