Editing

I recently proof-read and copy-edited a west-country author’s previously unpublished novel, and have helped a philosopher with his book/pamphlet. Other work comes in steadily.

Coaching

Writing your life’s project (or even just that work report) can feel daunting. I will encourage you to start that novel or piece, guide and prompt you with it, as well as helping you to plan. I will help you discover the process that works best for you, give you honest, constructive feedback, and support you in meeting your writing goals.

Coaching offers you organizational help, critical feedback for each stage of the process, and emotional support for you in your work. Coaching will help you to write clearly and effectively. Using industry contacts, I can offer some advice on what to submit to publishers, plus when and how to send it. I can also help you with the covering letter.

I trained as a humanistic psychotherapist from 1990 to 1994 and maintain best practice to protect client confidentiality. I hold enhanced CRB clearance.

If you like, I can devise a six- or twelve-week course to get you through writer’s block.

I am available for one-to-one meetings in the Bristol/Bath area. This might also be possible in Liverpool, London, Cardiff, Dublin, Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona and other European capitals. Alternatively, this can take place by email and/or phone contact.

I am also available to feed back on your proofreading corrections, once I have read your work, and to help you develop your writing. I will send you documents before we meet, with information on avoiding the most common errors that people make in particular sorts of writing assignments.

I also provide fun corporate workshops on commonly-made mistakes in grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Copywriting

I am available for copywriting at standard NUJ rates, especially for advertising services and goods within the fields of spirituality and personal development. These can range broadly from wholefoods and reusable nappies to Focusing workshops and meditation retreats.

I can write or rewrite your abstracts, admissions essays, adverts, applications, articles, blogs, books, columns, CVs, dissertations, essays, lectures, novels, papers, poetry, posters, presentations, projects, reports, scripts, speeches, term submissions, textbooks, theses and websites. And most other things. Ideas for dissertations and essays must all be your own — I am not going to help you break the law!

Whatever your assignment, you can always be assured of a confidential, efficient, quality service. I will work to give your material an edge of professional or creative credibility. I will edit documents with a high degree of sensitivity, destroying all copies after 28 days so there is no chance of your information becoming public knowledge.

Business Names

I can also help you originate names for businesses. Simply email me a few lines about the nature of your proposed business  and the name of the town/city in which you are about to open it. For example, a Zen Buddhist centre in a southern French city could do worse to attract media attention than calling themselves Nothing Toulouse. If you don’t want to deal with the World’s media, you can send them to me.

If I come up with the business name that you use (I’ll let you know if I’ve come up with something within three working days), I will charge you just £100; if not, nothing is lost either way (Nothing Toulouse, remember). And if your turnover exceeds £100,000 in the first two years, using my suggested trade-name, you can afford to let me have a further £400. This will all be set out in a simple contract.

Not all of my ideas rely on the name of the town, city or county, however; at the moment (early 2010), I have equally striking names for a camping shop, a cheese shop, and an eco-electrical retailer, all of which could be located anywhere. Having said that, I do have an amazing name for a new-age clothes shop which should set up in Cornwall (if you happen to know anyone who’s going to go for it).

I welcome civic representatives of whole towns who would like their location to gain press and map coverage for a theme-related series of shop- and business-names.