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Please do not pay for the mentorship until you receive a formal acceptance notification via email.

Click HERE to Apply Now. Early applications are encouraged as space is limited.

Any questions about this class? Use the Chat Button (lower left) to talk with us.

We are very excited to offer a limited enrollment one-on-one 6-Month Novel Mentorship Program with award-winning novelist Ethan Chatagnier, author of the novel Singer Distance (Tin House Books), winner of the Golden Poppy Award from the California Independent Booksellers Alliance, and the story collection Warnings from the Future (Acre Books), a finalist for the Foreword INDIES awards. Singer Distance was a best book of 2022 at NPR and PopSugar and a most anticipated fall book at LitHub, Gizmodo, Vulture, Tor.com, the Philadelphia Inquirer, ALTA, Debutiful, and DailyHive. Ethan’s short stories have also appeared in the Pushcart Prize anthology, the New England Review, Georgia Review, Colorado Review, Story, and other journals, and listed as notable in the Best American Short Stories. His essays, book reviews, and interviews can be found in the Kenyon Review, the Chicago Review of Books, The Millions, The Common, TriQuarterly, and other publications.

Read an Interview with Ethan on Scaling the Obstacles as a Fiction Writer.

This mentorship program is for students who are committed to a book project–either a novel or a story collection–and have at least 10K words of it drafted. Students should also be ready to produce 5K words or more per month (about 1 double-spaced page per day), and also to spend some time discussing the work, revising, and doing recommended reading. We can arrange a personalized goal together, mostly likely to get to the end of the project, or to get far enough that the end is in sight.

Revision mentorship option: Alternately, for writers with a completed draft, we can arrange a revision mentorship. Because reviewing a full manuscript takes significant time upfront, I’m presenting two options for how that can fit into the mentorship. Option 1) The first two months of the mentorship period can be devoted to the full manuscript read and consultation. We can still hold a meeting each month to set some goals for the student and discuss plans, but the deeper revision work will mostly take place in the remaining four months, once the full manuscript has been read. Option 2) Writers who want to spend the full six months in heavy revision can purchase a manuscript consultation at a rate of $200/10,000 words

Either mentorship version is open to writers of all fiction genres, and the instructor would be especially excited to work with projects between genres or combining them. We’ll work together to find the best plot, structure, themes, and language for your project. The primary requirement is commitment. Within that time frame, meetings and check-ins can be flexible and work around the student’s availability. 

Mentor’s Input:

• Initial consultation
• Personalized writing accountability schedule, recommended readings, and exercises
• Regular email check-ins and guidance
• Optional monthly 1-hr video or phone conference
• Editorial feedback - critique letters and in-line comments
• Help defining the project and crafting a query letter for it
• Moral support

Mentee’s Responsibilities: 

• Turn in monthly pages plus reflection letter
• Read craft essays/books, fiction, and other sources as recommended by the instructor
• Participate in regular email discussions
• Attempt revisions in response to feedback.

Below is a rough template of what a mentorship schedule may look like, but actual schedules will be more detailed and individually tailored after the initial consultation. Also, while this schedule indicates a couple check-ins per month, students can email the instructor with questions at any time. Guidance and help is not limited to what’s listed here.

Sample schedule:

Month 1

• Week 1: Initial consults. Establish plans and goals. Packet 1 due (existing work)
• Two weeks later: mid-month check-ins. Feedback on Packet 1 returned
• Week 4: Check-in/optional videoconference
• End of month: Packet 2 due

Month 2

• Week 1: Monthly check-in and planning session
• Two weeks later: mid-month check-ins. Feedback on Packet 2 returned
• Week 4: Check-in/optional videoconference
• End of month: Packet 3 due

Month 3

• Week 1: Monthly check-in and planning session
• Two weeks later: mid-month check-ins. Feedback on Packet 3 returned
• Week 4: Check-in/optional videoconference
• End of month: Packet 4 due

Month 4

• Week 1: Monthly check-in and planning session
• Two weeks later: mid-month check-ins. Feedback on Packet 4 returned
• Week 4: Check-in/optional videoconference
• End of month: Packet 5 due

Month 5

• Week 1: Monthly check-in and planning session
• Two weeks later: mid-month check-ins. Feedback on Packet 5 returned
• Week 4: Check-in/optional videoconference
• End of month: Packet 6 due

Month 6

• Week 1: Monthly check-in and planning session
• Two weeks later: mid-month check-ins. Feedback on Packet 6 returned
• Week 4: Final consultation and mentorship debrief 
• End of month: Final packet due. Feedback to follow.

Click HERE to Apply Now. Early applications are encouraged as space is limited.

Tuition Payment:

Full Tuition for the 6-month program is $4495. Accepted writers must commit to the full six months and meet all assigned deadlines. You can pay the tuition in full or opt for equal monthly payments by selecting Shop Pay Installments or Affirm at checkout. If you decide to create a monthly payment plan using Shop Pay or Affirm, you can do so once you add "Full Tuition" to your cart, enter your contact information, and are on the payment page.

STUDENT TESTIMONIALS: