Getting Writing Help Online

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Over the past twenty years or so I've worked with more than a thousand writers, of all sorts—from world-class professionals to reluctant and inept beginners, with variations on almost any theme you can imagine of the person who either wants to write or must write. Most of these people struggled, many suffered, very few had a smooth road in front of them, and as writers most had considerable pain behind them.

For novices the task of becoming a good writer seems especially daunting both because of the difficulties inherent in writing and the many conflicting voices of people offering advice about writing.

Lots of this advice is good, it can be helpful, and most of it doesn't directly address the specific situation that the individual writer finds himself or herself in.

(To read more about the writer and outside advice, click here.)

• This website is meant to address the individual skills, talents, problems, and desires of the aspiring writer, not with words of wisdom or prescriptions for excellence but with a detailed analysis and plan that will assess where the aspiring writer stands and what he or she should to get better.

This analysis and plan can apply to specific projects or the writer's overall goals.ects

• The first thing I'm offering is help with specific projects.

If you're working on an important project, I can help you make it better—it's pretty much that simple. Again, in order to help you, I'll need to gather some information about you and the project. I'll ask you for writing samples, certainly, and I'll ask you to define the project as clearly as possible before we begin working together. Then I'll offer you a plan for completing the project and doing so on time. I'll also quote you a price—some projects are small, some large, and writers differ enormously in their ability to complete them.

If you're interested in getting help with a specific project, here's my email address

• So the other thing I am offering to anyone who wants to make a continued commitment to becoming a writer is precisely this sort of evaluation.

If you want such an evaluation, you'll need to provide the following:

• Your goals as a writer
• Your previous experience as a writer
• Your strengths as a writer
• Your successes and failures as a writer
• Samples of your writing

In addition, I'll ask you to complete a couple of simple assessments of your reading skill—for reasons that I address on other parts of this site, writing skills cannot be separated from reading skills. Once you've signed up, I'll give you detailed information about the precise kinds of information and writing samples you need to provide. Your evaluation will include an outline of a writing curriculum tailored to your specific qualities as a writer. It will be built on the evaluation and will address your specific ambitions and your strengths and weaknesses.

The cost of this evaluation is $50 US. I will accept PayPal or money orders.

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