Investing in a Writer Mentorship Program

"Janice is Skeptical" by Shelley Burbank

Hi Type Ms. Shelley Burbank here. 

Following is a segment from my recent PINK DANDELIONS newsletter.

I may be delusional, but I’ve just done something so out of character, I can only think it’s either gonna be the smartest thing I ever did for myself or the stupidest. After forty years of autodidactic literary study, I signed up for a one-on-one writing mentorship program that will eat up the last bit of writing money I’ve earned and hoarded over the years, using it all in one last big spend.

I feel like I’m blowing on dice at the craps table at Ceasar’s Palace and hoping for sixes. Hey, it can happen.

What do I want to get out of this experience? Well, for one, I’m finally going to get some honest, professional feedback from a developmental editor trained in a system I find extremely cool and satisfyingly complex. I’m HOPING this feedback enables me to crank my writing up to the “next level.”

My goal is to write books that are so emotionally compelling and beautifully-written that readers stay up all night finishing them, can’t wait for the next one to come out, and tell all their friends about them. I want to write stories that delight a small but mighty group of dedicated and intelligent and thoughtful readers. And I want a publishing contract with an imprint big enough to pay me a decent advance and/or with a marketing budget that helps grow this readership further than I’ve been able to do for myself.

This mentorship should help me get there, if getting there is possible for me.

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When is much, too much? 

The previous segment is only a small bit of a much longer (maybe too long) newsletter. Something about only sending one per month spurs me into cramming everything into one long email. This is something I am of two minds about. 

Is it more value for the subscriber? Or is it overkill?

In my newsletter, I've also started posting scenes and vignettes of a "piece" I'm calling The Peony Hotel. These follow the adventures of a literary novelist at mid-life, recently divorced, who runs away from Maine to Guam for a fresh start. She's taken a job ghost-writing a series of YA historical books for a famous gospel superstar, and her three children back home in the USA think she's lost her mind. 

This is the most fun way for me to share my experiences here in Guam which, after a year, I finally feel I know just enough to have some perspective on the place. Plus, it's a mid-life crisis/coming-of-second-age story. 

These may or may not end up as scenes in a novel one day. Who knows. 

If you are interested in reading more about my mentorship program, the Peony Hotel, and other writing-related and creativity-related content, please check out the PINK DANDELIONS newsletter on Substack. 

Cheers!

Shelley