STEPHANIE BISHOP
What I offer:
I offer personalised and curated mentorship packages that aim to support the development of your writing, helping you make the work the very best it can be. You might have a finished draft or just be getting started. You might be working on a novel, short fiction, memoir, or more experimental prose. I’m happy to support your work at any stage of development and can provide feedback and guidance from early concept through to a polished draft.
I’m an experienced teacher and coach have worked extensively with authors in Australia and the UK, with many of them going on to publish their books to both commercial and critical acclaim. I aim to encourage the expansion of your writing, helping you to refine your vision, hone your skills and develop your project to its full potential.
Together we work closely on your work-in-progress. Each meeting is 1 hour long, and we can work through and discuss 5000 words per session. I’ll read these carefully in advance and provide you with notes and thoughtful, actionable feedback. The mentorship program is tailored to your own needs, offering advice, targeted editorial guidance and practical feedback.
How it works:
The mentorship packages are designed to support the development of your project over the course of either 2, 4, 6 or 8 months, through fortnightly sessions carried out on Zoom. The length of the mentorship is agreed at the start. The mentorship is designed to provide clear support and feedback through regular meetings.
Each fortnight you submit up to 5,000 words of material. This is followed by a meeting on Zoom, in which we cover all aspects of your writing – such as character, style, plot, dialogue, voice, description, pacing and structure. We’ll also discuss creative problem solving and the broader ambitions of your project and your writing. Your work will be read with care and close attention, and each discussion will be accompanied by a written report providing clear and rigorous feedback, as well as annotations on your manuscript.
While I’m happy to meet for one-off sessions, mentorship is most valuable when carried out over a longer period of time.
What you can expect:
Each written submission is followed up with a 1 hour Zoom conversation and approximately 600 words of written feedback, plus brief annotations on the written work. This written feedback will offer deep manuscript analysis and structural developmental editing.
Detailed, sensitive and rigorous discussion of the submitted work. This will include discussion of your creative process and writing practice.
Support in the development of all aspects of literary craft, as relevant to the project. Depending on the project this might also include support on the incorporation of research.
Support in developing your understanding of yourself as a writer – what are your ambitions, what is your vision?
If wanted, I can provide follow-up writing exercises, and suggestions for reading alongside the written report.
I have extensive industry experience and can provide guidance on submitting your work: this can include help with developing a synopsis, a query letter and making a submission. This is often best done as a self-contained one-hour session.
Mentorship Package Options:
2 months, with 4 mentorship sessions, total word count 20,000
4 months with 8 mentorship sessions total word count 40,000
6 months with 12 mentorship sessions, total word count 60,000
8 months, with 16 mentorship sessions, total word count 80,000
Other Services:
One-off mentoring session (1-hour Zoom + read 5,000 words + report)
Additional hour (consultation only, no manuscript)
Submission package (advice on query, synopsis, submission advice)
Developmental manuscript review (outside mentorship)
How To Apply:
The mentorship program is selective, with limited places available. To enquire about mentorship services and related fees please send a message outlining your project and what you’d hope to gain from the mentorship. A small number of subsidised places are also available. You can contact at: penandink777@gmail.com
Testimonials
'Stephanie's support was invaluable on my journey to publishing The Make-Believe. Being read by her I felt I was being taken seriously as a real writer, and her sharp-eyed, compassionate feedback both challenged and encouraged me. She's very kind, very smart, and immensely perceptive. Being taught by her was truly inspiring. Her statements of wisdom on the craft of writing and the industry of publishing are lessons I return to again and again.'
– Hannah Murry, author of The Make-Believe
'Stephanie’s guidance is quite simply the only reason my book ever found its feet. Her mentorship is invaluable; she is unbelievably caring, thorough, perceptive and able to see and understand crucial elements of my work that I could never have even noticed myself. This kind of editorial and writerly attention is incredibly rare — to be read as closely and as generously as I have been by Stephanie has been career-altering for me. It has allowed me to feel incredibly seen and understood as a writer, to be challenged when I need to be challenged and encouraged when I need someone I admire to lift me up. Stephanie is an extraordinarily good teacher, and any work of fiction will be incalculably better as a result of her input. I wouldn’t be the writer I am without her.'
– Lucia Osborne-Crowley, author of My Body Keeps Your Score
I loved my time working with Stephanie while she was my mentor during my MA at UEA. She had that rare ability to see what my manuscript was trying to become, to see what I was aiming for before I could see it myself. She took such care with my work and took my messy manuscript so seriously that it increased my confidence in myself as a writer. Also, her reading recommendations based on my work were invaluable. She listened so well during our zooms, it was like the best kind of therapy. After I finished working with her, I sold my novel in a two-book deal to HarperCollins in the UK and Hachette in the US. If you get the chance to work with Stephanie, grab it!
– Sheena Cook, author of All the Things We Buried