Mentoring with Chip Colquhoun
Explore Chip Colquhoun’s mentoring offer, aimed at developing your children’s and Young Adult fiction, and improving your story structure, voice and character.
Seek expert advice, tackle creative blockages and prepare your manuscript for publication
Looking for advice? Need feedback on your writing? Writers of all kinds often face challenges, from finding the time to write and tackling creative blockages to preparing manuscripts for publication. This is why NCW offers flexible mentoring packages through which writers can work one-to-one with an experienced mentor to overcome all kinds of obstacles.
Chip’s areas of expertise: children’s and YA literature, the art of storytelling
Chip is a highly experienced mentor in the art of storytelling, with a great breadth of knowledge about the history and neuroscience of story. He specialises in prose aimed at readers aged 4 to 16, with particular focus on story, character and all-important voice.
Choose Chip when…
- you’ve got plot holes you’re struggling to fill;
- your feedback from agents/publishers says you need to improve your characters or your voice;
- you’re particularly keen to write for middle grade or young adult markets; and/or
- you have a true story to tell, but haven’t yet found a way of hooking a young audience.
Mentoring works best as a sustained relationship over a period of time. You can book a single session with Chip, or multiple sessions. Book three or more sessions in one transaction with the same mentor and receive a 10% discount. This discount will be automatically applied to your basket.
How it works
For each session, one week before you will send a summary of your reasons for seeking a mentor (300 words max) and either…
- a 5000 word extract and short synopsis
- or your whole book or picture book script if less than 5000 words.
During your session, Chip will then provide you with feedback, guidance, and exercises you can put into immediate practice.
Hear more from Chip on his mentoring offer:
Ready to book?
Single or introductory mentoring session
£95 for one, one-hour session
Trying mentoring for the first time? Seeking help for a particular challenge? Book a single, hour-long session with one of our experienced mentors and receive in-depth advice on taking your writing forward.
Single mentoring sessions are great if:
- You are new to mentoring and would like a taster of what the relationship can offer;
- You would like an introduction to your chosen mentor before embarking on a sustained period of support;
- You have a particular challenge or area of advice you would like to address.
Book your one-off session from the available dates on this page.
If your one-off mentoring session is a success, we recommend booking our ‘Aspire: mentoring package’ of three sessions or more.
Aspire: mentoring package (three session minimum)
From £285 (save 10% when booking three sessions or more)
Dedicate time to improving your craft and overcoming obstacles in your writing life with a bespoke package of support from an experienced writer mentor.
Develop a long-term, professional relationship with your mentor and together you can refine your manuscript, work on a funding application or implement an action plan to improve your creative practice — whatever it is that will help you to achieve your writing goals.
A mentoring package of three sessions minimum or more is great for writers who:
- Have drafted a manuscript and would like feedback and suggestions for improvement;
- Are ready to publish their work and would like advice on how to pitch to agents or find a publisher;
- Are at the early stages of a piece of work, or perhaps aren’t working on a particular project, and would like regular guidance and feedback on how to improve elements of their craft;
- Want to apply for funding, development opportunities, or find ways to create new avenues for income as a writer.
Your mentoring sessions will be tailored to your individual needs, so you can bring any creative challenges to the table.
Book three or more sessions in one transaction with the same mentor and receive a 10% discount on your total purchase. This discount will be automatically applied to your basket.
What others have said
‘Chip is detailed, organised, and reliable. He takes a patient and professional approach to teaching and is adept at introducing new concepts. It would be an understatement to say he is thorough. He went above and beyond the call of duty to provide an excellent experience that left me in a good position to submit marketable work. He has the gift of immediately seeing what isn’t working in a story and how to fix it. Rather than trying to change my vision, he astutely advised on how to make my existing ideas stronger. After each session I felt my work benefited enormously from his feedback.’ – Children’s author Rebecca Colby, published by Penguin Random House, Nosy Crow, and others.
‘The structure of Chip’s sessions are excellent. Each was tailored to my needs, clearly detailed, and gently brought me through the process of transferring my storytelling style to printed format. I was given some excellent tools to use, and discovering the science surrounding the art of storytelling was really useful. The accountability worked really well for me as I can lose focus and motivation easily. Chip gave me the confidence to keep going with it all when I felt stuck.’ – Actor Martina McCormack.
‘Chip’s sessions were the best prepared and most enjoyable writing course I’ve attended. He gave very detailed individual feedback and advice. He was always upbeat and encouraging, but I was given sound advice on how to improve my writing. It was excellent value for money!’ – Author Maureen Boon, published by Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Chip Colquhoun
An NCW Associate Artist, Chip is a storyteller and children’s author whose only professional passion beyond stories is helping others find the voice to tell theirs. He’s trained teachers through the Dept for Education’s English Hub, young creatives through Rathbone College, vicars through Ridley Hall in Cambridge, and children’s writers with publisher Epic Tales – to dip just a toe in the ocean. He wrote the EU’s guidance on storytelling for schools in 2015, and was commissioned by The History Press to write Cambridgeshire Folk Tales for Children in 2016. He also performs regularly at Glastonbury Festival, represented the Roald Dahl Story Company on ITV, and is the lead writer on the series Chip Colquhoun and Korky Paul’s Fables & Fairy Tales.
