Unmentionables Writing Lab

Have you seen those cringy American Idol auditions where a contestant bombs, then tearfully tells Randy and Simon their mom thinks they have incredible talent? It’s painful to watch their faces fall at Randy’s “It’s a no for me, dawg” and getting scarred for life by Simon’s callous cruelties.

Where can you get professional feedback on your writing that’s neither your mom giving you high-fives for mediocrity, nor elitist assholes tearing down your work?

I’m not your mom. And I’m not Simon. I’m half Ted Lasso, half Coach Beard. I can help you take your writing from meh to full-body-fuck-yes!

Why you? You want actionable feedback on your essays or articles, pitches to publications, or book outlines.

Why me? I ghostwrite and edit books for Simon & Schuster and Penguin Random House, work with Navy SEALs, Apple Executives, and Ironman athletes, and freelance for HuffPost, Wired, Insider, and The Rumpus.

When: Second Wednesday every month, from 11:30 am – 1 pm Mountain time.

Where: Live on Zoom.

Cost: $11 (the cost of becoming a paid subscriber). I normally charge $200/hour for my book coaching, ghostwriting, and editing services, but I’m offering this beta version of my experimental writing lab at a fraction of the cost and as a perk for becoming a paid subscriber.

If you are already a paid subscriber (THANK YOU, magical sparkly unicorn!), claim one of the pink highlighted spots on the sign-up sheet:

What Can You Submit?

Anything you want feedback on, including personal essays, article drafts for publications, pitches for editors, or book proposals and outlines. Your journal entries and grocery lists…seriously, anything you’ve written.

What Kind of Feedback Will You Get?

Depends on your piece. If you bring me an essay, we might discuss your central idea, how to structure the story arc, or how to write an opening that hooks your reader. 

If you bring me an outline for your memoir, we may talk about the primary themes, rearrange the chapters, or punch up the title or chapter headings. 

Feedback will always include what’s working in your piece and what doesn’t make sense or detracts from your main points.

How Does This Work?

Once you’re signed up, you’ll receive an email with specific instructions on how to submit your writing to me, and I’ll assign you a 10-minute slot for the writing lab to get your live feedback.

Something magical happens when you read out loud.

You will read your piece out loud to the group and then get feedback from other writers and me. I won’t force you to read out loud, but something magical happens when you do. Your voice will break at the part that hurts the most, you will smile at the joy you remember, and you will notice what doesn’t sound right.

Instead of requiring a specific page length or word count, I find it more helpful to have you read for about 3 minutes and receive feedback for 7 minutes. However, the exact split is flexible depending on your needs and piece of writing.

We often give advice we need to hear ourselves, so pay attention to what you tell other writers.

Nobody is required to stay the entire time, but I highly encourage listening to everyone’s writing and feedback and offering insights to your fellow writers. We often give advice we need to hear ourselves, so pay attention to what you tell other writers. We also learn from listening to other people’s writing and feedback from the group, especially if their style or substance is very different from ours.

What’s the Point?

Creating a community of people who love to read and listen to beautiful writing, share their own words, and are open to feedback.

This community will be hosted on the Substack platform to encourage everyone to continue sharing their writing and offer insights outside of the writing lab session.

The Unmentionables Writing Lab is for you if:

• You love to read and write (regardless of degree, career, or experience)

• You’re tired of the writing classes that only provide positive feedback or mercilessly pick you apart (neither one is real life or real writing)

• You care about writing for the pleasure of it, while also being committed to getting better at the craft

• You write for fun or money or both

• You’ve been in the industry for years and are starting to resent the thing you used to love the most

• You’re just starting out and everyone tells you to build community but you don’t know how