Deadlines, Mentorship, Feedback — what do you need to get where you’re going?

Many writing instructors focus on supporting your emotional experience as a writer. Their feedback will celebrate your personal bravery and resilience—there are likely to be quite a few tears shed in their classes, as well as supportive messages to writers.

While this popular style of teaching and coaching works for many, this isn’t what I do.

I’m trying to help you write the best version of your writing possible, and help you see it through to publication. 

This includes brainstorming, writing process, and editing for the audience that works best for your material and style. I want to help you share your work with a broader audience. I’m friendly, supportive, and encouraging, but my goal is your success, as you move from idea to publication and beyond.

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I offer a variety of services to writers, including:

Over the years, I’ve helped hundreds of writers at every phase of their work. Sometimes a writer needs help achieving a specific goal (finish a book, say, or revise a short story), and sometimes I act as a writing coach, helping them form and keep deadlines, and develop skills that will enable them to create publishable work.

Whether you’re just starting out, halfway through your novel, or just stuck in the midst of your memoir, I’m excited to help work collaboratively with you on your writing problem. Here are a few ways I work with others. If you’d like to have a 20-minute complimentary call, please just reach out to me at peter@petermountford.com

Get Feedback

I’m here to help your writing become more engaging to readers, more interesting and coherent, also ultimately more emotionally resonant, and authentic.

I focus on specific skills and techniques that are often counter-intuitive (balance of scene and summary for pacing, or narrative distance), which can have a huge impact on your work.

Writing coach services

Maybe you’ve already written an essay, or a novel, a memoir, or some short stories, and just need someone to tell you whether your work is ready to be released into the great wide world — or at least ready to be seen by a literary agent. If it’s not yet ready? I can help you locate some steps you can take to get your writing to the next level.

If you’re having a hard time motivating yourself to write short stories or essays or books or wonder how to get better at writing, set up a coaching session. Or maybe you’re stuck after writing the first half of your book and have no idea where the second half is. My coaching package deals provide consistent encouragement and feedback.

If you’re hoping to sell your short fiction or nonfiction to literary journals or other magazines, hope to win writing contests or creative fiction fellowships, or apply to writing workshops, I can suggest strategies for success.

Manuscript Reviews

I offer manuscript reviews on three different levels, including detailed reviews. But I often find that the first 20 pages are enough to give a solid diagnosis and some tips for moving forward.

"Peter has been chosen as a top Book Coach by the coachfoundation.com."

Agent Search and Query Letters

If you’ve already got a potential Pulitzer-winning title on hand, I can assist with a query letter and agent search. There are thousands of agents in the world, and many of them are great, but even more are not (there is no certificate required, anyone can self-identify as a literary agent — learn more in my post about literary agent red flags).

Writing classes and MFA

If you learn best alongside others, check out my classes at Hugo House in Seattle, where I offer classroom and online courses in short fiction, essay, finishing your book, and more (I usually have at least one Hugo House class per quarter, and I offer yearlong classes in the fall. I’ve also taught online courses through Creative Nonfiction.

If you’re interested in pursuing an MFA in creative writing, I currently teach in the low-res program of the University of Nevada Reno at Lake Tahoe. Students come to Lake Tahoe twice a year for in-person instruction and have a series of mentors for the rest of the year. I’m more than happy to talk about what this wonderful program can offer.

Craft Essays

To learn more about how I think about craft and the writing process, feel free to peruse my blog or my published craft essays. In the last few years, I’ve written five feature essays for Writer’s Digest, two of which are available for free online. I’ve also written a few shorter pieces for Brevity, New Ohio Review, and elsewhere. I hope to one day assemble all of my craft talks, essays, and lessons and formulate it all into a book, but in the meantime, I’m happy to share my experiences and observations with my students and clients as they work through their projects.

“I took Peter’s yearlong course at Hugo House in 2019-2020, and I found him to be an invaluable instructor. His instincts for how good prose works, from craft elements to the realm of publishing, were instrumental in my writing career. He is an honest critic but an encouraging mentor, and I saw him provide acute feedback to short fiction, novels, essays, and memoirs alike. He helped me figure out how to risk sentimentality in my work, to push toward intensity when possible, and how to think about readership when it comes to where I want to publish. I cannot recommend him enough to anyone looking to get more serious about their writing.””
— Chad Petrie

Your questions, answered

  • How should I send my work?

    I prefer Microsoft Word documents. If we're meeting in person, please bring two copies of between 10-20 pages per hour of meeting (Times New Roman, double spaced, 12 point font).

  • Can you connect me with an agent?

    I can ensure that you have the best list of agents to contact, and I can get you their real contact information (not a generic email address that will be only read by interns). In some cases, I do recommend a client to an agent, but this is uncommon.

  • How much do you charge per hour?

    I charge $140/hour. Regular clients can choose to book seven hours and get the eighth hour free.

  • Do you work with genre fiction writers? If so, which genres?

    I do. I have worked extensively with authors who are writing YA and middle grade (contemporary and within various genres), and I have worked with writers on thrillers, crime/mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

  • What type of fiction/poetry/nonfiction?

    There are very few limits. I do find that with some extremely experimental work, I simply can't understand what the author is attempting to achieve, and am unable to help them. If that is the case with you, we'll know it before we start.

  • Can you offer references?

    Yep. Just ask.