Twitter: @SWhitewriting
Website: stuartwhitewriting.com / thescribblersonline.com
Agent: Sharon Belcastro (@SharonBelcastro)
Published books: Storm Rising (Nine Star Press) 14/01/19
Genre: MG/YA SF/Fantasy
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Bio: Stuart is a Biology Teacher from Glasgow and father of the most determined and fierce girl he has ever come across. He is represented by Sharon Belcastro at the Belcastro Agency. His debut novel, STORM RISING, is due to be published by Nine Star Press. Stuart is a member of SCBWI and part of a writing group called The Scribblers, who host regular writing events offering feedback on works in progress and blog regularly at TheScribblersOnline.com.
Experience: As well as being part of a strong peer critique group for 4 years, I have an MLitt in Creative Writing, have completed the Curtis Brown Writing for Children course and have written several novels over a decade. I have also completed the James Patterson Masterclass on Writing and have read almost every craft book out there, from Stephen King’s On Writing to Donald Maass’ Writing the Breakout Novel and The Emotional Craft of Fiction. I am incredibly committed to my craft and I know this experience of mentoring will not only help the author I work with, but also help me develop.
Mentoring style: Wider, developmental edit on first round, then focus on on scenes and chapters on second. I’m not a big line-editor, but I’ll point out as much as I can while I do the other, wider-scale edits.
Mentee style: I want to work with someone who is obsessed with improving their craft, who wants to learn how to better write a novel, not just polish a manuscript. The mentee will work hard and we will set deadlines to ensure both of us will maximise the potential of the manuscript we are working on, to ensure it is submission ready by September.
What kind of novel would you like to work on? I’m looking for something that’s high concept and also ambitious. It needs to be something fresh and original and bring something I haven’t seen before to a SF or Fantasy novel. I lean more towards the character driven plots, which focus on fewer characters, than a novel which is multi-POV or a huge cast. I’m not closed to both, if they are done super well, but it’s hard to get the kind of emotional investment I love in books when you’re switching POV frequently or trying to write too many character arcs. If the tech or the magic are more important in your novel than the characters, it’s probably not for me.
Favourite novels: Red Rising, Frostblood, Red Queen, Children of Blood and Bone, Knights of the Borrowed Dark, His Dark Materials, LotR, Harry Potter to name a very few.
Mentoring package offered: Full manuscript and redrafts until submission ready
To find out more about what Stuart is looking for, go here.
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