Coaching & Classes

For more info see: mountfordwriting.com

Developmental editing and book coaching:

The best approach is for me to first get a sense of where you are with your work, and what you’re looking for. Based on that initial assessment, we can have a conversation about the best approach.

There are three basic models that usually apply:  

  1. If you want feedback on a book, completed or not, often called a developmental edit, it’s usually enough for me to read the first 50 pages and a synopsis of the rest. This takes me about 5-6 hours. At the end you will get 4-5 (or more) single spaced pages of notes and a document with edits and notes in the margins. In the event that your writing is just perfect, you won’t get charged, and you won’t get notes . . . I’ll just wish you well, and we can talk about agents.

  2. If the book has multiple POVs, or if it is structurally complex, I might need to read the whole book, which can take as much as 15 - 20 hours.

  3. In many cases, the best approach is through my coaching model, where we meet via Zoom once a week or however often is necessary. I read your prose aloud (10 pages per hour usually) pausing whenever I have comments or observations about the craft choices you are making. This approach is often hugely effective at building craft tools for authors, but it normally takes months.

  4. One of my specialties is giving advice to people who are seeking a literary agent, or need advice on the professional aspect of the writing life. I have advised many authors through this experience, and people often seem woefully unaware of how best to proceed. 

My rate is $140 per hour.

My former students and clients include:

Meron Hadero, author of A Down Home Mean for These Difficult Times

Rachel Griffin, author of the NYT bestselling The Nature of Witches

Tara Conklin, author of the NYT Bestsellers The House Girl and The Last Romantics

Therese Huson, author of How Women Decide

Shannon Huffman Polson, author of North of Hope

Elissa Washuta, author of My Body Is A Book of Rules.

Gail Hudson, co-author of several of Jane Goodall's books

Nicole Hardy, author of Confessions of a Latter Day Virgin

Testimonials

“Peter has helped me elevate the quality and power of my work through his exceptional craft courses as well as one-on-one coaching. He has an unerring sense of a story’s center of gravity and the structure that best suits the material. He’s the kind of merciless editor that any serious writer would value. Since working with him, I’ve had a story and two essays accepted by prestigious literary magazines and highly regarded essay columns. In a star rating, he’d get a full 5 from me.”

- Robin Reif

“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 (MFA candidate at the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, class of 2023)

“Peter helped me improve in just about every facet of my writing life. A few specifics that come to mind: he gave me story critiques that encouraged while setting high standards; set me up with a mini-group who were fun, dedicated, and generous; advised on writing life in a way that totally reframed my conceptions about progress. I left class seeing how much more I need to write and read, how much more there is to learn, which is humbling and exciting."

- Michael Barry (MFA candidate at Bennington, class of 2023)

low res MFA at UNRT

I am on faculty at University of Nevada, Reno, at Tahoe’s low-residency MFA program, where I mentor students in fiction, YA, and creative nonfiction. Students study remotely, except for twice-annual visits to UNRT’s gorgeous campus on Lake Tahoe. The program is unique in numerous ways, including that students spend an entire semester honing their thesis under the supervision of a editor, or another professional in the publishing business. In general the program is dynamic, full of excellent faculty who are dedicated to craft, but also realistic about the nature of the writing business. The program features tracks in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and WCYA. 

If you have any questions about the program, I strongly encourage you to contact me. More information can be found on the program's website HERE.

Creative nonfiction

“If other people are to care about your life, art must intervene.” - Hilary Mantel

Every fall, winter, and spring I teach a 10-week online class through called “Advanced Personal Essay: Finding A Way Through,” which helps writers transform actual people and events into characters and plot elements in an essay, a process that can be disorienting. But this is how we turn what would otherwise be journal entries—written for the author’s benefit—into literature, which exists for the benefit of readers. This class is designed for those who have already explored the basics of personal writing and wish to explore specific techniques for turning a personal anecdote into a publishable essay Specifically, students look at some typical structures of the personal essay, and how those formats help authors avoid common pitfalls of the form, such as getting lost in a giant pile of information and/or coming off as solipsistic/maudlin.

More info HERE.

Hugo House

I teach numerous classes at Hugo House every year, online and in person. These classes include:

  1. Yearlong in Prose (this class meets in person on Tuesdays at Hugo House, Sept - June)

  2. Advanced Yearlong in Fiction and Nonfiction (this class meets in person on Tuesdays at Hugo House, Sept - June, by application only)

  3. Fiction I (six weeks, online, every fall)

 More info HERE.