Memoirs, Essays, Manuscripts & More
I help you to shape your ideas, stories & thoughts into prose—for submission, publication and beyond.
Hugo is currently available for hire.
Crafting Thoughts
We live in the golden age of memoir. Look at the non-fiction bestseller lists; an astonishingly high number of the most-bought books are autobiographies.
We now have permission to tell the stories that until recently couldn’t be told. We’ve learned that memoir writing is not self-indulgent; the funny, heartbreaking, traumatic and seemingly ordinary details of our lives aren’t just of interest to us – they have the power to inspire, comfort, and transform our readers.
Perhaps you have a memoir in you. Maybe it’s an entire book, or perhaps an essay you’d like to shape for publication. Maybe you dream of having your own New York Times bestseller – or you just want to leave a well-crafted, engaging, and enduring story behind for your family.
Whatever your project or idea, I’d love to help you.
What I Do
Each project is as unique as the client themselves. I have ghostwritten 80,000 word memoirs, and I have helped revise 500-word application essays for Ivy League universities. I polish already completed manuscripts, and I work to come up with ideas for a novel, an essay submission to a magazine, or a non-fiction book.
There are many ways to help someone tell their story.
Flexible Collaboration
Via Phone
Writing real story is about more than craft; it’s about the ability to go to places that are sometimes scary and often uncomfortable. It’s about navigating past the blocks and the doubts. I have decades of experience coaching novice and experienced writers through those obstacles, and some clients find regular phone consultations work best. I am intimately familiar with the intersection between emotional healing and the creative process, and I bring time-honored tools to our conversations.
Via Email
Some projects require less one-on-one involvement and more email, as we work in tandem to take a book proposal, or an essay, to its highest possible level of excellence.
Competitive Pricing
My rates are comparable to or below those charged by most other writing coaches.
When we decide to work together, I’ll quote you rates by the hour—or by the project. We’ll agree on something that works best for you.