Work w/me
You want to write, but you feel stuck
You have a story to tell but you don’t know where or how to begin…
It’s been years that you've been working on your novel; you're not over it but you are ready to get to the finish line…
Even though it’s a perfect fit, you’ve put off submitting that application because of the essays…
You finally feel like a professional and have learned so much in your field; you’ve filled notebooks with reflections that only you’d understand; you really want to write it all down for your bosses, for your kids, for whomever…
You know where your memoir ends, but you're just not sure how to begin…
I’d like to help you get somewhere new, somewhere real
I will assess where you are personally, creatively, professionally. Together, we will develop and enact a plan to finish your project, based on a combination of what you need and what your writing needs, including:
Lessons on structure, narrative, and cultivating your singular voice to inspire you
Exercises and prompts to give you momentum
Schedule of deadlines to hold you accountable
Considering your anticipated audience
Strategy for writing community and/or publication plan
In this work, I draw on:
12 years of experience teaching writing to college students, including extensive work with English Language Learners
22 years of going engaging in the workshop process with peers working in many genres
Experiences reading and editing for various literary agents, publishers and literary magazines
Many application cycles coaching applicants to the Fulbright award, with several successes
Many years of service as a writing and literacy mentor in organizations across New York City
A lifetime of being bicultural and living and traveling in the US, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, and Latin America
Contact me through the “About” page to inquire and set up a free consultation. Sliding scale fee structure, on an hourly or per project basis.
Testimonials:
“English is not my mother language. Before sending applications for job and art opportunities I would ask Amira for help to review my writing. And she gracefully and rigorously did. She helped me identify, correct and improve grammatical constructions, and she guided me to pay meticulous attention to the structure and flow of the text. With Amira I learned that one paragraph’s idea may not end with its last sentence, but with the first sentence of the following one. I learned the importance of expanding on ideas to link paragraphs and support statements, and to clearly and originally get my point across. Amira helped me understand and relish the craft of writing. With Amira’s advice I gained confidence and found a way to tell my story.”
“I sought out Amira’s help while editing my novel. I knew I was having trouble with character development and figuring out how to enrich perspective throughout the book. I believed she’d be able to help me in these areas and I wasn’t wrong. Even before I asked for her help, I was an admirer of Amira’s writing and knew she had considerable experience as a professor in the field. Amira is a concise and thoughtful communicator. I found her to be refreshingly considerate, and that is important when it’s your work. You want someone to take it as seriously as you do yourself, obviously. You want someone to want your characters to be successful. She is very organized, optimistic, and she’s capable of honing in. But also, something incredibly important: she listens to you. She took into account the difficulties I confessed I was having and worked with me to discover the possibilities to overcome them. I grew to look forward to her feedback, always infused with confidence as well as open mindedness, and I would jump at the opportunity to work with her again.”
“I’ve worked alongside Amira as a writer for many years on both fiction and nonfiction projects, and I’ve always found her comments, suggestions, and overall feedback regarding my work to be invaluable, all the way through the drafting process and then long into revisions. Amira’s attentive and gracious editorial insights have benefited my writing tremendously, from her keen eye for the overall structure and shape, to sharp sentence-level comments that help me see my work in surprising new ways. ”