WAYNE KELLY WRITES
Menu
  • WELCOME
  • About Me
  • BLOG
  • JOIN THE MAILING LIST
  • WORKSHOPS/TALKS
  • CONTACT
  • NOVEL WRITING
  • SAFE HANDS
  • JOINED UP WRITING PODCAST
  • SCRIPTS
  • VIDEOS
Menu
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy

ThrillPit Mentor Scheme

Posted on March 25, 2023 by Wayne

Firstly, apologies. It’s been quite some time since my last blog post, so it was high time I gave you an update. Also, I have some good news to report.

SAFE HANDS . . . AGAIN

As listeners to my show, The Joined-Up Writing Podcast will know, I’ve been on my latest submissions journey for the past 10 months or so with a totally new version of my crime thriller, Safe Hands. This is a novel that has been kicking around for a long time now, but this version of the book is a total re-write with a different story, an additional female POV character and a radically different tone to my earlier effort. I was ready to abandon the book but my good friend and talented writer, Ericka Waller, convinced me to try again and suggested I try a different approach. I’m proud of the resulting novel.

Whilst I haven’t sent the book to tons of agents, so far I’m yet to get any real interest and I obviously want to give myself the best chance possible. Perhaps sensing my soul-crushing disappointment and impatience, the Twitter algorithm threw up a link to something called ThrillPit.

It pairs unagented, aspiring writers of thriller and crime novels with mentors to help them with their manuscripts and guide them through the publishing process. All mentors are traditionally published, experienced authors and I noticed that one of them was Lauren North. I had briefly met Lauren when she was a guest on Joined-Up and, coincidentally, she had only recently given me some of the most constructively useful feedback on my work I’ve ever had. So as soon as I saw she was one of the mentors, I knew I had to at least try to get on the scheme. Each author was only taking on one mentee. The submissions window was brief, with fierce competition to secure a place. To submit, writers needed to send their cover letter and opening chapters for consideration. To my absolute surprise and delight – I was accepted! I am now Lauren’s mentee.

Mentor, Lauren North

MY MENTOR – LAUREN NORTH

Lauren writes domestic thrillers under her own name and book club thrillers as LC North. Her latest book is The Ugly Truth, which you should definitely check out. Lauren and I have already started working on the opening of Safe Hands and her ideas and suggestions really chime with what I’m trying to do with the book and even stuff as simple as changing the order of chapters has made a big difference.

A CONFIDENCE BOOST

Having a successful, traditionally published author as your mentor doesn’t automatically guarantee that you will find an agent, but having someone like Lauren in my corner is a massive boost to my morale and has got me fired up to really push for something to happen in this coming year. Lauren understands the genre and even from our initial discussions, I can tell she is on a similar wavelength. She gets my writing, which is just so encouraging and inspiring. It’s a great way to start the first part of my writing year and, as you can probably tell . . . I’m thrilled. You can hear Lauren North’s return interview on Joined-Up Writing here, or on your favourite podcast app.

What about you? How do you feel about mentors? Have you been lucky enough to find other writers and creatives to support you on your writing journey? Maybe you’re a mentor yourself – I’d love to hear about why you love to help other writers. Let me know in the comments below.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
Category: blog

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • ThrillPit Mentor Scheme
  • Finding Creative Focus During Lockdown – The Power Of The Deadline
  • Book Review – The Righteous Spy by Merle Nygate
  • How to know when an idea is ‘THE IDEA’
  • 3 Ways Short Stories Will Improve Your Novel
Tweets by MrKelly2u

Recent Posts

  • ThrillPit Mentor Scheme
  • Finding Creative Focus During Lockdown – The Power Of The Deadline
  • Book Review – The Righteous Spy by Merle Nygate
  • How to know when an idea is ‘THE IDEA’
  • 3 Ways Short Stories Will Improve Your Novel

Recent Comments

  • Maria Smith on Finding Creative Focus During Lockdown – The Power Of The Deadline
  • NaNoWriMo Tip – Give the story ‘legs’! | The Joined Up Writing Podcast on How to know when an idea is ‘THE IDEA’
  • Foster on How To Keep Writing Over Christmas
  • BONUS – Richard Rippon – Should you write everyday? Epilogue #71 | The Joined Up Writing Podcast on BOOK REVIEW – Lord Of The Dead by Richard Rippon
  • Wayne on How To Keep Writing Over Christmas

Archives

  • March 2023
  • March 2020
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • December 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • November 2012
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009

Categories

  • 15K in May
  • A-Z Challenge 2013
  • Amusing Rants
  • amwriting
  • blog
  • Book Review
  • Don of The Dead Series
  • Film related
  • Fitness
  • Flash Fiction
  • Inspirational
  • Life
  • Music
  • NaNoWriMo
  • Novel Writing
  • podcasts
  • Poetry
  • Social Networking
  • Songs/Lyrics
  • Uncategorized
  • Write up to date
  • writing
  • Writing Tips/Advice

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
© 2023 WAYNE KELLY WRITES | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme