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INKLINGS MENTORSHIP

Your Creative Voice is as Unique as a Fingerprint

Tapping into that creative voice is like gaining a superpower. In your Inklings mentorship, you’ll collaborate with a mentor to develop the flexible thinking skills you need to move the big ideas in your heart and head out onto the page.

As with any art form, creative writing is an experience

You can dip a toe into for a short, exploratory project, or a craft you can develop over time. With that in mind, our mentorship program offers a structured learning process that can be customized to each youth writer’s interests, goals, and ambitions.

Our mentorship program is now closed for enrollment.
We will re-open for new students in May 2024.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN YOUR MENTORSHIP PROGRAM

stage 1

Think Like an Explorer

If your writing voice is as unique as a fingerprint, what does it sound like? When you think like an explorer, you get curious about the world around you and also about yourself as an artist.

  • How do you see the world?
  • How do you collect your insights and ideas?
  • How might you express your unique perspective in words and stories?
  • What does your creative process look like now and how do you want it to look as you continue onward?

stage 2

Think Like an Wordsmith

Take your writing craft to the next level by understanding your tools and the way you most enjoy using them. Build your wordsmithing expertise, and reliably create the effect you hope to make–such as laughter, tears, or even lingering questions to ponder.

  • How do you choose just-right words to paint pictures in readers’ minds?
  • How do you introduce and develop characters?
  • How do you build an engaging scene and believable dialogue?
  • How do you shape a plot that is both satisfying and surprising?

stage 3

Think Like a Prototyper

Gain confidence and momentum by borrowing design thinking tools and strategies that you can apply to your writing process. By building prototypes of your ideas and of solutions for your creative tangles, you’ll gain feedback and perspective that will help you find and maintain flow.

  • What’s your creative style? How do you most successfully generate and develop ideas?
  • How might you frame your feedback request for best results?
  • How might you process and apply feedback?
  • When you’re stuck, what’s the easiest way for you to get back on track?

stage 4

Think Like an AUTHOR

As an author, you’ll choose what you want to write and why. Do you want to create a short story? A collection of poems? A novel? How do you go about starting a meaningful project, planning it out and drafting it from start to finish?

  • What project do you want to take on?
  • What skills do you hope to develop through this project?
  • Why is this project important to you, and how can you use your unique voice as you draft?
  • How will you design your writing process to support your project’s goals?

stage 4

Think Like a STORYTELLER

Once you have a draft of a larger project, it is time to think more deeply about your reader’s experience. Revision isn’t so much about right and wrong, but instead, about identifying the potential in a piece of writing and making the most of those possibilities.

  • What is the heart of the project you’ve created?
  • What kind of reading experience do you hope to create with your work?
  • What feedback are others giving you about their reading experience?
  • How might you use your craft skills to refine your work and bring out its potential?

onward

chart your path forward

After drafting, revising, and publishing a meaningful creative writing project, you’ll have insight into your taste, strengths, and opportunities to grow. At this point, we encourage you to choose a project that will give you new creative territory to explore, such as: 

  • Trying a genre that stretches your character development or world-building skills 
  • Playing with new formats such as a novel in verse or a script
  • Exploring alternate plot structures or writing in a different point of view
  • Experimenting with the intersection between words and images in a picture book or graphic novel

Program Structure

MATCHING AND SCHEDULE:
When you register for a mentorship, our team reviews your application and chooses a mentor who matches best based on writing style, goals, and schedule. Video meetings are 45-minutes long, and typically are scheduled weekly. We do offer bi-weekly sessions, and by special request, monthly sessions.

DURATION:
We book mentorships on an ongoing basis, and bill for sessions used at the end of each month. We recommend planning on a 12-session engagement to begin, as this is a solid amount of time to build momentum and to set a small goal and complete it.

TUITION:
Tuition is $125 per session. There is a one-time $100 enrollment fee to begin the matching process. Need-based scholarships are available, and can be requested here.

HAVE MORE QUESTIONS?
Check out our mentorship FAQ 
Contact us at info@younginklings.org

Our mentorship program will re-open for enrollment in May 2024.

Spark your creativity!

Subscribe to our monthly Ink Splat for an exclusive author interview, a writing challenge, and other fun (and free!) goodies, curated especially for youth writers.

As a bonus gift, we'll send you an Inklings Starter Kit packed with creativity-sparking fun.