Hi, I’m Dr Georgina Green*,
*George
I’m a developmental editor. A self-belief coach. A mother. A writer. A scholar. A lover of story. A book coach.
Emerging novelists work with me to deepen their craft and finish their novels.
I’m here for the writer who can’t see the wood for the trees.
For the writer who squirms when asked to call themself a writer.
For the ones who’ve never found anything so hard as the one thing they want to do; write.
For those with a messy first draft and no idea how to take it forward.
For the novels in you, swirling in your head, waiting for a deadline to invite them onto the page.
For four years,
I’ve supported dozens of writers with one to one coaching, and structural editing that helps them write the book that wants to be written.
Before that, I was a literary scholar, publishing articles and my first book of literary criticism, researching and teaching literature at the Universities of Oxford, Oxford Brookes, York and Carleton University in Canada.
I’ve never not been thinking about how writing works.
After I started a family, I gained further training as a developmental editor and coach (training with Author Accelerator and the Self Belief Coaching Academy).
What all this means for you is that I have deep training in literature, teaching, and coaching.
Working with me will deepen your understanding of craft and ability to pull off what you’re trying to do with your novel.
✔ You’ll have an insightful, attentive reader whose as invested in your story as you are.
✔ You’ll have a coach who will guide you through the fears and challenges that come with writing a novel-length piece of fiction.
✔ So you can write the novel to a standard that brings you joy.
Because my mission is to help you
write your novel without second-guessing yourself. I want to nurture your self-trust as a writer so that you can create a book your audience will read until the spines are creased and the corners are foxed. A much-loved book.
I promise…
…not to deflate you with one-way feedback or an impersonal red pen. My red pen is green, and it wants you to keep writing.
Working with me is all about…
…collaborative, empowering conversations. I won’t assert my authority and ‘fix’ your book for you. I will help you tune into your self-trust and uncover the much-loved book hidden in your first draft.
When I work with you on your book, you are the expert.
Because several years ago I almost threw away my reputation and half a decade of work on my book because of well-intended but ultimately disempowering suggestions. It was only when I stopped trying to jump through hoops to please other people that I finally finished my book.
I found a way to tap into what I knew, deep-down, I wanted to say.
Now, my job is to help you uncover the book you really want readers to receive. Not because it’s what you think will sell. Not because it’s what you heard agents want nowadays. Because this is what you want to say. This is how you want your readers to feel. This is the kind of book you would love to read.
So that’s my mission. But what’s my story?
Read on to get to know me better.
For six months, I strung them all along.
It was horrible. Everyone (my doctoral supervisor, my husband, my publisher) thought my book was almost finished. I’d say it was just being checked over, crossing the ‘t’s, dotting the ‘i’s. When that became unbelievable, I’d even imply I’d submitted and it was not me but the publishers who were dragging their feet.
The truth? I was utterly stuck and filled with shame. I turned up every day to write, but I just couldn’t find a way forward with rewriting. I’d never suffered from writers’ block before. This was something different. I was writing, it just wasn’t getting me anywhere. Everything felt like a backwards step. I even wrote to a clinical psychiatrist to ask for help (she turned me away). I knew it was only so long before I was found out.
At last, I took the chance to talk to a life coach. She helped me see what had been holding me back. I had been trying to do what others had suggested, instead of focusing on saying what I had to say and taking ownership of my book. I had lost my self-trust as a writer.
After getting help, I was on fire.
In a good way, I mean. On the commute to work, I dictated thoughts about what I really wanted to say. I wrote it up in the evenings.
So how did I become a book coach?
I was thirty-eight weeks pregnant when I returned the final corrected proofs of my academic book of literary criticism. By the time the author’s copies arrived in the post, one hundred years had passed. In new mum time. Or three months in normal human time.
Reviews were beyond what I’d ever dared hope. But now that the book was here, as well as the baby, I found myself wondering what was next.
It wasn’t just the baby. I remember watching my granny’s face as she read the acknowledgements and the dedication to her late husband, my dear Grandad. When she looked up at me, there were tears in her eyes. But she didn’t read a single word more. She laid down my sharp-edged book with reverence. Then she picked up her battered Bernard Cornwell novel.
Over the next year, I couldn’t suppress the feeling that my heart just wasn’t in academia anymore. But what else could a brain like mine actually do?
My new ambitions weren’t what I’d always expected.
This wasn’t the start of a career as a rockstar academic. Instead, I wanted to support creative people, real live writers, to tune into their self-trust and write books that get read in the real world. Books like the ones that got me through late-night breastfeeding marathons. Novels like the ones that I fell in love with as a teenager.
Now, I work as a hybrid of creativity coach and editor for novelists and memoirists who want to write a much-loved book. I’m a book coach.
I offer hands-on attention to the words on the page, without the disempowering effect of the red pen; without setting myself up as the authority on your book and your voice.
I learnt the hard way
that the kind of one-way feedback you get in reader’s reports or unilateral manuscript assessments can paralyse a creative person. Instead, I aim to build a relationship with you and to understand (and help you tap into) your hopes, fears, and values. Everything I do is grounded in the context of a collaborative process. All rooted in energising and profound conversations about your work and your vision.