When I started writing, I was curious to know what makes great writers want to write. How do they write? Is there a method to the madness? The answer, I found, was perseverance and mentorship.
Through my journey, I’ve come across writers and mentors who have helped me, taught me lessons, given me feedback, and told me what was wrong (and sometimes what was right) with my writing. As a mentor, I want to help writers the way I received help and guidance. My aim is to get more people writing.
I’ve worked with hundreds of writers, of various ages and nationalities, experimenting across genres. If you’re in a place where someone can come in and coach you through the process of writing a story, a book, a memoir, or even a blog post, reach out to me. If you want to know how my mentorship works, and how it could help you, I would love to talk!
These are the popular forms my mentoring takes:
Draft Critique and One-Time Feedback
- A one-time read with a detailed critique of the draft of your writing.
- Feedback in the form of notes, highlights and comments.
- You receive a document with overall feedback and suggested next steps for your draft.
- Most suitable when you have a draft ready and it needs a professional eye.
One-on-One Mentorship [Most Popular]
- As a mentor, I step in to help guide your writing process.
- Brainstorms, ideation, writing exercises, and setting deadlines.
- Your work is critiqued through multiple drafts until a satisfactory manuscript is produced by you.
- Most suitable when you are at the beginning of your writing journey and wish to learn.
Structural Edit for a Manuscript
- A detailed examination of your manuscript for its narrative structure.
- Bits are re-written and restructured, ideas are brought to the fore.
- You receive a document with suggestions for minor rewrites and a style guide for consistency.
- Most suitable when your draft needs to be polished to publishing standards.
I also conduct workshops and lectures for schools, colleges and corporates for topics like writing, story design, reading like a writer and the art of storytelling.
What writers I’ve worked with say:
“Akshay is a brilliant editor. Although as writers we need editors that give critical feedback, we also need editors that are compassionate while they deliver this feedback. And having been a writer himself, he understands this and encourages writers to grow by pushing them out of their comfort zones and yet makes sure the authenticity of their voice is intact.”
Rutika Yeolekar, Content Producer & Researcher
“If you’ve got a story to tell, Akshay is perhaps the best person to help you write it. He is extremely patient, passionate and helps you build your voice that is then engrained in the story. His show, don’t tell mantra really helped me write a story which my audience could connect to. He is gentle and kind and handles your story with extreme care to ensure it comes out just right and completely yours.”
Shiromi Chaturvedi, Assistant Professor & Therapist
“I have worked with Akshay for the past 3 years — on Tall Tales (non fiction), short stories (fiction) & now on my memoir. The reason I decided to work with him on my memoir was driven by my experience on Tall Tales. What I like about him is:
He helps me bring out my voice. I feel every author has a distinct voice much like our finger print. Akshay helps keep that intact. He is excellent at storytelling from the audience’s point of view — why should they care? I’m most excited about narrating my stories but Akshay helps me weave the stories in a way that my audience is as excited to hear/read it.
Akshay is inquisitive and has made me dig deeper. This has been his biggest value add to all my stories.”
Aditi Guha, Fitness Coach & Storyteller
I have worked extensively with Tall Tales Storytelling, India’s most popular and longest running live storytelling organisation. More details about that can be found here.
Akshay Gajria 