
MENTORING FOR WRITERS
ONLINE TUTORING
JOURNALISM
“Shaping a novel chapter by chapter requires complex psychological insight.
Tim Lott possesses that insight”
Robert McKee, author, ‘Story’.
“Tim Lott is one of the few novelists who truly understands story structure”
John Yorke, author, ‘Into the Woods’.
“Tim Lott has long experience of the practice of writing fiction as well as a deep knowledge the theory of story craft – a rare yet essential combination“
Will Storr, author, ‘The Science of Storytelling’.
Mentorees who produce sufficiently promising work will have their manuscripts forwarded – personally recommended – to one or all of the above associated literary agents, depending on the individual character and subject matter of the manuscript.
Tim has been teaching writing for the last ten years, as a lecturer, teacher and individual mentor. He taught for three years at the Faber Academy, then moved to Guardian Masterclasses where he teaches individually and lectures with his partners John Yorke and Will Storr, collectively known as The Story Board. He has also taught creative writing at Brunel University and lectured at the University of East Anglia, the How To Academy, the Idler Academy, and the School of Life. His online mentoring course on Memoir is at TheNovelry.com.
To see his mentoring video, click HERE. To read testimonials click HERE.
To contact Tim click HERE. To follow Tim on Twitter click HERE.
‘The Scent of Dried Roses’
“Brilliant”
Hilary Mantel
“To read it is to be spellbound as by a gripping novel”
Ruth Rendell.
‘Fearless’ – “powerful, haunting and utterly original – an immediate classic’”
Jacqueline Wilson
‘The Last Summer of the Water Strider’ –
“Great storytelling and superb characterization.
I loved it.”
Irvine Welsh
‘Under the Same Stars’
– “A gripping journey of the soul”
GQ
‘When We Were Rich’ –
“A terrific novel, wickedly sharp, wildly entertaining”
Deborah Moggach
AWARDS



Awards: ‘White City Blue’ won the Whitbread First Novel Award and his memoir, ‘The Scent of Dried Roses’ won the PEN/Ackerley Award and is now published as a Penguin Modern Classic. ‘Rumours of a Hurricane’ was shortlisted for the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award and the Encore Award, and ‘Fearless’ was longlisted for the Guardian Children’s Book Award. His last novel (2019) was ‘When We Were Rich’, a sequel to ‘White City Blue’. His next book, on storytelling, will be ‘The Magic Helix – How Plot and Character Bring Stories To Life’.
‘Rumours of a Hurricane’ – “The first great novel of the 21st Century”
Tony Parsons
‘The Love Secrets of Don Juan’ – “Passionate, witty and tender, relentlessly unswervingly honest”
The Guardian
‘The Seymour Tapes’ – “Plots don’t come any tighter..the kind of cunning the best thriller writers manage only rarely.”
Daily Telegraph.
Tim has also written extensively for newspapers, having been a weekly columnist for the Evening Standard and then the Guardian. He fronted and scripted the BBC Four Documentary ‘The New Middle Classes’ and he has written more than half a dozen screenplays, commissioned by Channel Four, the BBC, Company, World and other leading production companies.
MENTORING Online
for Aspring Writers
Tim’s online mentoring comprises a number of options which you can find here. Tim will take you step by step through the writing process, as you work on your novel with a series of readings combined with face-to-face or online consultations. If your experience of the first consultation is not satisfactory for any reason, you will receive an 80 per cent refund. Alternatively, he will read your completed manuscript and provide a full report on it, plus an hour’s online consultation.
To find out about all mentoring packages, and prices click here.
the story board
The Story Board – Tim Lott, John Yorke ( author of ‘Into the Woods – How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them’ and Will Storr ( author the ‘The Science of Storytelling’) – are a unique combination of the country’s best story teachers. They will be combining their talents in a series of lectures later in the year, beginning with Guardian Masterclasses. Yorke will cover plot and structure, Storr character, and Lott how to apply these principles as a working novelist.

