Unearth Your Story.
Heal Your Hurt.
Change Your Life.
1:1 MINDFUL WRITING MENTORING
FOR ASPIRING AUTHORS READY TO WRITE
The Alchemy of a Good Book
Get clarity on everything you need to think about before writing your nonfiction book!
GO FURTHER TOGETHER
1:1 MINDFUL WRITING MENTORING
So you want to write a memoir? I'll help you finish your first draft.
You've got a story to tell. I know you do. Most of us do.
Many people have "Write a Book" on their bucket list. Yet, when it comes down to the brass tacks, many people never even start writing.
Maybe this is because they were told by a teacher or a parent that they would never be good enough to be a writer. Or, because they think they don't have any time to do write. Or, more commonly and sadly, because they don't believe their story is worth it or that anyone would want to read their book.
What stops people from writing a book–and living their fullest potential–is often fear.
What's true now is that writing no longer has to be a painful, lonely, isolating, dragged-out experience of locking yourself in a room and forcing yourself to write day-in and day-out.
Writing the first draft of your memoir or nonfiction manuscript can be done in smaller increments, with joyful bursts of wonder, research and focus. It can be done in non-linear ways with an accountability partner who wants to see you succeed, and with a story doula willing to walk the spiral path you.
This is for you if you:
Have a lived experience you know you want to share as a memoir, personal essay or nonfiction book
Need guidance on where to start and where to go once you’ve started
Really, truly, want to step forward and express your courageous, confident and creative version of you
Heal your peaceful warrior wounds by getting the words out of your body and mind and on to the page
Harness the power of storytelling to let go of the shame, guilt and self-judgement that has held you back for too long
Authentically own your heroine’s/hero's journey and remember what it taught you
Share what you know and what you learned with the world
Have a busy and full life but feel the strong "Write My Book" calling is a priority now and an important thing to check off your bucket list
Want to break out of old personal and professional patterns and use storytelling as a way to reinvent a new direction and build credibility in your area of expertise
What is included?
MY HigHLY InDIVIDUALIZED MINDFUL WRITING Mentoring PROGRAM looks like this...
An initial kick-off call to discuss and establish writing goals
2 mentoring calls a month that include video and audio recordings + Otter-AI transcription notes.
- First 55-minute call: "What are you writing this month?" call.
- Second 55-minute call: Feedback on your submission and customized ideas for your next-steps
1 x month: Detailed written feedback on one 3,000-word submission (with an add-on option to submit additional essays/chapters)
Weekly motivational emails with pro writing tips (12 weeks)
W.R.I.T.E. workbook to help you allocate time for writing and not-writing-but-relevant tasks
1 x month: 2-hour group drop-in office hours via private messenger group (Typically the second Tuesday of the month)
1 x month: 2-hour "In Creative Cahoots: Take Your Seat and Create" co-working session with creativity intervals that include movement and meditation (typically the third Thursday of the month)
Access to a Mindful Writing Mentoring Resource Library containing pre-recorded content and meditations to inspire wonder, focus and writing stamina
Requires a three-month initial commitment; mentorship renews monthly after that for as long as you need support
* No previous writing experience is necessary.
* The mentoring program roughly follows a school calendar, and is generally offered for about eight months, typically from October to May. In 2024, there is no 1:1 mentoring offered in July and August.
* A limited number of mentoring spots are available each month. If the mentoring program is full, you will be added to a waiting list.
* The overall goal of the mentoring is to work on first or second-draft manuscripts. Publishing is not provided by Always On My Way nor is publishing your book guaranteed by any third-party publisher. However, publishing ideas will be shared and publishing companies may be referenced.
* Current and past mentees receive special discounts on other pay-as-you-go services, including feedback on additional submissions and full manuscript developmental editing.
LIBERATE YOUR VOICE. THE WORLD NEEDS YOUR STORY.
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About Your Mentor - Jenn Baljko
Mentor ∞ Editor ∞ Speaker ∞ Author ∞ Creativity Kindler
Jenn Baljko has helped dozens of individuals and small groups of aspiring writers unearth stories ideas, organize their writing process, and write personal essays, memoirs and nonfiction manuscripts.
Jenn draws on nearly 30 years of award-winning journalism, writing and editing experience, travel to 50+ countries and a 3.5-year walk across two continents to facilitate meaningful conversations and foster personal growth through storytelling.
Most recently, Jenn stepped into the role of lead author and developmental editor, guiding 11 women through the a nine-month book writing, editing and publishing process. Our collaborative book, Fierce Awakenings, was published by Red Thread Publishing in 2023. The book earned best-selling accolades on Amazon in various categories including personal transformation and spirituality; spiritual healing; women author literary criticism; women writers in women studies, and spiritual growth self-help.
Jenn stories have appeared in: Chicken Soup for the Soul, Fortune, Islands Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, The Nature of Cities, Thrive, Traveler Tales, and many other newspapers and magazines. Jenn co-authored and co-published three travel-related books with the Townsend 11 writing collective: No Fixed Destination, No Set Boundaries and No Definite Plans.
She was also the developmental editor for the Becoming an Exceptional Leader three-volume anthology series, which were Amazon bestsellers in several categories at the time of publishing.
Tales about her 3.5-year, 16,000-kilometer walk across Asia and Europe can be found at bangkokbarcelonaonfoot.com, and were featured as a three-year series on the legendary Catalan radio show, Els Gran Viatgers de la Gran Anaconda.
Jenn is a trained mindfulness meditation instructor and a licensed Emotional Tour movement and embodiment facilitator. She uses these modalities and other creativity-boosting techniques to help mentees connect their minds, hearts, bodies and soul-level desires throughout the writing and editing process.
U.S.-born, Jenn has called Europe home since 2006.
What people say about Jenn and her work as a mentor, editor, guide and spaceholder
Other Writing and Editing Services
Developmental Edit
Congratulations!
You Finished your first draft!
Want someone to read your manuscript
and get it ready for publishing?*
* Each manuscript is unique and requires its own amount of time to edit. Typically, depending on your book's complexity, the subject matter and scheduling logistics, you can expect feedback within four weeks of submitting your manuscript.
A developmental edit includes: A big-picture review of the story's structure; suggestions to improve the story's flow; detailed feedback on plot problems and ideas about how to fix them, and an in-depth and extensive review and analysis of the entire manuscript. It may also include line editing.
Copyediting and final proofreading are not included in the developmental edit; they are separate services not provided by Always On My Way.
Generally, you can expect to pay roughly $5,000 for a comprehensive developmental and line edit of memoir and nonfiction manuscripts up to 50,000 words, and an additional $1,000 for each 10,000 words beyond that.
90-Minute Consultation Call
Find Your Book's Starting Point
Ready to start writing your memoir or nonfiction book, but don't know where to start?
This 90-minute 1:1 consultation call is designed to help you find a possible starting point or a way into writing the story you want to share.
I'll guide a few techniques that will help your gather up your significant milestone moments and begin to answer the key question, "What is your book about?"
This session includes customized varieties of these activities:
A short meditation (and insight about why meditation and mindfulness are important to writing)
A mind-mapping exercise to help you remember your significant and defining milestone moments (a great nudge for memoir writers)
An idea-sharing conversation about your book/your story's big-picture premise statement, story arc, character development and your protagonist's hero's/heroine's journey
A worksheet to help you identify your areas of expertise so you can hone your storytelling narrative
Tips for creating and sustaining a mindful writing practice
The consultation fee is US$450.
Frequently Asked Questions
When can I start the mentoring program?
If your writing mentoring application is approved, you will receive an email from Jenn about scheduling an welcome/onboarding call. After the onboarding call, you will receive a mentoring agreement and an invoice. When the agreement is signed and your first payment is received, your first month of mentoring will be scheduled for the upcoming month. Mentoring months start on the 1st of each month.
Review of the writing mentoring application and scheduling an onboarding call could take up to two weeks.
How much is 1:1 mentoring?
My highly customized 1:1 mentoring program costs $999 per month, and a initial commitment of 3-month is required for new mentees, totaling $2,997.
After the 3-month commitment, mentees can choose to continue on a monthly recurring basis.
What's required as a mentee? What do I need to know to make a heartfelt decision about leaping into the mentoring program?
No previous writing experience is necessary, but mentees will be asked to invest time, energy and effort into learning the craft of writing.
The recommendation is to allocate 10-12 hours a week to active writing and non-writing-but-relevant tasks such as story research and idea-generation time. Ten hours a week has helped me create a sustainable and repeatable writing practice for many years.
Writing terms and lingo will be explained, but additional research beyond the mentoring calls may be needed to deepen your understanding of the writing process. Sometimes, additional resources, such as books or websites, may be recommended.
During the writing mentoring application, you are asked to provide some general details about your book, premise statement and your writing goals and desires. Your answers will be the groundwork for our mentoring sessions. They will form the foundation of your customized mentoring program and help us both create and navigate your monthly writing map.
The 1:1 Mindful Writing Mentoring programs requires a three-month initial commitment at the cost of $2,997; payment can be made in full or automatically billed on a monthly basis.
Mentees have the option to renew the 1:1 mentorship monthly thereafter. By default, mentees are renewed and billed automatically on the 1st of each month for the month ahead. You are welcome to stay in the mentoring program as long as you need writing support and also at the discretion of Jenn's expertise and intuition.
Cancellations and stop-payment notifications must be made in writing by email by or before the 20th of the month to avoid charges for the coming month.
No refunds will be issued.
How does the mentoring flow monthly?
A kick-off call will be scheduled soon after acceptance into the mentoring program.
Each mentoring month starts on the 1st day of each month.
The first Zoom check-in "What are you writing this month?" occurs during the first week of the month.
One 3,000-word written piece, submitted as a Word document, is due on the 10th of each month.
Submission feedback is sent back to the mentee by the 17th of the month.
The second Zoom call to review the monthly submission and plan the following month's writing goals occurs during the third week of the month
Group drop-in office hours via Voxer text and voice messages usually occurs on the 2nd Tuesday of the month.
Always On My Way "Take Your Seat and Create" co-working calls are on the 3rd Thursday of each month.
CET/Europe/Barcelona time is the default time for all calls.
What does the annual mentoring calendar look like?
The monthly mentoring program runs roughly on a school calendar for 8 or 9 months, from September or October to May or June, depending on the year.
There is 3-month initial commitment for new mentees, and the program has an optional monthly renewal after that.
Typically, there is no 1:1 mentoring from the end of June to mid-September, when Jenn, a lover of the natural world and a nomad at heart, takes an extended seasonal break for self-care, global travel and family visits.
Mentees are encouraged to use this seasonal mentoring break to continue writing on their own; rewrite existing chapters; fact-check their story; research aspects of the story needing additional info, or, like Jenn take much-needed time off to enjoy life and actively daydream about next steps.
What is covered in the monthly calls?
1:1 Mindful Writing Mentoring includes 2 one-on-one mentoring calls per month. Zoom video and audio recordings + Otter-AI transcription notes are provided during these calls.
Call 1 is a 55-minute Zoom call to check-in on, clarify your writing process and to discuss what you are working on for the month. These calls are scheduled during the first week of each month (Monthly written submissions are due by the 10th day of each month).
Call 2 is scheduled in the later part of the month after you submit your 3,000-word story/chapter/essay. These in-depth 55-minute mentoring/editing feedback calls via Zoom are scheduled during the third week of each month. They aim to: Supplement and complement the written feedback on your monthly story submission; strengthen your “show, don’t tell” storytelling techniques; improve the book's development and structure, and offer next-step ideas for the coming month.
How much time does it take to write a full, complete manuscript?
This is really up to you. I know people who have completed 50,000-word first-draft manuscripts in less than 90 days. I know other people who are plugging away one chapter at a time for years or working incremently over the course of many months.
Each person has their own creative flow and seasons when they are more or less inspired to write. Book writing and book rewriting takes the time it takes. While I will help hold you accountable, it's up to you to set a self-imposed deadline to achieve certain milestones and create a pace that feels comfortable, easeful and successful to you.
Generally, I recommend that my mentees carve out and schedule 10-12 hours a week for both the writing and non-writing tasks associated with manuscript-making. This builds up a habit of writing, story planning and researching in dedicated blocks of time.
Will you publish my book?
No. I am a writer, editor, mentor and an accountability partner. I am not a publisher. But, I will guide you towards writing a manuscript that is soul-filling and ready for publishing. I will point you towards indie publishers who can help you bring your book to life and distribute it on various platforms like Amazon and IngramSpark.
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