10 Reasons to Apply for a Mentoring Clinic Now
by Mona Hodgson
A rare bird. No two are alike. The green and purple speckled bird flying through this year may not take the same route next year. Sometimes we don’t realize we’ve seen a special treat until the moment is past. Then we wonder why we didn’t take the time to appreciate what was before us.
The Mount Hermon mentoring clinics are like the rare bird. A particular genre or specialty offered this year may not be available next year. And even if it is, it won’t be the same breed. Each mentor brings a rarified personality (was that adjective polite enough?) and body of experience and insights to their clinic.
Just in case you’re not convinced that you need to stop what you’re doing (after you read this post) and apply for a Pre-conference Mentoring Clinic or a Morning Mentoring Clinic during the main conference, consider my ten reasons.
- Because you get to meet and hang out with a multi-published writer in your chosen genre who has already taken some of the steps you’re taking.
- Because your mentor wants to save you some steps or at least smooth them out for you.
- Because you’ve lost all impartiality when it comes to your writing. (I don’t know how I know this.)
- Because your other clinic members serve as a friendly focus group for your writing.
- Because your mentor will read your work and offer a constructive critique, replete with encouragement.
- Because you’ll receive comments and suggestions you get to sift through. (Hopefully, you like that sort of thing.)
- Because most morning mentoring clinics meet in a cabin, not a classroom. The tea kettle is close by and so is the restroom.
- Because a mentor and your other mentees can point out distracting proliferations of alliterative phrasing and purple prose in your manuscript. (See #5 and #6.)
- Because you benefit from reading other writers’ works-in-process. (Whether you believe it now or not.)
- The mentoring clinics offer you a first-rate opportunity to face your fears. (You’re welcome!)
- Here’s a bonus reason for applying for a mentoring clinic now: the application deadline is tomorrow, March 20th.
Since you asked (whether you did or not), my morning mentoring clinic is the best even if you don’t write for children. Thankfully, I’m not expecting Jan Kern, the mentoring clinic coordinator, to agree with me.
See you at Mount Hermon next month, friends.
Mona is leading a Morning Mentoring Clinic for children’s writers, A Work-in-Progress Clinic for Children’s Writers.
A second nonfiction mentoring clinic with Renae Brumbaugh Green has been added.
Pre-conference Mentoring Clinics
Mona Hodgson, an award-winning author, has published 42 books, historical novels, and novellas for adults and children’s books for ages birth to twelve. Her writing credits also include several hundred nonfiction articles, poems, and short stories, which have appeared in 50 publications. Mona speaks for churches, schools, and conferences, including YWAM, Mount Hermon Christian Camps and Conference Center, and MOPS groups.
