The Mentorship
Your mentor will work with you over six months to help take your manuscript to the next level. You can expect detailed comments with each submission, as well as some editing on the line level. In addition, mentors may choose to suggest readings, assign writing exercises or send you specific notes on your genre (e.g. a page on line breaks, or guidelines on the use of exposition in fiction).
Once you register with Booming Ground, you will be assigned a mentor with the most experience in your genre. Your mentor will contact you within a week. Depending on your genre, you may be asked to send your work in small pieces. If you register in poetry, your mentor will ask you to send in 3-5 poems at a time. This will allow you continue writing new poetry as you build your skill set. Alternatively, you may be asked to send in larger sections right away, to be edited and revised with your mentor over the course of six months. Screenplay, for example, requires a treatment, followed by submissions in 30-40 page sections so that you and your mentor can address issues like structure and plot arcs.
At the end of your mentorship your mentor will recommend next steps, including information on publishing, suggestions for finding mentors within your community, and help with putting together application packages and cover letters. Information and advice on publishing will be tailored to your writing. The top three Booming Ground students will receive a letter of distinction for their work.
For genre specific information, please read the sections fiction, non-fiction, screenplay and stage play, poetry, lyric and libretto, and children’s writing. (each genre name linked to the descriptions)
Fiction
In this mentorship you will be asked to send in either short stories or portions of a longer piece in sections of 30-40 pages at a time, for a maximum of 120 pages. Your mentor will provide both close commentary general comments on your work. Revisions and new work are expected (though each revision counts towards the 120 page maximum). Discussions on style, structure, narrative positioning, character, dialogue, and action are common throughout the mentorship.
Creative Non-fiction
In this mentorship you will be asked to send in 30-40 pages at a time, for a maximum of 120 pages of work that could include slice of life, memoir, personal essay, profile, feature interview-based investigative pieces, or experimental forms of nonfiction in any subject area for a popular audience. Your mentor will work with you to turn personal experience and fact into compelling non-fiction narrative. Technique and approach will be addressed, encompassing issues of voice, form, character development (including dialogue), and the ethics involved in writing from life.
Screenplay or Stage Play
In this mentorship you will be asked to send in short screenplays or plays, or acts of a full-length piece with a short synopsis in sections of 30-40 pages at a time, for a maximum of 120 pages. Your mentor will provide both close commentary general comments on your work. Revisions and new work are expected (though each revision counts towards the 120 page maximum). Discussions on narrative structure, plot, character, dialogue, conflict and revelation are common throughout the mentorship.
Poetry or Lyric & Libretto
In this mentorship you will be asked to send in 3-5 poems at a time, for a maximum of eighty pages (poetry manuscripts are generally between forty and sixty pages), with the same guidelines applying to pop lyrics, libretti, spoken word and musical theatre. Your mentor will provide line by line edits as well as general comments on your work. Revisions and new work are expected (though each revision counts towards the eighty page maximum). Discussions on line breaks, word choice, sound, rhythm and rhyme, as well as story, tone and cultural context are common throughout the mentorship as part of the evolution of a body of work.
Children’s Writing
This mentorship covers picture books to young adult, and everything in between. The maximum amount of pages will depend on the age group you target (a mentorship focusing on picture books would run to a total of eighty pages, while a mentorship in Young Adult books would carry a maximum of 120 pages). Formatting will be specific to genre, and your mentor can help guide you through the unique and wonderful process of writing for children. Your mentor will ask for submissions of chapters in Young Adult writing and chapter books. If you are writing picture books please expect to submit entire picture books each time.