Book Coaching for Women Over 40
PLEASE NOTE:
I am no longer doing complete manuscript reviews or developmental editing.
My focus is as a book coach, emphasizing helping writers find the heart and point of their story and complete their first draft.
I’M CURRENTLY CLOSED TO NEW CLIENTS.
Please check back in early 2025 to see if space has opened up.
HOW DOES THIS PROCESS WORK?
STEP 1: APPLY TODAY TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT IN THE CALENDAR!
STEP 2: I’ll review your application, and if I think we’d be a good match, I’ll reach out to set up a free 20 minute curiosity call. Note that this call is to help determine fit and program selection, not to provide coaching. If I don’t think we’d be a good match, I’ll provide other coach options for you.
STEP 3: After our curiosity call, if we decide to move forward together, I’ll invoice based off of our program decision.
STEP 4: After receipt of payment/deposit, I’ll send you a link to schedule your deadlines.
STEP 5: Together, we build a book!
Because your story deserves to be told.
And because, in the immortal words of the fabulous Freddie Mercury, “Time waits for nobody.”
Not even you.
Writing a book can feel like being lost in the woods.
But there’s always a light. There’s always a path forward.
It helps, though, to have a guide.
You’re not too old to write a book.
You’re not invisible.
Your voice isn’t too “angry” or “shrill”.
In fact, it’s crystal clear.
You’ve learned a lot. You’ve experienced a lot.
You’re just now feeling like you’ve lived long enough to know what you want.
Who you are.
Why you’re here.
But the call to write isn’t getting any softer.
In fact, it’s growing louder.
I hear it, too.
I hear it over the day job, and the spouse, and the children, and the pets, and the fears around health insurance, and aging parents, and the knowledge that life is a series of choices—each one opening doors and closing others.
I hear it, too.
There’s a story that is only yours to share.
That story is your gift.
You have a book in you—two, three, or maybe four.
And you have an advantage that’s rarely valued:
You know that time is finite.
And you know what you came here to do.
You’re just not sure how to start.
I’m Laraine Herring.
Welcome to Fierce Monkey Book Coaching for Women Over 40!
I’m on a mission to help women of a certain age get out of their own way so they can write the book that’s waking them up at night.
(It’s not hot flashes! It’s literature!) :-)
Don’t fall for the lie that it’s too late. “They” only say that because they know your power. No one ever tries to silence those with nothing to say.
And since when have you listened to what “they” say anyway? (Yes, um, we’re all glad there was no social media when we were in high school!)
You know those voices in your head that aren’t yours?
Well, they aren’t yours. It’s time to kick them out.
Your time is now. I won’t waste it.
I don’t just work with writers. I am a writer.
Are you ready? Let’s bring you and your story together!
“Laraine helped my book tell me what it wants to be and challenged me to do the work to get it there. I am grateful for her intuitive, empathic, supportive approach, and for her enthusiasm when I arrived at the realizations she was hoping I’d get to as I did that work. Laraine’s skills are many, and she is fantastic to work with. She is dedicated, direct, detailed, dependable, and delightful.”
— Meg Weber, author of A Year of Mr. Lucky (Sincyr Publishing)
“Coach doesn’t begin to describe the role that Laraine can play in an eager writer’s journey. Spirited and original in her approach to the page and its conjurer, she challenges her clients to get out of their heads and into the heart of the work and their mission. I’ve always been purposeful in my writing, but working with Laraine made me powerful in it as well. I’m a stronger, more courageous writer because of her encouragement and wise counsel.”
— Maya Smart, author of Reading for Our Lives: A Literary Action Plan from Birth to Six (Avery/Penguin Random House)
Let’s Work Together
Click on each package title for more information!
Coaching is an investment—in you and in your work.
I’m one of the founding Author Accelerator Book Coaches, and I also coach with Page Two and She Writes Press.
Write like a monkey.
But have a plan!
01 — Jump Start Your Story (by Getting Out of Your Way!)
This signature program is custom created for you based on your story idea, your goals, and your blocks and fears. I bring three decades of experience working with the psychology of writers, writing students, and private clients specifically to your project. Feeling stuck? Just starting out? Know what you want but don’t know how to get there? Hearing the voice of your worst critic in your head? Are you terrified, but excited in the best possible way? Then this is the program for you. You’ll never relate to your writing the same again.
Time frame: 6 - 8 weeks - Pricing starting at $1800
02 — What’s Underneath Matters
Spanx squish you into odd shapes and keep you from taking a full breath, but the concept holds—what’s underneath makes or breaks the outfit. The same is true of storytelling. Your foundation layer makes every other choice possible or impossible.
It turns out you actually do need a plan (shakes fist at the sky!), but it doesn’t have to start with the rigid outlining you learned in 3rd grade! A flexible structure, with work done in the beginning to help you gain clarity around your point, theme, character arc (internal and external), and plot events can literally save you years of writing time—not to mention frustration! Turns out, just like with people, when you meet your story with openness, curiosity, and respect, it behaves better!
There’s a foundation package for your novel, your memoir, or your trade non-fiction book.
Let’s build a solid book together! (I promise it won’t cut off your oxygen supply!)
This program utilizes and builds on Author Accelerator founder Jennie Nash’s tool, Inside Outline.
Time frame: 6 - 10 weeks - Pricing starting at $1800
03 - The Book Starter Kit
A pared down version of Carpe Diem, in which you commit to 6 deadlines and 120 pages of your book. This package comes with one 60 minute call at the close of the program. Perfect for folks writing essay collections, hybrid forms, or chapbooks, as well as those who need a bit more time to create your book. This is a renewable package.
Time frame: 3-6 months - Pricing starting at $2000
04 — Carpe Diem! Write a Book!
Let’s seize the heck out of this day and make a commitment to get a solid first draft done. Nothing beats having someone rooting for you and waiting for your work. Someone to help you through the murky middle. Someone to listen when the story is asking every last bit from you. This package is a 12 deadline program in which you write 240 pages of your draft. In between, we have three 25-minute calls and a closing 60 minute call.
Don’t panic—it’s possible! And even better, you can renew this package until the draft is complete.
Don’t think about writing a book one day. Write one.
Time frame: 6-8 months - Pricing starting at $4680
05 — Private Virtual Workshops
Zoom has changed us all! And even though I still can’t find the right combination of ring lighting and natural lighting to not look like a vampire, I can create a 1:1 workshop for you based on your unique needs and challenges. We might spend a few hours on revision processes. We might talk about platform building and how to not be afraid of it. We might double down on a troubling scene or character arc, and together, work it through. We might map out the chapter arc of your trade nonfiction book to ensure the reader has an exquisite experience.
What do you need? How can I help? Pricing starting at $1000
06 — Custom Packages and Consultation Calls
Yep. It’s so true! One size definitely does not fit all!
Ask for what you need, and I will create a custom package for you if it is something within my skill set. No writer is the same. No story unfolds in the same way. What is your vision for our work together?
And wait, what? You need an emergency coach? Someone to help you through a block or talk you down after speaking with an agent? Someone to help silence the doubt? Lucky for you, I know just who you can call!
Consulting Calls begin at $225
Custom Package Pricing dependent on content. Minimum custom package fee: $2000
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** Please see the “What I Don’t Do” and “Genres I Don’t Work In” here.
My focus is on coaching and helping the book be born.
Your book is waiting for you.
Are you ready to say hello?
I’ll just say it first. Hello!
Click the button below now, and I’ll send you RAISE YOUR VOICE! OWN YOUR STORY!
This 5-day challenge will help you silence the voices that told you to stay small, so you can hear the voice of your book that’s rising up to meet you.
No obligation. Just me in your inbox. With you. Watching you, you know. Write.
And take up all the space you’ve earned.
Oh look! There’s a door behind me!
Maybe your story is right behind it!
“There comes a time when you know you need a book coach—someone at least as experienced as yourself (a professor of creative writing for decades, a published author already), someone who’ll hold your feet to the fire even if you don’t much like the heat. Someone who provides accountability, clear-eyed feedback, commitment; who listens carefully and respectfully; and who keeps you on track for your goals, conscious or as yet unknown. When that time comes, Laraine’s your person, even when it’s all online and you never meet her in the flesh. Regular written feedback, Zoom or phone meetings as needed, 100% got-your-back support—every effort is in your behalf. Professional but personable, rigorous but realistic, enthusiastic and encouraging—Laraine is an excellent coach, no matter where you think you are in your process, no matter what your aspirations. Choose her—you’ll be glad you did!”
— Julie Nichols
“Laraine Herring offers a hard-to-find mix of hope, warmth and the real honesty a writer needs in order to grow. She is a consummate professional. Her approach to coaching is clearly based on years of dedication to the crafts of teaching, editing and writing.”
— Lydie R.
“Coming from the writing-intensive academic world, I believed that the switch to fiction would be effortless. I could not have been more wrong. Laraine taught me that creative writing, in all its dimensions, is a true craft, possessing its own structures and expectations, some of which require a lifetime of practice to possibly master. Furthermore, she knows that the writer must be open to inner transformation, no matter how painful. So now, years after my first class with her, she is still my sensei, and I remain her grateful student.”
— M. Frederick