To Mentor or Not To Mentor

~~ Vonnie Davis

Almost a year ago, I listed my name on RWA's site for finding a critique partner. The two I had before were great. Awesome. So good, in fact, they had each contracted a series with close deadlines. I felt, with all the pressure involved with the growth of their writing careers, I was adding extra stress by asking them to stop working on their stuff to read my chapters. So, maybe I could find someone who was less strained for time. Who didn't have deadlines, edits, and promo of new releases constantly  looming.

A young mother contacted me. She'd never been published. Okay, I could work with that. I was being told by my editor, at the time, that I wrote old. My word usage was dated. So, a younger adult could help me be more current. Win-Win.

She sent me her first chapter. There were several problems. Not huge, mind you. Newbie problems. Ones I'd made myself years ago. Okay, ones I still make before I do a hard edit. How much more honest can I get with y'all? Even so, beneath the almost constant use of that, just, and only, I could see talent beaming through. She didn't have "telling" versus "showing" nailed down so I sent her lessons I'd written for Savvy Authors.

In short, I mentored her.

She wasn't my first. Like many of you probably have, I've mentored others over the years. All are now published, except for one who just couldn't get the concept of popping heads. That the pov character couldn't see the person on the other end of a phone conversation shake her head. I'd helped her for over a year with little improvement. Finally, I had to cut her loose.

Not with this new young woman. She wanted to learn. Whatever instructions I gave her, she soaked up like a sponge. Slowly, the lovely woman I mentored became a stronger writer and a valuable critique partner. She began to pick up on my weak points, which pleased me. Why? Because
I knew she was getting stronger.

Once her book was written, we went through the editing process together. I learned more about street drag racing than I ever knew there was to learn. She sent me YouTube videos on the sport to watch and get the gist of her writing topic. I helped her make her Young Adult romance shine with suggestions here and there. She'd learned so much in our time together as well as the online classes she'd taken, I just stepped back and watched her shine.

I gave her tips on how to write a synopsis and a query letter. I edited them for her. Not that I had much to do. She'd gotten it.

Since she has no agent, she went to the RWA site and got the listing of publishers that accept unagented submissions. She sent off her query package according to what each publisher requested on their website, exactly as they'd requested. I'd told her this was her first test as an author. Publishers figure if you can't follow directions on how to submit, how will you follow their editing instructions?

She listened.

Pardon me while I sound like a proud Mama. This young friend, who I've never met, who's never been published has a contract offer from a small publisher...AND full manuscript requests from The
Wild Rose Press, Lyrical, HarperImpulse, Siren, Harlequin, City Owl, Entangled, and Sourcebooks.
Several who are giving her submission prompt special attention because of her contract offer from a small publisher.

So, mentoring turned into critiquing and a great friendship. Candice writing as Leslie, you go girl!

Corporate Goddesses and Other Mentors

By Betsy Ashton

I know I'm supposed to be writing about horrible bosses I worked for and hated. I can't do that. What I can do is write about why more women don't climb high enough in the corporate structure. It's about mentoring, white guys in ties and corporate goddesses in stilettos.

Sheryl Sandburg made big bucks with Lean In where she writes about why women are and aren't promoted in corporate America today. Sure, she made it to the top. She had good mentors along the way. Heavens knows, she dropped enough names. She wasn't afraid to try to have it all, to lean in and ask for promotions and challenges, to balance work and life from a position of advantage. Well educated and in an industry that recognizes potential over experience. Sure, she made her way to the top. I'm not taking anything away from her. I applaud her, but what she writes about is out of reach for most of us.

Jane Rosen, author of My Life as a Corporate Goddess, offers a witty, pointed look at the difference between men and women in offices with great views. She's been there. She's done that. In this book, originally published in 2008 and now out for Kindle, she uses satire to make her points. (Don't you just love the cover? I'd buy the book based on that even if I didn't know what was inside.)

One of her points is about the proliferation of white guys in ties. Power ties. $200 nooses around the neck. There are so many of them. They're everywhere. But let a woman walk into a room wearing stilettos and men's eyes follow her, maybe even drool. But promote her to sit at the table, most likely not.

Rosen writes of the need for women who made it to mentor those on the way up. Mentoring starts at home where parents should encourage children of both sexes to do their best, set goals and achieve them. Mentoring continues through school and college, where teachers, counselors and professors should guide boys and girls, not tell them some jobs are closed to them. Mentoring becomes critical in the workplace.

Note in Sheryl Sandburg's book, she tells readers not to ask her to mentor them because she doesn't know them. Fair enough, but does she really mentor women she knows? Rosen has done that all her life, whether it was in public broadcasting (Yes, you'll find an Emmy on her bookshelf) to working for top management at NCR, she's had women assistants whom she taught to excel.

Okay, time to confess. I met Jane in 1996. She was fresh off a divorce, a single mother with a great young teenage son, returning to her home town (Dayton, OH) after a whirlwind career working in public broadcasting in Austin, TX. You figure out which show she produced to earn her Emmy. We became friends, still are. When she was thinking about writing about corporate goddesses, she interviewed a variety of different women in the workplace. She thought my story was one worth sharing.

I learned more from Jane than she did from me, I think. We both mentor women, she working with them to shape the marketing messages for their businesses. I work with newbie writers through social media and countless speaking engagements.

Jane and I both write. She's working to get two wonderful plays produced; I'm working to get my second Mad Max book published. There's always more room on the ladder to the top. Climb on, women. We'll be there to lend a hand, an ear and a tissue.

Yours in goddess-hood.

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Betsy Ashton is the author of Mad Max Unintended Consequences. She is the current president of the state-wide Virginia Writers Club where she finds ample opportunity to mentor writers.