Development & Direction

A creative partner for projects that need time, attention, and a shaping hand.

What This Is

Development & Direction is my most expansive offering; it is the one I am most drawn to. It is for writers with a substantial project that needs more than editing, and for brands building their language world from the ground up. It is long, generative, collaborative work.

Where other editorial services respond to what already exists, Development & Direction is concerned with what is becoming. I hold the larger vision of your project, read the arc as it develops, ask the questions that open the work up, and help shape the direction of what you are building, not just the surface of it.

You bring the commitment and the doing. I bring consistent creative presence, honest response, and sustained attention that sees what you cannot yet see yourself.

Who This Is For

Writers at work on a substantial project — a book, a collection, a long-form piece of non-fiction — who need a trusted creative partner for the duration. Someone who will hold the whole, and not just respond to the parts.

Brands building their entire language world — launching, rebranding, or growing beyond the words they started with — who need more than a tone of voice document. Who need someone thinking and visioning alongside them over time.

Creative practitioners — artists, photographers, makers, independent studios — who are developing their voice across multiple touch-points and need a consistent creative mind in their corner.

If you are not sure which category you fall into but something here is pulling at you, please get in touch. The best working relationships often begin before the shape of the work is entirely clear.

What It Involves

A Development & Direction engagement typically includes:

An onboarding conversation of 60–90 minutes, in which we establish the project, what you need, and how we will work together.

Fortnightly or monthly sessions of 60–90 minutes — space to think aloud, to question, to hear honest response to where the work is and where it is going.

Reading of work in progress between sessions, with written notes and responses returned to you.

Lighter touch-points between sessions — a question, a moment of uncertainty, something that needs thinking through before we next speak.

Ambient creative attention: I am thinking about your project between sessions. That ongoing presence is part of what you are engaging.

Every Development & Direction engagement is shaped around the specific needs of the project and the person. The structure above is a guide; the exact inclusions are decided together in our onboarding conversation.

What It Does Not Include

Writing the work for you. This is a creative partnership rather than a ghostwriting arrangement, unless that is separately agreed from the outset.

Unlimited availability. Our working rhythm is established at the beginning of the engagement and held to.

Guaranteed outcomes. I bring everything I have to your project. The work, and its results, remain yours.

Ownership

All work produced within a Development & Direction engagement remains entirely yours. My notes, responses, and creative direction feed your work, but the work is yours (always), unless specifically requested and agreed at the onset.

The Commitment & Structure

Development & Direction works best over time. I ask for a minimum commitment of three months, which allows the working relationship to deepen and the project to genuinely move. At the end of three months we review together and decide whether to continue.

From £250/month — exact rate discussed based on scope and engagement length. All engagements begin with a no-obligation introductory conversation. Please get in touch to arrange one.

A Note On How I Work

I am not a passive reader. I will tell you honestly what is working and what is not, where the work is finding its shape and where it is losing it. I bring the same quality of attention to your project that I bring to my own writing, which means I am genuinely invested in what you are building, and genuinely committed to helping it reach its fullest form.

If this is the kind of creative partnership you are looking for, I would love to hear from you.