Writing Coaching
You have a specific writing problem. You need targeted help, not a long-term engagement. Book one, two, or four hours, and we work on exactly what you need.
Writing coaching with The Writing King is hourly help on a specific craft problem, at $200 per hour, booked in one, two, or four-hour blocks. It is targeted work on your writing, from a professional with 113+ authored books, not a long-term engagement.
How does writing coaching work?
You book one, two, or four hours and pay in advance. We use that time on whatever writing problem you bring. Structure that is not working. A chapter that stalls. Dialogue that reads flat. A story that lost its momentum. Point of view that keeps drifting. An opening that buries the hook. You tell me the problem. We fix it.
If you need more time, we schedule additional hours at the end of the session. No discovery call. No intake process. You book, you show up, we work.
Pricing
$200
$400
$800
Paid in advance when you book. Select your hours on the booking page and schedule your session.
What do writers bring to coaching sessions?
Structure Problems
The manuscript has chapters but no momentum. Scenes exist in the wrong order. The middle sags. The ending does not land. We restructure what you have into something that works.
Character Issues
Characters feel flat or inconsistent. Motivations are unclear. The protagonist is reactive instead of driven. We work through the wound-adaptation-pattern and give your characters psychological depth.
Dialogue
Characters all sound the same. Conversations deliver information but lack tension. Dialogue tags are clunky. We fix the speech patterns, subtext, and rhythm that make dialogue sound like real people talking.
Point of View
Head-hopping. Inconsistent distance. The wrong POV character for the scene. We sort out which perspective serves the story and how to stay in it cleanly.
Pacing and Tension
The story drags in places. Action scenes feel rushed. Quiet moments feel empty. We identify where the rhythm breaks and how to control the reader’s experience of time.
Getting Unstuck
You have hit a wall and do not know what happens next. The story has stalled. We diagnose whether it is a plot problem, a character problem, or a motivation problem, and we get you moving again.
What’s the difference between writing coaching and book coaching?
Writing Coaching (this page) is for targeted sessions on specific craft problems. You book hours, show up with a problem, and we solve it. $200/hour. No ongoing commitment.
Book Coaching is for writers who want guided support through an entire book project, from concept to completed manuscript. Sold in 10-hour blocks at $200, $300 per hour ($2,000, $3,000 per block), with a lower per-hour rate on subsequent blocks.
Not sure which you need? If you have a finished draft with specific problems, writing coaching. If you are starting a book or in the middle of one and need someone alongside you for the whole project, book coaching.
Client Testimonials for Richard Lowe
Your Coach
Richard Lowe has published 113+ books under his own name including dozens of novels and a 40+ handbook reference library covering character development, dialogue, world building, point of view, pacing, and revision. He writes 2,000 to 12,000 words per day and has ghostwritten 54+ books for executives, entrepreneurs, and public figures. The craft problems writers bring to coaching sessions are problems he has solved hundreds of times in his own work.
Full professional background at thewritingking.com/professional-background-eeat.
More information:
Full Professional Background · Testimonials · Code of Ethics · Case Studies
Case Studies
Real client projects, the goals, the work we did together, and the results that followed. Each one documented in detail.
Straight Answers to Real Hesitations
Hourly coaching raises its own hesitations. Straight answers:
“Can one session actually help?”
One session fixes one well-defined problem: a stalled chapter, a structural knot, a query letter, a scene that will not land. It does not replace a development process, and I will tell you if your problem needs the longer engagement instead. Writers come back because the single sessions earn it. Read more: what coaching covers »
“I’ve started my book three times and never finished.”
False starts are the debris of motivated people hitting structural obstacles, not discipline failures. Books stall from outlines that could not carry the material, perfectionism, or hours lost to the day job, and every cause is process-solvable. Read the full answer: I’ve Started My Book Three Times »
“Is my story actually worth a book?”
The doubt measures against the wrong scale. The real criteria: experience specific enough that a stranger could not research it, a findable reader whose situation the book changes, and enough transformation to sustain an arc. Fame is not on the list. Read the full answer: Is My Story Actually Worth a Book? »
“Shouldn’t I be able to fix this myself?”
You have been trying, which is why you are reading this page. Every professional writer has editors and readers; the lone-genius model is a myth the finished books quietly disprove. An hour of outside eyes on a stuck manuscript is the cheapest intervention in publishing. Read more: the scaffolding behind finished books »
“How do I know you’re not one of the scams?”
You should not take my word for it; verify what cannot be faked. I have 113-plus books under my own name you can read tonight, a hundred-plus podcast appearances you can listen to, named case studies including a book adopted at Purdue, and reviews attached to a checkable identity. The mills cannot produce any of that. Read the full answer: How to Vet a Ghostwriter »
“That’s a lot of money for a book.”
It is, and I will not pretend otherwise. Professional ghostwriting runs $15,000 to $60,000 here, with budget options starting at $7,597. The honest frame: the 2024 Business Book ROI study found most business books return the investment through clients, speaking, and authority pricing, and my clients have used books to raise capital and land TEDx stages. If the book is a business asset, price it like one. And if you want certainty first, the Book Feasibility Intensive is $5,000 for the strategy, the plan, and a sample chapter, credited toward the engagement within sixty days. Read more: What Ghostwriting Costs and Why »
Go Deeper on Any of These
What a Professional Book Coach Does
Coaching is not remedial help; it is the structure and accountability that finished books have always required. The full article covers what a professional coach actually does: the outline architecture that keeps a manuscript from collapsing at chapter three, the working cadence, and the on-call craft judgment for the moments where drafts usually die. Read the full answer »
I’ve Started My Book Three Times
Three attempts feels like a verdict about you. It is not, and the evidence says the opposite: abandoned manuscripts are the debris of motivated people hitting structural obstacles, almost never discipline failures. The full article names the four mechanical reasons books stall, why attempt four run the same way would land in the same drawer, and the two professional routes from stalled to finished, along with what your existing drafts are actually worth to the process. Read the full answer »
Coaching vs Ghostwriting vs DIY
Three paths lead to a finished book and they serve different goals: doing it yourself preserves full authorship at the highest failure rate, coaching keeps your hands on the keyboard with professional structure behind it, and ghostwriting delivers the asset with your time measured in interview hours. The full article compares cost, timeline, failure modes, and the single question that picks the right path: is the point that you wrote it, or that it exists? Read the full answer »
Writing Through Burnout
Burnout ends more books than lack of talent ever has. The full article covers what writing burnout actually is, how it differs from ordinary fatigue, and the recovery patterns that let long projects survive a working life. Read the full answer »
Is My Story Worth a Book?
Underneath the price and time objections sits the quiet one almost nobody voices: who am I to take up two hundred pages? The full article gives the honest evaluation criteria, none of which involve fame, explains why the people who ask this question overwhelmingly have book-worthy stories while the ones who never ask often do not, and covers the rare cases where the honest answer really is not yet, and what that diagnosis means. Read the full answer »
Fiction Book Coaches
Fiction coaching is its own discipline: story structure, character arcs, and genre expectations that nonfiction coaching never touches. The full article explains what a fiction coach does, when novelists benefit most, and how coaching preserves full authorship while fixing the structural problems that stall novels. Read the full answer »
Frequently Asked Questions
Writing Craft Library
Craft, process, and getting unstuck:
Book Your Session
Pick your hours, pick your time, show up with your problem. No intake. No discovery call. We get to work.