Volta – Coaching for Poets

Volta is a personal and professional development programme for poets

Volta is the Italian word for “turn.” In a sonnet, the volta is a moment of change during the poem.

Dedicate more time to your poetry as well as your well-being as a poet. The Volta programme offers the following:

Six Coaching Sessions: The focus of these sessions is up to you. They can be focused on ways you wish to develop your poetry career, establishing writing goals to work towards, ensuring you have the techniques available to keep you on track if distractions get in the way. Sessions don’t have to be about writing at all, they can be about you and your wellbeing, if you want to find your motivation again or feel like you’ve lost your passion.

Four Workshop Sessions: You will send me some poems to give you feedback on ahead of each session and we can spend the hour going through the feedback and talking over what works in your poetry and where it can be improved.  If you don’t need feedback on specific poems, we can talk about your general goals and direction for your poetry career and I can offer advice and guidance about next steps you could take.  

Access to my office hours: Each week I have office hours where you can schedule a 30 minute call to talk about anything on your mind. These are more ad hoc conversations, if you need some advice on where to submit some poems or if you got a rejection that has hit you hard, we can talk it over in a supportive, informal environment. Office Hour sessions are available for the whole of your volta programme and do not count towards your coaching or feedback/mentoring sessions, they’re just a little bit of extra support when you need it in between sessions.

Sessions all take place on Google Meet, they can be as frequent as you like, the programme can run for an intensive 10 weeks, they can be across 10 months, or somewhere in between, it’s up to you.

The Volta is a stopping point where things change. Through this programme you will spend more time on your writing, you will have a clearer view of what you want to do next with your poetry career and you will learn to be kinder to yourself and to nourish your wellbeing.

I have been a published poet for over a decade now. I hold a Masters in Creative and Life Writing from Goldsmiths College. In 2019 my debut pamphlet was published, called The Living Museum. Alongside being a poet I am an International Coaching Federation Coach with an ICF diploma in Integrative Coaching. I also hold an NFCE Certificate in Information, Advice and Guidance.

Volta is a culmination of my twin passions for poetry and coaching.

This is the programme I wish I had had when I was writing my first pamphlet as it takes a holistic view of the client. We’re not just poets, we have day jobs, relationships, health conditions, and a raft of other things in our lives we must juggle alongside our creativity.

Dedicating time to work on your poetry as well as your wider wellbeing will set you up for future success. 

What’s the best way to complete the programme?

I’ll set out two different ways two poets can complete the programme, feel free to follow one pathway to the letter or do a mixture of both!

Poet One: John Betjeman – The ten week intensive 

John had a deadline for submission for a collection of poetry and was having trouble with motivation, and finding it difficult to feel creative. Because of the tight deadline we met each week for ten weeks, dovetailing the workshop sessions in with the coaching sessions. On the weeks of the workshop sessions John popped by for office hour chats, to talk over smaller issues that he wanted to talk about, knowing he wasn’t having formal coaching that week.

One of the workshop sessions was a planning session for the collection where we sketched out the running order of the poems. This session was recorded and emailed to John afterwards, so he didn’t need to make notes as we went along.

By the end of the programme, John loved his work again, he felt more passionate and creative and he had gained a lot from talking over the structure of his collection. John also felt better in other aspects of his life as well, having a more health relationship with his day job and feeling motivated to get back to running as well.

Poet Two: Christina Rossetti – The ten month Commitment

Christina had long fallen out of love with writing but felt a sense of unfinished business with poetry. She wanted coaching in order to explore these feelings.

Over the first six months of working with Christina we met each month to have a coaching session. As the sessions ran on, I quickly saw a shift in Christina that she was brighter, happier and talking more about creativity and inspiration. Through the coaching sessions Christina had found a way to let creativity back into her life and she was so much happier because of it.

Once we had finished the block of six coaching sessions, Christina, having not written for a while, wanted supportive feedback about her new poems. She sent me three or four ahead of each monthly workshop session. In each workshop we went through my feedback and we talked over the influences of other poets, Christina’s intentions behind the poems and how she felt when she was writing. Christina dropped in for an office hour chat every now and again in between sessions to keep in touch.

By the end of the programme we had been working together for ten months and I could see huge positive changes in Christina. She was happier, she was writing again and also she felt confident enough to submit poems to magazines and competitions. Christina had been working towards her goal for ten months and felt that having this focus for so long made sure that her new habits would stick.

Pricing

Volta Pricing
10 Sessions (6 Coaching & 4 Workshop) standard price	£280
10 Sessions(6 Coaching & 4 Workshop) reduced rate	£180

I am offering reduced rate access to this programme. To access the reduced rate you need to confirm that you are: one or more of the following:

currently not working, in education, working part time, on parental leave, on medical leave from work or returning to work after a long break

If you’re interested please book in a chat below. The intro chat is free of charge. Questions? Email: hello@edgarveylong.com

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