Whale Rock FAQs
How is Whale Rock Workshops Different Than Other Workshop Companies?
MFA-quality seminars without the long-term commitment or costs
Whale Rock Workshops’ programming is designed to be on par with MFA-level seminars and is geared towards authors who want to dive deep into craft and literary analysis. Many of our students are published and/or agented authors who are seeking to elevate their skills and take their writing practice to the next level. Our classes go well beyond the basics.
Our company is SMALL and our workshops are intimate.
We believe great teachers change lives, and we believe that the personalized attention our students receive dramatically impacts the quality of their work. How can you become a better writer when you are one of 60 people in a workshop? One of 500 in a webinar? One of a 1000 at a conference? Unless otherwise specified, our advanced workshops maintain excellent student to teacher ratios. Our mentorship workshops have a 1:3 ratio faculty to students, and our Master skills weeklong workshop have a 2:15 ratio, with each student receiving four, one-on-one meetings over the course of the week. A Whale Rock Master workshop promises you the opportunity to really connect with instructors and one another.
Our Instructors are Top Notch
We vet our instructors carefully. Our instructors are award-winning AND critically acclaimed, and many have taught at the MFA level. It is vital to us that our instructors have more published works and publishing experience than our intermediate students. In other words, our bar is VERY high.
Can You Explain the Different Kinds of Workshops you Offer?
Our classes are divided into four categories. This allows you to mix and match based on your specific needs throughout the year. As you progress with one project or start a new project, you might face different needs or identify new skills you want to hone.
Weeklong Master Skills & Mentorships
Designed for intermediate writers looking for more intense one-on-one experiences, these classes are given at an MFA level in terms of skill and craft. Our weeklong workshops are well, seven-days, while our mentorships extend over three months with about eight, 90-minute workshops scheduled over the course of the session.
Master Classes
Our signature master classes are designed to dive deep into one specific area or project. While these are offered at an intermediate level, taught by award-winning, acclaimed instructors, they are accessible to beginning writers who want to be pushed out of their comfort zone. Each of our Master Classes is between four-to-six weeks in length, will have weekly assignments, and culminates with a tangible project (or projects).
Close Read & Write Classes
These 90-minute workshops are designed to connect our students with our master instructors either between workshops or as a way for new students to get to know our faculty. All profits from this series go towards our scholarships and diversity grants.
Learn How To Classes
New to our programming for 2023, these 90-minute classes are designed to be accessible to everyone at a reasonable price. We don’t want to run webinars so large that you cannot connect with your instructors, so we view these as large Zoom classrooms, where questions can still be answered. We are choosing topics appropriate for both novice and intermediate authors, but our goal is to create a curriculum that is still unique while challenging our students at whatever stage they are.
All Whale Rock community members and newsletter subscribers are invited to join our free writing accountability group, Write Now!, which takes place four times a week. This quiet writing space is designed to build a cozy, supportive writing practice into your week.
What if I’m thinking about an MFA? How do you compare to those programs?
We wrote a whole blog on this, if you’re looking to dig deep into this MFA question.
Top level though, if you really want to get an MFA because you want the degree for teaching and/or you want to write critical essays and a thesis, then absolutely pursue an MFA degree. It is the only path to accomplish those goals.
But if you are looking for the craft-building, mentorship and community, (and you do not have US $50,000 +) Whale Rock is your alternative. Our mentorships cost a fraction of the price, and most of our instructors are or have been MFA instructors at the very programs you are likely exploring!
Why do Your Workshops Cost What They Cost?
Our classes cost what they do because they are in keeping with our philosophy about learning craft: We hire top-notch instructors, and we keep our student to teacher ratio small for most offerings.
Better student to teacher ratio
The majority of our small classes have 12-15 students while our competitors have more like 30-60. Our ratios are simply better. As such, our students get more instructor connection than they would in any other program outside of an MFA.
We only hire the best instructors
Unless they are subject-area experts, our faculty members are critically acclaimed and/or award-winning and/or MFA bearing, and/or MFA-teaching, multi-published authors and editors. And frankly, those instructors come at a higher cost. We won’t settle for anything less. We know that too many workshops don’t deliver for intermediate writers.
Where do I start if I’ve never taken a Whale Rock Workshops Program?
If you are totally new to Whale Rock, we encourage you to start with a Learn How To … class or a Close Read and Write class. These lower cost offerings will give you a taste of our instructors and our community.
If you are looking to dive deep on your project, but you aren’t ready to commit to a weeklong intensive or a three-month program, we encourage you to check out our Master Classes, which will enhance your writing in either your picture book writing or will help you take your novel to the next level. These classes are also ideal for a student who has taken one of our more intensive classes, but who would like to go deep in one specific area.
If you have been working on a project intensely or you have been contemplating an MFA or you wish to develop advanced craft skills, we encourage you to look at our Weeklong Workshop or our Mentorship Program.
How did you get your name?
My husband's family has a cottage on Lake Huron in Michigan, and there is a massive boulder in the lake just a few fee from the shore that the family has called Whale Rock for over 50 years. My husband and his sisters and then all our/their kids played on that rock. It has been a ship, a mermaid, a castle, an island, a planet, and yes, a whale. When I needed a company name, my husband encouraged me to come up with something totally unique that I could ascribe meaning to. Whale Rock is a place of imagination. It seemed like a perfect name for a company that focuses on writing for children.
Mentorships FAQs
How does a Whale Rock writing mentorship work?
A Whale Rock Literary Workshops mentorship pairs you with an award-winning author or editor for up to six months of one-on-one work on your manuscript. You’ll have four sessions by phone or Zoom, with editorial and craft feedback throughout. Picture book writers can bring up to eight manuscripts, and novelists can submit up to 160 pages, either in four 40-page packets or as a full manuscript with specific goals for each session.
Who is a writing mentorship for?
Whale Rock mentorships are for picture book, middle grade, and young adult writers who want close, sustained feedback on a specific project. Our mentees include published authors working toward their next book and writers who’ve considered an MFA but want one-on-one teaching without the price tag. You don’t need to be published to apply.
Who are the mentors?
Whale Rock mentors are award-winning authors and editors, including Gary D. Schmidt and Kathryn Erskine, and many teach or have taught in the MFA programs at Hamline University and Vermont College of Fine Arts. You can read each mentor’s full profile on this page.
How much does a writing mentorship cost?
A picture book mentorship is $3,000, and a 160-page novel mentorship is $3,200. A $500 non-refundable deposit reserves your spot, and if we can’t offer you a mentorship, we’ll refund your deposit in full. The balance is due by your start date, and Klarna payment plans are available at checkout.
Is a Whale Rock mentorship an alternative to an MFA?
For many writers, yes. You work one-on-one with faculty who teach or have taught in MFA programs, without the cost or time commitment of a degree. If you want the degree itself, to teach at a college or to write a critical thesis, an MFA is still the right path. If what you want is close teaching on your own pages, a Whale Rock mentorship gets you there for a fraction of the price. Our blog posts on deciding whether to get an MFA and on building your own MFA-like curriculum go deeper.
Is the mentorship online?
Yes. You and your mentor meet by phone or Zoom, so you can work with a Whale Rock mentor from anywhere. Many of our writers are in Canada and beyond.
When can I start a mentorship?
Mentorships run on a rolling basis, so you can begin whenever you’re ready. Once we’ve matched you with a mentor, you’ll schedule your sessions around your own calendar.
How do I apply?
Email a 1,000-word excerpt from your novel or one complete picture book manuscript to submissions@whalerockworkshops.com, with your name and page numbers in the header or footer. When you register, you’ll rank three mentors in order of preference. We’ll confirm we’ve received your sample within a few days.]
Do I need to be published to apply?
No. We’re looking for committed, experienced writers, published or not. Your writing sample tells us more than your publishing history does.
Am I guaranteed my first-choice mentor?
We do our best, but we can’t promise it. Our team reviews your sample with your top choices to find the right fit, and each mentor takes between two and four students, so if your first choice is full, we go to your second. Sometimes a mentor just isn’t the right match for a project, and you really don’t want a mentor reading a zombie story if they hate zombie stories. If you have your heart set on a specific mentor, apply as early as you can.
Can my mentor read my whole novel manuscript?
Yes. The novel mentorship covers 160 pages, and you can add 40-page packets, each with one more session, to cover the rest of your manuscript. Picture book writers can add a packet for two more manuscript reads and one more session.
Can I do a second mentorship?
Yes. Once you’ve finished, you and your mentor can talk about revisiting the project together. You’re also welcome to work with a new mentor next time, as long as they work in your genre and have space, much the way you’d have a different advisor each semester in an MFA program.
Will a mentorship get my book ready for submission?
A mentorship will make you a stronger writer and your manuscript a stronger book, but it isn’t a submission service. Your mentor will share what they know about the current market, and our focus stays on craft. No mentorship can guarantee an agent or a book deal.
Are there scholarships or discounts for mentorships?
Yes. Whale Rock scholarships for writers with underrepresented stories and voices can be used toward mentorships until our annual fund runs out, and educators and librarians receive a discount. Learn more on our Scholarships & Aid page.
Can I pay in Canadian dollars?
Unfortunately, no. Most of our mentors are based in the US and are paid in US dollars. We do offer a stipend to help Canadian writers with financial need offset the exchange rate, so email us to ask about current offerings. Canadian writers have also used Access Copyright, the Canada Council for the Arts, and provincial programs like the Ontario Arts Council to help cover the cost.
What’s your refund policy?
There are no refunds once your mentorship begins. If you withdraw before starting, you can put $250 of your deposit toward another Whale Rock program.