"We go deeper than somebody who rocks up and delivers a course" - How practical writing skills can create empathy
Discover what our RLF Consultant Fellows do for students across the UK.
A writer’s journey can continue at the Royal Literary Fund in many ways. RLF Fellows who have completed our Fellowship programme, and have spent at least two years at a university mentoring students and helping them with their academic writing, may go on to become one of our freelance consultants, or as we call them, Consultant Fellows. These writers are an integral part of our commitment at the RLF to advance public education; they undergo extensive and rigorous training to run academic writing workshops at universities for undergraduates, post-graduates, post-doctorates and staff.
Katie Grant has been a Consultant Fellow since the project began ten years ago and is now the co-ordinator of the whole programme. According to Katie, what is unique about the workshops that the Consultant Fellows deliver is that “we go deeper than somebody who rocks up and delivers a course. We design our workshops for specific clients and tailor what we offer to the students we will see.”
“No matter how many rejections you've had from your agent and what’s gone wrong with your own writing, sometimes you get to feel that you've done a really good job for some students. And that’s a wonderful feeling.”
Katie Grant, Consultant Fellow Co-ordinator
Dr Heather Dyer, one of our writers on the programme, adds, “‘Consultant Fellow’ feels like a grand title, but it does describe what I do in working with students. Having worked with students for years, I’ve learned what they need to help them manage long projects, articulate their ideas clearly, get them on the page and organise them as writers. I adapt my skills to whatever the students need, whether that be motivation or defeating procrastination, or finding a writing routine and being productive, through to how to write precisely and clearly.”
Heather’s own experience, after facing a substantial writer’s block herself and completing a PhD on creativity, has given her a unique insight into how to help students overcome these hurdles.
Heather continues, “Actually, writers and students have a lot in common because a PhD student, like a writer, is often working in a solitary way, sometimes without much support; they’re interested in a small niche idea, sometimes to the point of obsession, they typically try hard, do well at school, they’re overachievers and they tend to worry a lot, they’re perfectionists and intellectuals, and all of this can lead to problems with being creative, which requires being playful and exploratory.”
One of the reasons why the Consultant Fellow workshops are so popular is precisely because professional writers run them.
“I'm not saying we're counsellors, and we're certainly not trained for that kind of thing, but we're offering practical writing skills combined with psychological insight,” says Katie. “We have empathy for students. We really do know what it’s like - we've been through every single emotion it's possible to go through with writing. And you don't get that from learning about writing in a book. You get it from being a writer and knowing how it feels and how to get over some of those feelings using practical techniques.”
Oliver Schofield is the Doctoral Training and Development Manager at the University of Bath, where Consultant Fellows have been working since the Consultant Fellows programme was launched.
He says, “As a Doctoral College, we want to support our doctoral students. Workshops can address not only academic and research skills but also personal and professional development, helping students navigate the challenges of academia and beyond. A topic such as academic writing is crucial for academic success, so offering these sessions to all is important for us.”
“We have empathy for students. We really do know what it’s like - we've been through every single emotion it's possible to go through with writing. And you don't get that from learning about writing in a book.”
Katie Grant
So, what does a writer-led workshop look like? “It’s not all standing at the front and talking,” says Heather. “We call ourselves facilitators because we start and guide conversations; we think of exercises that practise the sort of skills we want students to practise. We help students learn from each other, so it’s also engineering those conversations.”
For instance, according to Oliver Schofield, what is most useful for doctoral students at the University of Bath is how writers, who are themselves from all different backgrounds, expose students to different perspectives and approaches. “These workshops can facilitate interdisciplinary learning, which is increasingly important in today's complex research landscape,” he adds.
Clearly, as a writer, having some work you know will be paid is a bonus, if not a life-saver, but most Consultant Fellows talk about how rewarding the work is, too. Like all of our Consultant Fellows, Katie is also a professional writer with ten novels published by Penguin, Virago and Quercus.
Reflecting on what she gets personally from working with students, she says, “No matter how many rejections you've had from your agent and no matter what’s gone wrong with your own writing, sometimes you get to feel that you've done a really good job for some students. And that’s a wonderful feeling.”
If you want to learn more about our RLF Consultants, please visit our website.