transformative writing coaching

Through craft guidance and mindset coaching, I help aspiring writers embrace and achieve their lifelong writing dreams.

my unique approach to coaching

Half the battle of writing is mastering craft: learning how to draft, work with feedback, revise, and navigate submission. The other half is largely psychological: working through creative anxiety, perfectionism, imposter syndrome, and other common writing blocks.

In coaching, my aim is to help writers with both sides of the equation––offering insight and guidance around craft while also providing strategies for navigating the emotional highs and lows of the creative process.

I specialize in helping writers who grapple with anxiety, perfectionism, and self-doubt, using my training in mindset coaching—as well as my own considerable experience with these blocks—to help clients overcome their limiting beliefs around writing.

Writers in my coaching programs not only significantly improve their craft and progress toward publication but also work through their mental blocks so they can confidently step into their identities as writers.

learn more

Have you been feeling creatively blocked lately? Download my free Accessing Creativity Guide to learn how to work past creative freeze and access your most meaningful ideas.

who do i work with?

My clients range in age from mid-twenties to mid-seventies. Some come with a work-in-progress in hand, while others are getting started writing creatively for the first time. Some have MFAs; some have had no formal writing education at all.

What they all have in common is a desire to write seriously in a way that also allows them to maintain their busy lifestyles, which often include full-time jobs, raising kids, and running their own businesses.

These writers are looking to clarify their writing goals, set up clear structures and accountability around writing, and access their most inspired writing selves. Most have spent some time putting their creative dreams on the backburner and are now eager to prioritize their writing and see real results emerge from their efforts.

Client successes

  • john gu accepted to ut's new writers project

  • yasmine mahdavi awarded we need diverse books grant

  • sarah orman's essay published in narrative magazine

  • mark bessen nominated for a pushcart prize

more client successes

what can you achieve?

Fresh Ink coaching clients have published stories and essays, obtained agent representation, gotten into top-rated MFA programs, won national writing grants, sold books to publishers, and more.

In addition to these achievements, my clients also experience significant growth that is less visible to the naked eye. At the end of a coaching program, my clients are thrilled to find they’ve learned how to:

  • overcome insecurity

  • create a solid writing routine

  • form a creative vision for a project and execute it

  • cultivate the courage to share their work with their world

what clients say

  • ”Jaime is hands-down the best writing teacher in Austin. [her guidance] was invaluable in learning both writing craft and getting tips on the psychology of completing writing projects.”

    john gu

  • "I feel more confident as a writer now — in part because I got more publications during the program, but also because of all I’ve learned. I think you can see in my writing how much my process has developed."

    sarah orman

  • “I credit jaime as being amongst the most influential people in my creative writing journey. she coached me at a time when i suffered unbearable imposter syndrome and helped me develop my voice.”

    mark schoenfeld

  • “The weekly sessions were terrific, in particular the focus on goal-setting — setting weekly goals and writing down the steps to accomplish them. This routine made me develop better habits and kept me accountable.”

    grace lightfoot chairez

  • "i would never have gotten published if it weren't for jaime's help. with jaime's practical publishing expertise and encouragement, i was able to finally submit a piece of writing for the first time this past february—and two weeks later, i got my acceptance.”

    erin birdsall

  • “jaime’s guidance and teaching immediately put me at ease and allowed me to take risks to write about things i had always wanted to but had been afraid to try.”

    anna stewart

  • "The feedback Jaime provided on my pages was invaluable. Jaime offered encouragement over specific moments and lines to let me know which parts of my craft were really working, as well as extremely helpful editorial suggestions to guide me going forward."

    lindsay mckenna

about me

I hold an M.A. in creative writing from the University of Texas at Austin. My short fiction has been published in Catapult, Juked, and Post Road, and I have been the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship and a Lighthouse Works Fellowship. My novel After Image was published by Thomas & Mercer in 2024.

Eight years ago, I founded Fresh Ink with a mission to help creative writers overcome the obstacles I’d struggled with in my own writing journey.

Since then, I’ve designed and led writing workshops for UT Informal, the Austin Public Library, the Writing Barn, the Wildflower Center, and Third Ear. My workshops on short fiction, memoir, and novel-writing have provided an inclusive and inspiring space for writers from diverse backgrounds to work toward their writing dreams.

I now focus exclusively on coaching writers to reach their long-held writing goals, including: completing stories and books, getting published in literary magazines, attending MFA programs, obtaining agent representation, and publishing books with large and small presses.