I mentor writers who are interested in emotional truth and psychological depth.
If this describes you, I would love to help you to realise your vision for your literary novel, thriller, or memoir.
I have worked with over one hundred clients on their novels and memoirs, and the wisdom I have distilled from sitting with them is this: working with slowness and curiosity allows the book to emerge.
This is how I mentor writers to finish the ambitious books of their dreams.
What is Slow Practice?
Slow Practice is where we will hold story up to the light as the seasons shift.
Slow practice is a place for your art to live.
Slow Practice is where what happens between sessions might alter the course of your book.
what does slow practice include?
eight live mentoring sessions
written feedback on work-in-progress
tailored book list + syllabus
complete manuscript evaluation + industry-standard book report.
how does it work?
we outline the book together so you have a flexible and capacious book map that can be adjusted as you work.
you work on the most important sections, slowly, with me. These aren’t necessarily in chronological order, but they do form the heart of the story.
you read and research your project and we discuss the syllabus in our mentoring sessions.
I will offer accountability, guidance, and suggestions for revising, and transforming, work in progress.
you will use the heart sections of the book, and the book map, to complete your draft manuscript.
I will read the whole manuscript and provide an industry-standard book report to prepare you for the path to publication.
who is it for?
Writers I yearn to work with
Introverts, internalisers, and keepers of deep wells of emotion and fantasy.
If social media feels like a hot pool full of bodies but working alone can feel like being in the freezing ocean…
If you love the singular creative worlds of artists like Yayoi Kusama, Beyonce, David Lynch, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Cat Power…
If you can concentrate for hours on a book but feel antsy after ten minutes at a bar…
If you want to write the truth but have been anxious that it’s not yours to tell…
Slow Practice is for you.
My current reading list
I love books that reckon with the complexities, obsessions, and flaws of their characters with compassion and generosity whether they are thrillers, memoirs, or literary novels.
Some perennial and recent favourites include: R O Kwon’s Exhibit, Tana French’s The Wych Elm, Brandon Taylor’s The Late Americans, Julia Armfield’s Salt Slow, Sarah Hall’s The Beautiful Indifference, Raven Leilani’s Luster, T Kira Madden’s Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, Han Kang’s The Vegetarian, Vigdis Hjorth’s Is Mother Dead, R F Kuang’s Yellowface, Imogen Binnie’s Nevada, Chelsea Martin’s Tell Me I’m an Artist, Gwendoline Riley’s My Phantoms, Celeste Ng’s Everything I Never Told You, and Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House.
Recent Client Projects
Ashley Woo
Wildwood (Harper, 2026) is a Gothic thriller “about a young couple expecting their first child, who unexpectedly become owners of 300-year-old house in Vermont and discover a buried connection to the ghosts of witchcraft accusations centuries before, and neighbors who might desire more than just to take their land.”
“Working with Laura was everything I hoped it would be. She was professional, empathetic and absolutely lovely to work with throughout the process. But most importantly, she provided the exact feedback my book needed. I knew parts of it needed work, though, after countless revisions myself, felt I had exhausted my ability to solve these particular elements. Laura zeroed in on these and provided the right type of observations and suggestions that allowed me to edit the book in ways that worked brilliantly and still in line with my vision of the story. I would work with her again in a heartbeat!”
Matilde Pratesi
Pig (Corsair, 2025) is “a razor-sharp, disturbing novel about toxic female friendship unlike any other you will ever read.”
“My self-confidence has grown as much as the quality of my writing during this process. I can finally call myself a writer without blushing!”
Naomi Booth
Raw Content (Corsair, 2025) is “set during an atmospheric Yorkshire winter, raw content is the dark, tender and troubled story of a young mother afflicted by compulsive thoughts, whose past has taught her that love and fear are two sides of the same coin.”
“Laura Joyce is a brilliant writer, a gifted editor, and an inspiring and generous facilitator. She knows how to stimulate creativity, and how to nurture the best and most interesting aspects of writing. There's no one else I'd rather work, write, and read with.”
Helen Jukes
Mother, Animal (Elliot & Thompson, 2025) “will offer a startling new vision of motherhood: diverse, wild, intimate; as contested and extraordinary as the world in which we live. Her premise: that the much overlooked mothering body – both human and non-human – is worthy of our urgent observation and attention”.
“I cannot recommend Laura highly enough. Her insightful, eloquent and in depth feedback has helped me through numerous fiction and nonfiction projects, from ideas stage right through to completion. I'm a better, more committed writer because of her. Thank you Laura!”
how to begin the process
Slow Practice takes place over twelve months. The cost is £3600 or £300 per month.
to begin the process, please email me with the following details:
a little about your current project
your publishing ambitions
your desired start date
a favourite writer or artist
I’ll respond to you within a week. I appreciate your interest in Slow Practice 💙