Editor ~ Story Mentor ~

mining the dark to bring your creativity close

Are you feeling stuck - even as you are ready to create? The dark is here to guide you .

 

The Shab in my name means night in Persian. And I revel in the creative dark, full of shadow journeys. My Story Mentoring transforms the mystery of creating into a playful, profound experience that liberates your story voice and imagination.

As a Development Editor/Story Mentor, I work with you to shape the story as it is being formed. I have a keen, radical story sense and create playful, tailor-made experiences so your passion project is written, embodied, completed - and your voice becomes a catalyst, liberating the story that will not let you be - till you tell it….

You know the feeling when the story is on the tip of your tongue and running through your body and you can barely stand to not speak or write or dance it? I understand that space. You are listening to what the story wants to be. You’re open to playing, and dreaming and journeying into the mystery to transform it. Oh those moments.

YOUR STORY WANTS TO BE TOLD

Most recently, I’ve worked on oral history memoirs, family history memoirs and what I call legacy stories where you are listening closely to the sound of the story, and you are being guided by the voice of the story itself.

I also love working with folks who want to create their own decolonized narratives that do not fit in and in fact, stand out...who want the story to come out in a way that is is free of any “story shoulds…”

I’m inspired by Peruvian writer, Jose Maria Arguedas who created new names in Quechua for the poetic forms he used. In this way, I invite you to see your storywork as part of a lineage, and also something new, a story true to its own telling.

Memoir, fiction, poetry, plays, scripts, or hybrids – whatever you write, you are the authority of your own vision. My goal is to support your own original story work.

  • Stand Alone Sessions

  • Manuscript Feedback

STAND-ALONE SESSIONS TAILORED TO WHAT YOU NEED

customized individual sessions to discover a particular character or theme or to dismantle blocks or whatever the story needs to grow

each session is woven with guided writing exercises, visualizations, songs and stories from other cultures, gentle movements, conversation - all to excavate and embody the story that wants to emerge.

INSIGHTFUL FEEDBACK

START TO FINSH: idea to e-book

Do you have a manuscript or pages-in-progress in which the story feels hidden or tangled?

Drawing on decades of experience in writing, filmmaking, performing, facilitating creativity sessions, I offer thoughtful compassionate feedback. I listen for where the story seems blocked, where it wants to grow and share comprehensive, informal notes in an audio recording, written notes and in an online conversation - all to get your story written, spoken, embodied, completed.

START SOMEWHERE AND FINISH

I can help take your story from a SEED of an idea to a MANUSCRIPT to a self-published E-BOOK.

 

Shebana is engaging and generous with her time and skills.  

She has a magical way of guiding the body, mind and soul of people who work with her in a way that opens them to deep levels of themselves and the story they want to tell.  

On top of that, she is extremely knowledgeable about the technical aspects of writing.  

She is that rare person who can help others bring body, soul, and mind together in the creative process of their choosing—and most particularly in their writing. 

- Caroline A LeBlanc, Albuquerque

 

Rates

 

  • Rates vary from 4 cents to 7 cents per word., depending on the project and whether you want developmental editing (big picture) or line editing (small picture) or both. Your project rate will include one 75 minute one on one session.

    HOW IT WORKS:

    Schedule a 30 min conversation about your project.

    Whether or not you decide to work with me - I’ll share some thoughts that I hope will be useful and inspiring.

    If we decide to work together, send me your pages.

    After a agreed upon review period, you’ll receive an audio recording and notes with my comprehensive, informal, insightful feedback on where the story seems blocked, where it wants to grow, and elements such as plot, point of view, character development, metaphor, voice, flow.

    We’ll also share a 75 minute one-on one online session.

    SCHEDULE A F REE CONSULT

  • Rates vary per project.. I work with al budgets. We could create a beautiful chapbook (@40 pages) or a full-lenght manuscript. I can help edit and and design your e-book. Contact me at info at shebanacoelho dot com to chat and let’s begin!

  • My one-on-one sessions complement the editing process, we write together to work on one particular aspect of the proiect/book/performance. Each sessions is woven with writing prompts, guided visualizations. Rate $120 per hour. Discounted Project Rate available, when you are already working me as an Editor.

 

Working with Shebana…

….is itself a journey – a way of exploring the stories, perceptions, rhythms, sounds and connections comprising the landscapes and terrains within me.

I very much appreciate her skill and agility in working with voice, movement, imagination and the written word. Her gentleness, ease and full presence meant she was ready to meet me where I was in any given moment and to hold space for me to be in the vulnerability necessary for me to be fully present with myself.   

With Shebana’s distinct kind of guidance, the kind which means she is bearing witness alongside me, I have repeatedly walked towards aspects of myself which have been hidden away in easily missed corners and crevices.

Reframes have combined with fresh images to result in clear, concise, playful ways to see myself and describe the path I am walking.

Veena Vasista
Wake-Up Artist & Movement Maker
Feldenkrais Method® Practitioner - movement as a portal to freedom  
www.liberatingmoves.com (coming soon)

Let’s chat | past work

I’d love to hear more about your project and offer suggestions. I can also share sample pages/sample feedback from other manuscripts I’ve helped edit. Most recently, these include “Marrying Mongolia,” a literary memoir about journeys in Mongolia, “The Same Sea” an oral history memoir about growing up in East Africa, Mi Pueblo Blanco, a book of poems, and “Three sisters in Cadíz” a travel poetry chapbook. I also directed and edited “Nasario remembers the Río Puerco,” an oral history documentary about a lost valley in New Mexico.

Thank you, Shebana, for your guidance in growing my
memoir to be my story in my voice.

- Sas Carey, Vermont
Founder, Nomadicare, Author: Marrying Mongolia

Shebana is a gifted story consultant with a well- developed sensibility for the interesting and unique in her understanding and portrayal of people and places…

What we especially appreciated is her keen sensitivity to our vision …. and her guidance on how to manifest that vision through multimedia. She is a patient and curious listener, who guided us into creating… the story we wanted to share. We highly recommend her as a story consultant and producer.

Hayes A. Lewis
Executive Director
A:shiwi College & Career Readiness Center 

Shebana has a powerful ability to help one get to the heart of the matter. She encourages you as a writer to delve deeper into your subconscious and deeper into your language to help bring to the surface the stories only you can tell.

She has an uncanny ability for noticing the subconscious bread crumbs left in stories by most writers which often lead us to the "real" story that wants to be told.

As an accomplished writer and artist working across disciplines Shebana knows first-hand the joy and the pain of the creative process which means you always feel safe in the hands of such a wise and generous comrade. 

Meghan Horvath
Filmmaker (UK/US)