I spent nearly thirty years in secondary schools and sixth forms teaching Classics, Latin and Literature. I taught students to read closely - to find meaning in structure, to understand why a scene exists, to see the shape of a story from the inside out. It was work I loved deeply.

When I left teaching, I brought all of that with me.

Along the way, I noticed something that has stayed with me ever since. A story rarely moves forward because of what happens in it. It moves forward because of what changes inside the person at the centre of it. Most writers spend their energy on plot. I teach the women I work with to look somewhere else entirely.

I am now a certified book coach working with midlife women rediscovering their creative voice through fiction. The writers I work with are not beginners. They are intelligent, committed women who have been working on their ideas or their pages for months or years, and who have lost the ability to see them clearly. That is not a failure of talent. It is simply what happens when you are too close to something you care about deeply.

My approach is called the Nautilus Method. It is a discovery-based approach to structure, grounded in the belief that a story's architecture, and its emotional heart, is already present within the manuscript, waiting to be found. I do not impose a formula. I read carefully, I look closely, and I help you see what is already there.