Rock your writing

Helping writers get unstuck.

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story sessions

Get your story back on track with a one-hour phone call.

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ongoing coaching

Need accountability? Regular check-ins?
The occasional brainstorming and destuckifying?
Book an hour, a half hour, or even fifteen minute sessions. 

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Never worked with a coach before?
Try a free half-hour consultation.

Need accountability? Regular check-ins?
The occasional brainstorming and destuckifying?
Book an hour, a half hour, or even fifteen minute sessions. 

book a consult

Testimonials & Featured Clients

I’ve worked with Cathy for years now, and I’m always impressed by her thoughtfulness, kindness, wisdom and ability to help me sort out my own thoughts as I work through a draft. I’ve recommended her to friend after friend mired in their own drafts because her unique perspective and feedback is so helpful.

Sabaa Tahir, NYT bestselling author of the Ember in the Ashes series


Cathy Yardley is a wonderful human as well as brilliant sounding board for characters, plot and themes. She has such an incisive mind — talking through stories with her always helps to crystalize whatever it is I’m trying to do with the project before me. I highly recommend her to everyone who approaches me looking to grow as a writer.

Abigail Hing Wen, NYT bestselling author of the Loveboat, Taipei series

I can’t start a book without talking to Cathy Yardley. Seriously. When I have a story idea, something I want to explore and pitch, she’s my first port of call. We talk characters’ needs and goals. We talk story arc. We talk conflict. We talk point of view and whose story it should be. Through incisive questions and mad brainstorming – and within one hour! – she takes my chaos of ideas and themes and helps me hone it into a cohesive whole. Then I am ready to write. She is truly madly amazing.

Kim Taylor Blakemore, bestselling author of After Alice Fell, The Companion, and The Deception

Sometimes I write About Writing

Timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly… stuff.

The funny thing about time.   I've found that most writers I work with have a funny relationship with time. Given any "container" of time, they assume they can do approximately two to four times as much as they're actually capable of. Similarly, they assume that...

Specificity

Being specific.   I read a well-loved book (and I enjoyed it, too, don’t get me wrong) but I discovered that the reason there were jarring elements was that she’d intended for the story to take place, believably, “anywhere.” It’s set in the U.S., or at least...

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