The writing-practice arm
AMBER
Writing support for people the university forgot to support. No universal rules, no productivity theatre — just a practice you can actually keep. Sliding scale.
3.1 — Manifesto
Not Everyone Is Productive
in the Morning, Betty!
Writing hygiene: toward a personalized practice of sustainable scholarship.
Amber's founding text is not a mission statement. It's a five-page comic.
I made this little comic to share my personal story with writing, and the events that inspired me.
Five pages. Tap any page to open it full size.
What the comic argues
Writing hygiene
Borrowed from sleep hygiene: the environmental and behavioural conditions that make writing productive and pleasurable. Supportive rituals and rhythms rather than a universal formula.
No universal rules
No set of rules works for everyone, however hard advisors, cohorts, writing groups, productivity gurus, manuals, and the institution try to convince you otherwise.
Consent, then comfort
Everything that applies to feminist consensual sex applies to writing. Where, when, in what light, with what noise, with or without people — recognising what works signals to the body that nothing coercive is happening.
Community care over self-care
Institutions put us in competition with our colleagues, our cohorts, and our own selves — then hand back self-care as the fix. The inner critic is not a form of care.
Be drafty
Every work is a draft. Be drafty and sketchy in yours, and stop being your own harshest critic — who else is going to see the bad ones?
If you feel you can't relate to all those tips, good — that's the whole point. Make your own.
3.2 — Services
What Amber offers
One-on-one writing coaching
Ongoing sessions built around your actual schedule and your actual project. We work on what's in front of you and on the habits underneath it.
Sliding scale
Dissertation & thesis support
Structural feedback, chapter planning, and steady accompaniment through the long middle where most projects stall.
Sliding scale
Writing-hygiene consults
A focused look at how, when, and where you write — then a plan you can keep. For people who don't need a coach so much as a rebuilt routine.
Sliding scale
Content creation
Writing, editing, and illustrated content for organisations, publications, and programs.
Sliding scale
3.3 — Who it's for
Who works with Amber
Grad students
Anyone in the middle of a degree that has stopped explaining itself — coursework to comps to the dissertation nobody is reading yet.
Early-career academics
Postdocs and new faculty writing under conditions nobody prepared them for, usually while teaching a full load.
Writers outside institutional support
Independent researchers, artists, and writers with no department, no supervisor, and no scheduled reason to keep going.
3.4 — Book a session
Book a session
Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute consultation. Tell me what you're working on and what's in the way — no charge, no commitment.
Opens Calendly in a new tab. Rates are sliding scale — we'll settle on a number that works during the call.