Private Track

Personalized Private Tutoring

Every session follows the student's current work. A class essay, a book report, a personal narrative, a college application personal statement, a short story that has been sitting unfinished for three months. Whatever the student brings is where we start. There is no prescribed curriculum or fixed syllabus because the instruction is built around the student.

What does not change from session to session is the standard. Writing is a series of decisions—decisions about what to say, in what order, at what level of precision, with what kind of evidence.

My role in Private Tutoring is to help students see those decisions clearly enough to make them deliberately rather than accidentally. A student who rewrites a paragraph because they understand what was weak about the original is developing something that travels with them. A student who rewrites a paragraph because a tutor told them to has only produced a better paragraph.

Private Tutoring also supports independent creative writing projects: planning a story, drafting a first chapter, revising a manuscript, developing characters, or figuring out why a piece isn't working yet. If a student is working on something personal and ambitious, this track gives that work the time and attention it deserves.

Over time, students become more confident in their own judgment on the page. They learn to revise with greater precision, make more deliberate choices, and read their own work with an editorial eye.

How Private Tutoring Differs from the Studios

  • Individualized instruction built around the student's own work and goals

  • Follows the student's school curriculum and creative projects—not a RAWR syllabus

  • No published capstone

  • Original work is eligible for Seed-to-Sequoia review

  • Can serve as a foundation for joining a studio later

  • Private sessions are 60 minutes each, unless otherwise agreed.

    Tutoring is billed in prepaid packages, purchased once we've confirmed a schedule that works for both of us.

    1-on-1 Hourly Rate: $85/hour

    • 5 hours — $425

    • 10 hours — $807.50 (5% savings)

    • 15 hours — $1,173 (8% savings)

    Small Group (minimum 2 students)
    Hourly rate: $65/hour

    • 5 hours — $325

    • 10 hours — $650

    • 15 hours — $975

    Small group packages auto-renew at your package's current size once your balance reaches 1 hour remaining, using the card on file, so sessions continue uninterrupted for every family in the group. You can check your remaining balance anytime in your family portal, and you'll receive a receipt once a renewal charge processes. You can update your card or package size at any time.

  • Sessions can be held at one of the following locations:

    • Irvine Heritage Public Library

    • Your private home. This incurs a travel fee. (Families must live in Irvine.)

    • Online (via Zoom)

    • Full refund of unused hours if withdrawal occurs before the 3rd session

    • No cash refund of unused hours from the 3rd session onward — remaining hours stay banked and usable for 12 months from purchase