Hello storyteller! I’m Tina Paschkopić, a writer, writing teacher, and recovering academic. I’m also many other things, including a polyglot, a nerd, and a runaway from Corporate America, but I suspect if you’re reading this, you want to know about qualifications and my 20+ years of experience learning, teaching, and doing writing. Here it goes:
As an adjunct professor, I’ve taught writing—fiction, non-fiction, and poetry-–across four universities to over a thousand students. My current approach to writing, and coaching writing, draws on my formal education— undergraduate degrees in Psychology (BS) and Creative Writing (BA), and a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction (MFA). But it is also deeply informed by more than 15 years of experience writing and ghost writing across various industries.
I abandoned academia for corporate, but I never abandoned my passion for stories. In fact, my background in science and writing meant that I was a marketer in highly specialized settings where I really had to hone my understanding of the universal principles underlying audience engagement and attention. Let's just say that being away from the creative and educational world cemented just how powerful a skill storytelling is.
Whether I wrote a speech for a high-end executive, or wrote a clinical article, I witnessed hundreds of times that the one difference between pieces audiences didn’t care about and those they raved about, was a well-told and meaningful story. The kind of stuff that got the laugh and then snuck in the gut punch. Those stories lit up people’s faces no matter how busy or harried they were a second before. Those moments also lit up my heart, but ultimately over the years I realized they still didn't compare to the joy I found in fiction or to the fulfillment I got from working one-on-one with writers who are trying to shape their own stories. And that's the very short version of why I returned to my roots and am a writing coach.
I believe the world runs on stories and stories run the world. I’d like to help you excavate and craft the stories you’d like to tell the world.
