Writing coaching is…
Support
A coach who knows what you’re writing, who follows your daily progress, and can talk with you about what’s working and what isn’t.
A writing coach helps you develop your daily practice to be successful while avoiding problems like blocks, getting stuck, plot questions, and uncertainty.
A good coach keeps you challenged but not overworked.
Accountability
Someone who tracks your work with you.
“What gets measured gets improved.”
A good writing coach helps you create and sustain successes to build momentum and show up to get the project done. With good support that recognizes your humanity and vulnerable effort, encourages, and holds you accountable, you will see wins and joy and productivity as fun.
Often, without a coach or a knowing external voice, writers overwork themselves, feel inadequate, and focus on the negatives. Working harder is NOT always the answer.
A good coach knows this.
Mentoring
Inevitably plot and craft questions will arise: decisions about paths to take, strategies, next steps, and breaking down the project into manageable parts. A good writing coach (or book coach) has been there with his or her own drafts and knows answers.
He or she also knows when to offer advice and when to listen. A good coach has done the reading, put in the time to learn from the greats, and spent the hours at the desk to write through the issues you’ll confront.
Teaching
A good coach knows how to explain the principles and concepts you need and tailors them toward your individual goals and improvement.
Within a couple of months of working with a coach, you should see dramatic improvements in the quality of your pages. You will see big differences compared to work you did before you started coaching.
Clarity / Lightness
Too often writers write in a vacuum, separated from readers, and voices that can really help.
Yes, writing is solitary, but you don’t have to walk the road alone.
In athletics, it’s really hard to be both the player and the coach. All the great pros have a coach or coaches.
Why should you be any different? Are you ready to level up and become a professional writer? Want to get published?
It may be time to seek help from someone who sees what you’re doing, how you write, and knows the terrain.
Objectivity
If your friends or loved ones are your best readers right now, it will really help to get a more objective view from someone who knows what they’re saying.
Would you expect the best therapy from your friends or family? Have you ever hired a professional in that field? Maybe it’s time to do the same for your most important endeavor: your writing.
Working with a writing coach means…
Freedom to recognize and delight in the triumphs you’re creating—ones you might not even be seeing yet.
Many writers approach the page with something to prove—not in the sense that they want to show themselves to the world, but that they deserve a seat at the table.
Let me take that concern out of your mind. Sit down at my writers’ table. I have a seat for you.
