Everyone needs something different. That’s why providing different strokes is so important, whether dealing with writers or puppy dogs. I know a lot about both.
When Dashiell, my ridiculously independent English Cocker, is sick, he crawls into my lap wanting me to tend to him. Even when he’s well, he puts his paws on the bed so I can boost him up. He’s perfectly able to jump, which he does when I’m not around, but he likes to know that I’ll help him.
After her first two years of utter neglect and the next seven with me, Sophie—the Australian Shepherd-Golden Retriever mix I rescued from the house kitty corner to mine—still needs love and reassurance from anyone she meets. The idea that they wouldn’t want to pet her doesn’t even cross her mind. She may be the world’s biggest flirt, but she darts glances at me to make sure I’m okay with her dalliances. Only a squirrel chase, her favorite activity, will trump her favorite person of the moment.
Ziggy, a Border Collie-Australian Shepherd mix, needs all of what his siblings require, along with play time, ball throwing, more ball throwing, and some serious snuggling. Most of all, this former fear-biter who almost got put down before I got him, needs to feel safe. That’s what turned him around.
We writers are no different when it comes to having different needs at different times.
At the start of a project, you need protection from judgment, whether from yourself or from others. that’s the only way you can create with abandon and find, in the process, your voice, your characters and/or your story line. At the end of a project, you need a critical eye to help you hone your story and your prose. In between, you need perspective, encouragement and the occasional reality check or kick in in the rear.
As your writing coach, I try my best to figure out—and provide you with—whatever you need at any one time, just as I do with my pups. The good news is that your communication skills extend past barking, whining, nose pokes and soulful looks, which makes my job easier.
Here’s to getting what you need in order to crank out, revise and polish all those unwritten or raw pages, and to finishing that book that lies inside you.
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