Ten years ago, I published a blog post titled “Why Hire a Writing Coach.” Having just re-read it for the first time in a decade, I was pleased to discover that I still like it and that I still think that it almost perfectly explains how helpful a book coach can be. The key word here is almost. So, in addition to copying it below, I’m going to amend here and there, and add on a bit at the end. Here goes:
Writing is most often a solitary business. All too often, we writers have to motivate ourselves, isolate ourselves until our pages are done, pat ourselves on the back when things work out and console ourselves when they don’t. But that doesn’t have to be, even if you’re not part of a writing team. You can work with someone like me. I’m a writing coach, also known as a book coach.
I never planned to be a writing coach / book coach, even though every professional turn I’ve taken—whether working as a teacher, as a national magazine editor, as a writer of both articles and books, as a ghostwriter of two New York Times bestsellers, or as a book doctor—has paved the way. I fell into the role when a literary agent-writer hired me to help her with her book. Her problem? An obsessive tendency to re-write her first paragraph instead of moving forward with the bulk of the text. She also admitted to procrastinating when it came to hunkering down in front of the computer.
I know all about the lure of cleaning a toilet (!) if it’ll keep the act of writing at bay. Thanks at least in part to our overly active inner critics, facing that blank computer screen or piece of paper is almost always daunting.
Whether the problem stems from not knowing what to write, not knowing how all your ideas fit together or self-flagellation, a writing coach / book coach can help. Instead of tormenting yourself when you hit a roadblock or can’t get started, you get to talk out your ideas until they take shape.
After years of working with writers, I firmly believe that brainstorming allows each of us to tap into a different part of our brain than the one we utilize while writing. In addition, brainstorming is like a dynamic mental jungle-gym, allowing the participants to climb to heights neither would have achieved alone.
Brainstorming works whether trying to figure out the theme of a memoir or a chapter, plot points in a novel or the structure of a nonfiction book. It also provides authors with a safe venue in which to explore and play with ideas.
That safety net remains in place when those mental explorations assume word form. Being creative often demands vulnerability, so you need to know that first drafts will be handled with care, even when they don’t quite work. The last thing any writer needs is to be reamed.
Rather than focus on what’s wrong, a book coach’s job is to help you figure out how to make your manuscript better. So once all the pieces of your book have fallen into place, we start back at the beginning and work to power up your language. We will have already done a little of that along the way, but getting too caught up in perfecting paragraphs that may wind up getting cut makes no sense, and just invites a visit from our inner critic who is all too willing to ream us. (Repeat after me: The last thing any writer needs is to be reamed.)
Here’s how my writing coach client Barbara Hinske, who I’ve worked with on ten novels, explained the process to the Reader’s Digest when interviewed about Hallmark making a movie based on her novella The Christmas Club:
“We hammer out the outline together. Then I write like mad for two weeks and send her what I’ve done. We discuss, and [Linden] provides spot-on insights into what’s working and what’s not. I make the necessary edits. Rinse and repeat.”
That’s how it works for Barb. It will inevitably work differently for you, because your writing process and what you need won’t be the same. That, too, is part of the writing coach equation. In the end, it’s all about you and your book. As it should be.
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