You Can Write It Now

Why I Am A Writing Coach

I have been working with writers for well over 40 years. I sat down recently and counted out the time bemusedly. This wasn't a role I ever consciously chose; rather, it seems to have chosen me.

Since I am a serious student of Positive Psychology, which emphasizes the usefulness of identifying your greatest strengths and developing those as fully as you can, I have spent some time pondering how I came to do this kind of work.

The positive psychologist Alex Linley, in his new book Average to A+, explains how you can recognize your own greatest strengths as well as those of other people.  He calls it strength-spotting. Simply put, when you are using a strength, it will feel natural to you. You will be "irrevocably drawn" to use it almost in spite of yourself.

When I read those words, I realized that one of the things I have done consistently over the years is gravitate to people who want to write and automatically reach out to help them. It's as natural as breathing for me. There's a sense of flow and rapport between a writer and me. I love nurturing that sense as we work together.

It helps that I have written for my own pleasure since I was very young, before children were encouraged to do so. I also immersed myself in books once I learned to read. I am in love with language, the sound of words and sentences. I seem to have an innate sense of logic about the way ideas develop and are expressed.

Beyond these things, which I think are absolutely essential for anyone who works with writers, I am curious about the writing itself.  What is the writer trying to say? I ask questions to elicit writers' ideas, to stir their juices, and encourage them to articulate where they feel blocked.  The ongoing dialogue--the dance--between writer and coach is crucial to the writer's flow and ability to move forward in the work.

I also try hard to be completely trustworthy.  I don't lie but I am not cruel either. If something doesn't seem right, I share my gut reaction. I act as a mirror, in a way--as a second pair of eyes.

Finally, I care about the challenging process every writer must go through: the hours spent doing the actual writing. I know what it is to sit and stare at a computer screen or piece of paper. I understand how hard it can be to carve out time for oneself to write. Helping others create a writing space and time, as much as doing the same for myself, is one of life's most satisfying achievements.

The bottom line is this: if you want a writing coach, find one who is passionate and knowledgeable about the whole process of writing. Writing is hard work. It's easy to lose motivation. Work with someone whose strength lies in their alignment with the kind of coaching they choose to do. (Or that has chosen them.)

Start Blogging!

If you want to get into a writing groove, there is nothing better than starting a blog to do it.

Getting your work out into cyberspace can reap all kinds of benefits for you as a writer.

First, there's the idea that anybody can stumble onto your blog by accident and get intrigued by what you're saying.  Now you have an audience!

Second, you have a public place to direct interested parties--family, friends, agents--to see what you're thinking and doing. 

Some people post chapters of the novels they're working on as blogposts.  Others like to write about their writing--creating what I call "notebooks."  Think of Dostoevsky here.  Others simply want to develop their writing chops and find the casual nature of blogs helpful in reducing writers' anxiety.

I encourage clients to start blogs for personal growth as well. There is something about writing that helps to process experience.  I think here of someone who started a blog to cope with bouts of cancer.  Her initial goal was to have an outlet for all the frustrations she felt with doctors and treatments. But as she got into blogging, her horizons expanded into writing about her own inner growth through dealing with cancer.  Her life has taken a whole new turn as a result.  Her blog has given friends a new understanding of her and also offers people who don't know her some thought-provoking ideas for themselves.

Most of all, it has given her a voice she never knew she had, which gives her a real boost.  I believe that having some form of self-expression is crucial to human happiness.  Blogging makes it easy to experiment with writing as that form.

First Aid For Writers

If you are in a critical situation with deadlines, you need First Aid.  This could be either a kit you keep in your writers' medicine chest or an angel, also known as a coach, who comes to treat you in the field.  Sometimes the first is enough; sometimes you need the second.

How do you know?

Well, do you have a First Aid kit at all?
You can assemble one very simply.

1. A kit needs to contain what is called your Best Practices:
Make a list on paper of everything you can think of that has helped you when you have been stuck or behind deadline in the past. This can include such things as "getting the deadline moved" and "disappearing" from your daily routines to immerse yourself in writing.  Put this paper up where you can see it.  Pick one thing and try it.  If it doesn't work, go to the next, and so on.  The act of doing this can stimulate your juices.

2. A kit should contain Inspirational Ideas, particularly ones you have thought up in the past or present.  Quotes from others can be helpful too, but I always like to encourage you to create your own.  Again, write them out and put them up for your eyes to rest on.

3. A kit should also hold Resource Information: who and what you might call on to help you in different ways.  When time is of the essence, hiring outside help briefly might well be worth the extra expense.  It's not going to be forever.  This is an under-used part of the kit for most people.  Think outside your usual inhibitions about it.

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If this isn't enough, really think outside the box and hire a coach, who truly can be your Angel of Mercy when time anxiety starts to overwhelm you.  How can coaching help you?

1. A coach is not under the same pressure you are and can often help anchor you to your Best Practices when you can't seem to do it.

For instance, a man who had a firm deadline for his manuscript and a lot of outside responsibilties came to me for help. We identified his greatest strengths and behaviors that had worked for him in the past when he was under time pressure. We agreed to meet weekly and use email in between to  keep him on track as he experimented with ways  to complete his project in the context of his life. Getting feedback and ideas from me helped him stay focused and motivated, even though the balancing act he needed to do wasn't easy. P.S. He finished his work on time, and his family and job are intact.

2. A coach can ask you the right questions to help you locate useful resources quickly.

For instance, a client writing a dissertation was trying desperately to learn a program for collecting data but was spinning his wheels. We scanned the possibilities and he ended up finding a grad student versed in that program who ran the data for him. It was a win-win situation: the grad student earned needed-money but didn't overcharge for the service and completed the work quickly; my client could move ahead and use his energy for more important parts of his thesis.

3. A coach who has experience working with writers can help you identify your particular problems and find ways to resolve them.

For instance, one of my clients had so many notes on her subject that she got lost in them.  That really triggered her anxiety. Once we recognized what the issue was, I suggested setting up a "storyboard" to lay out her main ideas and attach only relevant notes on small post-its that linked to each idea.  She now had a graphic representation of her material to look at and work with. She felt immensely relieved to remove the clutter from her brain that way and soon saw the structure of her argument much more clearly.

If you haven't got your First Aid kit together yet, do it now!

If it's not enough, contact me. I can help you.

Why Do You Want To Write?

Notice that I am not asking, why do you have to write?
The answer to that may be prosaic:  I have an assignment, or I want to get a promotion, or I need to earn a degree. Or more dramatic:  because I have an inner daemon, because it is my gift, and so on

My question has a very different focus.  I want to know why you feel compelled to write about a certain subject. What ideas rattle around your head at night and make you so restless that you get up at 3 in the morning (remember that's it's always 3 A.M. in the Dark Night of the Soul) and put pencil to paper or turn on the computer? In other words, what about your writing really stirs your juices?

How Writing Groups Can Help Writers

As I wrote  in the post WHY GROUPS CAN HELP WRITERS (October 9, 2007), a writing group is an evolving and powerful organism.  There are many types of writing groups, of course, ranging from those where members read their work to each other for comment, to those where members gain the courage to start working in the first place,  to those joined because members are having difficulty carrying out and finishing what they started. I work primarily with the last two groups, which can overlap.  I should also add that I work primarily over the telephone on a bridgeline, so members can live literally anywhere . 

Writers in the groups I'm writing about tend to have two major problems:  with anxiety and/or  with time management--general organization.   The anxiety can stem from perfectionism or insecurities that have been reinforced by outside criticism.  Problematic time management and organizational practices can be part of one's personality or come from a lack of knowledge of possibly better ways of doing things.

So how can a group help with such personal issues?