Coaching
Take a supported journey into the life of your writing, and into your life through writing.
What is coaching for writers?
Coaching is for people who want to work consistently over a period of time with direct 1:1 support and guidance along their creative journey. You might have a project you’re working on or hoping to begin–a book, a newsletter, a blog, even a business supported by writing. Or, you’re ready to deepen your creative life, figure out what writing you’re meant to do, and how to make it happen. Probably, you’re here for both.
That’s why my coaching work typically follows two simultaneous tracks:
Professional writing: Writing that supports your business, like a blog or newsletter, book or website. In addition to consistent output, this track involves figuring out big questions like who am I serving, how can I explain my work, and what’s my work story?
Personal writing: Exploratory writing to deepen your self-knowledge, understanding of the past and your beliefs, discover the origins of self-limiting or “problem” stories, and reauthor them to better serve you now.
No matter what their goals are, many people bring concerns about their choices and unexamined perspectives—have I worked too hard in my field and I’m burned out or unserved by it? Do I need to make a big change in my life? How do I see the world and what led me to that understanding? What is my voice and where do I find it? Is my story worth telling? Is my life worth exploring at all?
How do we do all of this?
There are two major elements of my work worth outlining here.
Practice, process, craft
According to me, the “three-legged stool” of great writing is practice, process, and craft. Improving in each of these areas constitutes the practical focus of our work.
Practice includes your daily writing journal and how you show up as a writer in your life—taking notes, asking questions, being curious, open, and empathetic.
Process includes how you develop ideas and create essays, posts, or books about them—ideation, outlining, drafting, development.
Craft is all about form and style—your voice, your word choices and syntax, how you vary sentences, how sentences work and how the form of a piece of writing functions.
Each week, we focus on one or all three elements as we unblock your writing and free your voice.
Narrative therapy
The second major element is narrative therapy. Rather than a prescribed set of techniques, narrative therapy is a worldview that seeks to empower individuals through identifying, deconstructing, assessing, and reauthoring the stories of their lives. Narrative therapy assumes three key premises:
You are the expert in your own life.
All identity is relational.
People are not their problems.
Narrative is extremely helpful in our work, as it bases story development within an ethical framework that seeks to liberate people from oppressive and self-limiting stories and beliefs through a process of externalization, deconstruction, and reauthoring. You can read more about narrative therapy and how I use it in my coaching work in this post from You Are a Writer, “what is narrative therapy?”
What do we do together?
As a coach, I ask, listen and guide, I teach technique, and I do hands-on editing on all your work. This means we’re working on the page together and in regular live discussion.
Sometimes I give very direct advice; sometimes I help you get there–depending on how I think that lesson will be learned. I’m also your editor on the page, working asynchronously during the week on whatever draft you’re developing. I take copious notes when we meet and share them along with your weekly assignments. When we meet we discuss your recent progress or blocks, troubleshoot issues in a story or develop an idea into a concept, structure a piece or live edit a page to get it shining in voice.
We learn about your patterns, challenges, gifts, and opportunities as a writer. And through all of this work, we are aware of the longer journey you’re on in your creative life.
Is this for me?
The writers I work with are…
current or former high achievers seeking a grounded life through creative expression
coaches, creators, or solopreneurs who need help finding their niche and articulating their work, capturing a space, or becoming a trusted, reliable source or ‘thought leader’
passionate about improving their writing process and craft
uncertain about their voice and style
blocked in their writing or lives by big questions, an uncertain path, a difficult present, or a mysterious past
open to uncovering, deconstructing, and rebuilding the beliefs and stories that are holding them back
stuck in unfulfilling work, behaviors, or relationships and willing to use writing to understand and take action
…or are drawn to a creative life and not sure how to begin living it
No experience or achievement is necessary to start this journey. If you want to work hard and bravely, learn a lot and be held accountable, and start living more fully through writing–reach out and tell me your story.