What It’s Like to Work With a Writing Coach
At some point during our first consultation call, every prospective coaching client asks me the same question. It goes something like: “What is it like to work with a personal writing coach?” or “Can you explain more about your methods?” or “How does a writing coach help you write?” Some people even ask, flat out: “What is a writing coach?” Understandably, most writers, or aspiring writers, who contact me want to know exactly what a coach can do for them.
Well, I can’t speak for every writing coach in the business, but I can explain the process my colleagues and I use with clients of the Gilliam Writers Group.
To start, I’ll address the most obvious question: why hire a writing coach in the first place? Generally, people hire writing coaches for one or all of the following reasons:
Organizational support: The client needs help structuring their manuscript and/or their writing time. Their need for organizational support usually stems from one of the following factors: lack of authorial experience (a.k.a. “first book syndrome”), competing obligations (people are busy these days), or personality (procrastinators and individuals with ADD/ADHD – welcome to the club).
Motivation: The client works best under conditions of mutual accountability and partnership, and finds it difficult to produce writing as a lone wolf. This trait – a mysterious phenomenon called “extraversion” – is frequently stigmatized in literary circles; many haters believe that writing should be an individual and even an isolating activity. I disagree. Humans are social animals, and few of us work well in isolation – authors included. Writing coaches understand that it’s lame to prioritize some abstract notion of artistic individualism over the concrete outcome of, well, actually writing something.
Writing or concept quality: The client is concerned with the quality of either their prose or their ideas. Some authors generate compelling arguments and narratives like it’s their job (and it frequently is their job), but struggle to write polished, effective sentences. Other authors write perfectly well, but find that their narratives or ideas require improvement – maybe their content feels unoriginal, underdeveloped, or inconsistent in some way. Both types of writers hire coaches for creative direction and stylistic support.
The day-to-day process of working with a writing coach varies quite a bit, depending on what kind of project a client is working on, how much of that project they’ve already written, whether they have other editors I need to consult with, etc. For those interested in my book coaching services, it’s a longer road than for those hiring me on as an essay coach, or a short story coach. That being said, if I’m taking on a project from start to finish, beginning to end, and I’m the only editor on hand, I generally lead my clients through two successive “phases” of the coaching process (both accomplished using Zoom/phone calls and a shared Google Doc).
Phase 1 is primarily generative; this part of the process is all about helping the client generate the bulk of their work. Usually, I start by collaborating with the client on their outline, clarifying, tightening, and integrating the whole structure of their project. We want an outline that flows – an outline that says, “Please, write me!” Once we have one, it’s time to get writing. Between sessions, the client now focuses on generating small, manageable chunks of their project. Whether those chunks take the form of chapters, sub-sections, certain numbers of pages per session, or what have you, isn’t important – what’s important is that the client feels comfortable attempting to write said chunks within the agreed-upon periods of time. At least one day before each session, the client sends their work to me so that I can read it and record my initial thoughts. Then, in-session, we discuss their writing together, asking ourselves whether the section fulfills its proper role vis-à-vis the larger work. We also make high-level edits to improve the section’s content, structure, and mechanics, as well as completing practice exercises that target weaknesses in the client’s writing. (Note that in this case, “mechanics” refers to how well the various elements in a chapter or section support each other.) Finally, we might indulge in a tiny bit of light copyediting to smooth out paragraph-level syntax and grammar issues during this phase, though we won’t dive into the nitty-gritty details of a full-scale line edit or copyedit. Phase 1 of the coaching process ends when the author has produced a complete (or complete enough) rough draft of their project.
Phase 2 of the coaching process aims to turn the author’s rough draft into a final, or at least semi-final, draft – one polished enough to send to agents and/or publishers. This phase requires more independent work on the part of the coach, and less direct interaction with the client; all of the time previously devoted to meetings is now reserved for solo editing sessions, wherein I survey the client’s work page by page and complete a full-scale line and copyedit at the agreed-upon pace. I generally make these edits without real-time input from the client – no Zoom or phone call required – but afterwards the client can of course read through and either implement or reject all the changes I’ve suggested. At this stage, it’s common to have multiple brief phone calls between editing sessions, during which we discussing practical, small-scale details of the revision process. By the end of Phase 2, the client should have a submittable draft of their work. Once we’ve discussed publication options and they’ve begun pursuing these, usually by sending out their manuscript and query letters to the relevant parties (agents, publishing houses, literary journals, competitions, etc.), our work together is complete.
And there you have it, folks — that’s my full-length answer to the most frequently asked question in my line of business! If you’re still bursting with questions about what it’s like to work with a writing coach, how a writing coach can help you improve your writing or finish a project, or about my individual coaching philosophy, please feel free to contact me using the “Contact” page on this site. If you’re currently searching for book coaches online, or for any other kind of writing coach, you’re also welcome to reach out! In future blogs, I hope to continue this conversation by providing you with a few helpful tips on how to find and choose a writing coach, focusing on where to look and how, exactly, you should go about hiring one.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this post, and I look forward to hearing from you.
