Why I Hired a Book Coach (And 4 Reasons You Should Too)

I love to write. I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. And I’ve always enjoyed it. Then I started workng with my book coach, back in October, and I loved it even more!

I write stories and blog posts, letters and journal entries, lists and reflections, emails and poems. And, starting back in 2017, I started writing books.

The actual writing part wasn’t hard for me. I’m your classic Type A, INTJ, Eneagram 5. I have no problem following through or doing what I say I’m going to do. If I write something on my calendar, it gets done. And when I make a plan for writing, I write.

BTW: Don’t worry if you don’t know your personality types, we’ll be taking a look at those later this year as I start working on my first nonfiction book.

The problem comes once that initial plan is completed. That’s where I have difficulty. See a completed first draft in and of itself isn’t really all that valuable. Or impressive. I didn’t set out to write a first draft. I set out to write a book.

But by the beginning of 2021 I had four completed first drafts (each to the tune of 100,000 words) and eactly zero finished books.

I didn’t “need” a book coach

You might be wondering why I didn’t hire a book coach from the beginning. I was alraedy working as a book coach. Helping other people achieve their dream of becoming published authors. Why didn’t I give myself the same

I just didn’t think I needed one. I knew I could write the words. I knew I could “finish” the project. I knew how to help people when they got stuck. I knew what tips, tricks and strategies to use to tease out the story and get through the hard parts. All I had to do was apply all that to my own writing.

How hard could that be?

Apparently very. Being a book coach and having a book coach are two entirely different things. Just becasue I knew what to do, didn’t mean I could apply those skills to my own writing. But boy was that a hard lesson to learn.

A book coach can help you get unstuck

One reason that many of clients come to me is becasue they are “stuck”. They don’t know what to do next with their story. They can’t find the time to write. They are confused about their characters or their problem or their plot line.

A book coach can help you get to the root of these problems. They can help you identify why you are stuck. This is often difficult to do yourself becasue there are often a lot of uncomfortable emotional reasons for your inaction. A book coach can objectively and compassionately move past these hurldes and keep your story going.

A book coach can spot the big problems in your story (and solve them)

When you have spent a long time writing your story you become too close to it. You know your characters, you know your theme, your purpose, your ending. You know what you want to be there, even if it isn’t on the page.

A book coach does not have this same familarity with your work. Often it only takes a couple of pages for them to spot the big problems with your story. Your characters are incocnsitsnet, undefined, unlikable, boring. Your story has no plot, no problem, no personal growth. You’re writing from multiple points of view (unintentionally). You’;re doing too much telling instead of showing.

Even the best writers have trouble spotting these problems in their own work. We all have a tendency to read what we want to see rather than what’s actually there. But the fresh eyes of a book coach can easily spot these issues and help you come up with a plan for solving them.

A book coach can hold you accountable

Once you determine what your next steps will be, a book coach will help you make a plan and hold you to it. Simply knowing what to do next is not the same as doing it. Many people need an accoutbality partner to help keep them on track. A book coach is your accountability partner.

A book coach will check in with you and monitor your progress. This is a great motivation to get some work done. If you know you need to send pages to your book coach or that to you have a call coming up, you have a built in deadline to complete the work. Being accountable to someone else really helps you follow the plan and finish the project.

A book coach can cheer you on

Writing is lonely work. Even if you are the type of writer who likes to write in coffee shops, the work of actually putting words on paper (or screen) is something you must do on your own. Some days that’s reallly hard. Other days it feel impossible.

And even if the writing is gooing well, it can be hard to find the motivation to continue working on a story day after day, month after month, without any feedback. Even your accomplishments often go unnoticed. Writing seven days in a row, completing chapter 6, or powering through writers’ block aren’t things you non-writer friends get excited about.

A book coach is like your best writing friends. She can provide the support and encouragement you need. He can cheer you on when you’re feeling discouraged. And celebrate small (and big) wins with your.

I’d love to be your cheerleader. Learn more about book coaching today.

Happy writing!