Coaching that Works Like Magic and Feels Like a Coffee Date

With an abundance of coaching out there, I often find myself wondering: how does it work? Especially when I see new kinds of coaches, or more open-ended kinds of coaching. For instance, life coaching. 

How do you know you need a life coach? And how would life coaching help me, if I decided I needed one? 

I was interviewing someone about mental health coaching the other day, and as she was explaining what she does, it made so much sense! But because I’d never heard of it before, I probably wouldn’t have reached out if I’d seen an ad or something. (By the way, If you’re curious, read all about what a mental health coach is here - very cool!) 

As I was reflecting, it occurred to me that the benefits of what I do as a writing coach may not be super obvious. After all, I hadn’t heard anything about writing coaches until I got into the online business world. And even then, there’s a TON of mixed messaging. 

If you’re still a little fuzzy about what writing coaching is, read this. It’s all about what I do, and what other kinds of writing coaches there are.. 

Anyway, today I wanted to share why writing coaching can help you - what you get out of the bargain! After all, it’s your work and creativity that you’re contemplating, right? It’s gotta make sense for YOU! 

9 Ways Writing Coaching Can Work for You

One of the best (and worst?) things about writing is that it’s amazingly expressive. We can pour our hearts and souls onto the page and maybe someday someone will read it and totally get us and what we’re all about. 

This is awesome because we get a release of everything that builds up and all of our amazing ideas. It’s also the worst because it can make sharing our work SCARY AS HELL. Seriously. I mean, no one really wants to get criticism on the thing that’s a little piece of them, right? It’s just something we have to do if we want to grow as writers. 

So imagine how nice it would be if an experienced writer read your writing (pretty much your baby by the time you hand it over) and gave you feedback in a way that doesn’t feel like you got chewed and spit back out. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, right?

Enter: Writing Coach. 

One of the best things about getting coaching is having a dedicated person to look at your writing and give you feedback that won’t make you want to cry ugly tears the rest of the day. I don’t know about other coaches, but I don’t believe in the “tough love” thing. It makes me cringe even just thinking about it because let’s be real - a lot of what people say during “tough love” talks are mean, which is unnecessary. I’m so not about that.

If you’ve just handed off your writing to someone and you’re already nervous about it to begin with, the answer is NOT for me to come back with “yeah, this pretty much bites, let’s fix it.” Nuh uh. 

Also, I don’t feel like that’s good mentorship anyway. Don’t get me wrong, there will always be things to improve in your writing. I write and coach writers for a living and my stuff still isn’t perfect! (And it doesn’t need to be either.) 

But, when you have a writing coach acting as a mentor, it means you have someone actively paying attention to what you’re doing with your writing. It also means you have someone who knows a heck of a lot about writing doing their very best to help you get your writing and skills where you want to be. Coaching is one of the times in life that really is all about you.

When I work with you during writing coaching, I love starting where you’re at today! Setting goals, seeing you work at them, and improve is pretty much the best. Plus, working together means you have accountability for your writing. It’s not just you anymore, which makes it easier to keep going. 

I don't know about you, but sometimes when I say “Oh I’m going to write a new section of my novel this week” it gets kicked to the end of the priorities list. Not because I don’t want to write, or because I don’t care, but because I’m not really accountable to anyone else. It’s just me hanging out with my super cool half a book. 

Having an accountability partner has really helped me make a lot of progress, and that’s a great benefit of writing coaching: you get a built in accountability partner. (If you want to read more about why accountability partners are super helpful for writers, read this.)

Once you’re on the hook with a writing coach, and therefore being accountable, you’ll notice that you begin to get a lot more writing done. You’ll write regularly because in the back of your mind, you know someone’s waiting to hear what’s next in your novel or all the sage advice going into your non-fiction book. It’s a win-win.

Writing coaches also help you write. When you get stuck, have writer’s block, feel overwhelmed with the amount of work still to do on your project, or just plain don’t know where to start, your coach can guide you through. I like to give tasks in between coaching sessions. Activities that, based on our conversation, I know will get you writing when you’re working on your own. 

Nothing I tell clients is rocket science, and it’s not usually very complicated, because I find that the simple things usually work the best. I also know it’s hard to see what’ll work when you’ve gotten so deep into your project - so I help you! You don’t have to figure it out on your own, or work on it by yourself wondering “Is this really worth it?”

Most of all, and hands down my favorite thing about writing coaching, is encouraging writers. We’re not all confident in ourselves and our writing. And we’re not always sure if what we’re doing “works” or if we’re even “good enough” to consider calling ourselves a writer. I mean, I’ll be the first to tell you there are days I sit down to write an article or a section of my novel and I finish and I’m like WOOF that is AWFUL. 

One “bad” piece of writing doesn’t make me a bad writer, though, and it doesn’t make you a bad writer, either! But I bet not very many people have stopped to tell you that, have they? The most important part of my role as a writing coach is to support writers when they’re not confident. 

I’ve been the writer who pretty much gave up because I thought I wasn’t good enough. For a LONG time. I kept making excuses about why I couldn’t write and telling myself I didn’t really want to write that much (have you done this, too?). I was really just scared and it took a long time to build my confidence to a level where I could even consider writing creatively, let alone sharing that with someone else! 

So when I coach, confidence and making sure you feel good - and I mean, solidly good, not just “eh, maybe” good - about your writing is my #1 job. Everything else comes with it.

My challenge to you is to book a free call with me to talk about how writing coaching can help you. 

Have you worked with a writing coach before? Want to know something else about writing coaching I didn’t talk about? I’d love to hear about your experiences! Find me on social media or drop a comment below.

Let’s chat because you, my friend, are on your way to great writing.