The conversation is happening everywhere about having a coach for the areas of your life you want to see the best results in. But maybe it’s not for you. If so, you can ignore this message if:
1. You like going it alone.
You’ve done OK by yourself. Sure, your book isn’t done, but once you really set aside the time and make the commitment, you could get it done if you really wanted to. The isolation of the writing life does not get to you at all. Friends and family may not understand the sacrifice you need to make to write your book, but you’ve got yourself and God.
But the truth is one can chase a thousand, but two put ten thousand to flight. You are a loner because of various reasons, but not because you weren’t created for quality partnerships and equally yoked relationships. God works through the skills, gifts, and talents of people.
A proven and trustworthy writing coach will come alongside you and know your struggles and triumphs because they’ve been through it all before. They are successful and skilled; tried, tested, and true creatives. They are well acquainted with the creativity cycle and will be the core part of your new writing community, supporting you all the way through to completion.
Trusting someone with your dreams again may be hard, but there’s a coach out there just for you. You don’t have to continue your writing journey alone.
2. You relish the sweet torment of untamed ideas running around in your head.
You’re OK with being kept awake all hours of the night with ideas you know would make a great book? You can see people gathering around the insight, revelation, or solutions your book would bring, but how would you structure it and put it in a book so they can access it? You toss the thought aside and try to get back to making dinner.
Maybe you’ve become comfortable with the intrusive thoughts of one book idea after another while sitting in yet another meeting that could have been an email. The ho-hum familiarity of your 9-to-5 is maybe not the best but it’s bearable. You know this brand of crazy. The idea of writing a book is a whole other level of crazy that… Well, it’s just too much. OK, breathe, you tell yourself. Let’s not think about it right now.
Imagine the peace that comes with a quieted mind whose ideas have been called out from it, ideas that have been teased out, tamed, and tested—shaped into a book that will disrupt the familiar and bring new experiences to both you and your readers, changing both of your lives forever.
A writing coach will call your restless mind of amazing ideas into focus. They will wrangle the words swimming in your head like a disrupted school of fish and help give them flow and effectiveness.
3. You already know the ropes.
You know what readers and publishers want. You few, if any, blind spots when it comes to evaluating your own ideas and writing direction.
Perhaps this is true, but maybe a second set of eyes on your work wouldn’t hurt. Even coaches have coaches.
Having a mentor tell you the best proven ways forward and how to avoid some of the start and stop of trial and error will shave weeks, months, maybe years off your writing process.
Have you sat in a publisher’s acquisitions meeting? Have you developed thousands of book ideas? Have you led hundreds of writers in developing their ideas from concept to bookshelf? Have you pitched book ideas on behalf of others and heard objections and resounding yes enough to really know what works? Many of the best writing coaches have.
4. You have a superhuman mind that never tires or cracks under the pressure of demands from the creative life.
Writer’s block? Never heard of her. Staying focused when life’s distraction vie for your attention comes easy for you. Overcoming the fears and challenges that come with stepping into something bigger than you doesn’t faze you. Your mind is like Fort Knox, baby.
No, it probably isn’t. Who’s is? Writing is hard work. But having someone help you accept when it’s time to rest and not feel guilty about it… When to press in and stop leaning on excuses… When to pivot and change directions… When you need to put an axe to the root issue keeping you from your dreams… That voice at the back of you encouraging you to write just one more hour… Someone to prompt you with ideas when your well is running dry… That’s a writing coach.
5. You question what it means to really “invest in yourself.”
Writing is just a hobby, right? That’s what they said when you mentioned something about taking this writing thing more seriously. Are you really even a writer like that? Coaches are not cheap, they say. You start to believe them: “Am I really a writer? Is investing in myself for my ‘little writing hobby’ going to work. Am I even good enough? What if I fail?”
But what have “they” ever followed through on? Are “they” even the right models for you to be looking at?
Some of the most high-achieving writers have coaches and surround themselves with a community of people who are thinking and moving in the direction they what to go. For them, writing is a calling. They know they can go farther, faster, with better focus and results with mentorship, accountability, and expertise in their corner.
With a writing coach, you rise and fall with someone who gets it. Someone who will help you pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and push you out there to try again. You also have someone to celebrate with who knows all that led up to the win—that well-written, heart-heavy book published well and being held in the hands of the readers who need it most.
Have you ever worked with a writing coach? How was your experience?
If you’ve not worked with a coach, why not?