Currently viewing the tag: "coach"
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    Okayâ?¦so you decided to hire a writing coachâ?¦letâ??s say you have found one and you are ready to finish that novel and become rich and famous or at least publish your book for family and friends. What now?
    You are in for a life-changing experience, for it is one thing to write a novel or even a short story; itâ??s entirely different to share your precious bundle of joy with someone else who will correct it, constructively criticize it and possibly make suggestions that you donâ??t agree with. How do you work with the coach now that youâ??re on the same team? I have five suggestions that have helped me in the three years Iâ??ve been working with a writing coach:
(1)       Be honest-you need to be honest and up front on exactly what you are working on, how much you want to put into it and even why you write.  This process of becoming a career writer has forced me to go back and evaluate why I do what I do many times. All this needs to be shared with your coach so he or she can best teach, encourage and push you toward a successful, significant career.
(2)       Decide on the direction-Decide on a direction for your career while you are evaluating why you do what you do. Are you strictly fiction or non-fiction in writing? Are you going to pursue short stories or novels or poetry? Do you plan to go after a publishing house with your work or to self publish? Though my focus has veered from its course now and again, my overall purpose and direction has remained the same.
(3)       Set goals- Itâ??s important to have weekly goals, monthly or quarterly goals and yearly goals for you must be going after something. Just saying, â??Iâ??m writing a bookâ? isnâ??t enough. Have goals to write certain word counts or chapters, to have edits done and to do promo work. This will keep you inspired when things are slow which definitely happens.
(4)       Complete your assignments-Finishing those assignments given by your coach, especially ones that are goal-oriented, will help you to focus on writing. Sometimes I get bored with a certain assignment and I might have to start something else and come back to it but I have tried hard to finish what I have started. Falling into the trap of not completing things will catch up with you in the future with bad work habits and compromise in your writing.
(5)       Be ready to agree to disagree-I listen carefully to my writing coach but occasionally I have disagreed. Learning to agree to disagree and not making it a place to get stuck is important as writing is a long and tedious process.  I have learned to think suggestions through and take time to decide if I can have peace about the suggestion or not.  Mutual respect is the key.
   Working with a coach has been rewarding but I have also complained, whined, gotten annoyed and tried to give up countless times. Following the above steps have helped me become a better client and a better writer than ever before. Yes, I still need a lot of work but thank goodness thatâ??s where my editor comes in. You say you might want an editor too? Join me next week as we will talk about going ahead and getting your work editedâ?¦
Jennifer Hallmark is a writer, artist and ministry leader who works with women’s ministry groups. Her love of writing is evident with over 90 articles published on several different article websites. She is also a contributing writer for brandlady.com magazine. She has finished her first in a series of novels, Journey of Grace: A New Beginning.Check out her websites at www.jenniferhallmark.com and www.aclarioncall.com .
    Questions are whirling around and round in your head: â??Should I hire a writing coach? And should I have someone edit my work before I send it to a publisher or self-publish? Itâ??s okay for these are questions you should be asking yourself at the crossroads we just passed through; the crossroads where you decided to become a career writer.Â
    Letâ??s stop and look at the first question on hiring a writing coach. Is this what I need to do or not? Speaking from my own experience, I reached a point when I felt it was necessary to get someone to help me out. I had been writing, editing and publishing a local church newsletter, taking writing classes, wrote a small non-fiction book and had researched writing as a career. I felt stalled out at this point and realized that I needed help; there was so much I didnâ??t know and in this jungle of writing and publishing that I found myself in, a guide would be useful and in my case, necessary to survive. There are four things that my writing coach does for me:
(1)Â Â Â Â Teaches me-from sentence structure to the in workings of publishing to scams, my writing coach has increased my knowledge one hundred percent through giving her expertise and experience to me in this field.
(2)    Encourages me-she also encourages me when I feel stuck, hopeless or when I am looking at a mountain of assignments and about to throw my hands up and walk away. She believes in me and tells me I can make it and validation by someone in the writing field is imperative as you go from level to level.
(3)Â Â Â Â Inspires me-sometimes I get writerâ??s block in the middle of a story or article and I call her and we talk it out, helping me gain insight or ideas during our conversation.Â
(4)    Kicks me- one important thing she does is â??kickâ? or should I say â??prodsâ? me when I am stalled or going backwards. I tend to be a little whiny so besides encouraging I need a gentle push in the right direction from time to time.
    How did I find a writing coach? I went to my writing group and met a lady that one of the group members had already worked with on the creation of their own book series. We met once and had several phone conferences before I made a decision and signed a contract. You need to make sure the coach is someone you can work with and is professional and knowledgeable with the background to back it up. Check their past work and references and go over the contract with a fine toothed comb.
    What about an editor? For me, again the editing was essential for it had been twenty years since I had been in school. I had forgotten so many of my English lessons that my first edits on my novel were scary. The paper was marked up with wrong sentence structure, switches in tenses and plain bad grammar.Â
    The fact that I hired a writing coach/editor was helpful for my edits also contained helpful hints of ways to strengthen my story asking questions such as â??Why did you say this?â? and â??Why did you introduce this character now?â? It made me think and rethink my story over and over, creating a better work overall. I believe it is impossible to edit your own work; you are tool close to the story to look at it objectively.
    You might say at this point, â??Well, the publisher will edit itâ? and it is true that they have their own editors. I, however, want the best possible manuscript to present to the publisher and edited work will draw attention of the positive kind.
   This should give you some food for thought as you decide whether to hire a writing coach and/or editor. Some of you are already thinkingâ?¦â?Yes, Iâ??ve been stuck for a while and need someone to help me. A writing coach might be just the thing. But what do I have to look forward to?â? Join us next weekâ?¦
Jennifer Hallmark is a writer, artist and ministry leader who works with women’s ministry groups. Her love of writing is evident in over 80 articles she has written for several different article websites. Jennier is also a contributing writer for brandlady.com magazine. She has finished her first in a series of novels, Journey of Grace: A New Beginning.Check out her websites at www.jenniferhallmark.com and www.aclarioncall.com .
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