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. 

     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)     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)     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. 

(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. 

     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?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?Â  Join us next weekâ?¦