Lisa taught me so much about the craft of writing and, probably more important, she pushed me out of my comfort zone.
Jason Portnoy, entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Author of Silicon Valley Porn Star
An author coach and a book coach are the same things. I prefer the phrase “author coach” because books are inanimate objects. They don’t pay attention to what I say when I talk to them, and usually, they are already complete with their own unique information, sets of facts, and carefully crafted stories.
Writers, too, have their own unique information, facts, and stories to tell. However, sometimes writers need a little help organizing all that data into one cohesive book. When they do get it organized, they may have trouble staying the course on their book journey. Hence, those writers could benefit from a little author coaching.
As an author coach, I would meet with you at the beginning of the project for a couple of long sessions so that we’re both sure you have total clarity of the project. We’ll cover everything I teach as a book navigator, which will prepare you to start writing.
Unlike with the book navigator package, my services as an author coach don’t end after those first sessions. Together, we’ll set a schedule for you to write and establish milestones for you to hit before we have check-in sessions. (To continue with the journey analogy, you could call those sessions mini-ports of call where you’ll refuel your motivation and tend to any mishaps that happened along the way).
You will also start writing chapters after our first sessions are complete. As you finish them, you’ll send them to me. I’ll read over what you wrote with a developmental editor‘s eye. Then, during our calls, we’ll discuss how things are going for you:
- are you struggling with anything in particular?
- are there certain concepts you’re having difficulty getting into words?
- is the material dredging up emotions you’d rather not feel or work through to get to the finish line?
- is there something else are you finding a challenge?
I will also address what I’m finding on your pages that I’ve read so far that could be helpful with further writing:
- discovering technical habits that could be improved to strengthen your writing;
- heading off any structural deviations before they get too large;
- re-directing when thematically the manuscript is veering in a different direction than planned;
- and discussing anything else that could help you in the process of writing.
When you have a completed manuscript, I’ll review it again adding comments, notes, and suggestions for you to review. We’ll have another discussion about those notations, and then it will be your turn to revise the entire manuscript under that direction.
Once you have a completed manuscript, you may not know what to do with it. At that point, we can talk about your options and how to follow through on them.
Think this might be an interesting journey to take?