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My career as a writing coach almost ended as abruptly as it started. Having written a book proposal for a Harvard lecturer, I agreed to coach her in the writing of the book itself. The rescuer in me made me do it. As her deadline loomed, however, it became clear that she really wanted my fingers to do the walking on the keyboard, not hers. She wanted me to do most of her thinking as well. I had to bow out.
That experience might well have put me off the book coach business forever. But taken together, the paths of my life all seemed to lead there. A writing tutor in college, upon graduation, I taught in a one-room schoolhouse in a tiny ski resort in the High Sierra. I switched gears some years later and landed an assistant (and then associate) editor position at the Ladies’ Home Journal in Manhattan, where I assigned and edited stories, rewrote copy, and trained interns. I did much the same at the Los Angeles Times Magazine, where I worked as the special features editor before going freelance. I was a writing coach already; I just didn’t know it.
By 2003, I had written countless magazine articles. I’d also authored a book, and doctored, collaborated on, and ghostwritten a handful of others — including national bestseller, The Legacy of Luna. After 16 years in a very solitary home office, however, the extrovert in me was yearning for a little more human contact.
An agent provided me with just that. Not my agent, mind you. I heard from a friend of a friend that another agent — Linda Mead — needed help organizing and writing a book proposal. I outlined her book for her, whipped the overview into shape, and rewrote the sample chapter. The work wasn’t exactly easy, but working with Linda was. When she asked me to coach her, I agreed without a second thought.
It could have been dejà vu all over again. Instead, we developed a routine that worked. I helped her organize her thoughts and her chapters. We brainstormed during our weekly sessions — my favorite part of coaching since together you get to places neither of you could reach alone — and reviewed what needed to be done and how best to accomplish the work. The result? The pages quickly mounted.
I was seriously starting to enjoy this book coach business, which was just as well. Linda recommended me to a fellow literary agent with a writer who had proven incapable of getting a handle on the memoir she was penning. That person was part of a writer’s group. Before I knew it, I had three writing coach clients, all finally working on the books that were so important to them.
And there, for me, lies the reason I love to work as a book coach and offer aid and support to writers in the midst of the creative stew. I will continue to help prep and stir and season and strain, and once it is done, we will feast together. And when I finally turn to my writing, I will remember that I, too, am not alone.
