To improve, you need feedback. Coaching provides feedback.

Have you ever wondered why dancers practice in front of the mirror?
It's not just vanity—they need to see their performance from the viewpoint of the audience. However, while the feedback you get from reflection (see what I did there?) is a necessary start, it's not sufficient.

You've probably heard of the pop-psychology myth that 10,000 hours of practice are required to become excellent. But that doesn't seem consistent with the observation that many skills can be learned to adequacy in a fraction of that time. For instance, outside of taxi and truck drivers, few people have driven 10,000 hours. After all, 10,000 hours is 10 years at 20 hours of practice a week! Clearly, most of us learnt to drive adequately well after a fraction of that time.

What's happening is that, unless excellence is really important to you, you are likely to reach a level of 'satisfactory adequacy' fairly quickly and then plateau. In other words, you practice until you’re good enough to get by and then don’t have a need/incentive to improve further.

The importance of expert feedback
"On top of the hours of practice, you need a feedback loop that allows you to spot errors as they occur and correct them. Ideally, that feedback comes from someone with an expert eye and so every world-class sports champion has a coach."
- Daniel Goleman

In other words, if you practice without good feedback, you won’t get to the top. And good feedback comes from a good coach.

Good coaching is:

‍Insightful—it tells you what's going on and why your writing isn't reaching its full potential;

‍Constructive—it gives you options to improve your writing and helps you develop the skills you need to implement them; and 

‍Tailored—it prioritizes what you need to achieve your goals—it doesn't just work down some standard checklist of issues. 

A good coach will identify the most important issues for you to work on to make your work better, taking into account your skills, your resources and your ambitions. Their advice will evolve as all those things change over time.

You may ask yourself, what's the point of getting a coach when you're intending to run your work past an editor anyway?

Editors
‍
Time was when many professional writers had a lifelong relationship with their editor who would help them achieve their very best while tidying up the manuscript and managing all the publishing chores. The best of these editors wrapped up the attributes of editor and coach in one.

Today, most editors don't have enough time to do it all. They need to focus on the manuscript you've put in front of them (as they have a pile of others in the in-box). Also, because they generally work with a completed draft, they're not there to help you when you hit a roadblock halfway through your novel. 

This focus on prose rather than process means they can't provide a lot of the advice that would be of most value to a developing writer. Remember, it's not just about the quality of the final product, it's how long it took you to get there. Some wise advice and encouragement early in your career may save you months or years of frustration, as you write and rewrite the same 100,000 words, over and again. Of course, some editors do find the time to share their wealth of experience. If you come across one like that, hang on to them!

‍Coaches

‍As a starting point, a good coach should have the skills of an editor. They should be able to tell you where your plot structure has broken down or how to bring your character arcs to a satisfying conclusion. They should also be able to show you how to tighten your prose, fine tune your tone and even point out your punctuation bad habits.

But a coach won't polish your manuscript for you. Their job is to:

‍Clarify your Objectives—to get you to have a clear idea of your goals, large and small. Large is your aspirations for your career and small is (for example) what you are aiming to achieve in a specific scene;

‍Build your Skills—so that you can achieve your objectives. Sometimes, that may require a program of exercises, practice and feedback; and

‍Sustain your Momentum—life can set hurdles in your path, real life as well as the rejections and criticism that are part and parcel of becoming a professional writer. A coach can remind you of the joy and passion you had at the start of the journey and put your feet back on the path to achieving your dreams.

I'm not pretending that you don't need talent and inspiration—plus a lot of hard work and heaps of discarded drafts—but the journey will be easier with a coach on your side.

Picking a coach

‍What should you look for in a coach? They don't need to be a best-selling author but it's nice if they're a writer, so that they know all the joys and frustrations of developing your craft. 

What is essential is that they're a reader. Someone who can read a piece of your work and feel the magic (or not) and give you an honest appraisal of what your readership will love… and what will frustrate them. On top of that, it's useful if they understand your genre (there may be more than one) and know what its audience is currently looking for.

Finally, there needs to be the foundation of a productive relationship. You need to trust that they have expertise (in the craft) and the ability to provide honest but constructive advice. On your part, you have to show your commitment to improve and your openness to receiving feedback.

It's a good idea to start with an opening conversation to judge whether you are a good fit for each other. Then try a short program of coaching sessions to build trust in each other before you sign up for more.You can learn to write on your own, but it is enormously helpful to have someone experienced show you the way!

If you have a great idea for a story but don't know where to start, we can work together to outline a plot and start generating characters and an opening scenario.

After that, you'll need to start writing.

- You're welcome to check in periodically, when you need feedback or help. If you're just at the start of your writing journey, I can advise you on setting up a personalised writing process (goals, routines, writing nooks, software tools, etc.)

- If you're already writing productively, perhaps for work or a blog, we can focus on the additional skills you'll need to create compelling fiction.

Absolutely—I'm not in this for the money! 

For starters, the first session is free.

If you decide that you would benefit from a program of support, we can negotiate a substantial discount for signing up to a series of five sessions.

If you're motivated by deadlines or your writing practice would benefit from some oversight, we could negotiate for a regular 15-min video check in to review progress and set goals. This would be supplemented by a report (from you to me) of your progress against your goals. This would be much cheaper than full-on coaching but could still be very helpful in keeping you focused on achieving your goals. Whenever you hit a roadblock in your project or at, say, 3-month intervals, we could do a 1-hour face-to-face.

You can develop your mastery of the craft by working through my book on writing compelling fiction and doing some of the exercises. You learn a lot by reflecting on the application of the ideas (which is part of the coach's role), but you could also get a lot of the benefit by discussing these with a writing friend. If you've signed up to a program of sessions, I'll give you the book for free!

Lastly, I'll be sending out regular short posts on writing issues through my newsletter. Over time, that should cover a lot of what you need to know, all at no cost. Just subscribe below.