Coaching

You may be just beginning to explore a new project or your creativity in general. Or you may be a seasoned pro looking to move beyond existing blocks in your work habits or the project itself. Wherever you are, remember you have more inner creative resources than you think; my job is to help you access them. Through a combination of editing, telephone consultations, e-mail dialogue and assigned exercises, we uncover self-limiting beliefs, refine work habits, identify blocks and explore options for creating more energy for the work. I believe our best coach is the one we all have inside. I can help you recognize, access and trust your inner guide—your most valuable writing and creating tool.

Writing is a mind-body experience. My 25+ years of focus on personal growth, meditation and mind-body modalities has shown me this time and again. What I've come to appreciate, through my clients' curiosity, courage and commitment, is that approaching writing this way can be a rewarding process of personal growth—with support and encouragement along the way.

How do we free ourselves from the self-limiting beliefs we may have about our abilities? How do we connect to the source of our inspiration and accept the inevitable slow days and temporary blocks as a natural part of the process? First we need to lay a stable base so that creativity is welcomed home to our lives. We do this by reclaiming a sense of safety and exploring our relationship with our creative selves, rediscovering what excites and intrigues us. Together we may explore such techniques as writing and visualizing exercises, journaling and meditation.

I believe in "compassionate coaching" rather than a bootcamp approach. Clients move at their own pace, and while I encourage accountability, it is more a process of exploration, discovery and opening to new ways of seeing than focusing exclusively on pre-determined goals.

The Writer’s Notebook
Many years ago, I attended a Vancouver writers’ festival event featuring Richard Ford. An audience member asked the award-winning author a question I never tire hearing the answer to: “How do you get the ideas for your novels?”
    Ford, a tall, attractive Southerner, looked at the questioner blankly for a few seconds. The silence was unsettling; Ford had been affable and approachable until then. But perhaps the answer was so obvious he couldn’t imagine anyone asking the question. “I look in my notebook,” said Ford flatly. He could, he said, trace the inspiration for his 1996 Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel Independence Day to a single sentence from his writer’s notebook. I don’t exactly know what Richard Ford kept in that notebook of his, but it was clear that for him keeping some form of record of his writing life was important to him.
     While I’m sure many writers produce excellent books without ever writing a free-form notebook entry, my professional opinion is that anyone’s writing, fiction or non-fiction, would be improved by it. Why? Because free-form writing releases you from the tyranny of goal-oriented writing. If you have a purpose every time you sit down to write, you may not be discovering who you truly are as a writer. Sometimes the most provocative and unexpected writing can pop out in the middle of an entry without you even being aware of it. Letting the pen take you where your hand (not your head) wants to go, without censorship or judgment, is a great way to learn about your writing self.
    I’m not suggesting you change the style you currently use for your fiction or non-fiction writing and incorporate free-form writing into your active writing process. You may eventually find yourself doing that, but it’s not important or even recommended in the beginning. What I am suggesting is that you start off by reserving a small portion of your writing day, preferably first thing in the morning, to non-goal-oriented personal or practice writing.
    Call it journaling, stream of consciousness writing, free-form creative writing . . . it doesn’t really matter. The "rules" are pretty simple. In fact, the rule is there are no rules. Date your entries, write them longhand if you can (something about the kinesthetic process of handwriting helps override The Critic) and don’t worry if they occasionally make no sense.