I’m thrilled to share with you a guest post from Lauren Minkoff.
Lauren is a freelance writer, ghostwriter, and novelist who I’ve had the pleasure of coaching over the last year. In her post, she shares some of her lessons learned from our work together.
Take it away, Lauren:
What do Olympic athletes, professional musicians, and renowned artists all have in common? A coach or mentor. Most of the people that are at the top of their careers have at least one mentor or coach, but most will have several. People at the top of their field need fresh goals, accountability, and the accumulation of new knowledge or techniques to stay there. Being a writer is absolutely no different.
Being at the top of your game (whatever the ‘game’ may be) requires learning as much as possible about the game and how to play it. When I started the first draft of my novel, I wasn’t even a novice. I was something that comes before you’re a novice; basically, I was utterly clueless. I wrote based on interesting ideas and gut feelings about what should happen next, and when the adrenaline rush of writing 18,000 words in a weekend ran off, I realized that if I was going to continue, I
needed help.
I investigated online workshops and programs, but all of them fell short for me. I didn’t feel that the value would be worth the cost, and most of them weren’t offering what I was really looking for anyway. I didn’t just want to write my book; I wanted to learn how to write a book, but I didn’t think hiring a writing coach for myself was an option. I thought it was only something professionals did, and I heard the voice in my head telling me that hiring a coach was silly. I
tried to convince myself I could figure it out on my own, but after another month of getting minimal writing done and feeling more confused than when I began, I knew it was time to hire a professional.
I was determined. I knew there was a lot that I needed to learn, not only to write a story that made sense but one that would be interesting and thoroughly enjoyable to read. I sucked up my pride and started interviewing coaches until I found Kevin Johns. Despite my preliminary hesitancy and resistance to investing in myself (but, hey – I’m worth it), I
immediately knew I made the right decision in hiring a writing coach. I initially hired Kevin because of his energy and knowledge of the craft, but I continue to be a client because of those qualities combined with his dedication and compassion. I feel as though I could list hundreds of things that I’ve learned from working with writing coach Kevin Johns, but I won’t go on that long.
Here are the top 4 things that I have learned from working with my coach.
Your pal in writing,
Kevin T. Johns, writing coach