What Being A Writing Coach Means To Me By Christina Katz

I was interviewed about what being a writing coach means to me for the May/June issue of Wow! — Women On Writing by Margo Dill along with Alice B. McGinty.

Here’s how I answered a couple of the interview questions:

What are the toughest psychological problems that you feel your clients face?

I would say that the biggest challenge facing writers today isn’t psychological; I would say the biggest challenge is the complexity of both the professional journey and the world we are living in. Because we live in a world rife with distraction, the opportunity to abort any mission is available at every turn. I think I tend to focus on the solutions more than the challenges—that’s just a habit that I have developed from many years of coaching individuals who are in turn eager, gracious, and ambitious and also reluctant, anxious, and easily frustrated.

Tell us two issues that you have helped writers tackle and how you helped them.

I don’t so much solve issues, as I create contexts for writing career success. So if a writer brings issues into the process, there is basically nothing I can do for them. That’s really their choice. They are either going to learn, work, and grow—or invest their energy in other ways. I work hard—that’s the example I set—and my students pretty much follow suit. Writing careers are marathons, not sprints. So I would bring your goals to your mentors and get ready to work and then work some more, and check your issues at the door.

Writing coaching was not a calling for me, it was simply the alignment of what I was already doing with how to name what I do. [Read More]

My advice to writers is don’t imitate others, learn the skills you need to express who you are in the field, and be that writer…the writer you already are.

When you recognize that who you are is enough, and what you do is valuable, then you can become successful in writing or in any field.