Hello, and welcome to those of you who signed up recently. I’m so glad to have you here.

When I started the Coaching Compass I promised I’d share some of my client work (good and bad experiences). I thought I’d start with a positive one as I mention in my class that most of them are indeed positive, but we often learn the most from the more difficult clients, projects and experiences, so I probably do talk about those more.

I started working with Rachel in June this year. We started with me reading her first romance novel – like many clients, she wasn’t sure what she needed; she simply knew she’d taken the book as far as she could on her own. After my initial read where I discovered many issues (but also some genuine potential), I offered her a couple of different options: a full developmental edit or twelve coaching sessions – usually I start with six, but I knew after our introductory chat that she’d need more than that. She immediately chose the coaching, knowing it would suit her learning style better. I came up with a proposal to tackle the biggest problems slowly over the first six weeks, starting with the most significant: the novel was very nearly all told. The bones of a good story existed as well as two convincing characters, and she’d managed to convey some emotion, but there were no scenes. So we started with the basics: what is a scene? Using what should have been a key scene, I tweaked it during our session, pausing to make sure she was understanding why I was making the changes, and why it was more effective, until she was confident to have a go herself. She is a reader, so she quickly understood what she’d been doing wrong and it was a proper eureka moment – in the first session! I was sceptical until I got her homework the following week (the revision of the opening to make it a scene and not all summary) and she had transformed it. She had read the articles I gave her and read a favourite novel’s opening scene so we could discuss it. She’s like a sponge and loves to learn, which gives me a real buzz as I tap into her enthusiasm.

We met weekly for most of the first twelve sessions, then changed to fortnightly for the following six once she felt more confident to be left to it. We’ve had sessions about structure and beats, pacing, character development/arcs, sex scenes and emotion. We’ve also talked about a problematic trope and some plausibility issues, brainstormed ideas to make the middle section more compelling, and throughout I’ve been working on her confidence, perfectionism and mindset. She’s now at the point that when she is doubting herself and wants to throw what she’s writing in the bin, she hears my voice countering her critical one. It is costing her more than the full developmental edit, but she’s learning so much that will serve her when she’s writing her next book.

As with any coaching relationship, there have been a few issues I’ve had to keep an eye on. I’ve had to be strict about contact between sessions: she can send messages in times when she’s having moments of self-doubt, but I only look at them once a week (now fortnight) and give one response. At the beginning of the work she was sending several panicky messages about how rubbish her work was, so I had to address it. She said that the act of sending the message makes her feel better even if I don’t reply and usually by the time I do respond she’s fine again.

Rachel still has work to do to get this book (self) published, but I’m confident now that she will and that some kind of writing career is in her near future.

This long-term work that involves a lot of confidence building and skill development won’t be for everyone, but like I’ve said many times, you get to decide what you want your coaching practice to look like. If you want to stick to one-off consulting-style sessions and avoid the hand-holding that’s fine, there will be plenty of clients looking for that.

Let me know if you have questions about Rachel or if you’d like to share a positive case of your own.

Aimee

Aimee Walker Editorial (AWE)

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