Book Coaching 101: Helping the Writer Trust Their Gut

You can teach a writer to trust their gut by repeatedly asking them to evaluate and clarify their own work.

One of the most profound lessons a book coach can help a writer learn is how to trust their gut.

We are not there to tell people what to do or to inspire them to write what we think they should write; we are there to hold a mirror up to their words and ideas to help them get closer to the vision they have in their minds. Helping them trust their gut is a critical part of this work.

To help a writer learn to trust their gut, I ask questions that get them to clarify their intention and evaluate the results of their efforts. For example:

• Do you see how good that sentence is?

• Would shifting that chapter to a different location make the argument stronger?

• Is that the best story to illustrate your point?

• Is that what you would ask a client

• Do you need that chapter?

• Do you think your readers will know what this means?

• Why does this character do that?

• What does that character say that?

• Do you love what you have written?

Sometimes a writer will know the answer right away. Other times they will say, “Let me think about that,” or “Let me try that and see,” or “I have no idea!!!” So much of the work of writing well is trial and error. Helping a writer through this process is how you can help them build authority and confidence and develop their unique voice.

When they know they have it right, they know.

I said above that this transformation is profound because it’s not a shift in the writing; It’s a shift in the writer. They move from feeling stuck and unsure to being the flow. If a writer can trust their gut, they can write a book they are proud of.

My client Diana recently wrote about the back-and-forth process of inquiry we are undertaking around her revision of a nonfiction book. You can hear in her words the deep transformation she is experiencing:

“That last chapter I feel like was more of my voice. I pumped it out in two hours one morning and I am just feeling the good energy and the good vibes of all of the help that you’re giving. You have reenergized me, opened me, clarified me, challenged me, and I am starting to actually enjoy this.”

Days of Wonder

I had the opportunity to dig in deep with a master storyteller Caroline Leavitt about how she learned to trust her gut on her most recent novel, Days of Wonder, a complex story with multiple timelines and multiple POVs. She said the book almost killed her. So how did she finish it? How did she come to trust her gut?

Caroline is a big proponent of using independent editors and book coaches, which you will hear her discuss in our conversation, and she herself offers editorial services to other writers so she has a unique perspective from both sides of the coaching table.

You can listen to our conversation on the #amwriting podcast HERE.

And while we are talking about podcasts…

1. Grab the 40-page e-book about how Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach (and also Story Grid certified) Savannah Gilbo left her corporate job and built both a thriving book coaching business and one of the industry’s top podcasts. She and I will be having a conversation on June 11th to talk about her journey and the seven steps to building a book coaching business. The sign-up for the free event can be found HERE.

2. Several other Author Accelerator book coaches have great podcasts, too. You can check them all out HERE.

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