Coaching for Common Writing Questions

Coaching the Writer

As a coach, I’ve noticed that there are common questions that come up time and again. If you feel daft for not knowing the answers to these questions - please don’t. Every writer has been where you are now - you’re in good company. This post gives you a sample of answers to the most common questions I am asked in coaching sessions. More detailed posts with questions and answers are available for subscribers.

1. Why can’t I keep going after I’ve written about 5-10,000 words? The chances are you’ve come up with a moment in time, and have started to write without knowing what happened before, and what will happen after. That’s ok, pretty much every writer and published author will do that at some point in their writing. If you regularly stop at a specific word count, it’s likely that you’ve run out of steam. First things first, that’s ok. Don’t stress about it. Now, you have three choices:

   1. You can accept that this is simply you practicing writing, and use these kind of writing ‘sprints’ as a form of learning your craft. That alone is incredibly useful - don’t knock it!

   2. Alternatively, you might decide that this is a piece that will only ever be a short story, or that you’ve written it as a way to write yourself into a novel. Let’s assume that it’s the latter. If you’re writing yourself into the novel, you can coach yourself with some simple questions: what happened immediately before the moment in time I’ve written about? And immediately before that? And before that? Now what happened immediately after the moment in time I’ve written about? And immediately after that? And after that? Why does this matter to the reader? What might the climax be? And what is the possible character transformation? You can also ask ‘what if …?’ as a way to interrogate the situation you’ve written about. For example, what if the character was a different gender, older, younger, white, black? What if the weather changed something about the setting? What if the main character thinks they’re being lied to, or knows that they’re lying to someone else? And so on.

   3. And finally, you can take the situation you’ve written about, and now write about another time in the main character’s life - maybe some backstory. What you write may not end up in the novel, but it will help you get a better understanding of why you are writing the story.

2. How can I make plotting work for me when I’ve always been a pantser? Let’s be clear - not everyone is a plotter, and simply because you hear other people moving into plotting, doesn’t mean you have to - or maybe it’s simply that you’re not ready to plot yet. I’m part way between pantsing and plotting. And therein lies the clue of how you can start to make plotting work for you. I find the best place to start with anything new is to identify part of a new technique and use that to help you ease your way into the new process. In the context of plotting, I plot the boundaries of the story - I write down who my main character is, who the key sub-characters are, and any other potential characters. I note what the status quo is, and what the climax might be (the point of no return), followed by some possible resolutions that will lead to the end. I also jot down the key theme or themes of the story. This gives me a sense of what the story is about, and when I’m then moving back into discovery writing (or pantsing), I’ve got things that keep me on track with the story, rather than simply writing a stream of consciousness. Oh, and one other thing to be aware of, some people start plotting once they’ve written the first draft - that might be the method that works for you. But know this - at some point you’re going to have to do some level of plotting, and it’s your choice when you do this.

3. Where do ideas for our writing come from? Anywhere and everywhere - you can mine your memories, listen in to conversations, observe events around you, pick up things that are happening in the news (I like to do an exercise where I link two news stories together, even if there’s no obvious link) - but the important thing with ideas is to keep a note of them. You’ll not hold onto them in your brain. I recently went to an area in Italy that was the German frontline in WW2 and I’ve realised that there could be a historical novel in some of the things that happened there. That’s now noted down in my notebook that I call ‘Where Ideas Go To Grow’. Sometimes I overhear things when I’m walking along, like the woman I passed in M&S who said to her friend ‘she’s older than me with a gap between her teeth’. That conjures up a wonderful imagery, and is now in my work in progress. But we’d forget things if we didn’t note them down, so get into the habit of using Notes on your phone, or dictation, or having a notebook with you at all times and jot down something about what you saw or heard. I also find it helpful to write something about how I feel about things I observe or read in the news to remind myself why that event matters to me.

4. I never hear back from beta readers - or only from one or two - how do I get beta readers to give me feedback? There’s a knack to getting beta reader feedback, and I’ve broken it down into the following points:

   1. Firstly, take care with who you ask to be a beta reader - not everyone is right for you. You want people who read in your genre, who understand what you are looking for from a beta read-through, and who can come back to you within a specific timeframe. In that respect, tell them the date you need feedback by - make this a fairly short timeframe, like a week or two at most.

   2. Then ask people to read a section of your novel to start with - maybe 5,000 words, or 10,000. If they want to read on, they will ask if they can read more for you, but won’t be overwhelmed by what you initially send.

   3. Next, send them 3-6 questions with the novel. These could be as simple ‘did you enjoy reading the novel/section?’ or ‘do you want to keep reading?’ or ‘was the ending satisfying?’ Aim for a mix of questions that require a simple ‘yes/no’ with around 2 that require a more detailed response.

   4. Finally, if you’re not hearing anything back from beta readers then give them a nudge, reminding them of your deadline. One of the things that I find helps to get people reading is to tell them how excited you are to hear back about what they think of the novel - people want to be part of something when there’s a build up of excitement, interest in their involvement, being part of something that others are part of - particularly when they have a special place by being a beta reader.

   5. And then if you don’t hear back from people by your deadline you know you need to find a new group of beta readers. These people clearly just didn’t have the time to devote to what you sent through - oh, and if this KEEPS happening, it might be people don’t know how to tell you that the novel needs more work, and that alone is invaluable feedback. Maybe read your novel again, now that you’ve had a bit of space since you last read it, and make changes that improve the structure or characterisations.

There we go, some key questions I get asked, and my coaching answers to them. If you thought this was helpful, please click the button below to share.

Let’s face it, there are so many daft questions out there - and the daft ones are often the most important ones to ask, and to find out the answers to.

If you don’t know, how will you ever know without asking.

There’s more of this kind of information coming up on the paid subscription, so if you want to know more, be sure to subscribe. And if you want to work 1-2-1 with me, let’s have a quick chat to check in and make sure we’re a good fit. You can message me through Substack.