Categories
Coaching

10 Coaching Questions to Help You with Your Writing Life

Are you ready to move forward in your writing life? Coaching can get you where you want to go! One of my favourite things to do every week is pull a card from my’ coaching cards for every day’ pack. These open questions allow me to consider all sorts of things, from how to continue with a successful part of my writing life to how to achieve my goals.

Here are ten questions that can help you do the same. My recommendation would be to take some time with these questions and really consider them, journalling on the answers.

What habits support your writing?

What gives you pleasure in your writing life?

What drains your energy and enthusiasm for writing?

What steps can you take to overcome those drains?

Practice describing your book to someone else. What would you say?

What advice would you give to yourself as a writer?

What does ‘happy’ mean to you in your writing life?

What are your top 5 writing experiences in life so far?

What could you change to make your writing situation more positive?

What has inspired you this year, this month, and this week?

If you want to chat about anything you have found out through answering these questions, get in touch. I would love to help you create a writing life and novel that you are proud of. 

Want to read something similar? Check out the coaching page of my blog right here!

Categories
Coaching Productivity

3 Ways to Turn On Your Creativity Tap

Your creative tap might be rusting out of use, so let’s look at ways to get it turned back on and that innovative water flowing.

Here is one of my favourite writing quotes:

“The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” —Louis L’Amour.

What does this mean exactly? It means that we should not wait around for inspiration to strike if we want to get some writing done. Go after it with your pen poised. Let’s look into three ways to turn on that creativity tap:

1) Workbooks and Classes.

I cannot express to you the amount of joy that I found through Creative Writing classes over the year, both as a teacher and a student. They have helped me hone my skill set, understand what the craft of writing is about, and most importantly of all, have taught me to prioritise my writing life. Workbooks have a similar effect too, and taking that opportunity to write, create, and learn about something you care about, doesn’t just make you a better writer. It makes you a happier one, and it makes you more comfortable with the title of writer. You are a writer, friend, so it’s time to invest in yourself and your art.

I offer options for this – click here to see The Time to Write Workbook.

This has been developed to help you find time in your working week to write. For the price of a cup of coffee, you can invest in yourself.

I also offer the amazing It’s Time to Write Your Novel masterclass. This 40 class programme is designed to take you from procrastination to print – through the stages of writing your novel. The classes are developed to fit into a busy day so that finding time for yourself is not so difficult.

Once you begin to prioritise your writing life through workbooks, classes, and investing in yourself – you will find that the creative faucet is so much easier to turn on. After all, practice makes progress, and by setting this time aside to work on something you care about, you are making progress.

2) Writing exercises.

Writing exercises are the oil for the rusty faucet! I absolutely love them, and they spark exciting ideas. Here are two of my favourites:

Freewriting. Freewriting is precisely as it sounds – it is the act of putting pen to paper and writing a steady stream of consciousness.

Changing the point of view. Writing from another character’s point of view in your story is a fantastic way to get to know it better. Through this exercise, you can learn more about your characters, your world, and your plotline.

3) Investigation into your process. 

If we do not spend some time considering how we write, why we write, and what makes our writing life better, it will never change. If you are not happy with the writing world you have created and find it hard to get inspired; it’s time to investigate your process. This act alone will help you develop a routine and writing process that actually works for you, meaning that when you sit down to write, you are ready to create with passion.

1:1 coaching is ideal for this step, and through working with a writing coach such as myself, you can understand your process and how you can create a novel you are proud of.

Try the above things if you want to turn that creative faucet on, and let me know how you get on! Looking for more productivity hacks? Click here.

Categories
Craft

How to Use Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs for Your Character Development

Are you ready to develop your characters in a new way? Why not try using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. This pyramid (as seen below) is something that I use all the time. I use it in my coaching, in my personal life, and in my writing. Why? Because it helps me prioritise my workload and personal life, teach how to prioritise, and understand my character’s needs as well.

So, how can Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs teach us about and help us develop our characters? It’s all about their motivation. Motivation is the thing that drives your character and story forward.

As you can see from the pyramid, we begin at the bottom with physiological needs. So, what physiological needs could be driving your character forward?

In my novel The Birth of Ida, my main character finds herself in an inhospitable land that she has never before dealt with. That means that a lot of her development takes place at the bottom rung on this pyramid. She is cold, hungry, and a little desperate. Therefore, she learns to hunt, build fires on snow, and become an all-round badass outdoorswoman. This is a part of her character development.

The next level is safety needs. Let’s look at Ida again. If I consider her motivation in this section, she is driven to protect herself and reclaim her property. That is another level of her motivation. Remember that characters, like people, are complex. They won’t just have one level of motivation because all of us have these levels. Usually, we need to satiate hunger before we can move up a level, for example.

The next level is love and belonging. Ida is a bit of a lone wolf in this category, but she does have her horse, who fulfils her need for belonging. It might be that you are writing a romance, and so your character’s motivation in this section is more substantial than Ida’s. That’s down to each character and person.

Now we’re onto esteem. This level is about respect and freedom. Ida’s motivation at this level is strong – she is striving to be respected as a woman in a patriarchal world, and after being locked up for many years, she values freedom above all else. That goes some way to explaining why her belongingness category is not so important to her – her values are different.

The highest level is self-actualisation. This level is all about achieving your highest potential – it’s the highest goal. Of course, this is most likely your main characters most easily spotted motivation – because the big goal is what we usually consider. But, remember that a character or person cannot reach this level unless the other levels have been considered. After all, one needs a full belly, some support, and at least a little respect to slay a dragon.

A well-rounded character will include all of these things, so try this with your main character today and see how they develop according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Any questions about this? Get in touch and ask; I would be happy to answer!

If you need a hand with your writing craft, I can help. As a lecturer in Creative Writing for over six years, and with a PhD, MA and BA in the subject, I am well poised to answer any issues you have been facing.

Categories
Craft

How to Find the Genre of Your Book

Some writers know exactly what the genre of their book is, and that is wonderful. However, sometimes it can be tricky to work out the genre. It might be that you started writing something that changed in development, or perhaps that you never had a handle on what the genre was in the first place.

What is genre? 

Genre is a category. You can have genres of music, art, and literature. It might be that you prefer reading fantasy and listening to folk music. Those are both genres.

Why does it matter?

It matters because it helps you find your ideal reader. It can also help you find the agent or publisher that works best for you. Genre is essentially a way of setting expectations.

How do I discover my genre?

If you are unsure what genre your novel is, it’s time to do some research. Here are ways to find out:

1) Consider which books your book is similar to.
What have you written, and what have you read that is just like it? Then, it’s time to think about the readers of those books. What other books do they enjoy? You can spend some time online searching for books similar to what you have decided is like your novel. Once you have chosen around seven that are comparable, you should find that they are all a similar genre.

2) Identify genre components in your novel. 
What does your story include? Is it magical with dragons? Or is it set in the modern world? Is there a heist or a crime? Is the main focus a love story?

Once you know what your components are, you can think about your specific reader again. Who would LOVE what you have written? Consider your ideal reader and what else they read. The person you have created in your mind is partial to a genre, and elements that you have included in your novel fit them perfectly.

It’s not always easy to pin down your genre, and that might be because your book fits into a few genres. Crossovers exist, and it’s fine to do this. After all – I’m writing a Wild West Fantasy myself.

So how do you decide which one to go for? 

Pick the overriding element in your story. For example, you might be writing a crime story with a romance subplot. Which plot takes prescient? Is it crime or romance? Whichever the alpha tale is, that’s the genre to go for.

Any more questions about genre or struggling to find yours? Get in touch today, and let’s see if we can break it down for you! Need more help with craft? Click here.