I write a lot about the benefits of working with a writing coach.
(Go figure, huh? The writing coach likes to write about the benefits of coaching!)
As a result, I’m sometimes asked if I think every writer must have a writing coach in order to achieve success. When I’m asked this question, I can’t help but think of the Marques de Sade.
You know about Sade, right? French philosopher, writer, and… uh… sexual libertine from whom we get the term “sadism.”
Yeah, that guy.
The Marques de Sade spent a great deal of his life confined to prisons and insane asylums, and some of his most famous works were written while he was incarcerated.
The 120 Days of Sodom, for example, was crafted in the tiniest possible handwriting on one long scroll, which Sade kept rolled-up and hidden in a crack in the wall of his cell.
Needless to say, the Marques de Sade did not need a writing coach to get his writing completed.
Nor did Anne Frank.
In fact, history is strewn with examples of writers who have created masterful literary works while in dire circumstances and working with limited resources.
All of which is to say, you certainly don’t have to work with a coach to find success as an author.
A writing coach is certainly not mandatory.
Neither is Scrivener.
Neither is a big fancy writing desk, six months of free time, or a lucrative writing contract with a big publisher.
When it comes to writing, nothing is mandatory other than a writing instrument and something to write on. If you have a pen and some paper, you can write a book.
Writing coaches — just like books, courses, and workshops — are simply a tool a writer can choose to utilize in order to increase the chance of success and get the project completed faster.
In his book No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs, author Dan Kennedy puts it like this:
“These two aspects of success—moving up and speeding up—are almost always better accomplished with smart investment in other people’s experience and expertise.”
Can you write a book alone in your room without any help or assistance from an expert? You bet. Will the writing process go quicker, feel easier, and will your chances of finding publishing success increase if you work with a writing coach? Yup.
Does everyone need a writing coach? Certainly not. But that’s not the question you should be asking. What you should be asking is if YOU need a writing coach.
Book a consultation call with me today, and we can chat about how I can help “move up and speed up” your publishing career.
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