Early & Alone #68: Put Me In Coach

On doing hard things

Photo by Mika Baumeister on Unsplash

I have a lot of ideas. Pages and pages of them. Ideas are great. But they only get you so far before you have to DO something about them. Flesh them out, give them life, be the creepy Tom Hanks Gepetto to the wooden puppet of the idea on the page. Or probably don’t. Let’s forget that metaphor and move on.

As a kid in gym class, when we played dodgeball I’d purposely try to get hit by the ball early on so I could just go sit on the sidelines. If this isn’t a metaphor for the way I tend to live my life, I don’t know what is. I tend to avoid the hard things. I don’t like to fail. I prefer the path of least resistance. I would def not survive a zombie apocalypse.

Of course, I have done hard things and taken risks in my life. But I mostly resist it. I procrastinate and catastrophize and ruminate until whatever good idea I had seems like the worst idea in the history of the world. So then I don’t have to do it. Win!

But sometimes I have an idea that won’t go away, no matter how much I tell myself it won’t work, it’s stupid, it’s pointless to try, you’ll never be able to pull it off. The idea just won’t go away.

I’ve been thinking about writing coaching for years now. (If you’re curious what a writing coach is, I found this really helpful and in-depth explainer that sums it up well.) I know I’m a good editor and I have good ideas and instincts when it comes to writing. I’m also a good listener with great organizational skills and a pretty comprehensive understanding of the publishing landscape. I also really like connecting with people and helping them problem solve. I like building community.

(Maybe I should have led with all those good things instead of berating myself for not taking risks…hmmm. Next time!)

My point is, if you relate to getting in your own way, not taking risks, talking yourself out of all your good ideas—you may benefit from working with a writing coach. I worked with one back in 2019 while I was developing a memoir manuscript and it was enormously helpful and validating. But then 2020 happened and I was no longer compelled to tell a story about white lady problems. Maybe I will go back someday. Maybe not. But I wrote a draft of an entire book. I DID that. No matter what happens, I created something from nothing. I’m not sure I would have gotten as far as I did without the mentorship and guidance of my coach.

SO (deep breath) all of this is to say…I’m working on starting my own writing coaching practice. I’m taking a course now that is pushing me to take action on my ideas. I have other ideas as well, based on a collective/community-based approach to creative practice, but for now, I’m focusing on 1:1 coaching.

To begin, I’d like to offer two of my readers a FREE three-month coaching program with me. To be fully transparent, I am still learning and we’ll be figuring out the process together. But I would love to help motivate and guide you through whatever writing or creative project you’re working on, offering coaching and editorial feedback along the way. If you’re interested, please email me so we can chat!

Bright Spots

• Have you all been following the Don’t Worry Darling drama? I had so much fun following the twists and turns. If you haven’t been following, or even if you have, Hunter Harris had the best recaps in her amazing Substack, Hung Up.

• The Minnesota State Fair, and specifically, cheese curds. The MN State Fair is the largest fair in the country and it’s amazing. I got to go for the second time a few weeks ago and it truly has everything you could want—puppies, fried snacks, giant beers, butter sculptures, seed art, animals giving birth, lumberjack competitions, art, quilts, games, scary rides, not-so-scary rides, cheesecake on a stick, bacon on a stick, pickle pizza, stunt dog shows, tractors, horses, marching bands, and Diana Ross. Recommend!

• I went to see Neko Case in concert for I think the fifth time last week and she was amazing as always.

• A delightful “travelogue” of the metaverse by Josh Gondelman.

• Acceptance speeches by Sheryl Lee Ralph and Jennifer Coolidge that made watching the Emmy’s worth it.

• And finally, Gizmo is truly the cozy king. This is live footage as I write this: