How I found my writing coach

Screenwriting is an absolute passion. I love telling a story through visual stage directions and sharp, succinct dialogue. I love reading screenplays too and have been inspired by amazing screenplays that have been turned into equally amazing movies – GOOD WILL HUNTING anyone?

As mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I’ve had the writing bug for a while and I felt, deep inside me, that my calling was screenwriting. Perhaps I could be the first black screenwriter to win an Oscar? I studied screenwriting and wrote a movie to boot. But life happened and this dream has fallen by the way side – for now.

The memoir journey I’ve been on was unplanned. As I embarked on the journey, I was acutely aware that I needed help – this was not a genre I knew much about and indeed, not a genre I had any confidence attempting to write in.

My time at Gotham Writers Workshop introduced me to some amazing teachers of creative writing. Early on I met Elizabeth Cohen, who taught me the early fundamentals of memoir writing. My writing was all over the place, my punctuation terrible – screenwriters don’t need to worry about punctuation guys – but there was something in my writing, Elizabeth said, a kernel of creativity and humanity that could be nurtured and developed.

Whilst Elizabeth was out teaching at her other colleges, I signed up for another Gotham memoir class, a class about writing character, and hired a Gotham instructor to do a few 1:1 sessions helping me brush up on my vocab and punctuation rules. When I returned several months later to join the final memoir writing workshop, the Memoir Book class, Elizabeth once again was my instructor.

After several weeks of submitting work to the class for critique, pieces of work that I felt could be standalone chapters in my book, Elizabeth encouraged me to think about putting everything together into a book and mentioned, in passing I might add, that she was a book coach and could work with me 1:1.

A ‘book coach’? honestly, I really did not know that you could hire someone to coach you through your writing journey. I’d heard of ghost-writers but not book coaches. I liked the idea of a coach, my dedicated memoir expert adept at teaching, my personal cheerleader that would review my work and make suggestions of how to make it better.

And so, began our journey together. It’s been 4 years and it’s been amazing.

The first thing Elizabeth asked me to do was to map out my book’s structure – beginning, middle and end, divided into chapters, each chapter having a specific objective and focus. Each chapter would link to the previous chapters in some way and move the narrative forward. She reviewed this structure, made suggestions and then sent me on my way to write.

With my structure committed to an excel spreadsheet, I literally “vomited” out my book. Horrible phrase I know, but essentially, I just got all my ideas down on paper, without worrying about vocab, punctuation and chapter length. In some cases, chapters were a collection of thoughts, ideas and fragments of sentences. Elizabeth made some initial “high-level” comments about this very rough draft which I then turned into a more fleshed out manuscript.

We then proceeded to months of detailed chapter by chapter reviews. We discussed three chapters at a time in detail, going through structure, layout, dialogue and flow. After each call, I raced to my desk to make my edits. A week or so later, we would progress, moving on to the next three chapters, then on and on till we had reviewed the entire book that way, all 35 chapters.

Along the way, in addition to the detailed chapter by chapter commentary, she made several recommendations of additions I should make to the book: a timeline of Nigeria’s economic and political events, a glossary of terms, a detailed list of characters and a list of resources for people who may have been victims of the crime my father had been a victim of. She also suggested I compile a compendium of resources that would help publishers’ fact check my book.

So, where we are now in the process?

I have a manuscript that is almost done (I hope) which is in the process of proof-read and copyedited. My hope is to polish it over the summer and begin querying agents in the fall.

Wow! I can’t believe I have come this far. It’s been a ride for sure.

Here are my recommendations for finding and working with a book coach:

1. Check their credentials –  have they taught creative writing and memoir writing in the past? Are they a published memoirist? Who else have they coached? Are there testimonials and success stories from their other clients? Can they send you references?
2. Check that they understand the genre – a great creative writing coach may not be a great memoir writing coach. It’s important that they know memoir, that they read memoir, that they write memoir and that they love memoir. Simple.
3. Ensure that they believe in you and your book. You may need to have several conversations with them to get a sense of who they are and their interest in your project. You want someone who LOVES your book, who will champion your story and help you get the best out of your story.
4. Check their communication style is compatible with yours – How do you like to communicate? Via zoom? In person? By email? How do you like to give and receive feedback? The relationship with your book coach is an important one, ensure that your styles are compatible.
5. Develop and sign a contract. This is important. Define the ways of working, lay out the deliverables, how often you will meet up and importantly the fees.
6. Consider an introductory phase – It may be worth building an introductory phase into the contract. Say a 3-month trial period after which you can part ways if either party is not satisfied