Episode Forty-One: 6 Reasons to Hire a Book Coach Instead of an Editor
Editing is great, don't get me wrong, but it is not your only option for getting support as a writer, and honestly, is not the best option in a lot of situations.
You know what is? Coaching.
In Episode 41 of the Better Writer Podcast, I’m talking all about the difference between editing and coaching and 6 reasons to choose coaching over editing as you revise your novel.
And if you want to learn even more from me, join me for the Revision Kickstart Challenge!
This free 3-day event runs from September 22nd - 24th!
Over those 3 days, I’ll teach you how to set yourself up for success, set a vision for your book, and prepare for the revision work ahead.
Plus, there just might be some fun prizes available!
Get the full details and register for the challenge at OHWRevisionClass.com!
I can’t wait to see you live and help you write a better book!!
You can listen in your favorite podcast player here or watch on YouTube here.
Thanks for listening, keep writing, and keep getting better one word at a time!
Transcript
Please Note: This transcript was automatically generated and not edited.
Olivia (00:00)
Editing is great, don't get me wrong, but it is not your only option for getting support as a writer, and honestly, is not the best option in a lot of situations. You know what is? Coaching. In this episode, I'm gonna talk about the difference between editing and coaching and what to consider when you're deciding between the two. Let's get started.
Welcome to episode 41 of the Better Writer Podcast. Today I'm talking about the differences between editing and coaching and six reasons why you should consider hiring a coach instead of a developmental editor. But before we get started, I have to remind you that my free three-day revision kickstart challenge is coming up next week.
September 22nd through the 24th. I'm going to be teaching live every afternoon. We're going to talk about how to set a vision for your book, you know what you're trying to create in revision. We'll talk about how to design a revision process that actually works for you and your messy draft, and how to make sure that you are completely ready to revise
and aren't setting yourself up to get overwhelmed or lost in the weeds. Again, this challenge is completely free. It is going to be so much fun, so action-packed, and I hope to see you there live. You can register at OHWRevisionClass.com or check the show notes wherever you're watching or listening to the show for the link. Alright, now back to today's topic. I don't want anyone to misunderstand me and think that I am.
abandoning editing or that I think that editing doesn't work. It absolutely does. But at the same time, it isn't ideal in every situation. So today I want to talk about six reasons why you might be a better fit for coaching rather than editing. And before I jump in, I do want to clarify that
I am specifically talking about developmental editing. So whenever I'm saying just editing throughout this show, just keep in the back of your mind that there is a little developmental tag in front of that. To start off, just some quick definitions. Developmental editing is when you submit your manuscript to an editor for high-level story feedback.
Depending on the precise editor and their offering, you may get comments on your manuscript. You might not. Either way, you are going to get some kind of editorial letter that summarizes the feedback on your story. If you get comments on the manuscript as well, those comments are going to address high level elements of your story, but they're going to address how they're manifesting on the page. For example, in a developmental edit, I point out things like conflict issues, character development issues.
I will point out world building issues, things like that. And though I am looking at how those things unfold over the story as a whole, those comments are going to address scene level issues. I will also get into some kind of nittier -grittyer things like this section of description is info dumping, things like that. So there is a little bit that, you know, kind of goes into the line level, but mostly I'm focused on the big picture. And I'm focusing on how big picture elements manifest on the page.
Then in my editorial letter, you are going to get a full summary of all of the revision issues that I saw in your draft. And that is where I'm going to talk about how your conflict is developing as a whole, the changes that I think you should make on a principle level overall, instead of just like in one specific scene. I will also talk about how they're manifesting in one specific scene. I will give you suggestions for revising the plot as a whole.
I will also talk about trends that I noticed in your line level writing. For example, if you are info dumping every other page, I will definitely talk about that skill overall of how you can weave in world building information without going to an info dump. That is an edit.
Obviously I'm talking in very general terms, but at a basic level, that is what you get in a developmental edit. I read your manuscript, I comment on it, I summarize my feedback in an editorial letter, it gets sent back to you, and then you get to run with that and implement it on the page, which means you are in charge of interpreting my comments, interpreting my feedback. I of course try to make everything as clear as possible. I also offer every writer a follow-up call so we can talk about my feedback, talk about your next steps, but the onus is really on you to then interpret and apply that feedback.
All right, now onto coaching. What does coaching look like? For me, coaching happens in a few different ways. I do have some individual coaching options, but the main coaching offer that I have is Reader Ready Revisions, which is a 16-week live course. So it is more of a group coaching program that combines some asynchronous course elements. There are videos, worksheets, cheat sheets, everything that you need to learn how to revise your story.
Then there are also live group coaching calls. You also have the option to add on individual coaching calls. If you upgrade them included, you can also buy a one-off coaching call as part of the program if you need it. And the other big thing that makes it coaching as opposed to just a course is that I am giving feedback throughout the process. So you get feedback on your module one exercises, which are essentially you creating a vision for your story. You're going to figure out your ideal reader, your genre, your vision for the book, the jobs that your book needs to accomplish.
I explain what all those things are, then you turn in that work, you get my feedback on it. Then you turn in a reverse outline that you've edited. I give feedback. so you know that your story structure is going to be as strong as possible. Then you also get feedback on the manuscript itself. Everyone gets feedback on their first ten thousand words, that's comments, and an editorial letter. Then if you decide to upgrade, I will also do a full revision evaluation, which means I'm reading your entire story. You don't have comments that round, but you do get an editorial letter that summarizes
everything you're doing well, things that you still need to work on, so that you can then go forth and revise them one more time to make your story as strong as possible. So you are getting those live calls that support both one-on-one and in a group. Then you're also getting my feedback so that you know exactly what it is that you are doing well and what you still need to work on. And like I said, that is my group coaching program. I do have some individual options. I do one-off revision strategy sessions where we meet for up to two hours.
I will look at your outline, I look at your story, we talk about the trends that I saw, the high-level things you need to revise and create a plan for what you need to do moving forward. Then I also have ongoing monthly revision coaching where we can do the work that we would do in reader-ready revisions, just one-on-one. You get more feedback because you are paying for more submissions from me, essentially. so we can work through your story together month by month.
So that is the high-level distinction between I how I tackle editing versus how I tackle coaching. And that is just for me. There are other editors or book coaches out there who do things differently, but that is how how I run things. So, what are the reasons why someone might choose that coaching option, whether it is reader-ready revisions or a one-on-one coaching offer versus editing? And I identified six reasons
why I would consider someone a better fit for my coaching program, Reader Ready Revisions versus editing as a one-off service. And the first thing is if you are just starting to write fiction, or if you are working on your very first novel and you haven't taken a lot of writing classes or gotten a lot of writing experience before, and I don't mean that you need a degree in writing at all. You do not need to have studied writing in college and
quite honestly, if you are trying to write genre fiction, it's almost better if you don't. I'm not gonna get into that any more than that, but I will just say having a degree in writing is not the same as having experience writing genre fiction, which could be classes that you found online. It could be classes that maybe you found in person. My local library actually has some great writing classes. They hire great instructors every once in a while. so this does not need to be a fancy class. Those classes were free and they were
awesome. But if you have not taken any writing classes, if all you have done is free YouTube videos, blog posts, things like that, you probably are not ready for an editor unless you have really extensively done that, you know, done that education and you have gotten a full MFA online. that is a different situation and it can absolutely happen, but
if you have not learned how to write, you're just starting off, you just finished your first draft, you wrote a first draft without learning anything, and you just kind of wung it and did it. I do not recommend hiring an editor right off the bat because your draft is, lovingly I say this, going to be a hot mess. And it should be. That is natural. If you don't know how to cook and you make your first dinner without a recipe, it's probably not gonna taste very good. Let's be real. we need to learn. We need to learn. And I think that an edit can teach you a lot.
But it is not the best vehicle for learning if you are just starting out because you're only getting feedback once. Maybe you have gotten a package deal with an editor. I do offer packages with multiple rounds of revision, but that's still one or two checkpoints. And those checkpoints also aren't going to focus on the right things. If you get a developmental edit on a super rough first draft and the person is commenting, most likely those comments are going to be incredibly repetitive
because you are likely making the same types of mistakes over and over again with maybe slight variation. And the editor is ending is going to end up saying, This is another summary, this is another summary, you're summarizing again, the, you know, XYZ. and that's not going to be super, super helpful for you. Instead, I recommend hiring a coach because just to use reader ready revisions as an example. If you are someone who is just starting out and you really wrote a first draft with no idea what you were doing, you just decided one day you were going to do it and you actually got to the end.
Which first of all, congratulations, because a lot of people do not get there. but let's say you're in that situation, you just completely wrote that first draft and no idea what you were doing, you made it to the end, and now you're wondering, okay, how do I actually turn this into something that people want to read? You could go the edit route and I'm gonna give you comments to say, This is this and this and this are broken, it's the same mistake over and over again. Here's how I recommend fixing it. You're gonna get that editorial letter and you're gonna say, What the heck do I do with this? What do I do next? And even if I do my best to explain things in as simple of terms as I can
there is still a body of knowledge that goes into writing fiction that you are going to then have to do so much more work on the back end to figure out what does this even mean? You're not going to have examples right next to you. You're not going to have things explained. You are going to be on your own to figure things out. And in my experience, that is usually where people give up on the story, or they think that they've made the change and actually they have not, or they have misinterpreted the feedback and or ignored it because they just didn't know what to do with it and it was overwhelming. so most often that does not work out. Versus, let's say you join me in Reader Ready Revisions
And first off, you are going to figure out what you actually wrote. Because for a lot of beginning writers, they don't know what they don't know when it comes to genre and ideal readers and the market. so you're gonna start off by just figuring out, do I actually know what I'm writing? Do I know my exact genre or subgenre? And if you don't, we'll get clarity on that first so that you know what you need to do in revision. For example, if you don't know the difference right now between dystopian fiction with a romance subplot and dystopian romance.
We need to figure that out first because that is going to guide everything else you do in revision. Because even though those two things sound similar, they are completely different genres with completely different expectations and completely different groups of readers, honestly. And if you don't know which is which, you are going to most likely make the wrong decisions in revision. You're going to prioritize the wrong things. and we don't want that to happen. So, you know, I had a client who, you know, recently went through this process of truly trying to decide was she writing a dystopian romance or writing dystopia with a romance subplot
and that was a really difficult decision that ultimately led to a lot of changes in her manuscript. And, you know, had we been able to figure out that question sooner, we might have saved her some heartache and some time in revision. So we want to make sure that you know exactly what you're trying to create, exactly what jobs your story needs to do, because it's going to vary depending on what you're writing. And I think if you can get clarity on what you're actually trying to create, what right readers need from you, which is a question you've probably never asked yourself.
That is gonna help. And you're gonna get my feedback. You're gonna get my guidance on what you need to be doing so that you can go into revision knowing what we're trying to do. All right. Then the next thing that you would do is create a reverse outline. So you would be able to see what is actually happening on the page in your story. You are then going to go through a process to analyze and evaluate your outline. Then you are going to make decisions about how to revise your outline. All along the way, you as a beginner writer or as someone who, you know, is still trying to figure out how to revise efficiently and effectively.
You are going to have step-by-step lessons guiding you. I'm going to teach you what to look for when you're evaluating your conflict. You're going to have a worksheet, a cheat sheet that guides you through every single step of looking at the conflict in your outline and deciding if it is working or not for your genre. Then you're going to do the same thing with character arcs and with structure and a bunch of other fiction elements, narrative focus, narrative drive, all these things that you might be thinking, gosh, I don't even know what narrative drive is. I'm going to explain it. I'm going to show you how to evaluate it in your outline.
And I'm gonna show you how to fix it if you discover a problem. so right now that's just the first three modules of Reader Ready Revisions. We have set a vision, you have analyzed your outline, you've figured out what's going on, and you have learned how to make changes to the outline that are going to make your story better. Then you get my feedback on that revised outline. I'm gonna go in, I'm gonna see where you are already on the right track, and I'm gonna tell you, yes, this is great, keep it. Then I'm also gonna point out opportunities to make it even better.
I might point out something that is not working, a plot hole that you couldn't see because you're too close to your story, or because you have the analytical skill to evaluate those things, it's okay because I am there to help and guide you in making your story even stronger just with that outline. And the beautiful thing about getting feedback on an outline is that it's so much more efficient for me to give feedback on, for you to revise. so you don't have to
worry about then figuring out how to do this over a hundred thousand words or more. We get to just focus on the outline. You're gonna get feedback in a couple of days, and you're gonna be able to keep moving forward with feedback with confidence as you go into the next phase of the program, which is where we start focusing on scenes. And in the course, I have a main module that is going to walk you through all of the common issues that I see in people's scenes. So you can learn how to identify them, how to evaluate them.
But if you're someone who doesn't even know what a scene is right now, you don't know what a scene is supposed to do, I have an entire bonus module that walks you through all eight elements of an effective scene and is going to teach you what those things look like. I have so many examples that are annotated for you to check out. I really tried to have examples from different genres. So it's not just looking at here's what I think an effective scene is. It's here is how different published authors have written scenes. You can see that they're all different.
They all have those same basic eight elements. my eight elements are things like we need a scene situation, something has to be happening, we need characters, we need a setting, things like that. So very basic elements that do need to be there, they need to be effective, but they can look so incredibly different depending on genre and style and things like that. So, in those samples, which I've annotated for you so you can look at them and see what's going on at a deeper level.
You're gonna see that they look so different from each other, but each one works in its own way. And that is an opportunity for you to learn what a scene is, how it works. So you can then take that and apply it to your own work. And if you already know what scenes are, if you're already feel confident, you could just jump straight into that module and start evaluating your scenes. You're gonna learn a process for revising scenes. And then guess what? Once you have revised all the scenes in your first 10,000 words, you're going to get my feedback, comments and an editorial letter sharing exactly what you were doing well and what you still need to work on at the scene level.
And that means rather than waiting until you have already rewritten the entire draft, which could be a hundred, hundred and fifty, two hundred thousand words. You know, I love working with fantasy and fantasy romance, so my writers tend to have long manuscripts. You're gonna get feedback on those first 10,000 words, which might take you a few weeks to revise, a few months, you know, maybe you're a slow writer. That's totally fine. Either way, revising 10,000 words is gonna be faster than revising a hundred thousand. You're gonna get feedback on that 10,000, so you know.
what to keep doing or not doing as you continue revising. You are going to get that checkpoint feedback to make sure you are going in the right direction. And if there's something that we need to course correct, we do it now at the 10K mark, not at the 100K or 150K mark, right? Then if you decide to upgrade, you can also get my feedback on your entire manuscript. I'm going to do a revision evaluation once you're done. So you turn in the 10K, you get that feedback, you run with it, then say a few months later,
Or actually even a year or two years later, you have plenty of time to submit in this course. you're gonna send me the full draft. I'm gonna read it. You're gonna get feedback on the story as a whole. just being sure that everything is working at a developmental level. You're not gonna get comments on the revision evaluation, but that's okay, because you are gonna get a detailed editorial letter that walks you through everything that is happening in your manuscript at that point.
So you can go forth and do your final round of developmental revisions with confidence and clarity, knowing exactly what is and isn't working and what you need to do to make that story the best it can be. So just to recap, you have gotten feedback on your vision, your plan for your book before you even start revising. Then you've gotten feedback on a reverse outline so you can make sure your structure and your plan for revising the structure is solid before you have rewritten a single word in your manuscript. Then you're going to get checkpoint feedback on your revisions to the first 10,000 words so you know
you're doing well and what you need to keep working on as you revise forward. So you're not waiting until you've revised the entire draft, you're just doing it on those first 10k so that you can make sure that as you keep going, you're doing it in the most effective way possible. Then for anyone who decides to upgrade to the VIP option, then you are gonna get feedback on your entire draft as well at the end of the process. I mentioned this briefly, but you don't need to also have done all of those things within the 16 weeks that the course was live.
That's just the period of time that you have live coaching calls with me and that there's a community where you can ask questions and interact with other writers. That's the only part that is kind of time-bound. After the course ends, I will actually email you every week for a year to check in. I ask two questions every single time. How's the writing going? What's your goal for this week? And if you respond with questions, with concerns, or things that aren't going well, I respond back with helpful advice, tips, things that I can, you know, whatever it is that you're struggling with, I'm there to help.
And you also have at least two years to submit for feedback. If you go with that upgrade option, you have three years. so no matter what, you are going to have plenty of time to submit. You don't have to rush to get your outline and your first thousand words and everything else. Take your time with the module one assignments, take your time with the reverse outline, take your time with the first 10,000 words, really make sure that you are absorbing the course, doing all the exercises, getting things ready. And then whenever you're done within those two years or three years, submit and I will give you feedback.
so really, again, like just a contrast, with an edit, you are locked into a very rigid time. You book a specific time on my calendar. I do, you know, try to accommodate rescheduling as as often as I can, but just to be completely transparent, if someone comes to me with a reschedule, most likely that it is getting pushed back by a couple of months, not just a couple of weeks or a couple days. Versus in Reader Ready Revisions, you have absolute flexibility. You submit when you're ready, and then I will let you know the turnaround time, which is usually depending on what kind of feedback you're getting.
Between five days to two weeks. If you're doing that full revision evaluation, it is going to be a little bit longer, but you still get to submit whenever you want to, as opposed to being locked in to a certain submission date. And you also get, again, feedback over time. With an edit, you are paying for one, maybe two rounds of feedback at one time. And that's it. That's when it ends. And if you want any more feedback beyond that, you're gonna have to pay for it. with reader-ready revisions, obviously, you are still limited to a certain number of submissions.
they are spread out over time. You're getting submit feedback on different types of things that are going to help you in different ways. And I just think that that is such a great option for someone who is just starting out and still learning because you're also getting the educational content too to help you make sure that your submissions are the best possible they can be. Because with an edit, all you're still getting education in the form of my comments, my feedback, but you're not getting all of the, you know, videos, sheet sheets, worksheets that go along with read or ready revisions. So
two very different experiences. And I think one is great if you are more experienced, if you just need feedback on this one draft, this one story, and then you are ready and educated and will and able to run with it. Great, do the edit. You don't need the full course. But if you're just starting out, if this is your first book, if you decided to wing it and you ended up with the full novel, again, congratulations. But you are going to need that support, that education on the back end and coaching, especially in the form of a group coaching program that has both the asynchronous lessons, the cheat sheets, the worksheets.
and the live feedback, the live coaching, that is going to be so much more helpful.
All right, the second sign that coaching might be a better fit is if you are someone who has been burned by writing groups or someone who has gotten a lot of competing feedback on what you should do with your draft. And the reason why a coach
is particularly helpful in this situation is because they can help you clarify your vision and clarify what parts of that feedback really resonate with you. And the other thing they can do if you're the person who has specifically been burned by a critique group is they can help rebuild your confidence in yourself as a writer. They can help you understand how to move forward on an emotional level because a coach is going to provide a lot more hands-on support and a lot more emotional support than
just an editor. And you know, I have definitely had situations where someone has come to me for editing after having a bad experience with another editor or with a with a critique group. So you definitely can get some of that clarity through an edit. But I think a coaching relationship where we are working together over time, where we can talk through all of those issues.
where you can meet with me or come to the group calls and can have those conversations and you can work through all your uncertainties and you have a sounding board, especially if you're still in a critique group that has been problematic. this is a great way to have someone who you can always come to as kind of the referee. When people in your critique group are fighting or when your critique group says something that you think is completely off the wall, you can come to one of our group coaching calls and ask that question, get that feedback. And I can kind of help you figure out what aligns with your vision and what doesn't, because I'm someone who is aware of your story.
but also potentially a little bit more educated on the market and what's going on than any individual critique group member, which is not a knock on critique groups, but again, you know, there is a difference between doing this professionally and not. so I really think a coach can help navigate some of that uncertainty. And this actually recently happened in one of my group coaching calls where I was doing a live scene critique and had someone who had gotten some maybe not.
Quite accurate advice from the critique group. And we were able to work through that. We were able to work through that particular scene. And it was, super helpful for her to kind of have that other perspective. especially because, you know, when you're working with a critique group, if they're only seeing your manuscript in tiny chunks, that can create a very fragmented reading experience for them. And because they are basing their comments on.
Essentially seeing every chapter and scene in isolation, their advice can be problematic in ways that they aren't consciously aware of because they are just basing off of, you know, I'm seeing this in isolation. I'm not remembering that a reader would have read chapter five two minutes ago because I read chapter five two weeks ago the last time we met. So it is really important to keep in mind that there are limitations with critique groups, even when you have good critiquers. and so a coach can help you navigate that and remind you that, hey, readers already know.
what's going on? Because chapter five for them was a minute ago because you had a cliffhanger at the end of chapter five and they definitely started reading chapter six right away. so of the things that your critique group are worried about because they haven't seen your story in a couple of weeks are not valid. And those are the types of conversations that we have. And again, if you were burned by critique group, if you had someone who shattered your confidence, a coach is in a good position to help rebuild and restore your faith in yourself as a writer.
To give you the kind of gentle and supportive and encouraging feedback that you need to build back up after you have had a critique group shatter you, which I'm sorry that happened. It sucks. And there are just too many people out there who are trying to tear other writers down and is very sad. And if that has happened to you, just know that those feelings are valid. The fear and uncertainty and self-doubt that can stem from having a bad critique group experience are valid. And you are going to likely need some support.
Just navigating that emotional side of it, much less, you know, then deciding what do I actually do at a craft level because someone told me that I was awful and the story was doomed. and now I don't even know, you know, left from right versus how I'm gonna, you know, make the story work. So I think a coach can definitely help you navigate that side of things.
which actually brings me to point number three. I think a coach is a great option when your revision struggles are as emotional as they are craft related. or maybe they're more emotional than craft related. And that doesn't just look like the person who was burned by a critique group. That can mean that you are having a hard time sustaining motivation, or you are having a hard time prioritizing.
the things that are going to work for readers versus the things that you kind of are interested in on a craft level or theme level yourself. you know, whenever you are dealing with some of those mental roadblocks, or you are dealing with fear, or you are spiraling and second-guessing every revision decision that you're making, a coach is an excellent option because they are going to be there alongside you. Like I said, Reader Ready Revisions is 16 weeks of live calls, live community support where you can put something in Slack at 2 a.m. and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
you know, or you can email me and I will be there. You can come to one of our live calls, you can pre-submit questions that I will answer live, even if you can't attend because you're in a different time zone than me. so you're gonna get that live support for all of your mindset issues, no matter what they are. If it's just, you know, fear, uncertainty, whatever it is, I am there to support. And again, that doesn't end when those 16
weeks are over. I'm going to be in your inbox checking in with you every single Monday for an entire year after the course ends. So when you hit those mental roadblocks, when you start getting tired and you're losing motivation, I will be there in your inbox to cheer you on. of course you do have to respond to the email and let me know what's going on, but once you do, I will respond back by maybe recommending that you take a break.
Or reminding you of your why or something like that. just that you always have a reason to keep pressing on. and you know, whether that means that you're pressing on in the moment or taking a break and coming back refreshed, I'm here for all of it. I'm here for those mental hurdles because they are real. A lot of revision issues start inside your head. It is the self-doubt, it is the uncertainty, it is the not feeling sure of yourself as a writer, it is the lack of confidence that comes from seeing a first draft that did not work the way you wanted it to, and then figuring out.
How am I gonna make a second draft that's better than this when I clearly failed the first time? which again is a story you're telling yourself. It is not the your first draft is not destiny. but that mental hurdle is real. And I am there as a coach to help you clear it. All right. Reason number four why you might choose a coach is if you want ongoing support. so I've kind of already addressed this, so not gonna spend too much time here, but an edit is feedback on a snapshot of your writing at a certain point in time. You are getting feedback on that one draft.
Maybe you get a one-hour follow-up call if the editor is like me and they offer that, but you might not. But coaching is something where you have the option to have ongoing support. You're not just meeting with me once, you're not just getting feedback once, you're getting feedback over time. There are weekly calls if you join Reader Ready revisions.
And you really are going to get that support when you need it. Like I said, I email you for a year. So it really is ongoing. It is a long-term relationship where we are really partnering with each other to help you create the best version of your book possible. And that is something that I really value. I want to be there supporting you along the way. That's something I really missed when I became an editor and stopped teaching, is that, you know, as a teacher, you get to work with students over time. You get to see them graduate a year later or whatever it is.
And that is what I want for my writers who join this course. Someday you will send me your graduation notice, aka you're gonna let me know your book was published. I'm so excited to cheer you on and celebrate when that day comes. I'm being patient because as we all know, it takes longer for a book to enter the world than we all think it is, as just readers. so there is gonna be some time, a little bit of a lag before students really start publishing and taking off. But I'm so excited for when that day comes. I'm so excited to celebrate people, to be alongside them as a partner all the way through the process. And again, I really am available to answer questions.
Even when the live course is over, even when those email check-ins end after a year, I really see coaching as the opportunity for you to have a partner throughout your revision process. It is not about me telling you what to do. I'm not there like the mean high school teacher that you might have in your imagination with, you know, a ruler waving around telling you that you have to write a certain way. I'm a partner, I'm your cheerleader, I am your cheer coach, you know, helping you, boosting you up, letting you figure out a revision process that works for you and supporting you every single step of the way with advice, feedback, etc. And I love it. It's so much fun.
And again, I really am excited for all of the success that my clients are going to have in the future. I'm so excited to see where these students go with their books when the course is over. But if you want a partner, if you want someone who's going to be there along the way, coaching is absolutely the way to go. All right. And that brings me to point number five, why coaching might be a better option. And that's if you love talking things out, you want a sounding board for your revision decisions. Like I said, with an edit, you get one hour of my time to talk about my feedback and figure things out. But that's it. That's that's kind of where the process ends for an edit. with coaching, that does not exist. Like I said, you can come to our live group calls every week with your questions, your dilemmas. We can talk through exactly what is happening in your story. You can ramble at me for an extended period of time within those calls, because usually the group is small, it's intimate. So you have time to really check in with me and talk about your story specifically, and we can figure things out. You also get to interact with the other people in the course, whether that's on the calls or in the Slack community. You can also get advice from other people there who are also going to be interested in your story and interested in helping you out. And because this course is specifically for genre fiction writers, we're all kind of in the same vein. You know, it's not going to be like some people are writing literary fiction and some people are writing nonfiction and memoir and whatever.
It is all genre fiction all the time. so think mystery, thriller, fantasy, fantasy romance. typically a lot of fantasy fantasy romance. I think the last cohorts have had almost entirely fantasy or fantasy romance, actually, to be honest, or science fiction. so these are your people. You are going to be able to connect with them. And then you have me, your genre fiction guru to help you out. and again, you're gonna have a sounding board, you're gonna have someone to connect with and collaborate with throughout the course and then for a year after. so you really have the opportunity to talk through your ideas, to figure out what's going on, what you need to do next. And if you are that person who loves, loves, loves, to talk to other people, to get advice, to just verbally work through what you're trying to do, coaching is the best place for that, whether it's one-on-one or in a group setting.
All right, and then finally, the final reason why I would suggest coaching over editing is if you want or need education alongside feedback. And I already touched on this, but when you are in a coaching relationship, there's just more room for education. As an editor, I only want my editorial letters to be so long. I only want each individual comment to be so long. And you know, eventually word will cut you off and it's hard to see the whole comment. so I really have to limit the explanations I'm giving. And I would still consider myself to be an educator editor. I have used that term for myself in the past. but even then, there's a limit. There is, you know, just a certain point where an editorial letter is too long and too overwhelming, and I'm just not able to give the same number of examples or counterexamples or explanations as I can in something like a course, which is what I use with my coaching clients in reader-ready revisions. You have those videos that I've created. You have the cheat sheets that walk you through every explanation and example. you have those annotated scenes. I can record bonus videos when they're needed. so that information just lives better in a coaching relationship, especially because it's going to take you time to go through all that. If I just handed someone an editorial letter.
And a course with a bunch of modules, and then it was just like, okay, go have fun. we're never gonna talk to each other again. That would probably feel overwhelming in a way that it isn't when it is a live coaching experience where the course content is dripped out over time. it is not all hitting you at once. I am checking in with you over and over again. Again, you're getting that feedback on different parts of your manuscript. so it's just a different vibe, I think, ultimately with coaching. It is just more educational, it is more focused on helping you develop your capacity as opposed to me just giving feedback on that one manuscript. It is more about you as the writer than it is about just making this one book better. And I think that's the other beautiful thing about reader ready revisions is you're getting a lifetime access to the course content.
So you get to come back with your next book. You can re-download all of the worksheets, you can rewatch all of the videos and apply that to your next book and the book after that and the book after that. So it really is about developing you as a writer and we're doing that through the revision of the one book you're working on right now, but you get to carry that with you for every book that you write after this. and it is really going to develop your capacity to write and revise. because again, you're not just getting feedback on that one story, you're not just making that one story better. You're learning how to revise. You are learning a process for evaluating your story, figuring out what needs work, you're doing that work on your own. And then I check in on the back end.
And I think that is probably the most educational part, is that with an edit, I evaluate your story on my own in isolation. Then I send you back my feedback. Whereas in Reader Ready Revisions, I'm teaching you how to do the analysis yourself. I am letting you inside my brain, showing you the kind of things that I do during a developmental edit, and I'm teaching you how to do it for yourself. Then you get the feedback after that. So you've already taken a first crack at it, you've already learned how to do it yourself. Then I give you feedback on how you did evaluating your story. Obviously, I'm critiquing the story itself too, but really what I'm doing is helping you learn how to be your own developmental editor. I'm helping you learn how to revise successfully so that you can take that and run with it with your next book and the book after that.
So editing is all about fixing that one story. I'm doing the work for you. I am not letting you into my brain and showing you how I reached my conclusions. Obviously I try to explain all my comments, I try to explain all my feedback, but it's just different because in that coaching relationship in that course, I am showing you behind the scenes how I look at stories, the problems that I commonly see, how I recognize them and then I'm showing you how I would suggest fixing them.
Throughout the course, I also use my own example. I have my own very terrible rough draft that lived in a drawer for about 10 years. is this book that I tried to write college that is very, very rough. but I resurrected it for reader ready revisions so you actually get to see behind the scenes as I evaluate and analyze my own rough, rough draft. And I talk about how I would fix it if I wanted to rewrite it today.
You get to see inside my brain, you get to learn how to revise for yourself. Then you get my support to make sure you've actually executed correctly. I think it's the best of both worlds. The feedback, but also the education and how to revise, how to think about revision, and how to make your stories work. All right, those were six reasons why I would suggest coaching over editing.
And again, every writer situation is a little bit different. So if you're not sure what is the right fit, if you are thinking that reader-ready revisions sounds amazing and it might be what you need, let's have a conversation. I will be honest with you if I think editing is the best fit, if I think reader-ready revisions is the best fit. I'm going to also let you know if I might not be the right person for you. I'm not trying to pressure anyone into anything. I want you to find the best fit, and I want you to find the support that is genuinely going to help you write an amazing book. So if you think that you might be a good fit and you're interested in reader ready revisions, then please hit me up on Instagram @oliviahelpswriters or you can email me olivia @ oliviahelpswriters.com, either way.
And don't forget, I am running a free three-day revision kickstart challenge. I'm gonna be on Zoom every day teaching you how to set a foundation for your revisions. So if you're even a little bit curious about how I teach and coach, come to the Lime challenge. And don't worry, if my time zone doesn't work for you, replays are included. You will get access to all of the content and you can pre-submit questions or submit them after, and I will still respond. So if you are ready to learn how to revise, to get ready to create a book that you are proud to share with the world, come to that free event. Three day revision kickstart challenge. We start next week, September 22nd, and I would love to see you You can register at OHWRevisionClass.com and that link is going to be wherever you're watching or listening to the show. All right. Thank you so, so much for listening to another episode of the Better Writer Podcast. I hope it was helpful. I hope you enjoyed it. And I hope to see you in the revision kickstart challenge next week.
All right, have a wonderful week. Keep writing, keep getting better, one word at a time. See ya.
