First steps to becoming an author

I’ve been helping people become happier, more productive writers since I trained to teach writing during my PhD at the University of California at Davis in 2001 (though really I started more than a decade before that -read on!). Since 2018, I’ve been helping business owners just like you learn how easy writing can be when we let it be ­– I love that moment when a client realises she has something worth saying and the ability to put it into words! Over the years I’ve realised that most of us were taught how to make writing hard. Why? Because our teachers were expected to teach us to write for exams. Now, most of what I do is help my clients unlearn all of that so they can take the pressure off of writing and enjoy getting their message out to those who need to hear it – your future readers need your blogs and books. When I was 16 my English teacher told me I’d never learn to write well and shouldn’t pursue a degree in the arts or humanities at uni (I didn’t listen – my degrees are in music and English). I realise now that he had very fixed, and I’d still argue erroneous, ideas about grammar. Because I didn’t share them, he didn’t give me good marks. Luckily, I wasn’t the kind of teen who took such pronouncements from my teachers to heart. Some of my friends did, and it still hurts to think about how his cruel remarks contributed to silencing them. Now, I thank him for helping me be a better teacher and coach by showing me that my instinctive supportive approach gets better results than criticism. Growing up, I was always teaching someone something – mostly helping friends with homework, but also more elaborate undertakings. For example, I was the eldest grandchild and when I was about 10, I took my sister and cousin to the library to get books for their summer research project. This wasn’t something assigned by the school, I'd just decided we should all choose a topic and write a report by the end of the summer. In a way, they were my first coaching clients! Now, in my business, I get to spend all day playing with ideas and words with my clients so they can get their message out to the people who need to hear it. If you’re ready to make writing easy, book a chat today!