If you're reading this page...
I can tell you several things about yourself:
• You are serious about writing. You may already be a working writer. You may be a novice. But it MATTERS to you.
• You very likely have a major project in mind. Perhaps it's underway already. Maybe you've even finished a draft—of a novel, let's say—but the feedback you've gotten is mixed. You've been told, or figured out for yourself, that it's weak or lacking in one or more of the major elements fiction must have, to be publishable.
• You may need some help. New ideas, new approaches. Techniques you never really learned or mastered. Perhaps a fresh angle on the techniques you already know and use.
What is a Fiction Writing Coach?
• Part editor, part teacher–and a lot more as well.
• A personal writing advisor and consultant.
• Can look into your specific needs...and will (friends and family won't).
• Supportive but necessarily critical.
• Helps you focus on issues that are YOURS. Not just as general principles, but your issues. Coaching is about YOU.
Consider a Coach When....
• You don't "fit" into the standard programs. You've decided on writing as a career. You've taken the beginning courses at your local arts center or community college. You realize you have a lot more to learn, but circumstances rule out a university writing program.
• You want a concentrated experience. You want to improve, gain knowledge and assurance as a skilled fiction writer, and you want to get there by the fastest route. You don't have two or three years to give to a university-based program; you want to put it together in one year. With a coach, you can. A good coach will lead you through the necessary work as fast as you can learn it.
• You know how to reach your goal, but you're blocked. Your energies can't find the right channels through which to flow. You're frustrated. You're frightened. You're started to wonder if you have any ability at all–or was it all a cruel joke. A good coach knows that feeling because he/she has been there. It's called "Writers' Bock" and I've developed some specific approaches that anyone can use to clear that logjam with blasts of creativity.
• You're not a writer but...you woke up one day and decided you wanted to write a novel. It's not just a passing whim. It won't go away. You know what it's going to be about, but you don't know how to breathe drama and life into it. Family, job, personal responsibilities make it impossible to go back to school. I can start with you at the beginning. Using your project as your workbook, I can help you devise a work plan that will get you quickly to the level of working knowledge it would take you 2 years or more to master in a conventional writing program.
Why me, as your coach?
• I've worked with so many writers over the years that I've developed the instinctual insight of a physician, the seasoned internist who sees patterns after hearing only 30 seconds of a patient's history. It doesn't take me long to understand your nature, as a writer, hence your particular strengths and weaknesses. Very quickly I can offer personalized tips and advice of a quality you would hunt a long time to find in writing classes.
• In the words of the old Johnny Cash hit (Hank Snow before that) "I've been everywhere, man..." I've been published, rejected, had 3 agents, at least a half a dozen book editors, and more magazine and newspaper editors than I would care to count. I've lived the life of a writer, with all its ups and downs. I know what success feels like. I know what failure and rejection feel like. I can speak with authority because whatever level you're challenged on, I've been there.
* I'm devoted to your success. And totally loyal to you. Once on the NBA basketball court some years ago the New York Knicks suddenly found themselves in an on-court brawl. Their coach, Jeff Van Gundy, charged off the bench to throw himself into the fray. It was ridiculous–arrayed against the giants on court, van Gundy was a shrimp in a business suit, a mild-mannered bank manager, a little balding man who never played a seconds' worth of serious basketball. But he didn't hesitate to charge onto that court at the first sign his team might get hurt. I loved that moment. It sums up my intensity of feeling for my clients. If I am your coach, if you are one of my clients, there is nothing I won't do to make you as successful as you can possibly be. I'll fight for you to thrive and win. I don't know how to express that particular piece of it any more eloquently or precisely.
More reasons?
I'm sure there must some, and I'll add them as they come to me, but for now this is enough. If what you're seeing on this page makes you want to know more, my F.A.Q. page will answer all the usual questions about how I work with you, my rates, etc.
Or feel free to contact me...
• By phone. <919 619-6805>
• By email. <billhendersononline@gmail.com>