Call Me Coach

Despite the bad rap that comes with the title, as a kid I always wanted to be teacher’s pet. Not just for the praise; it seemed that to get more time with one’s teacher was to be closer to the source of learning itself—and I was a Hungry Learner.

It’s from this standpoint that I approach writing coaching. I’ve been doing it for years now, but calling it something else (editing). Fact is, the hungry learner inside me has an alter-ego known as the Eager Teacher. Each year that I edit more writers’ manuscripts I learn more about how hungry writers are, too, to write the best material they can write, to imbibe and learn the craft on a level that a writing guide can’t provide alone, or when a college course is too expensive.

I am not the kind of coach who will have you read affirmations or help you manage your time (both of which are wonderful and necessary, don’t get me wrong). What I am is your own individualized teacher—listening with rapt attention to your struggles with writing, and then turning around and crafting lessons and strategies specific to YOU and your individual needs as a writer. I’m a lifeline and a sounding board, too, for when your ideas are stuck or frustration has you caught.

My coaching is, essentially, your chance to be teacher’s pet, to be in the Master Class of You,  designed for you, shaped by you, and constantly open to alterations by you.

Think it’s right for you? Here are my packages (this info will soon go up on the Editor/Coach page):

Coaching Packages:

In general, each week of a coaching cycle consists of: 1 lesson, with 1-2 assignments applied to either a work-in-progress or new material, individualized review and critique of the work turned in, and a follow up coaching call by phone or skype. Schedule can be modified to meet your personal needs.

Coaching Package #1: The Starter
4 hours, $250
1-2 lessons
up to 5,000 words edited
2-30 minute coaching sessions (or 1 hour)

Coaching Package #2: Getting Serious
8 hours, $425
3 individualized lessons
up to 10,000 words edited
4-30 minute coaching sessions (or 2 hours)

Coaching Package #3: The Next Level
12 hours, $650
5 lessons
up to 20,000 words edited
8-30 minute coaching sessions (or 4 hours)

Coaching Package #4: The Commitment
24 hours, $1225
8 lessons
up to 40,000 words edited
16-30 minute sessions (or 8 hours)

Coaching by the hour is another option.

Please use the “contact” form at top to inquire about getting started!

Turn Inward: Make Your Own Noise

It’s been awhile since I’ve presented my Reasons To Write series…mostly because I have been writing and working and a lot of other things, so it’s good.

But lately I’ve been feeling the strain of information again upon me—the strangely addictive cycle of spending lots of time on Facebook, reading my tweetstream, getting most of my news, and lots of interesting articles on the arts, even reading books online or on my SmartPhone. After too much of this, I begin to feel like Gulliver attacked on all sides by Lilliputians, pulling on me, tugging me down and in so many directions that even when I’m really doing nothing, I feel tired. I can feel my synapses beginning to hold up protest signs demanding time off.

And this brings me to one of my favorite reasons for writing: to realign, to pull ourselves back together at the seams, collect up all the crumbs of ourselves that the digital ants have carried away.

Creative writing calms our brain waves, brings us closer to that state we enter in dreams and meditation—part trance, part hyper-focus, I don’t know too many writers who can write AND do other things at the same time. Writing requires a profound turning inward, harvesting from the world inside, rather than being at the mercy of the external world.

I think writing is one of the most valuable things any person who also feels swept away in the slipstream of information can do for your brain. As important as making sure to get up and stretch after sitting too long, or exercising, eating healthy and sleeping.

I’m not naïve enough to tell anyone to turn it off, go live in a mud hut in the woods and live off the land, much less to reduce the amount of time you spend swirling in the online clutch, nor; instead I say: turn up the volume on your writing. Make your own noise!

* * *

Check out my online writing classes: www.jordanrosenfeld.net/online-classes/

Fight Overwhelm: Make Magic

*Register for Fiction’s Magic Ingredient today, receive a FREE 1-week intensive in December–your choice of 4.

Ok, try a little experiment with me now: attempt to hold the entire world, plot, characters and landscape of your novel in your mind ALL AT ONCE. That’s right–can you see it all–every plot point and character nuance, every hint and image of foreshadowing, the visual and the thematic, the small and the large?

Of course you can’t.

(If you can: go get your brain studied)

The writers I work with seem to share one common stumbling block, which trips them up before they finally master it: overwhelm. This overwhelm stems from a belief that a novel is written all at once–like a big ribbon unfurling from your  mind, perfectly constructed and smooth, laid down in a single stroke.

It is not.

Novels are written bit by bit. More specifically, scene by scene.  I’ve come to regard the scene as a kind of magic–because by learning its tricks and then laying them down, suddenly that overwhelming concept of the novel becomes a realizable goal.

The scene is so beautifully simple it amazes me every time. But like anything simple, sometimes, until we learn the nuances, it feels complex.

I assure you it is not.

If you want to master this magic ingredient, the building block of good fiction, with me, join me for the ever-popular Fiction’s Magic Ingredient, now beginning October 10th (disregard the start date of 10/3 on the website). It’s not too late to learn a little magic.

Register for Fiction’s Magic Ingredient here.
8 weeks
Online/Self-paced with optional live drop-in chat (all you need is an Internet connection)

 

About Jordan


Author of FORGED IN GRACE, Jordan E. Rosenfeld learned early on that people prefer a storyteller to a know-it-all. She channeled any Hermione-esque tendencies into a career as a writing coach, editor and freelance journalist and saves the Tall Tales for her novels. She lives in Northern California with her superhero-obsessed son, Psychologist husband and their tuxedo cat, Elvert.

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