Have you ever struggled with writing? You Googled your problems… tried every trick, hack and guide… only to find yourself in the same predicament. Perhaps going about this by yourself isn’t the way to go – could hiring outside help do the trick? Just like coaches at the gym, writing coaches can tailor training programmes that sort out your weaknesses and play to your strengths… What’s the best way to choose a coach? Does coaching even work? Join Wordsmith as we take a look at whether writing coaches are worth considering or not.
What do you want to achieve?
When you approach any coach, it’s likely the first thing they’ll ask you is, “what do you want to get out of this?”
This is a key question for both you and your potential coach:
· It helps your coach come up with a specific training plan
· It demonstrates that you know what writing weaknesses you have
If you don’t know what you specifically need help with, your coach will likely devise a generic training plan until they know what they are dealing with – AKA the sort of stuff you’ve tried already off of Google. This could be problematic if you don’t have a lot of time and/or budget to work with. Perhaps having someone observe and fine tune the process will provide better results, but it’s usually preferable (and more efficient) to work on specific problems versus a blanket approach.
Certifications and experience
Finding the right coach is about filtering down your list of potential candidates. Just like with illnesses and doctors, you need to pick a doctor that can help with your specific illness – it wouldn’t make much sense going to an otolaryngologist (throat and nose specialist) when you have stomach pains.
Writing coaches are like personal editors who oversee your work and provides constructive feedback. “The best writing coaches also nurture your literary career, giving you books to read, communities to join and advice on the publishing world at large,” explains Sean Glatch of Writers.com. This feedback comes in two forms:
· Global feedback – the general rating of your work, including how good, persuasive and compelling your content is;
· In-line feedback – an examination of your work line-by-line, covering grammar usage, writing style, word choice and so on.
As you look up various coaches, identify what sort of writing help each offers: some are generalists who provide training on writing as a whole, whereas some specialise in business writing, novels and so forth – shortlist those who you think may be of help.
Don’t forget to check out their portfolio (and LinkedIn profile) while you’re at it. Many coaches will proudly list where they were educated, the names and companies that they’ve worked with and the titles of their published works. An absence of these may signify that they are new to the business or have not received favourable feedback from past clients.
If you plan on writing a book, be extra careful when dealing with author coaches according to Entrepreneur contributor and book development coach Stephanie Mojica. “Many [coaches] are promising overnight best-seller success. But, wind up steering you towards expensive anthology or meaningless colouring book projects because they’ve never written or edited a book themselves.”
If you’re not sure whether a coach has experience in a certain field or not, just ask them! For the sake of their reputation, many coaches will not teach if they are not proficient at the field, which is why you should find a coach with publishing experiences that match your needs.
Do coaches work?
This is probably the question on everyone’s mind, and unfortunately, we can’t say for certain that a chosen coach can guarantee results.
Although a very small percentage of “coaches” may turn out to be con-artists, even when coaches are reputable, their methods may not always be right for you. Most coaches have a training flowchart planned out, and then depending on your particular weaknesses, they’ll tailor your sessions to emphasise on those weaknesses (e.g. subject line best practises and drills if you want to work on your email open rates). Whether or not your coach does this depends on how experienced they are, and if they are adamant on using the same training workflow every time, such an inflexibility could be due to inexperience.
Then there’s also you to consider – how receptive are you to the coach’s training and advice? Can you stick to the training plan and apply what you’ve learnt?
Assuming you’re the perfect student, it makes the most sense to hire a coach who’s experienced… but then comes the issue of budgeting.
Budgeting and rates
The cost of a coach can vary greatly. Here are some factors that can affect their rates:
· The coach’s years of experience and qualifications
· The difficulty of the topic you want help on
· The level of help you need
· How often you require the coach’s input
As you’d expect, the more experienced someone is, the higher their rate. Some coaches offer full-day workshop-style sessions, whereas others run a by-the-hour coaching session – which do you prefer and does your chosen coach offer that?
Additionally, you need to think about your level of proficiency on the subject when negotiating costs. If you’re a complete novice to writing business emails, you’ll need to put in a lot more hours versus someone who just wants to learn about subject line optimisation.
Glatch points out that US$50 (about HK$400) per hour is the baseline for a coach, but this can shoot up to US$200+ for more specialised or experienced coaches. It can be a hefty investment, so you definitely don’t want to pick a pricey coach without any planning!
Schedules and arrangements
Although most coaches try their best to work around your schedule, it’s a good idea to consider schedule compatibility. Is the coach in the same country as you? If not, can you accept online-only sessions? How about time zone differences? In the event that you have an important work that needs to be given the greenlight by the coach, having to account for time zones can add an extra layer of stress on top of your existing responsibilities!
Scheduling aside, how you plan to interact with your coach is also something to think about. Obviously, most would prefer face-to-face sessions for instant feedback, but given the COVID situation, some coaches may be hesitant to do so.
Will Zoom (or other online formats) work for you? If you’re unsure, would the coach be willing to do a trial session? If you aren’t meeting face-to-face, how often should you be sending your work to the coach for editing and comments? Once at the end of the day or at set times during the day? How quickly can the coach provide feedback after receiving your material? Will they walk you through their thought process or will they simply mark their comments with a red pen?
Just some food for thought.
So what’s the final verdict on writing coaches? Like with a fitness coach, writing coaches can provide essential support, insights and learning opportunities, but you definitely need to take the time to shop for one who can accommodate your needs. Should you require a writing coach in Hong Kong, give Wordsmith a shout – from speech writing and PR messages to B2B/B2C emails and annual reports, we’d be happy to help you hone your writing skills!