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All contents copyright © 2004-2007
Vera Caccioppoli, Hi-Way-Haven.com
Permission to cite, quote, or excerpt must be obtained in writing. Please contact Vera@hi-way-haven.com
Thank you!
Getting Coached
One-on-one coaching is an amazing and rewarding process. Think about it: if you’re out of shape, you might hire a personal trainer who would work with you to assess your current level of fitness, discuss your goals, help you map out a plan of action to get you to those goals—and then by motivating, supporting, and coaching you through your journey, help get you to your goal. And all of that is exactly what a writing coach brings to your writing project, and career. If you have any questions and want to learn more about how the process would work for YOU, call me at 760.815.4341 or e-mail me
Nothing is too good to be true. Nothing is too wonderful to happen.
Nothing is too good to last.
—Florence Scovel Shinn, The Game of Life and How to Play It
I'm seventeen and I'm crazy. My uncle says the two always go together. When people ask your age, he said, always say seventeen and insane.
—Ray Bradbury
There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth -- not going all the way, and not starting.
—Buddha
We must not allow the clock and the calendar to blind us to the fact that each moment of life is a miracle and mystery.
—H. G. Wells
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Take the first step. You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.
—Winston Churchill
The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.
—William Arthur Ward
Live as if your were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.
—Gandhi
Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.
—Eleanor Roosevelt
I knew that I was learning one of the most important lessons of my life: that instead of waiting for the perfect opportunity, I should work toward a realization that every opportunity is perfect.
—Suzan-Lori Parks
A good coach will make his players see what they can be rather than what they are.
—Ara Parseghian
You get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within.
—Bob Nelson
My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.
—
Jim Valvano
Winning is only half of it.
Having fun is the other half.
—Bum Phillips
Believe deep down in your heart that you're destined to do great things.
—Joe Paterno
Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.
—Knute Rockne
Confidence is contagious. So is lack of confidence.
—Vince Lombardi
in every field are great coaches.
Who's your coach???
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This guy? |
Him? |
Her? |
Coach Vera can be YOUR coach!!
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Vera Caccioppoli, MFA Founder, Hi- Way Haven:
A Place for Writers
1042 N. El Camino Real
Suite 269
Encinitas, CA 92024 |
When people learn that I make my living as a writing coach, they’re intrigued. They’re familiar with coaches for athletes, actors, students and even politicians, so they’re curious to know how I work with writers and what writers are able to achieve when they have a private coach.
This summer I had coffee with Mary Curran-Downey, the San Diego Union-Tribune columnist. Mary wound up writing a nice little piece about how I coach, This Mid-Wife Helps Writers Deliver Words
To share more on what I do for my clients, what follows are some of my thoughts on the one-to-one coaching process.
One-to-One Coaching for Writers:
How it Works
Working one-to-one with other writers is the very heart of my practice. And my passion. Helping writers complete their novels, screenplays, and memoirs gives me a deep satisfaction. My passion for coaching writers also informs my work in the other two parts of my business: the Haven’s San Diego area screenwriting workshops, and the intensive evaluations of novels and analysis or 'covering' of screenplays that I provide.
In my 20-plus years of being a writer and helping other writers to write, I’ve learned that one-to-one coaching works equally well for all writers, whether beginners or seasoned professionals. Think about it: The New York Yankees still have batting and pitching coaches for their multi-million dollar players, right? Alex Rodriguez didn’t decline any further coaching when he signed the richest contract ever for a baseball player, did he? Good coaching is wanted and needed throughout a dedicated professional’s career—whether a writer, or a shortstop, or a CEO.
Yet there’s no getting around it: writing is solitary work. However, working with a writing coach gives you a partner in the process of creating. This I believe: Every writer can and will be more productive (and suffer fewer hangovers ;-) when they work with a good private coach.
A good private coach is a writer’s Top Secret Renewable Energy Resource, providing encouragement, direction, alternatives, shared experience, and most importantly, someone to be accountable to. (More on that later.)
I’m not a big fan of lists, but in the interests of brevity, here’s a partial list of how a good coach helps a writer—
As a writer, where are you? Wherever you are, that’s where we start. We talk about you, and your work. We assess your current project, from story to theme to structure.
Where do you want to go? How productive do you want to be? How many hours per week are you willing to devote to your quest? Want to finish that novel by Christmas, or your next birthday? Together we develop what I call an “Intention Contract,” complete with a time line, and intermediate deadlines and checkpoints along the way. This Intention Contract with yourself, and with me as witness and partner, is a powerful way to keep you moving toward your goal—and making your dream a reality.
Being accountable is at the root of every successful creative person’s strategy. Think about it: In our daily lives, when we don’t show up when and where we’re supposed to, people know it. To get us all to show up, we receive consistent validation—usually in the form of a paycheck. Not so with the creative act of writing. Because we are not accountable to anyone else, it’s far too easy for us to give in to the temptation of going golfing or surfing during the 3 hour block we’ve set aside for writing. “Who’s gonna know that I didn’t write today?” Well, if I’m your coach, the answer is me! I’m going to know, and more importantly, I’ll care. Being accountable to me will help keep you on track to your goal.
You choose how often you want to meet with me for working sessions. You send your pages ahead of time and I’ll have read them and prepared feedback and response for our session. This is the heart of what I do, it’s how you and your coach combine your creative energies. And it’s where so much of the benefits of working with your own private writing coach come from.
We all encounter tough spots, often it’s in the middle of our book or the 2nd act of our screenplay. Sometimes we’re tired of even looking at the thing. Sometimes we’ve lost our vision, our hope, and we can’t seem to get going again. This is another way a coach is vital. Your coach can help troubleshoot your story problems, or reasons for your writer’s block—and offer ways to overcome them. A coach has a strong relationship with you and your project. As your coach, I hold fast to your visions and enthusiasm, even when you my falter.
Want to know if coaching is really working? The proof is in the writing. A great thing about having a coach is that you know constantly whether it’s working or not, because you are overcoming the obstacles as they arise, and moving toward the goal, which is always the same: Completing your project. You’re writing more pages. You’re writing better pages! Your coach is helping keep you on task, keep you doing the work, writing the pages, and honoring your intention. Many coaching clients have told me that the greatest encouragement they get is simply seeing the continual progress they are making.
Completion
This is true: Nothing happens until you complete your project. Only then do you have a told story, and one that only you could have told. Only when your novel, screenplay or memoir is completed will you experience the true and deep and lasting thrill of success. And that’s why you’ve chosen the difficult challenge of being a creator, isn’t it?
Joseph Campbell had a wealth of beautiful advice and encouragement to offer creators like you—those who have chosen to make the Hero’s Journey—
"A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself... The adventure of the hero is the adventure of being alive... It is by going down into the abyss that we recover the treasures of life. Where you stumble, there lies your treasure... The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure."
If you would like to receive my short article, "On Writers' Butts, and Buts," just send an email to: vera@Hi-Way-Haven.com
Want to know how good your screenplay or novel is—and how to make it even better? Get your screenplays covered or an intensive novel evaluation with Vera Caccioppoli. Free 20-minutes consultation!
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Hi-Way Haven is A Place for Writers! Created in Encinitas, California in 2004 by the author, screenwriter, and writing coach, Vera Caccioppoli, Hi-Way Haven offers writers of all skills and ages private coaching, screenplay analysis, novel evaluations, screenwriting workshops, writing seminars, readings, networking, and special events with visiting authors.
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760.815.4341
(California Time)
An idealist is a person who helps other people to be prosperous.
—Henry Ford
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.
—Mark Twain
Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some
blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.
—B F Skinner
Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd.
—Edith Sitwell
He who hesitates is a damned fool.
—Mae West
Art is either plagiarism or revolution.
—Paul Gauguin
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself—and you are the easiest person to fool.
—Richard Feynman
Ambition and anger will disappear when you stop concerning yourself with the fruit of your actions.
—Buddha
The only reason for being a professional writer is that you can't help it.
—Leo Rosten
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
—Buddha
Forget about the consequences of failure. Failure is only a temporary change in direction to set you straight for your next success.
—Denis Waitley
Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.
—Cyril Connolly
Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
—C. S. Lewis
You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself.
—Galileo Galilei
Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.
—M. Scott Peck
The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year.
—John Foster Dulles
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
—Abraham Maslow
A leader takes people where they want to go.
A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be.
—Rosalynn Carter
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.
—the fox, in The Little Prince