Asking questions is part of Elizabeth Stark‘s job as a writing coach. A primary question she addresses for her clients is, “What’s the experience of reading this work?”
The experience of reading a work cannot be easily, if at all, accessed by the writer or author of the work. And if so, the writer must allow long periods of time to pass in between when she or he reads the work.
Still the writer can never really come to know what it is like to approach the work afresh, unless that is she or he undergoes amnesia each time after reading their story, or novel. And in which case the writer would then be hindered in doing their job at revising and editing.
As the author of a piece of writing we occupy the precarious position of being both the person most able to improve the work, but least likely to recognize what our writing may need to reflect its greatest clarity and brilliance.
Here too again, questions put to us by someone separate from the work, and with eyes distinct from ours, but aware of our process, can greatly assist in bringing our writing to its fullest and best.
The level we have immersed our self in the process of creating the story our heart yearns to tell demarcates the depth to which we can purge the consciousness of our work.
Engaging with a coach who shies not from asking questions stimulates our need to know, and fuels love for discovery. We are all writing to see what happens next.
The writing coach, in pondering the intricacies of our story, not only assists us in making our story the best it can be, but stimulates us to welcome and befriend, ideally trust, the creativity of our process that delivered the novel.
What questions percolate within as you write?
What doubts do you encounter each time you write?