46: Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach

If you're a podcast fan who happens to write memoir—for yourself or for clients—you're probably familiar with the dulcet tones of Ann Kroeker, a writing coach who doles out advice and inspiration on her podcast, "Ann Kroeker, Writing Coach." In today's episode, Ann talks about the role of a writing coach and how she went from "editing with a coach's heart" to "coaching with an editor's eye."   Win a free copy of Scrivener Don't forget to enter our contest before February 18 to win a free Mac or PC version of the writing software Scrivener. To enter, submit a written review of the podcast to iTunes, then drop an email to amy@thelifestorycoach with "I reviewed the podcast" in the subject line. That's it! Until next time, go out and save someone's story. Links & Stuff Check out Ann's online courses here. Visit her website. Listen to her podcast:             Books mentioned: Excerpt from our interview with Ann Kroeker Amy:                                           I discovered Ann through her podcast. She creates these really wonderful short podcast posts about anything and everything having to do with writing. So I thought oh, how perfect to have her on the show. Ann, welcome to the Life Story Coach Podcast. Ann Kroeker:                        Thank you, it's great to be here. Amy:                                           Why don't we jump into things by having you tell us a little bit about what got you into, not so much writing, but coaching writers. Ann Kroeker:                        That is a great question. When somebody proposed that I might be a writing coach I said, "What's a writing coach?" So it's not something I intentionally sought, it's just something I naturally was doing. So I'll just back up a little bit prior to when I launched this business as a writing coach. I had been a writer, I really launched my writing life as a poet out of college, and then went into freelance writing, essays, and then eventually got online, like most of us did, with a website, and used the blog feature to write blog posts and what I now like to say just articles. 'Cause blogging is sort of transforming now. Ann Kroeker:                        But I was creating content. And then I joined various communities, especially too, in particular, that were writing-focused. And through that, I ended up on the editorial team of two of these online organizations. So I was working with other editors and I had a managing editor. But then I was also still submitting content to other places too. So I was seeing writing from different angles. And my managing editor at one of those organizations said, "Ann the way that you edit these people's work is with a coaching heart. You really want them to succeed, you're trying to help them improve as you're editing their content." And it's true. And part of that came from her training. Ann Kroeker:                        So at some point she said, "I really think you should become a writing coach." In fact, so much so that I said, "Oh, that's a good idea." I had already put editor as part of my tagline at the time, and she said, "No, no, no. Just writing coach." And I couldn't bring myself to do it. It used to be writing coach, Ann Kroeker, writing coach, editor, friend. And she said, "You really need to narrow that down to writing coach and just let that be your thing." And it took me a little while to even understand really what a writing coach could bring to people. But I went ahead and foraged on with this editor thing. And then I realized I can't do it all. I didn't have enough time because of some life restrictions that were happening with family. Ann Kroeker:                        So I had to drop something, so I did drop editor from my tagline and from some of my ... I didn't offer that as a main service anymore. And when I did that I had to drop friend too, which my son thought was hilarious. "You're no longer anybody's friend." So I just became Ann Kroeker, writing coach.