Heather Wright tells her students “not to feel defeated before you try” She started her writing life with short stories and then articles on how to write for teens.

Heather coaches a lot of teens, and I asked her about the difference between coaching teen writers and adult writers. 

Teenagers, she says, come to the writing table believing their writers. They come with lots of material and lots of ideas. They are willing to share their work, comments on other people's work and accept comments on their own work.

Adults, however, are far more reticent. They don't believe they are writers; they criticise their own work and or less willing to try new things or share their work, and even less willing to comment on other people's work. 

One of the roadblocks for new writers is the size of the project. It feels very overwhelming to write 50,000 plus words. To overcome this, Heather suggests creating many habits. 

This is a process by where you give yourself small goals, for example writing only 50 words at each writing session. 

That way it's much easier to achieve and when you do achieve it you leave the writing table feeling like a success because you achieved what you set out to achieve.

The other thing she says writers must have is forgiveness for themselves. Life gets in the way sometimes, things happen and if you don't get to write that day, so what? The world won't end and you can get back to it the next day, so don't be so hard on yourself. Forgive yourself.

As a writing coach Heather sees herself as the guide. She guides her student to write the book they want to write. Sometimes that takes a bit of digging and that's part of her role.

She works with writers at all stages of their book. Sometimes they come to her with an idea that they need to talk through and then go off and write the book. Some come to her with a manuscript and it needs tweaking and moulding before it goes off to an editor. 

We discussed the importance of having a mentor or a coach and how pivotal that can be to someone's success. 

Finally, Heather shares that she turned 70 last year but has taken up screenwriting. She had never thought to pursue this before but she says she's never been happier writing than she has been with her screenplays.

What that can teach you is that it's never too late to start writing. Creativity knows no age barrier.

Connect with Heather:

http://www.wrightingwords.com

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