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The Wit and Wisdom Newsletter
The newsletter that puts the glide back in your slide
The  Real Coaching Co.
Your Writer's Tool Kit
No 64

Welcome to all my old and new subscribers to my Wit and Wisdom newsletter - the monthly goodness packed smoothie to sooth your psyche and satisfy your sensibilities. It takes 2 minutes to read but has a slow release goodness factor that reduces anxiety and swells the heart.

Greetings!
Could that fire in your belly be the muse calling you?
 
Ever felt the desire, albeit fleetingly, to write a story, a novel, your biography - a book??  We each of us have within us a myriad of memories, experiences, passions and wisdom which crafted carefully could become a literary creation.
 
Yes, that means YOU.

Whether you scared your buddies to death with your ghost stories around camp fires as a child or if you find yourself day dreaming fantasies that seem like Technicolor epics more real than reality - your imagination could be playing host to a literary masterpiece.
 
But beware!  Pursuing the muse can be a trip to eye-watering agony.  Creativity can be terrifying.
 
Following your dream can be more painful than wearing 6 inch Laboutins with corns. 
 
Frank CourtI once interviewed Frank McCourt (the author of the international best seller Angela's Ashes) days before his first book had been published.
 
An anonymous, quietly-spoken Irishman, unknowingly days away from a tsunami of world-wide acclaim, seemed non-plussed by the story-telling haul he had been through.
 
Was it cathartic I asked him, to recall his impoverished and anguished childhood and finally get it out there?
 
"No", he sighed rubbing his eyes, "it was bloody awful.  The ghosts flew out of the typewriter. I had to re-live every moment of it.  Torture."
 
What was interesting was that it was not only the content of his book that was so painful and arduous but the actual process of writing too, he added.
 
It is true that many are called but few are chosen when it comes to writing something of creative worth.  But more people than ever are called and I believe each of you who have felt the gossamer tug of the call to write should follow that whisper.
 
I have been privileged and humbled to have coached several clients who have gone on to write books.
 
Chris Smith with his epic bicycle ride from Bewdley to Beijing Why Don't You Fly ,
 
Lisa Clark with her classic Lola Love teen-help books,
 
Sally Morris with her novel Trick or Treat and the artist and
 
film maker Lou Hamilton with Creating Success all have followed the message of their hearts.
 
There is a whole universe of possibility out there, is it your time to take your place amongst that constellation of stars?
Your Writer's Starter Kit 
 
With so many new clients sharing with me their desire to write I have developed a small guide to help newbie writers get started.  It's not set in stone and everyone has their own style but as a writer and journalist these are the tools I have found particularly effective in inspiring and motivating me to get over the existential blankness of the pure white page. 
  • Write what you know, what you have felt, what you have experienced, what moves you. It makes it more authentic
    Read quality literature and have creative heroes.
  • Don't compare yourself to others.  Develop your own original "voice".
  • Read "What I Talk About When I Talk About Running" -  Haruki Murakami - a superb philosophical study of what it takes to be a disciplined writer and runner.
  • Design a way of working that feels right for you.  The curiously sunny and clean-cut horror writer Clive Barker revealed to me that he writes with a fountain pen, on paper, 5000 words every day (regardless of quality) then takes his dogs for a walk.  Another writer told me she had to write in her old dressing gown. Ex-poet laureate Andrew Motion nips a Lemsip when stricken with writer's block.  What works for you?
  • Don't be afraid to write and discard.  It's all part of the process.  Nothing in the great scheme of things is wasted.
  • Start The Artist's Way (Julia Cameron) - a 90-day writing programme -buy the book or do it free online 
  • Start a blog and rehearse in public -  http://www.myblogvoice.com/
    Be committed.  Big dreams demand time, energy and focus.
  • Watch this amazing film of Elizabeth Gilbert on "Genius" and how to make the most of it
  • Never give up
  • Hire a coach for support, inspiration and motivation
 
Why not take the next step and book a 30 minute session (on me) now? Email me [email protected] 
Important Dates for Your Diary
 
Make a date for the 17th March for Real Coaching Solutions Business Building Breakfast Workshop.  The topic is The Attractor Factor - How to be effortlessly magnetic in business and beyond.
 
Set amid the sublime elegance of St Stephen's Club, London over refreshments and continental pastries you will learn:
  • How the 'Attractor Factor' works
  • Ways to generate a 'buzz' about you and your business
  • The importance of focus and intention
  • And some fun stuff as well!
Network and learn in style.  Book now and for more details visit http://www.businessbuildingbreakfastmarch.eventbrite.com
 
Following our sell-out success of the Career Change Boot Camp held in January (it was Time Out's recommended event of the week) Sarah Wade and I will be hosting another on March 27th.  Contact Sarah now for more details [email protected]
More details on line up to follow.
My Movie!
Video clipAnd finally, do have a look at my film shot by Lou Hamilton which is currently on my website www.realcoachingco.com or on You Tube which explains some of my philosophy around coaching, life and running away from sports day.

View other films by Lou here http://vimeo.com/channels/70141
Quote of the Month
"It's really too bad that so much crumby stuff is a lot of fun sometimes" ~J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
Catch the wave
 

Carole Ann
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PS Why not write to me and tell me what your favourite book is and why in a couple of sentences and I'll include them in my next newsletter?
 
PPS. Would you like to share your photographs which I can include in my newsletter and credit you for?
Contents
Go on write that book!
Your Writer's Starter Kit
Exciting Events for your Diary
My Movie!
Quote of the Month
Quick Links

Carole Ann

sitting on the fence in life can be painful

Carole Ann is an award winning journalist, media consultant and high profile coach, with over 6 years' coaching experience with private clients and major organisations such as the London School of Economics and Play England. 
 

Real Coahing Solutions

 Business Building Breakfast Workshop

Mar 17, 2010

 St Stephen's Club 
London

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