The Burning Questions Writers Have
About a million things can stop you on the way to writing a great book. Let's not let that happen. Here are questions you can ask me in Story Catalyst group coaching, launching August 2025.
#1 How can I absolutely know the scope of my book is just right?
Completeness is the enemy of compression and clarity. You don’t need everything and the kitchen sink.
Calibrating the scope of your book is one of the earliest decisions you need to make. Yet I’ve seen this challenge happen often to first-time authors. Usually this syndrome hits full-bore right at the juncture when they decide to invest their time, focus and energy on a book project. Suddenly, every great idea you’ve ever had comes calling, and urgently.
If you’re writing memoir, the problem may be that it is too sprawling. A memoir is not a biography. It’s not your whole life. It’s a question, considered deeply, about a passage of your life. The power of memoir writing rests on the selection of events.
For more on this, see my Substack post, “The Sixteen Superpowers of Memoir Writers Make These Decisions on the Front End, and All Will Go Well for You.”
If you need examples of great memoirs that made meaning of a sliver of the author’s life, look to Dani Shapiro, Mary Karr or Leslie Jamison. A list of memoirs I recommend for supreme guidance in how to write a memoir is on my Bookshop here.
If you’re writing self-help nonfiction, it may be that you want to unload everything you’ve always wanted to teach. Resist this. You have more books in you. You’ll definitely have more books in you if you focus.
If you’re writing fiction, you may have too many characters and subplots. An early beta reader of my novel gave me a margin note: “This is a novel of ideas.” She intended it as a compliment. This novel won a semifinalist prize for the Elixir Press Fiction Award, and an excerpt of the first chapter is published on The Write Launch here.
But I needed to strip it down, focus it, and the novel, SEARCHING FOR PERSPHONE, is much better for that revision. Someday, I’ll get back to submitting it to agents.
It’s been my experience in 10+ years of book coaching/developmental editing that almost always your book will benefit from making the scope of it smaller and simpler. The more focused your book, the better. You will be more effective in getting your story across to your reader.
Before we go on: A word about group coaching
This post is a series of burning questions my author-clients have about making their book right and ready. Here is a taste of what I offer through Story Catalyst Group Coaching, launching August 2025.
Story Catalyst Group Coaching is ideal for you if you’ve been taking writing classes but you aren’t ready for the deep dive of one-on-one coaching.
Or, you’re in one-on-one coaching, but you want the community, too. You’d love to have a monthly check-in to celebrate your wins and shore up your skills.
Sometimes we advance the most when we combine a master teacher and a supportive community. Sometimes we benefit from all the different styles of success.
If you’re currently under contract with me for one-on-one coaching, this monthly call is $27/month, or $81 for a three-month bundle, $270 for a 12-month bundle (which gives you two months free). After our service package is complete, I can offer you a continuing discount.
Once a client, you are forever a friend!
If you’re just wanting to get to know me and find other writers like you, this is for you.
INSIDE TRACK $27/month for clients
ESSENTIAL $47/month for non-clients
Group coaching clients get early advance notice when we have PITCH DAYS with agents and editors.
I’M A CLIENT! INSIDE TRACK STORY CATALYST GROUP COACHING
For clients currently under contract, it’s $27/month or $270/year (two months free).
I’M NOT A CLIENT – YET!
ESSENTIAL STORY CATALYST GROUP COACHING
For clients not currently under contract, it’s $47/month or $470/year (two months free).
#2 How can I know if I’ve hooked my reader?
Is your idea compelling? Captivating? Clear? Concise? Irresistible? Original? I have a hook statement worksheet that may help. Time and time again, I have seen the magic happen in one-on-one coaching, and it’s my intention to bring that magic to group coaching.
#3 How can I know if my title and subtitle are right?
Your title and subtitle are the most forward expressions of your hook. They are your seven-second bid for your intended reader’s attention. They create an imprint experience —a first impression that makes them act—or turn away.
#4 How can I know if my idea is coming across in one simple, clear, compelling message?
Practice lean expression.
Master the art of winnowing, distilling, boiling down.
This is a lot of what we do in one-on-one and group coaching, as well as in my weekly Catalytic Prompts moments (consider becoming a free or paid subscriber to receive these).
I show you how to do it, then I show you what you’re doing right so you know how to keep doing it.
#5 How can I know if I have created a transformation journey for my reader?
In transformative/spiritual/self-help nonfiction, the transformation journey is a must-do. The reader wants to experience life-changing insights and gain actionable practices. In a self-help book, the reader is the main character—the character who changes.
In fiction and narrative memoir, the transformation journey is empathy and insight. The reader gains empathy for how the character experiences hope and worry and grapples with what’s at stake. The reader gains insight for how the character meets adversity and triumphs.
Studies show that these two genres, more than any other form of book or any other form of art, cultivate and build the capacity for empathy. For more on this, see:
The Narrative 4 project, spearheaded by Colum McCann (Let the Great World Spin, Transtlantic, Twist), one of the greatest purveyors of sentences I know (Letters to a Young Writer).
Wired for Story, by Lisa Cron
In narrative nonfiction (long-form journalism that uses literary storytelling techniques), the transformation journey is a call to action. The book changes the reader’s worldview, and the reader may choose to participate differently in the world.
See my list of Stellar Narrative Nonfiction here on Bookshop.
#6 How can I know if I am writing with authority?
Are you holding back on your idea? This is your moment to be bold and clear. This is your moment to say, “This is my TED talk” or “This is my Master Class.” So, act the part.
Trust that you have your intended reader’s attention and that reader is going to stay with you the whole journey. Write accordingly. That’s because you know your material and your know your reader. You have lived experience. This is your authority.
#7 How can I know my intended audience is right—not too broad, not too narrow?
The first thing to know: If you think your book is for everyone, it’s for no one.
It needs to be for someone. In my book proposal coaching, group coaching and Idea to Outline coaching, I help you dial that in.
#8 How can I know if the voice is right?
With a book, voice is everything. If that statement surprises you, consider that everyone has content and subject matter. The evidence? They are spilling it out everywhere, all the time, on TikTok and X and Instagram, Substack and Blue Sky and Threads. Like I said. Everywhere.
But not everyone has originality. Originality is the new currency of the 21st century.
Maybe you’ve heard frightening news about artificial intelligence. Maybe, just maybe. I’m going to tell you how to forget that you heard some thought leader like Barry Diller say AI is the most consequential event to happen in human history. Let’s move on to what you can do to meet the moment
Originality is the antidote. Danielle LaPorte calls it authentic intelligence—I call it creative intelligence.
A commitment to originality is where you find your voice. Here is where you find your reason to stand out -- the reason for your book to exist in the world.
In transformative/spiritual/self-help nonfiction, you want to strike the right balance between guide and friend. What you want to earn is respect for your hard-earned wisdom—and trust that you can show the way.
In fiction and narrative memoir, you have multiple craft choices, such as point of view and such as narrative stance. These two decisions are the most important decisions you will make on the front end of writing your first draft.
In narrative nonfiction, you get the voice right when you get the “characters” right. That means sources, and that means good interviews. Whose story is most emblematic of the issue, the pain or the suffering? Whose story most shows us a path forward?
#9 How can I know if I’m educating the reader in a logical flow of information and practices?
Think like a teacher. A teacher carries an inner sense for what her students are ready for when. So does a parent. If you have ever been a teacher or a parent, a student or a child, you also have an inner sense about what information you want to access and when. You know when you’re ready. Let that guide you.
#10 How can I rest assured that my research is sound and sturdy?
As a journalist who has been doing this since I was 17, I have tons to say about this. I developed the “Sex, Lies and Fake News” course in the journalism department at the University of New Mexico.
My best answer is:
Practice objectivity like it’s a spiritual discipline. Like this is the thing that will get you past the heavenly gates. Like you need a lifetime of storing up objectivity to squeak through. I mean this.
Then, choose reliable sources. Know your own biases. Practice transparency, empowering your reader to replicate the facts you gathered.
And if you want to know more about that because you’re writing for the media, writing narrative nonfiction or writing reported essays as companion pieces to showcase the launch of your book, then please sign up now for some 1:1 media coaching. I’ve got you covered.
#11 How can I avoid overdoing the research and getting lost in it?
How can I organize it and streamline my process?
A few things helped me as a journalist:
Having a fierce (and perhaps a little grouchy) editor. Installing that person in my psyche benefited me. It’s good to visualize a “take-no-prisoners” sort of person who would never indulge your curiosities and would be annoyed at having to keep you on point.
My extreme desire to be efficient, which is to say, I developed a “nose for news,” what’s actually new, what’s actually noteworthy. Not what’s merely alarmist. What’s here to stay, what will fade away. What got overlooked and needs digging into.
Deadlines.
#12 Do I begin in the right place, right idea, right illuminating stories, right scene?
The beginnings of books are magical. The first lines are pregnant with meaning. At nearly every writing retreat I lead, I guide writers through a list of potent first lines of luminary work.
In group coaching, you’ll get a taste of this magic.
I mentioned I have a “nose for news,” but I also have a “nose for scene.” The balance between scene and summary is one of the most important skills you can master as a writer, whether you’re writing memoir, fiction or transformative self-help nonfiction.
#13 Have I hit my ending yet?
Your ending must be surprising and inevitable. Yeah. OK. For this, we need to talk. Consider the Lightning Round edit or one-on-one coaching.
#14 Do I have two books here? Or three?
Help me focus. Help me decide. Help me untangle them from each other so I can be clear, compelling, concise -- and utterly captivating. Group coaching is ideal for that.
Join me for group coaching
Can you tell by my tone? Can you tell by how much I care about your book already? We haven’t even met yet, but I believe there is a book in you that you were born to write.
Join me for group coaching. I want to see your book come out into the world, and I want to see you write it in a way that meets the right people at the right time.
I’M A CLIENT! INSIDE TRACK STORY CATALYST GROUP COACHING
For clients currently under contract, it’s $27/month or $270/year (two months free).
I’M NOT A CLIENT – YET!
ESSENTIAL STORY CATALYST GROUP COACHING
For clients not currently under contract, it’s $47/month or $470/year (two months free).