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You may wonder what is the difference between a writing coach and an editor. A writing coach is an editor, but his/her process is different than just editing. Why would you use a writing coach? Accountability -- some writers (and people for that matter) benefit from the accountability of having someone to answer to about their projects. An effective writing coach is there to ask, "Hey, when do I see the next chapter?" Many people achieve goals more effectively when they have someone to push the process. Professional and Personal Guidance -- a writing coach will analyze and critique your work. It's different than attending a class. Your coach is exclusively focused on your work. An involved coach will sit down and explain the changes or suggestions made for your manuscript. They will go over it with you. You get the benefit of that one-on-one attention to help create a publishable piece of work. Editing -- your coach is really an editor packaged differently. An e...

Bogged down in exposition : so many writers will spend so much time setting the stage for the drama to take place that they lose the reader in the sheer volume of the details. Many readers will, in fact, check out of the story long before the aforementioned drama even has a chance to occur. Too much exposition is like sludge to the storytelling process and should be avoided. You can easily and effectively set the stage and then just let the drama unfold. Too much minutia : as a reader, I really get distracted and often discouraged by writers who fall in love with the minutia. Whether it's a novel or screenplay, you should only include descriptions of things that move stories forward. In screenplays, you should absolutely only mention that which is relevant to the story, period. You should not add unnecessary elements that don't matter. It's distracting and irrelevant to the actual story. Just ask yourself, "How does this push the story forward?" If it doesn'...