How Can I Possibly Call Myself a Writing Coach?
Let’s look at what coaching is.
Maybe not the “drop and give me twenty!” kind of coach, but a more nuanced, cerebral type.
I must start by looking at my snooty prep school phys. ed. coach, Hans Wolfslapper. He was a great guy, jovial, ripped with muscles everywhere, except for those protruding around his belly. he loved to cut up, and he loved to make us run laps. He loved to say “Drop and give me twenty!” He loved to say “Into the showers!”
He kept a small bottle of vodka in his lower left desk drawer along with a small, half-empty box of Wolf Brothers rum-soaked wine-dipped cigar crooks.
We usually had gym class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but anytime anyone needed to talk to Coach about life, he was usually around, down in his smoky office, drinking a smelly Coke in a glass.
Our gym itself was almost four stories high inside, all the way to the top. In it, there was a thick rope suspended from the ceiling to a point six feet from the floor. We also had wrestling mats, a giant trampoline, and some weights with a lot of dust on them.
Coach was too short to be the basketball coach, but he did officially have that title with our team, because he was the only one with the key to the gym. And he loved to make us run laps around the gym, make us try to climb the rope, tell us to drop and give him twenty, and tell us to hit the showers!
We rarely, and I do mean rarely, had a basketball win, much less a winning season, but we learned many other important life lessons. We learned how to laugh at a rope, how to catch a nap while appearing to be doing push-ups, and how to get our hair wet quickly, so it looked like we had just been in the shower.
And if a couple of us ever wanted to shoot some hoops instead of going to study hall, Coach Wolfslapper had the key. Those are the real reasons we called him a coach- 1.-his advice and 2.-a place to do what we wanted to do.
That’s exactly how I dare to call myself a writing coach. My new students who want to learn how to write are a rough crowd, but they seriously only need the same two things. Some tips and advice, and a place to shoot some syllables instead of going to study hall.
At the Rough Crowd Academy, I give you writing tips, sometimes even based on your own writing, and a publication that will publish your works fast!
Enroll today!
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Don’s a keen observer and prolific reporter of truth, common sense, humor, & life. He’s a WRITER and humorist, sometimes serious, sometimes tongue-in-cheek. He lives in Nashville, TN. He publishes every weekday morning. If you liked this stuff, get his direct delivery by subscribing HERE!