Caroline Malloy, Ph.D.’s Post

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Great Women write Great Nonfiction ✍️ I'm your Book Coach | Editor & Book Coach | Historian | World Traveler

I ask this question of my writers more than any other. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 is never critical. It's the most powerful discovery tool in my coaching toolbox. I ask 𝘄𝗵𝘆 so that you go deeper to what you really mean. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 helps get writers unstuck when they've written themselves down a dead-end path. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 helps writers say what they really mean. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 unlocks a new angle for the entire argument. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 can do so much good, especially when you least expect it. --- Yesterday, I asked a writer 𝘄𝗵𝘆 about her new chapter structure. She had been working through a draft that just wasn't landing her argument, so we backed up, and she drew up an outline focused on reader learnings and impact - what did readers need to know and in what order - so that she could make sure she was only including what was needed when it was needed. A compelling new structure emerged that tightened her thesis and made her evidence so much more effective. Asking 𝘄𝗵𝘆 allowed me to push at the edges of it to see how well it held together. At first, the writer worried I wanted her to rearrange something. That I thought something was wrong with her new outline. I reiterated that I simply wanted to hear her 𝘄𝗵𝘆 for why she made her central structural choice - not that there was anything wrong with it. So she told me... Her answer spelled out the clearest argument for not only her chapter, but her book as a whole, that I had heard in our several months working together! 𝗪𝗛𝗬 not only helped her be confident in her new structure, but it helped her give voice to the core argument of her book! --- So let me ask you of your book: 𝗪𝗵𝘆? Want to go deeper? Grab a spot on my schedule before the year is up. Let's go into your 𝗪𝗵𝘆 so you write your amazing book with confidence in 2025! ----- #womenwriters #nonfiction #coaching Hi, I'm Caroline, the book coach and book proposal coach for fabulous women like you. You've been thinking about writing 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 book, and it is finally your moment! 💪

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Anne Morgan

Editor, Book Coach I’m a developmental editor & book coach who loves talking with authors and helping them take their writing to the next level. Fiction & nonfiction. Contact me for a free consultation.

1mo

Love this! I ask my writers the same question all the time, and they get so into the answer they suddenly realize they've taken their story so many layers deeper than the draft they started with.

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