Inside Book Coach Sessions with Beth Barany – How To Write the Future podcast, Ep 222

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Inside Book Coach Sessions with Beth Barany – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 222

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“Where do you want to take your writing? Where do you want to take your writing career? And let’s keep an eye on that, and we’re building towards that. So it’s fun, it’s rigorous, it’s deep, and this is my life’s work.” – Beth Barany 

Do you want to know what it’s like to work with a book coach?

Then dive into the latest How To Write the Future podcast episode, titled “Inside Book Coach Sessions with Beth Barany” where Beth takes you behind the scenes and tells you what to expect from working with her one-on-one as a specialist in science fiction and fantasy.

With direct feedback in a communicated style that is best for you to nurturing support, Beth Barany shares how she can guide you through your the stages of your writing journey from first draft to published novel.

Platforms the podcast is available on: Apple Podcasts | Buzzsprout | Spotify| YouTube

RESOURCES 

Support the podcast! https://ko-fi.com/bethbarany

Get the workbook: https://writersfunzone.com/blog/world-building-resources/

Join the Edit Lab! https://bethbarany.com/editlab

About the How To Write the Future podcast 

The How To Write The Future podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write positive futures and successfully bring those stories out into the marketplace. Hosted by Beth Barany, science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers. We cover tips for fiction writers. This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers, too, if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

Transcript for episode 222 Inside Book Coach Sessions with Beth Barany 

What a Book Coach Does 

BETH BARANY: What is it like to work with a book coach? As a specialist in science fiction and fantasy, I love nurturing writers to the finish line, whether that’s starting their novel, finishing their novel, or editing their novel, and of course, publishing it and marketing it too, because the best part is to hold your book in your hands and share it with others and sell it and see the smiles on your readers’ faces.

But how does that work in actuality? How do I actually work as a writing coach?

[00:37] Discovery Call and Fit 

Well, first off, you got to decide if you want to work with me, and the way we do that is we have a discovery call where I ask you lots of nosy questions. Really questions about your big dreams, the book you’re working on, the things you’ve done in the past, where you’re stuck, and what you ultimately want.

And then if we decide we’re working together, then you can come on board as a one-on-one client or join my mastermind, or even the edit lab. Uh, for the edit lab, you don’t necessarily need to have a discovery call with me. You’ll know because you’ve listened to my stuff here that that’s right for you, and I’ll talk about how edit lab works at another time.

This is for people who want to work one-on-one with me or possibly join our premium edit mastermind. And I want to talk today specifically about the one-on-one work because that is the most mysterious. What goes on in a one-on-one session with a, with a writing coach like me? 

Well, of course I can’t speak to how anybody else does it. I can only talk about how I do it.

[01:37] Submitting Pages Ahead 

But once I get to know you, your big dreams, your challenges, where you’re coming from, where you’ve been, and what you want specifically for your book, then we start interacting with your pages. What does this mean?

Usually, for every session in advance, like a week in advance, you send me your pages,

Usually up to 20 manuscript pages you’re editing your novel; then it’s 20 pages. 

If you’re just writing your book, then you might send me notes and pages, or brainstorms, or story outlines, or story plans, or story maps, or character material, or world-building material.

It’s really up to you.

[02:14] Written Feedback and Edits 

And I take my time ahead of our call to review your work and offer you written feedback.

It’s important to have written feedback because I’m articulating in the written form what’s working and what I’d like to see more of, and of course, I can get really specific.

If you are ready for it, we do line edits, we do story edits, developmental edits. It really depends.

Developmental edits are about the story. Line edits are about sentence level, word choice, that kind of thing.

I’m always gonna give you feedback in a way that we’ve determined is what you can handle. I’m really not here to tear you down. I’m really here to build you up. But of course, I will give you critical feedback, and it can be a bit difficult to receive pages with lots of comments. So especially if you haven’t had any, an editor look at your work before, my job is both I wear an editor hat and a coaching hat.

As an editor, I’m gonna tell you what’s working and also what’s not working. And if you’re on, if you’re a beginning writer just starting out, I’m gonna really tailor that to your capacity. Maybe you just wanna know the high-level story feedback. Maybe you wanna know what’s missing on your pages, and so I’ll tell you what I think is missing.

But I also will tell you what’s working. Because we need to know what’s working so we can put our attention on that as well and continue to become even more capable at that.

[03:38] Inside the Coaching Call 

And then when we get together in the coaching call, I ask you if you have any questions on the feedback that I gave you, and here is where you can do lots of different things.

You can ask me to explain a comment. You can… Some writers do this: they’ll send me back their pages with some changes, and we’ll go over the changes they made during the call so they can show me if they have understood my feedback and locked in the learning. It’s a really fun thing to do. Or sometimes we talk about world-building or character development or plot- what happens in the story.

It really depends on your needs, and sometimes we don’t know what’s gonna come out of the conversation, and I am keying into what you’re curious about and also asking you questions about what I’m curious about and helping you do some learning. So it’s also a learning session. 

With some clients, we are talking about places to do more research, and I’m asking questions that maybe you haven’t thought about around your story world that spark new areas of research.

Or maybe I ask you questions about your character, and we talk about your character. Or maybe you share with me your thoughts for the next section, and through talking it out, you are also planning, so I am being your sounding board, and then I ask you questions based on my know-how of how to build characters and story to help you fill in the gaps.

[05:06] Action Plan and Momentum

So as you can see, a coaching session is highly tailored to your specific needs, and that’s why it can be kind of mysterious, and you’re like, “What does a coach even do?” So my goal is that by the time you leave each coaching session, you have a clear next step. We of course, know when we’re meeting next; that’s on the calendar, and you are excited to dig in and get to work. You have a clear action plan for yourself, and it’s entirely generated by you. I may make a suggestion if I see that you could use it, but really it works best when you are moving under your own steam, so to speak. So the motivation comes from you.

[05:47] Who I Love Working With 

The support comes from me, and I work with writers who I am excited to work with.

We like each other. I really love their story. I believe in them, and I especially like working with writers who are doing new and quirky and fun, weird things that other people are like, “Wait, I don’t quite get it,” and but you’re trying to shape something new. I love that because that’s what makes it so fun and challenging.

Yes, I love a challenge, and I’m also a rigorous writer and writing teacher. So some people say it’s like getting master’s level work with me. I am not shy about setting the bar high, and I’m also very happy to work at the preliminary stages if that’s where you are. But always with an eye on where’s the big picture?

Where do you wanna take your writing? Where do you wanna take your writing career? And let’s keep an eye on that, and we’re building towards that. So it’s fun, it’s rigorous, it’s deep, and this is my life’s work.

[06:50] Experience and Teaching Roots 

I’ve been helping writers for over 20 years. Gosh, I was actually helping writers when I was a college student.

I was a writing tutor. I was helping my fellow students with their papers, even informally. I started teaching writing before I even opened my business to high-level language learners, and we were doing short story writing together. That was actually where I developed some of the curriculum I still use today.

And I have been a working writer, working on fiction for nearly 30 years, and it’s a passion. I think it’s challenging and in a delicious way, deliciously so.

Writing fiction is magical. It’s amazing. It’s not easy, and you can learn.

[07:34] How to Reach Out 

If you have an interest in being a writer and you wanna write fiction, and clearly my specialty is science fiction and fantasy, and if that’s your jam too, let’s talk.

I do a few discovery calls every week, and if you would like one of those time slots, just write me directly. My schedule is always changing, so instead of using a scheduling tool these days, just write me. It also shows initiative.

I work with folks who take initiative.

[08:00] Community and Closing 

It requires a lot of initiative to be a writer, and we don’t do it by ourselves.

I have never, as a writer, been by myself. I’ve always been in community. So, that is important.

If writing is important to you- writing your science fiction and fantasy novel, something you wanna prioritize now in your life, I would be more than happy to talk with you. All right. That’s it for this week, everyone.

Write long and prosper.

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ABOUT BETH BARANY

Beth Barany

Beth Barany is an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers. They help novelists write, revise, and publish stories that matter—blending practical craft guidance with a big-picture commitment to imagination, meaning, and possibility. 

 

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites: 

 

Author site /  Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

CONNECT 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/BethBarany

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethbarany/

Email: Beth@BethBarany.com

CREDITS 

c 2026 BETH BARANY

https://bethbarany.com/

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