EXPERT COACHING FROM A PUBLISHING INSIDER AND BESTSELLING NOVELIST.

TALK THERAPY FOR YOUR WRITING™

COMPASSIONATE. DISCREET. EFFECTIVE.

Book sessions as you need them. Pay as you go.

Call it coaching; call it writing therapy; call it having a dedicated passionate support-person available to help guide you through the process of writing, and finishing, your book: that’s what I do. Most of us — either first-timers or experienced authors facing a mid-career challenge — battle anxiety, fear of failure, shame, and a lack of confidence when it comes to our writing. We need someone to talk to about the emotional and editorial issues that are holding us back and affecting our work, and someone who can make sense of our partially-formed thoughts and story ideas. Someone like a therapist, but not your actual therapist, because, really, what does your therapist know about the misery of writing and publishing books?

I know a lot about it. With over 35 years in the book publishing business — first in the publicity departments of several divisions of Random House for a decade, and then as the author of five novels and six books of collaborative non-fiction — I understand both the process of writing and the business of publishing. I also understand, firsthand, what it’s like to be stuck and unable to write: how completely crippling a crisis of confidence can be and how long it can take to recover from one. Mine lasted 10 years and brought my fiction-writing career to a dead halt. Most traditional coaching approaches focus on what’s on the page (I didn’t have any pages), not on what’s behind conflicted feelings about writing, and many coaches aren’t writers. What I wanted was talk-therapy for my writing with someone who was a writer — someone who would understand what I was struggling with. Luckily, I found someone skilled to help me, and now I want to help others, too.

I take an empathetic and conversational approach with the clients I work with – skills I’ve honed through years of ghostwriting work, where I’ve carefully coaxed stories out of clients and made sense out of their narrative arcs and patterns and threads. First, I’ll help you identify the emotional and editorial issues that have slowed or stopped your productive creative process and progress. Then I’ll ask questions to help you find the answers you likely already know but can’t access. Once you’re on track, I’ll stay with you until you’ve achieved your goal.

A book becomes a book in the process of writing it, but writing can be a long and lonely process. It’s common to get lost in the dark of a project — to feel unsure about the story you're trying to tell and how best to tell it. Whether you’re working on a novel or a memoir, whether you haven’t started writing or can’t seem to finish what you’re working on, let me help you. Together, we’ll get it done.

LET’S TALK

Hello! Before you book an appointment, please write to me at laura.zigman@gmail.com and tell me a little bit about yourself and what you’re looking for in terms of writing therapy and coaching. I’ll reply and share pricing information. Then you can use the scheduling link below. To those of you who’ve been in touch: I'm looking forward to talking with you.

Thank you!

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Laura Zigman is the author of six novels (Small World was just published in early 2023). She has ghostwritten and/or collaborated on multiple memoirs and non-fiction books, including the New York Times bestselling Believe Me, with actor and comedian Eddie Izzard and Forgetting to be Afraid, with former Texas-state senator Wendy Davis, among others. She still can’t quite believe she’s writing and publishing fiction again after a 14-year-gap between novels.