On this quiet Saturday afternoon, I am smack-dab in the middle between two of the fullest weeks I experience every summer. I have been counseling at Camp Good News for nearly a decade, and it is always the highlight of my summer months. Why am I starting my Increasing Grace Book Coaching blog by talking about the church camp I happen to counsel at every summer? Because that's where my mind and heart are currently. I just finished week 1, and tomorrow I go back again for week 2. We spend the week doing crafts, canoeing, singing camp praise songs, and spending a lot of time in the Word (the Bible). It is refreshing to my soul, and so impressively cup filling while simultaneously stealing all of my energy pennies 😂💙
Seeing God working in and through the lives of the young women I have the privilege and honor to serve for a limited 5 days is incredible to witness. If I can be half as impactful to my clients as camp is for the young girls I have the humbling opportunity to serve, then I will be more than satisfied with Increasing Grace Coaching. One of my campers said that I was basically a therapist this past week, and it reminded me of my best friend and current housemate saying I'm basically an author's therapist in the way that I approach being a book coach. Disclaimer, I am not a therapist at all and have no degrees or certificates that would suggest that I am. I am simply a compassionate human being wanting to bring healing and wholeness to the people around me--and for book coaching, it's deeply important to me to serve the whole of the writer and not just her storytelling skills. An author's mindset and mental health influences her writing in so many ways. A little story to illustrate this: When I was a teenager, I wrote a book called Always in Shadow about a young man who was quiet, didn't believe in himself, and would never rock the boat. He was a peacemaker, he was gentle, and he always deferred to others. He was, in many ways, myself. For anyone familiar with the enneagram, me and this character are both type 9s. I was, I don't know, 18 maybe? When I wrote his story for the first time. I wanted to write a story where he came into his own, grew in his confidence, and found the strength to stand on his own two feet. He would still be a gentle peacemaker, but one who could--and would--stand firm when he needed to. One who could absolutely go to bat for others who needed defending. One who could speak his mind without fear of conflict because he believed in what he was saying. So I wrote Always in Shadow. And at the time, I was satisfied with the journey I had taken this character on. Years passed, and eventually I decided to rewrite and republish my old books, including his. And in rereading that book, I came to the somewhat horrifying realization that by the end of the story, he is still cowering inside his shell. He did not grow in the confidence that I had intended to give him when I wrote that story. So I set about fixing it. And this time...this time he was growing and changing and blossoming into the confident peacemaker that I wanted him to be. And it dawned on me throughout rewriting Always in Shadow that young Mandi had been incapable of telling his story truly because young Mandi hadn't lived that experience. She hadn't grown in confidence. She hadn't learned to speak her mind in spite of conflict. She didn't know how to be gentle and firm at the same time. I was finally able to write this character's story the way it was meant to be told, because I myself had grown as a human being, I had healed in ways I didn't realize I needed to when I first wrote that book. It's called The Journey of the Peacemaker now, if you want to see Much grow in confidence and truly become the man he was meant to be. But the point that I am trying to drive home with that story is that it mattered deeply who was writing that story. The young teenage girl who was afraid to speak her own mind, who always deferred to others, whose sister sometimes (often) called her a door mat because of how little she was willing to ever stand up for herself, for what she believed in, in fear of rocking the boat. OR the young woman learning that conflict is sometimes necessary and even good, the woman who won't be pushed around when it comes to what truly matters and will always stand firm, and yet knows how to continue to give grace and be gentle and give over to others when it doesn't compromise her core beliefs. I am still a peacemaker. I am less a door mat. And because of that, I was able to actually write the story that I intended to write. As a book coach, that is what I want to help writers achieve. I want to facilitate and encourage the personal growth required to tell the story that you truly want to tell. If you are interested in this kind of coaching, book a Vet Me call and let's see if we're a good fit. ~Coach Mandi
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