IS THIS YOU?

The Writing from the Deeper Self “Fitting Room”

So you can determine whether this soulful, process-based approach to writing a book —

leading to a published book you can be proud of

that resonates deeply with your readers,

and helps to heal the world —

is a good fit.

NAOMI ROSE, Book Coach / Book Developer & Creative Midwife

~ Encouraging your flowering ~

Because it’s not just how many pages you write.

It’s how much of you comes onto the page.

IS THIS YOU?

Reading this page will allow you to gauge whether we are a good fit for working together to birth the book of your heart.

While I am a book coach, I actually view myself as more of a Book Developer & Creative Midwife — terms I created to describe how and why I work with book writers the way I do.

“Development” — do you remember the kind of photography that depended on film? It had to be developed in a dark room (“a darkroom”) with chemicals that slowly made the opaque black film’s snapshots come into visibility. This is a fitting metaphor for what I do with my clients. I help them “develop” what’s in them, until it becomes visible as their book. (See “Book Development”)

So yes, I do guide clients knowledgeably through the entire process of writing a book, based on my over 30 years in the publications field working with publishers and authors. Yet I believe my way of relating to authors and their inherent creative process is unique.

It’s not only about what comes out onto the page — it’s just as much about through whom the book makes itself known — you. My approach is relational. Soulful. Collaborative. Receptive rather than prescriptive. Willing to be with the evolving process and not know until we do. I bring to my clients a lifetime in books (familial and professional), spiritual seeking, a healing focus, & the desire to encourage your creative blossoming.

Are You Someone for Whom the Inner Life Matters?

And Are You Wanting to Bring That Out in a Book?

If your inner life is central to your sense of self and to the world you want to inhabit, the Writing from the Deeper Self approach to Book Development & Creative Midwifery will fit hand-in-glove with your path.

Your dedication to listening, recognizing inner guidance, and following it will help reveal the landscape of your book, and the map for reaching it. You are someone who doesn’t need a template so much as encouragement to find what feels true in your writing, and support for your native creative ways.

I can help with that.

Do You See Yourself as a Healer, a Creative, an Artist, an Explorer?

Are You Wanting to Write a Book to Develop and Express These Capacities?

If you are in a healing profession, or feel a call to healing in some form that fits for you, the Writing from the Deeper Self approach lets you not only write a book about healing but also transmit healing to your readers through your presence on the page.

If you are a creative, an artist in some form, and/or someone who enjoys the process of exploration for its own sake as well as the outcome, the Writing from the Deeper Self approach lets you bring all that into your writing process — and show up on the page as a result.

Are You a Woman Over 50 with Life Experience to Share and Things Still to Find Out?

Midlife and beyond is a fabulous time to be writing a book for women. Doing so helps you distill the past, come into the aliveness of the present, and move towards a desirable future — not only through the writing, but in your life as well. I have worked with many women over 50 who have found creative fulfillment — personally, sometimes also professionally — in writing a book in the way I help you go about it.

Examples of past clients who actually embody all three of the qualities noted here, and now have books in print include:

💮 Marianne Rothschild, MD, author of Dancing with the Rhythms of Life: A Holistic Doctor’s Guide for Women;

💮 Jenaii Gold, PhD, MFT, author of The Moon, the Hare and the Pearl: An Intuitive Guide to the Therapist-Client Relationship: A Companion for Therapists and Others Who Are Drawn to Their Inner Life;

💮 Shoshana Fershtman, PhD, author of The Mystical Exodus in Jungian Perspective: Transforming Trauma and the Wellsprings of Renewal;

💮 Rahima Warren, MFT (ret.), author of The Star-Seer’s Prophecy (a fantasy trilogy of the healing journey);

💮 Clare Goodwin, Psychosynthesis Therapist, author of Gifts of the Mandala: A Guided Journey of Self-Discovery;

💮 Barbara Hanneloré, author of The Moon and You: A Woman’s Guide to an Easier Monthly Cycle;

💮 Doreen Downing, PhD, author of The 7 Secrets to Essential Speaking: Finding Your Voice, Change Your Life

💮 Deborah Welch, PhD, author of Forgiveness at Work;

and others.

If We Work Together on Your Book —

we’ll listen to you together to find out (1) what you really want to write, (2) how it wants to come through you, and (3) what your natural creative pathways may be, so that you can ease into the writing as if born to it. (Perhaps you were.)

At that point, I will provide you with guidance on how to make use of what has shown itself, in a way that serves all of you. I really am here to be “Encouraging your flowering.”

I won’t be assigning you an outline to write* — in fact, I won’t be assigning you much at all. Instead, we will listen in collaboration and see what wants to be known.

If this all speaks to you so far, then we may well be a good fit.

To further determine whether I have some sense of who you are** — that I am likely to understand you and your book-writing dreams and concerns — read on.

* If you genuinely want to write an outline, then I’ll support you in that. Though I do have a book subtitled “An Alternative to Outlines.”

* * This will come much more into focus, of course, if and when we actually start working together. But it can even show itself as soon as in a 60-minute Gift Session (see below).

Who You Experience Yourself as Being:

💮 If you are someone to whom the inner life matters —

right away that puts us in a compatible relationship.

We both like to look inside for inspiration, questions, answers that go below a more surface level. It means that you already have inner resources to draw from, and the willingness to open up new essential qualities. It suggests that you’re less interested in making airtight declarations on the page than on finding out what’s true for you, and opening to ways to bring that forth in words that reach your own heart as well as your readers’. Whatever your particular practices and ways for getting to such a place — meditation perhaps, mindfulness, chanting, contemplation, and so on — we can meet in that “field” and draw forth what wants to be known from within you. This kind of collaboration is a mutual joy. We can work with this, together.

💮 If creativity is important to you —

this will enliven your experience of the book-writing process.

Whether you already experience yourself as creative — or you don’t, but would really like to (I have a friend who used to declare, “I don’t have a creative bone in my body,” but then joined a healing group and discovered painting in bold colors with acrylics) — coming into book writing with an attitude of curiosity and an urge to make something meaningful out of what calls you to it, as beautifully and authentically as you can, makes the journey its own reward, and the completed book the outcome of this worthwhile journey. How different this is from feeling pressured to churn out a manuscript in hopes of a reward of some kind down the road (stupendous sales, gushing book reviews, etc.). This way, you write because you love what you unearth and what flowers.

💮 If healing is on your radar screen —

that is, you care about wholeness and harmony . . . you seek the underlying unity that allows the separate parts to cohere, whether chapters that weave together meaningfully and seamlessly, or the integration of mind / body / feelings / spirit that constitutes true health —

then our working relationship as well as your book-writing process will foster this experience of healing through your writing. This then will reverberate out to your readers.

Whether your interest in healing concerns mainly your own life, or extends beyond that into other people’s lives, into the world, and perhaps even into the work you have chosen to do (if so, see "Book Writing for Therapists & Other Healers”), you have an awareness that wholeness is not only optimal but possible, whatever the route taken to achieve it. So your desire to write a book exists within this context of healing. (Note that your book does not specifically have to be about healing to be healing.)

💮 Most of my clients tend to be women.

I am happy to work with men on their books, and have happily done so. But there seems to be a natural magnetism between women and my more listening way of working. The feminine qualities of receptivity and intuition, among others, seem to be a good fit for women who value these qualities in themselves, and who perhaps have not had the chance before to bring them into creating a written work that truly reflects them — whether because this awareness is new to them, or because they come out of an academic setting that inherently requires a certain level of intellectual rigor but perhaps at the expense of a deeper, unquantifiable knowing, or for some other reason.

So the sensibility that women bring — which needs more mirroring, I believe, in order to be taken in and taken as immensely valuable — wants and needs to show up on the page. This is different from women authoring books that work within standardized guidelines and excise their subtler sensibilities. Instead, Writing from the Deeper Self, as it was long ago revealed to me (see the “About” page), seeks to bring these subtler sensibilities forth onto the page, so that readers can experience the reflection of similar qualities in them (which can help open up such qualities in masculine readers, as well).

💮 Most of my clients tend to be women over 50.

It’s not like there’s a stanchion rope of a certain age separating women who can write books that heal, using my process. I’m happy to work with younger women, too. But I’ve found, over the years, that women over 50 are drawn to this way of writing a book. Perhaps it does have something to do with the wisdom that can come when enough life-experience has winnowed out the essential from the inessential.

Perhaps the longing to contribute something of real meaning to the world, based on how life has come together for a person and what she has made of it, becomes more urgent at this time of life. Perhaps even (as in my own case) the spiritual-creative forces deepen as one ages, making possible understandings, gifts, and talents that were eclipsed or in abeyance or even nonexistent earlier on. Whatever the reasons, women over 50 have been the mainstay of my clientele, and I surely love to work with them. I receive fully as much as I give.

💮 Most of my clients write nonfiction books (although some write memoirs, fiction, or narrative nonfiction).

It has just turned out that way — perhaps because i largely write nonfiction, myself. But I often bring myself into my own writing — usually as a lens rather than a subject, a lens through which readers can see themselves — and so memoir writing is also something I can help support. I do have some clients writing fiction, which I love because not only do I get to bring in my professional writing expertise (both my parents were fiction writers so in a way I was born into the “family business”) but I also get to bring my ability to immerse myself in the writer’s world, a natural “talent” that comes along with interest and empathy.

One reason I love to work with people writing nonfiction books is that so many published nonfiction books are dry, even desiccated — top-heavy with ideas and concepts, lacking those more, well, fictional elements that evoke a felt and sensed response. Happily, there’s also a genre called “narrative nonfiction” that marries the factual with a more evocative way of bringing it through.

So if you are drawn to the Writing from the Deeper Self approach, as you encounter it on this website, you can write in any genre: nonfiction, fiction, memoir, narrative fiction, and so on. (I have helped out with a few children’s books, but that may be a category that does best with a specifically children’s-book coach and/or editor. And I don’t work with poetry — much as I love it — but my husband, the poet Ralph Dranow, does.)

💮 As for the demographics —

such as where you live, what your work is, your marital status, your hobbies, and the rest — I really don’t think that matters as much as the inner impetuses (see above) for writing a book. How you hold your inner life. Your relationship to your creative nature. Your openness to healing and contributing to healing through writing a book. The inner attunement matters more, for this purpose, than your outer details.

(Although I’ve had such a wide variety of outer-detailed clients over the years — from ecologists to artists to Reiki masters to Jungian therapists to former nuns to mothers and grandmothers to . . . you get the idea. The outside has infinite variety. The inside is where we meet.)

Where Are You in the Book-Writing Process?

I work with people at any stage of the book-writing process,

so if we are a fit I will be delighted to meet you wherever you are.

Here are some of the possibilities.

See which best fits you at this time.

💮 You have a wish to write a book.

You have not written yet, and may not have a clear idea of what your book will be about. But a desire to write a book lets you know it’s there. This is like the “wanting to conceive” pre-pregnancy phase. The desire is what sparks the reality to come into existence. This is a very good place to start. We can work with this.

💮 You have an idea for a book.

The wish has come further for you, and begun to converge into a specific idea. “I want to write a book about ______,” you may be thinking, and feel some real excitement. But then, perhaps a blank wall. “What do I do next? How do I turn this idea into a fully fleshed-out book?” We can work with this, too. (Again, I won’t prescribe an outline unless you really, really want one. Instead, we’ll listen well to you together, and note what wants to give itself to you.)

💮 You have the beginnings of a book.

You have some pages written. “Is it about this? Is it about that?” Maybe you wrote a heart-stopping Introduction, but don’t know what to do next. Do you start by writing Chapter 1? But what is the first chapter? Could you begin with the fifth chapter and work your way backwards? The beauty of the Writing from the Deeper Self approach is that once we find out what your natural creative process is (it’s likely to not be entirely linear), we build on that, and gradually the rest follows. So yes, we can work with this.

💮 You have pages and pages and pages of writing.

You’re not just beginning, you’ve been at this some time, and the number of pages you’ve written has piled up. But you may feel more confused than when you started. Maybe you have different versions of the book. Maybe what you’ve written goes in several directions at once, and you’re feeling still-eager but frustrated about how to make it all cohere. Or maybe you’re happy with the pages you have written, and you want to be supported to write more. Either way, we can work with this.

💮 Your manuscript is in its final draft and pretty much ready for editing.

If that’s the case, we can see what your manuscript needs to be publishable, I’m a highly experienced editor with scores of edited books to my credit, and if that’s your need, I can help. (Following the completion of this phase, I can — to some degree — inform you about various publishing options so you can choose the one that fits you best. If self-publishing is what you decide on, I can help by guiding you towards professionals who will bring your book through the “Production” phase — e.g., book designer, typesetter, illustrator, printing, etc. In some self-publishing cases, I can coordinate this for you personally.)

Your Next Step

If you recognize yourself in what you’ve read here, you may feel ready to take a step towards making your book a reality. Choose one option, or make use of all three.If you recognize yourself here on this page,

then you are a very good candidate for our working together.

So if there is a longing to write a book in you —

despite your doubts and fears, which would tend to arise for pretty much anyone

— consider working with me.

Together, we can listen the book of your heart into reality — for your own sake and the sake of your readers.

OPTION 1:

SCHEDULE A FULL 60-MINUTE GIFT SESSION WITH ME

for a direct client-level experience of my work as a Book Developer & Creative Midwife.

This is not a Discovery Session or a back-door way for me to get new clients. It is a gift — an obligation-free deep dive into your concerns and desires about writing the book of your heart (wherever you currently are in the process), where I offer you the same combination of book expertise, deep encouragement, and healing ways that I bring to my actual clients.

It’s like actually having a client session with me. You will have a direct experience of me and my approach — and the take-away benefits you get to keep and work with on your own — without any obligation to continue with me past this session.

In this Gift Session, we will listen to you together about how who you are can be lovingly mined to bring forth what your book wants to be, and how it can get there in harmony with your natural creative ways and being.

If this sounds like a good plan to you, then go ahead and click on the button below to schedule your Gift Session.

OPTION 2:

Subscribe to my newsletter (see below).

OPTION 3:

Read my books on the creative process to discover the wealth of natural creativity available to you, in your own way.

• Starting Your Book: A Guide to Navigating the Blank Page by Attending to What’s Inside You

• An Organic Approach to Structuring Your Book: A Right-Brained Alternative to Outlines (Workbook Included)

• 10 Essential Qualities That Help You Write a Book: Watering the Seeds of the Qualities You Need

Prefer to do a bit more research first?

If so, I suggest you go to the Services pages

— Book Development, Book Writing for Therapists and Other Healers, Editing,and Creative Midwifery —

and see what most closely speaks to your needs and your heart.

A BIT ABOUT ME: I bring to my clients 30+ years in the publications field, and a lifetime of seeking healing, and encouraging the blossoming of what’s real.

I was born into a family of writers, so was immersed in that atmosphere before I was old enough to even knew what it was. Later, I studied literature, but the mysteries of healing were what fully captured my passionate attention. Now, I seek to bring the two realms together in my work as a Book Developer and Creative Midwife.

“Book Developer & Creative Midwife” is my own terminology. I am a Book Coach in terms of guiding you knowledgeably through the book-writing process — but with the nuanced addition of a soulful, collaborative receptivity to your discovering, through our work together, how who you actually are wants to write. (The term, “development,” here, refers to how a photographic negative in a darkened room will evolve from pure blank opacity into a clear and detailed visibility.) There are no templates, no “shoulds” in my way of guiding you — just listening to you really well so you recognize your path from within in writing your book, and have the support, trust, and confidence to take it.

Thank you for reading what I’ve written, here. I look forward to reading what you will write.

Sign up for my newsletter and discover the power of writing and healing. Let me support you in bringing the book of your heart to radiant life.