Sherry Peters, a local author with years of experience and a couple of award nominations to her name, has taken to using her own challenges to help other writers overcome their own blocks. This has been the inspiration for her one-on-one writers coaching business.
The self-published author, who has written three novels and two self-help books, knows firsthand what it’s like to reach a point in your writing where you no longer know which direction to go, and where self-doubt can start to dominate the creative process.
She also knows that these obstacles can be overcome, and that writers can come out the other side with work they can be proud of.
“A number of years ago, I experienced a number of setbacks in my writing. The rejections I received were frustrating and made me question what I was doing,” Peters explains. “I had also heard some comments from well-established writers that suggested my writing path was somehow wrong or illegitimate. I questioned everything. At the time, I was in a graduate program for writing popular fiction, and I had monthly deadlines. It was through that experience that I ended up developing tools and methods to silence my self-doubt, also known as writer’s block, and get myself back to writing. I knew most writers experience that same self-doubt at some point in their writing life, and that I could help them.”
Peters has been running her coaching business for the past six years. Through it, she is able to hold writers accountable and challenge them through relaxed and friendly conversations. In addition to holding her clients accountable, she also help them break through writer’s block, set writing goals, and establish a process that works for them on their current project.
“I generally coach clients over a three-month period, and our calls are customized to each clients needs and situation,” she says. “I’ve been there. I know the paralyzing self-doubt, and I know it can be defeated.”
Like many authors, Peters has been writing for as long as she can remember, dabbling in various genres. Eventually she landed on fantasy, and in 2014 she published her first novel, Mabel the Lovelorn Dwarf, a light-hearted tale that she says combines the best of Bridget Jones’ Diary and The Lord of the Rings. That same year, she won the 2014 Writer’s Digest Self-Publishing e-book award for young adult fiction.
Since then, Peters has continued to write her own novels, including two more in her Mabel series, as well as publish two books designed to help writers overcome their writer’s block.
In 2019, she says, she wants to take her coaching business to the next level.
“While I will continue to coach writers one-on-one, I will also be preparing online courses so that I can serve a broader number of writers,” she says. “I have two non-fiction books out right now, Silencing Your Inner Saboteur and Blueprint for Writing Success, that I want to expand and teach as well.”
