Naomi Rose, Book Developer & Creative Midwife

ENCOURAGING YOUR FLOWERING

Creator, WRITING FROM THE DEEPER SELF: A soulful, process-based approach to writing, leading to a published book that heals

Because it’s not just how many pages you write. It’s how much of you gets to come onto the page.

IS THIS YOU?

I ask because although many people feel they have a book in them, I may not be the right person to help you with yours. Reading this page will allow you to gauge whether we are a good fit.

So it’s important to know that I am not a book coach. I am a Book Developer & Creative Midwife (my own terminology). While I do guide you knowledgeably through the entire process of writing a book, based on my over 30 years in the publications field working with publishers and authors, my way of relating to my clients and their creative process is intentionally unique.

More soulful. More collaborative. More willing to not-know until we do know. More interested in discovering how the writing wants to uniquely come to and through you rather than handing you pre-set guidelines to follow. I bring to my clients a lifetime of seeking & encouraging the expression of what’s real.

So I will not be assigning you an outline to write* — in fact, I will not assign you much of anything. Instead, 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.”

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

To help you determine whether I have a sense of who you are** in order to feel that I would understand you and your dreams and concerns, see how this next section lands in you.

* 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 1/2-hour complimentary session to explore your book-writing dreams and concerns.

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.)

And Some More Detailed Details

• Most of my clients tend to be women.

  I am happy to work with men on their books, and have happpily 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.

  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 usual 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 You Are 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.

  Nothing written yet, not necessarily even a clear idea of what your book will be about. But there’s a desire that’s letting 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 Current Relationship to Writing a Book — Hopes & Fears, etc.

FEARS, ETC.:

• You never wrote a book before (although you may have thought about it), and are experiencing trepidation along with the excitement.

  Most of my clients began with me as first-time authors. So whatever doubts and fears you may be experiencing, rest assured that these people (the majority of whom now have books in print) initially had them, too. The fearful landscape may include:

  • Fear of the unknown — This dissipates once you actually embark on the journey. At some point, you can begin to trust that the very process of discovering what you don’t yet know is not only part of the creative journey but also a source of enrichment and a widening of your sense of who you are.

  • Discouraging experiences of writing earlier in life (e.g., in school) — This transforms in the course of discovering your natural creative ways so that you take pleasure in being able to bring what’s in you out onto the page.

  • Confusion about how to start your book, or overwhelm from being exposed to boiler-plate solutions (e.g., “Write a book in a weekend,” “Construct an outline and then follow it to the letter,” and so on) — This is addressed not only in our work together, but also in my books on the creative process, which you can read on your own beforehand, if you like: Starting Your Book: A Guide to Navigating the Blank Page by Attending to What’s Inside You, and also An Organic Approach to Structuring Your Book: An Alternative to Outlines (Workbook Included).

  Rest assured that if you and I work together to help you bring forth the book that is in you, the process will be customized to serve who you are and the unique ways in which your creative process works. From this tailored attention will come a flow of creativity that you can recognize, trust, and deepen into.

• You have written a book before, or at least a shorter work — but you didn’t much enjoy the process, and you aren’t really looking forward to going through that kind of thing again.

  This way of writing a book is different. It really takes you into account. Our focus is not just on the details and craft of “What will I write, and how?” In addition, we listen well, together, to find out what inside you is calling you to write — what wants to be known, and how it wants to come forth through your unique constellation of qualities. So instead of straining to write or feeling depleted by the act of writing, you can receive inspirations from within and express them in ways that bring forth your true voice.

• You’re wondering if you are too old to write a book.

  There is no such thing as “too old to write a book.” In fact, it frequently takes the passage of years to come to understand who you are, what’s really important, and what you know (and also don’t yet know but wish to find out). You may find that at this time of life, the inessentials have slipped away like a dress that no longer fits slipping down around the ankles, and that you are filled with eagerness to explore your perspectives and what really matters to you through your writing. Once the obstructive voice of doubt and fear lets go, the creative voice — always available in you — can make enable your wisdom, curiosity, and love to speak through your written explorations.

DESRES & HOPES:

• To write a book that makes you happy and fulfilled.

  (Even if, from here, you can’t see how to do this.)

  You harbor a hope that bringing something from inside you into expression — an expression you can’t envision at this point — will make a difference in your sense of yourself and the fulfillment of your life’s purpose. And you’d like to enjoy the process along the way.

• To write a book that makes a real difference in your readers’ lives.

  Yes, you want to write your book to fulfill your own purposes. But you also want it to go beyond you — to offer something that only you can offer . . . to bring some sort of healing . . . to make the world a better place — one reader at a time.

• To convey a message that matters deeply to you.

  You have something important to convey to readers, and you want them to receive it. But you don’t want to do it from a soapbox. You want your book to be far more relatable than that.

• To contribute your special way of seeing to the world — your unique perspective.

  You know that your perspective has value — and that making it available to readers will enrich their lives and understanding.

• You want to enter a new chapter of your life.

  By writing a book that breaks new ground for you, or that gathers together your life experiences and wisdom to date, you bring to completion much or all that’s gone before. Then your life itself moves into a new chapter.

Feel Ready to Work with Me?

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 being, for your own sake and your readers’.

If you feel ready to contact me at this point to set up a complimentary 30-minute consultation to explore how I can support you to write the book that’s in you, click here.

If it’s not quite that time for you yet, I suggest you go to the Services pages and see what most closely speaks to your needs and your heart.

You also can start by reading my books on the Creative Process — a low-commitment, low-cost way to get a sense of how I can help you write the book of your heart and bring that healing into the world.

And you can sign up below for my weekly newsletter on the healing gifts of the creative process, “Writing from the Deeper Self.”

A BIT ABOUT ME: I bring to my clients 30+ years in the publications field, and a lifetime of seeking and encouraging 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 this page.

If you feel seen and encouraged by what you’ve encountered here, then we can work together rewardingly.

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.