Chatting with myself: Creativity coaching

Last week at the library I picked up a great book by Eric Maisel called Coaching the Artist Within. This guy's a "creativity coach", which seems to mean he helps musicians, writers, artists and actors to overcome creativity problems. I sat down at my local shopping centre, complete with my favourite temura dish the Japanese food stall, and got into the first chapter. Problems such as "not It recommended having a chat with myself - in fact, physically using two chairs to switch between the "real you" and your "inner creativity coach". Since a public food hall was probably not the best place to do this, I used my imagination and wrote my dialogue instead. It's quite eye-opening, and here it is. My inner coach speaks in italics!:
So, what's stopping you from writing this novel?
- well, mostly procrastination. I just find so many other things that I have to do first.
Why are the other things more important?
- some because I can earn money from them; or because they just have to be done, like paperwork for our new house.
Why can't you prioritise some time to start writing your novel?
- I keep thinking this, but there's always a reason why it has to wait. But I'm like that with lots of things - procrastination is a big problem for me.
Is there any other reason why you haven't started your novel? Do you believe you can do it?
- I believe I can do it. I'm a good writer and I have interesting stories to tell. I haven't written much fiction for a long time, but I'm sure with practice I'll get there. I read a lot of novels and I know what "sounds good" to me. I guess I'm a little worried that I won't be able to write "great literary fiction" but not worried enough that this would stop me - I really do believe I can do it.
What about the length of a novel, the huge time commitment. Is that a problem for you?
- Not at the moment. Maybe when I'm part way through this could be a frustration for me.
So how are you going to get started?
- Good question. I have two ideas. 1) Choose sub-stories from my first novel idea and practise fiction writing by making short stories out of them - especially to submit to magazines and contests - that way I satisfy myself that I'm possibly earning a tiny bit of money from it, that I'm practising fiction writing in a manageable way, and that the goals are shorter term. In fact this is an idea that's just formulated properly as I've been speaking with you, so that's great. 2) More simply, to devote a particular time each week to novel writing. Less likely to succeed at the moment I think. I need more tangible goals.
OK, so get started then!
- Thanks coach, I will!