Writing in recovery

Addicts to Authors

Turn your past pain and suffering into a blessing for others.

I work with people in recovery who feel called to share their story. People keep telling you, “You should write a book” — and part of you knows they’re right. You have hard, brave life experience, and you want to turn it into something good for someone else. What you don’t have is a clear idea of which parts belong in a book, or much confidence that you could write one. If that’s you, you’re in the right place.

Have people told you, more than once, that you should write a book?

Do you have hard, brave life experience but no idea which parts would work in a book?

Do you want to turn what you went through into something good for someone else?

Do you sometimes feel disconnected, isolated, or alone in your story?

Are you afraid you don’t have enough material — or that you aren’t creative enough?

It’s not hard to write a book, but it’s hard to do it by yourself. Writing a book is easier when someone helps you get started — and you’re too smart to waste time figuring it out on your own.

When you work with me, you will:

Turn past pain and suffering into a blessing for others — and feel the purpose in what you went through.
Take ownership of your story in a new and powerful way.
Create connection with others, feel less isolated, and enjoy real confidence in your unearthed creativity and writing ability.
Re-energize your sobriety as you see its impact on others.
Change the lives of other people in recovery.

How we’ll work together

Story-mining.A unique journaling technique — Writing the W.A.V.E.S.© (Writing the Way to Acceptance, Validation, and Empowerment through our Stories) — that digs through your experience for the pieces worth telling.

Finding the stories.Instruction on how to spot the stories inside your writing and uncover the themes that hold them together.

Building the book.One-on-one coaching to develop those stories and themes into a longer work — a novel, a memoir, a short story or essay, or a prescriptive nonfiction book. Fiction or nonfiction, your call.

Carrying the message.Guidance on using your experience, strength, and hope — through writing and story — to connect with others, make peace with time, and euthanize isolation.

Imagine receiving an email that says…

“Your book changed my life because it gave me the courage to try sobriety.”

“Your novel helped me feel less alone in my recovery. Your recovery story is MY story, too. Thanks for writing it.”

That’s the kind of impact your story can have. We are strong people with brave stories, and the message deserves to be carried.

Why I do this

I’m a woman in long-term recovery. My sobriety date is October 18, 2004. A few years in, I hit a stretch a lot of us hit: I felt invisible and disconnected from the people around me, ashamed of my past, worried that life was rushing by and I was missing something. I wanted to make sense of what I’d been through and make something good and lasting out of it. Writing is what got me through, and it’s why I built this program.

I’m an Author Accelerator Certified Book Coach with certifications in fiction, nonfiction, and memoir, with nearly three decades as a professional writer, editor, and journalist before that. All of us in recovery were the original “me too” crowd — we know the healing nature of those two words.

“I believe in the power of story to create joy from hardship, make peace with time, quiet fear, euthanize isolation, and invite others into a community of common experience.”

Ready to carry the message?

A conversation with a professional book coach who is also a sister in sobriety. Email me and we’ll talk about your story and the best next step for you — no pressure, no obligation.

Book Coaching Works

Michelle Melton Cox