I Believe in Questions....

3 October 2024

Welcome to this week’s NTTWC newsletter!

Thank you for subscribing to No Time to Write Club. We’re thrilled you’re here! 

Each newsletter will include a column by Sara and/or Tes, a schedule of NTTWC events, information about our podcast, updates on what we’re doing, and news from the NTTWC community. Paid subscribers will receive links for writing sprints and other events.

Photo by Mehdi Mirzaie on Unsplash

One of the first skills we learned in Katie Linder’s introductory coaching course was how to set an agenda in keeping with International Coaching Federation guidelines. The first step—asking the client what topic they’d like to bring to the day’s session—seems entirely sensible: of course we need to ask our client what they’d like to talk about!

The second, however, felt obvious. Too obvious—and in a wholly different and wholly awkward way. Asking “What makes this significant for you right now?” right after a client has shared their topic felt redundant. But the ICF is very clear that establishing significance is a fundamental part of setting an agenda, so….

In those first few weeks when my classmates and I practiced setting coaching agendas with each other, “the significance question” felt clunky and almost embarrassing to ask. But at some point, we began to realize that WOW—this question can yield really important information and inspire a client to reflect anew on a topic that they thought they’d completely figured out.

In my academic writing life, “the significance question” has often felt fraught—scary, even. In some academic contexts, “What’s significant about your research” easily becomes “Explain yourself, you mere puny sniveling mortal!” The gentler version—“What interventions do you hope this research will make in your field?”—is still pretty fucking tough to answer when you’re used to a form of gatekeeping that’s erratic in both its praise and its punishment.

But “the significance question” in coaching contexts feels really different. It feels like an invitation: Why this? Why now? When I’m writing and I ask myself these questions the answers are expansive. They unlock new ways of thinking about my topic and holding it in space and time. They allow me to think through it—and around it, underneath it, on top of it, and beside it (pace Sara Ahmed). I can hold it up to the light and see the shadows it casts, and I can bring it into the dark and see what it looks like there, too.

So—what makes the thing you’re working on significant right now?

—Tes

No Time to Write Club Schedule: October 6–October 31, 2024

To join our sprints you must be a paid subscriber :)

Zoom links are below for paid subscribers.

• Sunday, October 6: Asynchronous Sprint Day, 6AM–11pm ET on the Substack Chat.

• Wednesday, October 9, 9:00pm ET: Zoom writing sprint (75 minutes)

• Thursday, October 10, 12:00pm ET: Zoom writing sprint (75 minutes)

• Sunday, October 13, 4:30pm ET: Zoom writing sprint (75 minutes)

• Wednesday, October 16, 9:00pm ET: Zoom writing sprint (75 minutes)

• Wednesday, October 23, 9:00pm ET: Zoom writing sprint (75 minutes)

• Thursday, October 24, 12:00pm ET: Zoom writing sprint (75 minutes)

• Sunday, October 27, 4:30pm ET: Zoom writing sprint (75 minutes)

• Tuesday, October 29: Asynchronous Sprint Day, 6AM–11pm ET on the Substack Chat

• Wednesday, October 30, 9:00pm ET: Zoom writing sprint (75 minutes)

Your Opportunity to Provide Scheduling Input!

We’d like to schedule our events at times that the most people can make. In mid-October, we will poll paid and free subscribers to see what times work best for you.

Podcast

Want to know more about how No Time to Write Club works and why we started it? Have a listen! Our next podcast episode will be out on October 10.

What We’re Up To

Tes’s Substack newsletter, The Feral Flyer, is now a real live publication! If you’re curious about where the feral thing comes from, head over there and read the first installment (and subscribe if you’d like).

Sara is doing a book event for Principles of (E)motion at Revalation Winery (yeah, that’s how they spell it) at 5:30 tomorrow (Friday, October 4) with her author friend Katharine Schellman. This event benefits the Literacy Council of Madison County, so if you’re in the area, check it out!

In the NTTWC Community

Overheard during this week’s writing sprints and shared with permission:

[On regretting deletions] “It’s easier to edit a book that exists than it is to edit one that does not!” — Tea @teanibraz

“We’re all just goofballs trying to get our shit done.” — Tes @theferalfreelancer

Please send us your news and announcements for future newsletters!

Zoom links below for paid subscribers