Getting acquainted is the first step in coaching, whether it's in my workroom in Los Osos or online through Writeasy.com . I want you to know me. And I want to learn as much as I can about you: Why you've come to me. What your goals are. Where you come from. Where you want to go. Where you went to school and what you studied. Where you worked and what you learned on the job.

Calling up stories on the screen is the next step. I'll ask you who you write for and how you get your story ideas; how you decide on your approach; how you choose your sources and how you interview them; what you learn from your reporting; how you decide what will go into your stories--and what you leave out.

I read stories aloud or ask you to read aloud. Hearing the words as we see them puts us closer to our readers. We discover we can hear holes and rough spots that we missed with our eyes. Weak concepts and structural faults become obvious. As we work our way through stories, I suggest techniques I've found to make the job easier and more efficient. I dispel myths. I reveal truths. And I help you write in your own voice--or edit in ways that strengthen writers' voices.

We search for precise, vigorous words. We order them logically in clear, simple sentences. We build strong, emphatic paragraphs. And we use segues between paragraphs that make our stories flow.

Magic moments come often when we are sitting next to each other at the computer in my Los Osos workroom, overhung by 200-year-old pigmy oaks and a huge wisteria, surrounded by orchids and banks of ferns. Now I hope to create the same excitement online in my virtual atrium, Writeasy.com.

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