Rebecca Babcock, a certified life and leadership coach, has introduced Coaching the Character™, a novel session aimed at assisting fiction writers and memoirists in delving into the psychological complexities of their characters. This innovative approach, part of The Babcock Method™, utilizes human-centered coaching techniques to treat fictional characters as real clients, thereby identifying and addressing unconscious obstacles or inconsistencies that may hinder their development.
The development of Coaching the Character™ was inspired by a collaboration with bestselling author Courtney Maum, who encountered a creative impasse with a character in her forthcoming novel. By employing Babcock's coaching methodology to a fictional individual, Maum gained fresh perspectives that breathed new life into her manuscript. This success has elevated Babcock's status as a preferred coach for writers grappling with emotional hurdles in character development.
Coaching the Character™ sessions are designed to uncover the emotional rationale behind plot choices, enrich internal character arcs, and bolster narrative progression. Participants have described these sessions as transformative, highlighting marked enhancements in their comprehension of their characters and the overarching trajectory of their stories. This method is especially advantageous for authors in the revision phase, memoirists dealing with unaddressed emotional narratives, screenwriters facing motivational challenges, and MFA students who may overanalyze their character portrayals.
With her background in trauma-informed, ICF-certified coaching, Babcock has successfully adapted her comprehensive framework to the literary domain through Coaching the Character™. This strategy equips writers with a potent instrument to animate their fictional creations, guaranteeing that their narratives strike a chord with genuine emotional resonance and depth.
