YHAP Process Mapping
YHAP Process Mapping
On this page you’ll learn all about doing a 1:1 process mapping call withe me. Whether you’re new to the You Have A Process method or an old hand, this is for you.
Note: You do NOT need to do the YHAP on-demand course before this call. If you have gone through the course, then get ready to dive in deeper into the sticky areas of your process, your revision process, or how your process changes depending on the project.
Click here if you prefer to be taken to the on-demand course page.
“Every book felt like a miracle that I was afraid I would not be able to replicate. Heather not only insisted that I have a writing process, she helped me figure out what mine is (hint: it is absolutely nothing like the many craft books I’d read in a desperate attempt to make writing easier, and yes, I DO have a process!). By figuring out how my brain tells stories, I felt a lot of anxiety and uncertainty lift, and for the first time I felt true confidence in my ability to complete my work.
I ended up learning a brand new technique for mapping out my plots and was able to complete my novel. The practices and techniques Heather has taught me have brought me confidence, peace (really!), and restored my joy in writing. I can’t recommend working with Heather enough!”
How It Works
We begin with an in-depth intake. After you book your call, I’ll send you a detailed intake that serves to prep you for our session and give me a good sense of where you’re at with your writing and where you want to go. This is holistic. We look at lifestyle as well as writing cave hygiene. Some of the questions are related to other areas of your life so we can see how certain qualities and tendencies you have inform your writing.
Before our call, you’ll begin working with a process log. I’ll be asking you to be mindful of your writing over the course of at least a week before our call. You’ll have a list of things to pay attention to. Your findings will act as a foundation for our inquiry during the call. You’ll be keeping a process log where you note down when you have flow and when you get stuck (and what was going on at the time). You notice what you do before, during, and after writing. You look at your environment and lifestyle and notice how these things affect your performance in the writer’s seat.
On our call, we begin with what I call “the dialogue.” Through my dynamic Q+A process where we work through the You Have A Process Mindmap, you’ll get enormous insights into your own process. It is SUCH a blast to learn about all the unique ways you get into story and to hear you in real time discover that you DO have a process. You really do. This is POWERFUL WORK.
By the end of the call, you will have a Process Mindmap to take home and continue working with as you gain new insights into your process.
From the dialogue, we’ll explore what your PROCESS ARCHETYPE might be. This isn’t another box to put you in - it’s a jumping-off—point to understand how you get into story and thus provides strategies for more flow and to get unstuck, as well as to do generative work.
At the end of the call, we’ll develop your personal action plan for honing your process. You’ll have lots of tools, a few assignments, and the confidence that you have a process!
I’ve also adapted this work to your revision process. You can choose to have a process mapping call just for your revision process. We’ll be looking at how your revision process varies from your drafting process. Where are they the same, and where are they necessarily different? We look at the unique energy and challenges that come up in revision, and work with adapting tools and incorporating new ones to help you feel more confidence and creative joy while revising. I LOVE revision, and my goal is that you will learn to love it too by making it your own.
All YHAP writers receive lifelong access to my private Mindfulness Portal: Downloadable meditations, posture clinic, walking meditation tutorial, and more. This will help with many stops on your process mindmap.
“No writer is “too experienced” to come away with actionable insights from You Have a Process. I’ve been at this for more than twenty years and have been continually refining my process all that time (at least I thought I was!), yet there are always deeper layers of knowing, and Heather guides us to the next level with a very practical, compassionate, and intuitive approach.
Working through Heather’s course sparked the most delightful epiphany—that I draft a novel in much the same way I plan and assemble a quilt!—and this new understanding has already made the drafting process twice as enjoyable for me. I finished YHAP feeling creatively invigorated and excited to integrate what I’ve learned into my coaching practice as well.
”
The You Have A Process System
Over years of working with writers to uncover their process and tap into its potential, I’ve developed a system that helps us dive deep into this work quickly and efficiently.
Most writers come to me frustrated because they’ve been trying to put on other people’s processes. They’ve read Plot Whisperer, Save the Cat, Story Genius. They do what their favorite writer does, or try out a new kind of outlining everyone’s talking about. They label themselves a “pantser” or a “plotter,” stuffing themselves into a one-size-fits-all box that is very uncomfortable.
My goal is to help writers discover that they actually have a process. Sometimes it shows up in the writer’s seat without them realizing it. Other times, it’s a process that works in other parts of their life that they can successfully transfer into their writing sessions.
Through a dynamic dialogue process, worksheets, curated writing exercises, lifestyle changes, and a holistic look at your writing hygiene and creativity lifestyle, we’ll get your process running smoothly. You’ll walk away with a firm understanding of your process and with lots of tools for getting unstuck, inducing flow, and writing / planning in the ways that work for you.
You’ll explore process archetypes with specific strategies to help you get unstuck and in flow. You’ll have more authority on the page - because you trust yourself, because you’re not writing from a place of fear or debilitating uncertainty.
You Have A Process is meant to empower you: this is YOUR process - no need to ask permission, no club to be admitted to, no table or box to squeeze yourself into.
More flow.
More focus.
More joy in the writer’s seat.
Sounds good, right?
“Figuring out your process as a writer is as important as mapping out the plot to your story. Heather helped me figure out how to create a foundation for flow, and manage the multiple distractions of daily life. Writing a novel can be a very lonely thing, and Heather helped me feel connected to my project—and not abandon this story that I know needs to be told.”
:: Exchange ::
90-Minute1:1 Process Mapping Call: $350*
*The Process Mapping call does not include the course, so please purchase that separately. The call includes an initial intake and your personal detailed process chart with suggestions for next steps, which you’ll receive after our call.
“The You Have A Process course is kind of like “hacking” your creative brain.
It helped me identify exactly which ingredients result in my very best writing days so that I can recreate those circumstances day after day.
As long as I stick to the map, my writing sessions are more consistent, more productive, and more enjoyable than ever before. ”
I’ve been working on my process for a LONG time. Clearly snacks are part of it! 😂
“I will carry forward with me forever the process that we uncovered. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Things I thought were hurdles turned out to actually be steps in my own process that I wasn’t valuing (and therefore working against). It was sort of like she helped me co-author the book of Kirsten, the writer.
Heather’s work helped me see the positive in all of the steps of my personal writing process AND taught me how to leverage them to my benefit.
Now when I am stuck – I can look at what is going on, and figure out where I am indeed in my creative process, and then go back through the tactics we developed for me, to either push forward, or get back on track.
I’m in the midst of writing my third short story now, and for the first time in a long time – the writing is my focus – not all of the BS I did before that was keeping me from the actual writing. ”
Questions?
Click below to send me a message! I can’t wait to get to know you (and your process!). 😊
“Game changer! When Heather asked me what my process was, I answered something like, “I grab a cup of coffee, sit at my desk and stare at my computer until the words magically come to me.” Instead of laughing at me, she asked poignant questions about the times I was most prolific, those seemingly spontaneous visits from the muse that I thought I couldn’t control. Through her questions and insight, we discovered what truly fueled my muse and came up with several methods and practices where I could recreate that scenario, over and over. This discovery opened the flow!
In 3 weeks I wrote almost 30k words, good words not empty calories. One of those days, I wrote 10k!!!
Understanding how you tick as a writer is the key to unlocking your flow.
Heather has a keen insight on helping you drill down the parts to your process and creating multiple plans to access that flow. So eye-opening once she helps you figure it out. Definitely a course all writers should take.”
“I’ve worked with Heather over the last several years. She’s helped me transform my writing practice from casual writer, with fading hopes and dreams, to evolving into being a writer 24/7. One of the key ways we did this together was through discovering my writing process.
I used to think I was a bumbling writer with no clear method, but it turns out that isn’t true! Heather asked me key questions to help me discover where my distinct writing flow comes from and how to make that process repeatable, even when I feel stuck. She helped me understand the role my writing space plays, the rituals I have before and after I write, and what practices and exercises support my writing flow, even when I’m not drafting.
It’s helped me understand what support I need to give myself as writer. And now, knowing my process, when I sit down to write, it often feels like there’s a music conductor standing before me, making sure each instrument is in place to get my writing flow just right.”