Coaching and Speaking

“Nearly everything I know about writing I learned from Susan Ager: How to interview gently, persistently, like peeling the layers of an onion; how to shape a story deliberately instead of just letting it happen; how to avoid “speed bumps” that will bounce a reader right out of a piece; how to craft a great opening and a memorable ending. I knew Susan’s work before I met her; she was a magazine writer and then a columnist at the Detroit Free Press, and one of the people I read avidly. I admired her brave and bold choice of topics and the very human stories she told. She was never maudlin. She was honest, compassionate, sometimes funny, always provocative. Her two-day coaching session changed how I viewed my job and my craft and now, two decades later, I still find myself quoting her to reporters.”