| There is a writer named Paul Auster who has a great piece of advice for any creative. It stems from a story he lived through as a kid. The story goes that little Paul went to see his first major league baseball game and afterwards worked up the courage to approach his favorite player, Willie Mays, and ask him for his autograph. The player told him of course and asked, “Do you have a pencil?” Paul did not. Neither did his father or mother or anyone else nearby. Mays apologized but said, “Sorry, kid, no pencil, no autograph.” Paul attributes this moment to why he always has a pencil on him, which in turn (he claimed), made him into a writer. Because he was always prepared to write, he grew right into his gifting. I’m sure Mr. Auster was probably already destined to be a writer, but the truth is that any creative activity requires preparedness and practice. And we can’t practice unless we are prepared to practice. I wrote all of my 36 prompts for A New Way to Journal and the 40 prompts plus a paragraph of sample text for my fiction writing prompt book, Push a Pencil, while waiting in the car for my girls to finish dance class. Like Auster, I have long since always tried to have a journal and a pen in my car if not in my purse.Due to having lived a lot of my life traveling, I’m almost always prepared to write. The other day though, I was not. I had four masks and yet nothing on me to write with or on. Not even a piece of chalk. I tried to find a place to buy a new journal, but due to COVID, nothing was open in that area of DC. So I sat quietly and drank my coffee without writing. It was strange. Although I do have to say, it was nice too. But that shouldn’t distract you from Paul Auster’s main point, which I very much agree with, BE PREPARED! |
Ep 238 Can Dictation Help Your Writing? with Guest Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer
Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer is an indie author who writes historical fiction that features authentic American Indian characters. Sign up for her newsletter here: https://www.subscribepage.com/sarahelisabethwrites And
Caldwell
September 23, 2024