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Love the Work, Not Just the End Result · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Writer Podcast, where we bring you tips and inspiration each day to help you build habits for writing success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: For more resources, including your free Daily Writer Starter kit, visit DailyWriterLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're doing a short series on perspectives that go against conventional wisdom.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're just not joining us, I encourage you to go back and catch the last few entries in this series.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Let me ask you an honest question.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Do you love the work of being a writer?
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Here's what I mean.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Do you love the process of coming up with ideas, working on different drafts?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Do you love the editing part and being involved in the design or layout of blog posts or books or articles?
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Do you take pleasure in the overall creative process of writing?
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Or are you more interested in just the end result?
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Do you tend to see all those other things as an irritation or as an annoyance on the way to getting to the end result?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is an important distinction.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: I believe that if you're going to be successful over the long haul as a writer, you have to learn to love every step of the process.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: The author Dorothy Parker once said, I hate writing.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: I love having written.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now we can all relate to that, of course, but it's also kind of a sad commentary on our obsession with the end result of writing.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you hear about world-class actors who really relish the process of bringing a character to life or even living as that character on set.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: The actor Heath Ledger and Daniel Day Lewis were famous for that.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: They loved the process, not just going to the movie premiere and seeing themselves on screen.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't love the drafting or editing processes so much, I want you to start seeing those processes as your friend, as a companion that helps you to produce a better end result.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: When you come to love the process as much as you love the end result, I think the writing life becomes something that you can enjoy every day, not just once every year or two whenever you release a book.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't that be a lot more fun?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Here's today's question Do you love every part of the writing process?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Why or why not?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I'll catch you tomorrow.