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Transcript

The Book Without the Letter "E" · 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: If somebody gave you an assignment to write a sentence without the letter E, how would you respond to that?
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Would you think it's too difficult and that it couldn't possibly be done?
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Well, what about writing a whole paragraph, a scene, or even a whole book chapter, and ultimately writing an entire book without using the letter E?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it sounds kind of impossible, doesn't it?
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: After all, the letter E is the most common letter in the English language.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: How could you possibly write a book without the letter E?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: It simply can't be done.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: At least that's what people kept telling a writer named Ernest Vincent Wright early in the years of the 20th century.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: He got so tired of hearing people tell him that it couldn't be done that he decided to prove them wrong.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the result was a 50,000-word novel called Gadsby, which in fact does not contain the letter E.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in order to accomplish this crazy feat, he had to tie down the letter E on his typewriter so that he couldn't use it, and in doing so, he actually met his goal.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as you can imagine, a whole novel without using the letter E is a fairly clunky exercise to read, but you've got to respect Mr.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Wright's determination when everybody told him that it couldn't be done.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: So the next time you have a big writing goal and people keep telling you all the reasons that you can't do it and why you're gonna fail and how they tried something once and they failed.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Remember good old Mr.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Wright banging away at his typewriter with the letter E tied down.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, unfortunately, he died in 1939, the same year his novel was published, so he didn't get to enjoy his success for very long, but he left this life knowing that he reached a crazy goal that all kinds of people told him couldn't be done.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not a bad way to go.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Here's today's challenge.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: What goal do you have that others doubt can be done?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And does it motivate you to prove them wrong?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Now, speaking of goals that we have in our writing, one of the goals that we've got to have as writers is to have a book that contains as few errors as possible.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: But unlike Mr.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Wright, meeting this goal on his own, editing your book and making sure it's error-free is not something that you should be doing if you wrote the book.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: You should always have an editor looking at your book and helping to ensure that it's as error-free as possible.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I'm such a big fan of today's podcast sponsor, The Word Wizard.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, again, you might have written a great book, but it's not ready for publication until it's been in the hands of a master editor.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's why my friend Karen Hunsinger, also known as The Word Wizard, is the perfect partner to help you craft the highest quality book possible.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: A great editor doesn't just correct grammar and spelling, they also correct wordiness, shifts in tone and voice, the overuse of particular words, and they also enhance transitions, clarity, and accuracy.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: I've worked with Karen many times, and she is your secret weapon for creating an amazing book.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I want you to go visit Karen Hunsinger.com to grab your free sample edit of your writing.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you would like a personal introduction to Karen, I talk to Karen all the time, multiple times a week.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: We're emailing, texting, we're working on things together.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you would like a personal introduction to Karen Hunsinger, I would love for you to shoot me an email with your name and obviously what you're working on.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you can send that to Kent at dailywriterlife.com.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I would be honored to make a personal introduction to my good friend Karen Hunsinger.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: I want your next book to be a huge, raging success, and having her involvement is an important part of that.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: All right, my friend, as always, thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you next time.