Latest / The Daily Writer / Love the Work, Not Just the End Result

Transcript

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

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Rider 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 Rider Starter Kit, visit DailyRiderLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, good to see you as always.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, let me ask you a really honest question.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: And you can be totally honest, it's just me and you here in this room together, so you can be really honest.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the question.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: Do you love the work of being a writer?
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now here's what I mean with that question.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Do you love the process of coming up with ideas, of writing multiple drafts, of editing?
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: Do you love the process of working on the design or the layout of blog posts or books?
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: In other words, do you take pleasure in the overall creative process that's involved with writing?
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Or are you more interested in the end result?
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: So do you see all those steps in the writing and publishing and marketing process as kind of an annoyance on the way to getting to the end result of something that's published or something tangible?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think this is a really important question because I believe that if you're going to be successful over the long haul as a writer, you've got to learn to love every step of the process.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: The author Dorothy Parker said, I hate writing, I love having written.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a very famous quote because we can all relate to that.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I also think it's kind of a sad commentary on our obsession with the end result.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes you hear about world-class actors who really relish the process of bringing a character to life or even living with that character on set.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Heath Ledger and Daniel Day Lewis were really famous for that.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: They love the process of acting, of they love the process of inhabiting that specific character, not just going to the movie premiere and seeing themselves on screen.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there's an interesting comparison to the work that we do as writers, because if you don't love the drafting or the editing process so much, I want you to start seeing it as your friend, as the companion that helps you to produce a better end result.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think when you come to love the process as much as the end result, your writing life becomes something that you can enjoy every single day, not just once every year or two, whenever you release a book.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: And my goodness, wouldn't that be so much more fun if you felt like you could really enjoy the process of writing, of editing, of doing the text stuff with your blog posts, or doing book layout, or working with a designer to do the layout of the book or to come up with the cover design of your book or do all those other things that are involved in writing or podcasting or book production or whatever it is that you do or want to do.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Wouldn't your writing life be so much more enjoyable if you could take pleasure in those things instead of seeing them as an irritation or as an annoyance?
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to challenge you with that because I talk to a lot of writers who just seem to kind of they just want to sort of put up with all that stuff on the way to the real meat and potatoes, which of course is the final product.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And the final product is important, of course, but if you don't love every step of the way, I think you're going to needlessly endure a lot of frustration and emotional pain because you're just sort of getting through all that crappy stuff on the way to what you really enjoy.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to challenge you to begin to enjoy every step of the way, no matter if it's the first draft or the editing or the text stuff or the design stuff or marketing stuff.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: My goodness, a lot of writers just sort of put up with the marketing stuff because they they perceive it as kind of a hassle or as an annoyance.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to challenge you to reverse your thinking on that.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: I want to challenge you and myself as well to begin to embrace all of those parts of the writing and publishing and marketing and audience process and all the business stuff as well.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of writers are kind of annoyed by the business part of this, which is a shame because the business stuff can actually be just as creative a step in in building your writing business as the actual writing of it.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of things that surround the writing that make the business possible.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I want to challenge you to embrace all of those things, not as an annoyance or as a hindrance or as an irritation, but as an essential, but even a really, really fun and enjoyable part of this whole process.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that's my challenge today.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Do you love every part of the writing process?
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And can you learn to embrace those things and really have fun with them?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's my thought for today.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: Before I sign off, though, I want to give a big thanks to our sponsor today, which is Write Your First Nonfiction Book, the brand new book for my friend and business coach, Anna Ray Corter.
• 4:55
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• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: The book has only actually been out for less than a month as of this recording.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you I've already heard a lot of good feedback from people who've gotten the book and are really, really excited about it.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: I can tell you, my goodness, I wish I had this book about 10 years ago.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: It would have made my life infinitely easier.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm so glad that my good friend Honore has written this book because it's going to teach you the exact system that she uses to write many of her books.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the cool thing is that when you get this book, you don't have to guess what goes in each chapter because she lays it all out for you totally step by step.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're ready to stop dreaming about writing and you want to learn from an author who's sold over four million books, head on over to dailywriterlife.com/slash nonfiction book to grab your copy of Write Your First Nonfiction Book Today.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think you're really, really going to enjoy it.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's a fantastic book.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's also really short, so you can read it pretty fast and start putting it into practice immediately.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: So grab your copy today.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think you're really, really going to enjoy it.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, my friend, as always, thanks for listening, and I'll see you tomorrow.