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Say It Out Loud · The Daily Writer

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, welcome to this episode of the Daily Writer Podcast.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you're familiar with the organization Alcoholics Anonymous, you've probably seen or heard about the way people sometimes introduce themselves at those meetings.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, my name is Kent, and I'm an alcoholic.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not actually an alcoholic and I've never been to an AA meeting, but the phrase has been portrayed enough on TV and in the movies that almost everybody is familiar with it.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: So why do they do this at AA meetings?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Why would you state it out loud that you're an alcoholic, especially in the midst of a room full of people who identify with the exact same struggle?
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, it doesn't really make sense on paper.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, one of the reasons they do this is that it levels the playing field.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: No matter who you are, what your level of success is or isn't, no matter how much money you have or you don't have, no matter what you look like or how old you are, everybody at an AA meeting is on equal footing.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're all there for a common purpose, which is to stay sober.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: But there's another reason that they say it out loud.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Saying something out loud and affirming your identity to others has a lot of power.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, to put this in writing terms, you might believe or you might think that you're a writer, but have you ever said it out loud to anybody?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: When's the last time you verbally said to somebody in a conversation, hi, my name is so-and-so, and I'm a writer or I'm an author?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, all this may sound a little bit juvenile or even silly, but I can assure you it's not.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: On a recent Daily Writer community call, I made everybody in the meeting go around and verbally say that exact thing.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: We went around the horn on Zoom and I made everybody say, Hi, my name is so-and-so, and I'm a writer.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the interesting thing about that was that even though a lot of people in the group had written books and had a lot of experience writing, there was still something viscerally uncomfortable about people saying that, even in a Zoom meeting full of other writers.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So when you say it out loud, it feels kind of uncomfortable, but it's also enormously powerful.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I challenge you to tell somebody that you're a writer in the next 24 hours.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Don't do it over text and don't do it over email or social media.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do it verbally in person to somebody.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Even if the only person that you say it to is a two-year-old, while that still counts for something, the very act of you verbalizing it will have great emotional power over you.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: It'll give you amazing confidence and it will sear in your mind that you are indeed a writer.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: Here's your daily question.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: In the next 24 hours, who are you going to tell you're a writer?
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you've been listening to this show for any length of time, you know that one of the four practices of a great writer is creativity.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And in order to stay creative, you've got to have great input.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where writing prompts come in.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: A writing prompt is a sentence or two that helps you break through creative blocks, brainstorm new ideas, and get back into a state of flow.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: Writing prompts are an awesome creative tool for journaling, storytelling, creative writing, stress relief, social media posts, and so much more.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: But the great news is that you don't have to create these yourself.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: We've put together an amazing package of 365 daily writing prompts.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So every day for the next year, you can have a shot of inspiration delivered straight to your inbox.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: You can check it out at dailywriterlife.comslash writing prompts.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.