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Where Your Power Comes From · The Daily Writer

• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Writer, where we share a lesson each day to help you cultivate the habits for creative success.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: These lessons are inspired by great artists, authors, and thinkers, both past and present.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: In a world of equality and opportunity, we usually talk about power as if it's a bad thing.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: But power is like time, money, or any other resource.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: It can be used for good or for bad.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Writers don't think about what we do in terms of power.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Instead, we use words like creativity, craft, platform, audience, and entrepreneurship.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: But power, it's a concept that seems a little bit old-fashioned, if not outright outdated these days.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: But power is just influence.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: When you have power as a writer, you can change people's minds.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: You can tell a story that has impact.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: You can write books, sermons, articles, or other content, and know that it can influence other people.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: So if power as a writer is a good thing, how do we get it?
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there are many ways, and those ways can include having the right connections or sometimes even just getting lucky.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: But those are external situations that you can't predict or even control.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: However, there is one surefire way to accumulate power as a writer.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale, said it best A word after a word after a word is power.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And by the way, this was the title of a 2019 documentary where she discusses her life and her work.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, the meaning of this phrase from Margaret Atwood is pretty obvious.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: When you put down one word after another, eventually you wind up with something that you can share.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: And when you accumulate those words and they become books, screenplays, speeches, or other types of shareable content, they can have far more power than you can possibly ever imagine.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: As Tears for Fears sang in their 1985 hit song, Everybody Wants to Rule the World.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: However, not everybody can write or even wants to write.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And that's too bad because they're missing out on an incredible opportunity to use their writing power to influence other people.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: But we know better.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: We know our words have power.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get out there today and put down not just one word, but a word after a word after a word.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to the Daily Writer Podcast.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: We really appreciate your support and hope you enjoyed this episode.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: You can find more at dailywriterlife.com.