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How to Encourage the Writers in Your Life · The Daily Writer

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, welcome to the Daily Writer, where we help writers become authors of their own lives.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Email subscriber Frank Ball sent in a really great question.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: He asks this What are the best ways to encourage people to write?
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I operate on the principle that pretty much everybody has thought about writing a book.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: And for years, I've heard the statistic that eight out of ten people want to write a book.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Except that my experience in having thousands of conversations about writing over the years is that it's probably much higher.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Almost everybody wants to write, and specifically they want to write a book, but many people don't have the time, the skill, the patience, the confidence, or the discipline to actually see it through.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: However, I still think there are a lot of people who are genuinely motivated to write their own book, but they just don't know how to get started.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: And those are the ones that I try to encourage and help in whatever ways actually make sense for the situation.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: So here are a few ways that I try to do that.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, I do my best to set a good example.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Now I write for a living, so my very existence is proof that writing can actually be a career and that with some discipline and persistence, books can actually get written.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I just try to set a good example for people in general and show them that, hey, you can actually do this if you want to.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Second of all, I talk about writing as a joy and a privilege, not as a burden.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I see a lot of writers, particularly on social media, talking about how hard it is to write and how they struggle and how difficult it is and so forth.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the reality is that, well, it is hard sometimes, sure, but it's still a joy.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it's a massive privilege to be able to write books either if you do it as a part-time thing or just as a hobby, or if you do it for a living.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: So, in other words, I think the way that we talk about writing has a huge impact on other people's perception of whether it's something that they should do or not.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the third thing, and this is the most important thing of all, is that I ask people all the time, have you ever thought about writing a book?
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So whenever we're having a conversation about something, maybe it's their business, maybe it's a hobby that they're really into or just something else that they're passionate about.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Oftentimes I'll just go, Hey, have you ever thought about writing a book about that?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And there's nothing behind that question other than I just want to help implant the vision in people's minds that, hey, maybe they should write a book about this because I think books are magical.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And by me asking that very question, it helps them see that yes, maybe they can write a book too.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: So, really, what this comes down to is that I just try to be an encourager who helps people catch a vision of what writing can do in their lives.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I gotta be honest with you, I am genuinely surprised that so many people go through life and they don't seem to have anybody who believes in them.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it's really heartbreaking to me.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's really, really a discouraging thing because I see all these people in the world who have so much potential for greatness.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it seems like so many of them just don't have anybody in their life who comes alongside them and says, you know what, you should go for your dreams, you should write that book, you should start that business, you should go for that goal, whatever it is.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: So if I can be that person, in particular when it comes to writing, who gives them a nudge toward those dreams, that just makes me really, really, really happy.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: You can do the exact same thing because you never know what that little nudge or that little bit of affirmation is going to do for somebody's confidence.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be shy about speaking a good word into somebody's life.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks for listening.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Keep writing and keep showing up, and I'll see you tomorrow.