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Best Of: Don't Throw Any of Yourself Away · 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: If you spend any time among a group of novelists, you'll pretty quickly hear two terms, panters and plotters.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Panthers are the ones who prefer to write by the seat of their pants.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: They love to develop a great opening, then discover the story as they write.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Panthers get bored if they know where the whole story is going ahead of time.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: On the other hand, plotters are the ones who have to carefully outline the whole plot of a novel before they start writing.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: They need to know where the story is going, or they just can't get started.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now, lots of writers have taken either approach and created great novels, short stories, and other important works of art.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Plotting can work just as well as pantsing when it comes to writing a fiction story.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't work so well when it comes to writing your real life story, the story of your writing career, and the story of your journey as a writer.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: The truth is that the writing life is unpredictable.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know where it's going.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Every new piece of writing you produce is a new opportunity to reach people.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: Not only that, but your skill as a writer keeps growing every time you write and publish.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: When you combine all that with the constant changes in technology and culture today, there's absolutely no way to predict where anything's going.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: If you like to plot things out and you don't like surprises, this can be really disconcerting because you don't know where your writing is going to take you.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's also tempting to only focus on those parts of your life and experience that will help take you where you think all this is going.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: But the truth is that all of your life experiences are fodder for your writing.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Everything you've been through, every job you've had, every emotion, every relationship you've started or ended, they're all part of this wonderful, unpredictable, mysterious journey of writing.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: In his amazing little book called Steal Like an Artist, Austin Cleon writes this: Don't throw any of yourself away.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about a grand scheme or a unified vision for your work.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about unity.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: What unifies your work is the fact that you made it.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: One day, you'll look back and it will all make sense.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: So don't try to figure this all out.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Just do the work every day and enjoy the journey.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you knew the ending ahead of time, it wouldn't be any fun now, would it?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, thanks so much for listening to the Daily Rider Podcast.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: We really appreciate your support and hope you enjoyed this episode.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can find more at DailyWriterlife.com.