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Transcript

The Book Without the Letter "E" · The Daily Writer

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Daily Writer 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 Writer Starter Kit, visit DailyWriterLife.com.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: If someone gave you an assignment to write a sentence without the letter E, how would you respond?
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Would you think it's too difficult that it can't be done?
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: What about a whole paragraph, a scene, or even a whole book chapter?
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: What about ultimately writing an entire book without using the letter E?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds impossible, doesn't it?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: After all, the letter E is the most common letter in the English language.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: How could you possibly write a book without the letter E?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: It simply can't be done.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: At least that's what people kept telling a writer named Ernest Vincent Wright in the early years of the 20th century.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: He got so tired of hearing people tell him that it couldn't be done that he decided to prove them wrong, and the result was a 50,000-word novel called Gadsby, which in fact does not contain the letter E.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: To accomplish this incredible feat, he had to tie down the letter E on his typewriter so he couldn't use it.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: And in doing so, he met his goal.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as you can imagine, a whole novel without the letter E is pretty clunky to read, but you've got to respect Mr.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: Wright's determination when everybody told him that it couldn't be done.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: So the next time you have a big writing goal and people keep telling you all the reasons that you can't do it or you shouldn't do it, why you're gonna fail, or how they tried something one time and they failed.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Remember good old Mr.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Wright banging away on his typewriter with the letter E tied down.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, unfortunately, he died in 1939, the same year that his novel was published, so he didn't get to enjoy his success for very long, but he died knowing that he reached his goal, which is not a bad way to go.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Here's today's question What goal do you have that others doubt can be done, and does it motivate you to prove them wrong?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening, and I'll see you tomorrow.