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Audio Journal: Are You Filling Your Creative Well? · The Daily Writer

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: I grew up out in the country, and we lived next door to my grandfather.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I loved growing up in the country.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: You could ride your bike down the gravel road for miles, you could breathe the fresh country air.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: You were surrounded by woods.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: It was wonderful.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the best things about growing up out in the country next to my grandpa was that he had one of those old-fashioned wells, you know, the kind that you would have to dig before you built your house.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: He built his house, I think, in the 1940s.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And he had one of those well houses, like the this kind of stone structure around the well.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: And one of my most favorite things ever was on hot summer days, I would just walk over to his house and I would get a drink from the well.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And he had this old tin cup hanging there.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Probably it was never washed in its life, but I yet it was awesome.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I would grab that old tin cup that had a little crack in it in the side, and I would get a drink of this fresh, ice-cold well water.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it was the best thing that I've ever tasted in my life, I think.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a reminder that, man, when you drink out of a well, especially a freshman, it is so awesome and so refreshing.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what oftentimes happens in our lives as writers and as creatives is that we need some inspiration, we need some encouragement, we need some fodder for our ideas.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: And we go to that creative well and we turn that faucet and nothing comes out.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason that happens is because we haven't primed the pump.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: We haven't filled our creative well.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: We haven't done the work for there to be water in the well to begin with.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: So my question to you is what are you doing to fill your creative well?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now for you it might be reading books.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: I hope that it's reading books since you're a writer.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's watching movies.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I know that's definitely true for me.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's going for walks.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's reading magazines.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's doing something else that you find inspiring or fulfilling or fun.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: All those things are true for me.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that I that I do every day is I read every day from at least one book, and I also go for a walk or for a run almost every day.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Those two things are critical for me in my mental health as well as my creative health as a writer and as an artist.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: So my challenge to you is what are you doing every day that fills your well?
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Are you making time to read?
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Are you making time for your health?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Are you making time to be in community with other people and to establish your friendships and to build those up?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever it is that you need to do, I just challenge you to make time for that every day because if you don't put anything in the well, there won't be anything to draw out of the well whenever you need it.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: See you in the next episode.