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Be a Creator, Not Just a Consumer · The Daily Writer

• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Hey my friend, welcome to this episode of the Daily Writer.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: One of the most important decisions that you make as a writer is how to balance your input and your output.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Or to say it another way, it's how much time you devote to watching and consuming versus how much time you spend writing and creating.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you probably have friends who watch a lot of TV, movies, or YouTube, and they keep up with all the latest shows and they anxiously want to discuss all the plot developments.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's obvious they devote lots of time to being a consumer and to watching everything that's out there.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, there's nothing wrong with that, of course, unless you also want to be a successful writer.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you're going to have consistent creative outputs, you've got to devote the time to it.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: You only have so many hours in a day.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: You don't have time to watch everything and keep up with all the latest developments in pop culture and in entertainment.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is tough love, and I realize this is kind of hard to hear for some people, but I'm committed to showing up here on this podcast and telling you the truth about the writing life.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: And the truth is that you're going to have to make some drastic decisions about what you're going to watch and how much time you're going to spend watching it.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Anytime that you commit to watching a new series on Netflix, it's going to be anywhere from six to twelve hours just for one season of that series.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: So you got to ask yourself, is it really worth it?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you can do an awful lot of writing and networking and reading or learning in that same amount of time.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: Six to twelve hours is actually a lot of time.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: For example, it only takes a few hours for me to produce a whole week's worth of podcasts.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't have anything against Netflix or against entertainment in general, but I'm extremely selective about the shows that I commit to watching.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Generally, I will binge watch a whole series over a couple of days, or a whole season rather, but I only do that a couple of times per year, generally with one or two shows over the holidays and once or twice during the summer whenever I take a vacation.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now that may sound kind of extreme, but you've got to decide something very important in your life as a writer.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Are you going to primarily be a consumer or primarily be a creator?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: In five years' time from now, do you want to have had a successful podcast?
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to have written some books?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Do you want to have had a blog or a newsletter or made some money from these pursuits?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Or do you want to be that person who can brag that they kept up with all the different series on Netflix, Disney Plus, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and all the other streaming services out there?
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: The ultimate question is, again, are you going to mainly be a consumer or mainly be a creator?
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: The choice is yours, but think a few years into the future and how you want to have spent your time to create the results that you want to get.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Here's your daily question.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to increase your writing output, what can you cut out of your entertainment time?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for listening to today's episode.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: I want to take a moment to let you know about our Daily Writer membership community.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one of the very best ways to develop better habits and impact more people's lives with your writing is to spend time around other successful writers.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're tired of feeling isolated and chasing success on your own, then I know you're going to love the Daily Writer community.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: For years, I searched for the kind of writing community that I would want to join, but I can never find what I wanted, so I created my own.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the features include weekly writing sprints, monthly community calls, book discussions, calls with guest experts, and much more.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: For more info, you can visit dailywriterlife.comslash community.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, and I'll see you tomorrow.