@thedmc firstly, thanks for introducing me to 'New Ocean.' What a great song?! Make's me even more excited to read your book!
You mention above how an artist can think like a startup and become successful. I'm really interested to know a bit more about what you mean by that, how it has worked for you. What is your model to success? Thanks.
@ems_hodge Yes, it is the best song! So glad you like it.
To answer you q, when I got out of grad school for writing, I had all this new knowledge and energy but I was also I was kind of broke, needing an income, and expected to get a job. All my friends were. But I felt like, if I didn't keep writing I'd never finish this book that had started to nag at my mind. Artists are never expected to make any money, and we wring our hands a lot as a group about how hard it is to pay the bills and do our art. My husband, who had worked in tech, developing an amazing app for UNICEF (http://www.rapidftr.com/) and now works at the start up DETOUR (https://www.detour.com/) and so had a better philosophy about this stuff said: "Don't get a job. Take a year and write your book. You'll be our start up. We'll invest time and money into this project of yours. If it takes off, great. If it doesn't, that's okay. At least we tried. But you can't make this happen if you don't take some risks and try." And so that's what we did. He was also just getting out of grad school, so both of us were broke then. But we tightened all our belts and just risked it all and did it. I wrote this book. And then, happily and thankfully it sold and was published. I had to take a big risk for it. I think having a successful start up and publishing a book have some things in common--the odds are against you in both cases. It became important to me to realized that art making could be thought about in the same risk-taking frame as starting a business.
@thedmc@ems_hodge Thanks for the answer! It's really interesting to learn the similarities that span industries, and that risk, hard work, courage and some great support come into play to achieve most things worth getting. I love that you took the risk to go after it. It's inspiring. Really looking forward to reading the book and thanks again.
@jorgej Probably Alan Alda....(jorge is my husband which is why he's asking all the questions and here, he's fishing for a compliment but he won't get it from me. not when alan alda is in the mix.)
If you could have written one of these books, which would it have been, and why? The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck; How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie; The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff; The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Eastern North America by David Sibley
@jorgej Well, if the question is which book do I WISH I could have written, it would be The Grapes of Wrath. I don't think I could have written it, or any of these books. People like to ask the question, What is the Great American Novel like we don't already have one. The Grapes of Wrath is the great American novel. I think the trouble is that many of us read it when we were young in high school, or college, before we'd seen the world, and so didn't understand how amazing and radical it was. We remember a scene as cheesy because we're young and uncomfortable and we think the book is that scene. The book is incredible and disheartening and makes you rethink California. I mean, writing the Sibley guide would be incredible too, but I just like to watch birds, I don't know any of their names.
@jeffumbro I like to go to a cabin or place as far away from my life as possible. I often end up in really remote places out west, places so remote that I get scared. I turn off internet (if I've had it to begin with) and write about the landscape and the life I see in the world around me. I tend to write about people who are going by their wilder instincts so doing this helps me. Plus, getting offline for a writer can be pretty important. I love being in touch through social media, but I have to turn it off in order to get work done. thanks for the q.
@eliotpeper This might be specific to me, but the most counter-intuitive thing I learned from writing a book was that my best work wouldn't always happen when I'm writing. Writers heard the advice of "get your ass in the chair" a lot and that you'll only have a book once you write the pages. And of course that's all true, but my most creative and productive mental work happened out of the chair. When I went for walks or was just thinking about the book while doing something else. I used to scold myself when I wasn't just sitting in the chair writing. I thought I was messing up or not being productive. I was thinking about volume of writing way too early. But then I realized I had to give myself room and time to think about what I was writing, and that when I did all my best ideas came to me. Thanks, Eliot.
@jorgej I listened to "New Ocean" by Jake Bellows about 7,000 times (NOT an exaggerated number) when I was editing my book. It is definitely my book's theme:
@erictwillis@erictwillis I've always been good at writing, but I think I believed I could BE a writer after working as a Producer at the radio program, This American Life. I worked with writers who were trying to make their living as writers and it gave me the courage to try. Also, I learned so much about storytelling at This American Life but I started to feel like I could put it to better use...for myself. Like, I could do more of what I wanted to do with narrative, rather than telling true stories (which is mostly what TAL produces.) I took all this knowledge and new desires and I quit my job and went back to school to give myself time to learn and transition to fiction. I didn't necessarily know that I had anything important or singular to say to the world, but I guess I trusted that I'd figure it out. Thanks, Eric!
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