Thanks, Stephen King.
“What is writing? Telepathy, of course.” –Stephen King, On Writing
Welcome, dear listeners, to the inside of my head. We’re having a meeting of the minds! I’m thrilled and terrified you’re here. I chose to make a podcast precisely for this reason. I love my brain, but I’m scared of hearing my voice, both in the literally vocal sense and the figurative language of my own writing. But today, we’re facing fears. So, to create any kind of comfortable environment at all, I’m going to talk to myself, cringing, all too aware that my class will eventually listen.
I am continually learning that writing demands vulnerability, courage and confidence from its writer, who accepts their words will never be understood perfectly as intended or in the exact same context, but chooses to write anyway. Writing is a liberation; a freedom from the dis-genuine, stretching the muscles of the creative mind. “I am writing my own truths before them without self-censorship; I am present as I write” (Kimberly N. Parker). If you don’t let your writing come from your own self, it has no chance at being anything at all. Any productive, interesting, even half-way decent writing comes when you shed your Bartholomew Cubbins hats of affectations, dispelling fear.
Listeners dear, that’s why I’m here: fighting, most awkwardly, my own real fear.
So take a listen! This is the second half of a recording with my friend Devin McCowan. We discuss the letter “i,” Jim Croce, Beyoncé, God, joy and self-love through Kendrick Lamar. If you’re pressed for time, I suggest starting at 8:06.
