Episode 7 - Live. Be Kind. Words Will Follow.
- Sep 7, 2020
- 2 min read
This episode is all about writing – essays, novels, poems, and commercial copywrite. My guest is Robert Dean. He is now based out of Austin, Texas. Originally from Chicago, he departed for New Orleans to kick off his writing career. There, he started to really learn his craft, getting to experience failure that prepared him for when he would later get his “day job”. Since then, his work has appeared in Mic, Fatherly, Forbes, Consequence of Sound, the Austin American-Statesman, and more.
During our chat we discuss his influences, past projects, upcoming projects, getting published, and advice for anyone that may want to be a writer. We also discuss the importance of living and the importance of failure. A writer that’s never been out in the world tends to have hollow words, if they can ever find them at all. I can attest to that, as I am more likely to read about an experience than live it. This frequently results in me staring at a blank page trying to figure out how to fill it.
The best cure for writer’s block is having experiences to share or observations of others that can be slipped into your writing. Even if it has to be creatively tailored to your story, at least the experience is real, including the human motivation behind the actions. Neil Gaiman refers to this as the ‘compost heap’: your life experiences and interactions you’ve observed go here to coalesce until you need them.
Another take-away echoes the sentiments of Steven Pressfield.
Do the work.
Write every day. No one else will do it for you. Not all of it will be good. But the more you write, the more you will become acquainted with your voice.
See more of Robert's work below:
https://www.facebook.com/robertdeansworld/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJ63waAx39w&authuser=0
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