Editing The Pen Addict 283/transcript (section)

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'''Brad Dowdy:''' All right, so we have a little bit of Ask TPA today where I'm going to do a lot of reading. Myke, you're going to do a lot of listening. I'm going to do a lot of self-reflecting because I got a lot of feedback on my comments about letter writing. And I'll be the first to admit I was wrong. I was a little extreme in my feelings. And people let me know that it's not really the case, Brad. You should think about this other side of the story here a little bit, which I've done. And I have three comments I want to read and they kind of all say the same thing, but they say it in a little bit different way. So I'm going to add them in. So this first one is from NDRWCN and I forgot to grab his name from the Slack room. So he says, you mentioned in your latest podcast, this was two episodes ago, because we didn't have time to get to this last week, that you don't write because you're not good at it. Further, that those who are good at it are good because they don't have to work at it. Speaking from a background as a musician in a current weekly practice of preaching every Sunday, I can tell you that it's because a good musician or preacher has to put so much work into their respective craft that they make it look easy. Thinking through structure is the key. How does a piece of music rhetoric need to be structured? Know the structure, and then it's a matter of slotting in what is appropriate. So I believe that you or anyone can become a competent letter writer. It's a matter of thinking about the structure and to know how it will work for you. So these are great points.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' It's definitely practicable and workable and something you can get better at. Not really a you either have it or you don't kind of situation. you know, I know, I got a lot more feedback from NDRWCN on this as well. I've read through it and it's really good. And then our friend Mary Collis added, she says, as for the letter writing question, I think the best letters like the best books and movies are the ones that dive right into the action. So this is on the topic of how do you start a letter? She goes, I forego the setup, icebreakers, and immediately jump into the story of what's going on in my life. Those are the letters I love to read and the ones that I like to write. Your reader will learn about you through your stories, just like we learn about characters as we progress through a novel or a film. I think writing morning pages every day helps me with this. Get out of bed, open the journal, start writing. It takes practice like anything. So that's another good point, right?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Don't worry about the setup and how you're going to start. Just start. Start with the meat, right? Don't start with the, hey, how's the weather? That's what we were joking about. How was the weather five days ago? Yeah, but I think the thing

'''Myke Hurley:''' is like for some people, especially me, like those icebreaker-y things lead into the bigger stories. I get what Mary's saying, but she can do this because she's practiced in telling the big stories, but that's real tricky.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah, but that's what, okay, it's Andrew, so thank you, Jim, in the chat room because I forgot to grab the name, the first bit. You know, it's practice. You know, he has a structure that he goes through to write a piece of music or to write a sermon that says, you know, here's the kind of the structure, my framework for writing this letter. So this last one kind of sums it all up, and this is from Mary, but a different one. She says, now, she'd written me a nice email, and she says, now I get to the part where I complain. Just kidding. However, I did want to comment on your discussion of letter writing. Brad, at one point in the conversation, you said that the best letter writers don't have to think about what they write. I consider myself a decent letter writer, and I certainly think about what I write. I don't know about other letter writers, but I often plan out my letters before I write them. I brainstorm for ideas. I try to think of what will appeal to the specific person to whom I'm writing. I sometimes write a mini outline. At times, I even write a rough draft. Maybe this is overkill, and I don't do it all the time, but I don't think that good letters are spontaneous and easy productions. I know that's not what you were trying to say. She says, I suspect that letter writers often do put a lot of thought and effort into their letters construction, and it's the work that it takes that makes it hard to commit to. I've been writing letters consistently since I was a teenager, and I'm a college English instructor. For me, letter writing is still hard work, and that's why I don't do it as often as I like. While I know that you didn't mean to say that letter writing is some sort of natural talent that only the gifted can participate in, I just want to reiterate that letter writing is just like any other skill that can be improved with practice. While it gets easier, it's never easy to write a truly thoughtful letter. And this wraps up her point, which I think is great. She says, I think putting pressure on ourselves to write a great letter unfortunately just keeps us from writing it all. I mean, that's speaking to me right there. Instead of feeling pressure to write a perfect letter, it's better to think about how happy the receiver will be to get a letter or postcard at all, no matter how bad we think the letter might be. I try to keep this in mind when I'm uninspired or don't know how to start. I just say hi and go from there. The most important thing to remember is that sending a letter, no matter how small or imperfect, makes a bigger difference in another person's life than we might realize. The receiver knows the effort it takes and that effort makes the gift that much more special. Even a small note shows that we stopped our lives to think about them, to write it down, and send it to them. That's the most meaningful and important aspect of letter writing.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So I think she nailed it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Yeah, I think so too.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I mean, like, I agree with every bit and like, now I'm going to have to go write letters and not sweat the actual writing of letters part. It's like, just do it from a place of freedom and be unburdened in the pressures to do such a good job writing a letter that you're not going to sit down and actually do it. Right? So I thought the feedback on my commentary was amazing. And I definitely have taken a lot of this to heart and get a lot of, you know, what everyone's saying. And this is why our listeners are so awesome that we can have these conversations. I think it's really great that someone would take the time to respond to a comment we made on the show. And I think there were several more, you know, other similar types of feedback that we got for this. So I think it's very cool. So this is a wonderful feedback and kind of has me, you know, a little bit excited to maybe start trying my hand at a little bit more letter writing. I put you on

'''Myke Hurley:''' task here, buddy. You've been...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I know, I know.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You ain't got no

'''Brad Dowdy:''' choice now. I like it. I like it. All right. So that's all the Ask TPA I brought for today. I wanted to give the letter writing feedback their own section here because it was so good. So thank you all for writing in.

'''Myke Hurley:''' So you can obviously email, was it hello at penaddict.com? Yep. That's for this kind of long form feedback. That's where to do it for shorter form feedback, which has recently doubled in availability of size. You can tweet with hashtag ask TPA and you can send in your questions that way. It's now easier than ever because you have more space to pontificate. If you want to find our show notes for this week, relay.fm slash penaddict slash 283. I expect a lot of lively feedback about this week's episode, which of course we will welcome. If you want to find Brad online, he is at dowdyism on Twitter and penaddict on Instagram. I am at imike, I-M-Y-K-E. Thanks again to our sponsors, Harry's and Squarespace, and we'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, Brad. Goodbye, Brad.

[[Category:Podcast Transcripts]]
[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]