Who are my idols?
When I joined the publishing company, I visited folks at a media startup I interned at a few months previously. One of them was an advisor and an ex-journalist who'd gone into venture capital investing, and he suggested I find a mentor: someone who could "take [me] under their wing, teach you the ins and outs of the craft, and help you realize your full potential."
A few years later, the publishing company collapsed, and the publisher and I were at each others throats over what went wrong, who was responsible and other petty shit when we should've moved on with our lives.
The company collapsed because a book I wrote (or "co-wrote" with the publisher) didn't meet sales expectations, and they spent so much money on it out of their own coffers that they couldn't function anymore. I didn't have a mentor there - I had a bully of a boss who I couldn't question or challenge. I don't like being in an adversarial relationship with anyone, especially a boss, but that's what I was stuck with.
As part of rebuilding my life around what I actually want I've decided to take a look at people who do what I want the best, and how they do it well. I ended up writing not just to do journalism, but also to write fiction and other forms of writing. Editing grew out of that, and I went into radio because I enjoyed it. Who does all the things I do well? I'll be going through them and talking about them.
As much as others discourage it, not all of my inspirations are great. My go-to book on feature writing says about fiction writers repeats the cliche that "any book longer than 500 pages not written by Dickens or a dead Russian isn't worth reading." I dunno - Herman Melville wrote some incredible stuff.
Maybe by discussing my favorites and what I've taken from them I'll find what I've been looking for - and what I should've been looking for when I took that lousy job at the publishing company.
A few years later, the publishing company collapsed, and the publisher and I were at each others throats over what went wrong, who was responsible and other petty shit when we should've moved on with our lives.
The company collapsed because a book I wrote (or "co-wrote" with the publisher) didn't meet sales expectations, and they spent so much money on it out of their own coffers that they couldn't function anymore. I didn't have a mentor there - I had a bully of a boss who I couldn't question or challenge. I don't like being in an adversarial relationship with anyone, especially a boss, but that's what I was stuck with.
As part of rebuilding my life around what I actually want I've decided to take a look at people who do what I want the best, and how they do it well. I ended up writing not just to do journalism, but also to write fiction and other forms of writing. Editing grew out of that, and I went into radio because I enjoyed it. Who does all the things I do well? I'll be going through them and talking about them.
As much as others discourage it, not all of my inspirations are great. My go-to book on feature writing says about fiction writers repeats the cliche that "any book longer than 500 pages not written by Dickens or a dead Russian isn't worth reading." I dunno - Herman Melville wrote some incredible stuff.
Maybe by discussing my favorites and what I've taken from them I'll find what I've been looking for - and what I should've been looking for when I took that lousy job at the publishing company.
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