Writing is a tough life.

Granted, it’s not like I have to dodge bullets or duck for cover when planes fly over. I don’t have to dig my food from a dumpster or deal with droughts or famine. By comparison to some, in this great big world, I have a very cushy life. By comparison to most, even.

Writing isn’t necessarily a life or death struggle physically, but it can take a toll on you emotionally and spiritually. And, well, yes… physically, too.

Ask Hemingway. Ask Plath. As Poe.

I have great admiration for writers. All of those who can face the blankness before them, the existential nothing that demands to be filled with the very soul of the writer—it’s a brave bunch. I’m honored to be counted among them.

Recently I saw this tweet online:

You become what you write

— HUSTLE & CONQUER (@hustlenconquer) February 9, 2021

Five simple words. No punctuation. One of the biggest ideas I know. It says everything I could ever want to express about writing, in far fewer words than I could force myself to use in its expression.

Writing is a tool—my favorite tool, my hammer for every nail—that can illuminate the writer as much as their subject. It can define the explainer even as they explain. Handy stuff. A powerful force.

I’ve told you before, I’m a “discovery writer.” I pants my work. I make it up as I go. I really never have any idea what’s going to go onto the page until I read it, much the way it works for the readers themselves. So it’s as much a surprise to me as it is to you, when I say something clever. It may even be a bigger surprise to me.

The power of writing to shape and mold our lives is simply profound. If you think about it, writing is that very thing that we often wonder about—the answer to the question, “Can thoughts really become things?”

They can. They do.

You’re reading through my thoughts right this second. The aftermath of my thoughts becoming things is right here for you to explore. It’s incredible.

And it can be life changing.

Hopefully it is so for the reader, more often than not. But I don’t count on that. When I write, it’s with the intention of changing only one life: My own.

Everyone else is a bonus.

But to this idea that you become what you write about, I want to share a single thought:

Writing allows you to shape who you are, which allows you to shape the world within your sphere of influence. If you want something, if you need to change or to grow or to become someone else, writing is the tool that will help you do that. Writing down who you are and who you will become will be an important first step. Writing down what you want will make it more real to you. Writing down the world as you would like to see it will open your eyes to it as it unfolds.

I recently pulled together a short story collection I plan to release, and titled it “Lies that Tell the Truth.” Short fiction is, effectively, an untruth, at its core. But stories can, and often do, contain the kernel of a truth that may be profound to the reader. They’re a way for us to explore dangerous ideas with a safety net. They let us think like someone else, experience something new, understand something complex.

Writing does that without demanding you do anything more than run your eyes over the page or screen. How wonderfully profound is that?

I love it.

I have always loved it.

Good writing can and does change the world. It starts with the writer, it leaps from their mind to that of the reader, it spreads with that reader’s love and enthusiasm for the work. Good ideas pass. Bad ideas die on the vine.

If you want to change the world, change yourself. And if you want to change yourself, write.

That’s my advice, anyway. Let’s see if it takes.

TRANSCRIPT AVAILABLE BELOW!

Whatever your goals are, whatever you're trying to do with your life, there's that little blip of a moment where you hesitate, wondering if you're ready. You're ready.

Or you're not.

But you will be.

And the way you get there is to START. Here. Now. Right away. Even if the action you take is just some dive into trying it out or learning more about it, every action counts, and every action moves you forward.

Closer to your goal is the goal. So start, even if you're not ready. What I didn't mention is that "start before you ready" is a very stoic idea. I like stoicism as a philosophy, because it hinges on self-reliance and personal responsibility.

Very =Kevin.

Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share!

// If you liked this video, you might also find something you like at https://kevintumlinson.com Books, podcasts, videos—it's a crazy amount of content.

And you can get a FREE book if you join my mailing list at https://kevintumlinson.com/joinme

OTHER PARTS OF MY LIFE

If you've ever wanted to write and publish a novel or other book, I do a ton of work for the indie author/self-publishing community.

Here are some of the things I do:

• Wordslinger Podcast: http://wordslingerpodcast.com

• Draft2Digital: https://draft2digital.com/wordslinger

• Indie Author Blueprint: https://indieauthorblueprint.com

• Author.Email: https://author.email

TRANSCRIPT

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

marketing, writing, word, coffee shops, improve, learn, includes, editing process, slinger, hesitating, making, mark, focus, digital marketing, ironic, limiting, started, concentrate, photoshop, diving

SPEAKERS

Kevin Tumlinson

Kevin Tumlinson  00:09

6am this is about the time I roll out to my one of my coffee shops. I have to rotate coffee shops. Because if I go to the same coffee shop too often people start to recognize me. And then they want to talk and I don't mind talking and that's the problem.

Kevin Tumlinson  01:05

I figure the mark of success is that it always comes back to are you improving? whatever it is you're focused on. I'm a writer. So I focus on writing a lot. And I can judge my success by whether or not I'm improving, and all the things that matter. That includes money. I mean, that includes making money from the books that I write, but it also includes refining my editing process and making more contacts that I can leverage for better opportunities. But there's a lot that goes into writing really, that, you know, I for years, I ignored. I don't want to ignore that anymore. I haven't been ignoring that. I've actually been focusing quite a bit on, you know, building up this whole process and technique for not just writing the book, but producing it, getting it out into the world and then marketing that book. Marketing always seemed like a dirty word to me. Which is ironic, because Mark getting really is a big part of my life. I do marketing for drafter digital marketing for the word slinger podcast, I do marketing for all these other things, the silos things that are a part of my life. Marketing doesn't have to be scary. It actually isn't all that scary marketing is just putting your work out there so that it can be found by the right person at the right time when they're ready to buy it. That's the line I give everybody all the time.

Kevin Tumlinson  02:39

So one of the things I've dealt with a lot in everything I do is limiting myself or I start hesitating because I don't know everything or I don't know what I need to do. First what I need to concentrate on is this concept that has come up lot in any research, I've done any studying I've done and it's all about starting before you're ready, you hear that phrase a lot, right? I think that is actually the key. Like everything I ever learned that was useful in any way. It started first. With me just diving in. You know, I wanted to learn how to use Photoshop back in my 20s and I just dove in and did some stuff in Photoshop. I wanted to learn how to edit video. I did that. And you know, there's always room to improve on all this stuff. But you can improve on something unless you're already doing it. So start before you're ready.

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS LITTLE TALE …

You might enjoy a good thriller novel. And I happen to write thriller novels. Find something to keep you up all night at KevinTumlinson.com/books

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Kevin Tumlinson is an award-winning and bestselling thriller author and podcast host. He travels the world looking for interesting tidbits of history and culture to fold into his work, and spends much of his time writing from hotels, cafes, coffee shops, and the occasional ride line at Disney World. Find more of Kevin and his work, including novels and podcasts, at KevinTumlinson.com.