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What a joy to have Nicholas Dighiera on the show to talk about his flash essay “Happy Birthday” for Short-Reads.org.
It’s an 857-word, one-sentence essay, beginning to end. Nick’s thing is running toward the hurt and telling the truth.
You’re gonna dig it, friend.
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It’s always nice when you can have a guest back on the show. We have many repeat offenders here at CNF Pod HQ. Because a writing career is so damn fluid, and a podcast conversation is just a snapshot in time, having a writer back on the show is a chance to talk about that glacial evolution.
And so Pete Croatto (@petecroatto) is back after nearly three years (it’s his third trip to the show) following the publication of his wonderful book From Hang Time to Prime Time. It’s a book about the birth of the modern NBA. It’s a must have for the basketball fan in your life. Is there anything better than unwrapping a hard-cover book on a gift-receiving holiday?
Pete is in the in-between stages. He is/was conflicted about what writing his first meant. Did it mean he would be invited to write the next one? No. Would it be some career-defining apotheosis? Hell, no. Rather, the book merely exists on the continuum on his career as a freelance writer of great sports journalism, but also think pieces on the media, and stuff for trade magazines and copy editing. Gone are the days where you can solely freelance longform journalism and have enough money to … let’s just say live.
So this was a great conversation about that post-book (specifically post-first-book time) and what that means. We talk about the book or various pieces being keys to open doors for ourselves, but also people arriving behind us. The book as business card, and the frustratingly slow nature of gradual improvement and mastery.
I really think you’ll dig it.
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It’s that Atavistian time of the month and we’ve got a two-for-one, BOGO!, with Lucy Sexton, a documentary filmmaker, and Joe Sexton, a lifelong newspaperman and father to Lucy.
Lucy was working on a doc about the Iran hostage crisis when her father was taken hostage while reporting in Libya. What came out of it was “Held Together,” edited by Seyward Darby.
What’s all the more compelling is the dual authorship, not in the traditional co-bylined affairs that are uniform in nature with two names atop the story. This is two distinctly tuned instruments playing together in harmony.
Continue reading “Episode 382: Lucy Sexton and Joe Sexton”
By Brendan O’Meara
Above is a picture of my daily word count.
Things are going great.
Usually after you have a discussion with your book editor, you have a clearer sense of what you’re doing. Energy. Gusto. I spoke with my editor on June 28. As you can tell, I haven’t written a word since. In fact, I’ve been sad. Like, I-can’t-face-the-day sad.
POV. POV. POV. POV. POV.
What’s my point of view in this biography? My whole concept — my instinct —was to just tell a good story with newer details from a longer lens. That’s not enough. Biographers must imbue the story with something that makes it wholly unique, looking askance at the central figure, even casting judgement. “As the biographer, you have your finger on the scale,” my very astute and downright brilliant editor told me.
I never knew creative block until this moment. I cannot crack this code of how to frame the book in a way that feels fresh and relevant. My interviews are falling flat because I’m running out of things to talk about. I don’t know how to bring fresh juice to these conversations. I thought building up certain “tent pole” moments would be exciting and great but … I don’t think so anymore.
I had a set of instincts going into this project and they’ve been cut off at the knees. And, at this writing, I have 8.5 to complete the reporting, the research, and the writing. As I wrote that sentence, my stomach dropped into my shoes.
Why am I writing this? What value-add is this for you? I can’t say there is any except a great lyric from Metallica’s “King Nothing”:
Careful what you wish,
You might regret it
Careful what you wish,
You just might get it
I have a pal who has told me just to explain it now and write it later. My interpretation is to merely get things down on paper and worry about the sheen later, worry about the connective tissue later. Don’t worry so much about meaning but write the islands. Write out of chronological order.
Ultimately, this the Pressfieldian “Resistance” surfacing from the subterranean bowels of the lizard brain.
A mantra of sorts has helped me: Slow and steady. Deliberate focus.
Slow is fast. Drip by drip.