Monday, February 3, 2025
Become a Patron!The joys of running with a notebook and pencil is you get a pretty good cracking idea every 1-2 miles and it behooves you to have a means to write it down.
I’m two weeks into a twelve-week plan (still have to register for the event I want to do at the end of April), and there’s a tendency to look at the gear I have, the clothes I wear, and think I really could use a wrist watch so I can have a hands-free stopwatch? Or maybe one that keeps track of distance and pace?
I quickly snap out of it. I have all I need. I have a hydration backpack that has a pocket for a phone, and phones have stopwatches. I don’t need fancy tech shirts1, shorts, and shoes (though shoes are naturally a good place to upgrade).
The point is, with running as it is with writing, you have all you need. There’s often a rush to over-complicate things, to purchase that thing that will grease the skids or make you feel less like an imposter.
If you want to write, any writing implement and any piece of paper will do. You don’t need MS Word (unless Mariner Books demands it). Just use Google Docs or whatever free software you have. You don’t need to go on a retreat. You don’t need to attend exorbitantly priced writing conferences2. Don’t be seduced by MFA programs to legitimize your pursuit.
I’m about to push my comfort zone into the YouTube Universe and I’m nervous about the gear or software I need. I remind myself. To get started, I have all I need. It was like when I started podcasting in 2013: I didn’t overthink it. I had a landline on speaker phone attached to a tripod by rubber band aimed at my laptop as I recorded the phone call. Now I have a nice set up that sounds way more polished, but I didn’t wait for the perfect set up to start.
It’s a good mantra: in most cases, you have all you need.
