Transcript 0:01 [upbeat music] Welcome to Titans of Transition. I'm really pleased to have Suzanne Woods Fisher with me today. She's an award-winning author of over 35 books. 0:14 I follow a process where I actually am very disciplined in my daily writing. And w- we had talked about something called the 20-mile march, which is 0:26 something I really encourage writers to think about because it, it gives you a... It, it corrects a lot of thinking. So it goes back to this early in the turn of the century, 0:38 the race to the South Pole, and we had an Englishman named Scott, and we had a, a Norwegian named Amundsen. And, and they both had different strategies to get to the same place. They started at the same place. 0:51 They wanted to get there first, but it became they were going a different, from a different starting point. And so the Englishman, his belief was they would go as far as they could when the conditions were right. 1:04 And when conditions were bad, they would stop, they would rest, they would mend their tents, they would kind of prepare, and then wait again for conditions. 1:16 And then the Norwegian had this concept of 15 to 20 miles a day, rain or shine, no matter what- Mm... snow or hail or... And he even got to within, I think, just a few miles of the South Pole, and he made his troop stop. 1:33 He made his team stop, even though they were so close, um, and waited till the next day. So, like, even- Yeah... with that kind of pressure, he did not push them. His theory was you do not exhaust people. 1:46 You, you know, keep moving. Well, I think writers would probably pick the Englishman style because you wait for what they call the muse. You wait for inspiration to hit. You wait for conditions to hit. You sort of... 1:58 And frankly, that doesn't work terribly well. It... And the s- end of that story is that the Norwegian made it there and back with every single member of the team whole and healthy and well. 2:11 The Englishman did make it back a little after, got then on the return trip within 11 miles of a cache of food, and they all perished. They did? It's a dramatic story, 2:24 and I don't want to simplify it because it's, it's not exactly the same thing, but it is true that there's the discipline of every day getting to your desk. 2:33 It may not always be brilliant, but it is putting you in the frame of mind that you are in your story. I mentioned timing earlier. I think a lot of that gets lost when you step away for a few days. 2:43 You've forgotten you've already gone through that scene or... And, and there's just something about that steady forward marching. Sometimes it's not great writing, but it is moving the plot forward. 2:55 So I, I really encourage people to kind of have a discipline in that. That doesn't mean... I do write a little bit of, like, throwing spaghetti on the wall. I, I'm not as organized as my friend. 3:05 But the fun of that is that surprises happen along the way, which I kind of enjoy and you do too. Yeah, but the, the foundation is this kind of disciplined showing up- Take it seriously... seriously. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. 3:20 That, that's... There's some real wisdom there, and I see it applying in other areas and other, uh, careers as well. [upbeat music] Hey, thanks for joining me today on Titans of Transition. 3:34 I hope you enjoyed the episode. Please check the show notes for additional information.
