People ask me, Do you have special training for this advice columnist job? I say, No, I’m just a writer. I’m just telling my story. I have no expertise. What I have is the willingness to plunge a camera into my own heart. I have a willingness to speak as if drunk. I have a willingness to read aloud the graffiti on the walls of my own cave. That doesn’t make me a genius. It makes me an adventurer. It takes a lot of nerve to be a writer but nerve is free. Nerve and verve. Courage and voice. That is what I recommend you acquire in this new era. In this new era, one distinguishes oneself not by the amount of information one has (because the price of information has gone to nearly zero), nor by one’s elite degree (because elite degrees are becoming signs of class and generational wealth rather than talent). One distinguishes oneself by having a voice. The cool thing is that you do not need to go anywhere to acquire it. You just have to be deeply, radically, fearlessly yourself. You must be an adventurer. The writer must leap from high places and plunge far under the surface. I would put that on the job description: Must be willing to jump from high places. -- Cary Tennis
Posted on: Wed, 21 Aug 2013 05:51:33 +0000
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