Let Them Say No First
Don’t reject yourself before you get your work out there
Wake Up and Write is a regular advice column from Moms Don’t Have Time to Write. Today, we have Sarah Maslin Nir —a reporter at the New York Times and the author of the debut memoir, Horse Crazy: The Story of a Woman and a World in Love with an Animal— who shared writing advice on the podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, hosted by Zibby Owens.
“Write, write, write, but I don’t mean write and sit down with a pen and make it beautiful.”
“I was just interviewing a veteran who has extreme post-traumatic stress disorder that prevents her from doing so much, like writing, but she has a story to tell. I said, ‘Anytime you think of a thread of a story, pop your iPhone on a recorder. Make a voice memo. Just go.’
To me, that’s writing. That’s just storytelling. It doesn’t matter if it’s beautiful or punctuated. Start getting your story out even if it’s just to your little recording device. That’s the first step. So many times, we stop ourselves before that with, ‘I’m not good enough. It could never be me. It’s someone else.’
My dad had a motto: let them say no first before I tell myself no. I just love that. It’s guided my entire life. Let them say no first. Don’t do the work for them. Try, and let them say no first.
Chances are they’ll say yes.”
Listen to the episode:
https://zibbyowens.com/transcript/sarah-maslin-nir-horse-crazy
Buy the book:
