Turning events from everyday life into stories is critical for nonfiction writing. It's also vital if you want to become a columnist, and it's even a practice that can help with your fiction.

Years ago, I had a dream of becoming a columnist. I sent off dozens of job applications. Eventually, I got a response: "Bryan, you could only become a columnist if you're somebody who people know and feel that their writing is worth reading." In other words, I didn't have any name recognition because I was a new writer.

Thankfully, these days, it's much easier to become a columnist. In fact, many traditional newspaper columnists are leaving the conventional print world to build relationships directly with their readers on Substack and other platforms like Ghost.

Nevertheless, you still need anecdotes and stories that you can turn into column entries because a good column is about more than an idea or writing about whatever is on your mind.

And that's the key takeaway from this week's interviewee, Matthew Dicks, a professional storyteller, and columnist for not one but three different publications.

In this episode, we discuss:

How to turn life events into pieces for fiction or nonfiction
Matthews's simple storytelling exercise, Homework for Life
What it takes to maintain a daily writing routine

Resources:

Matthew's book on Amazon

You'll find him on social media here:

If you enjoyed the show please leave a review on Apple. And if you have any questions you can find me on Twitter @BryanJCollins

Thanks for listening!

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