In 2010, after my dog Tucker died, I wrote a story about the morning we had to put him down. It was cathartic to write, even though I did so through a tsunami of tears. After posting it to my blog, I received the greatest outpouring of love from people that I’ve ever experienced. People reached out for weeks afterward, as the post was shared across social media. It seemed that everyone who read the story empathized with my loss…
“You’re like having a third child,” my wife says to me. We have two daughters. And she’s right. I’ve never really grown up. Sure, I’m more wrinkly now than I’ve ever been. And my hair’s turning silver. But in my heart I’ve never really felt like a “grown up.” Grown ups wear suits and go to work in big buildings and have days full of meetings and miss soccer games because they’re in San Francisco closing deals. None of that…
I had a dream. It was set in the future, but it wasn’t that futuristic. It mostly looked like it does today. There were no flying cars, for example. But there was one car that everyone who was anyone owned. A Mercedes Benz. But not just any run-of-the-mill $70,000 Benz. This Mercedes Benz was the best car ever made. This Mercedes Benz represented the epitome of luxury and capitalistic success. This Mercedes Benz meant never having to explain yourself to others. I…
Maybe they’re right. Maybe we should all just build walls around our hearts and say, “Good luck” to people who need help. Those leeches who steal food from my table. Then we all buy guns and cut crosses into the walls so that the muzzles of the guns fit through and we shoot anyone who tries taking what we have. *** Jim
I’m a copywriter. I make my living by using words to convey feelings, tell stories, and get people to think certain ways about things. I’m pretty good at it, too. Over the years I’ve convinced CEOs of major companies to have coffee, and the children of Lexus owners to purchase new cars in advance of the cars actually hitting the market. My point is that I’ve had some success writing correspondence aimed at other human beings. Only lately, things have changed. It…
As a writer, you just want to write. You don’t want to have to worry about jumping through the fiery hoops of red tape to get your story published, you just want to write and share the story. Unlike writers a decade ago, today, thanks to the miracle of digital connectivity, we don’t have to send our work to publishing houses in hopes that some poor soul inundated with pallets of manuscripts from first-time authors actually reads our story and then approves it…
