Скачать или смотреть How to Be a Writer with Kyle Stevenson

Today my guest is my super cool, ultra fit, deeply compassionate and hilarious friend and creative genius Kyle Stevenson. I met Kyle during my year one playwriting class in which he played the leading man, The Vegan Life Coach in the staged reading of my debut play, She Is Not Catholic, She Is Vegetarian. And he nailed it.

For years, Kyle and I ate lentils and kale and piles of impossibly healthy food at The People’s Potato. Over multiple free lunches we discussed all our favourite topics, namely sex, anxiety, creativity, yoga cults, butt exercises, therapy, and how to make it as a writer. When we grew up, we would often convene in various playgrounds in Toronto to get caught up on the latest in Gay Husbands, deadlifting regimes, and what we’re supposed to be doing with our lives.

Kyle is famous for founding the wildly successful online pandemic workout class, Cyber-Fit, also known as Push-up Class. He has been a devoted scriptwriter for decades and for years, he has been my dream guest. This episode is my longest one yet but totally worth it! You’ll be a different person at the end than you were at the beginning. That’s what happened to me and Kyle!

Blog version of Listener Question, Working to Live While My Boyfriend Works to the Point of Self-Destruction: www.ericajschmidt.com/blog/dear-erica-workaholic-boyfriend

Full shownotes: www.ericajschmidt.com/podcast/how-to-be-a-writer-with-kyle-stevenson

Kyle on YouTube:    • Public Access TV Writing  

Erica on Instagram:   / erica.j.schmidt  
00:00 Intro + theme song + Kyle’s bio

00:02:36 How Kyle and Erica were anointed with the idea that we would transform our exquisite gifts and innate potential into a spectacular TED talk and the world would be totally delighted about it.

00:04:50 “Absolutely from a young age I was like, why would you not achieve your wild dreams and be recognized and lauded by the world by just doing super great things that everyone agrees is very very impressive. Nothing else made sense to me.”

07:48 Erica’s thoughts on Special Person Syndrome: “I always just thought that I was supposed to get the main part… like in the grade one Halloween concert, I was incensed if I didn’t get to be the head pumpkin.

08:55 Kyle’s first literary influence in grade four: Bruce Coville’s My Teacher Is An Alien https://www.brucecoville.com/library/...

00:10:00 How it was easier to be a star when we lived in villages of 75 humans.

00:13:17 Why is it so hard to enjoy the things you are good at for their own sake?

00:14:51 Did Kyle start writing seriously in grade seven?

Kyle: “I would dispute the term serious…"

00:18:43 On being a loveable person with a big fan club. The journey of the people pleaser

00:25:00 Kyle’s early visions of creative success

“I imagined success to be an end to the wondering of like, do I matter, am I important. Maybe more than anything else, you’re like, I hope everyone agrees that I’m important and then I’ll have to stop wondering myself. And when that clicks into whatever you do, that’s when things get way less fun.”

00:26:52 Kyle’s educational path. Decision that writing is his dream and proceeds to move into a house with ten people, party hard, and work on his short stories.

00:30:28 Creative Writing at Concordia University: Making school and writing the focus of your life

00:36:59 Writing routine post university

00:40:24 When was it too late to make it as a blogger + Kyle’s writing advice from 2011.

00:44:54 “I have to earn my place on this earth and the only way to do that is writing.” On feeling behind on your life at age 27.

00:47:07 Every writing project is going to have to stand up to a bunch of different yous.

00:49:48 How to accept that the first draft is a garbage vomit draft. Erica and Kyle find this physically painful.

00:53:04 The austere writing routine in the water closet, the importance of taking writing brick by brick and letting go of heroic effort.

00:57:30 Getting out of a writer’s slump, working out like crazy, is becoming a tv writer was the gold star he always dreamed of.

01:01:34 Kyle writes an essay and suddenly sees himself in the main character of Whiplash.

01:06:04 Kyle is applying to become a therapist. What does it mean to be a successful writer.

01:14:48 Dude at Concordia who said: “Some people want to be writers and some people want to want to be writers.”

Erica figured out who it was—Andrew Battershill. He’s three books in. He did it! https://www.andrewbattershill.com/about

01:16:29 Role of exercise in Kyle’s writing routine and the rest of his life. (Long live Cyber-fit!)

01:23:53 Epic Listener Question from Working to Live While My Boyfriend Works to the Point of Self-Destruction.

01:56:39 Kyle’s spectacular TED talk. Something about accepting failure

01:58:21 Half-bad ukulele segment. Living on a prayer. Incredibly special.

02:02:24 THE END, finally.