Writingness: Why I Started a Podcast

What does it mean to be a writer? The answer to this question seems to have changed a lot since I was a kid racking up gigantic library fees by lugging home twenty books at a time. Back then, reading was about curling up with an often borrowed, always physical book and sitting alone for awhile, getting absorbed in someone else’s world.

Now, I’m usually reading either via my Kindle or listening to books on Audible, often on the go, on airplanes, out walking my dog, or reading online. And the writers I love aren’t always far-away, famous literary powerhouses, but often people I know, people I tweet at, people who blog but don’t write books, people who write jokes, who ghostwrite, people who write long, hilarious personal essays on Tumblr. Being a writer, just like being a reader, has changed.

What hasn’t changed is that writers are still my heroes. Podcasting has a magical way of making us feel like we’re in a room with people we admire, hearing their voice and getting to see what they’re like off the cuff. By the end of a podcast, the guest seems a little more real and human to you, and there’s something amazing about that.

I created Writingness to help you get a bit closer to writers you love, and to make the business of being a writer a little less mysterious for the many who don’t have it figured out. I plan on having all kinds of guests on, from friends to strangers, from bloggers to novelists to comedians to journalists.

Right now, I plan to release an episode every Thursday, so stay tuned. If you know someone who you think would be a great guest (or if it’s you) hit me up on Twitter (@leckybang). I’m trying to do all the recording in my home office right now, but eventually I’ll try to record some interviews when I travel. I’m not doing phone interviews at the moment.

Writingness is now available on the iTunes Store and on Sound Cloud.