Hi all,

I wrote the entry below in my blog yesterday about Wil's reading and wanted
to share. He'd said that you couldn't get to his site yet because the
something technical or other "hadn't propogated yet" and that all the geeks in
the
audience would understand and appreciate that -- well, I'm a geek, but not
THAT much of a geek, so when I did go yesterday to post a note to Wil -- well,
I couldn't and out popped this blog entry!

Enjoy!
Madley

===

August 15, 2004

You ARE "Just a Geek"! But a humble, smart and funny one at that.

I made it to the reading with ten minutes to spare (ah the benefits of
living ten minutes from Sunset and Vine), and was shocked to see that Borders
wasn't teeming with teens. Just us other geeks who want to be ourselves... I
think Wil was the youngest one in the room! And boy was he fun. I've never been
to a book reading where the author was an actor -- this was the most
entertaining one ever. He sure has the best of comic timing, in his writing so
consequently he had something great to "act." LOL Hey Wil, did were you
thinking
that when you sat down at the computer how you were gonna "say" it? Because it
certainly all rolled off the tongue.

He said he writes "narrative non-fiction" and wants to make others feel the
way his favorite writer, David Sedaris, makes him feel. [How come I've never
heard that phrase before, "narrative non-fiction"?!] Well, right back at 'ya
Wil -- I want to write like YOU.

The difference, I heard today, is DISCIPLINE. "I'm very disciplined with my
writing," he said. "Sometimes I write 5,000 words in three hours, sometimes
60 words in three hours, sometimes I write a lot of stuff and then throw it
all out. But I'm disciplined." He got that from Stephen King's book "On
Writing" -- hey, I read that book and I didn't get THAT out of it! For shame.
Come
to think of it, I don't even know where I PUT that book...

Three hours. Every day, no matter what. Pen/paper, typing... no matter what.

Yes, I can do that. I want to do that. Hell, Madonna does that (three hours
of "creative time" everyday before anything else) and look where it got her.

As I was driving back, I thought "He doesn't know me, but I'm gonna drop him
a nice note" and I realized that everything that will let ME be successful
in the world MY WAY has do with OUTPUT. Writing. Playwrighting. Composing. All
time I need to be ALONE and honest and OUTPUTTING. That's it... no heavy
lifting required.

I can do this. It doesn't matter if I'm, as a reviewer said who's review I
can't find again, a "normal person trying to be famous" as opposed to Wil
who's a "famous person trying to be normal." I just have to do the work.

Make the time. Sit in the chair. Be yourself and output.

Thanks Wil Wheaton. You've made my day.

(P.S. to this story: I was warring with myself whether I should spend my
$14.95 + tax for his "Dancing Barefoot" to have him sign it -- or get Yvette's
nails trimmed since I only have $26 left to my name. I felt bad if he wasn't
going to have a line of people to sign it... but he did, all those other older
geeks like me, who unlike me, brought funds to buy the books. So I didn't
feel so bad walking/sneaking out. (Besides, my hair looked like shit. I didn't
want to remember this like that -- okay, I didn't want to meet ANYBODY or Wil
like that... so maybe I'll find him at the San Diego reading and get a book
signed there. Support the arts and the arts will support you!)


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