My Writing Life – My iPod

I purchased my iPod a few years ago thinking I would use it to listen to my favorite music while I walked or on the never-ending trips I was taking as I commuted between two countries for my job. Today, my iPod fills a completely different role; it’s an educational tool.

There are many audio resources available for writers. I am still working a regular corporate job (for just a few more years) and I can’t attend all the seminars and classes I would like to. Enter the audio file. Many writing teachers and organizations are recognizing the value of podcasts, audio books, and other such things that one can easily download and save on an iPod.

In fact, I have erased all but the essential music from my iPod, and replaced it with audio files that I listen to when I’m driving to and from work and doing my weekend errands. This simple thing has enabled me to learn more about writing, publishing, promotion and other writer-related things than I could ever have hoped to learn in such a short time.

Let me give you some tips.

The National Association of Memoir Writers is stellar in its offering of teleseminars, roundtable discussions, and quarterly telesummits. The price of membership to this organization is well worth the resources available to members.

I have been listening to the Writing Life audio book by Jennifer Lauck most recently. Lauck’s audio book offers sound and solid tips for writing one’s memoir; I’m on my second time through listening. (as a bonus for purchasing this audio book, you also get the audio book of her most recent book, Found)

While the Story Circle Network podcasts are currently on hiatus, you can still download previously recorded podcasts containing interviews and readings by Story Circle Network Members. I’ve also learned a lot, and been inspired, by the content on these podcasts.

So you see, with the help of a simple tool like an iPod, and the online resources available to you, you can learn more about writing as a craft and as a business, as you go about your day-to-day life. Technology makes it increasingly easy for us, no matter where we are located, to learn from those who have gone before us, and to teach those who are coming behind us.

Isn’t that amazing!

Do you listen to audio downloads? If so, where to you get them from and what content are you interested in?

(Unlike the woman in the photograph attached to this post, I don’t listen to my iPod with earphones while I am driving; I plug it into the auxilery input jack on my sound system.)