Transparent Tuesdays

Issue 190

You guys,

After thinking about it for weeks I finally asked David Perell for a 10-minute call. 

The last time I did this he called me instantaneously, so I unlocked the back door, ready to step onto the back porch so Sam wouldn’t hear me stutter. 

Five minutes later my phone buzzed. “Hey Charlie, what’s up?”

I’ve known David since February 2020 when I was a student in his online course, Write of Passage. Since then I’ve worked with the WoP team. Cohort 11 was days away and I was going to tell him this was my last hoorah. 

I’ve been on countless Zoom calls with David. I provide critical feedback to the live sessions that happen twice a week. When a breakout room question doesn’t inspire conversation I tell them. When others are jazzed about growing their audiences I remind them why we’re all here—to get better at writing. When others say they loved the Russian Doll exercise I say I hated it. 

And yet, on a phone call with David I feel pressure to meet him on his level. He doesn’t mince words, doesn’t waste time. I have to be efficient and clear, which is easy in my writing and impossible in real life. 

But today is the day. I’ve practiced my speech. “When I first took Write of Passage I was an archeologist, but now I’m an architect.” 

David interrupts me—Will Mannon was supposed to be here and he wants to patch him in. He can’t get Will on the phone so he tells me to continue. I don’t know how to continue so I start over. I say the archeologist line again, in case he didn’t hear. 

I tell him I’ve fallen in love with memoir and want to focus on my podcast and write my book. I tell him I love the course, the opportunities it’s presented, and feel lucky to have been involved this long, but I’ve got to go. 

David is silent for a moment. The king of silence. Then he says, “Charlie, that’s the whole point of Write of Passage. You found your thing. That’s what we want.” 

At the end of the course I have another call with David. He asks how the book is coming. I mumble something about my prologue, then ask him about his own book. “Wait, wait, wait, we are not doing that,” he laughs. “We’re not going to start talking about me right now.” So I talk about my podcast, how I love every part of learning about memoirs: the reading, transcribing, planning, recording, editing. 

After the call I recap the conversation to Sam. “You love everything about doing the podcast?” he says. “I didn’t know that. That’s incredible. … Don’t force yourself to write the book if you’re not ready. Focus on learning about memoir.” 

Sam, the voice of my authentic permission. As soon as he says it I know this is right. 

The next day I wake up and see that a fellow Write of Passage alum and friend, Steven Foster, has written a curation of me. I smile and laugh through the whole thing, then forward it to Sam. A perfect ending to my nearly four years with the course. 

I have found my thing, my personal monopoly. I’m discovering and dissecting the best memoirs in the world, so I can write my own. Send me your recs. 

---

Bleecker Bombs

A new memoir deep dive is out!

I read What Remains by Carole Radziwill. I learned a new way to write about “big feeling moments.” You won’t believe it.

Listen to the episode on overcast.fm, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.

—

Until next week,

Charlie