Journaling For The Win - Author and Educator Elisabeth Sharp McKetta

Life is hectic, there’s a lot of static and radio interference, so many loud and confusing things vying for our attention. It is a testament to the incredible capacity of the human mind to filter through the chaos and actually find a way to focus on things, and accomplish specific goals and tasks.  As a person who probably would have been diagnosed with ADHD when I was a little kid many moons ago, I can’t even imagine what kind of distractions I would have found in a cellphone, TikTok and YouTube.

Sometimes we need a little help, a little inspiration. That’s where today’s guest Elisabeth Sharp McKetta comes in. She’s written an extraordinary book called EDIT YOUR LIFE - An inspiring guide to focusing on what matters most in life—and hitting delete on what doesn’t. 

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta, author and storyteller, teaches writing for Harvard Extension School and Oxford Department for Continuing Education. She is the author of a dozen books including her recent release: ‘Edit Your Life’....

Her book shares simple ways to cut through the clutter, drama, and abundance of distractions of modern life to live with more intention and joy. 

She should know: Elisabeth and her husband James Stead once sold everything they owned and moved into a tiny house in Idaho (with their two children).  

In our recent conversation I wanted to talk to Elisabeth about not only her book but the practice and habit of journaling and how it can help us zero in on our priorities and the things that matter in our lives. 

Listen my conversation with ELISABETH SHARP McKETTA from her lovely home where her husband and two amazing children live.

For more about Elisabeth, visit her website at:
https://elisabethsharpmcketta.com/

Transcript

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta: 0:00

In many conversations I've had, especially with women come back to the stack that often this person will have a first choice like Oh, I think tonight for dinner I would love to make spring rolls. But the moment the first choice thought comes up, she overrides it with Oh, but my family prefers spaghetti like every first choice is immediately suspect and discarded, in part because it is a first choice because it feels selfish, but like for all sorts of reasons that are hidden and generations old. That isn't that interesting, though, that, that the first choice feels like something that is dangerous.

Thom Pollard: 0:36

Let's face it, life is hectic, there's a lot of static and radio interference out there so many loud and confusing things vying for our attention. It's a testament to the incredible capacity of the human mind, to filter through the chaos, and actually find a way to focus on things and accomplish specific goals and tasks. As a person who probably should have been diagnosed with ADHD when I was a little kid. I can't even imagine what kind of distractions I would have found in a cell phone, tick tock and YouTube. Sometimes we need a little help, a little inspiration. And that's where today's guest, Elisabeth Sharp McKetta comes in. She's written an extraordinary book called edit your life and inspiring guide to focusing on what matters most in life and hitting Delete on what doesn't. That's coming up on tools for nomads. I'm Thom Pollard. This is tools for nomads, where we meet inspiring, value oriented passionate individuals, people driven by their creativity, their insatiable curiosity and drive to learn and reveal the answers to life's big questions. Tools for nomads is brought to you by top drawer, and we want to learn about you and grow a community of like minded people. So wherever you're listening or watching, I hope you'll comment and tell us where you are today. Elisabeth Sharp McKetta author and storyteller teaches writing for Harvard Extension School, and Oxford department for continuing education. She's the author of a dozen books, including her recent release, edit your life, her book shares simple ways to cut through the clutter, the drama, the abundance of distractions of modern life to live with more intention and joy. She should know Elisabeth and her husband, James stead once sold everything they owned, and moved into a tiny house in Idaho with two children. My conversation with Elisabeth comes at a great time for me personally, as a lifelong journal writer, I've promised myself to complete the manuscript of a book by the end of this year. And I said that last year to in our recent conversation, I wanted to talk to Elisabeth about not only her book, but the practice and habit of journaling, and how it can help us zero in on our priorities, and the things that matter in our lives. to declutter, if you will, you will, here's my conversation with Elisabeth Sharp McKetta from her home. Elisabeth, let's start with telling me about your new book.

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta: 3:29

Thank you. Here's the book, here's a picture of it. It's called edit your life. And before we talk about it at all, we should all collectively Perish the guilt about the things we've not read. Because there's a wonderful Walter Benjamin quote about a collector who invited like a young reader into his library. And the young reader said, if you read all these books, and looked around all the four walls, and the book collector said not 1/10 of them do you use with fine china every day. And I feel like sometimes, you know, there's so many good books in the world, and there are times for them. But it's not always today. And right now. So take your time with this book and any book and I will do the same because I feel like I know that readers guilt and it is a terrible thing.

Thom Pollard: 4:09

Thank you for that I needed that. Okay.

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta: 4:12

But love the book. So the book is wonderful. The book is a handbook. The subtitle is a handbook for living with intention in a messy world. And it takes the editing steps that that writers know to edit anything from a poem, a book, a packing list, and it looks at ways that we can apply them to life, even though it is an ongoing open book. And it's currently actually the companion book for an eight week course that um, people are meeting weekly to just go through and just go through the steps and try them out and talk about them. So it really does feel like a like a guide.

Thom Pollard: 4:47

Wow, that is absolutely incredible. So because the reason I originally reached out to you was to talk about that idea. Well, we've talked many times before this, but to talk about the NIT of journaling, and how it can kind of open up these untapped resources within us. And on a slight side note, I, I've been into these videos lately on YouTube about near death experiences and nd ease. And there's tons of them. This is the thing, right? And so this one woman who had a near death experience when she was 19, it didn't really change her life until she started writing about it. And she said, once you started writing, it was as if she uncovered these portals or open portals into these realms that she had never really investigated, and it completely transformed her life. So the idea of journaling in this this editing your life, is it literally just putting pen to paper kind of thing? So what's the, what's the nitty gritty in there? And how can it help us

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta: 5:53

write I love this. And that gives me goosebumps, the thought of this, this woman discovering how she really felt about something like that only through writing. And that feels really intuitive. I think a lot, I can't remember whose quote it is, but the I write to figure out what I have to say is something that I've certainly identified with, and that I know a lot of my students have not known how they felt about an experience, or a political issue or a conversation until they've done some writing about it. And all of a sudden, the writing does bring for things that are deeper than you thought and connects things that you didn't know, were connected. And there's a term that my students and I use that comes up in the book as well called close reading, which you probably remember from, like, terrible tests in high school where they're like, here's a passage from Great Gatsby, what is it about? You're like, oh, no, I should have had more coffee, I should have gotten more sleep. But the goal of that is to sort of think about what in these, you know, if we can press on these small surface specific things, is there something deeper it tells us about the world that it's coming from, and is that I think that's something we can very much do in our life, that if there's, I can think of moments where a certain conversation just sent me reeling. And it was nothing, it was nothing that anyone else can identify. But I knew that it related to a button that was created three years ago, when you know, like, I can look below it the emotions and figure out what it tells me about my life and my vulnerabilities and what I what I need to heal, essentially. And so. So I think writing helps with everything. And I think journaling helps with everything. And in this book, it suggests in the very beginning that people do the book with a journal, because each chapter has about seven or eight, what I call life, edit prompts, just sort of try this on your life, see how it works. And they should absolutely be written about a term that my students and I talked about is having compost, which is a, an image, I have no right to use, because I'm not a gardener. But I love this idea that if we just throw into a single file, whether it's a journal or whether it's I keep my journal on, on Microsoft Word, if we just throw into it, any number of things that just may grow sprouts, eventually, once we reread them and think, Oh, you have something to teach me, then it's just a, it's just a container for all this loveliness, and all this miscellaneous, you know, all these miscellaneous thoughts. So absolutely, I think that in the in edit your life, certainly that by doing it with a journal and just reflecting on a simple question. So for example, I'll read from from chapter one. So the first so the book is divided into three sections, which to me feel like a really good order of how to edit. So in editing anything in writing, and again, I think this is something that writers who are listening might think of their experience with workshop that most writers who get feedback, there's one way to do it, where you send it to a trusted friend and say, Tom, would you give this a read? Here's some things I'm trying to do. And Tom's like, oh, Elizabeth, I think the beginning needs to go. But the story really starts on page five or whatever. Often students in school will workshop in groups of 15. Usually, that's about the number 18. And the they'll all fling their opinions at the writer in question, which, even though it's the standard way to do it, is a way that terrifies me. Because you've got 14 People with come with their own agendas, and their own rights and wrongs and their own fears about writing and their own opinions about writing, flinging their opinions, you know, before the other guy gets to speak at this poor writer who often is not allowed to speak, who just wrote this thing and wants to get it to good. So I think the writer often feels like sort of assaulted and like pulled in all directions. And so and I just find that such a scary way to do it. And again, many people love it. And many people who take my classes are like, Why don't you do that? Because it is it works for some people. But for me, I've always found that I don't have the I don't really have the bandwidth for more than two or three good readers at a time. I just can't take opinions. And that idea of having a few trusted friends which again, the the welcome suggest me or maybe do this with a trusted friend who maybe is in your family or maybe someone who is a neutral force and doesn't have opinions on if you you know edit by waking up earlier. Does that throw the family dynamics into disarray, someone who really doesn't care, but who could who cares about you and who could hear you out? But if we if we sort of edit things in small groups, we can really Other Mother each other is next and lives. And we have the bandwidth to to ask what I think of are really the only three questions to edit anything, which is what the the first chapter of this book is that goes along. The three questions that I think we must ask before flinging our opinions are, what is this? Right? Like all the things all the trouble we can save by just saying like, What are you writing? Tom? Is this trying to what is this trying to be? What does it seem like it's trying to be rather than going right in and saying, Tom, there shouldn't be a corgi in it clean, it should be fun in Paris. You know, first, if we could just say, Tom, here's what I think this story is about, here's what I think is the theme. Here's what I think is most alive in it. Here's what I think it's, here's what I think it is, Does this seem true to you? And you can always say Not at all, you know, it's trying to write out a quirky Paris. But either way that that just discrepancy is very good information, because then we can move to the next question, which is, we can ask what, you know, what works? What, what works in this? You know, it's trying to be some ideal version of itself, what is it trying to be? Let's figure that out and what works in it trying to be that. And it might be that very little, you know, but the division is clear, but that you know, a lot of the words plumb out or that really only the idea is working, and that we need a whole new cast of characters to bring out that idea or that the beginning is solid, but then it sort of peters out. But you know, what is it? What is it trying to be? And then what works, and that there might be all the information the writer needs, but often then the third question would be what doesn't work. And that's where we as writers have to be flexible, and be open to the fact that maybe maybe most of it. But if we can just identify what is necessary to make this story or jump into the life this life, work with the version, we need it to be, you know, we're like, in my own life, I knew that the organizing principle of my adulthood is going to be that I wanted to be a writer and a mother. And certain things are going to have to be in there for that to work. And I would have to make 1000 Tiny decisions and calculations every day. And if I could know that it's ideal version, I'm a mother and a writer, like continue teaching is now my favorite thing in the world to do, because it really allows both of those, you know, it allows the sort of love of nurturing someone and something I can do at home. And it allows me to talk about writing all day, so that that passed the test. But editing was something in mind to get to its ideal version, and then asking, you know, what is it what works? What doesn't, is always the first step. So most of the life edit prompts have sort of simple ways to sort of in order to think through what is this life trying to be? And what do we not want to mess with? You know, what do we not, we don't want to throw the whole thing out. And what do we what are the things that that make us feel alive? So let's find out, let's find a question we might journal to, there was a long preface to something maybe one would be here's one thing that some writers did last week. Here's for the first chapter, ask what is it? And the third prompt is, is list your hats. Make a list of every one of your responsibilities, the many different hats you wear over the course of a year, none are too small. If you were the default dishwasher at home, write that down, break down your work within your family. Do you wear the hat of being the primary meal conversationalist, for instance, the mail opener, and Bill payer, think of other responsibilities that come with your job. For example, teachers not only responsible for teaching, but for out of class conferences, class preparation, grading assignments, keep this list is an ongoing living document. It provides a map of what your life is, in terms of the tasks you perform. So nice prompt Yeah,

Thom Pollard: 13:24

yeah, because they're there. Some people might not think to even, they might not even be aware that they're doing so many things. And I love that that's really great. Because some, you know, the end goal isn't for people who want to write a book, really, you know, maybe somebody would read that and go, this is how I'm going to write my book literally memoir or whatever. But you're talking about people who are trying to filter through their lives and make it more exceptional are more meaningful if they're, there's something out there that's lost, or they can't quite grab on to what their true heart calling is.

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta: 14:04

Exactly, exactly. And that's really what I tried to define editing as is not necessarily go through your closet and throw away everything but think about what matters to you. Do you want your life to feel? Do you want more clarity? Do you want more growth in a given direction? Do you want your life to feel more bountiful? What is the end feeling? What is the end goal? What needs to be front and center? Does your life need to involve mountains? Does it need to involve time with grandchildren? Does it need to involve what you know lots of time for what lots of energy for what one of the readers of this book said that she realized that every decision she had made that had been a good one was in pursuit of the single word of quiet that she needed quiet she moved to the country she got animals instead of she has an emu instead of being a city woman. She said that she just decided that all but ever and then during the reading of this she ended up getting rid of her smartphone for a football because she wanted to buy herself quiet meals so that she didn't have to just Always be answering emails that could listen to the birds and eat her lunch that quiet, which I mean, I would never think to edit, why it would not be my organizing principle. But I love the idea that whatever the principle is, if we figure out this in my ideal vert, like, this gives me energy, this feels good to me, let's, let's prune away the stuff that is keeping life from mountains or quiet or grandchildren or writing or whatever this sort of main thing is, so often it's pruning, but it's also adding, you know, it's making time or the quiet or the writing, or whatever it happens to be so. So I really sort of love to think about the minimizing and maximizing that comes with that, which again, if we write it down, it's sort of we can't, it's a good, it's good evidence, you know, that doesn't mean it's true all the time. But we thought it and once it was true, and we have to reckon with it, and if we write it again and again and again and again. We really have to pay attention to our journals and to our to what comes up a lot.

Thom Pollard: 15:50

You're listening to my April 2023 interview with Elisabeth Sharp McKetta from her home. Tools For Nomads is brought to you by top drawer. Topdrawer makes durable, sustainable tools for creatives, like you who work to make the world better tools for travel for writing accessories for everyday carry top drawer designed and made the greatest travel bag I've ever owned. It goes everywhere with me from pens to Japanese house shoes, to journals, amazing photo albums, finely crafted paper bags, eyewear, handkerchiefs, lighters, keychains, I'm telling you, this is the greatest gift store that you could ever imagine. Check them out at topdrawershop.com or visit one of their dozen plus meticulously curated shops San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Berkeley, Chicago, and Tokyo. If you stop in to one of the stores, please be sure to tell them you listen to the podcast. Now back to my conversation with Elisabeth Sharp McKetta. You had said you said the word intuitive or intuition early right at the beginning of this conversation about how you know that's something that we're trying to tap into. And I think a lot of people lose that in the in the static electricity and all the interference of whether it be news or all the duties and chores we have to do throughout a day. A lot of people lose touch with what's really their needs inside. And my feeling personally is that I am able to tap into what the truth is inside of me when I put that pen down to a piece of paper. I'm like, like I like a literal journal, even though I have tons and tons of stuff like that. But I like the literal journal, because it's slow and methodical, I just can't write as fast, nearly as fast as I can type. So it slows me down. And I tap into it. You know, now that we're in this modern society, in this new world and everything, and we're more reliant on these smartphones and things like that, we've lost touch with the act, the tactical stuff that made us aware of our intuition, like hearing something in the woods and knowing that might be a predator coming. Granted, that's 1000s of years away from where we are now. But that's what writing is, it gets us in touch with our real selves. So there can be it doesn't even have to be an end game, I guess, is what you're saying. It's just just open up, research yourself. And you can burn it if you want, but don't because if you have kids, maybe they're gonna want to read how crazy they're all man or their old lady was one of these days. So it's true.

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta: 18:41

I love that I love what you just said about researching the self. That's exactly what it is the way we'd research anything like what smartphone to buy, or where to go for vacation? Like what do we need to know about what it's like to be Thom Pollard or Elizabeth McKenna? Like that's pretty valuable information if you happen to be one of those people or living with one of those people. And and, yeah, one of the other it's sort of To that end, a conversation that I've had several times in discussing this book, which I think journaling has made which journaling which is I think, a trap for many people, especially many women that I realize that in part because of my journaling habit I've not necessarily been able to avoid but it's been harder for me to do without consequences without sort of self knowledge of it is there's a section in the book that that asks the reader to identify first choices on small scales to then start scaling them to think about what are the bigger first choices and in many conversations I've had, especially with women come back to the stock that often you know, this person will have a first choice like Oh, I think tonight for dinner I would love to make spring rolls but the moment the first choice thought comes up. She overrides it with Oba my family prefers spaghetti like every first choice is immediately suspect and discarded, in part because it is the first choice because it feels selfish because we'll be disappointed if we You don't have it like for all sorts of reasons that are hidden and generations old. But isn't that interesting though that, that the first choice feels like something that is dangerous for, you know, for for many people, and I think this goes back to our conversation pre podcast that often first choices and people who pursue them seem threatening because why don't I get a first choice. But I think that when we journal, and we write about, like, in my case, my journaling is, you know, I'll write about my life. And I'll write about the things that I love. And I'll also find myself writing about my characters and the books I want to write, I think you can't avoid it in my journal that writing is important to me, like I can't read my journal without recognizing a first choice that my life will be less or for not having in it. And I'm sure that your journal too, like there's there's pure distilled Tom energy sources in there, that when you write, it's when you slowly write when you write by hand, or type you just can't avoid, you can't not look yourself in the eye, once you've gotten into that habit.

Thom Pollard: 20:55

Edit your life. Elisabeth, I actually never asked you this. I know you've written a lot of books, how many books is this for you. And this, this was probably a different kind of book for you. Because it's not telling stories, you're just helping untap things of the people because you're a teacher, you're a professor of creative writing. So you're like, let me just give people a guide and a tool and they can use it however they please,

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta: 21:21

exactly. This is a teacher book. And it is it is a total departure. For me, it felt very brave. It, it really did what I often tell my students, whenever they're worried about whether they're up to the task of a book, we've sort of agreed as an algorithm, you know, as a class as a community that, that the best books we write should always be books where our ambition for them is way above our skill level. So we have to, you know, grow and learn and gain some new skills and get some new training. And then eventually, we'll get as close as we can to our audition, which is a lot more advanced as a writer than we were last book. There, you know, we're never gonna make it. You know, rarely is it the vision perfectly, but it's the book we can write then, that we needed to write, it's our now version of that book, you know, they're always beautiful, and they're kind of imperfection. And this one is very much like that, that I set out to write a memoir about our experience living in 275 square feet as a family of four with dogs, which was this wonderful era of just this kind of microcosm of time where everything was our first choice, because you can't have second choice objects that house not small and you also can't be anyone other than yourself, you know, you have to, you have to speak honestly, you have to, you know, clean the table when you're done with it. Because there's only one table if you need space, you can't hold a grudge and hope people will notice you have to say, actually, please don't talk to me right now. Because I really need to read my book. And even though you're only two feet away, I'd love to free to just pretend right now that the NSA, you just have to sort of learn skills, about all sorts of things. But ultimately, I think kind of honesty and clarity come very naturally in living such a small stay. So I wanted to write a memoir about that. And when I got it into a proposal form, the feedback I got was that it could be a lot more useful and interesting if it were a guidebook, and I lost such guidebooks. I'm a junkie for such guidebook. So it felt like a very big step, but a natural next step. And then it took me the next three plus years to figure out how to do that. And once I finally understood that it wasn't about the stories, it was about the principles and stories as a means to illustrate principles that it felt like a duck. It's just like teaching. It's just like teaching, but it did take me a while for it to click and writing.

Thom Pollard: 23:26

Elisabeth, tell me this is part of it. I think I've never asked you to just summarize, tell me a little bit about what you do professionally. You're a writer, of course, but you teach people students at Harvard, how to write and explain to me a little bit about the kind of students and what it is you're teaching.

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta: 23:47

Yes, I have wonderful, wonderful inspiring students. I've been teaching at Harvard Extension writing program since 2012. And the and I also teach through Oxford's Extension School. So all of my students are adults, which is great, because they all come with lots of experience, lots of stories, and a very clear eye for what they are hoping to write or do or learn. They're just there's such clear, focused, interesting, resilient students. It's such an honor to teach them and I look forward to class every week. And my probably least favorite month of the year is August when I don't teach. So they're, they're terrific. And the classes I've taught for Harvard vary and have in the past been everything from business writing to the college essay. And what I've really been zeroing down on for the last few years is novel writing, and writing. And of course, I've designed called mythic memoir. So I'm interested in mentoring students who have a really big true story, too, and thinking about how we can use myths and fairy tales and very old stories that everyone sort of knows or has heard of, to do a couple different things to lend them some interesting imagery. And that might be reflective and to give and some structure because often in life writing, where do you begin? Where do you end? What's the middle if you're still living it, but if the middle becomes the end, because you're still living it. So the myth can be helpful for structure. And, and also, I think it can be really helpful in terms of just thinking about all the different ways we inhabit a story that we're in our life we live many we have, we have a committee of cells, we live many lives, I think we are able to sort of think with more empathy, when we think about these kind of fill in the blank stories that have been told for you know, 1000s of years. It's a great class. And then and then fiction, just in the novel license, just write novels. So really fun teaching. And in addition to that, I write books and so edit your wife is my is my 12.

Thom Pollard: 25:39

So this is your wheelhouse this edit your life is almost like it's about time, right? This is what you've been doing, not only just teaching it for 12 years, this is your thing, you're not looking, this would be a good idea for a book. I mean, it's probably been, you've been teaching it and you finally put it down if you will, on paper. So you're helping people untap what's hidden inside of them, too.

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta: 26:05

I hope so I hope that it did, it feels like an unlocking kind of book. And I hope that it stretches beyond writers because my worldview is such a writer. But I think that part of being a writer, what the writer has taught me is that the thing that that you love, however practical or impractical, will always find a way in your life, if it is really that important. And so my hope is that people read it and can put whatever that thing is, whether it's anything, right there front and center, and then figure out how to methodically keep keep shaping it to kind of give more and more meaning. It's a very systematic book. And I had, I always get a bit nervous about the marketing part of any one of my books. And so this time, my husband reassured me by saying, Well, why would you be nervous about this one, because it's just all of your systems. But that is it's all you know, it's, it's a book of systems. And one of my earlier books was about my my engineer, grandfather, who died at 103. And part of what I learned from, you know, if you learn with each book, part of what I learned from from interviewing him and researching him is how much his life was a series of really good systems, which printed here makes sense that he had systems for how he would connect with his his alums over the years, he would he had this elaborate calendar where he write down their birthdays, and from age 65 on call them every year on their birthdays. He had a system for his relationship with my grandmother, they played cribbage every day, and had a Friday lunch every day, even when he was very, very busy with teaching because these were they're like connecting rituals, and that on one hand, it seems very dorky that when you're a 19 year like it's me, systems for love. But at the end of the day, when you get busier and busier, it's kind of nice to have systems for anything that matters to make sure that it as a has ruined your your month and your year and your day. So the book is very much a systems book.

Thom Pollard: 27:49

Wow. That's really, really cool. I love that idea that your grandfather had about calling after age 65 calling a friend every time it was that person's birthday. Your grandfather had quite a lineage. This is the your grandfather, who was a prominent professor and at University of Texas, was it

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta: 28:08

exactly exactly he was. He was so neat. And he and my grandmother were both so interesting to my dad's parents, and they live very to be very old. And he came from Ukrainian coal miners who his dad had lied about his age at age 14, and were to get on a boat from Ukraine to wind Oh, Pennsylvania, to work in the mines. And because that was the work that was available. And there was nothing in their little village of on the Polish Ukrainian border. So then he was able to make enough money to bring his first brother and then a second brother. And so my grandfather had this really big loving family of Ukrainian immigrants in this coal mining community where everybody worked in the lines. And that was all he ever wanted to do with his life until he graduated from high school and had his first day in the mine. And then in a very short succession, I think his first day his best friend and best friend's dad were both killed in a mining crash. And then in the next years, the follow he lost his brother, he lost his uncle, I think very quickly, he thought this is not for me and decided that he would be the first person he knew to go to university. So his journey was one of kind of a Jack Jack in the beanstalk journey of climbing above ground to rise to learn enough things about energy in order to get to help. Well, he ended up advising US presidents to help people obtain energy safely. But always he kept us coal mining hot on his desk.

Thom Pollard: 29:27

Oh my gosh. So I've read a little bit Could you tell me what his name was, what the book was and what his ultimate, if you will legacy beyond what his amazing legacy already to you? Yes, his

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta: 29:39

name. His name was John J. McKenna, Jr. and he was born in 9015. And I think his and he had quite a bit of research in the chemical engineering realm. He was a chemical engineer, before he was in his 40s and 50s. But then he basically dedicated his life to being a teacher and to Helping the Department of Chemical Engineering at UT get on the map and become a powerhouse that connected engineers to the world and really made a difference. So he's known as

Thom Pollard: 30:09

Messer. So let's bring it back to you. So we can kind of put a nice bow on this conversation, you've written this, this remarkable book that opens portals to people's lives. Do you have any goals for it? Or did you just set it out there to flow? What how do you, you know, how do you move on from that and are there other projects out there that now are demanding your attention

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta: 30:36

salutely I owe the I think of a book is a is a four season affair, I think of a book is having this is again, very dorky system, but it helps me live in each season of the book, at the appropriate time, the first stage of the book, I think of as calm is composting, just you know, throwing ideas into a been going for long walks, you know, having a haws journaling back to journaling, you know, just putting any amount of sort of random thought in in a in a container, you know, in a journal in a file on little note cards and just composting for shoots that might grow. And then from from that stage, the next stage is to start to have a clear vision about what could grow from these shoots. And, and then the second stage is the Create stage, which for me is by far the most fun because you sit down and you think I shall write a novel about two children that live in a tiny house, and you greet it every day in the morning and you or you missed it, when you close up shop and you want to see it the next morning, it's just this addictive, you know, living in this other world of, if any fiction, nonfiction doesn't matter, we're just living in other worlds of book, it's just one of the writers greatest pleasures, they get to be these dual citizens during the time of the book creation. And then when the book is done, crafted, then the next stage is to craft it because you've got this draft that can't be unwritten. But um, but the third stage is to actually make it good. So that's what I often do a lot of reading and try to think well, what can I learn from these other master reader writers about how to improve the structure of this, how to find the right ending how to, often that will involve writing, you know, six, or seven or 18, new beginnings, just, you know, making it good, making it something that's takes it from the writers draft to the readers draft, so then it's done done. And that might take a long time, I often think that the thinking is very slow, and the creating is quite fast. And then the draft and then the writing is very slow again. And then once it's ready, you you know, find an editor, find an agent, send an end of the world and find its readers. And that's where I'm right now with this book, which is the connect so we've got the compost the create the craft, the Connect, and the connecting has historically been the hardest for me. Because my My instinct is to say, you know, go for the book, do well and then go straight back to the compost in the creek because that's my favorite place to be that this book, I've been really trying to save her, the Kinect and I've loved and I've been doing, you know, having fun conversations about it and teaching this fun class accompanying it. So my plan for now is to just sort of keep, you know, hoping that the book finds its people. And hoping that I'm that I was lucky enough to get to hear from some of those people about what the book has sort of offered them and how creatively they've you know, rethought different parts of their lives big or small. And then this summer fall, I will give myself the great pleasure of, of writing of starting a new book that is actually the sequel to a book that my first young adult novel comes out August 1, so I'll have another another Kinect season, then I'm already itching to write the book that comes after that,

Thom Pollard: 33:26

Elizabeth, so I'm sure you've been asked this before. But I don't mean to put you on the spot. But like, Who is this book for? If you had to say in a few sentences, like who who wants to read this book?

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta: 33:39

Yes, this is this is such a good question. And this is a question that I often ask my students to answer, like, Who are you writing for? And as a, as a writer, as a writer? The worst answer you can give to that question is everybody. So if you ask your students like, you know, who do you read, you want them to say, everybody, and who is this for? You wanted to say this very small population of people who really will be? And I'm afraid that I'm that my answer for this one is the JT answer of everybody. But really, anyone who feels that their life needs a tweak or is murky, or has pivoted in a way that they did or did not like during the pandemic and they're ready for a rethink about things. So I hope that it gets a very broad array of people who both have thought deliberately before about the trajectory their life will take. And also people who have never thought that they had the ability to do so I'd love to read some of those people who never would ever consider shaping their life from inside out. So that's my that's my goal.

Thom Pollard: 34:35

That's perfect. Thank you so much. And I hope that anybody listening to this conversation who's just itching to get whether it's their physical journal out, or their electronic one out this book will be a guide for them to you know, tap into those reserves that is brewing within all of us. So it's always good hearing you talk Can the excitement that you bring to your work?

Elisabeth Sharp McKetta: 35:03

Thank you is so delightful. I just love talking with you and I look forward to it whatever when I have a time date on the calendar I look forward to it for

Thom Pollard: 35:13

the dedication to Elisabeth's book reads. For anyone wishing to live a more deliberate life and isn't sure where to start. This book is for you. You can find Elizabeth's website at Elizabeth sharp mckenna.com Thanks for visiting tools for nomads intimate look into the lives and habits of passionate and creatively prolific people like Elisabeth Sharp McKetta. Wherever you're listening or watching, I hope you'll take a moment to subscribe and share with us in the comments where you're coming from and what you thought about today's episode. Tools For Nomads is brought to buy Topdrawer, and top drawer life is about loving and living intentionally with the things we carry matter to us. They impact our productivity and well being and even our identity. Topdrawer combines the quality and craftsmanship of our grandparents generation. With the drive for independence, functional and stylish sustainability. It results in a collection of tools that help you do your best work wherever you may be. Visit topdrawershop.com or visit one of their dozen plus meticulously outfitted shops in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, Berkeley, New York, Chicago, and Tokyo. Top door shop.com. Thanks for visiting the Thom Pollard. I'll see you next time on tools for nomads.